There always seems to be so much controversey surrounding the daytime emmy nominees and eventual winners. Often time complaints are targeted at the system itself. I feel that this is not neccisarily always a fair case. I think the blame lays more in the industry itself for not living up to the soap opera genres great potenial. I feel that Irna Phillips, the mother of daytime tv, would be disgusted with the current state of soap opera. Where are the socially relevant storylines? few and far between. So far we've ahd two foster care stories this year (well one is just starting) and a mini-alcoholism storyline, which is really just a plot device being used to further an already old rape storyline. and where are our people of non-american decent? what happened to the hispanics, african-americans, chinese and mexicans on soap opears? where is religious diversity? and where the hell is a strong, INDEPENTANT, SANE women? no where to be found. i am sick of whiny, crying, defensless barbie dolls and action heros on soap opears. THAT IS NOT WAHT IRNA PHILLIPS CREATED THE GENRE FOR. So to my original point of intent with this post, if i ran the world of daytime television things would be decidely different from both a creative and technical stand-point.

For one- there would be no more mob at all. thats not what soap operas are for. soaps operas are supposed to reflect upon community issues, socially relevant storylines and important political, social and economic issues. issues of the mind, heart and body. We would have no more serial killers, secret islands, evil-back-from the dead twins or pscyho raping stalkers. we'd have normal, down-to-earth people, and a few extravagant characters engaging in relevant storylines.

Irna Phillips once wrote on The Guiding Light a story about Bert Bauer a women who had to have her leg amputated. that is far more realistic than a serial killers victims turning up on a secret island and a psycho girl locking her dream-boat in a cage in her house!

And there would be loving, commited relathionships on the soaps. for too long the genre has relied on cheating spouses and sensationlizing sex. i'd do away with that. sure its okay to tell a serious story in which a spouse strays, but lets have some happily married couples that aren't regulated to back-burner.

And lets return the genre to its roots of working professionals, Irna created the first medical drama "Women In White" years before "General Hospital", "Days Of Our Lives" or even "The Doctors" and introduced working characters into the stories. now what do we have? a few lawyers, that almost never appear in the courtroom, unless they are on trial and some doctors that never give out medical advice and are rarley seen in a hospital doing anything related to work. too many mobsters and ex-hookers. and WAY too many unemployed characters. the women seem to rely on men for everything, until they start beating them up (GH). this is ridiclous and SAD. what happened to strong characters that had intellect, wit and logic (Julia Wainmwright, Brooke English.) and characters with heart (Mary-Mae Ward, Bert Bauer, Laura Spencer). Are we supposed to settel for action-hero wananbees (Sam McCall, Courtney Matthews) and whiny, annoying, my man is everything types (Carly Corinthos)? and lastly WE THE HELL ARE the VETERANS? in a closet? a tool-shed? well i would get them where they belong... THE FRONT BURNER... we need more Bobbie Spencer, more Ruth Martin, more Rick Bauer, more Lisa Hughes, more Brooke English and more Liza Colby-Chandler. MORE, MORE, MORE... and mostly we need LESS SONNY, LESS CARLY, LESS SANTI FAMILY, LESS SECRET ISLANDS AND LESS MURDERORS, Hookers, rapists and druggies.

Its unreal to expect soaps to be exactly like the olden days becuase like any genre it needs to change in order to grow and reflect the times they are in, but the problem is that as much as they change they have not been doing a good job of reflecting the society we live in. and that is exactly waht Irna and the other soap creators intented for the genre to do. it wasn't until later that we started seeing the outlandish and ludicrious stories soap operas have come to be famous for now-a-days. Believe me, secret islands, evil twins and back-from-the-dead characters are not what Irna Phillips or any other of the creators of the first soap operas had in mind when they created such a genre.

Thats my rant, sorry its so long.

