Eldergays, tell us about viewing habits back in the heyday of soap operas

My mom never watched soaps and I never had any relatives who did, I have no idea who did. My mom watched a few game shows in the afternoon, mostly in the winter. Password and To Tell The Truth. A lot of did arrange their chores so they could watch favorite shows because the obviously couldn't record them.

Back in the 60s when there were just three networks and remote controls were not common, most people stayed loyal to the network. So, you had people who watched CBS shows or NBC shows.

But there were people who watched specific shows, and then changed the channels to an other soap.

For example, As the World Turns on CBS was the big powerhouse of the soaps for almost 20 years. And for most of that time, neither ABC or CBS would program another soap against it.They had game shows on at 1:30 p.m. opposite ATWT.

For many years, NBC didn't even start is soap lineup until 2 p.m., after ATWT finished. And ABC had a few lunchtime soaps, then went to game shows in the early afternoon, then resumed soaps at 3 p.m,

I seem to recall when I first started reading DL in the late 90s there were so many obsessive soap opera threads that discussion of soaps was banned for a while.

My grandmother and I watched the CBS soaps together when I was a preschooler in the 1950s. She continued watching them when I went to school. She was watching ATWT when Walter Cronkite broke in to tell America President Kennedy had been shot.

I did not watch soaps again until 1988, when one episode of Another World drew me in for good. It was one where Matthew and Josie were playing push me-pull you, and farm girl Josie Watts didn't feel she was good enough for preppy prince Matthew Cory. I had no idea of the subtext, just that I HAD to tune in tomorrow when it was over.

Eventually, I started watching ATWT, too, and got a second VCR so I could tape both shows. I also watched GL for a few years, not as long as the other two.

If I'd ever had to choose one network, it would have been CBS. Sorry, Lady E-A-B.

When the SciFi cable channel first started up in 1992 Dark Shadows was one of the shows they started with, and they showed the whole thing from the black and white beginning, an episode or so a day. Watched the whole thing beginning to end. That's the only soap I ever watched.

I got hooked on soaps through my mother, who was a dedicated NBC viewer. She would occasionally watch Search for Tomorrow, as it was on in the morning for a while where we were, or have it on in the background. But she'd usually have the TV on NBC and play it from The Doctors to Another World. AW was her favorite show early on (I've shared my experiences here of using Iris dialogue on one of our very Iris like neighbors) and she loved Rachel.

My friend's mom had HER television on all day to CBS and that's how I discovered "my" shows. My friend told me about Nola and Vanessa wearing a fur coat and nothing underneath and I had to see it for myself, so I was hooked. Once "Nola" showed up in Oakdale I watched that too.

I do think the shows were well written and acted in the late 70s/80s, more than they were before and more than they'd be after that period, where shows got old and budgets were cut. But I also think the limited channels made us all actually SIT and watch, even after VCRs came along, and I think when you catch the little nuances here and there, it added enjoyment to the stories.

People watch entire episodes now, too, but in smaller bites (not for years on end, usually) when they binge a streaming show or the like. Granted, cable and streaming shows had far bigger budgets. But I also think shows like Mad Men had some similar aspects - a story that came from character and was seldom plot oriented, one where a small thing like a look, a line or a particular piece of wardrobe could tell a story. Mad Men was also very good at telling story not through obvious spot-on text, but via subtext, telling us as much with what they didn't say to each other.

My gramma watched all of her “stories” on CBS.

When my grandmother retired in the early 80's, she started watching NBC soaps. In the summer we'd watch Days, Another World and Santa Barbara. Later, she had a passing interest in Sunset Beach, no interest in Passions, and loved Generations.

Even when it was down to two on NBC, Another World and Days, and even though AW had become AWful, she never tried a "story" on a different network.

My grandmother was the only family member I can think of who watched soaps. (I have a vague memory of the opening of The Secret Storm.)

The only soap I used to watch was The Edge of Night in the early 1980s when I was in college.

Because so many of the story lines involved people being physically threatened - if not getting murdered or kidnapped - ithe show felt less like a soap opera and more soap noir.

In the 80s my mother and grandmother watched the NBC soaps (DAYS, AW, Santa Barbara--for a brief spell, Search for Tomorrow). When I visited my great-grandmother down south, she watched CBS all day. I pretty much stuck to the NBC soaps until my early 20s. The last time I watched a full week of DAYS, Franco was killed when he was to marry Sami. Looking back and seeing that was nearly 25 years ago is surprising.

When I was 16, I tired of Santa Barbara and struck out on my own -- first watching one week of General Hospital, then one week of Guiding Light for comparison. I stayed with Guiding Light, watching it off and on until its bittersweet, Peapack end. Later, I also developed a passion for One Life to Live, another show I watched until its ending, loving it enough to follow it through the Prospect Park production.

Despite being raised on the NBC soaps, the only one I tend to revisit during re-watches is Another World -- especially the period from 1988-1992.

When my mom was a housewife in the late 70s, early 80s, she was dedicated to ABC’s OLTL and GH. It was during Judith Light’s era and of course, Luke and Laura. She went back to work and a couple years later, we got wise to programming a VCR. At this point, older cousins got me into AMC so we started taping the Big Three. Hard core ABC loyalists through and through. It was a great time to be watching those shows. 80s and 90s were pretty imperial for ABC.

According to my older sister, who had a much closer relationship with my paternal grandparents, my grandmother spent her weekday afternoons watching nothing but soaps. That would mean she must’ve been glued to her TV at least 2-3 hours a day, as there were huge amount of soaps back then.

My sister’s observation took place in the late 60s, and Grandma died in the late 80s, so she spent the last three decades of her life watching these things. I can’t imagine.

My mom watched the ABC soaps. Ryan's Hope, All My Children. One Life to Live, General Hospital.

When I was a baby and toddler back in the 1990s, my then-stay-at-home Mum would get the ironing board or the sewing machine or whatever needed cleaning out in front of the telly and just chain back-to-back soaps and dramas across all channels.

So I was reared on daily HOME & AWAY, BROOKSIDE, EMMERDALE, EASTENDERS, POBOL Y CYM, MONARCH OF THE GLEN, HEARTBEAT..if it was on, we watched it. Goodness knows what it did to my burgeoning mind.

My mother had them on, mostly as background noise for chores. She probably started doing this when they were on radio. I think she paid enough attention to know what the plot line was, but gave more attention to her ironing than to the specifics. Her rather nasty older sister who never had children and didn't marry until her 50s (she was having an affair for ages with a married man, whose wife was disabled and eventually died--he was her future husband) looked down on my mother for watching soaps. My uppity aunt read "Official Detective" type mags, so she wasn't exactly the highbrow she thought she was.

69 years old and the only soap I’ve ever watched is Dynasty- which was a send up of a soap. Daytime soaps are the distillation of mediocrity.

My Grandma was my babysitter, the NBC soap lineup was our thing. Days, The Doctors, and Another World. I remember being so excited when Texas premiered because I would actually get to see a soap opera from the beginning.

Grammy also watched Love of Life and at some point As the World Turns. It was funny the way she would refer to them, it was never it's time to watch "name of soap". It was always...

It's time to see what Julie's doing or time to check on Dr. Powers and for Another World, let's see what that ole Rachel is up to today. Rachel was a villain at some point and my Grammy never forgave her, even after she became a nice character. She was always "that ole Rachel."

As The World Turns (Lisa, Penny and Bob), Days of Our Lives(Susan/Julie, Mickey/Laura/Bill) & Another World(Alice/Steve/Rachel) I knew because my Grandmother and Mother were hooked on them. Those characters seemed real to me, as a kid. I loved Dark Shadows on my own, and I never thought it was scary, just fun. But oh, that mean Rachel was out to hurt Alice, or Lisa was tormenting Bob's new wife, or Julie was trying to see Susan dead on Days, seemed to be real events that genuinely worried me.

The ABC lineup as a kid since my nonna was also my babysitter along with my cousin. Added twist: nonna didn't speak or understand English well so my cousin and I had to take turns translating what was going on for her. Sometimes we made shit up when it would take too long to translate or we ourselves didn't understand what was going on. GH was nonna's favorite because of John Beradino.

The AMC habit stuck with me until it was cancelled and I watched OLTL and GH intermittently. I've gotten back into GH since AMC was cancelled mostly out of nostalgia.

