Which soaps did your mother watch?

My mother, who was a stay-at-home mom for most of the '50s and '60s, never watched any soaps. She thought they were stupid.

My mom, at various points, watched “Ryan’s Hope”, “The Doctors”, “Days of Our Lives” and “Another World”.

She said that RH and AW were outstanding in the 70s.

My stepmother like [italic]Love Is a Many Splendored Thing[/italic]. My grandmother watched [italic]the Secret Storm[/italic]. My mother almost never watched TV.

My mother was only into the nighttime soaps like Knots Landing, Dallas and Falcon Crest.

Grandma, Mom and Aunts were all about the NBC soaps: Days of Our Lives, Another World and Santa Barbara.

Only the CBS shows. She had As The World Turns on when they interrupted with the Kennedy assassination news.

R4 mine too. Especially DYNASTY.

Love is a Many Spendored Thing. Betsy Churnak was so cool.

Both my parents watched Dallas. Mom watched Knots Landing for a while.

My nonna liked General Hospital because of fellow Italian John Beradino.

But she didn't understand English very well so as a kid I had to translate for her.

Sometimes if I didn't understand the storyline or was just bored, I would make shit up. "He said she's ugly and he doesn't like her and he wants her to go away". LOL.

I still watch GH to this day out of nostalgia for nonna.

My mother didn't watch daytime soaps as she worked full-time. But she did love Dynasty.

As The World Turns. Penny and Lisa - I remember those names as a kid. She named my little sister Lisa, even though Lisa was a bad girl. She later watched Days of our Lives, The Doctors and Another World. She did all her ironing, housework with those shows on. Very rarely did she sit down to watch. She and the neighbor ladies would talk about the characters like they knew them. I remember Susan's baby falling off the swing on DOOL, made me leery of our swing set when I was 5.

My mother, aunt, and grandmother watched Another World back in the ‘70s. They were really into the Rachel/Alice/Steve triangle, and they couldn’t wait to see what Rachel would do next to stir things up. This was during the summer, while I was home from school, and I’d watch it with them. I wondered why the only kids on the show were Dennis Carrington and Jamie Frame, and even they seemed old to me. I’ll always have fond memories of the recently deceased Jennifer Leak (Yours, Mine and Ours; ex-wife of co-star in that film, Tim Matheson), as the evil Olive Gordon, which was towards the end of the ‘70s, and crazy, deadly Sven, played by Roberts Blossom.

Oh, and Constance Ford, as Ada, was very no-nonsense.

UK here.

My mother never missed Crossroads, Coronation Street or Emmerdale Farm. She loved the catfights on Dynasty.

In fact, my mom went to high school with Sam Groom. He transferred in with his brother the last year or so and the handsome Groom brothers were all the talk.

And then he was on “Another World” a decade or so later.

General Hospital

Bold and the beautiful! I still remember the fabrics

My mother watched most of the NBC line up in the 70s -- Days of Our Lives, The Doctors and Another World. This was during the Doug and Julie romance, Steve and Carolee romance and Steve-Alice-Rachel triangle days.

Then she would switch over to CBS to watch Edge of Night at 3:30. This was when rich but crazy Keith Whitney grew long hair and a beard and adopted the alias of Jonah Lockwood. He looked Charles Manson and went around killing women. At one point, he was engaged to heroine Laurie Ann Karr.

A friend who was used to telenovelas told me as a teen she'd started watching One Life to Live with her grandmother until it finally occurred to them that there was no end, that the story just went on and on. Then they stopped watching.

The Gold Standard: “As The World Turns”

None. She never watched daytime soaps. It just wasn't her thing.

Although, I do remember her looking over at the portable television playing in the kitchen one day and seeing Brad Carlton in his Speedo (on Y&R) and making the comment to us kids, "If I weren't married to your dad, I could go for that."

Like R6, my Mom loved all the soaps on channel 2. Then, when she learned Kennedy had been shot, she stopped watching those soaps. I thiink she held a grudge.

She started watching the NBC soaps, The Doctors, Another World, Santa Barabara. I would watch The Edge of Night but it was on channel 7. For a few years, I watched Ryan's Hope, as well.

The Nurses

My mom went back to work in 1984 when I was 5. But I know that she watched All My Children from 79-84.

One Life To Live was my show thanks to my grandparents who watched AMC/OLTL/GH.

I knew no one who watched Ryan's Hope, Loving, or Edge of Night..

I also developed a fondness for Y&R thanks to my own bad taste.

