Destroying a History
A unique problem to soaps is honoring its' history. Even other long standing dramas and comedies don't have the demands a soap does to remember all the complicated histories. As it is, remembering all the family relationships is difficult. I dare ATWT fans to name Nancy's daughter who died without looking. I dare One Life to Live fans to name of the African-American family that was originally on the series without checking. All of those details, all of those names, all of those histories, and what if you haven't been watching the show long enough to know them? Well, unfortunately, every writer of every current soap hasn't been with the show long enough. Oh sure, some of the series have anniversary books that can help guide you, but I bet you anything the writers never read them. But of course, since not every single viewer has been watching since day one, there are some things people will not notice, but then again, some definitely will.
This is why rewriting history, whether it is changing a past that is only two weeks old or two decades old, is a dangerous practice. It is a handy device, used to tell stories that would be difficult to tell if you don't pretend something did or didn't happen and is sometimes a product of aging characters, but used excessively destroys the very element soaps are famous for; continuing investment. If you like a character because his or her particular struggles and then a writer changes the history to suit a story, how can you be invested in that character anymore? Sometimes it is not individual character destruction, sometimes is family and community changes that are vast and sweeping. Sometimes such rewrites can work rather well (i.e. Viki's daughters on OLTL or Iva's daughters on ATWT) and sometimes they make a horrible mess of things (i.e. John and Hope on Days or Laura's penchant for murder on GH).
There also times when rewritten history have ruined potentially poignant and memorable moments like Tom's funeral on Days. What would have been a completely pitch perfect funeral for a beloved character with friends and family saying their good-byes and touching tributes, was marred by the shameless rewrite that Bo and Hope had known each other as children. Used to further manipulate a wedge between Bo and Billie and exploit Hope's lack of memory, the recreated flashback where Tom gave advice to the fake feud between the children was contrite and cheesy. It was even sillier considering that it had been less than twenty years (heck, barely ten) since viewers saw Bo and Hope meet, meaning most viewers probably knew this wasn't the case.
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