Top Ten Huge Mistakes That Ruined the Supersoaps (Part Two) 

Totally, Bobby would have at least wanted a face to face confrontation with Pam, the love of his life. He wouldn't just easily accept her explanation in a letter. Although he did before when Katherine forged that letter from Pam about their divorce

Yeah it was terrible. It made no sense.

So Christopher went looking for her 22 years later!

Yeah. He spent a season looking for Aprils killer but not a week looking for Pam.

@@AlonzoPeterson-re7ce They teased the idea of replacing Victoria....when the audience very clearly didn't go for it they dropped it and her. Plotholes and all.

campgalore, I only disagree about how long it took to get to its resolution. Most storylines need its own timing but at mid-80s sometimes they didn´t realize so many weeks waiting could alienate some viewers. In fact, Knots didn´t get as much audience again with any of their cliffhangers. Too bad because they were clever and didn´t deceive the public.

supersoaps the next big one for me was Jill giving Val the overdose. For me, regarding the babies storyline, dragged out how long it took for Gary to discover for definite that he was the Father of the twins, rather than the abduction storyline itself

Yeah, they went totally "soap opera-ish" with that storyline, but they made it work with careful intelligent writing and stellar performances. You could tell the actors were heavily invested in making that storyline work, including Donna Mills objecting to a one-dimensional Alexis-style villainy and urging the writers to redeem her by making Abby a trapped participant as well as the ultimate un-doer of the plot.

donna mills didnt like that storyline.she felt like abby,as a mother herself,would never go that far..

@@mammyewok They re-wrote it for her. The original idea was Abby was the one who was behind the kidnapping. Donna said no, so they made Abby's subordinate kidnap the twins without her knowledge

I didn't really watch Falcon but the few scenes I saw of Julia were fantastic. I understand bringing her back rehabilitated, as the fans would want her back.

@@tonyatmidnight I think you are right. Julia seemed out of place when the show started, almost a leftover of the vintage years. Her name changed, but her point of view never sharpened. If she had not been revamped, Julia would have died in the first crazy finale the show had. But the revamp was so successful that some fans wanted more. But she really should have died in the spring house fire. When she came back they could only tell stories with her and half the cast as she killed chases mother and tried to kill him and his son. I would have been interested to see what the plan for her was season 4 before the Nazi story was dropped. If not, she should have died in the earthquake. The irony of finally getting her life together and then losing it. That would have been a better ending than what they did.

Very true. When Bobby came back and remarried Pam most were happy to have Bobby and Pam back together then bam, off goes Victoria Principal which further ruined the ratings and there was no coming back.

I do give the Dallas producers props for bringing a veteran star like George Kennedy the final 2 seasons to at least give a somewhat convincing villain when almost the whole original cast was gone.

@@milocassadine223 Playing double characters is a fun ploy for daytime soaps but it's usually pretty disastrous for nighttime soaps. Bringing on a lookalike Melissa on Falcon Crest after Melissa's death wasn't too bad but Dynasty needed drastically better writing. After that moronic Moldavia storyline when they added THE COLBYS, ABC/Spelling/The Shapiro's had a chance for something truly MONUMENTAL. They just didn't try hard enough.

Yes, I liked Emma Samms but not as Fallon. At least they tried to explain Samms' recast by changing the portrait in the living room from Pamela Sue to Emma.

Emma didn't "get" Fallon until the 2nd to last season. Karen was so bad that they just wrote Amanda off......AND NEVER MENTIONED HER AGAIN!

Melissa was great but they had her in a stupid loop of Lance/new guy/Lance/new guy and never let the character grow. And Chase becoming a jerk overnight was terrible. I loved Maggie with Richard, but there was never really a Maggie/Richard/Chase story, big loss there. And Angela as Richard's mom was the worst.

I didn't like that Richard was Angela's son either, but I did like the show's use of Jane Wyman's movie for the hospital flashbacks. I thought that was genius.