My Southern mother certainly did not watch soap operas and she wouldn't allow our maid to watch them either.

Like sands through the hourglass, so go the Days of our Lives.

The Edge of Knife

My cunt mother never watched, but my grandmother and I were all in on NBC during the 80's/90's: DAYS, Another World, Santa Barbara, Generations and Sunset Beach. No Passions, however.

At different points the following all got a watch

The Secret Storm

The Doctors

Search For Tomorrow

Love of Life

As The World Turns

The Guiding Light (with a the)

The Edge of Night (with a the)

Days of Our Lives

Another World

Texas

The Young and the Restless

[quote] The Guiding Light (with a the)

[quote]The Edge of Night (with a the)

You stopped watching when those shows dropped the "THE" from their names?

Memories

I imagine that a DLer maintains these wiki pages.

Mom (and I) saw telenovelas. Back in the day when they were new and exciting and the villains were assholes and the heroines were long-suffering and beautiful.

They are the stuff of legends. There was even a soap with an adorable little girl with corkscrew curls as the main character.

Nowadays it’s just rehashed crap with horrible actresses and nondescript dudes.

My mom didn't watch soaps, not even the nighttime ones.

In fact, she criticized me for watching Young & Restless (my neighbor got me hooked, one summer). My mom was familiar with Eric Braeden (Victor Newman on Y&R) and said he was B-list and why was I watching this crap.

My mom was obsessed with Peyton Place in the 60s. Then Somerset and Another World were her daytime faves. She later liked Texas.

She loved Dynasty, Dallas and Falcon Crest but never warmed to Knot's Landing. She liked the wealthy people.

My mother rarely missed an episode of Peyton Place, Dark Shadows and Another World.

My mom didn’t watch. My dad did. He watched The young and the Restless and the Bold and the Beautiful. He also liked Edge of the Night before my time. My mom will always tell me when she sees “Mrs. Chancellor “ on Perry Mason or a western tv series. My aunts on my dad’s side were also into the bell/cbs soaps. If my dad wanted to get one of my aunts going he’d start complimenting Nikki’s dance skills. She thought she was a horrible dancer in her stripper days.

My older sister was obsessed with Young & Restless in the late70s - early 80s and I'd watch it with her because we had only one tv and 5 channels. But then she graduated h.s. and had to go to work, so I would recount the plots to her.

Somehow I got hooked on All My Children during the Greg, Jenny, Marcie, Silver years. They seemed to be about my age and the plots were engrossing. We lived out in the sticks on 4 acres with no trees and no friends. The summers were brutal and we had no A/C. So I'd sit in front of a fan drinking pop and watching hours of television: game shows, talk shows, the noon news.

My grandmother watched Love of Life and (I think) The Guiding Light (I am old). My mother wasn't into soaps.

Young & the Restless

All My Children

One Life to Live

General Hospital

My grandmother watched As the World Turns.

Your story moved me, r37.

I know lots of people look down on the soaps. That's Ok, but I have a different view of them.

"The soaps saved my life" my mother said to me one day in the early 2000s, decades after neither of us watched them anymore.

That remark startled me. I asked my Mom, "What do you mean?"

Mom married a handsome, fun, alcoholic. Dad turned out to be a good man after he sobered-up, but in their early married years, Mom was left alone; a lot.

She had no other adults to talk to.

Just like Loretta Lynn, one of us was tugging at her skirt, one of us was bawling, one of us was crawling and one was on the way.

But she was vigilant about naps for us. We were on a schedule.

It was then Mom could turn on the soaps, immerse herself in a different world, hear adult conversations.

A vision of my mother, young, pretty, lonely, came to my mind.

I got a lump in my throat.

"The soaps saved my life", indeed.

Both sides of my family were CBS soaps all the way

I am dumb. I meant to post this here but posted in that "Fuck with a soap Opera name' thread-

I always noticed in the northeast in the 80's-90's everyone watched AMC/OLTL/GH. It seemed like everyone.

No one watched Y&R besides me and a chick at school. We went apeshit during the Sheila/Lauren storyline - I think that was 7th grade.. It was bananas. NO ONE watched but us. OLTL and Y&R could not have been more different and I noticed that even at 7-8 years old (I was a latch key kid) They were a great combo that covered all styles-

DOOL had some random fans and that show seemed more prominent by college in the late 90's/early 2000's.

By 2008, no one talked about soaps anymore. I stuck with OLTL and Y&R until 2012 and when OLTL ended, I was done with both.

