Soap Operas in the 80s and 90s Were INSANE

[@jocegir]

Hope you don't mind the correction. Luke and Laura were not on their first date the night of the rape. She was waiting for her her husband Scotty to pick her up after her shift was over at the disco where she worked for Luke. Still an insane moment to watch.

[@mysocalledgenxlife]

No worries in the correction! The source I read framed it as a date. Or maybe I just assumed. Either way, it was an error. 😊

[@bethwasserman2882]

You should try to rewatch that episode. I did and it was shocking.

[@08andylee]

Yeah, I did re-watch that episode and it was shocking. I think Luke was supposed to be just a one stop villain, but the actor who played him was so good and so fun to work with that the writers had to get real creative on rehabilitating the character of Luke. Grandma was CBS, but General Hospital was so hyped that every Wednesday we would do a back and forth to watch GH.

[@jocegir]

@08andylee From what I've read,, you're right. Anthony Geary (the actor who played Luke) was only supposed to be on the show for a short time. The original plan was to have Luke killed shortly after the rape but that changed due to the popularity of the character.

[@Wednesdaywoe1975]

​@@jocegirThat's actually sort of horrible. That the VIEWERS wanted the rapist to hang around.

[@TheOneandOnlyD-R-E]

I still remember how pissed I was when the OJ trial interrupted Days of Our Lives all summer long! FFS MARLENA WAS POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL!!!!

[@dhenderson1810]

That should have been OJ's defence.

[@Annayasha]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@DelaniaAndTheDogs]

lol. I had forgotten that. 🤣😆

[@UniquelyIndividuallyMe]

My mom used to call NBC and complain whenever something interrupted Days. Like she would call and ask what time it would be back on and then be so annoyed when they told her they didn't know. No one gets in between my mom and her soap opera. Even today at 76 she still watches it and won't miss it for anything. It's on Peacock now so she can watch it anytime she wants. It's perfect for her lol. I actually still watch it, I was born watching it haha. It's not like it used to be,. It will always hold a special place in my heart though.

[@iamcasihart]

@@UniquelyIndividuallyMeTypically, if an episode was pre-empted by anything, they would air the episode something late that evening. I would try to set my VCR to record anything I was super into.

[@EntertainMeNow78]

You're right about Passions. That show was the weirdest soap I've ever seen.😂

[@paulvoorhies8821]

Yup

[@paulvoorhies8821]

Days/Stefano takes the cake. I still don’t understand the 2 Romans.

[@paulvoorhies8821]

Anyone dig Ghoul Girl??

[@paulvoorhies8821]

Anyone dig Princess Wilhelmina??

[@paulvoorhies8821]

Well, the possession storyline pushed DAYS from 6 or 7 to 2 in the Nielsens, soooo. I watched!

[@Enrique-cs8id]

The best part about this video is that you can tell it was made by someone who actually likes soaps!! ❤

[@jilljohnson251]

80's & early 90's soaps were everything 😊

[@cocoaorange1]

My teen and young adult years. I learned a lot about life on soaps.

[@jilljohnson251]

@@cocoaorange1 Yes! A lot about life and love!

[@allicmw557]

@@jilljohnson251 And business! Mergers and acquisitions and corporate takeovers! HAHAHA.

[@jilljohnson251]

@@allicmw557 So very true!

[@iamcasihart]

I have, on VHS tapes, the entire Reva Clone AND the Reva Time Travel storyline! 🙌 I’m not a mom or a grandma. I’m a 46 year old Gen X kid who LIVED for the soaps!!!

[@jilljohnson251]

@iamcasihart Amen sister! Twinsies!

[@bellacat818]

Triplets

[@cwash7708]

Yes!!

[@DRyan-rj3mi]

I have Sonny, Jax and Brenda still on VHS. Those were the days

[@hx3trapped]

I was in college when Marlena became possessed. I remember the common room of my dorm being filled with students having a blast with that storyline! It was a truly fun time!

[@MemphisTiger]

It really was! James E Riley was a superb writer! I remember Nguyen, Louise Sorel, who played Vivian, Alamain, won one of the soap awards, I think it was a soap opera digest award, and on stage she thanked James Riley and whatever it is he’s smoking! Lol

[@ErikiParakeet]

Nothing beats the 80s and 90s for soaps😂 I'm sure we all loved "watching the stories" at our Grandparents. OLTL was my favourite.❤

[@antoinettegreen5344]

Back then soap opera writers were in competition with each other and had to come up with the wildest stories they could imagine!!! Love soap opera in the early 80's and 90's

[@kekwayblaze3176]

They were competing with the nighttime soaps for outrageous storylines.

