Soap storylines that were scrapped or amended

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

EastEnders has a fair few storylines that were either cut short or didn't even make out of the writers room, a few of these were:

- Pete Beale's death in Xmas 1985 or 86

- An IRA bomb explosion which would've killed one of the Butcher kids and Pete Beale (TPTB must've really been desperate to axe him) in the early 90s

- Den Watts was supposed to have returned in late 1991, but Leslie Grantham turned the producers down

- There was going to be a big court case surrounding Den's murder in 2006 but the actresses who played Chrissy, Sam and Zoe had all moved on to other commitments by then.

-Suzy Branning was supposed to have been the one to have killed Danielle and married Archie Mitchell in 2009, obviously due to the actress playing her was axed, these storylines were given to Janine Butcher instead.

In other soaps, I recall back in 2008-09 in Emmerdale Daz and Victoria -who were adopted siblings - were going to be in a love square with Aaron Dingle and Scarlett King, with Victoria ending up pregnant with Daz's baby, however due to Luke Tittensor (Daz) getting into trouble he was axed in 2009, cutting the storyline much earlier than planned

The biggest blunder was of course Michelle Connor having taken hone the wrong son in Coronation street which was quietly dropped of course.

What other scrapped or amended storylines were there?

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The suicide bid of Sheila Birtles in Corrie was the first one to spring to mind for me.

It was amended after the story was leaked and stirred up some controversy. As shown, she just appeared to have gone off into a trance while everyone around her overreacted.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

The attempted suicide of Sheila Birtles in Corrie was the first one to spring to mind for me.

It was amended after the story was leaked and stirred up some controversy. As shown, she just appeared to have gone off into a trance while everyone around her overreacted.

And wasn't Emily Nugent supposed to have had an illegitimate child in her late 30s, having lost her virginity around 1967/68?

I know alot of planned storylines in EastEnders were thrown in the bin in 2004, because a new producer decided they didn't like them?

 

[emm1978]

There was to be a 6 episode blockbuster in Emmerdale Farm in 1988/89 where Annie Sugden thought she might have breast cancer and then discovering her lump was benign. Instead they went with a tranquilliser addiction storyline.

 

[emm1978]

I also heard there was going to be a plane crash in Emmerdale in 1988, but it was abandoned because of the real-life Lockerbie disaster. However this storyline finally went ahead in 1993.

I've never understood why people call it a Lockerbie-Style disaster anyway. Lockerbie was a terrorist attack, whereas the Emmerdale plane crash wasn't.

 

[emm1978]

I write about my views on storylines throughout the 80s and 90s in my new book, coming soon!!! Don't have an exact release date yet though.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

I also heard there was going to be a plane crash in Emmerdale in 1988, but it was abandoned because of the real-life Lockerbie disaster. However this storyline finally went ahead in 1993.

I've never understood why people call it a Lockerbie-Style disaster anyway. Lockerbie was a terrorist attack, whereas the Emmerdale plane crash wasn't.

The Plane crash storyline airing five years earlier than what eventually transpired, wow I wonder who would've been killed off has it aired in 1988? probably one of the Merrick siblings, since they were on their way out in 1989 anyway, maybe even Matt Skilbeck would've been killed off too.
I can't imagine them killing Archie off at that stage, clearly this was just an alternate idea of revamping Emmerdale since it was going through that in 1988-89.

Rachel and Jack were actually supposed to have gotten married in the late 90s but the actors weren't comfortable with this idea as Jack was Rachel's step-uncle, though they still had a short lived affair it was scrapped and forgotten about.

Kim was supposed to have actually have died in the car crash in early 1997, but the producers changed their mind persuaded Clair King to return.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

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I write about my views on storylines throughout the 80s and 90s in my new book, coming soon!!! Don't have an exact release date yet though.

Congrats on your book!

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I've never understood why people call it a Lockerbie-Style disaster anyway. Lockerbie was a terrorist attack, whereas the Emmerdale plane crash wasn't.

From the point of view of Emmerdale, the people on the ground would have been affected in the same way regardless of the cause of the plane coming down. The devastation in the village mirrored that of the people of Lockerbie. With those events relatively recent and certainly very much in the public consciousness at the time, the parallels - and complaints - were inevitable. I dare say that crossed the minds of Redmond and the writing team too.

It did what they set out to do in terms of grabbing ratings and headlines, but I've never thought it in particularly good taste.

 

[emm1978]

There's not a time of year you can do a disaster storyline without risk of offending some people. I've always wondered, why people watched a programme they knew was going to feature a plane crash. It's like losing a relative in a shipping disaster and then watching Titanic.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

From the point of view of Emmerdale, the people on the ground would have been affected in the same way regardless of the cause of the plane coming down. The devastation in the village mirrored that of the people of Lockerbie. With those events relatively recent and certainly very much in the public consciousness at the time, the parallels - and complaints - were inevitable. I dare say that crossed the minds of Redmond and the writing team too.

It did what they set out to do in terms of grabbing ratings and headlines, but I've never thought it in particularly good taste.

Regardless of how much in bad taste it was (which it was considering the fifth anniversary of Lockerbie had been a few days earlier) The Plane Crash storyline changed how soaps worked in this country for decades to come, a landmark event in British tv you could say.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

There's not a time of year you can do a disaster storyline without risk of offending some people.

True. Some storylines are always going to be triggering for people and there's often no way of predicting that. It's when controversy becomes the driving force that it becomes problematic. But that's the nature of the beast, I suppose.

I've always wondered, why people watched a programme they knew was going to feature a plane crash. It's like losing a relative in a shipping disaster and then watching Titanic.

Well yes. Watching something that I know is going to make my blood pressure rise seems futile. Though I suspect many of the complaints in this case came from people who didn't watch but were aware of the storyline because of the headlines.

The Plane Crash storyline changed how soaps worked in this country for decades to come

It did indeed.

 

[Englishboy]

In Prisoner cell block h, Joan Ferguson was to have had a physical relationship with a man she'd met whilst dancing.

Acrtress, Maggie Kirpatrick reputedly threatened to quit on the grounds that such a storyline would have been a complete betrayal of her lesbian character.

She also reportedly felt that her character would recoil in horror at any pastime involving physical contact such as dancing.

As a result, the scripts were hurriedly changed and Andrew Hinton became a platonic friend whom Joan met whilst playing golf and the dancing lessons became driving lessons.

 

[emm1978]

Emergency Ward 10 was actually the first British Soap to do a plane crash, on 21st February 1966... Over 26 years before Emmerdale did one.

Such a shame this episode hasn't survived in the ITV archives, would have been interesting to see.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

The murder of Den Watts and the aftermath must have been changed, as I recall weren't Zoe's lines given to Kat and Stacy because Michelle Ryan left in the middle of the storyline?

 

[LEEJ88]

Hollyoaks were gonna reveal that Loretta had killed someone when she was younger along with her friend echoing the James Bulger case but cause of the controversy Hollyoaks scrapped the storyline.