Never watched another and no interest now.

r42 when I was in middle school in the 1990s in Ohio, Days of our Lives was *the* soap that all the popular girls watched. They would discuss it every day on the bus.

R43- I do suspect that DOOL had some of the most mainstream appeal in the 90's... Those were Marlena and Devil days- and maybe that buried alive storyline?

The actual Gold Standard: Guiding Light. Grandma, mom, me until it was canceled.

GL, which stayed a top rated show for 40 years, even against a slew of other shows and the GH phenomenon. GL stayed top 4 sharing a time slot with peak GH. That shows you how good that show was for so long. Quality.

My mom never watched soaps.

R45- That always impresses me that year where GL hit 4 against GH, even beating pre-Rauch peak OLTL.

I always forget getting hooked on GL one summer when GH bored me.. It was 88 or 89? GH was just "on" after OLTL so I would generally stick around for whatever spy storyline was going on with Anna and Robert.

The summer when Alan returned with a mask that looked like a pineapple. It may have been the Sonni/Solita. storyline as well.

It felt very similar to my OLTL but not as outlandish, and I liked it. I only lasted a few months during the summer until school

(I know this was not GL's "high point" but this 9-10 year old dug it.

R47 That was the beginning of what was GL’s last Golden Era (88-93). Sonni/Solita was powerhouse. One of the all time best storylines ever in daytime.

GL must’ve been hella good if it more than held its own against peak GH, even beating it for #1 for a few weeks in the summer of 84. GL was always a ratings champ, until 86 when it hit bottom, bounced back to #4 in 91/92, then fell off after the disastrous 93.

The Secret Storm.

R48- I recall being very surprised that GL was #8 in the late 80's. That summer it was extremely addictive. And ATWT did pretty well so I am perplexed why viewers would tune out.

R50 Apparently, it was so bad in 86/87 viewers didn’t give it a chance. ATWT’s ratings were not stellar, either. GL was #6 or #7 in the late 80s. I just checked. Its ‘92 ratings don’t show how hot the show got. It rose to #2 or #3 regularly until it lost 3 huge actresses within months that summer-Sherry Stringfield being the biggest, also Bev McKinsey. All were in red hot storylines and it just killed all momentum the show had. So ratings dropped the latter half of ‘92.

The only one I know of is Dark Shadows. I'm named after one of the characters.

my wheelhouse too - mom was The Doctors (Althea FFS) Days of Our Lives & Another World, particularly for Connie Ford; gram had apparently been a CBS gal (she retired the year before I was born and dove in head first) but my earliest memories of her were General Hospital and One Life and then she bailed back to CBS after some sort of plot offense, when she became a Roger Thorpe and later Victor Newman fangirl.

I had a love/hate with Dark Shadows as a tot myself, but totally got into it in reruns and clamored for everything we eventually got in rerun form, I watched bits of the final two years of The Secret Storm cuz it was on after game shows right after school and my gram gave me the backstory one weekend when she babysat; and I had early One Life immersion when I was home with the mumps early 73. So I kinda had a lot of suds love around me at a young age I got into the ABC shows when I was an unsupervised preteen when not in school - teen hooker Donna Beck was trying to break free from her pimp Tyrone - and this was the type of shit the Catholic school faculty got their panties in a bunch over - so OBVIOUSLY it became required viewing whenever I could see it. And then came the whole of Pine Valley, for the next couple of decades. Then Ryan's, big time through high school, and One Life (Marco, Mitch), and Edge (Miles was from Dark Shadows and had his shirt off) BUT for some reason I never liked GH, until it became the last show standing. But an old BF was a CBS guy (except for GL, which he shredded the appearance of pretty much the entire cast as his primary reason for his dislike of it. He had many attributes that were less despicable, at least nine and a half that I can recall.) But he dragged me into Y&R, B&B & ATWT unwittingly. As our relationship deteriorated I began GL in defiance. As a joke. And then...fanboy until the end, secretly dream of reboot, twas the grand dame, don't talk about the last two years where it looked like a cataract..

I loved the connection to many females in my life over soaps - miss them all.

I remember my mom watching Love Is A Many Splendored Thing and The Guiding Light when I was very little. I eventually became a big As The World Turns fan and we both ended up watching it until the end.

My paternal grandmother watched all the NBC soaps and Another World was her favorite

My mom lived and breathed Guiding Light. One of my first memories was my mom talking about "Big Ed." Then I started watching during the Nola and Quentin years, and watched faithfully until just a few years before the end.

