Daytime television's 2012 was a soap opera of its own, featuring heartbreaking loss (we will never fully be over the loss of One Life to Live, will we?), a rekindled love affair (if people were still using Trapper Keepers, ours would be emblazoned with "I Heart GH!") and a twist that neither of us saw coming when we sat down to work on our annual Best and Worst list.
"I...think we might actually have more bests than worst."
"I think you're right. And actually, I have another best to add to the list..."
That has never happened before! Oh, sure, it wasn't a perfect year and we have a lot to complain about (please read on!), but usually, our Bests are sarcastic and contain nuggets of misery within the ostensible compliment, so this is a brand new experience for us. If 2013 continues this trend, we may need to change our tagline to "We don't mock soaps and our feelings are hurt by people who do".
Let's take a look back at the year that was...
Best Exit
Kimberly McCullough as Robin, General Hospital
Nobody was sadder than we to lose the amazing Kimberly McCullough, but we suppose that if she had to leave, at least she was given the most excellent exit of the year. Her “death” was heart-breaking—to spend so many months worrying that she would die from complications with her HIV and then have her die in a hospital explosion was such a shock, and McCullough absolutely killed us with her final scenes before the explosion at the hospital.
Months later, and we’re still tearing up at the very thought of the gutted goodbyes she shared with Patrick.
The ensuing fallout, from Patrick’s deep grief and momentary pill addiction — how amazing was Jason Thompson? — to her flashback filled funeral, was nearly perfect. Except for one glaring flaw: the absence of Robert Scorpio, which was the year’s He would NEVER do that! Moment. Would Robert, even crazy with grief, ever willingly skip out on his daughter’s funeral to chase Ethan? No! He would not, and we’re not saying that just because Ethan is terrible (even though he is). Newly-discovered son or no, Robert would be there for his granddaughter and for Anna, and would NEVER cheerfully leave town on an adventure. We can only hope that Tristan Rogers’s upcoming return rights that boneheaded wrong.
Worst Exit
Ronn Moss, The Bold & the Beautiful
We can't lie. Ridge Forrester and his scarves were never really our favorites. But the fact remains that Ronn Moss was the leading man on this show from its very first episode and throughout its entire twenty-five years. Such feats should at least be acknowledged. But B&B's way to mark his departure from the series was to give him and Brooke a ten-minute living-room wedding ceremony and then have his new (again) bride return to town without him, explaining that he'd abandoned her, his family (including his terminally ill mother), and his company... all because she lied to him about a couple of freakin' text messages from Deacon. Ultimately, not only did they not bother to give him a decent send-off with a few reflections and flashbacks, they milked a lead character's absence for ABSOLUTELY NO DRAMA AT ALL. God forbid a missing or presumed-dead Ridge might take a little focus off a tedious love triangle among a gaggle of post-adolescents.
Seriously, couldn't they have at least done a "Ridge's scarves through time" flashback montage??
Best New…Well, “New” Character
Todd Manning, General Hospital
With OLTL regrettably over and the show’s powers-that-be headed to GH, it was only a matter of time before some of Llanview’s finest made their way to Port Charles and luckily for all of us, Todd Manning was them and he is, by far, the best "new" character on daytime this year. His sense of humor (Roger Howarth’s ease with zingers would make some veteran sitcom actors jealous) and chemistry with Carly and Sonny (and Sam and basically anybody he happens to interact with) make him endlessly watchable, even when the choices he makes—teaming up with Heather Webber and embroiling himself deeper and deeper in the massive lie about Sam’s son—boggle the mind.
Worst History Rewrite
Franco and Jason, Twinsies!, General Hospital
As good as GH has become at diving into its legacy, all uses of history aren’t so great and the worst history rewrite in 2012—nay, in recent memory!—was the decision to randomly decide that, oh, Susan Moore actually gave birth to twins and one of the twins was Franco. Sure, it was a way to link Jason forever with his sworn enemy, but wouldn’t that have led to greater storyline potential when Franco was actually alive?! Not to mention that there is something fantastically distasteful about making that horrible sociopath (and complete waste of airtime. We’re bitter) the son of Alan Quartermaine. Why must we punish that family so much? Wasn’t the systematic writing off of most members of the family enough?