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I have to say soaps can be a great bridge between generations. There were many years when my mother and I had absolutely nothing in common except a few soaps we watched separately several states apart. I used to watch soaps with my mother when I was a child and I'm 64 now.
In her final days we still talked about soaps. It was like we had mutual friends. I can still hear her say:
"If they let John Dixon get away with this, I will never watch again." She had a real sense of fairness and it ticked her off if a "bad" person got away with something mean or criminal. I think Dr. John Dixon did get away with evil things again and again.
That's nice, a kind of remote bonding, or remote keeping in touch at least
I guess soaps are a typical women's thing, men use memorable baseball or football matches instead to bridge those gaps.
I have the same problem with my brother. He lives far away and we are almost the exact opposite of each other, thus hardly anything in common, but sometimes we exchange music links, music is the only thing that we are both interested in, even though our tastes are quite different.
I dont follow soaps but from having to listen to my wife watch them all the time i can say this: the woman that plays Brenda on GH is friggin annoying as hell. She must be an emmy award winner because i swear i hear her and i wish i could reach through the tv and slap the **** out of her. That is damn good acting. Thing is ive seen her in other stuff and she seems to always play a whiney "its all about me me me" person.
I watched all three of those, but in different ways. DS I caught in syndicated reruns, since the show had been cancelled when I was a toddler. I've watched those episodes maybe four or five times each, and never get tired of it.
GL was my "first soap addiction" in real time. I started watching about 1979, just as it really hit its peak in the early to mid-1980s. Though I drifted on to other favorites, I still tried to keep track of what was going on in 'Springfield' right up to the end.
I saw bits and pieces of EON as a child, since my mom watched the show, but she stopped watching it when it switched from CBS to ABC. I picked it up shortly before it was cancelled, but then had the unique opportunity to re-watch a large chunk of the final five years via late-night reruns on the USA Network. This was when the very idea of rerunning daytime soaps was unheard-of (1988-1989-ish). The format of Edge would be ideal for a reboot/re-imagined version, since the whole show was about solving complex mysteries and crimes.
Speaking to the (four year-old) topic, I think a lot of people want consistency in their lives as things seem to become more and more unpredictable and uncertain. Soaps, with their slow-moving format and long-time characters, can be relied on to always have certain elements, predictable behavior, and yes, "friends" you can visit with. Julia will always have that crush on Barnabas, while the Spauldings and Bauers will always be at odds over their latest romantic entanglements. Nancy Karr will always get the big story that will help her husband Mike convict the town's latest criminal. Even if you drop the show for a year or more, you can pick it up and see at least a few characters you remember, and they can help you get caught up. It's a unique medium, since some of the soaps run through several generations. GL, for instance was on (either on the radio or TV, and both for a period of time) for over 70 years. Like many old things, they get handed down through the generations, which allows family members to bond over them. I think it's the characters who are more remembered individually rather than the shows as a whole, since soaps allow actors to form much more well-rounded, "real" characters due to the frequency with which they appear. This is also why you heard instances of people who mistake the actors for their characters when meeting them in public. The actors are often willing to remain in their roles for twenty, thirty years or even more since the soaps provide steady work in a very unsteady industry.
I used to watch several including Ryan's Hope, All My Children, and One Life to Live, but got tired of them decades ago and quit watching so I didn't miss them.
The one that I missed was Santa Barbara with Marcy Walker and A Martinez but the only reason is that it got canceled before I got tired of it. LOL I did think it was better written than any of the others I had watched so not sure why it was canceled.
Oh, the revival of this thread makes me sad. When it was started, All My Children was still on the air, and General Hospital had yet to turn into the ridiculous circus it is now.
I've been watching telenovelas on Univision. I get about half the dialogue, yet they are still more interesting than current soaps.
I watch telenovelas as well, mostly Brazilian (excellent actors and interesting mix of comedy and drama) and Portuguese ones. They last up to a year usually, i.e. not like General Hospital for ages. So they are much more dense. Even so, they still last long enough for me to like and dislike individual characters so that after those 9 to 12 months I miss them when they are gone.
I suppose I like those programs because I live alone.
I know my grandmother used to listen to soaps on the radio before tv was invented. My mother grew up listening and watching soaps with Nana. I grew up watching soaps with both Mom and Nana when we would visit. Love of Life, ATWT, Edge of Night and one other whose name escapes me now. They were all 15 minutes long! 4 aired in an hour and they were Live tv! Boy, those were the days.
When I got married and had my own tv, I watched AMC from the beginning, GH, The Doctors, Ryan's Hope. I watched Dark Shadows faithfully when I was a kid and we finally had two tvs!
Last time I watched a soap was when I took a portable tv to work to watch Luke and Laura's wedding. Kids, work, marriage got in the way.
I watched all three of those, but in different ways. DS I caught in syndicated reruns, since the show had been cancelled when I was a toddler. I've watched those episodes maybe four or five times each, and never get tired of it.