My mom was a homemaker for the first 12 years of my life and she loved to watch One Life to Live and General Hospital during the afternoons. In the evening, we both loved to watch Knots Landing.

As if.

My grandma watched GH, then thought it got extremely stupid and switched to GL. She was hooked, got mom hooked, too. She stayed with GL until the end.

Jesus, it is surprising GL was top 4 against GH in its heyday. GL not only held its own, its ratings increased! It must have been good. Both of those shows killed anything NBC threw up against them. NBC couldn’t compete against two shows pulling in those ratings.

The Forsyte Saga

My mother started out with radio soaps--when they went away, she "watched" oldies like "Young Doctor Malone", but mostly just listened enough to keep up.

My grandmother had the CBS soaps on all day. Love of Life, Search for Tomorrow, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, Edge of Night. I never cared for the first two, but I would join her for the others when I was home. By the time she died, in the late 1970s, I was watching ATWT and GL on my own. I haven’t watched since the early 1990s, but I was sad to see those two soaps canceled.

CBS all the way.

On no other network could you see two future Oscar winners - Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei - playing best friends (ATWT).

When was GH’s peak and what the hell was going on on GL that it stayed so high in the ratings? You’d think GH would have crushed both CBS and NBC shows, but it didn’t GL.

My mom was a teacher, so every summer we got caught up with the entire CBS lineup. The Guiding Light was always our favorite. Then Match Game and Tattle Tales. The Mike Douglas Show was on there somewhere, late in the day, before the evening news I think.

At night we pretended we didn’t watch tv around my dad, so I didn’t watch evening soaps until I went away to college. None of them really stuck for me though.

R63 Both GL and ATWT had a shit ton of future stars. Common denominator? Casting director. Both have quite a few Oscar nominees/winners.

GL boasts James Earl Jones being replaced Billy Dee Williams (or vice versa) and playing the wife were Cicely Tyson who was replaced by Rudy Dee! That’s fucking insane.

^^ Ruby Dee

I grew up Down Under where we had most of the US shows to enjoy. My parents only watched highbrow English shows, but in the late 70s my mother would dunk me in front of the set while watching Another World and iron. Occasionally her girlfriends came over and they'd watch and talk about the show. In the 80s I caught her watching The Young and the Restless a couple of times during Nikki the stripper storyline but that was a habit she seemed keen to break.

Days of Our Lives and Bold and the Beautiful were the most popular shows. But in the '90s, Channel 10 would sometimes show 6 or 12 months worth of All My Children, General Hospital, or One Life to Live episodes. These were several years old and had a different 'vibe' to the others. That was when I saw the Viki and the Secret Room under Llanfair story.

R66 I know. ATWT had more big screen future stars than I think any other soap.

Meg Ryan Parker Posey Ming Na-Wen Jordana Brewster

Plus, the aforementioned.

“The Doctors” will always have Kathleen Turner and Alec Baldwin.

R68: What about "Neighbours" (incredibly dull and devoid of sex in the 90s) or "Home and AWAY" (with evil, pt-stirring Morag)?

R70 Those shows were extremely popular with Australian teens and audiences who lived in the UK, but few adults in Australia ever watched them.

R69 I think it is a close race for future stars between GL and ATWT. Many started on one and went to the other- Meg Ryan was first on GL, as was Jesse Soffer.

GL had:

James Earl Jones

Billy Dee Williams

Cicely Tyson

Ruby Dee

Christopher Walken

JoBeth Williams

Kevin Bacon

Meg Ryan

Angela Bassett

Mira Sorvino

Nia Long

Victor Garber

Frances Fisher

Paige Turco

Ian Zeiring

Allison Janney

Tammy Blanchard (Tony noms, Emmy win for playing Judy Garland)

Brittany Snow

Jesse Lee Soffer

Calista Flockhart

Michelle Forbes

Sherry Stringfield

Melina Kanakaredes

Taye Diggs

Paul Wesley

Tom Pelphrey

Cynthia Watros (who went back to soaps after a nice career)

Murray Bartlett

Sarah Michelle Gellar (technically on. GL first)

Hayden Panettiere

Bethany Lenz (One Tree Hill)

Mariska Hargitay’s hubby (🤣) he’s always on L&O

Ricky Ullman (phil of the future)

Steven Weber

Bradley Whitford

There are others.

R72 Steven Weber was on GL before ATWT? I know both were Doug Marland productions.

R72 Thanks!

R73 He was on both either way.

R74 Robin who?

