Days Of Our Lives
PLANET 360: Back From The Dead, The Baby Switch: Should These Overused Soap Plot Devices Be Shown The Front Door?

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soaps could succeed with more realistic plots. we should deal with taboo subjects of politics, religion, class, race.
If soaps did that they would not be fantasy and believe, and that is the core true nature of soaps.. People watch soaps to getaway from the problems of the real world we need to live in.. They do bring in those subjects in at times, but then still it is 50%BS and 50% soap story telling lol .. and I like that soaps are not real to life nor would I want them to be. But c’mon, bringing back the dead is a bit overkill .. All the jokes that were made about Dixie Martin and her 3 returns… Read more »
They need to start writing soaps more like Revenge and Dallas! fans need more these days to keep them interested. This G rated soaps are not like the twisted tales and romps in the sack like they used to be! What happened to the knock down hair pulling cat fights! ZZZ We need more lots more! Love and sex and mystery in the afternoon! 🙂
I agree with you 100%! Dallas intrigues me SO much, and Deception. I also saw Revenge’s pilot, which was good too. DOOL is very boring. They need better writers.
I am OK with a ‘back from the dead’ IF only if it brings brings back a cherished/loved actor/character who is missed terribly, then cool with it.. The most ridiculous and stupid bringing back the dead was Dixie Martin brought back 3 times or was it 4 times, anyways that was pure idiotic writing .. I do not think people should come from from the dead.. If it is a fan fav person leaving then do responsible writing and send them to Timbuktu for whatever reasons. Baby switching is also stupid and way over used.. Hate waiting 15/20 yrs to… Read more »
I like bringing characters back from the dead when it fixes previous plot mistakes. AJ on GH is a perfect example of this. Previous regimes decimated the Q family, the main family on the show. AJ, Alan, Emily, Justice … all dead. The only Qs with a storyline were Jason (Morgan – mob) and Tracy via Luke. Huge mistake. I welcomed AJ back from the dead and honestly hope we can get an Emily return as well. Some characters shouldn’t be killed off, especially when it is for no purpose other than shock value as I believe Emily’s death was… Read more »
not dormitory … supposes to be I’m all for that. Hate auto correct. Lol
i feel the back from the dead plot device has been overused, especially at my fave show GH but at the same time if they didn’t do it it would prevent all these great comebacks they are currently doing. sometimes its needed to right the wrong of a previous regime, so hopefully the shows will learn not to kill off characters and instead find more logical ways to send them away. thats why i’m glad GH rencently instead of killing steve webber as everyone was speculating, he got send to jail, and i hope they send off jonny by just… Read more »
The now GH is be more sensible and not killing the characters off but rather sending them away, leaving them alive to someday return, perhaps….
Steve and Johnny sent to prison..
Lulu kidnapped and whatever will follow..
Jason is still missing and assumed dead, but not verified dead..
Caleb was not killed off but walked out of the morgue in a different similar looking body wearing the/his ring.
But poor Tray went forever bye bye but there was no connection to PC to keep him alive somewhere
lol the short stay characters can die; I need the drama.. ..
Trey did have connections in PC: his two mothers…Kate and Connie! lol
Nothing should be off the table when it comes to writing any show, as long as it’s done well.
Regarding this Planet 360 show– if you’re going to have a little content, you should step up the visual. The hosts look like they just ran out to the grocery store.
Diana Taylor, General Hospital, Merideth Lord, OLTL, and Jenny, AMC. I’ve been watching soaps for most of my life and I find I was far more committed to a dying character than I do now. Today every character who dies can always com back, you as the viewer invest less.
Days overused killing off Stephano and bringing him back from the dead so much iv grown sick of it just as much as when you see the same characters remarry more than twice like Victor and Nikki. I dont mind bringing characters back from the dead maybe just once(if to get a favorite back) or if no body was found. I also dont like it when characters have this ‘new’ face like when John claimed to be Roman yet he had a different height, different voice, different eyes, and the rest of his body is completely different than the original… Read more »
Time standing still in Salem is what currently bugs me just a little. The mantel clock on the fireplace in the Horton home is always set at 7:10 am or pm? And the glass on it looks deliberately frosted to cover it up so most viewers wouldnt see it. Is it suppose to be a working clock or just there for appearances…like Hope, Abe, and Kayla?
