I like Eastenders, too! Though we’re 5 years behind, and I’m given to understand the cast I’ve been watching for many many years is going to be replaced by new cast members. I wonder what it’s like to live in that small world, where you can go outside of your hideous apartment directly into the street and walk around asking your neighbors, “have you seen Sharon/Dot/Phil?” over and over, everyone milling about as if they’re at a fairgrounds. And what’s with those sad strings of tinsel at Christmas, draped across a random picture frame, lol?..
…I used to run home from school to watch Another World eons ago, when Pat and John used to sit around drinking coffee all day long. And Rachel was played by Robin Strasser and always up to no good!
Guilty Pleasure confession: My wife and I TiVo OLTL every Friday to watch during the weekend. (It’s amazing how well you can follow the stories watching only 1/5 of the episodes!)
We joke about the Soap cliches and conventions, snark at the actors and characters… and allow ourself to get sucked in a bit as well. The show has a surprising amount of self-awareness and a sense of humor, not to mention a fair number of hot – often scantily-clad – babes. Of course the plots are ourageous, and the writing and acting can be sub-par, but to be fair, they’re cranking out 5 hours a week, every week.
Well it was before my time watching the show, but I’ve heard that the “One Life to Live” in its’ early years was a lot like modern day “EastEnders” in that it mainly depicted a blue-collar, working-class environment. True, Viki & her multi-millionaire family were characters from the outset, but they were the exceptions in the cast. Most of the characters were working-class stiffs, and their stories dealt with real-life issues rather than outrageously over-the-top melodrama. “Life” was the first show to have major black characters who had their own storylines (rather than be just token background characters), and the first jewish family on a daytime soap. Just the names of some of the characters demonstrates the diverse ethnicities of the cast - Vinnie Wolek, Wanda Webb, David Siegel, Joe Riley.
It was during the 80s, the series began taking its’ cues more from “Dynasty” and “Dallas” than real-life and only depicted WASP-y, mega-rich characters.
Ditto. Back then, it was the only thing on TV in Berlin in the afternoons, and as a teacher, I happened to be home and, well…yeah, sorta got hooked.
I still watch GH, but admit that I fast forward so that an hour show is usually about 20 minutes tops. If it got cancelled, I would be more upset at the passing of an era more than I would be the ending of the show - if that makes any sense. I assume it is just a matter of time until GH is also canceled - but will continue to fast forward those episodes I tape.
And yes, part of the fun it to watch it with my SO and be snarky - “Gee, they flew from Paris to Port Charles in 20 minutes?” “Hmm…the kid is 16 and he was born in an episode that aired in 2005?” “A city the size of Port Charles has only one lunch counter and one bar?” “Oh oh…stairs and a pregnant woman…miscarriage about to happen!” “Oh oh…shot of person driving in car…accident about to happen in 2 seconds!!” etc. etc. etc.
Yes, they are stupid plots and stupid characters - but then again, so is a lot of my family and their personal lives.
A lot of the daytime soaps started like this. Y&R originally had the working-class Foster family. Ryan’s Hope was always focused on the Ryans. Even younger soaps did…B&B started out with the fabulously rich Forresters, but also the lower-middle-class Logans.
They tried to go back to their roots somewhat in the 90s by focusing on a previously unheard of area of Llanview called “Angel Square.” That was middle & lower class and had a Latino population. There were even gang wars.
I don’t think it lasted very long.
What i am gonna miss the most…serialized storytelling!
You need to realize the “Soap Opera” format of serialized storytelling is the direct decendant of the 19th literature published in periodicals. Both Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan-Doyle wrote some of their best works in this format.
The “serialzed drama” should be benefitting from the internet age, and some of its distribution models. This is begining to happen, it is just a shame that some of the great characters will not be able to switch over from one media (TV) to the next (Internet soaps) like some great shows did in the 50’s from radio to TV
Good Lord, the woman’s been playing that role since a month before I was born.
I haven’t watched AMC for a decade or more (I watched it as a kid when my mom had it on, and when I was married I used to catch it with my ex now and again), but it’s a little weird to think of it going away. I guess that’s the way of the world.
I’m a GH watcher so I still have my show, but I’m sure it will be gone soon as well. The replacement shows, both reality shows, provide interesting messages: Eat and Don’t Eat.
Unscripted shows are slowly but surely taking over. Given their creative editing, they don’t really even qualify as reality. At least the somewhat incredible nonsense that occasionally takes place on soaps isn’t touted as being real.