Paige Turco? You're really scaping the bottom for "stars"

Dark Shadows

None- my mother never watched TV during the day and very little in the evening until I was well into my teens. I don’t think I have ever watched a soap for more than a few minutes. I thought they were silly. I did watch Dynasty in the 80s. But it had “normal” high gloss evening production values and was funny, camp. Daytime soaps took themselves seriously.

All My Children was on all the time

I was watching ”As the World Turns” in the 80s and my mom walked in and asked, “Is that Lisa?”

She never watched it as she had only watched NBC soaps but she knew Lisa. I think everyone did.

None. She worked all day. Her latchkey kids (us) would watch General Hospital (and a little later One like to live) after school. If we had they day of and didn't go we'd watch DOOL too, though my sister was the bigger fan. I liked the ABC soaps though I never got into All my Children

R79 "Daytime soaps took themselves seriously"

Yeah I can tell you only watched for a few minutes

R52 Barnabas?

r81 (I am OP): I almost felt like Lucinda was a member of the family growing up. She seemed like someone who really existed in the world.

r84. Angelique probably

R44 I was in jr high and high school in the 90's and can confirm that Days of Our Lives had some mainstream popularity for its wild stories. The Carly buried alive story that aired the summer before was a topic even amongst some of the guys when 7th grade started. Later, in my junior year, there was a jock in my English class who, when a few of the girls were discussing the show, jumped in to rave about 'Hope's tits' in the dress she'd worn in yesterday's episode. In our area the show was on at 3 pm, so easily watchable right after school.

Oddly enough R87- The only time I ever witnessed straight guys get involved with soap opera talk was I think the summer after 6th or 7th grade. It was actually about the Gang Rape Trial of Marty Saybrooke on One Life To Live. Someone brought it up and everyone was talking about it in class. I realized later that OLTL should have been wiser about continuing topical storylines for high school/college kids. They may have had better ratings during that era. Also, the trial that summer was the only time OLTL hit # 3 (I think for 2-3 weeks that summer) in YEARS and during that Linda Gottlieb era--- and it never really saw that ranking again until 1999 I think- also for a week or so during the Jill FArren Phelps era.

In college, I recall Days being THE show at the time. Soaps were not as big, but Days was. I barely recall much being discussed about other shows. And still watched OLTL and Y&R, and I personally loved the plot driven, dark, character assassination times of JFP. It was lurid storytelling and really no worse than what the horrid Dena Higley did to OLTL...

Dena Higley was the worst writer I had ever witnessed in any medium. It was GARBAGE.

R77 She’s had a decent career. She was on the 100 which ran for many seasons and was popular with teens. She was known as the MILF of the show.

Mom told me soaps were for lazy asses with no life.

My mom ended up saying the same thing-

I DON'T want you watching that trash.

Yet she fingered herself to AMC until 84'.

She didn't watch any. But if she had it wouldn't have influenced me. I started watching them on my own.

Corrie! For my entire life she’s watched it; I used to like it, but it lost its way by bringing in too much ridiculous drama.

R91 disturbing you picture your mom fingering herself

Add Matt Bomer to the GL alums list.

R88 I remember the common area in my dorm had all kinds of students gathered around at lunch watching Marty's Rape Trial the summer of 93. I think the last two weeks of the trial OLTL also hit #1 in the main soap demo of women 34-48 at the time.

I remember being a kid in the 70s and hating when my mom monopolized the tv with her soaps. I would sometimes watch, but mostly thought they were boring. It was mostly CBS shows, but she hated Y&R and would instead watch AMC, which came on at the same time back then in our city. She went back to work in the early 80s and I started casually watching AMC on a summer break and got hooked. From then on, it was “my” show, but I never really liked the other ABC shows. I also regularly watched ATWT and AW but lost interest in both when I got to college.

My mother? She thought soaps were for slatterns and common sorts. My mother was always too busy doing more important things - like feeling superior.

A girl in my 8th grade class asked if we could have the day off to watch Luke & Laura’s wedding.

This thread is making me very nostalgic.

Most soaps were shit except for a few who genuinely provided quality at various points like GL, ATWT, GH (briefly at its height), AW pre-80s. The others regularly were laughable and cringe.

R96 I was in middle school and remember racing home from school to watch that. It was really great. And Todd Manning, played by Roger Howarth, was such an amazing villain.

R99 GH used to air at 3pm so most kids would be home by that time, but I don't doubt the girl wanted the day off. In the student union at the University of Cincinnati it would be PACKED at 3 for GH during the Luke/Laura era.