And thats another problem…when you have good actors like K.O, J.R. and M.B.E playing Hope, Abe, and Kayla and you treat them like background props! Whats the point?
You watch soaps for the tangled lives of these characters. A baby switch can tie two couples or families together for YEARS. It can provide story for decades and create really layered and complicated relationships between characters. Back from the dead is more a result of course correcting bad choices of the past, which is the worse sin in my eyes, “killing off” a beloved vet or character and realizing too late that they should have come up with something else when that actor left. But these are ongoing shows, 52 weeks a year, that unique format causes writers to… Read more »
I love that characters can come back from the dead. It makes nothing final on soaps and I like that. Keeps the audience on their toes. The baby switches can get old. They are fine as long as they are used sparsely. Any show using any plot too often gets old and redundant.
weeell…
I think they should bring ”the kitchen” back from the dead..
In olden days the kitchen was the heart of the home, all were seen in the kitchens..
Now there are no kitchens in the homes .. where do these people eat lol ..
They dont need kitchens…theyr always eating out which makes me wonder why they are not all overweight with all the recent headlines complaining about fattening restaurant food ect and no one working out except for in the bedroom. lol
The main problem with the baby switch stories, IMO, is that they get wrapped up too fast. Although it wasn’t a baby switch story, it took YEARS for the reveal that Mike Horton was not Mickey’s son but his brother Bill’s. That secret was always in the back of fan’s minds and when it finally did come out it had great impact for the characters and the fans. Back from the dead….only if it makes sense. As was said, Zombie Dixie was getting old. OLTL did it pretty well when it was assumed John McBain was dead but was really… Read more »
I think it took 8 or ten years b4 Mike Horton(they aged him of course) b4 he found out Bill was his father. It even took Julie and Doug like 6 years b4 they tied the knot. People had more patience back then, and i sure miss those slow paced character driven plots that seemed more believable than todays constant split them up, bedhopping, too faced paced storytelling.
I meant too fast paced…guess i was too fast paced writing this …dang it!
Replace these back from the dead storylines w/ more storylines for leading characters who are African american and Latino american and Asian american. hollywood needs to create more soap operas w/ racial minority leading characters bec they can succeed. The 18-49 demo of american idol is only .1 higher than scandal. That’s how great scandal is doing. It could very well topple fox’s highest rated tv show! Yet hollywood still lacks a lot of racial diversity from their day and night and reality soaps. Compare racial diversity to the plethora of gay representations from hollywood. Yet only 1.7% of the… Read more »
You’re very right. I do like that soaps are moving forward with LGBT characters, but we need more racial diversity, especially on DOOL. However, I don’t see how the soaps bash minorities.
Racial minorities are bashed through hollywood’s portrayals. Practically every soap opera only has rich families who are white while the racial minorities are portrayed as lower class. All the help of victoria on “revenge” season1 were women of color. The only woman of color was ashley from season1 of that horrid soap. She was of a lower economic status compared to all the white chars. The only Asian american char was takeda on season1 of horrid revenge. He never had any romantic storylines while padma had to be paired w/ nolan. The only Asian american female char had to be… Read more »
I think it depends on the why the writers are killing off the character and character whether or not I mind the character coming back. When an actor is leaving the show, and they are a highly associated with the character then having them “die” but not find the body, leaves room for the beloved character to come back- that is okay. And I’m okay with a character like Stefano on Days, dying and coming back, because it is part of his character. It is part of the fun figuring out how Stefano is going come back and when, that… Read more »
I actually wouldve liked hearing the opinions of the soap writers on this subject who write this stuff instead of the soap actors who play it.
I’m tired of characters being “brought back” after they die. Stefano is a good example. Either let him die or keep him alive. As for baby swaps, I hated the whole thing going on now with Parker being Daniel’s kid on DOOL. Too confusing and doesn’t make any sense. These storylines are good only if barely used, but it seems like that’s all that happens now, so it gets boring.
Over the past 30 years, I have seen every soap cliche used, and they don’t bother me if they are done well with good writing and acting. But I’ve never been more viscerally disgusted than by what is currently happening on DAYS with Chloe moving Parker to Brazil and putting Jennifer in the position to break up with Daniel so he can see his son again. I’m shaking with anger that this storyline was even approved, let alone that it’s actually playing out on my TV screen. I actually know someone that this happened to, and his life, and his… Read more »
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