SoapLand - The Battle Of The Illnesses - The Result

[Richard Channing]

Even the residents of Soapland were not immune to the occasional illness or medical condition. So, which were your favourite storylines centering around an illness?

Just to be clear about what will be included and what won't. Addictions or nervous breakdowns/mental illnesses won't be included. Neither will physical injuries sustained after and accident, shooting etc. However, complications or conditions resulting from such incidents are eligible. So for example blindness, a coma, or amnesia etc. is fine. Also, it doesn't need to be an ongoing condition, so something like a heart attack is also eligible.


Any further questions please consult your physician or healthcare professional.

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[Toni]

Even the residents of Soapland were not immune to the occasional illness or medical condition. So, which were your favourite storylines centering around an illness?

Just to be clear about what will be included and what won't. Addictions or nervous breakdowns/mental illnesses won't be included. Neither will physical injuries sustained after and accident, shooting etc. However, complications or conditions resulting from such incidents are eligible. So for example blindness, a coma, or amnesia etc. is fine. Also, it doesn't need to be an ongoing condition, so something like a heart attack is also eligible.


Any further questions please consult your physician or healthcare professional.

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Can you explain it with pictures...?

 

[Richard Channing]

Can you explain it with pictures...?

View attachment 20736​

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[Toni]

1- Leukemia (Mark Graison, Dallas Seasons 6-8)

2- Colon Cancer (Val Ewing, Knots Season 2)

3- Amnesia (Maggie Gioberti, Falcon Crest Season 5)

4- Temporary Blindness (Bobby Ewing, Dallas Season 7)

5- Neurofibromatosis (Digger Barnes, Dallas Season 2)

 

[Willie Oleson]

Let's see who has the nerve to vote for Val's season 12 brain virus!

 

[Angela Channing]

1. Ellie's Mastectomy - Ellie finds a lump in her breast and has to have a mastectomy. Great performances from Babs and Jim as the drama played out.

2. Maggie's brain tumour which was making her blind. There was a great scene when Angela visits her in hospital to wish her well and there was genuine warmth and even love towards Maggie that you often didn't she Angela display.

3. Diana's kidney failure which eventually leads to Abby donating a kidney to save her.

4. Skipper is blinded - Titus (who else?) plants a bomb at Elmo's newspaper to prevent a story being published which will scupper his plans to legalise gambling in Truro. Skipper gets blinded when it goes off.

5. Jock has a heart attack - I love the theatrical way is which he collapses.

 

[Richard Channing]

Let's see who has the nerve to vote for Val's season 12 brain virus!

Paging Dr. Daniel Avery.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Never, ever....never ever-ever-ever....

 

[Willie Oleson]

1. Jeff Colby's illness caused by the poisonous paint - DYNASTY

2. Ruth Galveston's off-screen illness which was used as a plot device to introduce the sexy-nasty Alex Barth - KNOTS LANDING

3. Greg Sumner's illness caused by the Oakman chemicals. Claudia schemed and manipulated to get him a new liver otherwise he'd die without leaving her anything - KNOTS LANDING

4. Skipper blinded after the bombing in the Clarion office. Maybe it's a strange thing to say but I think it suited this character, like the blind characters in LHOTP - FLAMINGO ROAD

5. Eric Fairgate's arsenic poisoning, courtesy of Paul Galveston and Gary Ewing - KNOTS LANDING

 

[Jessie]

1. Miss Ellie’s mastectomy on Dallas

2. Jock’s heart attack

3. Pam’s miscarriage on Dallas

4. Digger Barnes neurofibromatosis, an inherited genetic condition.

5. Mickey being paralyzed after a car accident with Sue Ellen being drunk. It later had Ray pull the plug on Mickey who begged him to do it.

6. Bobby blindness

7. Laura Avery brain tumour storyline on Knots Landing.

8. Diane Fairgate kidney failure which her Aunt Abby donated a kidney to save her. Knots Landing

9. Dusty plane crash which we thought he died. We later realized he survived the plane crash but he was paralyzed .

10. Valene Ewing’s colon cancer -Knots Landing

Honourable mention, I know your not including addictions but I thought these two had big storylines.

Sue Ellen’s alcohol addiction it was a big part of her character throughout the series. Dallas

Olivia Cunningham’s drug addiction
Knots Landing

 

[Victoriafan3]

JR, in this screen shot, looks like he has his hair tied up in a bun. Jock looks like he’s taking his son’s new do badly

 

[Jock Og]

1) Ellie's breast cancer and subsequent mastectomy - DALLAS.

2) Maggie suffers from amnesia - FALCON CREST.

3) Appendicitis hospitalised John Ross - DALLAS.

4) Jock gets a heart attack - DALLAS.

5) A coma puts Angela out of the action - FALCON CREST.