As long as no one breaks silence, none of them will. The social pressure in a small town to keep things under wraps and not embarrass any of the families is keeping them quiet.

Was that the CBS show: As the Okie Twink Turns? ^

My Mom never sat down during the day. She was out playing tennis, shopping, volunteering. Meanwhile, I spent afternoon hours with our beloved maid. She'd bring the ironing board into the den, I'd snack on chips and Cokes and we'd watch the Guiding Light. I would run from the bus stop with my backpack and lunch box so I didn't miss a minute of Kelly Nelson and Morgan and Nola. One time I came home late and asked our maid what I missed. She was a churchgoing woman and struggled with how to tell a 4th grade boy that two characters had fucked. She said, "they had relations at the lake". I was like, "you don't say". as I popped a Cheez Doodle into my mouth.

She watched Tide go into the washer…only the best soap for her.

R101. Fuck off. At its best OLTL was the best soap opera ever. And some of the best drama and writing.

However, Eterna made my mom utterly disgusted. Which I understood.

WHAT IS THIS!!??? This is garbage!!!

I was utterly addicted and enthralled.

Just read that Marla Adams died yesterday.

I vividly remember watching her play Belle on Secret Storm when I was just a little kid.

I know she was on Y/R for years, but to me she was always Belle. The consummate soap bitch.

R109, I have some memories of Belle, married to a local politician played by the patriarch of later Ryan's Hope. Is that correct? Also Gary Sandy (BULGE) and his defrocked priest brother he called Goody Two Shoes.

David Ackroyd was hot then too

R108 has it right. OLTL had a ton of great powerful stories for daytime. Carla's passing as white, Karen's prostitution, Marty's Gang Rape, The Homophobia Aids Quilt and Viki's DID from incest were never treated with soap camp. They were very seriously dealt with and the soap would have these marvelous social issue stories ever so many years.

R111 destroying Victor Lord to accomodate another Emmy for Slezak was just stupid. Even Erika felt that, having been close to Ernest Graves.

R102 I like Trevor St John's Todd but he wasn't even in the same universe as Howarth. His Todd was a horrible person but his performance in the early years had a dark deeply damaged color to that character that only he could play. I know the role made him very uncomfortable and it started to spill on to the screen but he never had that intensity and deft to his acting in any other role after. He never registered to me as Paul Ryan or the 200 characters he played on GH.

R113 yeah Todd in the 90s was a super captivating antihero. But once RH returned to the show in 2000 he just played him too goofy, probably because he was bored. Roger Howarth had so much potential but sadly he wasn't able to do much out of soaps and his potential and quality diminished along with the genre.

I liked Roho as Franco and the character was pretty succesfull but I heard the pc/woke police decided brain tumour or not that couldn't allow a serial killer and would be rapist to be a lobg term character, hence them killing him off and whatever mess of a character it was that they created for him that was an utter failure

The only one anyone in my family watched was Dark Shadows--my mother, brother, and sister all watched it. As the youngest, I saw it only at the end--the last two years--but I can remember all the names of the major characters.

I watched it mostly for David ( I identified with him because he was a child).

We didn’t watch shit like that. We shopped during the daytime or volunteered for charities. I attended a private school for 12 years and didn’t record shit like that to watch later. Neither did my mother. If we watched any TV during the daytime it was the 700 Club, The People’s Court or Entertainment Tonight.

[quote] If we watched any TV during the daytime it was the 700 Club, The People’s Court or Entertainment Tonight.

The things some people choose to brag about.

We watched the PTL Club too bitch-ass!

R 108 No, not consistently.

Down memory lane I go.

Thanks R121, As a rapidly aging almost 44 year old, I was a OLTL die hard little fanboy (and hated ATWT as a kid/teen for getting all the critical accolades) but I love these old ATWT clips. I think that Zenk has been through the fucking RINGER- and I am so happy for her resurgence. During OLTL commercials I would watch ATWT just to see Lucinda Walsh- and specifically I remember watching those "Walsh Take Over" scenes- To my knowledge it was Connor? And they took Lucinda's company? I lingered way too long and almost forgot OLTL for longer than I expected- so this had to be 90-91 when OLTL was losing steam. It was a boardroom or. something--

Now I'm getting into it ...

If nighttime soaps count, mine liked Dallas and Falcon Crest

My mom and older sister watched Dynasty and Knots Landing. And all the ABC daytime slate Ryan's Hope, Loving, All My Children, One Life To Live, General Hospital.