I was born in 1974. I was already into Dallas/Dynasty/Falcon Crest (Knots Landing was a no-go, because it was 10 pm on a Thursday--school night, so I was in bed by then). At some point. I dabbled in The Edge of Night, but it was on its last legs. I felt bad, because it seemed like I missed something really good.

My real introduction to daytime soaps was All My Children. I had a crush on neighbourhood boy Jason, who was into that show. Tad's girlfriend Dot died on a jet-ski, and then there was another murder mystery (which was a big storyline; I think Zach Grayson ended up being the killer). Anyway, I wasn't that into All My Children, even though it had Susan Lucci. I immediately hopped over to Loving (All My Children's lead-in), which was on at 11:30 (half hour after Edge of Night at 11 AM). I was also into Day of Our Lives, which, let's be real, was iconic, and never had competition, because it was on at 12:00 PM.

From there, I went to Young and Restless on CBS (at 11 AM), which I was VERY into (this would have been somewhere between 1985 - 1987). Keep in mind, VCRs were a thing, so I was recording one and watching another. There were three major networks, though, which presented a conundrum in some time slots. So, when it came to 1 PM, I was first into One Life to Live (I liked the Vicki/Nicki storyline). I was never really into As the World Turns (I have no idea why). But, for a hot second, I was into Another World (on NBC).

What is really odd is that I was never that much into General Hospital (at 2 PM), but that was one of the most popular daytime soaps. No, I was into Santa Barbara, which debuted shortly before I got into daytime soaps. I also liked Guiding Light (mainly for Reba). So, I went back and fourth between those. Passions debuted when I was in high school, and I was beginning to fade with the daytime soaps. However, had I been younger, I would have totally been into that show.

By 1990, I wasn't that much into soaps daytime or nighttime. I was obsessed with Twin Peaks, though, which was a different kind of soap. That's my history with daytime soaps. Thank you for reading. Love you all (even my haters).

[quote] in the late 90s there were so many obsessive soap opera threads that discussion of soaps was banned

The Eldergays who grew up in the soap era gradually died off. RIP.

r21 I'm not dead yet, bitch.

My mom always had on the ABC soaps in the 80s and through that I got hooked for a time on AMC, Loving, and OLTL (never GH). At one point in the seventh grade in the early 90s, I feigned sickness often in order to stay home and watch them (nuts!). The only other time I got hooked on watching a soap was during the Luke and Noah storyline on ATWT in the late '00s.

*sorry, Zach Grayson was the murder victim. But, I get a sense that he had it coming. I forget who the killer was. It was probably a throwaway. Maybe Zach was responsible for Dot's death on the jet-ski. I can't remember.

That’s a great thread. Keep it coming ladies.

[quote] My sister’s observation took place in the late 60s, and Grandma died in the late 80s, so she spent the last three decades of her life watching these things. I can’t imagine.

I can. Things were different for women in those days. Unless a woman lived in a larger city, there was little she could do on her own for entertainment - maybe because of cost or maybe because gossips would frown upon a woman seeing a movie alone. Watching those soaps was like watching a movie every afternoon.

My mom & grandmother were hooked on AMC & would often call each other during or right after the broadcast. My sister & I would watch during summer break & I fell in love with Nina Cortlandt, Jenny Garnder, & Silver Kane.

I also got hooked on GH later thanks toLucy Coe. In high school I’d tape some of the CBS shows because the guys we,the so hot (ATWt Holden, GL Alan-Michael).

I never watched any NBC soaps because I thought they were garbage, especially SFT & DOOL.

Adding to what I said earlier @ R10:

My Boomer mother said when she was a girl, the soaps were shorter -- like 15 minutes long. At one point in time, she was able to watch several shows across the three major networks. She said she watched as many as eight shows in one day.

Later the shows became longer and they became competitive, so she had to choose. The family was more invested in the NBC shows (with great-grandma watching the first half hour of Y&R before switching to DAYS, then moving back to to CBS at 3pm for Guiding Light).

Before the schedule changes, my mom was a big fan of the ABC soaps. She was in her late teens/early twenties in the 1970s, and those shows were racier and more socially conscious compared to what P&G, the Bells, and Colgate-Palmolive were dishing out at the time.

In the early 1980s my mother watched the ABC lineup: All My Children, One Life to Live, General Hospital, and Edge of Night. During summer breaks, my sister and I watched the ABC soaps as well. After a while, I got bored with OLTL, so I switched over to Another World on NBC. I then got tired of General Hospital's Luke and Laura save the world gimmicks, so I switched over to Guiding Light on CBS. I continued to watch EON until it was cancelled in 1984, and I watched AMC until about the early 1990s.

Somerset was on at 9:00AM and my mom used to complain that she couldn't go food shopping until it was over because my dad watched it. He also watched Edge of Night, Ryan's Hope and Another World.

9 a.m. seems like such a strange time for a soap opera to air.

My mom was a fan of the NBC soap lineup. Days of Our Lives was her favorite, but she also watched enough of The Doctors, and Another World in the 60s-80s for me to know the names of many of the main characters at the time.

As a child they all looked the same to me, boring.

Years later after doing quite a bit of extra work on the show, I became a casual Another World fan because the characters were so nutty but often fun. I loved Rachel, her bull dagger mother Ada...and Stephen Schnetzer, of course!

Grandmother only liked Days of Our Lives, and then she'd have her nap. Or sometimes during.

Up until the mid 70's none of the soaps ran for more than a half hour, so you could hop around from one channel to the other . My mom would start with Search for Tomorrow, then switch over to All My Children , then over to Days of Our Lives and the Doctors ( they were back to back) . Then One Life to Live came on and GH after that. By 1976 a lot of the shows went to one hour and Edge of Night came on at 4:00 when it moved to ABC . She used to watch Dark Shadows too when it was on after GH . That Girl reruns came on after DS. Once DS got canceled they would start the afternoon movies at 4: 00 and then Edge of Night knocked the movie back to 4:30 pm. Around 1980 they moved Edge of Night to 10:30 AM. This was all in Detroit so other markets might have been different. Once Ryan's Hope came on in 1975 and the shows went first to 45 minutes and then one hour by 1977 , then she stuck to ABC . I want to say Family Feud was in there somewhere too like either before or after Ryan's Hope.

I think this thread sort of paints a picture of what happened to soaps. At one time there were 14 on the air, now there are 4.

I think most of us got into soaps because our primary caregiver (Grandma or Mom), when we were kids, watched them. When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, I stayed with my Grandma until my parents came home from work. I lived in a rural area, and we only had 5 channels. My area didn't get cable until the mid 80s. I grew up with the big 3 networks, plus PBS and an independent station - that you had to turn the antenna to get (anyone remember those).

Soaps started to fade as cable TV grew and moms and grandmas either went to work, became more active with other things outside of the house, or found something else to watch on cable. And kids, instead of getting off the bus and going home, had afterschool activities and clubs to occupy their time. We had afterschool activities in the 80s, but not like it was in the 90s to current day - kids are booked solid.

Also, soaps moving from a half hour to an hour meant more of commitment than these new busy schedules could accommodate, so they slowly faded because there wasn't anyone watching to pass down the tradition of soap watching.

I asked my mother once what Lisa did that was so horrible on ATWT back in the day that made her so hated.

She said she used money Bob gave her to run the house and instead of doing the work herself, she hired maid to clean the place while Lisa went out and had a spa day. Bob came home none the wiser.

I asked my mom really? She said yeah, that was scandalous back in the day.

My Mom was also a BIG Steve and Alice fan; I think secretly women who watched it were also drawn to Rachel; she went after what she wanted.

My mom started teaching school so she gave up soaps though she picked up LOVING when it debuted. I stayed hooked on them. My grandfather was a big Guiding Light fan. That gave us something in common.

My mom didn't watch soaps, but my neighbor across the street did. One summer, I hung out across the street and got hooked on The Young and the Restless (they also had a pool).

My mom saw me watching Victor Newman and was disgusted. My mom said he was a B-grade actor, why are you watching this crap, blah blah blah.

The production values of the old Y&R were excellent. I noticed that the other soaps had bad lighting and stark sets compared to Y&R.

Y&R and B&B had great production values. John Conboy and Bill Glenn were instrumental in Y&R's look; Glenn was hired as a director/consultant to help get B&B started up.

The Forrester mansion set was designed by Sy Tomashoff who worked on Dark Shadows and Ryan's Hope.

I loved sets on other soaps -- the Snyder kitchen (the squeaking of that screen door is a sound I can never forget). Kim's house on ATWT -- especially after they added that foyer with the stairs leading down into the living room. EVERYONE made an entrance!

