And nobody out in television-land watched either. She wouldn't even look at the monitor to see whether my make-up was right, it was too awful to watch. I played those scenes all right, but I made them so horrifying that nobody could watch. The show's ratings had been dropping, and I knew they were killing the child just to have something dramatic to boost the ratings.

'It had been a complicated pregnancy for me, and playing the death of the child was just too horrible to even consider. 'It was my own child,' she later told Afternoon TV. It was the first of many battles she would have over the years trying to maintain the integrity of her popular soap character. Her newborn son, Jeffrey, played Jo's baby on the soap.Ī year later the writers decided the toddler would run out into the street and get hit by a car infuriating Stuart. Stuart's real life pregnancy was written into her storyline and SEARCH filmed on location with her in the hospital. A year later their son, Duncan Eric, was born. On June 9, 1955, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW's Joanne (Mary Stuart) married Arthur Tate. We will revisit this list from time to time to see how the rankings might change as perspectives do.Ģ5. Sadly there are many more we could have included. This list was not easy to edit down to 25. We Love Soaps revealed our 25 Biggest Blunders in Daytime Soap Opera History in September 2011. While some of their points are valid, and you hear these excuses in most mainstream articles, there are also a number of intentional decisions made over the years that decimated soap casts, future storylines and viewer loyalty. Simpson, the growing number of cable channels, reality television, the growing number of women in the workplace, and many other factors for the decline in ratings over the years. A lot of people in the daytime soap opera industry like to blame O.J.

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