Ana Alicia kinda got the last laugh. When they killed Melissa, she was still under contract so they still had to pay her for the season even though she didn't have to appear. When they brought her back as Samantha, she had to sign a new contract. She told the press, she was getting two paychecks from the show at the same time.

I completely agree.

John Jones, I think the same, as much as loved the Bobby-Pam couple. It´s what originated the main story in the show. Toni from supersoaps.org

I have never been a fan of Pam, but without VP the Bobby character was not the same for sure.

I agree ... PT soaps were so afraid of killing their characters off, which indicated the lack of confidence the producers and writers came to have with their shows as their popularity went through the roof and became TV phenomenon. I always said DALLAS should have ended when Patrick Duffy announced his desire to leave. Pam and Bobby were both the heart of DALLAS. The story started with their return to Dallas as a newly married couple and it should have ended with his death. They mistook J.R. as the heart, and quickly found out he wasn't. TV execs, show producers and Larry Hagman were unwilling to let go of the show ... they clutched onto it until the show was pretty much a dead horse they were beating (ironic) and it was painful to watch; Bel Geddes, Principal, Gray, Tilton, Kanaly - huge chunks of the original cast fled because the show was becoming claustrophobic with rehashed storylines, leaving Hagman and Duffy alone to try and remodel the show before it was finally cancelled. That should never have happened. It should have gone out on top.

Victoria Principal and Larry Hagman were the stars of DALLAS. They did keep the show going when Bobby left during the Dream Season. When VP left, there was no center of attention featuring a true protagonist. Patrick tried to fill the reins and maybe the show could have went back to its original roots if VP stayed. The show should have been cancelled when VP left. It never was a top ten show even after the dream season.

I thought I was the only one who felt like that. Catherine Oxenberg's Daughter was in a Cult, and Michael Praed (Ex-Prince Michael) recently finished a Stint on The UK Soap Opera Emmerdale. Maxwell Caulfield (Ex-Miles Colby) was also on the Show. Stephanie Beacham (Ex-Sable) was on The UK Prison Drama Bad Girls and was also on The UK's longest running Soap Opera Coronation Street. The Actress who played Caress (Alexis's Sister) played a convicted Heidi Fleiss Madam Virginia O'Kane on Bad Girls as well.

laminage I actually live in Cork, Ireland so I’m aware of most of what you said. Catherine Oxenberg I didn’t know about. Bad Girls was glorious trash tv. Long before Orange is the New Black too. Kate O’Meara also starred in Doctor Who for a time. She died too young. Fantastic actress. I don’t watch the soaps but my mother keeps me informed. Thanks for the comment 😊

Thanks for the info, laminage! Beacham and O´Mara were la crème de la crème of the 80s divas, that´s for sure!

A horrible character made worse by an even more awful actor.

oh good.someone agrees with me!

This is false. There was no backlash from fans that caused Wes' exist because Steve Forrest's final episode was actually filmed BEFORE the season 10 premiere. So even though fans may have been upset, the ending had already been determined. Forrest supposedly left to film a Gunsmoke TV movie.

Yes, the stolen babies was the one of the show's strongest storylines and kept viewers tuned in week after week. Nowadays, everything has to be wrapped up so quickly, viewers have ADD, but in those days, patience was a virtue

Morgan Fairchild was the second Jenna and the best one. She was a better actor, had more depth and edges.

@@CaptainSpalding72 no she was the first one to play her.Francine Tacker was the second one to play her

@@damianlatimer5753 I think you have it flipped. Seems like Tracker was in first and then Morgan. Fairchild was the best one for sure. Jenna was never interesting with PP, who played two speeds, weepy and self pitying or pissed off jealous harpie.

@@CaptainSpalding72 no I don't.go back and look at the seasons and you'll see that i was right.i grew up with that show so you know

And it's Tacker not Tracker

Falcon Crest --- everything after the earthquake!