[@antoinettegreen5344]

@@kekwayblaze3176 Dynasty was killing it back then with wild stories!! They were The American version of a Telenovela with all the cat fighting!!!!

[@SlapstickGenius23]

@@antoinettegreen5344 Well, for the barmy Mexican telenovelas, not even do they have as much hectic catfighting as the goofier Lakorns, the shameless Sinetrons, the puppyish Pinoy teleseryes and the hellish Hindi serials.

[@Sailortwilight]

Passions deserves its own video 😂😂😂 It was W I L D!!!!

[@mysocalledgenxlife]

Your wish is my command. It’s currently in the research stage. 😊

[@Sailortwilight]

​@@mysocalledgenxlifeOhhhh yes I am looking forward to it!!!! ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉

[@MoonStruckBunnyIRL]

No where near as crazy as demon possession and traveling through paintings, but Janet throwing Natalie down a well and marrying Trevor on All My Children, was my introduction to soaps and holds a special place in my heart.

[@cajayson8301]

same. I began watching AMC in March/1991 and that is the first big story I remember

[@pika23]

JANET FROM ANOTHER PLANET

[@jilljohnson251]

@MoonStruckBunnyIRL oh my gosh yes! My Mom and I were glued to that tv until Natalie got out...Do you remember when her water container leaked and she was all out of drinking water?!? The suspense and drama was off the charts

[@Gelinnawen]

@@pika23 yessss!

[@janaskibo871]

We were really entertained back then. If it was still this crazy i would still be watching lol. Reva!!!

[@ttintagel]

I was a sick kid and missed a lot of school, so I saw quite a few of these when they first aired. Good times.

[@einahsirro1488]

Man, the day Luke and Laura were reunited, I was a freshman in college, and the girls dorms were full of kids ditching class to watch this reunion. When the lovers finally saw each other, our whole dorm was screaming. But what was really funny was that through the window, I could hear roars coming from the nearby guys dorm at the same time! LOL!

[@blu48]

That's a riot! 😂

[@deansam1]

My former brother in law's fraternity decorated their house for Luke and Laura's wedding. Everybody loved Luke and Laura.

[@Girl2TheCity]

This introduction was just as juicy as some of the hottest stories soap operas contenders. Soap operas were the definition of jumping the shark like Happy days😂

[@LlamaLlamaMamaJamaac]

That is WILD!! I would pay to be a fly on that wall!!

[@juliekline2871]

One you missed was when One Life to Live's Vicki traveled back to the old West. She landed in Buchanan City as her ancestor and almost married her husband's ancestor.

[@mysocalledgenxlife]

Oh that’s a good one!

[@patriciaschiro2659]

I absolutely miss soap operas. It was so fun watching them. There is nothing even close to them these days.

[@amandaredd3057]

Tony Geary's hair was everything 😊

[@bethwasserman2882]

He was everything.

[@Crinkle.Stilt.Skin.]

LOL So was Frisco's 90's perm!

[@amandaredd3057]

@Crinkle.Stilt.Skin. you got THAT right!

[@Scene68]

The Days of Our Lives storyline of Kristen DiMera and Susan Banks was PEAK! I, too, tuned in every day for that alone. Elieen Davidson is a Daytime Soap GOAT. Such a good actess.

[@kamburglerimnotarealmarine615]

Sami and Carrie fights, the best ever! 🤣

[@rebeccablackburn9487]

I loved Carrie!! She could kick Sammie's ass!!

[@kwest5171]

No one beats Days for over-the-top story lines. Period.

[@danielherrin]

On another note, anyone seen Soap Dish? Crazy, hilarious movie about soap operas with an amazing film score from Alan Silvestri

[@mysocalledgenxlife]

On my forgotten 90s movie list! Will be in an upcoming video.

[@danielherrin]

@@mysocalledgenxlife I just tracked down the og soundtrack on lp.

[@taradiane]

i love soap dish!

[@stephaniefryar6728]

Best movie!

[@janaskibo871]

Yes!!! Soap Dish was great

[@JepMasta]

By the way, the storyline where Marlena got possessed by the Dev…er… the demon, was put on the list called “what were they thinking? The 100 dumbest events in TV history” by David Hofstede. He titled the entry “the Devil made her do it” and allegedly at that year daytime Emmy awards, when days of our lives was up for the best soap opera award, they showed the clip of Marlena hovering over the bed, and you could hear people in the audience laughing out loud

[@dhenderson1810]

They then repeated it recently on the show, where she was possessed again, as it was 25 years after that storyline. So they learnt nothing from last time.