Lucinda's mansion was well done but I suppose if could have been bigger.

The Spaulding executive offices were pretty cool. There was a condo that went from Reva to Warren Andrews to Kyle Sampson to the Spauldings. Amazing how it got recycled.

I'm old enough to remember the original Cory living room; Ada's kitchen, the house that Steve built for Alice (sorry, Rachel NOT for you -- even though you and Steve had a kind of love Alice will NEVAH know).

The Alden mansion was pretty swanky.

Great sets, great characters, great stories.

How lucky we were to have seen all that. Now, it's 500 channels of nothing special.

The only reason they were on in our place was while waiting for Donohue to start.

Somehow without trying to watch them, we knew all of the plot but I can't remember any of that crap now. Except that everyone dying in a car accident or fire would be back next month as their own twin sister, later revealed to be the dead person (naww, really?).

They occasionally watched Dynasty but usually it was something on PBS instead.

IIRC, soaps started at 11am CST and ended at 3pm CST. I don’t think any soaps started before 11am.

I used to watch Y&R at 11, DOOL at 1, and GH at 2.

My home was always an ABC/CBS hybrid house my mom had watched AW, DAYS, and The Doctors before I was born, but we never watched NBC soaps except for Sunset Beach since it was an Aaron Spelling show, and we usually liked his programs. The height of soap watching for me was when I would turn Sunset Beach on at noon then depending on what was happening I would turn to Y&R at 12:30, and just check back in with SB during commercials. Sometimes I would check out PC but once they stopped focusing on the interns I lost interest. At one depending on what was happening I would turn to AMC but I would go back and forth during commercials. at 1:30 I would stick with AMC, unless Sally was on B&B. At 2:00 I watched OLTL only turning during commercials to ATWT, then at 3:00 I would flip back and forth between GH and GL.

I loved watching soaps as a kid.

I remember in 1982 or 1983, one of my babysitters got me and my sister into watching Y&R. We even went to an autograph signing by Lilibet Stern who played Patty Williams before Andrea Evans did. I was only six or seven at the time.

Y&R was probably the daytime soap I watched consistently throughout the '80s and '90s. In Canada, it airs at 4:30 p.m. so I would be home from school by that time.

During lunch hour, I came home for lunch from school and would watch the tail end of Ryan's Hope and the beginning of Loving. I also got into Santa Barbara, mainly during the years of Mason and Mary, then Mason and Julia, Eden and Cruz, and Robin Wright's era.

In the '90s, I started to watch All My Children and One Life to Live. They had some great stories and the writing was excellent. In my opinion, the years leading up to the OJ trial were some of the best years in soap. AMC (Noah and Julia, Natalie in the well, Kendall vs. Erica), One Life to Live (Billy is gay, Marty's rape storyline, Dorian revealing the horrific truth to Vicky, and Vicky's personalities take over), Y&R (Nina shoots David, Sheila vs. Lauren, Jack vs. Victor).

I have many fond memories of watching soaps when I was a kid in the '80s and a teenager in the '90s.

The OJ trail should have never been covered like it was, it was a low point for television journalism. It helped to destroy the integrity of the news divisions and started the death of soaps.

^^trial sorry

I totally agree, which is why I made that comment. Soaps were absolutely on fire in the early '90s. I remember the Vicky/Dorian storyline on One Life to Live was so good, but it got uprooted because of the trial.

I admit I still watched soaps after the trial ended, but my viewing habits changed. You could definitely sense the change in television after that trial, and the impact it had on soaps.

I will always remember the opening of the edge of night with the half-day-half night picture of the city, and the Anacin ads with the hammer inside someone's head and the woman saying, Mother, please! I'd rather do it myself!

I don't believe that OJ was the lone cause of the death of soaps. The decline had already started way before that. OJ did help some people break the habit of daily viewing, but some soaps saw a creative resurgence post OJ. The biggest impact of the OJ trial is what would eventually become the fascination with reality tv.

We had a widowed great aunt, and every Wednesday we’d go over to her place for a fancy luncheon, as we half days. After the meal, it was off to the library where the only TV was, and we’d watch Another World, followed by Edge of Night. Iris, Mac, Rachel, Aunt Liz followed by Nancy, Mike, Geraldine, Anthony, and Miles. I wasn’t able to keep up with AW other than once a week, but as EoN was later, I did watch it right thru the series finale. My sister got into General Hospital, so I got into that one too. In college, dorm mates would watch One Life To Live, which I was surprised at in an all boys dorm. I can’t remember the last time I watched one now tho - even during covid. 🤷🏼‍♂️

My mom had her shows. Loved All My Children, Ryan's Hope, and The Doctors. She got into General Hospital after I did. I think she also liked As the World Turns. As far as I recall, she wasn't loyal to one network.

I can remember her doing housework, and having the shows on in the kitchen and the living room at the same time. I remember her ironing and watching the shows. She also loved Family Feud every day. But yeah I think All My Children was her favorite. She used to talk about Dorothy Lyman and how funny she was on it.

To be honest, I would compare her and my dad's (who had a big commute from Lincroft NJ to Long Island City every day) lives, and I always thought SHE had it much, much better. To get to hang all day and look at TV, and go play tennis, and go to aerobics and not have to work? YES PLEASE!

I actually STILL feel that way, which is pretty bad I guess. I would've gladly given up my white male privilege to sit home all day and be supported!

They used to be designed so you could miss episodes (Pre-vcrs) and be caught up.

I read the dialogue would have to be written repetitively like: "as I was saying I saw Jim yesterday"

Reality TV and the internet was the beginning of the end of soaps.

I could never get into “As The World Turns” or “Bold and The Beautiful.” They just seemed way too stuffy whenever I tried to watch. Did either of those shows have an exciting storyline?

My mother was an ATWT die-hard, and like others' relatives mentioned earlier, was watching it when they announced JFK had been shot. She also had CBS on the day Oswald was shot, though I believe it was earlier in the morning during game shows.

When she was a stay-at-home mom, she had the TV on while doing work around the house, and just left it on CBS. When I was a kid, that meant we saw Young & the Restless, ATWT and GL. When she went back to work, she'd come home for lunch so she could catch ATWT, but at one point they changed lunch times so she could only watch Y&R, which she wasn't crazy about.

The Bold & the Beautiful survives on international syndication. I wouldn't be surprised if that helps other surviving soaps.

ATWT was always an old lady gramma soap. Old ladies watched it.

I was obsessed with The Guiding Light in the late 70’s, specifically the Kelly, Morgan, Nora love triangle. DL fave John Wesley Shipp played Kelly and I was IN LOVE with him.

In the summers of my junior and senior years in high school, I worked as a lifeguard at an apartment complex. I would bring a little TV to work and leave it in the lifeguards’ office and take my break at 3 to 3:30 or 3:30 to 4 so I could watch the show.

This was my only option. It was WAY before TiVo or DVRs.

A bottle of room temperature Crisco and an old sock to spunk into, every time Ray Krebbs made an appearance.

I have vague memories of my Mom watching one with a bridge in the opening scene. I asked her years later and she said it was Love is a Many Splendored Thing. She said she watched that and Edge of Night, and I think As the Worlds Turn for a while (as mentioned above, that is how she found out JFK was shot). I think she basically had the TV on when she had pre-school kids at home where it takes time to get everyone fed, diapers changed, laundry (cloth diapers were still the norm). Once I started school, I never remember her having them when home for vacations, summer, sick days, and she never paid attention to them when my sisters watched them. She did watch Dynasty for a few years (I think she stopped after the Moldavian massacre) and she and my brother watched Dallas (sisters watched Knots).

I have stronger memories of my sisters watching soaps in the summer in the 70's. I have distinct memories of the Jill-Kaye-Phillip story and remember my sister liking Snapper. Later I remember them watching Guiding Light, and have some memories of Kelly-Morgaon-Nola. Strangely, I have no memories of Kelly and his speedo, but do remember how saccharine their wedding was. My mom did not let the TV on all day, so I think they usually just watched one, and later summer job schedules probably affected what they watched.

