Best Story Of Each Year

[Monzo]

Every year Soap Opera Digest selects the best story of the soap year. Here is an overview of the best stories in almost 40 years.

1983 Silver is an Impostor - AMC
1984 The Two Grants - GH
1985 Kay's Revenge on Jill - Y&R
1986 Sue Ellen Ewing's Alcoholism - Dallas
1987 Life at Cortlandt Manor - AMC
1988 Eden's Rape - SB
1989 The Daisy Awards - OLTL
1990 Andy's Alcoholism - ATWT
1991 Roger's Fall - GL
1992 Margo's Rape - ATWT
1993 Victor's Death - Y&R
1994 BJ's Death - GH
1995 John & Lisa's Feud - ATWT
1996 The Cassadine Saga - GH
1997 The Crash of Flight 149 - AMC
1998 Diane/Victor/Nikki - Y&R
1999 Switched at Birth - ATWT
2000 Thorne & Macy elope - B&B
2001 The Saga of Matt Clark - Y&R
2002 Brenda is Alive - GH
2003 The Human Strain - ATWT
2004 Baby Lila saves Kristina - GH
2005 Cassie dies - Y&R
2006 Zack dies - DAYS
2007 Brooke & Ridge retreated - B&B
2008 Sabrina & David's Deaths - Y&R
2009 The Baby Switch (Baby Sydney) - DAYS
2010 My Super-Psycho Ex-Girlfriend (Lisa Niles) - GH
2011 Tale of Two Todds - OLTL
2012 Stephanie's Farewell - B&B
2013 Jack is Summer's Father - Y&R
2014 Sami's Revenge (on EJ and Abby) - DAYS
2015 Maya was Myron - B&B
2016 The Baby Switch (Sharon involved) - Y&R
2017 Newman Implosion - Y&R
2018 J.T.'s Return and Murder - Y&R
2019 The Baby Switch (Baby Beth) - B&B
2020 Mike's Alzheimer's - GH
2021 Chelsea's Stroke - Y&R

Only once did the honor go to a prime time show: Sue Ellen Ewing's Alcoholism during Dallas' dream season.

The front runner is Y&R with eleven wins, five of them in the last ten years. Of the soaps that were cancelled ATWT was the most popular with six wins.

Baby Switch was selected Best Story four times. Children's death and rape storylines were also popular among SOD editors.

Do you remember any of the chosen stories as exceptionally good? Are there any stories that don't deserve the title Best Story at all?

 

[Daniel Avery]

Keep in mind these selections of "Best Story" are done by the editorial staff at SOD, a group who are easily swayed by "outside interests" rather than the more traditional measures of quality used by the Emmys or other organization. They have to sell magazines, so popular opinion will often sway their choices. The PR people for the soaps (and the individual actors) have often weaseled their way into the editors' lives, shaping all the coverage of their employers. The annual Best/Worst issue used to be much more willing to mention the "worst" parts when there were a dozen soaps to talk about, but now they're much more....soft. I fondly recall such categories as "Worst Recast," "Most Pointless Story," "Character Most In Need Of A Story," etc.

In the Best/Worst feature they've done for so long, they openly admit they have to balance the 'awards' among the shows---even if one show is head-and-shoulders above all the others, they can't (and won't) give that show any more "Best" accolades than the others. Conversely, if the show is a mess, they won't go overboard with "Worst" mentions, in an effort to "play nice". They just "adjust" the catagories somewhat to make sure everyone gets a participation trophy or three. I can see them sitting around a table coming up with 'awards' and saying things like "Well, that was a better story, but we've already given that soap three really big mentions, so let's give Best Story to that other soap, since we didn't mention them enough in the feature." That directive, more than anything else tells me we should not view their Best/Worst issue as any sort of objective review of the soap world for the year.

That said, I can only guess what 2003's "Human Strain" story was. Not very descriptive title. Could they have been talking about the Spa Girls story, where Emily, Carly, and Rose were locked in that scary "spa" where the doctor was doing rapid-aging experiments on them? 'Cause that was some whack $hit right there. In a good way. 2011's Two Todds story was a mess, but SOD was so in love with Ron Carlivati back then that it's little wonder his story got the nod.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Do you remember any of the chosen stories as exceptionally good?

I remember Cassie dying on Y&R in 2005. I was never big on spoilers so I had no idea they were writing her out. When she died, I was shocked. I just couldn’t remember many examples of kids dying on daytime. Nick and Sharon crying over her lifeless body after reading to her in the hospital is something I will never forget. But as sad as it was, it was a great storyline and very engaging.

 

[Monzo]

Best & Worst has been greatly reduced. There used to be Best, Most Improved, Most Ruined and Worst Show, but with only four soaps around how should SOD decide each year?

No idea what The Human Strain could be, never really watched ATWT. By the way, the worst story of 2003 was Ridge and Bridget's Romance on B&B, which was a really bad idea.

I've seen all of the mentioned Baby Switches except for the one on ATWT, and if anything, Days' Baby Switch was the best of them. In general, of all the baby switches I like B&B's Little Eric switch the most.

Some of the titles for Best Story make me curious. Was life that great at Cortlandt Manor? What's behind the Daisy Awards?

Only one disaster made it on the list. Was AMC's The Crash of Flight 149 that awesome?

 

[DallasFanForever]

By the way, the worst story of 2003 was Ridge and Bridget's Romance on B&B, which was a really bad idea.

I can understand this. I remember a lot of backlash over this at the time. But to tell you the truth, I really had no problem with it. I loved the chemistry between RM and JF and technically we had just found out they weren’t related anymore. Eric fathering children with Brooke actually bothered me more considering his prior relationship with her mother.