[@dhenderson1810]

Ever seen a soap called "Passions". It had weirder stuff than that. It had a bitchy girl go to hell and make a deal with the Devil, (who looked exactly like the show's main villian) and she met Hitler and Stalin while she was there. No VS. That was a storyline.

[@MemphisTiger]

@@dhenderson1810 to be fair, the original possession storyline in the 90s skyrocket a Days ratings at the time. It was definitely a successful storyline, regardless of how anyone feels about it. It brought in the eyeballs.

[@brite1217]

@@MemphisTigeryep! Everyone at my school was running home to watch it. It was our event viewing before the we had internet

[@lilicoi100]

Yes! That's the one I was waiting to see on here! So ridiculous! I stopped watching at that point.

[@mocuishle1028]

I loved Santa Barbara! That was the best! ❤️

[@cammyr12Productions]

I miss soaps so badly! Happy I found my people to talk about them with ❤

[@iamcasihart]

Instant subbie! Would it not be amazing if all of these old soap episodes could be digitally remastered and released or aired? I cannot express just how much I miss SoapNet. I was devastated when it was brought to an end. I watched re-runs of 90210 every weekend (and it was the best way, as it had all of the original music featured in the series, unlike the way it is on streaming services now).

[@tiggerthetosh]

This takes me straight back to my mom, aunt and grandmas whooping it up in my living room. You truly never miss.

[@RosieGaelic]

And maybe the smell of the old Zenith consoles??? 📺📺📺

[@tiggerthetosh]

@@RosieGaelic absolutely. Best smelling plastic ever.

[@AngLSTM]

Id forgotten how insane soaps were. My mom had zero room to comment on my love of XFiles and Twin Peaks. 🤣🤣

[@DestinyPifer]

I remember watching Marlena's devil possession and loving every moment of it.

[@amandaredd3057]

Soaps were badass back then but they're boring as hell nowadays

[@TheOneandOnlyD-R-E]

The days of our lives outside Salem on peacock was cheesy like the old days. I enjoyed it 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@flazada]

Are they even airing anymore?

[@kimberlyjeanne9456]

32:16 wow that was insanely bad. The writing, the visuals, the acting. Yikes

[@davita4436]

@@kimberlyjeanne9456 True and it cracked me up!!!

[@dawggirl]

@@flazada There's 3 daytime soaps that air on network tv - General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, and The Bold and the Beautiful. Days of our Lives airs on Peacock. And there are other streaming soaps.

[@mismissy]

Marty the Party Girl, Blair and Todd's storyline from OLTL was absolutely insane. I was way too young to be watching these stories 😂😂

[@Dunybrook]

You could do a whole video on Eugene Bradford from Days of Our Lives with his time travel/sci fi shenanigans which included building an android double of his girlfriend Calliope Jones (played by Arleen Sorkin who inspired the DC character of Harley Quinn).

[@bored1ca]

John de Lancie who played Eugene would find fame later as the mischievous galactic entity Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation and would again reprise that role on several of the other Star Trek spin offs

[@tresboujay]

I’d forgotten about them, good times!

[@robertqld]

I always loved when watching 'The Nanny' and Fran's obsession with various soap operas made it onto the show and even some of the OTT plots (where fake or real), became plot points of The Nanny episodes themselves!

[@kimbatley1835]

My favorite Luke/Laura storyline was them hiding out and living in a store. I thought it was so magical! Of course I was only in grade school, LOL.

[@radrobd123]

I think they spent one night in a department store, Wyndham's. I'm not sure if they got trapped or were hiding out, but it was one night where they dressed in formals and danced around the empty store

[@BasicallyStevee]

That General Hospital theme reminds me of being home sick from school in the 80s. Insane how those memories come back.

[@pettykittyfam]

Reva!!! She was an awesome actress 👏 😂 Omg those storylines! Luke & Laura... my mom loved them!!! ❤❤❤ Stephano was a classic! 😂 Of course Bo & Hope & Kayla & Patch were my personal favorites! Omg and I can't forget Jack & Jennifer 😊 Those daytime romances were passionate 😂😂😂 22:59 OH MY GOSH I WATCHED THIS ONE TOO 😂😂😂 I was a new mom at the time 😂😂😂 Girl we could be friends irl 😂😂😂

[@jenniferblake3224]

I remember watching One Life to Live with my grandma in the 80’s with a story line of an underground city/lost civilization with culty vibes. The wtf storyline and uniforms caught my attention I think.

[@AngelLybarger]

Guiding Light and All My Children were my 2 favorites. Today soaps don't cut it for me. People today don't know what they missed out on. All the good ones were cancelled.

[@daniellemhall1358]

Passions was the craziest sh**. I didnt realise it was so short.