My college job was at a warehouse where All My Children was on in the lunch room, and I got hooked on that then and would watch periodically in college depending on my class schedule and if my roommate had a tv that year. A couple years after college, I got a VCR and watched pretty regularly through the 90's. I still recorded until a couple of years before it was cancelled, but watched less and less through the 2000s. It started to decline in the late 90's, although still had some good storylines and seemed on the verge of a resurgence once or twice and then became unwatchable. It was kind of a slow decline from about 1997. I think they initially panicked when Days passed it in the ratings and tried to do things that did not fit the show. Then came Disney and Frons ....

My mom watched ATWT because, she said, it was on when she was feeding her babies. Later on she would tell me about Aunt Edie, Penny and Jeff, and Lisa, but she was an enormous fan of Kim and Dan and never bought Bob as the love of Kim's life. She also watched GL, but was not as dedicated to it.

I started catching bits of her two shows in the summers of the late 70s, but wasn't personally interested until Doug Marland's GL, especially interested in Carrie's story and Kelly's speedo. After Marland left, and despite my affection for Rick Bauer, I gravitated to ATWT and stayed there to the end. I also watched SFT for Jo and Hogan on my own (my mother never watched that one) and Capitol for Carolyn Jones.

[quote]They used to be designed so you could miss episodes (Pre-vcrs) and be caught up.

Yep they were written in a way that the viewer only had to watch 3 days a week to be all caught up. If you watch old soaps on Youtube, you can tell the recap days.

Quite frankly and in retrospect, I think the hour was a mistake

I forgot, my sisters watched Search for Tomorrow for awhile. I remember a lady dying in a fire. It seems like the house was a CBS house, and my sisters picked up that channel because that is what my Mom had watched. My Grandma had the game shows on when she was preparing dinner. I remember Wheel of Fortune when the winnings were buying prizes with the money you earned - I will take the ceramic dog for $100 Pat.... I remember Joker's Wild being on 7:00. Back then you had minimal local news in the morning and GMA, Today etc. did not take up as much time, not as many talk shows, so a fair amount of games shows before and after the soaps aired.

R60 I think they should bring back the 15min length. It is a better length for daily viewing in the age of short attentions spans and peak streaming.

My Mom and Grandma and yes retired Grandpa were all diehard ABC soap fans until they decided to watch DAYS on NBC, it was during Marlena's possession storyline, so they dumped LOVING and became DAYS fans too they would watch DAYS from 12 noon-1 and then the ABC lineup starting with AMC at 1, OLTL at 2 and GH at 3

R62 Over in the threads where we mostly discuss the "P&G" shows (Guiding Light, As The World Turns, Another World among others) we've discussed that before.

They really should have never gone to an hour, but in the late 70s and early 80s soaps were popular and moneymakers. But for some reason none of the hour shows would change back to half an hour once the industry and ratings shrunk.

Minus commercials, a 30 minute show is 18 minutes of content. I could squeeze that into my busy life on a daily basis.

in the Boston area, GL was on at 10 am for the last 8 years or so

I’m still mad that they dropped THE from Guiding Light.

I remember going to my friend's house and his mom was in a housedress sitting in a recliner eating and watching soaps. And they had those sad face pictures. I thought it was everything antithetical to my mom, who was out working in the garden, or always doing housework, painting, shoveling snow, mowing the lawn, whatever. Later she'd watch Mike Douglas and a couple of game shows. Anyhow that friend's mom made me equate soaps with lazy moms.

My mother only watched General Hospital so I saw that from an early age, coming home from school and doing my homework on the coffee table in the living room as we only ever had one tv. Audrey/Steve/Jessie/little Tommy then the Webers/Heather/Bobbie and gradually the Quartermains. The only time i was really invested was the Luke & Laura story, especially when Scorpio, Anna, Sean Donnelly and the singer (Tiffany?) came on and it got very international and exciting.

In the summers I started on One Life to Lose (as we cleverly called it), Vicki/Nicki and Karen and creepy Marco, sweet Jenny and her titillating affair with a doctor old enough to be her father and so many scheming Dorians. I even stepped up to All My Children for awhile but not knowing the back stories, it was hard to get into. At some point I crossed over to Days of Our Lives, Susan, Julie, Bob? with amnesia when he met Maggie on a farm? and I just remembered, The Doctors, Althea and Dr Nick. That didn't last long. I guess these were all half hour shows then because I don't know how I kept up with them otherwise. My mother stuck to General Hospital though and wasn't interested in the others. I stopped watching entirely a couple years after college except once I caught a Christmas episode of GH with everyone gathered, Alan Q was doing a voiceover as a ghost and I was shocked and saddened that he'd been killed off.

The reason soaps moved so slowly (started in radio) was so housewives could turn up the volume and work in any area of the house (pre-mcmansions) and not miss much. A lot of tv is visual but with soaps, it is (was) all dialog and that's why they always addressed each other by name so if you weren't in the room (houses only had one tv or one radio back then) you could still know who was talking to whom.

Bold & Beautiful came on right after Y&R and had a similar feel to Y&R. B&B was 30 minutes, Y&R was 60. I think the original plan was to make B&B 60 minutes, at some point. However, the tide was turning (ppl less interested in soaps) and B&B remained 30 minutes.

Both B&B and Y&R survived the soaps exodus.

The very early days of Y&R were addictive. The opening sketches of Chris, Snapper, Jennifer, Stu, Brad, Greg, Jill, Liz - and the music. They even had cool credits in blue type. The sets! Brad was shirtless, comes out of the shower and there's a woman laying on his bed waiting for him. When you see the show now, 50 years later, it's so flat and repetitive. That horrible Phyliss, snot nosed Nikki, somnambulant Victoria, they're just tired. Re-run the entire series from the start. We can experience Brenda Dickson all over again! The time Snapper slapped her and called her a whore! I had to ask my sister what that meant, lol.

I've watched some early Y&R at the Paley Center. What seemed to set it apart was that everything was dark and all of the actors were pretty and very frank about fucking or wanting to fuck. I can see why it was a game changer. The lighting or lack of lighting was very different, those intense close ups, and the show played music under the entire scene instead of playing an intro and the start and a stinger at the end of the scene.

I grew up in an NBC family (Days, Another World and the Doctors?). Occasionally my mother tuned to AMC and General Hospital. I have early memories of blocks of time spent with the sops on the living room tv on while my mother ironed.

I learned of CBS soaps like GL where most of us learn of new and sometimes taboo experiences, college.

R68 The local ABC affiliate broadcast an audio only feed on the radio, until the digital transition. When we were out of the house during the day we would listen to keep up with the soaps 95% of the time you still didn't need to see the visuals.

In the early seventies, my mom watched Days of Our Lives and The Doctors on NBC and the General Hospital and One Life to Live. They were all half hour shows then.

I remember Denise Alexander leaving DOOL for GH. I loved Althea on The Doctors. I was so sad when the killed Meredith on OLTL, as well as when Mary Kennicot was killed on All My Children. My mom added that soap later. She also added Ryan’s Hope when it debuted.

When they went to an hour she stopped DOOL. The Doctors was moved and our affiliate stopped showing it.

It’s weird remembering those storylines as I was like 6-8 years old when they were on, but I remember them like yesterday. And I loved Jane on GH and remember Audrey crying all the time with Lucille trying to help her.

[quote] The opening sketches of Chris, Snapper, Jennifer, Stu, Brad, Greg, Jill, Liz - and the music. They even had cool credits in blue type.

Those sketch drawings with the music (Y&R) were really cool. I don't remember the blue type. I do remember Nadia Comaneci (gymnast) being associated with the theme. I think the theme / song was added on post-production. Song became "Nadia's theme."

I did serve Don Diamant (Brad Carlton) a drink when I was working restaurants. He was very nice. He was sitting down, so I couldn't get an idea of his height, but he seemed smaller than I expected. Very handsome, nice face and skin.

I would start the daytime soaps by getting my recliner ready and a tv tray set up. I would have a can of Cheese-Wiz and some Chicken n Biscuit crackers, a bottle of Hammer red creme soda, Hostess Snowballs and a Tomato and Mayo sandwich with Wonderbread and a side of Wise Potato chips all set up on it and turn on the RCA 25" Colonial Console with my remote. My favorite was the "Edge of Night".

I too loved Jane Dawson on General Hospital, and their ratings before they poached Denise Alexander from DOOL, were tremendous. Not Luke/Laura numbers, but close. Diana and Peter Taylor were my favorite couple, boy did they suffer. GH had so many GREAT characters then, Sharon and Henry, Lucille, slutty Brooke, and Jessie and Steve as the pseudo Mother/Father figures. Seventh Floor Nurses Station, Mrs. Brewer.....

