Favourite soap funerals?

[Willie Oleson]

This one from Falcon Crest is rather short and to the point, not too many tears, and yet they managed to create a very poignant scene.

There are others, sometimes hilarious, sometimes outrageous...but who got buried the best, by soap standards?

 

[Richard Channing]

Falcon Crest did have some particularly good funerals. I guess with the death toll being as high as it was there was bound to be some good ones. Season 2 ended with shots being fired at the wedding reception and then we saw a coffin being lowered into the ground. So, we knew someone was dead, but who? The start of season 3 draws out the suspense just that little bit longer, as one by one we see who is in attendance at the funeral and therefore not in the grave. And then they trick us into believing it must be Chase who is deceased as he is nowhere to be seen. As turns out he was also shot but it was his mother who was killed.

Other notable FC funerals were Terry's funeral, where her husband Richard is arrested for shooting Chase (shot again!) and when Kit Marlowe shows up in a limo at her own funeral.

 

[Alexis]

Dynasty was the absolute worst at funerals. If you even got gone at all. Poor Claudia.

 

[Willie Oleson]

If you even got gone at all

Only the ones who didn't die.

They're bad cryers, aren't they. Except Lindsay, she was the best!

 

[Richard Channing]

Only the ones who didn't die.

They're bad cryers, aren't they. Except Lindsay, she was the best!

Was the title of Fallon's funeral episode 'Bitch'??
I know she had her moments but that's a bit harsh.

 

[Richard Channing]

They're bad cryers, aren't they.

Yes, especially Steven! Krystle's was the most convincing.

 

[Alexis]

It's perfectly fitting that DYNASTY would chose to burry the living though isn't it?

 

[Alexis]

Yes, especially Steven! Krystle's was the most convincing.

Wow... Steven looked like he was getting a rectal probe.

 

[Alexis]

And who gave LB that daisy? lol Where are the long stem red roses flown in from London?

 

[Willie Oleson]

Was the title of Fallon's funeral episode 'Bitch'??
I know she had her moments but that's a bit harsh.

Rumour has it that DYNASTY was a very bitchy show.

 

[Jason73]

Emmerdale teased us for a week last year, showing snippets of a funeral during a disaster week (a massive car crash started when Emma Barton sort of accidentally pushed her fiancee, James, off of an overpass)--not revealing who had died until the end of the week. I like the gloomy aesthetic of the rain and cold and the umbrellas.

 

[Don Howard]

Wow... Steven looked like he was getting a rectal probe.

From the ghost of Ted Dinard.

 

[Daniel Avery]

On As The World Turns, the evil, evil, evil David Stenbeck ended up dead and...well....turnout for the funeral was sparse. Still, quality over quantity.
He was one of these villains who kept being presumed dead, then turning up to wreak more havoc, so the women he did wrong had to make sure he was really dead this time, right?

Unfortunately, the clip leaves out the best part!

Spoiler

Right after this clip ends, Julia Lindsey (the woman we last saw) decides to be totally sure he's dead and unloads a revolver full of bullets into the corpse lying in the casket! Thus begins Julia's very entertaining descent into madness.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Dynasty was the absolute worst at funerals. If you even got gone at all. Poor Claudia.

Yes, a good funeral requires perspective. And DYNASTY, y'know, didn't really have that after the first couple of seasons.

I thought Ted Dinard's funeral was good, even though it wasn't a family member and only Fallon and Steven were in attendance. (Those palm trees in the ditance drive me crazy, as they are not indigenous to the Dakotas, god knows -- but that's not their fault; you couldn't digitally remove a palm tree back in 1981).

Yes, especially Steven! Krystle's was the most convincing.

Linda was allowed to downplay it presumably because she wasn't asked to do anything in the scene. As a result, I always thought the final fade-out scene should have been Krystle blinking away tears (as only Linda can) but that probably wasn't scene as logical given the event.

Jeff's "you bitch" never made much sense except as raging -- yet stilted -- melodrama. But I guess if Bobby Ewing always moped poutily for himself whenever his betrothed were serially kidnapped, so can Jeff.

Wow... Steven looked like he was getting a rectal probe.

We were already dubbing fake dialogue onto DALLAS and DYNASTY by this time, and we had Steven spontaneously ejaculating at his sister's funeral, for whatever odd reason.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

(...) but that probably wasn't scene as logical given the event.

I don't think that's properly spelled a "s-c-e-n-e". I must have typed the F-word and then something else popped up.

 

[Willie Oleson]

On As The World Turns, the evil, evil, evil David Stenbeck ended up dead and

I just knew you'd remember something outrageously soap-y!

Jeff's "you bitch" never made much sense except as raging -- yet stilted -- melodrama

This scene screams out for emotional turmoil, but when an actor only says the words, and no-one and nothing else moves...it can't work!
It's awkward, but for all the wrong reasons, and I rate it as one of Dynasty's worst scenes.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Outrageously Soapy is my middle name. :thank:

So on One Life to Live, everyone is on edge because the town's psycho villain, Mitch Laurence, is on the loose after killing Jared, the husband of heiress Natalie Buchanan, as part of a decades-long feud with the Buchanan family. The family gathers to mourn Jared. Believe me, you'll want to watch this, though it starts kind of slow.
* Note how the "widow" Natalie has a laundry-list of exes who came back from the dead, and how she thinks there's nothing wrong with asking God to bring Jared back, too---it's just par for the soap course to have your dead spouse come back.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Oooooh! Everyone's slept with him! The sluts.
And isn't it interesting that the villain always knows the town's dark secrets?

 

[Jessie]

I would say JR Ewing's funeral was touching because Larry Hagman passed away, and watching the funeral was touching, and it was sad seeing the end to a popular character but also the great actor who portrayed him. You could see doing the funeral scenes must have been so hard for the cast after Larry's death. Linda Gray got up to speak it made me cry.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I would say JR Ewing's funeral was touching because Larry Hagman passed away, and watching the funeral was touching, and it was sad seeing the end to a popular character but also the great actor who portrayed him. You could see doing the funeral scenes must have been so hard for the cast after Larry's death. Linda Gray got up to speak it made me cry.

Yes, when a character dies because the actor has died always feels like a double whammy
I can imagine how difficult it must have been for the cast, especially Linda Gray.