[@cocoaorange1]

It was good in the early years, then got stupid and nutty down the road!

[@RecoveringBookHoarder]

I cannot even explain to you how happy this video made me!! Thank you!!

[@mysocalledgenxlife]

You’re welcome! I had a blast making it.

[@WillmobilePlus]

Dood! My Mom, aunts and sisters were so deep into these shows! Ryan's Hope, Loving, All My Children, One Life To Live, General Hospital, Generations! While my mom was at work, Dad had to make sure the VCR went on at 12:30PM and it was our job to switch out the tape at 3:00 to get General Hospital so mom had her full soaps when she got home. Then mom and my aunts would call each other up in the evening and talk about the plot twists and revelations. Such warm memories. As a little boy, I even got into them in the late 80s and early 90s. I even knew about "Luke and Laura" as like a 3 year old....even though I had no idea who they were, but it was a big deal when they returned to the show. That whole "underground city" plot about "Eternia" (All My Children(?))was totally off the chain weird! Mom still watches. I have no idea how anyone does, but I'm glad they still are being made.

[@jilljohnson251]

@WillmobilePlus Somehow, somehow, we made it work with the limited (compared to today's standards) technology we had (cutting-edge technology at the time). I remember having to manually record shows for my mom. Sometimes if she was out she would call (on the landline) to make sure the indicator light was on to make sure it was really recording.

[@PBBBWis]

DOOL was my grandma’s and mom’s fave and my 1970s and 80s self of course got sucked in too. I have such great memories of watching it with my mom during lunch. Thanks for the great video! Loving your channel!!!

[@MemphisTiger]

I got sucked in in the late 80s and throughout the 90s because both my mom and dad were fans. My dad used to record the episodes and wait till I got home from school before we watch them. Starting in the mid-80s, we had one of those humongous satellite dishes so we were able to get every episode the day before it aired. It was pretty damn cool.

[@PBBBWis]

@@MemphisTiger Lucky!!! That’s super cool!😄

[@pettykittyfam]

I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE!!! Omg me & my mom watched All my Children (till I started school) & then in my preteen & teenage years my bestie & I had our favorites... Days of Our Lives & Another World! Of course we enjoyed the occasional Santa Barbara or General Hospital but nothing really ever beat Salem on Days! These shows hold a special place in my heart. ❤❤❤

[@altonjohn6348]

Marlana's possession. Was funny as HELL!!! When I was in the 11th grade my grandmother would tape it for me so I could watch it when I got home.

[@BobbyWright-yf3vp]

I mostly watched All my children, One life to live and General Hospital. I didn't know the other soap operas had wild storylines. Thank you ❤

[@seanswinton6242]

Yes, same here. General Hospital went total Sci-Fi in the vain of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." It was so crazy, my cousin a comic book guy became addicted.😂

[@BobbyWright-yf3vp]

@@seanswinton6242 I couldn't get into General Hospital because it turned into a James Bond movie every now and then with the spy stuff

[@AB2B]

Ah! I *love* the 80's-90's soaps; they were absolutely out of their gourd wild and hilarious, and I couldn't stop watching. I've found several KZbinrs who have these uploaded, and I just really enjoy going back and reliving the insanity. lol Days of Our Lives was my go to in the 80's, and then I could hop over to GH after.

[@mysocalledgenxlife]

I’m tempted to rewatch some of those storylines via those KZbin videos when I start live streaming. It was an absolute blast watching these.

[@AB2B]

@@mysocalledgenxlife I've found some from way back when, mostly Another World, though I have found the whole "Laura comes back from the dead" story line, and of course Days of Our Lives (the Cruise of Deception is just insane perfection, and Eugen and Calliope were a hoot!). You should definitely do a live stream watching the older soaps; I'd definitely watch and laugh along.

[@rhondathompson6942]

@@mysocalledgenxlife go watch sonny and brenda story you will fall in love with it

[@TheCoolBeans_ca]

LOVED Another World. Viki & Marley were like the Sweet Valley High twins unhinged! ​@@AB2B

[@AB2B]

@@TheCoolBeans_ca Loved, loved, loved them! There were so many great story lines with the twins, and when you add Jake to the blend...crazy greatness.

[@KerryCrouch]

A storyline I remember really well was the baby switch between All My Children and One Life to Live in the early 2000s. I was in elementary school when that happened. I was so happy when Bianca got Miranda back. Of course the tornado storyline in 2008 on AMC was really crazy as well.

[@oldschoolel]

Thank you for honoring Days of Our Lives of the 1980's. There was no cheesier daytime entertainment.