[quote] Hostess Snowballs and a Tomato and Mayo sandwich with Wonderbread

R76 is Harriet the Spy!

Augusta McLeod on GH.

My grandmother and older sister were loyal to abc, but my parents’ housekeeper watched cbs.

The housekeeper finally abandoned guiding light and all watched general hospital together. Not for Luke and Laura but for crazy heather sneaking in and out of the sanitarium.

R77 Yes on the original Diana. I loved Valerie Starrett and Brooke Bundy was never Diana to me. Valerie was another great crier on GH.

R79 The Augusta McCloud murder mystery was so good. I remember a pic of all of the suspects standing behind her in a promo shot. Or was she the one who murdered someone? I can’t remember the details but remember a murder mystery. It’s been a long time!

Doug Marland's death really hurt the genre. He wouldn't have stayed at ATWT forever. He might have returned to GL or gone back to AW.

If ABC were smart they would have given him ONE LIFE or better yet, send him back to GH and get away from all this mob stuff; Sure, Doug had Frank Smith but he went to jail.

The networks should have rotated the OJ coverage. Nobody thought long term on that.

I don't get the reverence people have for producers like Wendy Riche and Jill Phelps; didn't they each say on the Locher room that when they came on, respectively, to GH and GL that they didn't know the shows?

Execs hired producers and writers who didn't know the shows -- and didn't think they had to learn them -- for viewers who knew the shows inside and out. No wonder everyone walked away.

This is a minor detail but someone once posted when they showed Amanda's birth certificate on GL (when Toby Poser, a perfectly fine actress was horribly miscast in the role) and the mother read "Jennifer Richards." Except it should have read "Jane Marie Stafford."

GL viewers watching in 1995 or 1996 when Poser came on may very well have been watching back in 1980-81 when that story was going on. Of course, little details are going to slip through but de-aging characters and not going back to original actors is often a BIG mistake.

My mom was an NBC viewer - Days of Our Lives, The Doctors, Another World, Somerset. Another World was by far the most important one to her, mainly due to Mac/Rachel/Iris.

I watched all of the NBC soaps, Days and Another World, Somerset. When they cancelled Another World I was so pissed I stopped watching altogether.

We were a CBS family. My dad had a small tv in his office and would watch ATWT during his lunch. He and my mother would discuss the days episode over dinner every night. Watched the last show with my mother and we cried and cried missing that old man. They were both great parents. And they would never forgive me for being a GH fan now. I know my dad would lovingly call me a traitor.

Jane forever trying to save her marriage to that pudgy Howie. Nurse Pincus, that was Sharon. I thought this era was boring. Interesting that Scotty Baldwin bridges the timeline between Audrey/Steve and Luke/Laura.

I never watched it but the intro to Edge of Night was scary. The Edge! Of Night! and the half daylight, half dark title card. And the characters had real soap opera names like Raven.

I had no idea that Scotty went almost back to the beginning of the series until I watching an old episode on YouTube recently. Also didn't know he was adopted.

I remember when I was really little, my mom watching Ryan's Hope and The Edge of Night. After we got a VCR she began taping Loving and AMC, and we would watch them when I got home from school. She also watched a little of One Life to Live, but never the way she watched AMC and Loving. I think my mom also casually watched Guidling Light and As the World Turns, but never taped them. In the 1990s after Loving was cancelled I think she watched AMC, Guiding Light and ATWT. I could never get in to GL, except for the Annie Cynthia Watros years because she was awesome and I loved how she antagonized Reva, who I just couldn't abide. I did like ATWT, I remember liking Craig and Lily and Holden, but I didn't follow them nearly as devoutly as I did AMC which I had been watching since I was like 8 years old. I aslo went through a brief DOOL phase in college during the whole Kristen twin storyline with Baby Elvis...it's all a bit foggy now...I watched AMC through the early 2000s but after Leo was gone, I lost interest for good.

Another World and As The World Turns were so stuffy and boring.

We lived with my grandparents for 8 months after we moved down south to be near them. I remember during the summer, my Grandmother would watch her stories, all NBC. It was The Doctors, Days, and Another World. This would have been mid-late 70s. I would keep an ear out on them if I was home (and not out playing), but I thought they were silly. I got a few years older and became interested in All My Children and would watch it when I was home sick from school. The year after, I added General Hospital. This was the summer of 1980 and the first summer I wasn't forced to go to day camp and was allowed to be home by myself all day during the summer. It was a TV junkie's dream come true. Mike Douglas in the morning, reruns of Alice and One Day at a Time at noon, All My Children and General Hospital, then Merv Griffin or game shows before I had to start dinner.

I watched AMC and GH as religiously as I could for three years. The next summer, my parents sent me to sleepaway camp for part of the summer. This was the big Luke and Laura wedding summer and Liz Taylor and the Ice Princess. One of the older girls had a portable five inch television and we used to sneak up to her room and watch GH when we were supposed to be doing some sport or other. I was the only boy in that little clatch.

Around 83 I started exploring the CBS soaps. I wound up dumping AMC for Y&R and ATWT, but would do a channel dance between GH & GL. I finally gave up GH around 84 for GL. Then I wound up dumping them all by my final year of high school, with the exception of ATWT. I remember my freshman year of college, I would tape ATWT every day. I got my roommate into it, as well as Knots Landing. It felt like turning someone on to heroin. I was so happy to have someone to share my addiction with.

I went away that summer and missed all of ATWT, and that broke the habit. I never watched another daytime soap for 5 years until a friend of mine got cast in a recurring role on, of all shows, ATWT, and I watched for a few months until they wrote her off.

I swear, if they ever created a channel that showed all the old soaps in their entirety, I would sign up immediately and happily pay. I would love to revisit those old shows.

R49 totally reminded me of Ryan’s Hope! I had forgotten I watched that too lol I think I must gotten into it during the summers - I remember it was on pretty early. Maeve, Johnny, Mary, Delia - and set on the UWS. I will say, with all the soaps being cancelled, I think it was a good idea for GH to bring on board some legacy characters from the cancelled soaps. Unfortunately GH did it in the most ham fisted way possible. I get that they had to pull the plug on some of the OLTL characters over the lawsuit, but still they could have done a better job. Bringing on Delia from RH as Ava’s mother was a good idea, but they basically wrote Delia as Roxy from OLTL which doesn’t fit Delian’s character. Then the whole “is Lorenzo Tomas, or is Tomas Lorenzo” tease could have been a great story, and brought back the sexy Ted King, but I guess they’re pretending that never happened. So GH is stuck with Cuntly chewing the scenery, and the midget cue card queen mumbling his mobster-with-a-heart-of-gold lines.

[quote]I swear, if they ever created a channel that showed all the old soaps in their entirety, I would sign up immediately and happily pay. I would love to revisit those old shows.

That’s what the Soap Network should have been. BTW, does the Soap Network even still exist?

Soap Network went under a long time ago. And they did do it with one show- Ryan's Hope. If they had done it with more, it might still be around.

I think that Soapnet discovered that the old Ryan's Hope reruns did not get good ratings which surprised me. In the days of VCRs never saw the great need for a network that simply showed the same shows that were on the network that same day. I would have loved to have watched more old soaps (although did not have cable, so was moot to me).

My sisters had the Y&R piano music and were a little annoyed that it was just called Nadia's theme. Although she really was huge for a while.

I think the AW repeats on soap net got a O.O rating or something insane. I'm surprised that one of the vaginal mesh/special needs kids channels hasn't picked up a few of the soaps. Especially the PG soaps which were a little more old fashioned in presentation. The Doctors was picked up by Retro and Retro spun it off into it's own streaming channel.

However, I do realize that old soaps are for a very specific audience, as evidenced by the AW repeat ratings.

It was never the same after THE was dropped from THE Guiding Light! And then they fired Fat Ed! And Pam Long made the show all about Fat Reva! I still haven’t recovered!

R26 When was this? I remember Days being on at 1pm in the NYC area for the longest time. This ATWT dominance was not happening when GH and Days started their James Bond lite storylines in the early 80s.

R19 Was she confused by The Ice Princess Saga? 40 plus years later they've tried to remake it and it made more sense the first time around.

My older sisters, still mid teens, loved their own soaps, Love of Life for Tess and Bill and Love Is A Many Splendored Thing with Laura and Mark, Iris and Spence. Leslie Charleson was really a stand out back then as Iris told people off, smoked and drank while Donna Mills as Laura was madly in love with David Birney's Mark. It was kind of easy to see they'd all be big stars if they left the soap world, even if just turned out to be tv stars.

