Children running away

[juschill]

Watching season 8. I enjoyed season 8 but it lost steam around the time Ben’s mother shows up.

Episode 16 Michael decides to run away.

All the three CBS shows (FC, Dallas, KL) would have a child running away as a regular occurrence. Joseph runs away. John Ross. Christopher. Little Bobby Ewing in Knots Landing. I believe Meg too.

They always insisted on saddling these characters who could be grandparents (JR, Richard, Maggie, Karen and Mack, Gary and Val) with young children. Not a good fit or a good story. Then at some point they have them run away when they need some filler.

The writers across the shows must have attended the same symposium.

 

[Arlene Halloran]

I can't recall where Joseph ran away to. I'm sure though it wasn't Falcon Crest.

 

[juschill]

I can't recall where Joseph ran away to. I'm sure though it wasn't Falcon Crest.

No, he ran away from the Agretti mansion where Cole and Melissa were fighting to the Gioberti mansion. How this little boy found his way there, on feet, is beyond me.

 

[Abby's Worst Nightmare]

No, he ran away from the Agretti mansion where Cole and Melissa were fighting to the Gioberti mansion. How this little boy found his way there, on feet, is beyond me.

Maybe Apollo came back to guide him lol

 

[Daniel Avery]

Olivia Cunningham (KL) did it a few times, too. But I can see why it was a plot device across all the soaps, since the producers, writers, and directors all seemed to move from show to show during their respective runs. The pre-teen soap kids had no real value to the show since they were too old for baby switch stories but too young to stage hostile takeovers. What else was there to do except run away? On daytime soaps they'd be that quiet, nerdy kid packed off to summer camp for a month and return ten years older, all hot and sexy, ready to turn mom and dad's life upside down.

 

[Witchard Changeling]

And let's not forget getting kidnapped. Nearly all the soap kids got kidnapped at some point.

 

[Abby's Worst Nightmare]

Olivia Cunningham (KL) did it a few times, too.

Thank god she did! Otherwise we never would have got Lilimae telling her that "hussies like you don't deserve children!"

 

[Daniel Avery]

Pot was definitely calling out Kettle.

 

[Abby's Worst Nightmare]

Pot was definitely calling out Kettle.

Completely!

 

[C Rose]

And let's not forget getting kidnapped. Nearly all the soap kids got kidnapped at some point.

In season 6, both Richard’s and Maggie’s infant sons were kidnapped. The writers got lazy indeed.

 

[C Rose]

Watching season 8. I enjoyed season 8 but it lost steam around the time Ben’s mother shows up.

Episode 16 Michael decides to run away.

All the three CBS shows (FC, Dallas, KL) would have a child running away as a regular occurrence. Joseph runs away. John Ross. Christopher. Little Bobby Ewing in Knots Landing. I believe Meg too.

They always insisted on saddling these characters who could be grandparents (JR, Richard, Maggie, Karen and Mack, Gary and Val) with young children. Not a good fit or a good story. Then at some point they have them run away when they need some filler.

The writers across the shows must have attended the same symposium.

When I watched Falcon Crest during its original run I was teenager and still thought it was ridiculous that Richard and Maggie both had children that late in life. Back in the 80s people had children much earlier in life. Today it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Richard’s vasectomy which was plot point in season 3 suddenly was ineffective? Maggie who was grandmother having a child was kind of a cringe. It would have made more sense for the younger generation Cole, Melissa, Vicky or Lance to have actually have children. All their attempts led to miscarriages or the mother leaving town in Cole’s case.