Daytime’s Greatest Redemption Tales: From Hate to Love

Tad Martin
Okay, Tad Martin never went on a murderous rampage nor did he bilk people out of their life savings but he did have his way with most of Pine Valley’s female population, including the mother/daughter duo of Marian (l.) and Liza Colby (pictured). All My Children’s Tad the Cad turned into a romantic lead and the ultimate go-to guy for anyone needing some good old private detective work under the deft portrayal of Michael E. Knight. Many would credit his character’s shift in values to his falling deeply and madly in love with Hillary and then falling for Dixie sealed the deal.

Although a list of some of his crimes included adultery (he later slept with Liza while married to Dixie), assaulting Dwight Sweeney, fabricating evidence to exonerate Brooke, tying Michael Cambias up and tossing him in the dumpster, stealing Cambias’s body and burying it in a garbage dump, blackmail, escaping from jail, perjury, bribery, burying Greg Madden alive, and a whole lot of punching, Tad always showed a lot of heart.

John Dixon
As the World Turns’s John Dixon may have been a doctor by trade but he didn’t take his hippocratic oath of ‘First, do no harm’ very seriously. His list of crimes ravaged the residents of Oakdale. The doc lied to, blackmailed, and raped his first wife, Kim Reynolds (pictured), falsely accused his rival, Dr. Dan Stewart (pictured, standing) of trying to kill him, married Pat Holland so she wouldn’t testify against him, and gave Ariel Aldrin a fake wedding ring.

A bout with colon cancer brought the doctor closer to his children. Dixon went on to rescue Lisa Grimaldi from Martin Chedwyn, became a grandfather, accepted a position at the prestigious John Hopkins University, and consulted on a heart transplant for Chris Hughes.

Carl Hutchins Nobody does redemption like the great Carl Hutchins on Another World. Played masterfully by the late, great Charles Keating, Hutchins committed some incredibly heinous crimes such as poisoning Sandy Cory, murdering Daphne Grimaldi, kidnapping Rachel Cory and Marley Hudson, swindling Donna Love of all her money, detonated a bomb that almost killed Frankie Frame, shot Grant Harrison, caused a car accident that paralyzed Amanda Cory, and had a knack for counterfeiting.

It was the love of a woman that helped Hutchins find his soul. Rachel Cory tamed the beast in him and gave him true love and acceptance. The two married and went on to have two children, Cory and Elizabeth.

Deacon Sharpe Bold and Beautiful’s redemption story comes in the form of ne’er do well Deacon Sharpe [Sean Kanan]. The man has bounced back and forth between being bad to good so many times that heads are spinning. His crime spree has trailed from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Genoa City and back again. In Los Angeles, Deacon cheated on his wife Bridget with her mother, Brooke (pictured), and had an affair with Jackie Marone, taunting her husband Massimo all the while.

Obsessed with Amber Moore, he followed her to Genoa City, framed her boyfriend, Daniel Romalotti, for theft, blackmailed her into marrying him in order to get Daniel off, and was framed by Phyllis into kidnapping Amber. Later, he would have a drunken affair with Nikki Newman in order to break up the Newman marriage, had a fling with Diane Jenkins, and tried to cover up her “murder” by Nikki. In true soap fashion it was revealed that he had helped Diane fake her death.

It was his love for his daughter, Hope Logan, that made Deacon want to be a better man. The conflicted troublemaker returned to Los Angeles after serving a short prison stint, for shooting at Quinn, determined to be a good father to his daughter only to find himself bonding with the scheming Sheila Carter. His redemption may be on shaky ground.

Jack Deveraux Unfortunately, for Days of our Lives’s Jack Deveraux (Matthew Ashford), his villainy can be attributed to his violent biological father, Duke Johnson, who died after brutally raping Jack’s sister, and his diabolical adopted dad, the senator Harper Deveraux. He arrived in Salem to get treatment for Hodgkin’s disease and fell in love with his nurse, Kayla Brady, who happened to be in love with his newfound brother, Steve Johnson (pictured, l.). Jack married Kayla but it was clear that her heart belonged to Steve. Jack raped her.

Jack tried to blackmail co-partner Diana Colville into selling her shares of The Spectator, kidnapped Jennifer Horton to keep her from marrying her high school sweetheart Emilio, desperate for cash he stole money from Billie Reed, and unknowingly slept with his mother-in-law, Laura Horton (not exactly villainous but yuck).

Jack became obsessed with Jennifer and tried to drive a wedge between her and Peter Blake. When he found out that Peter was going to kidnap Jennifer and Abby, he confronted him with a gun accidentally killing Peter (who wasn’t really dead). Eventually, Jack won Jennifer over and the two happily spend their time supporting friends, solving crimes, and righting wrongs along the way.

Liesl Obrecht
General Hospital’s Liesl Obrecht is a bit of a dichotomy (pictured at right with Luke Spencer). She is a brilliant physician with a penchant towards evil. Originally hired for a walk-on role of a German doctor hiding Robin Scorpio, Kathleen Gati won the writers over with her scene-stealing delivery and they kept writing her in. Soon she had a backstory, a relationship with super villain, Cesar Faison, and two children, Britt Westbourne, and Nathan West, and her sister was mother to Nina Reeves, making her an aunt..

Liesl’s taste for unscrupulous men and a passion for revenge would be her achilles heel. She lost her physician’s license when it was discovered that she was doing unsanctioned experiments on her patients, along with Faison and Jerry Jacks, she poisoned the Port Charles water supply with a deadly pathogen, used her skills for both Faison and Victor Cassadine’s nefarious machinations, drugged Robin and handed her over to Jerry Jacks, and teamed up with Britt to entrap Patrick Drake with a pregnancy..

If mad men were her weakness, her children were her strength, and when she lost both of them, it was the family she still had left that tugged at her heart. When Nina found out her daughter was alive [Willow] and fighting for her life, it was Obrecht who stepped up and donated her bone marrow.

Nola Reardon Actress Lisa Brown was so good at playing Guiding Light bad girl Nola Reardon, and so loved by fans that the late head writer Douglas Marland used the magic of his talented skills to create one of soap's best transformations. She began as a conniving, manipulative mean girl.

Nola set out to make life miserable for Kelly Nelson and Morgan Richards, goaded Holly Thorpe into slapping her in a room full of people, encouraged the alcoholic Tim Werner to partake of the bottle, plied Kelly with liquor until he passed out and then pretended that they had made love, falsely claimed that Derek Colby was having an affair with Hillary Bauer, and seduced Floyd to become pregnant.

Based on her dastardly deeds, Nola found herself alone and remorseful. Marland’s master plan was to take her love for old films and imagine herself as the different heroines in order for the audience to see her in a different light and it worked. It was then Nola found true love with Quint Chamberlin (pictured). Sigh…

Todd Manning As frat boy Todd Manning on One Life to Live, Roger Howarth wiped the floor with every scene. After failing an exam that Marty Saybrooke had helped tutor him on, Todd convinced fellow members of his fraternity brothers, Zach (pictured, l.) and Powell (pictured, r.), to gang rape Marty at a party. The boys’ attorney, Nora Gannon (pictured), caused a mistrial when she realized they were actually guilty. Manning cornered Marty in an alley and tried to rape her again but was stopped when her friend Luna Moody hit him with a lead pipe, causing the infamous scar across his face.

Todd escaped from prison and went after Nora for revenge. Nora was rescued by her beau, Bo Buchanan. Todd escaped but later was shot and fell into a river and was presumed dead. When his prison van crashed, the conflicted felon saved Marty, C.J., and Jessica from death and was granted an early parole. His troubles didn’t end there but it did push him to seek counseling, eventually causing him to apologize to Marty for everything he had done.

Todd’s redemption storyline caused quite a stir in the media, and became the subject for many feminist studies making him a controversial character but it was Howarth’s vulnerable and layered portrayal of a man trying to rehabilitate the beast from within that sold the audience on his metamorphosis to a man who could be valued...and loved.

Diane Jenkins Over at Young and Restless, there have been many redemption storylines such as Lauren Fenmore, Michael Baldwin, Kevin Fisher, and Nina Chancellor but none more divisive as Diane Jenkins. Her crimes have been many. She had an affair with Jack Abbott while he was married to Patty Williams, who caught them in bed causing her to have a miscarriage. Later, spurned by Jack, she moved on to Victor Newman. When he left her for Nikki, the vixen vowed revenge.

Diane found out that Victor had his sperm frozen before his vasectomy and vowed to steal it to inseminate herself with it. She found out later that her arch nemesis, Nikki, had switched the sperm with Jack Abbott’s. Jack (pictured), who was paired up with Phyllis at the time, sued for custody but lost. Diane moved into the Abbott pool house with her son, Kyle, and amused herself by playing head games with Phyllis. She went as far as framing the redhead for arson.

Eventually, Diane managed to earn the wrath of just about everyone in Genoa City. When she was found “dead,” everyone was considered a suspect. A video was found showing a struggle with Nikki, who struck her with a rock in self-defense. In reality, Deacon Sharpe had helped her to fake her death and start a new life. Now back in Genoa City, she seems like a new woman. Thanks to the grounded performance of Susan Walters, not only does Diane seem redeemed but has the audience rooting for her as well.