True, in the original finale Krystle screamed, but in the premiere they took out the scream. Joan also wore wigs. She wore longer wigs in seasons 2 and 3, but began wearing her hair shorter after that, thus, explaining the hair.

He truly did, LOL

well they didn't have a choice. Producers and Bel Geddes couldn't come to terms on a contract for the final season. They wanted to limit her appearances as they did for most of the final season's cast (with the exception of Hagman and Duffy). She said no and walked. What were they do to? Recast again? What other explanation could they give for Miss Ellie staying away?

@15:35 is Falcon Crest

Diahann Carroll's and Catherine Oxenberg's departures from Dynasty ruined it for me as well as Clay's not revealing who his real father was

@@damianlatimer5753 nah, Oxenburg was a pain in the ass.

@@CaptainSpalding72 i disagree.i liked her better than Karen Cellini

she was kind of charming to me

@@damianlatimer5753 they both stunk

tonyatmidnight, 100% agree with you!

Dallas at least should have gotten cancelled after Barbara Bel Geddes left as well as Charlene Tilton leaving again at the same time

This might come as surprising, but you had it easier. It was only mentioned in passing by Steve Kanaly in the E! True Hollywood Story of Dallas, that practically by the time Dallas neared its original end, did it it begin to air in the former Soviet Bloc. That would be somewhat fine, but it wasn't just us lacking censored shows (that is, those of us who didn't understand Romanian, they got to watch it), rather a totally different system. Soap operas behind the Curtain remained mostly radio plays, and there was no such thing as actors, who weren't classically trained. This had the obvious advantage, that only quality actors played in them, but the disadvantage, that it didn't contain world-building. That is to say, not only was Dallas a major hit (Dynasty hit a decade later, and I'd have been hard-pressed to find a fan in Hungary), it also introduced the concept of spin offs. To amany of you, speaking of jumping the shark, the expression of the Fonz is a household staple. The only show that we got to see behind the Curtain from that universe was Mork and Mindy. This is to say, we never got to learn that Mork was originally a time traveler as well, what Happy Days and their crossovers were. You could then ask "but hey, what about the crossover episodes?" and I would ask back "What is a crossover episode? Shows don't mix, ever." If there were such episodes, censors removed them with every hint at them in other episodes. That brings me to Gary and Val. To you, they were cast and recast for the sole purpose of establishing Knots Landing. Since Knots Landing never got sold during Dallas's original run... yes, it remained unexplained why Lucy never could live with them, why he didn't stick around after Jock's will was read, how he cheated on his wife, or that Bobby and J.R. crossed over. Cultural differences matter as well. Eastern European literature produced literary works of their own, and some that were influenced by foreign writers, like Thomas Mann, who wrote family sagas, which are about the rise, expansion, and downfall of dy-nasties (pun intended). If one can look away from the utterly inauthentic Moldavia (then part of the USSR, thus confirming that fake Krystel was a Russian sleeper agent :D) it becomes evident that a lot of stories are about a Robin Hood-like vigilante, doling out justice over evil people, who exploit others. Thus, even though it massively lacked in quality, J.R. getting his comeuppance in later seasons actually was on par with the local mentality. One bit of trivia on character assassinations: the state-run TV company head honchos were convinced, that the Hungarian audience won't be able to retain the names of certain characters. Thus, Sue Ellen has become Samantha (predicting Sex and the City or Models Inc., you decide :D) and J.R. was renamed into Jockey, after the horse rider. The logic there was that it will tie the mindset to the ranch, as much of the country is agricultural. Yet, when his son was born, he was named John Ross, and was called John Ross.

I agree. I'm not sure when the right time to end Dallas would be though. Season 12 was a bad season, but probably it should have ended there. Or at least season 13

I don't think any secretary on Dallas was played by three different actresses. J.R. did rotate his secretaries. First Julie Grey, then Lou Ella, temporarily Kristin, then Sly. Although fun fit of trivia the Ewing servants were played by several actors. Although Roseanna Christiansen played Teresa from season 7 to the end, Teresa was played by several other actresses from season 2 to 6. And Raoul the butler was played by several different actors throughout the show's run.