GL was my "first soap addiction" in real time. I started watching about 1979, just as it really hit its peak in the early to mid-1980s. Though I drifted on to other favorites, I still tried to keep track of what was going on in 'Springfield' right up to the end.
I saw bits and pieces of EON as a child, since my mom watched the show, but she stopped watching it when it switched from CBS to ABC. I picked it up shortly before it was cancelled, but then had the unique opportunity to re-watch a large chunk of the final five years via late-night reruns on the USA Network. This was when the very idea of rerunning daytime soaps was unheard-of (1988-1989-ish). The format of Edge would be ideal for a reboot/re-imagined version, since the whole show was about solving complex mysteries and crimes.
Speaking to the (four year-old) topic, I think a lot of people want consistency in their lives as things seem to become more and more unpredictable and uncertain. Soaps, with their slow-moving format and long-time characters, can be relied on to always have certain elements, predictable behavior, and yes, "friends" you can visit with. Julia will always have that crush on Barnabas, while the Spauldings and Bauers will always be at odds over their latest romantic entanglements. Nancy Karr will always get the big story that will help her husband Mike convict the town's latest criminal. Even if you drop the show for a year or more, you can pick it up and see at least a few characters you remember, and they can help you get caught up. It's a unique medium, since some of the soaps run through several generations. GL, for instance was on (either on the radio or TV, and both for a period of time) for over 70 years. Like many old things, they get handed down through the generations, which allows family members to bond over them. I think it's the characters who are more remembered individually rather than the shows as a whole, since soaps allow actors to form much more well-rounded, "real" characters due to the frequency with which they appear. This is also why you heard instances of people who mistake the actors for their characters when meeting them in public. The actors are often willing to remain in their roles for twenty, thirty years or even more since the soaps provide steady work in a very unsteady industry.
My grandmother watched Another World starting around the late 60s(1967). I think it was when Danny Fargo was murdered and Missy Palmer was put on trial for his murder. I can see her shocked when Missy says "Stop it, Mr. Curtin! Stop it, stop it, I can't answer you, I can't answer anything anymore, I -- (SOBBING NOW, ALMOST INCOHERENT)while my grandmom's jaws begin to open -- "I've hurt too many people already, I can't go on hurting..." (SHE BREAKS COMPLETELY, THE COURTROOM IS IN AN UPROAR, while my grandmom's jaws drop completely. DRU SHOULDERS PAST CURTIN, GOES TO HER, PHYSICALLY SUPPORTING HER IN THE WITNESS CHAIR. AS BRUCH GAVELS REPEATEDLY FOR ORDER, WE SEE LIZ, STILL TENSE, HOLDING HER BREATH. Now that's something i remember her telling me about AW. Many years later i saw this when Marley(played by Anne Heche) did the same thing admitting that she was raped by Jake(Tom Epin)! And it happened again, my grandmom's jaw dropped! She said to me "Remember, i did this when Missy Matthews broke down in 1967!"
I watched all three of those, but in different ways. DS I caught in syndicated reruns, since the show had been cancelled when I was a toddler. I've watched those episodes maybe four or five times each, and never get tired of it.
GL was my "first soap addiction" in real time. I started watching about 1979, just as it really hit its peak in the early to mid-1980s. Though I drifted on to other favorites, I still tried to keep track of what was going on in 'Springfield' right up to the end.
I saw bits and pieces of EON as a child, since my mom watched the show, but she stopped watching it when it switched from CBS to ABC. I picked it up shortly before it was cancelled, but then had the unique opportunity to re-watch a large chunk of the final five years via late-night reruns on the USA Network. This was when the very idea of rerunning daytime soaps was unheard-of (1988-1989-ish). The format of Edge would be ideal for a reboot/re-imagined version, since the whole show was about solving complex mysteries and crimes.
Speaking to the (four year-old) topic, I think a lot of people want consistency in their lives as things seem to become more and more unpredictable and uncertain. Soaps, with their slow-moving format and long-time characters, can be relied on to always have certain elements, predictable behavior, and yes, "friends" you can visit with. Julia will always have that crush on Barnabas, while the Spauldings and Bauers will always be at odds over their latest romantic entanglements. Nancy Karr will always get the big story that will help her husband Mike convict the town's latest criminal. Even if you drop the show for a year or more, you can pick it up and see at least a few characters you remember, and they can help you get caught up. It's a unique medium, since some of the soaps run through several generations. GL, for instance was on (either on the radio or TV, and both for a period of time) for over 70 years. Like many old things, they get handed down through the generations, which allows family members to bond over them. I think it's the characters who are more remembered individually rather than the shows as a whole, since soaps allow actors to form much more well-rounded, "real" characters due to the frequency with which they appear. This is also why you heard instances of people who mistake the actors for their characters when meeting them in public. The actors are often willing to remain in their roles for twenty, thirty years or even more since the soaps provide steady work in a very unsteady industry.
My grandmom watched Days of Our Lives and Another World, and It was her routine. If AW and Days were preempted by the World Series it threw her routine off. Guiding Light on CBS in between. GL came on at 2:30 while the others were 2:00 and 3:00.
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