I've been touring lots of old 70s/80s movies on Youtube, and Donna Mills was so gorgeous and charismatic. I'd only ever seen her play Abby Ewing on Knots, so it was surprising to see that she was mostly known for good girl roles before that show.

All My Children...my only daytime soap. Knots Landing and Dallas...nighttime soaps.

The soap twitter queens Casey and Jamey are remaking and revolutionizing the genre!

When I was young my friends and I watched Dark Shadows and All my Children in the late 60s, very early 70s.

Am My Children featured a cast in my age group. Got hooked on the antics of Erica Kane, her mother Mona Kane, Phillip Brent, Tarin Martin, Jeff Martin, and others. Watched both shows every day, it felt like we knew the characters. It was a happy, innocent time until it all changed rapidly when a number of my high school class were killed or damaged by drugs and/or the Vietnam War and others of us began behaving in ways that disturbed our parents. I'm from San Francisco and the distractions of a changing world took me from soap operas to a much more intense and dangerous scene. Emerged as an adult now enthralled by nature and home decorating.

At mom's peak DAYS watching I remember a few stories - Julie getting a burn scar on her face from a frying pan, which allowed the mysterious Lee Dumonde to seduce and then marry Doug. Just before or after that there was a lot of Marlena with sexy Don Craig, then she lost a baby to SIDS, then she was assumed dead but it was her sister instead. Whew!

I was 15 when this episode of General Hospital aired. It was the climax of a couple of storylines. I remember being completely thrilled by it.

Looking back, it seems like it took YEARS for this to finally come about. Years of a glacially moving plot, spoon fed scene by scene, day by day. That's why it was so damn exciting when things finally came to a head. And then the denumount of this seemed to take years to play out.

I feel badly for people who watched the show, and just happened to miss this day! All that work, and you miss the reward! It seems crazy that there was no possibility of ever seeing it again after the initial airing. Not even in reruns.

R105 That's the thing that I think people miss about soaps. So often they think, oh, it's the ridiculousness of it all, the slaps and the car crashes and the characters on their tenth marriage.

No, it's when a story that's been going on for a year or two builds to an awesome crescendo.

Jesus r105, that was all Bobbie getting slapped and dragged around?

My mother was a housewife (I hate saying that cause she was so much more) and never watched soap operas. She disdained them and their viewers. BUT at some point in her 60s she watched one and got hooked on it. LOL! So funny.

In reality most people were at work and didn't watch daytime shows.

[quote] In reality most people were at work and didn't watch daytime shows.

So you don't want to reduce your mother to being "just a housewife" but then seem to disdain anyone who might be home during the day, saying "most people were at work."

I'm sure if your mother had needed an abortion, HER abortion would have been perfectly fine, but someone else's would have just meant they were a strumpet, a mess or a total whore.

R105 That made he remember the crescendo to the storyline where Heather was about to poison Diana with the LSD laced lemonade. So much has been building to that point and when Stephen Lars turned the lazy Susan and Heather drank it instead, it was incredibly satisfying. There was lots of fall out after that episode, but if you missed that day you would have been so bummed.

R105, thank you for that clip. I was no longer watching GH at that time, so I was not familiar with the storyline. The clip makes me think of Edge of Night. In 1980, EON had a storyline where Margo was killed in her penthouse. Draper was convicted of her murder, but the real culprit was Nola. When the truth was revealed that Nola killed Margo, the audience saw that Nola left the penthouse in an elevator that she took to the basement of the building, where trash was kept. Nola was also wearing a fur coat.

[quote] My gramma watched all of her “stories” on CBS.

Mine too, and she called them her "stories". My grandfather used to scoff at her for her devotion to her "stories" until "Ryan's Hope" came along in the mid 1970s. He was Irish and I think that is what drew him to begin watching it. Our local affiliate time shifted the program because it was shown at 4:00 PM which was kind of late in the day for the soaps. I was home from school by 4:00, so he would usually get me to watch RH with him. And only during the commercials could we talk.

The soaps were huge in the 80s. People who normally would not watch soaps, watched soaps, or just knew the stars. The stars were on magazine covers and had hit songs, and stuff. Wasn't Rick Springfield on a soap? I remember going to a hair salon (when I had more money - and hair) and the woman having her hair cut next to me was bragging about knowing some relative of Michael Knight. There was Demi Moore and John Stamos (Blackie) on ...some show. A guy I knew was on Another World (used to be my acting teacher) so I watched it for a while, the only time I regukarky watched a soap. Constance Ford was kind of cool.

*regularly

R104, was Julie scarred by a frying pan or an exploding oven?

One of my first memories of a soap (hell, one of 3-year-old-me's first memories at all) involves Julie and Marlena on their hands and knees cleaning out an oven. This was back in the day when women still cared about waxy yellow build-up and such. There was an explosion that traumatized me. I was really upset.

Is that how Julie got scarred? Did she have multiple kitchen accidents? Or did I just imagine the whole thing?

R111 I remember that whole storyline! Nola Madison ,the famous actress come to Monticello to make a film, and you, Det Deborah Saxon have an affair with her husband driving Nola into a murderous rampage - including trying to kill you! Didn’t they use April, with her paranormal abilities, to get publicity for the film? Did Chief Derek Mallory solve the case in the end?

R115 You might be right. I thought it was a frying pan because there was a scene after she had the scar where she told someone she was OK to cook but when she touched the frying pan she screamed.

(Let me note here that even as a child I was like, gurl you are not convincing me with these histrionics, bring me Maggie Horton, she can act!)

I'm old enough to remember when all they had for music was an organ.

I got hooked on Another World during the mid 70s and again during the mid 80s.

No, R116, the great Det. Deborah Saxon solved the case. Nola killed Margo, then she (Nola) came back to the building with a blonde wig on and her coat's collar pulled up to cover her face, so that the doorman thought it was Margo entering the building. Instead of going up to the penthouse, Nola went down to the basement. Draper arrived, thinking he was following Margo into the building, but Margo had already been dead hours ago when Nola paid her a visit, begging Margo to give Elliot a divorce. Nola went into a rage and hit Margo across the head with a fireplace poker.

I forgot to add, by the way, that both Nola's husband (Owen) and son (Brian) were gorgeous. I would have been happy to have either one of them.

[quote] So you don't want to reduce your mother to being "just a housewife" but then seem to disdain anyone who might be home during the day, saying "most people were at work."

Wow. Someone woke up from their nap on the sensitive side of the bed.

The fact that most people were at work during the day is a factual observation, not a judgment.

I know you're cranky right now but try not being such a wanker.

I'm filled with joy, R122. You're just cranky because I called you out for being a hypocritical cunt.

Sorry, R123, your misinterpreting my statement doesn't make ME a hypocritical sexist slur. It does, however, make you nothing but a stubborn sexist pig.

I did some investigating, R117, and it turns out it was an oven explosion in 1979. It's funny you mentioned Maggie because for years I thought Maggie was the one caught in the explosion with Marlena. For some reason, they were cleaning Maggie's oven, so that's probably why I was confused.

[quote]In 1979 Julie was badly burned by Maggie's oven when it blew up in her face. When Julie saw what her appearance was she was sure that Doug would no longer want her as his wife.

[quote]The fact that most people were at work during the day is a factual observation

In the 60s and 70s these things were getting 10 million viewers a day. This was before the VCR. Luke and Laura's wedding got 30 million. Somebody was at home during the day.

Also, for years, the revenue made from soaps paid for the networks' primetime lineups. This form of entertainment would not have lasted this long if no one was watching and it wasn't making money.

R120 - I completely forgot about Elliot.

Thanks for the reminder.

most of the women I grew up with worked or involved in the equivalent... I honestly don't recall knowing any stereotypical "housewives" even the resident cat lady rather than living up to hoarding tropes walked miles daily, feeding the neighborhood cats and offering to take them to the vet if needed. They were never invested in soap operas, probably because you miss one episode and lose everything. It seems (to me) it takes a specific kind of frau to obsess over soaps. And I'll admit when I was home sick -- that illness might have extended just long enough to finish a very short subplot to fuel spank bank material for months to come.

The Days make up people would forget what side of Julie's face the scar was on. Susan Seaforth said her mother wrote that story.

My mom cycled through a lot of favorites on all three networks, but by the late '70s her big three were DOOL, OLTL, and GH.