Akos, very interesting info! I´ll take the suggestion for Missed Chances! Thanks for watching! Toni from supersoaps.org

@@supersoaps Anytime. Speaking of missed chances, the Dream Season had one very real consequence. Though to understand that, one must address the urban legend (or actual, I don't know, wasn't part of it) how communities started to crowdfund for a white slave girl... from a Brazilian soap. If you care to look into it, people are divided, whether it actually happened, but suffice to say, emotions did run high. So, even though there was already a semblance of internet in '94, and many, who came back from America having seen the Dream Season knew what was happening, one old lady, and that is a veritable fact, did kill herself over losing Bobby. Only if you can, and interested, you could also interview the Romanian fans, who even though got to see Dallas from the beginning, it was censored.

The _Dallas_ producers apparently reached out to Morgan Fairchild both times when they brought Jenna back on the show and both times Fairchild declined. Apparently there was friction between Fairchild and one of the other cast members.

Coleman was a better actor than Al Corley.

I fully concur. I always felt like Dynasty spent seasons 3 to 9 trying to recapture the magical spark of season 2. La Collins arrival was electric. They didn't really understand their own show and just opted for ridiculous excess (which I enjoyed too!). TBF to Coleman he became a good actor but in Dynasty he was a plank, especially in contrast to Corley channelling James Dean.

J.R. definitely deserved his comeuppance just as the audience deserved to see it but they overdid it.

I loved seeing JR get knocked down several pegs!!

Robert, I really must hire you as consultant, it never occurred to me! They say Steven Spielberg assisted them in that scene (which highly doubt) so maybe we should ask him. Keep sending me your feedback!

@@supersoaps Sure. DM. I'm a huge fan of the 80s primetime soaps and I love your channel

The UFO was a dream by Fallon.

Had the UFO story been able to continue on "The Colbys," it was going to have been a hallucination of Fallon. The "Dynasty" writers apparently didn't know that.

@@ScireTwins If I was the director of the episode, I wouldn't have shown the UFO. I would have shown Fallon in her car broken down in the desert, then a blinding light from the sky and when the light was gone so was Fallon.

thats good they didnt do that because Pam didnt want Bobby and Christopher to watch her actually die and im glad Katherine didnt return because she would have just kept on making things worse

besides it wouldnt have mattered anyway because of the continual downward spiral of the ratings

@@damianlatimer5753 missed my point. Pam didnt need to the dumb stuff she did. She was never an idiot.

Fallon was supposed to have hallucinated the UFO on The Colbys. She supposedly was going to go crazy. Unfortunately, the show was then cancelled and Jeff & Fallon returned to their roots on Dynasty. The Colbys writers apparently didn't tell the whole plot to the Dynasty writing team because when Jeff & Fallon returned to Denver, they stuck with Fallon being abducted.

In season five, that was the powerful finale in TV history.

Yeah, "Dynasty" pretty much just had their characters get up from the massacre and brush off the bullets like glitter. I guess it was in the script that, the terrorist bullets were magnets, aim only to hit Lady Ashley and her camara (rolled eyes).

@@MrJuly1990ish The producers didn't originally plan to kill off Ashley, during the early development stages of _The Colbys_ they planned to include Ali McGraw in the cast. It was only when they realized how unpopular the character of Ashley was that they decided to kill her. They also didn't plan on killing Luke because they wanted Steven in a monogamous relationship (it was the start of the AIDS crisis). Bill Campbell didn't see much potential for his character so he quit which brought about the demise of Luke. Camille Marchetta was the writer who was responsible for the cliffhanger but she was let go from the show at the end of the season and didn't leave an outline for a resolution.