[@havok6280]

My grandma went back to work when I was 3. We didn’t have a VCR so she made my mom watch her soaps and fill her in. I started watching, too. I watched Days and Another World. Later I added Santa Barbara and Generations. And then Sunset Beach and Passions. When I was in college, I scheduled my classes around Days. Even when I was deployed to Iraq, I got up early to watch Days on AFN (Armed Forces Network).

[@karmarose6332]

I remember grandma and her coworkers watching their "stories" in the kitchen of the care home that she worked at. They would trash talk and roll their eyes at the characters that they loved to hate. When I hear the intro music for 'The Young and the Restless' I think of my grandma. My friend got me into 'Passions' during summer vacation when I was 13 and I got hooked. When school started up I recorded it so that I could keep up with the wild and weird stories. My recording, for some reason, always included 15 minutes of 'Days of Our Lives' so I got hooked on 'Days' too.

[@anna-mariageorgiades3628]

It's fate it's fate..............hilariously bad..............

[@jeremyud]

Guiding Light had an absolutely insane storyline that spanned 1995 into early 1996 where the character of Brent Lawrence terrorizes the character of Lucy Cooper. Eventually he winds up going undercover as a woman in order to terrorize her some more before he takes her hostage at a light tower. Then when he's caught, he retreats into his womanly persona and gets shipped off to the mental hospital. You could NEVER do this storyline now.

[@Muirmaiden]

I agree, with the political correctness of today, etc. While the storyline was not about being transgender, I have a feeling that the trans community would be very offended by this storyline if it happened on a soap today.

[@Muirmaiden]

@Brad23J At a time when HIV/AIDS was all over the news, and when the fatality rate was so high and the treatments were nowhere as advanced, it had to be a difficult thing to portray. GL put a lot of research into that.

[@kekwayblaze3176]

Budgets for daytime soaps increased during this time as daytime competed with the night time soap operas like Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing so that's why daytime had frequent on-location shoots in other countries and had high costume budgets and A+ Listers like Elizabeth Taylor, Carol Burnett made appearances on their favorite soaps. The 80's were the golden era of soaps when budgets were at their peak.

[@Youttubi]

Agreed. Soaps were at their best in the 80s.

[@pantiwaist]

One Life to Live - Viki dying and going to heaven, and all of Viki's alters and the cavern under Llanfair.

[@jenniferblake3224]

The underground sci-fi ish civilization?

[@ladybugmom10]

Marlena being possessed was so crazy!! I only remember the storyline because my husband was bedridden for 3 weeks and we watched it unfold. He was obsessed with watching and would yell at the tv. Now we look back and wonder how we wasted so much time .

[@rs3007]

Bc it was iconic at the time ❤

[@70sgirl42]

The day of Luke and Laura's wedding, my friend Heidi and I rushed home from work to my apt. to watch it. We rolled a joint , got stoned and laughed hysterically through the whole thing just from the absurdity of it all!! We laughed until our bellies ached!!!!🤣🤣🤣

[@mysocalledgenxlife]

😂😂 that’s so awesome! I rolled a joint, got stoned, and laughed hysterically while making this video. 😊 circle of life. lol.

[@70sgirl42]

@@mysocalledgenxlife It's the only way to go!!!🤣❤️

[@evillilmonkey]

I remember a storyline on DOOL where Stefano Dimera implanted a device in a womans tooth to be able to mind control her. I think her name was Vivian. I don't watch that show anymore, but it was a lot of fun when i was younger.

[@W81Researcher]

Yes that story was lame and honestly it was trying to keep some element of the Dimeras on the front burner until the Princess Gina storyline. Two big storylines for Bo and Hope were going on as well as for the Carrie/Austin/Sami contingent. That storyline was competing with Eric/Nicole for fifth place. Yes, Nicole was not even important or popular then.

[@bellalegosi83]

Omg this takes me back. I'd watch Y&R with my grandma everyday, then had to start school. My grandma would record the show so I could keep up. Then we got into Days too. I wish I kept those tapes!! We did record over them tho, tapes could cost $ back then. I stopped watching in the late 90s tho. The exorcism story line was insane. Bold and Beautiful is still on and currently doing a weird storyline of a homicidal orphan and the Sheriff from Dead Zone is in it.

[@sammidizzle5599]

Wow!! Well, probably, because (aside from watching Passions and a short stint of Days of Our Lives, in the late 90s/early 2000s) I only watched ABC soaps, I had no clue that the actors who played “Patch & Kayla” on Days of Our Lives, later, became “Stefan & Katherine on General Hospital.

[@btetschner]

A+ video! LOVE IT! Insane but very memorable storylines, some very wild writers for the shows!

