Paula's Soapbox

Martha Byrne may have only been on General Hospital for a few seconds on Wednesday, but I can already tell this new role as the mayor's wife fits her like a glove. She is certainly much better off joining the cast of GH than being on As the World Turns . Regardless of who was to blame for Byrne's departure from ATWT, I think she left the show just in time, even if this role on GH is short-lived. ATWT used to be one of my favorite soap operas and I rarely missed an episode. I grew up watching Byrne as Lily and for me no one can replace her, but in recent years the show's writing has become somewhat sloppy and rather bizarre. It is not the same soap opera it once was and does not adhere to the same standards. The turning point for ATWT came when the writers started letting the drama drive the storylines, the same problem that is currently occurring on Y&R, although to a much lesser degree. When ATWT started doing this the show went downhill very quickly. The storylines d...

Just when I thought the storylines on Y&R could not get any more bizarre Devon starts fantasizing about Tyra, someone he knew as his aunt until only a few weeks ago when he discovered she had been adopted. This is yet another example of Y&R's recent tendency to allow drama to drive the plot of the show. I also think this latest storyline with Devon was fabricated in a desperate attempt to give Bryton McClure a stronger presence on the show. And if the show plans to keep him on contract he certainly needs a better role than sidekick, something he seems to have been playing for far too long now. I just do not think having Devon fantasize about Tyra is a good place to start expanding his role on the show. I am actually not even sure how Y&R could keep the Tyra character on the show, but write out the Karen character. In my opinion the only thing that made Tyra interesting was her rivalry with Karen, now she is just Neil's boring girlfriend. And unlike Neil's "...

As of Friday's episode of OLTL it is inevitable that Marcie is going to offer Starr the chance to raise her own child. I am so glad that this storyline was written in a way that allows Marcie to make a decision about who should raise baby Hope, rather than having another child taken away from her. Marcie is not a selfish person and there is no way she could have ever formed a close bond with any baby knowing that the biological mother was having doubts about giving her up. I am also pleased with the maturity that Starr projected in honoring her promise to let Marcie raise Hope, rather than letting her down by changing her mind at the last minute. It would have been difficult to root for either one of these characters if they had each chosen to go against their nature and put their own needs above Hope's welfare. Marcie's selflessness in realizing where Hope belonged, despite the pain she has suffered from wanting a child for so long proved that she will indeed be a great mo...

"If my baby's dead Carly is going to pay...in ways that she can't begin to imagine." Those were Claudia's words as she tearfully confided in Johnny her concerns that her fight with Carly, which resulted in the two of them falling down a flight of stairs, ultimately cost her baby's life. In the end these words could prove to be quite ominous as I suspect Carly's baby will be born healthy, while Claudia's baby will not. The likelihood of both of these women having healthy babies seems improbable, primarily because this scenario does little to promote an interesting storyline, at least for now. With all of Claudia's stress I expect that at some point she will have a miscarriage, then decide to fake being pregnant until the birth of Carly's baby. At that point I think she will either steal Carly's baby or hire someone to steal it and claim it as her own. Either way I think we are looking at a long process of Carly thinking her baby died because...

There is no question that I like to watch soaps with a lot of drama, otherwise they become boring and stale. However, there also needs to be a certain amount of time devoted to building up story lines or the drama becomes pointless and unbelievable. If soap writers are not careful the drama can end up driving the plot instead of the other way around. Lately Young and the Restless has been filled with this type of drama, especially since the show killed off Don Diamont's character Brad Carlton. One would think that when a show as popular as Y&R kills off such a long-running character there would be a significant lead-up to their demise and the impact of their departure would be felt by many of the shows other characters. This never really seemed to materialize at any point on the show. Brad was instead killed in a tragic accident when he fell through a frozen pond trying to save Noah's life. His death should have had a significant impact on Noah considering the fact that he ...

I will admit that I am not a loyal viewer of One Life to Live . I know very little about the characters and even less about their background. And I rarely have a chance to watch it in its entirety, but I have been following a few of the story lines in bits and pieces along the way. This baby switch story captivated my attention months ago, primarily because it correlated with Marty's return, another storyline I somehow became interested in. Last week Jessica finally learned that the baby she (and her alter egos) had been taking care of for months was not actually hers, but Starr's. It was difficult to hold back the tears as Jessica discovered that the baby she had given birth to had died, prompting Bess, one of her personalities to switch her baby with the baby Starr had just given birth to. This was a bittersweet revelation in more ways than one. First of all Starr and Cole were elated to find out that the baby they thought had died months ago was in fact alive, but then cam...