 

[Monzo]

I didn't mind that Bridget had a crush on him, but it was strange that Ridge replied, but on the other hand Taylor got involved with Rick and the audience wasn't appalled.

 

[Monzo]

Here is an overview of the worst stories, but SOD didn't pick a worst story every year.

1987 The Alphabet Wars - GH
1988 Sean Rowan's Revenge - Dynasty
1990 From Bad to Badderly - OLTL
1991 Eden's Personalities - SB
1992 John Black's Identity - DAYS
1995 Lost In Cyberspace - AMC
1996 Roger's Gaslighting - GL
1997 Patrick is a Terrorist - OLTL
1998 Michelle's Blindness - GL
1999 Psychic Espionage - PC
2001 Gillian In Purgatory - AMC
2002 Proteus - AMC
2003 Ridge and Bridget's "Romance" - B&B
2004 The Santis - OLTL
2005 Jamie wants to be a Doctor - AMC
2006 Greg in a Coffin - AMC
2008 Mendorra - OLTL
2009 Llanview High - OLTL
2011 Chloe's a Prostitute - DAYS
2012 Liam's Indecision - B&B
2013 Sex Trafficking - AMC
2014 Devon/Hilary/Neil - Y&R
2015 Serena and the Elephant - DAYS
2016 Chase rapes Ciara - DAYS
2017 The Chimera - GH
2018 Oscar's Illness - GH
2020 Adam killed A.J. - Y&R

 

[DallasFanForever]

1996 Roger's Gaslighting - GL

I remember this one vividly. This is when GL was starting to go off the rails for me and was becoming almost cartoon-like. I think a lot of what they were doing at this point was purely out of desperation.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I've seen all of the mentioned Baby Switches except for the one on ATWT,

I think this was the story where David Stenbeck stole Lily Snyder's baby and replaced it with Denise's. It wasn't all that original, but ATWT was much more into the psychological and emotional implications of the switched babies rather than the shock value and screaming/yelling we usually see in these stories. I can't recall the way it was explained away, but I distinctly remember that Denise was black, and Lily and Holden were white. How would the Snyders not notice that baby Hope looked nothing like them?

What's behind the Daisy Awards?

OLTL had a long-running storyline involving Fraternity Row, their "soap within a soap" (several characters worked on the soap opera, allowing a lot of in-jokes and observations). They decided to take the mocking/self-reverential experiences a step further by staging a mock "Daytime Emmys" ceremony, only in their world it was "The Daisy Awards" (as in "Day"-sy). It had all the backstabbing, upstaging, bad production numbers and egos of a real Daytime award event, and the critics were in love.

 

[cijimccashin]

I seen and heard of most of storylines on the “Best of” list and loved a lot them.

Some of the titles for Best Story make me curious. Was life that great at Cortlandt Manor? What's behind the Daisy Awards?

Only one disaster made it on the list. Was AMC's The Crash of Flight 149 that awesome?

Yes lol, life was awesomely soapy at Cortlandt manor. The hot and steamy affair between Ross Chandler and his father’s new young bride Natalie leads to a night of rape, and tears up two marriages. A young teen learns who her real mother is, and before she runs away to New York. she witness her father committing the rape and we wait patiently for her arrival during the big trail! A lot of these episodes were so action packed like a prime time show.

I honestly would Replace the daisy awards with AMC’s Brooke-Adam-Dixie gaslighting saga. It’s best story the shows ever did.

For the 149 Plane crash, it was pretty good in the beginning. And it Julia Barr who plays Brooke English her finest acting hour IMO. It was one of the first times CGI was used well on a soap and the episode is iconic for finally helping “AMC” get a best show win at the Emmy’s. As popular as the show was, they always got overlooked at the award shows IMO.

2013 Sex Trafficking - AMC

Lies!!! Not only was this a gripping, engaging, true to life tale it was a daytime first. Maybe it made the list because of how dark it was.

 

[Monzo]

Santa Barbara had Best Story in 1988 and Worst Story just three years later, both plots revolving around Eden. I am still stunned how quickly Santa Barbara went bad. I stopped watching SB sometime in the early 90s, but if I had known it was going to be cancelled soon, I would have at least tried to watch it till the end.

All of the 12 worst stories I've actually watched deserve to be the worst, even if in hindsight I would have enjoyed the Devon/Hilary/Neil triangle more had I known it was Kristoff St. John's last big storyline.

 

[jhen1984]

What was the Lost in Cyberspace storyline on AMC in 1995?

 

[Monzo]

What was the Lost in Cyberspace storyline on AMC in 1995?

Unfortunately, I have no idea because I didn't watch AMC on a regular basis. I checked my Soap Opera Digest collection, but I have no issues from 1995, so no weekly recaps from that time either.

Maybe someone who actually watched AMC in 1995 knows what this "Lost in Cyberspace" headline means...

 

[cijimccashin]

What was the Lost in Cyberspace storyline on AMC in 1995?

Its referring to the horrible storyline of Cecily and Charlie Martin starting a online romance on a dating chat room. The original"You Got Mail".

 

[jillybean78]

I remember this one vividly. This is when GL was starting to go off the rails for me and was becoming almost cartoon-like. I think a lot of what they were doing at this point was purely out of desperation.

This is also when the amazing Zaslow started experiencing his ALS, which makes it so much worse. He deserved so much more than GL gave him that year!

 

[DallasFanForever]

This is also when the amazing Zaslow started experiencing his ALS, which makes it so much worse. He deserved so much more than GL gave him that year!

It was a sad ending for Michael. Roger was quite possibly the greatest character in the history of Springfield. Whether you loved him or you hated him, he was the reason a lot of fans watched and Michael always played that character perfectly. He really seemed to enjoy it.