[@PsychoElou666]

Will you do a part 2 possibly? In the 90s, I remember watching Sunset Beach every day after school and that show didn’t have a long run like all my children or guiding light but it had wild storylines: Killing jewel curse, serial killer on a boat, people trapped in a cave, etc.

[@RedSonja92]

Glad to know I'm not the only one who watched Sunset Beach. Did you know the chant they said over the cursed jewels is the motto of Colorado? Back then, I couldn't believe they were actually saying anything "evil," but I wanted to know. Luckily, my dictionary had a section in the back of common Latin phrases. "Nil sine numine" means "Nothing without Providence (or God)." I never forgot that.

[@PsychoElou666]

@@RedSonja92 Omg I didn’t know that! I bet someone in the writers room was from Colorado 😅

[@sammidizzle5599]

Just out of curiosity, does ANYONE remember “Swans Crossing”??? ETA: Oh WOW!!! It’s on TUBI!!!🤣🤣🤣 It’s CHEEZE-O-RIFFIC!!!!

[@msemilyli]

Yes Sarah Michelle Gellar (before Buffy) was the only good actress on that show but I couldn't stop watching because that boy Shane something (forgot his name) was such good eye candy 😍

[@sammidizzle5599]

@@msemilyli 🤣🤣🤣 💯💯💯💯

[@robertqld]

In Australia we only ever got DOOL, YR and B&B for most of the 80s and 90s (Until Passions came into being at anyrate) but I swear 90s DOOL gave us enough crazy to last several lifetimes! The Kristen DiMera and her never-ending series of doppelgangers storyline was always my favourite (Eileen Davidson was robbed of an Emmy during that period!) GY

[@advictoriams]

All of them are on 10 now

[@DeneM]

I remember when us Australians were so far behind the US in episodes (I think it was DOOLs?) that they edited a huge catch up episode and then we were finally caught up.

[@robertqld]

@DeneM I've always wonder if that special episode is anywhere to watch, condensing 3-4 years of storyline into 1 hour!

[@DeneM]

@@robertqld That would be hard to find I imagine! but it always made me think "if they could condense it to an hour, how much of these soaps were filler?" lol

[@hypnojon32]

You are damn right about Passions. I was a proud watcher from beginning to end. Please do a episode (show) devoted to that soap.

[@sertorrhenclegane]

The two stories that made me pay attention to soaps were both from Guiding Light and both were relatively wild. The first was the whole Ghost Reva storyline and the second was the Brent Lawrence/Marion Crane vs. Alan-Michael Spaulding and Lucy Cooper. Thankfully, I had my grandma to explain everything to me...though in the most G-rated way possible where Brent was concerned.

[@shavonnestacia2865]

Viki Lord from OLTL had alot of weird storylines. My favorite was when she was in a coma and went to heaven, Which was a "spaceship" (late 80's) And the mixup between her 2 daughters, One was by her stalker.

[@benjamintriplett3]

Marlena, Hope, Stefeno had more lives than an ally cat.

[@Corsina]

They were so much better than what is being put out today. Killing off good characters, giving boring characters and those nobody cares about most of the screen time, and the list goes on. At least back then there was imagination and fun and location shoots!

[@jonadams5277]

Thank you for this. I don't often encounter any who understand the quirky charm of soap operas from this era, so your video was a tonic for my soul. My first soap experience was an episode of General Hospital in September 1983, during the Prometheus Disc storyline. The DVX (Russian spies) determined their double agent, Grant Putnam, was losing focus because he fell in love with Celia Quartermain. So they sent a scorpion to kill him and she unwittingly let it loose. The cliffhanger... Will she be stung? No, the next episode began with Grant rushing in to rescue her. I was hooked! The super villains, the sci-fi plots, the outlandish costumes! It was like comic books for adults to my 12 year old self. I eventually acclimated to One Life to Live after tuning in to GH too early, and a few years later was watching all the ABC soaps. And buying Soap Opera Digest, which led me to "cheat" with NBC occasionally. (But they were too repetitive and had too many fake-outs to win me over.). And you are right, CBS tended to be more grounded. Where other than a soap opera of that era would you witness such bizarre deaths as OLTL's Steve being blown up by an exploding wedding cake, or SB's Mary being crushed by the giant "C" on the roof of the Capwell Hotel, or GH's Wendy impaled on a carousel unicorn's horn. OLTL was the most bizarre, though. Vicki's trip to heaven in a space ship, Clint being transported in time back to the 1880s, Tina giving birth while falling over a waterfall in Argentina, and (though from the 2000s) Vicki learning she really didn't have one daughter, but twins from two different men, and one was stolen. The how was a gift that kept on giving. Viva Eterna! As a comic book fan, I can vouch this was the closest we ever got to comic book stories on tv. (And in the 2000s GL actually had costumed super heroes!). Thank you for letting me visit this vivid, entertaining world again. Please make more similar videos if you can.

