They already (sort of) did The Mummy any way. Barnabas was not a mummy, but the whole part of his early story that's not from Dracula is right out of the mummy. The original film, with Boris Karloff, had the archaeologists (arguably tomb robbers) disturbing his rest. The mummy loses the bandages and pretends to be an archaeologist, a distant relative of the ancient Egyptians. He lives peacefully enough until he sees the woman he fancies as the reincarnation of his lost love. Then he turns violent and tries to recreate her through her modern counterpart. I forgot why he was mummified, but I think it had to to do with a forbidden love.
I saw a copy of a Soap Opera magazine from 1969 where it states that following 1897, DS was going to have a story involving a mummy.
Sam Hall said "the mummy" was a joke and they knew they were running dry on ideas when someone would joke about a "mummy" storyline.
Well, at least the mummy would've been different. All they did with the Gerard/Daphne storyline was rehash Quentin/Beth. And it certainly wasn't better the second time around. Even having the Creature from the Black Lagoon plodding around, leaving wet footprints all over driving Mrs. Johnson nuts, would have been a fresher serving of fish.
Yes, it's easy to see how such a storyline could unravel in short order.
I know that 1995 was tied to 1840, however, I wouldn't really conglomerate it with the 1840 rehash! For me 1995 was the highlight of the shows last full year and it quite possibly is my FAVORITE storyline of the entire run, peroid, that is all she wrote, finito!