I recall a pregnant Rachel not feeling well and she called over to Iris' and asked to speak to Mac and Iris DOESN"T GIVE HIM THE MESSAGE.

Rachel miscarries. Mac finds out and RIPS into Rachel.

Was it Robert (over Clarice) or Mac (over this tragedy) who took a poker to Iris' portrait?

I think Robert but I wouldn't have blamed Mac.

When soaps were soaps...

R125, Julie went to Mexico (I think) and got plastic surgery and she returns all fresh faced and her boobs are spilling out of her dress (I think) and she returns to Doug's Place to reclaim him only to hear Doug announce Lee Dumonde as his new fiancee or wife!

Julie was beautiful but broken once more.

When soaps were soaps...

[quote] In reality most people were at work and didn't watch daytime shows.

This is another example of the middle class bias in society. One of the reasons I didn't grow up thinking that men weren't "supposed" to like soaps, was because many of the men in my working class family watched one or more soaps because daytime soaps were basically the only regular shows they could watch since they worked either 2nd or 3rd shift. Primetime tv wasn't really a regular option for them.

In the 60s and 70s soaps were a huge institution of daytime television. Then in the mid 80s there was a huge soap surge probably lit by the early 80s Luke & Laura storyline, but by 1985-86 it seemed everyone was swayed by "Love in the afternoon"- remember that ABC soap ad campaign? The ABC soaps seemed the most popular, at least here in NYC.

In 1985 a restaurant co-worker (very cute) got cast as a contract role on a soap and had to give up his shifts. It was huge news to all of the actor/waiters on staff, as it became very real that someone did get the Golden Ticket every once in awhile. He did the show for three years or so and never acted again. I wish I knew the story.

I read for a contract role on Ryan's Hope in 1983, but I didn't get it. Boo. I forget the name of the troubled teen character, but it was against type anyway.

A few weeks ago I read for a contract role on Y&R, a soap I've never seen. It amused me to think there was at least a snowball's chance I'd be starting my third act in LA, working at Television City, in Hollywood! I guess they've selected someone else...oh, well.

Was it "As the World Turns" that had announcer Dan Region announcing each episode?

I think he did the same intro live every day too!

[quote]I recall a pregnant Rachel not feeling well and she called over to Iris' and asked to speak to Mac and Iris DOESN"T GIVE HIM THE MESSAGE.

Rachel called Mac at Iris's house to say she was sick. Iris answers. Rachel asks for Mac but doesn't explain why. Iris says Mac isn't there (which he wasn't). Rachel says she needs to talk to Mac, then collapses in pain. Suddenly Rachel is no longer on the other end of the phone.

In classic Iris style, Iris says, "Rachel? Rachel?" When she hears nothing, Iris says, "Really, that girl has no manners" and hangs up.

That god damn FAT fuck Casey is eating donuts and begging people for money so that his disaster of a creation can get to season2. That’s now the greatest soap opera of them all. Go the fuck away, FAT Casey!!!!

Ada’s dish rag - you are annoying. Ugh!

You can always remind and superhero bros that one of their favorite characters wouldn't have existed without Days of Our Lives.

[quote]One of the reasons I didn't grow up thinking that men weren't "supposed" to like soaps, was because many of the men in my working class family watched one or more soaps because daytime soaps were basically the only regular shows they could watch since they worked either 2nd or 3rd shift.

I'm picturing a group of guys drinking beer, smoking cigars, and playing cards while discussing Niki Smith's latest outing or Jennifer Pace's unfortunate accident.

my family was a CBS family and even my Dad watched the lineup on his own

R140 My family is almost all Southern Baptist or Pentecostal so replace the beer with RC, which may or may not have moonshine in it, the cigars with chewing tobacco, and that is about right.

The hilarity, of course, is that men obsess over sports, which is a soap opera with statistics, or comic books, which are space/surrealism soap operas that even share some of the same DNA.

What Shonda Rhimes does is the soapiest soap that ever soaped but because it's nighttime TV and she graduated from an Ivy League school, no one dares call it that.

R143 Yep, and I would say the person that understood that the best over the last few decades was Vince McMahan of WWE. That organization is the perfect combination of the campiest parts of DOOL and sports mashed together.

R144 Yup. He understood it well enough to hire a soap writer for several years to create their content.

I remember an interview with Lucci saying that a lot of pro athletes watched the show due to their schedules. Somewhere I saw a pic of one of the teams touring the studio and were posing on Erica's Linden House set with Lucci and the Montgomery brothers a some more of the cast.

I think Bold & the Cuntiful will be the next soap to be cancelled. Then there will just be one soap per network.

B&B will be the LAST soap cancelled. Even if its ratings suck on CBS, the Bells make probably two-thirds of their B&B profits on its overseas sales.

It's the worst show by far, but it is popular overseas, so that's that.

The Bold and the Beautiful makes too much money overseas to be cancelled.

My grandparents watched the noon news followed by Ryan's Hope. I loved the music intro. My parents were too educated and professional to watch or care about daytime dramas but I loved the eighties and all the soaps during that time.

Ryan's Hope was, for most of its run, one of the best written and acted shows.

A very realistic one, a family that was very real.

[quote]The Bold and the Beautiful makes too much money overseas to be cancelled.

It popular overseas?😳 Where?

*three seconds of searching*

Oh look, here's a list

For about a year or two, All My Children and One Life to Live shared a 90 minute time slot on ABC. Each show ran for 45 minutes and it was weird because all the other soaps were either 30 minutes or an hour long.

All over the world.

[quote]For about a year or two, All My Children and One Life to Live shared a 90 minute time slot on ABC.

No, that's not correct. It was General Hospital and One Life to Live that each aired for 45 minutes, starting in July 1976. The two aired in a 90 minute time slot from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Then in Jan 1978, both shows expanded to 60 minutes.

All My Children was never 45 minutes. It went directly from 30 minutes to 60 minutes in April 1977.

Dang gurl, you are a REAL soap queen R156

[quote]All My Children was never 45 minutes. It went directly from 30 minutes to 60 minutes in April 1977.

ABC had to beg and plead with Agnes Nixon to take the show to an hour. Eventually they're threatened her and she gave in. CBS had to do the same thing with Bill Bell.

R131, it was Robert and that scene is on youtube somewhere.

R153 I forgot about the fat red head in that show. Hardly “beautiful.”

Don't you dare come for Sally Spectra!!

PervSudz is whacking his OLD gross meat to Chandler. Ewwwwwwwww

In some interview or one of the recent zoom reunions someone who was on AMC said when the time doubled from 30 to 60 minutes the work quadrupled. It is interesting when you see some of the old cast pics from the 30 minutes era how much smaller it is. A lot of these people were phased out by around 1980.

R163 That was why the Newmans and Abbotts took over Y&R, most of the rest of the cast decided to leave rather than work on an hour show.

Brenda Dickson made Y&R #1! Said no one, ever. lolololol

When OLTL and GH went to 45 minutes they flipped their spots. OLTL used to be at 3:30 but had better ratings so they wanted it to lead into GH to help their ratings. This was before Gloria cane in to change everything I think.

The Bold and the Beautiful makes too much money overseas to be cancelled.

R167 I will say, people thought the same thing about Australia's "Neighbours," but once the UK broadcaster dropped it, the soap was cancelled.

"neighbours" was a totally different kind of soap. Mostly sexless and much of the audience in its peak years "hate watched" it.

[quote] Brenda Dickson made Y&R #1! Said no one, ever. lolololol

We may laugh at Brenda now, but let's not pretend that she wasn't a big reason why Y&R became so successful in the mid-'80s. Her scenes with Jeanne Cooper crackled with tension and they're still incredible to watch today. The Kay/Jill story was dynamite and drove stories for years. The John/Jack/Jill story went on for a long time and was a classic soap story.

For a long time, Y&R did a great job of balancing the veterans with newbies and younger characters, another key to its success. The Newmans vs. Abbotts stories were engrossing for a long time, but they've worn out their welcome and the show seems stuck.

Yes, R170, Y&R is stuck. The same characters are constantly getting back with each other and are part of the same old triangle (e.g., Jack, Phyllis, Nick). The show is so fixated on the Newmans, especially Victor, winning all the time. Even the dialogue is stuck. You're constantly hearing characters referring to Victor as being "two steps ahead of everyone else." Although I watch the show, I find myself taking a break from the show for a few weeks from time to time. I also constantly fast forward through many of Victor's scenes. The storylines are predictable because you know that in the end the Newmans are going to come out on top. It's off-putting.