[@travismiddleton8218]

God I love DOOL and GH. My grandma and mum made me watch old re-runs and now I'm hooked😂 Great video. Man 80s and 90s soap storylines are crazy and insane and I love them for it

[@waynehill5707]

Great video! We definitely need a part 2 for Days and Vivian Alamain!

[@aznsbd]

Demon Marlena was one of favorites growing up.

[@prestonpfeiffer]

Same 😂😂😂😂😂

[@LadyRose2023]

I remember being allowed to stay home from school for luke and laura's wedding.. I was 11 AND my mom told them why I was staying home.. and they were ok with it..

[@juniorjames7076]

People who never watched a soap opera made plans to watch this. That was a social phenomenon, bigger than JR getting shot!!

[@hela2000]

As the World turns. The Tom and Margo vs Mr. Big

[@MelanieCravens]

I remember!

[@hela2000]

I can still hear Margo make fun of Tom's hight.

[@oliveb.]

That storyline was crazy good!

[@JepMasta]

Ooooooooh. I’ve been waiting for this!!!!! This will make the perfect watch while I do my workout today

[@prestonpfeiffer]

Kristin Alfonso is an Oscar winner of my childhood 😂😂😂😂😂😂 she really made some of the silliest,nonsensical shit so captivating. Deidre Hall too 🩵⌛️

[@nicolasimpsonkhullar986]

Omg this transported me back to adolescence. I taped GH, DOOL, AW, Y&R and SB every day! I would call a recorded phone line daily that recapped the episode just to see how they’d describe it. I shipped so many characters! Loved when Genie Francis joined DOOL as Diana. Jack and Jen. Mac and Felicia. I clipped stuff from Soap Opera Digest to put on my bedroom walls. I can’t believe it now…

[@simonseville1037]

You missed One Life To Live when Vicki and the rest of the Buchanan's went back in time to 1800's Old West like in Back to the Future 3. It was a hoot.

[@kadygirlforever]

The “island of melaswen” 😂 I lost it

[@continuallycountingchicken7338]

29:15 - I had a feeling Marlena’s possession would be on the list. When I heard about it from my mom (or saw it when I was visiting my parents), I laughed my azz off!!! 🤣😂🤣😂🤣 I think she was possessed again later. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️😂 And you mentioned it. 🤪 👿 Puking “split pea soup”?! Stoooopppp. 🤦🏻‍♀️

[@adam-l74]

As a kid I loved comic books so some of these plots seemed pretty tame to me when I would see them. Plus since my mom loved soaps I saw Dark Shadows very young too.

[@elfman5176]

Soaps were so fun My favorite One Life to Live Multiple Personalities Stealing or switching babies Acting was superb

[@erikwick]

Just the fact that the Peacock app has ZERO episodes of Passions or Sunset Beach makes me unnecessarily infuriated. They could get a whole new generation watching both of those 🦇 💩 crazy shows. We need to riot lol

[@luzluna6808]

This ought to be entertaining, our grans and/or mothers had us watching soaps. I knew Passions would make the cut😂😂😂😂

[@mysocalledgenxlife]

Passions is gonna get its own video one day! It was too much for this video. lol.

[@luzluna6808]

@@mysocalledgenxlifeI'll be watching. Passions was wild, I had to stop with the Chad fiasco but I enjoyed the first few seasons lol.

[@alyawaits]

I still watch Passions on you Tube great memories & best and weird show ever r.i.p Timmy & Julian & Rebecca rest in peace

[@kayK879]

I recall this craziness! I watched with my granny.

[@MrJstamper]

I was in high school when Marlina got possessed and i quit the debate team that year because i wouldn’t het home in time to see it when it aired, it was such a crazy storyline i was hooked .

[@DanielOrme]

The origin point for all this was the Ice Princess plot on General Hospital, which I remember vividly. I was a major soap fan back then. Luke & Laura were THE supercouple by 1980, their first plots having already broken some of the staid soap molds by bringing in elements of crime and adventure. But the Ice Princess story came right out of James Bond movies, with some sci-fi added in. After that, the soap creators realized they could make the shows whatever they wanted. The Luke/Laura rape (and it was rape. I watched that episode. It was rape) wasn't so much retconned as it was left behind, semi-buried and ignored. As months went by and the story went on, nobody talked about it or even referred to it. By the time of the wedding, everyone behaved as if it had never happened. It wasn't until decades later that the show finally dug it up, when a date rape storyline prompted Laura and Luke to finally confront it. I don't know exactly when this happened (I'd long since stopped watching the show), but I remember reading about it and how Genie Francis and Tony Geary were glad to have the characters finally deal with it, to reverse the defacto retcon.