:clap :clap :clap

props:

soaps operas are supposed to reflect upon community issues, socially relevant storylines and important political, social and economic issues. issues of the mind, heart and body. We would have no more serial killers, secret islands, evil-back-from the dead twins or pscyho raping stalkers. we'd have normal, down-to-earth people, and a few extravagant characters engaging in relevant storylines.
That's what British soap operas are for. For many of us, the sheer charm of American soaps is because of the insane stories. I loved Sunset Beach and Days Of Our Lives because of the evil identical twins, the brainwashing, the hallucinations, dear old pre- and re-programmed John. The serial killers and all the rest of it make the shows completely bonkers, and that's what makes them entertaining.

Originally posted by Mickey
That's what British soap operas are for. For many of us, the sheer charm of American soaps is because of the insane stories. I loved Sunset Beach and Days Of Our Lives because of the evil identical twins, the brainwashing, the hallucinations, dear old pre- and re-programmed John. The serial killers and all the rest of it make the shows completely bonkers, and that's what makes them entertaining.

Well i live in the USA and have never seen nor have access to UK soaps. But as someone that knows the history of the soap opera genre it is disheartning for me to see the soaps take such a downward spiral. i don't mean to imply that such stories have no place on soaps, but they should not be the dominating structre of the genre thats not what they were intended to do.

::bows::

Very good post you have up there and I agree with everything you have said. You really know your soap opera history and came up with some very very good points with the downfall of soap operas. The thing about soap operas of the past are just that...the past. Our mothers, grandmothers generation was completely and totally different than the one we live in now. Back than soaps didnt have a history to compare to, rivals soap operas, ratings, noisy commercials like they do now in days. They were old fashioned "stories" that housewives would watch from day to day. Society back than would never allow steamy loves scenes like, mobsters, pyscho killers, evil twins of today even grace the television! The first real soap opera to do something different that is still done of soaps today was Dark Shadows. Which is a classic cult soap opera. That soap was watched more by children, men that the same ordinary house wife. Soap operas are like looking through american history in a way. The 60's soap opera (Dark Shadows) became risk takers just like the people in that time. The old style lost steam and became "old". The 70's and 80's was the true glory days of the soap operas which each soap rival each other with shocking twists and turns every week. In the 90's you have practically seen everything and storylines from the 70's,80's began to repeat themselves. This is the downfall of american soap operas of today. People tuned out. So in the pre millenieum till now we are introduced to the mobsters, evil twins, secret islands, physco killers, blonde bimbos and brainless himbos that ARE somewhat watchable to people today. If you want soap operas that are somewhat relevant of the soaps of the 40's 50's with true family type storylines I would check out soaps from the United Kingdom and Austrailia. Even Telemundo's novelas have that type of storyline.

Hmmm i only partly agree with what you said. In the 60's you'd be surprised at how many risks those soaps took. Irna Phillips who created As The World Turns, The Guiding Light as well as other soaps (also served as a writer) took MANY RISKS. At one point when writing on "Days Of Our Lives" she wrote a story in which a wounded war veteran returns home, after having reconstructive surgery which rended him unrecgonizable to his family and he falls in love with his MALE COUSIN! that was a huge risk! on "The Guiding Light" she wrote a BRAVE story in which series character Bert Bauer played by Charita Bauer, struggels from Ovarian Cancer, a subject never before tackeled. ALso this same character later has her leg AMPUTATED! A HUGE risk at this time. Irna Phillips was never afraid to take a risk in her life.

"All My Children" in the 1970s was also a series which took risk after risk. In 1973 Ruth Martin, made a searing speech protesting the war in Vietnam and it was such a powerful and moving speech that it was actually taken and reproduced by American liberal newspapers and is still remembered back to this day!

In fact speaking of risk takers, Agnes Nixons "One Life Too Live" in 1968 covered the issue of Racsim and segregation when no other television show, let alone, Soap Opera, had tackeled. It was the story of Carla Grey, a black nurse who falls for a white polish Doctor, and passes herself off as white. it was a remarkable story. That in fact was so controversial that many affilietes in parts of the country (not only the South, even northern stations in cities like Philedelphia and Boston) refused to air "One Life Too Live" during this time period. at one point, ABC even considered canceling the series.

So as you can see soap operas were not afraid to tackel controverisal, hard-hitting stories at all, in fact they THRIVED on it. thats why its so sad to see the soap operas of today.

