Tuesday, December 29, 2009

We Love Soaps Best of 2009


As promised during last week's special "Best of 2009" episode of WE LOVE SOAPS TV featuring Roger Newcomb, Damon L. Jacobs and Soap Opera Weekly news editor Mala Bhattacharjee, here are the picks in the categories that aired along with some additional categories that didn't make the show.

Favorite Individual Episode
Roger Newcomb: Frank and Natalia's wedding on GL (okay, it was a whole week)
Damon L. Jacobs: Gay Weddingathon on OLTL
Mala Bhattacharjee: Ann’s death on B&B

Best Inanimate Object
RN: Y&R's Mr. Kitty
DLJ: Pam's lemon bars on B&B
MB: Y&R’s Mr. Kitty, with an honorable mention for Nash’s corpse on OLTL

Best Guest Star
RN: Beth Maitland (Traci, Y&R)
DLJ: Betty White (Ann, B&B)
MB: Betty White (Ann, B&B)

Best Use of Music
RN: GH's "Mad World"
DLJ: GH's "Mad World" [the ONLY thing that's working in this story]
MB: The Karaoke nights at GH’s Jake’s. They really brighten the show.

Most inspiring story
RN: Traci's human kindness in giving Victor Colleen's heart on Y&R
DLJ: Jack’s Never Surrender Tour on ATWT
MB: OLTL’s Oliver coming out, Jack’s Never Surrender Tour on ATWT, and B&B’s Sandy

Best Location Shoot
RN: ATWT's trip to Greenville, SC
DLJ: GH's parking lot (for the Carnival)
MB: GL’s jaunt to Universal Studios in Orlando

Best Comeback
RN: Grant Aleksander as Phillip on GL
DLJ: Crystal Chappell as Carly on DAYS
MB: Don Diamont going from Y&R’s Brad to B&B’s Bill

Best Ghost
RN: Y&R’s John Abbott (Jerry Douglas)
DLJ: ATWT's Brad Snyder (Austin Peck)
MB: Y&R’s John Abbott (Jerry Douglas)

Favorite Male Character
RN: OLTL's Oliver Fish
DLJ: ATWT’s Jack
MB: ATWT’s Simon and B&B’s Bill

Favorite Female Character
RN: DAYS' Maggie
DLJ: GL’s Olivia
MB: GL’s Olivia

Least Favorite Character
RN: Taylor, AMC
DLJ: ATWT'S Meg
MB: GH’s Ethan. No offense to Nathan Parsons, but Ethan’s entire existence rankles me!

Best Behind the Scenes Video
RN: Y&R’s True Soap Story of Mr. Kitty
DLJ: Susan Lucci's, "My Emmy is F-----g Gone" on THE VIEW
MB: Y&R’s True Soap Story of Mr. Kitty

Most Missed Character
RN: Brooke English on AMC
DLJ: Heart on GH personified by Bobbie Spencer (Jackie Zeman)
MB: Blackie Parrish on GH!

Favorite Trend
RN: Web soaps!
DLJ: Same sex smooching
MB: Babies in hats!

Least Favorite Trend
RN: Soaps getting cancelled and the continuing lack of diversity
DLJ: Public homophobia off camera
MB: Soaps getting cancelled!

Biggest Waste of Talent
RN: ATWT's Elizabeth Hubbard (Lucinda). She had to join a Dutch soap and web soap to actually work.
DLJ: Kathy Brier fired from OLTL
MB: Um...everybody? LOL.

Best Recast
RN: Lindsay Hartley as DAYS' Arianna
DLJ: Adam Mayfield as AMC's Scott
MB: Sarah Glendening as ATWT’s Lucy

Most Ruined Character
RN: AMC’s Aidan
DLJ: Y&R's Phillip III
MB: AMC’s Aidan

Best Hero
RN: GL's Josh
DLJ: Y&R's Paul
MB: DAYS’ Rafe

Sexiest Performance
RN: Brandon Beemer's many photoshoots as Owen on B&B
DLJ: Oliver Fish's shirtless drunken romps on OLTL
MB: OLTL’s Ford and the bucket

Best Newcomer
RN: Haley Alexis Pullos as GH's Molly
DLJ: Aaron Refvem as GH's Morgan
MB: Dominic Zamprogna as GH’s Dominic/Dante

Best Action Sequence
RN: GH's carnival conclusion
DLJ: Colleen's drowning on Y&R
MB: Not really action per se, but B&B’s Brooke riding the horse to Ridge and Taylor’s wedding and interrupting it was hilarious!