[@LorelLa22]

This would have been the early 2000's - started watching ABC at that time because of the break room at work 😼

[@erikadlloyd5586]

The 90s was absolutely the best decade for Soaps😊 im also convinced most soap writers were on crack 😂😂😂 Oh does anybody remember Port Charles the GH spin off series? It had vampires!

[@brite1217]

The possession story was amazing and no one will ever make me think otherwise!!!

[@btetschner]

14:34 If they need to extend that outrageous storyline...PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THIS...Reva could be walking on the street and see a lost sheep walking along. After she brings the sheep back home, she sees that it can talk and walk on its back legs. The sheep explains that she is Dolly, a cloned sheep that escaped the clutches of mad scientists that wanted to exploit her ability to talk and have conversations. Dolly explains that once the mad scientists, who were initially assistant scientists, saw that Dolly could talk they faked her death and kidnapped her to do their own experiments on her outside of the view of moral scientists. The sheep Dolly tells Reva that she is the spirit of Clone Reva incarnated into a sheep. What Reva doesn't know is that Sheep Dolly is lying in order to con Reva to take her in, that she was around Reva's neighbors and heard all about her clone experiences from them. Since the neighbors didn't know she could talk (since Reva is the only one Sheep Dolly talks to), they spilled that tea about everything that happened in Reva's house without knowing there was someone listening.

[@dionnejones3835]

Soaps was so good back then

[@patriciaschiro2659]

As a guiding light watcher and Riva fan I’m so glad you went over some of her crazy storylines.

[@Vereid]

I started watching them in the early 1990s as I was born in the late 80s so I hadn’t heard of a lot of these. Wow, I always thought Passions “Hell in Charity’s closet” storyline was the most bonkers but honestly, some of these are actually even more insane and I didn’t think that was possible. Including that Ice Princess one, Pokémon Black/White 2 has a villain named Ghetsis who tries to freeze the region he is in so he can take over it….they must have got inspiration from General Hospital hahah…. My mother told me that soaps were much more down to earth back in the old days….she lied to me! She said Soaps got crazy after Marlena’s possession.

[@JLB0880]

This makes me miss my Grandma and Grandpa and watching their programs with them 🥹

[@jscheib8252]

This is the best thing I've watched in a while. Love it!!

[@LilyBecca]

It was crazy, every day, from about 11am until 4pm it was one soap opera after another. Almost every adult I knew spent their entire day watching these soaps and them jammed to have dinner ready when the hubby got home shortly after 5.

[@eddieboyky]

One Life to Live did its own time travel/Old West story as well. At one point, As the World Turns had so many actresses that were pregnant and due around the same time, that the characters were all kidnapped and imprisoned in a spa to accommodate the maternity leaves. When the characters were rescued, they had been treated with a substance that was causing them to rapidly age. To accommodate actress Allison Sweeney's maternity leave, Days of Our Lives (again) had her character Sami Brady disguise herself as a man and terrorize the town. I think those all fall within your timeframe.

[@mysocalledgenxlife]

Oh yes! I do have some of those storylines ready for the follow up. Thanks for the recommendations!

[@snackbarqueen]

My grandma watched The Young and The Restless, my mom did too, and my mom watched Another World and Days of Our Lives and by proxy, I watched them lol…of course I got hooked, how can you not 😂 I just turned 50 in May and I still can remember watching them in the early 80’s…Victor Newman was my grandma’s man ❤ I also remember me and my mom watching Santa Barbara from the first day it came on… that’s where Robin Wright got her start as Kelly Capwell 😃😃😃 Can you tell I’m a Gen Xer lmaooo OMG I FORGOT MY MAIN MAN JENSEN ACKLES aka Dean Winchester was on DOOL ❤That man is still steaming hot !!!! And oh yea, I was named after Kimberly Brady from DOOL ❤

[@mrs.creature3443]

That was a fun watch, thanks for sharing!

[@TakabIghe]

I remember some of these but the Salem stalker storyline had such a chokehold on my seventh and eighth grade years years in middle school lol. I was obsessed with that storyline. I was so mad when I had to go to school and miss a new episode! Every other month a new character was dying and I’d have to ask my mom to tape it 😂 this is right before DVR became a thing

[@stee8345]

I'm soooo glad your channel showed up in my recommendeds! Instant sub here !.🎉