Of all the (many) soap opera archetypes, the most well known – and beloved – seems to be the scheming vixen. Any soap star worth her salt desires to tackle such a character, but only a select few have ever truly elevated the model.
Which Soap Star Was It?
All of these actresses are either an alum of a long-ago classic – like As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and One Life to Live – or they currently star in, or are alums of, one of the four remaining daytime dramas – The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless.
And all of them are noted for their portrayals of ire-invoking women. But only one can claim that she played a character so reviled that Time magazine not only dubbed her a “superbitch,” but also “The Most Hated Woman on TV.”
But who can that actress be? Was it Eileen Fulton (ex-Lisa Miller, ATWT), Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie Olson Williams, DAYS), Robin Mattson (ex-Heather Webber, GH), Lisa Brown (ex-Nola Reardon Chamberlain, GL), or Robin Strasser (ex-Dorian Cramer Lord, OLTL)?
Susan Seaforth Hayes
Though she has mellowed in the ensuing decades, DAYS’ Julie Williams was, at one time, one of soaps’ most haughty and self-centered characters. She stole Susan Martin’s husband, just to prove that she could do so, and, prior to her marriage to reformed conman Doug Williams, there wasn’t a man she married that she didn’t use, abuse, and, cheat on.
But despite her myriad of faults, Julie was never derided by Time. In point of fact, she was praised inside the pages of the venerable tome – and her portrayer even graced its cover alongside her real-life husband, Bill Hayes.
Robin Mattson
Mattson has the distinction of playing not one, not two but three of daytime TV’s all-time nasties characters. Although GH’s Heather Webber probably tops the list, blackmail enthusiast Gina DeMott Capwell (Mattson’s Santa Barbara counterpart) and mentally ill Janet Green (from All My Children) aren’t far behind. But fans tended to get a thrill and a chuckle out of Mattson’s actions… and they didn’t hold much against her.
Lisa Brown
Brown caused such a stir as the grasping Nola Reardon that she received reams of hate mail – and numerous death threats! And yet, she wasn’t termed America’s Most Hated.
Robin Strasser
Strasser’s turn as OLTL’s Dorian was met with near-universal acclaim… but it was an earlier role, that of Another World’s Rachel Davis Matthews, that brought her tons of trouble.
Rachel so scandalized the viewing public with her cuckolding of husband Russ in favor of brooding businessman Steven Frame, that Strasser began to fear for her safety. And the physical bashings she received from angry fans did little to calm her nerves. But despite the ruckus she caused, Strasser wasn’t given the business by the magazine with the red border.
Eileen Fulton
In an in-depth assessment of the daytime landscape (published on January 12, 1976), Time singled out Fulton’s ATWT character as an example of villainy at its finest. Among the laurels heaped upon the much-married Lisa were the designations “superbitch” and “The Most Hated Woman on TV.”
So, if you guessed that soap star in question was Eileen Fulton, then you were absolutely correct!