Even Ryans Hope and Loving??? Those 2 eluded my grandparents!! They were both born in 1925...

R66, I couldn’t agree with you more! That stellar casting director was Betty Rea.

Alan Locher recently interviewed Cloris Leachman’s son Morgan Englund (is his dad Freddy Krueger?) who told a great story about Betty Rea.

This was one of the best The Locher Room episodes.

However… twice (!) Morgan Englund began to speak about Melissa Hayden, who played Bridget Reardon. Both times Alan interrupted and steered the conversation in a different direction. Ugghhhh!

R70 & R71, I just started watching Home & Away. I’m about 10 episodes in, and really like it. I love Prisoner and Sons & Daughters too. I’m an American elder gay, but lately I’ve been really happy to be able to see those older Australian soaps.

RR127!! I vividly remember blind items stating that Paul Rauch felt that Melissa Hayden was UGLY and ditched her!!!

Didnt she win the emmy too???

Morgan Englund made me gay. The painful acting made him hotter.He was so hot it looked good.

He looks HOT AS BALLS NOW!!! R130

R129, although I (kinda) liked Rauch’s aesthetic, he must’ve been a total asshole. You’re right about Hayden, I believe. He also caused Maeve Kincaid to quit - he refused to allow her to stop coloring her hair.

R132- I am the OLTL fan boy above. He wanted bright lighting to offer an upbeat vibe.

At least GL looked "glossy"-- he said that GL had special colored "Gel" on the lights!!!!-- And you can see this onscreen- Its like a pinkish /yellow haze-

OLTL's lighting post 1987 was extremely harsh, but if you watch, the actresses eyes all had a key light "orb" to bring out their eyes-

(I read an interview once with OLTL"s lighting designers- and that was Rauch's key directive- upbeat and wanted the actresses eyes highlighted)

He said that soap's lighting made women look horrible...

But I think he was a total prick. But a Genius prick-

On OLTL the 80's Rauch years were very bright and the 90s Linda Gotlieb were darker and flatter colors. The stories reflected that.

Caswell-Massey

Who knew that Elizabeth Hubbard graduated from RADA.

I think Jon Hensley was my first real crush

Lily was just not- pretty. Very frumpy.

My mother had slowed down on her soap viewing when she went back to work (part time) when I hit high school, but she and I both loved Kate Collins as Natalie on AMC, especially in the beginning when she was more of a vixen. I’d record it and we’d watch it together after dinner on the days she’d been at work. My dad would roll his eyes at us, but I caught him watching sometimes! He liked David Canary.

None and she made fun of me for watching them.

Back to therapy…

The Edge of Night

The Secret Storm

in later years...Days of Our Lives

Guiding Light (her fave) Young and the Restless (still does)

She occasionally watched ATWT or OLTL

She hated- GH (thought it was absurd-she’d laugh at the Ice Princess shit), AMC (she rightly thought SL was a shit actress), DOOL (low brow)

It was hard to buy Holden lusting for trust fund homely Lily, when sexy Emily Stewart(Melanie Smith) was also around.

Lily and Holden were probably ground zero for what would become Hallmark Channel: Plain Jane defies odds to win hot guy.

Well, Holden did end up marrying Smith’s Emily on the show as a rebound. So he got some real woman.

Luciano got the looks gene from his bio dad and the gay gene from Lily. I mean, when you have a fabulous grandmother like Lucinda Walsh, you're gonna be queer!

Remember when Lucinda's boyfriend wanted Luke? He must have wanted some of that hot shirtless jumping up and down on the bed action Noah was getting.

"I mean, when you have a fabulous grandmother like Lucinda Walsh, you're gonna be queer!"

The writers even had Lucinda say, when Lily told her that Luke was gay, "Oh... Of course. It makes perfect sense." Now, Lucinda was supposed to be referencing Luke's odd behavior and secretiveness, but I like to think it was a little wink to gay viewers.

[quote]He must have wanted some of that hot shirtless jumping up and down on the bed action Noah was getting.

We'll take some of the jumping up and down on the bed action any day!!

My mother didn't watch soaps.

But my sister-in-law did, and I would sit and watch General Hospital with her, during the John Stamos and Rick Springfield years. Gorgeous men, and I was just a teen gay.

When Santa Barbara started in 1984, I watched the first episode, and was completely hooked right away, and watched it until 1990!