Even in the 80's and 90's Soaps had their fair share of controverisal stories from "AMC's" Cindy Chandler Aids story, and GH's ledgendary Robin and Stone story too the stories of Victoria Lords DID on "OLTL" and so on.

i'm not saying stories about psychos have no place on daytime, in fact some of the greatest soap stories ever revolve around psychos, i mean what would "AMC" have been like in the 1990's without Janet "From Another Planet" Green or what would "B&B" and "Y&R" have been like without Shelia Forresster? played by Kimberlin Brown. Even Supernatural stories can, if done correctly be excellantly executed and extremly entertaining and even, intellegant. Stories i'm thinking about that can be included in this vein are The Days Of Our Lives story of Dr. Marelana Evans Possession from the devil, Port Charles Tempted and Tainted Love story archs and the entire run of Dark Shawdows.

See what i mean?

The soaps are getting more and more outlandish in order to attack younger viewers, but they are alienating their base older viewers who don't go for that sort of thing. The ratings keep dropping and shows like OLTL and GL are in real danger of falling under a two rating, when they were averaging a 4 rating only 10 years ago. Half of the soaps could be gone within the next 10 years. Shows like GL, ATWT, OLTL, AMC are in very real danger of cancellation. I don't include Passions in that group, even though it is the lowest rated soap, because it is the number one soap in teen viewers, number two in women 18-24 and women 18-34. this is the audience that soaps are desparately trying to attract, and NBC is winning in that respect.

It's been interesting, however, to see the downturn in Passions ratings are it turns from sensational to more traditional storylines. Passions was on fire this summer, yet the ratings did not indicate that because the viewers it hooked with the supernatural storylines are turning away now that storylines are leaning towards DNA tests and long-forgotten affairs.

To me, the daytime emmys will not be legitimate until Passions gets a nomination for acting or best daytime serial. Tracey Ross, who plays Eve, has been pouring her heart out day after day for two months now are her secrets come out, yet she won't get a nomination. The one who plays Teresa shouldhave been nominated in the younger category, but she hasn't been despite the fact that she is the new Erica Kane- somebody who goes after what they want no matter what the cost to anybody else.

Passions really interests me now because of this transition. Many of the younger characters that it built its fanbase on are now leaving. They once dominated the storylines, no matter how asinine, but over the past two years they have been shoved in the background as the older characters, who are infinitely more interesting, take over the show. It's losing viewers, but quality wise, it's better than ever.

People say that soaps are all going to hell in a handbasket, but I don't believe it. The truth is, there are few storylines that are still out there, yet to be explored. Sure, any soap fan can enjoy a triangle, a serial killer, a murder mystery, an miscarriage, a story of young love, etc, but we also want some new material. Sci-fi plots are good, imo, if written right and acted properly. But they show create a show that focuses mainly on sci-fi stuff. DAYS, great as it is imo, seems awkward having traditional stories running simultaneously with more over the top fare. There should be a soap where all of the witches and vampires and wolves and stuff exist for real, where they run the show. DS was great at that. The vampires and witches and wolves and stuff were real people deep down. They fell in and out of love and formed rivalries and friendships along the way. Nowadays, the supernatural characters are only used for supernatural plots on shows that are known for traditional storylines. I say Fox or maybe even the WB should create a soap where supernatural reigns supreme.

In my opinion, there should be at least one of each of the following soap formats:

~ About families and couples with traditional stories and some coporate ones too (such as AMC and ATWT)

~ About crimes and mysteries in an urban setting, with one or two core families heading the drama (such as OLTL)

~ About doctors, their patients, their loves, their families (such as the now defunct DOC and oldGH)

Those are the three main formulas, imo, and should be the generators that keep daytime running. Other types are good (even great, such as B&B focus on business and fashion), but those three should be represented in some kind of way at all times...

Soaps have really gone downhill the past few years, IMO the only great soap on the air right now is As the World Turns.

Even on it's worst day Days of Our Lives is more watchable than General Hospital. I blame Frons for the downfall of ABC soaps.

:mad: