Without a doubt, ATWT was my all-time favorite soap. It had the most talented cast in daytime, and storylines that never failed to enthrall viewers. But the ending of the show was an abomination. I'm still mad years later. Why? Because ATWT had nine months to wrap up its storylines, and failed miserably. My major gripes:

1) Not bringing back Martha Byrne when she made it clear she was available. The first woman on the show to win the Emmy for Lead Actress and you don't use her??
2) Sticking the chemistry-free Katie and Chris Hughes No. 600 in an insta-romance. If Brad was gone, then Katie should have ended up with Simon.
3) No Returns! Okay, kudos for bringing back John Dixon and the cameo with Julianne Moore, but where were Penny, Shannon, Duncan, Grant, Lyla, Iva (heck, ANY of the Snyders!), Steve Andropolous, etc?
4) Where were the farewell scenes? I thought I would get to see characters like Katie and Henry do final scenes together.
5) No flashbacks? You end a show after 54 years and you show NO FLASHBACKS?
6) Worst of all, the treatment of Eileen Fulton. I was never a fan of EF's acting (except during the malpractice storyline, where she should have won an Emmy), but her character was the first bad girl on daytime and put the show into the stratosphere during it's early years. And she gets two throwaway lines in the finale? Shameful!

I just had to get this off my chest, and was wondering if others had similar gripes.

I definitely agree about the shoddy treatment of the original soap diva, Eileen Fulton. She should have had a far better send-off than the one she received.

There definitely should have been flash-backs, considering the rich history of the show. I was disappointed that the late Helen Wagner (Nancy Hughes) didn't have the final words of the show, as she opened the show on its debut in 1956 with the words, "Good morning, dear." They could have easily used a voice-over to end the show. That would have been perfect.

I also agree about not bringing Martha Byrne back as Lilly. Her chemistry with Jon Hensley (Holden) was always amazing.

CBS missed the boat on ending the show, for certain...

TPTB long didn't care about the show's past before cancellation, so cancellation wasn't going to change anything. At least with GL we got more cameo returns even though the actual ending was pretty poor.