@@MrJuly1990ish Which characters would you have killed off? i think Claudia should have been killed, especially considering how little she did in her final season. Also, I would have killed Prince Michael, freeing Amanda for new romances and maybe Dex, too.

@@radrobd The whole damn cast, 😆. Just joking, yes Claudia, the Prince, Dex, Amanda and Adam. The last 3 seasons of this show got ridiculous with those characters. Both Adam (Reunion) and Amanda was even more of a waste with new actors in the roles or their shortlive recast.

@@radrobd I totally agree with you about Prince Michael, and I think King Galen should’ve been axed too, since they were the ones the terrorists were there to kill anyway. And I would’ve still had Lady Ashley die as well. Luke,,,,,,, I’m kinda on the fence about. I would’ve like to see Steven in a long term relationship with a man. But I totally disagree with you about Claudia. I’m glad she lived, I always liked her. The reason she had so little to do in season six was because Pamela Bellwood got pregnant in real life, and they didn’t want Claudia to have another child. So they had to write her out of most of the season. I would’ve loved to see her become all bitchy and bad ass, at least for a while anyway!

Obviously done for the writers´ (and producers´) convenience since there was no Pam or Jenna, and Bobby couldn´t become a monk!

Amanda should never have been Blake's daughter ... more realistic for her to have been the secret child of Alexis and her lover Roger Grimes whom Alexis stashed away in England during her exile and who tracked her heritage down in Denver; Amanda could have claimed to be Blake's daughter and by the time it was revealed she wasn't, a grieving Blake could have unhealthily taken to Amanda as a new "daughter replacement", a deeply psychological story that could have served all sorts of conflict for Blake, Krystle, Alexis and the rest of the family, but the writers decided to go the easy route and just try and replace a daughter with a another one. Turns out it wasn't necessary because they eventually wrote the character out, pretending she never even existed so they could have Fallon back.

I didn't mind amanda that much. I quite liked Catherine Oxenberg. The big screw up was replacing her with Karen Cellini. Nothing against Karen, but it was too many changes too soon. Amanda was already like the replacement Fallon then they recast her! Even worse, they quickly axed Karen Cellini and abruptly wrote Amanda out of the series and suddenly in comes Terri Garber as Leslie Carrington. Leslie came ready-made with Amanda's associations: she was close pals with Dex and had had a bad affair with Michael Culhane. Then she had a romance with Amanda's ex, Clay Fallmont (Ted McGinley). That was hard to swallow.

@@tonyatmidnight it would have made more sense that Amanda was Roger's daughter. It wasn't even brought up as a possibility. They tried to explain it away that Blake and Alexis had a brief reconciliation after Alexis' affair with Roger, but that retconned history because Blake threw Alexis out of the house and banished her after he caught her in bed with Roger

But Gary was a recast,ironically. TED was Gary number 2.

Stacy Gallina's Mary Francis Sumner was a recast in 1990. The role was played by Danielle Brisebois in 1983-1984.

But not in Knots, only Dallas. There was only Gary (Ted) in Knots, except for the flashbacks of course. :)

@@ScireTwins I remember Mary Frances. When she arrived Mac and (I believe) Karen acted like they knew her. I always wondered if she had actually been seen on camera early in Greg Sumner's character arc, or if they were essentially acting as if she was known to them, even though it was never seen on the show. I don't remember the show ever mentioning her between the time I started watching and when she ultimately arrived (and quickly died).

@@StevieM2 When Mary Frances first appeared in Knots, Greg was still married to Jane. Mary Frances was unhappy with her father, and she went to stay with Mack & Karen until she reconciled with her parents. I remember her hitting it off with Eric and thought she could have been a fun element in the Eric/Linda/Michael triangle in the later years. Anyway, she eventually left with Jane. I don't think she was even mentioned again until the recast, not even during Laura's marriage to Greg, birth of Meg, or Laura's death.

yeah i wouldnt have seen Robert Foxworth playing that role real good

he was better as Chase Gioberti on Falcon Crest