Deep Soap: Revisionist History

By Sara A. Bibel
Fancast.com

Renowned soap writer Douglas Marland once said that all story cones from backstory. Great stories spring from throwing characters with decades of conflict together in unexpected ways. Every conversation that two longtime characters have should be based upon their history. That’s why viewers smile in anticipation whenever The Young & The Restless’s Victor and Jack or All My Children’s Erica and Adam cross paths. Sometimes soaps decide that the best way to generate new story is to change the show’s history. Fans call it retconning.

As a writer and viewer, I have mixed feelings about it. Retconning is responsible for some of my favorite stories including: Todd Manning is actually a Lord, One Life To Live, and Erica has a long lost daughter named Kendall on AMC. It’s also responsible for some of my least favorite stories, like undoing Erica’s groundbreaking abortion storyline to give her a medically impossible long lost son and deciding that Jessica had been forced into child pornography on OLTL.

Successful retcons, in my opinion, don’t contradict what viewers have seen on screen. Todd was originally supposed to be a short term villain. Thanks to then-portrayer Roger Howarth’s brilliant performance, the show decided to keep him on longterm. Ironically, the show’s then-headwriter Michael Malone did not realize that Victor Lord had once had an affair with a character named Irene Manning. His lack of knowledge of the show’s history actually helped create the story. Fans wondered if there was a connection between Todd and the original Mannings. It was not a stretch for the show to claim that Irene got pregnant as the result of the affair and gave the baby to relatives to raise. Kevin on Y&R became Michael’s brother in a similar way. Brought on to play a small role, Greg Rikaart was so good that the show couldn’t bear to part with him. He had the good fortune to look like he could be Christian LeBlanc’s brother. Though he’d been on the show for years, Michael’s past had never been explored. Bam! Michael had a very screwed up little brother. I suspect the writers decided that Chloe was actually Kate Valentine for similar reasons. The vast majority of viewers responded positively to these storylines. They integrated new characters into the fabric of the show while giving new story to veterans.

In contrast, the Josh and Jessica storylines undid prior story. Viewers were asked to believe that when they saw Erica have an abortion in 1973 in what was by all accounts a realistic social issue storyline, the doctor was an evil genius who implanted the fetus in his wife’s uterus. Setting aside the medical impossibility of the plot, the storyline told viewers that the show’s established history was a lie. It also managed to be offensive no matter what a viewer’s opinion was about abortion – quite a feat. The Jessica storyline was similarly problematic. I remembered watching Jessica have a happy childhood, raised by loving parents. It was impossible for me to believe that during this idyllic time in her life, her mother Viki’s alternate personality Nikki would allow her to be horrifically abused. I was watching. It didn’t happen. Both of these stories altered back story in an attempt to justify their current storylines. OLTL wanted to come up with a reason why Jessica would have a split personality. AMC wanted to give Erica a long lost son and a man who was obsessed with her.

Since all medical studies indicate that multiple personalities only occur as the result of extreme child abuse, Jessica should not have had a split personality. If the goal was to give her a different personality that would propel her into a relationship with Nash, Jessica could have had any of a number of biologically based mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder. Jessica could still behaved in a way that was “out of character,” meeting Nash while in a manic state. Viki could have wondered if her own medical history was responsible for Jessica’s illness – though it would have turned out not to be.

I don’t think there was any way to give Erica a second long lost child. She’s been on-screen continuously since 1970. Since her character is supposed to be a celebrity, she could have a stalker who believed she was the mother of his child, but it couldn’t be true. As much as I loved the Kendall storyline, the show was pushing it to claim that two years before Erica was introduced as a headstrong, ambitious teenager she had been raped, gave up the baby, and never thought about it again. It didn’t contradict history, but it was improbable. AMC also had to alter the original their original plans to make Kendall a teenager because viewers complained the timeline made no sense. Kendall has to be born prior to 1970 for the stories to work. Thankfully, Sarah Michelle Gellar managed to pull off playing a character in her mid-twenties when she was only sixteen. If a show can’t make a story fit with the show’s existing history, then the story should change.

Women’s Issues – A Hot Topic Everywhere But Soaps

Women’s issues are big news right now. All over the nation, people are talking about how soon women with high-powered careers should go back to work after having a baby, the challenges of raising a child with special needs, and equal pay laws. Any one of these would make a great springboard for a soap storyline. Days of Our Lives Steve and Kayla could have grappled with what to do when Kayla’s pre-natal tests indicated that their baby could have a medical problem. As older parents, it would have been a believable storyline, far more probable than Guiding Light’s Reva—who has recently played both menopause and breast cancer storylines — accidentally getting pregnant. It would be refreshing to see any new Mom on a soap actually have time management issues instead of having a 24/7 nanny. Soaps often do stories about paternity, but rarely show characters parenting. A couple could have realistic conflicts about sharing child rearing responsibilities equally or whether the woman should “opt out” of her job now that they’ve had a baby. (That issue nearly drove Neil and Dru apart on Y&R back in the 90s.) Heather on Y&R could discover that she’s being paid less than the male Assistant District Attorneys in Genoa City and fight to rectify the situation. These storylines used to be the bread and butter of soaps. They don’t require special effects or fancy sets. They’ve largely been replaced by sensationalistic plots. The occasional attempts to address them, such as DOOL’s current autism storyline, usually play like dry Public Service Announcements. Meanwhile, Lifetime’s Army Wives, which mines the drama of women dealing with relatively realistic issues, is a huge hit. Daytime might do well to write a few stories that actually reflect its viewers lives.