My mother got hooked on GL during the Four Musketeers era. She had been an ABC watcher, but her cousin got her hooked on GL during Christmas break. She never stopped, not even during the Peapack years.

My mom never watched soaps. But in the '70 I watched AMC/OLTL on ABC in between my college classes.

r138 she was chin deficient.

When the final episode of One Life To Live aired in January 2012, Sidetrack in Chicago did as they had done four months earlier for the finale of All My Children had a farewell party, complete with stars of the show (Ilene Kristen, Tonya Walker, Josh Kelly, etc.) - I had just gotten back from my mom's passing the week before - took a close gal pal with me for an early liquid lunch and star schmoozing. My phone died during the party, so minimal pics at the time. It was a surreal and sad experience that seemed so unfair (this was shortly after the whole Prospect Park fiasco derailed the first time). In hindsight it is surprising how special that moment is to me now. I feel lucky to have gotten to have it.

And in grand soap operatic fashion the friend I went with died on my birthday in a very soapy way many years later.

How did she die, R153? Murdered by her long-lost identical twin? Drove off a bridge screaming her ex's name? Expired seconds after a heart-tugging, deathbed wedding ceremony?

My mom got me into soaps - I was maybe 5 or 6 and became enthralled by Rachel and Iris on AW....then mom was all about Doug and Julie on DAYS.

I ended up watching different shows (though I caught AW on and off).

r154 She convinced her same-age stepson to pull the plug as she lay dying in the hospital where she was a doctor.

Always nice to see you, ORD.

R156 How very Margo Hughes/Casey Peretti!

R157 You too, doll!

Holden Snyder forced me to be gay.

The soap viewers in my home were my dad and teen sisters. Dad came home for lunch and inadvertently got hooked on Search for Tomorrow, which aired at 12:30 pm in my area. My sisters were devoted to Dark Shadows and Another World, but switched to Y & R upon its premiere.

Mom's TV routine was the Today show (later GMA), then Donahue at 9 a.m., unless his topic was boring. Then she started her day. Any down time before dinner was usually spent reading a book or napping. If she watched anything in the afternoon, it was one of the talk shows (Mike Douglas, Merv, Dinah) or an old movie.

R154, still too icky for me to talk about, even after a few years, but it implicates friends, friends of friends, other friends siblings and one rival on the level of Elaine/Sue Ellen Mishke who was also once a really close friend of mine.

Search For Tomorrow and The Guiding Light

[quote] Holden Snyder forced me to be gay.

Oh, I had lots of fantasies about Holden and Dusty making me their toy. With Casey Peretti joining in.

Anyone excited for the first new daytime soap since 1999, The Gates? It has to be better than the last new daytime soap, Passions. Right?

"The baby that Emily's carrying is going to make Rosemary's baby look like a saint."

R164 One hopes so.

Hopefully it's rooted in some sort of reality. GENERATIONS suffered from just being boring, and my one hope for The Gates is that, in showing an affluent family/community, they don't get weighted down in the dullness of corporate storylines that have made Young and Restless dreadfully dull.

The soap Capitol would be boring compared to what's going on now in politics.

I wish I could find some people to talk about Santa Barbara with me. That show was fantastico.

My mother didn’t watch soaps, but my grandparents, who lived right down the street, did. They babysat me on many summer afternoons when my mother had errands to do. With my grandparents, I watched Days of Our Lives, As the World Turns, Guiding Light and Another World. The grown-up world these shows depicted fascinated me. This was in the late ‘60s and into the early ‘70s, and the storyline I remember best was the Laura-Mickey-Bill Horton saga on DOOL. They would tease the audience over and over, bringing us right up to the point of thinking that increasingly crazy and paranoid Mickey was going to find out “his” son with Laura was really Bill’s child, but then back away. (I looked up the full storyline online a while back, and it was even more convoluted than I remembered. Pure soap gold.)

Meanwhile, I had a crush on Russ Matthews on AW, as played by Sam Groom. Robin Strasser was playing Rachel at the time, and she was a classic soap opera bitch. It was great fun.

These were really prime soap opera years, when the stories were all kitchen-sink and coffee-klatch domestic – none of the multi-millionaires, crime families, mystery and glamour the shows added later. I never found any of that stuff interesting.

[quote]I wish I could find some people to talk about Santa Barbara with me. That show was fantastico.

We've had several Santa Barbara threads over the years. They start out with lots of activity, then peter out pretty quickly. They never seem to have the longevity that the P&G soap threads used to have.

Below is a thread started a decade ago that started out strong and then just sort of fizzeled out.