Best Kiss
RN: OLTL's Bo and Nora before Nora's wedding
DLJ: OLTL’s Kyle and Oliver in Kyle's room on their first official date
MB: OLTL’s Kyle and Oliver behind the Buenas Dias Cafe

Best Comedic Performance
RN: Alley Mills (Pam, B&B)
DLJ: Lynn Herring and Colleen Zenk Pinter (Audrey/Barbara, ATWT)
MB: Tuc Watkins (David, OLTL) and Trent Dawson (Henry, ATWT)

Best Female Performance
RN: Crystal Chappell (Olivia, GL)
DLJ: Crystal Chappell (on GL, DAYS, and VENICE)
MB: Crystal Chappell (Olivia, GL)

Best Male Performance
RN: Grant Aleksander (Phillip, GL)
DLJ: Don Hastings (Bob, ATWT) Ice Cream + Dr. Bob = tears
MB: Jon Lindstrom (Craig, ATWT)

Best Villain
RN: Y&R's Adam
DLJ: DAYS' Nicole
MB: OLTL’s Mitch

Best Fight
RN: Sami confronts Nicole on DAYS
DLJ: GL's Phillip and Grady on the cliff
MB: ATWT’s Meg and Lily’s catfight at Fashions

Most Disappointing Show
RN: ATWT. Ignored history for too long.
DLJ: AMC
MB: Y&R. Dude, what happened?

Best Show
RN: OLTL
DLJ: DAYS
MB: B&B, with an honorable mention for OLTL

6 comments:

  1. Dear Damon & Roger:

    Thank you for your dedication, passion, and entrepreneurial zeal for creating WLS and producing a great daily journal of soap related news.

    Best wishes for a great life today and tomorrow!

    P.S.

    When will Manhattanites be on Netflix?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dudes! You left off a most essential category:

    Best Soap Journalist

    And the winner, or should I say, winners, would be:

    Roger Newcomb and Damon L. Jacobs

    I mean this will all of my heart. You guys have single-handedly done what other soap sites and mainstream soap journalists are unable or unwilling to do: pay homage to soaps and keep your readers informed and entertained. And you do so without the bitchy snarkiness and vicious commentary often rampant on other sites. Aside from the frequent news updates, you've given us amazing interviews with those who are the heart of soaps -- Claire Labine, Suzanne Rogers, Jackie Zeman, among so many others.

    You guys should be proud of what you've done in 2009. I know I am -- proud of and grateful for all of your amazing contributions. You two are simply the best.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was so great to see Liz Hubbard on a daily basis. Too bad she left again on Friday's episode.

    But there were some great moments.

    Sair's conversation with Dex when he told her that he was molested by his soccer coach when he was 14, was really great.

    It was also great to see her scheming to break up her daughter's marriage because she thinks her daughter's husband is a softy. :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. THANK YOU!THANK YOU! for not forgetting Guiding Light...I called P&G/CBS,sent postcards to save GL and cried when it went off the air.Crystal blew me away this year and 2008 with her heart condition problems.Grant Aleksander was so good! thank you WLS-- I'm going to be mad if Crystal doesn't win an Emmy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Crystal Chappell's graveyard scene, where Olivia professed her love to Natalia, was the best female soap performance I've seen since Judith Light as Karen Wolek in her famous courtroom scene.

    If she doesn't win the Emmy as Best Actress for that scene, the Emmys should be considered to be a joke.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That graveyard scene was amazing. I don't know how the Emmy rules will change this year (pre-noms and all that) but I hope GL is recognized.

    ReplyDelete