 

[Daniel Avery]

1. Diana's kidney failure, KL. Claudia Lonow didn't play it like some brave, 1940s heroine--she played it like annoying, self-centered Diana Fairgate. The dramatic ripping-the-IV-from-her-arm scene played more like a temper tantrum than a cry for help. Abby's Choice to donate her kidney was played exactly how Abby should have acted--selfishly focusing on her own health for a bit too long before finally doing the right thing. Abby cutting Karen off at the knees as Karen tried to thank her was the icing on the cake.

2. Laura's brain tumor, KL. It should have been #1, but the writers didn't want to give CM the chance to really play it. The decision to have Laura leave before we saw the effects of the tumor meant the story was more about those who were left behind, not about the character who got sick. Giving CM the bum's rush out the door hurt what could have been a last chance to show what they were missing out on by firing her...which was likely why they staged it like that in the first place.

3. Paige's paralysis/recovery, KL. I admit I had never considered Nicollette Sheridan to be much of an actress until this storyline, where Paige rallied back from her situation without the usual cold/remote act and showed the vulnerability that a character on Knots Landing ought to show more often.

4.

Val's one-and-done colon cancer episode, KL. If they had done this during the serialized era, it might have been a much more gripping, season-long story. But for what it was, they hit all the high points, not only for Val but for Gary, Karen, and even guest-star Bobby.​

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5. Eric's arsenic poisoning, KL. It was clever to use Eric, a character they rarely used for...well, anything to drive home the real effects of the problems at Empire Valley/Lotus Point, since he was closely related to two of the three main partners at LP. It put a face on what was mostly an off-camera 'crisis'.​

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An honorable mention to Michael's ADHD diagnosis on KL , and a DIS-honorable mention to Val's Brain Virus! ​

 

[Willie Oleson]

the writers didn't want to give CM the chance to really play it. The decision to have Laura leave before we saw the effects of the tumor meant the story was more about those who were left behind, not about the character who got sick

Any kind of plot device is fine with me, but an illness storyline for no other reason than to show an ill person, no matter how wonderfully acted and filmed, is not really my cup of tea.
It's one of the few or maybe the only realities that doesn't really work in the soap genre imho.
Faking blindness or parlysis is awesome, of course. I love the fakers!

A character's delicate condition is often used as a handicap for the other characters i.e. they have to find a way to continue their shenanigans without upsetting the patient, but it's really nothing more than that.

It's too late to change my list but I think I should have included Chase's condition (whatever it was) caused by that evil woman who wanted to keep him away from Falcon Crest.
That's great soap stuff, but it's more about them and not about Chase and his whatever condition.
All the hospital scenes after Sid Fairgate's accident are great, but if something like this would go on for 10 or 20 episodes (and then the death stuff afterwards) then it becomes an exhausting affair, I think.

 

[Michael Torrance]

Same on all of you, and especially COLBYS aficionado @Willie Oleson for not mentioning Fallon's amnesia.

In the above scene, Monica invited Randall/Fallon for a trio: "His twin sister Monica--he and I used to share about everything" but sadly the show went with the more predictable Miles/Fallon/Jeff instead (Miles/Adam/Jeff would have saved the show from cancellation, FYI).

What makes this illness so special: I mean, soaps have used amnesia before as a device, but this amnesia both made the subconscious emerge as a fake past (Fallon's incestuous desire for Adam manifesting as a planted rape memory)

("what am I wearing on the sleeve... make it stop!!!")

and completely erased the victim's previous personality, leaving a California hausfrau in place of a Colorado spitfire. I wouldn't just call the effects devastating: I'd call them otherworldly.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I'd call them otherworldly.

Exactly.

Normally speaking, the mistaken identity romance should have been funny-decadent. I mean, it's not worse than her semi-incestuous feelings towards her father.
But Adam was Adam, not just any brother or Dynasty character.
I wouldn't be surprised if the alien was yet another Adam projection.

THE COLBYS delved into the wonderful DYNASTY I psyche, and we should be grateful for that.

Miles/Adam/Jeff would have saved the show from cancellation

No.
Miles needed his Jeff like Sable needed her Frankie. That's what made it work, eventhough it shouldn't. THE COLBYS! looks disastrous en papier, but on television it's pure magic.

 

[Gioberti84]

1. Amnesia & Fallon in The Colbys
2. Cancer & Ellie in Dallas
3. Amnesia & Maggie in Falcon Crest
4. Kidney failure & Diana in Knots Landing
5. Cancer & Chao-Li in Falcon Crest

 

[Michael Torrance]

THE COLBYS! looks disastrous en papier, but on television it's pure magic.

I think that is only on one particular psychedelic TV set

 

[Willie Oleson]

I think that is only on one particular psychedelic TV set

And that's perfectly fine with me!

 

[Victoriafan3]

1. Mark Graison’s leukaemia
2. Mickey Trotter paralysed
3. Jeff Colby’s poison paint
4. Miss Ellie’s mastectomy
5. Krystle Carrington’s plate throwing disease