The Bold and the Beautiful: Matrimonium Interruptus

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman

Eternal triangle: Scott Clifton’s Liam, Kim Matula’s Hope, Darin Brooks’ Wyatt (photo from michaelfairmansoaps.com)

Getting married is easy unless you’re on a soap.

In real life, there’s a ceremony in a church or back yard or judge’s chambers, followed by a reception, followed by a honeymoon, followed by living happily ever after (in the beginning, at least, that’s the plan).

But in the Soap Universe, nuptials are commonly interrupted by exes back from the dead or guilty secrets revealed or whatever. It’s worse on The Bold and the Beautiful, where weddings usually don’t happen at all. Most B&B couples haven’t been able to make it to the altar no matter how many times they’ve tried.

Consider Liam and Hope.  They’ve had half a dozen almost-weddings.  At first Stephie announced her pregnancy (she miscarried), and later Hope’s long lost father Deacon showed up out of nowhere to break up the couple. The biggest obstacle to Liam and Hope’s happiness has been Wyatt, Liam’s half-brother, whom Hope also happens to love.  Recently after Liam and Hope reconciled, Wyatt presented the Hope of the Future Diamond to Hope, causing another schism in the romance.  The Liam-Hope-Wyatt triangle is never ending. (My Moose, always listening from the kitchen, likens this story line to the saga of Spin and Marty from The Mickey Mouse Club days. How’s that for dating himself?)

Then there’s Brooke and Bill. They fell in love when Bill was married to Katie and planned to get married after the divorce. But then Ridge broke up the wedding Bill had elaborately planned in Abu Dhabi by falling out of a helicopter into the ocean. Bill took responsibility for that accident and Brooke put him off again. And yet again when Deacon tried to sidle back up to Brooke – the mother of his child, Hope —  and reclaim her as his old love.

Hold on. Interruptus et necdum completum est. Another couple that hasn’t made it to the altar yet is Ridge and Katie.  They fell in love quickly after Katie broke up with Bill and of course Ridge was married to Brooke many times. Will they wed again? First, Ridge has to recover from the brain damage he suffered when he fell out of the helicopter.

The rest of the B&B cast also remains unmarried. Eric is still Stephanie’s widower, despite his flirtation with his ex-wife Donna. Comic sidekicks Pam and Charlie remain involved but are unengaged as of late. Young Aly and Oliver haven’t enough experience under their belts to get engaged but it could happen.

But  I remain optimistic. The year is barely half over. Perhaps there will be a completed wedding on B&B in 2014 after all.

General Hospital’s Outstanding Young Thesp

Young Nicholas Bechtel is achieving star status as the smart and determined Spencer Cassadine on General Hospital. Nicholashas been excellent, especially recently as Spencer has run away.  He is funny and spunky and has had several compelling scenes with Roger Howarth who plays Franco and of course many with Tyler Christopher who plays his father Nicholas.

Usually, child actors on soaps are fillers or background. Newcomer Nicholas is a notable and most welcome exception.

Comments

  1. In my opinion, the little actor that plays Spencer is okay. Spencer is precocious, mischievous, manipulative and interesting to watch. But he is not the first naughty or bratty kid on a soap. There have been a few others. The Manning children, Star and Jack from ONE LIFE TO LIVE spring to mind. And who could forget Maria from LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING, a yesteryear soap?

    Mark and Laura Eliot were a childless couple who took Maria in. Mark did not care for Maria. He thought she was weird and different from most children. Maria feared that she would be returned to the orphanage. In a spectacular segment, Mark was in the garage working on a car and a fire erupted. Maria locked Mark in the garage. Now Maria was a bad seed to the nth degree.

    Greta Powers from THE DOCTORS had some issues when she was a kid. She was stealing and starting trouble with her classmates. She had been bitten by a rabbit which caused her personality disorder.

    I love the recalcitrant kiddies. They make things interesting.

  2. I hate bratty kids on the soaps. I don’t like watching spoiled, entitled children getting away with stuff I’d never allow my child to get away with. That being said, I am finally warming up a little to Spencer/Nicholas. The kid is obviously talented, and once they started getting away from that stupid grade school love triangle, I started to appreciate Spencer. I do wish we’d see more of Emma…she’s my favorite child actor on the soaps right now. I’d rather see Spencer being platonic friends with Emma than Joss. The jury is still out on her. 🙁

  3. Eric Henwood-Greer says:

    I give the kid props. He’s charming. But this story is all kinds of wrong and all kinds of weird and all kinds of lazy. Have we moved from the time when teens took over the soaps in the Summer to when 9year olds did? I actually got hooked on my first soap, AMC, when I was 10 during Summer holidays, but it was due to the adult and teen characters. I wanted to experience what they did, not see talented, but green kids spout dialogue that nobody I knew would ever say.

    I know GH had a big (and pretty awful sounding) teen/adult storyline involving Scottie that was ditched after some filming, so they have to fill the gaps, but this is just pretty awful. Back when All My Children had Timmy upset his aunt Janet, and so upset about his mom, Natalie’s death that he turned to LSD, those seemed like real moments. Or 13 year old Kevin Buchanen on OLTL, protecting his gay friend. Instead now we have a weird 9-10 year old quad of kids who are covering up for a runaway whose reason to runaway is something a 30 year old woman planned with the runaway. This is a story? This is appealing? The ridiculous character of Franco (let’s try to ignore that Carley, as much as she loves and trusts Franco, just let a pretty much admitted serial killer and instigator to a teen male rape alone with her daughter) is now buddying up with them? Well, that I can believe.

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