My mother watched The Secret Storm everyday at 4:00 PM.

Yes, R172, mine too! She also watched As The World Turns, the Doctors and All My Children at one point or another. Chores were done in the morning and dinner would be prepared at 4pm. Thank goodness for those portable TVs you could move around the house.

A year before she died, she asked my father to take her to Pine Valley for vacation. Her mind was going, but she still followed her stories.

We were an NBC house, but Y&R would come on at 12:30. You knew it was going to be a good Y&R day when in the opening teaser Katherine would open the door and there would be Jill. Jill would push her way through saying let me in you drunken old bag. The way Bill Bell structured his show, he wouldn't pick up the scene again until Act 2 or 3. You had to keep switching back and forth between your show and Y&R to get the pay off.

Yeah, all the focus on Victor Newman (Y&R) is really excessive. The writers never knew what to do with the other male characters except for turning them into cucks, e.g., Jack Abbot and Brad Carlton (who were younger and sexier than the aged Victor).

My Mom and my grandmother did not watch soap operas. My maternal grandmother (b. 1902) was very interested in politics and current affairs. She was a lifelong Democrat, who watched what was the The MacNeil/Lehrer Report every evening. She watched the original Poldark (she got me hooked on it when I was 12 or 13). She watched Merv Griffin at night.

We had a wonderful woman who babysat for us and took care of us, when my folks travelled abroad or in the States due to my Dad's line of work. Her "story" was "Days of Our Lives." After she died, my Mom hired another older woman to mind my younger brother and me. Later, she was more of a housekeeper. She loved "General Hospital."

I had female cousins who turned me onto "General Hospital" around the time of Luke and Laura.

In college, everyone watched "All My Children." The tv room in the Student Center would be packed M-F at 1pm for it.

In grad school, a friend got me to watch "Days of Our Lives."

R175 Also, John Abbot was older but sexier than Victor, so they killed him off a decade before they would've needed to.

Y&R's insistence on bowing to Eric Braeden's ego is one of the reasons why the show is so awful now. Victor always winning. Victor knows better than the police. Victor can beat up men half his age. All ludicrous. Victor always beats Jack. Lame. At least when Peter Bergman came on the show he tired of Braeden's ego and their infamous fight had Bill Bell telling them to shape up or they could be off the show (and yet the show STILL catered to Braeden).

The show hasn't been able to introduce a new younger set of characters to keep the show rejuvenated. They were able to do that back in the early 2000s with Mac and Billy but since then, it hasn't worked. Phyllis is back with Jack, they break up again and she will probably go back to him. After she fucks Nick again. Yawn. I mean, Diane is back from the dead, which shows you how they have run out of ideas.

Killing John was one of the show's dumbest mistakes.

When the shows were a half hour, there were maybe 4 or 5 set "stars" of a show. You'd have their spouses or kids, maybe a dozen characters in all, and things would move along. If a story came to an end, the spouse would die or be chased out of town for cheating, or the son or daughter would move away and come back 4 years later played by someone else.

The soaps all boomed in the 80s but when the 90s and 00s came along too many of the hour shows were keeping on characters that had no juice left in them, because by then no one wanted to try anything new. Lauren and Michael are an example on Y&R. Nothing at all against two decent actors, both had great runs on the show, but they should have left the show long ago, save a few visits here and there. Same with about half of that show.

I loved Ross and Blake on GL but I don't blame Jerry ver Dorn for leaving in 2005. I know he did it for budget cuts, but honestly, Ross and Blake were a Lauren and Michael situation. They should have been off canvas or rested.

I loved my veteran actors and wanted to see them, but the natural pruning and new growth the shows used to do stopped, and they've become mostly tepid repetitive stories (B&B, Y&R), or over the top nonsense where nothing is sacred (DAYS). Only GH has a semblance of old soap, and that show has entirely too many day players on it - it's great when there are recognizable faces on screen, not so much if there isn't....

I used to love going to the bars for Melrose Place Mondays.

I didn’t let appendicitis or anyone else get in between me and “Secret Storm,” you bitches!

[quote]Y&R's insistence on bowing to Eric Braeden's ego is one of the reasons why the show is so awful now. Victor always winning. Victor knows better than the police. Victor can beat up men half his age. All ludicrous. Victor always beats Jack. Lame.

This is the main reason I stopped watching. And that was 20 years ago.

R179 I always felt like Lauren should’ve stayed in LA, I liked her a lot more on B&B than I have since she returned to GC and Y&R.

For you Y&R fans, Robert Newman has announced his exit from the show. I liked the Ashland Locke storyline for most of its run, but I am not sorry to see it end. Not because of Ashland but because of the Newman family's continued involvement in his story. It was nice to see a strong male villain on the show. They should have put him in someone else's orbit. Do the unexpected: Put him with Phyllis or Lauren.

Old ancient ladies watched As The World Turns. The median age of that show was 112.

r16 a classic ignorant statement from somebody who probably never watched them. Dynasty was mediocrity, the daytime soaps on the other hand actually had multi layered plots and dimensional characters. All Dynasty had over them was a budget.

That's a shame about Robert Newman. He's a hot daddy and he brought some new energy to the show as did Burgi.

The show cannot seem to create another male villain as if it's threatening to Eric Braeden. They tried and failed with Tucker. But Ashland could have worked if they tried harder.

Poor Josh Morrow still hasn’t learned how to act.

Is Victor Newman actually popular with viewers? That's hard to believe, but I can't figure out why else the producers cater to Eric Braeden's ego to the detriment of the show.

Victor has been the main villain for 40 years! That's way too long. Time for fresh blood.

Eric got Robert Newman terminated according to Miss Branco.

Are we supposed to believe 81 year old Victor still kicking everyone’s ass?

R186: The daytime shows recycled old chestnuts like weddings, murder trials, amnesia, evil twins, etc. plus garden variety jealousy, betrayal, infidelity and the occasional alien obduction.

Braeden is 86ish, not 81. My God I remember Hans on Rat Patrol in the mid 60's, and he was at least 30 then.

Braeden should be backburned. He can't hold the show hostage like this.

R111 Henry Slesar was a real writer who wrote that soap. It was the best of the P & G soaps. It also had the most fabulously open gay men on that soap. I loved Macime...God I would have gone straight for her. Oh and Raven as the baby Erica Kane...she was fabulous.

I read an interview of Braeden right after his character did something horrible, I think it might have been when he was responsible for Jack being kidnapped Cady McClain and Victor's family was giving him the cold shoulder. He was legitimately angry that the family was not treating Victor with the respect that he deserved, even though he had just done something that was bad for Victor standards. His ego and how he feels Victor should be portrayed was pretty amazing. I used to watch AMC, and while Lucci would say how great it was to play Erica and say some positive things about her, she would be the first to admit she was greatly flawed, a control freak, and responsible for all of her relationship trainwrecks and many of her personal disasters. While Erica was the big name of the show, not sure she ever ate or controlled it like Victor has for the past few decades.

The average viewer of Y&R is 70, in the south. Y&R is on in more senior centers than any other soap, and it's on at lunchtime, which is why it continues to be #1. The one thing they all love is Victor Newman. Victor can do no wrong.

I remember visiting my Nana at her retirement community and there they were, a bunch of 90 year olds watching Victor Newman.

Grammy loves her stories on CBS at the home.

R197 They do love seem to love to hate him, but a few times over the past year I've heard old people even saying it is getting ridiculous. I was in a doctor's office a few months ago and the two elderly women sitting on the couch near me, were discussing Y&R because the doctor was running behind and one said, "if he doesn't hurry up, I'll miss my story." Then they started discussing Y&R, they both said they have been watching since it started, and that it isn't as good as used to be. Then they started talking about Victor and how crazy they write him. They were both like he is as old as us and they still write him like he is 40. They compared it with DOOL's Victor, whom they have kept a major part of the show, while still acknowledging the man is ancient. Though they did say that if Y&R's Victor was a real person who could still do the things he does on the show, he would be the most popular man in the retirement community.

I know this thread is meant to be about daytime soaps, but a quick memory of prime time soaps- interestingly, Dallas was embraced by my father and uncles. While a soap, it had such an alpha male sensibility due to JR and the focus on the always feuding Ewing brothers. I even remember them liking Knots Landing. Dynasty, on the other hand, was just too camp and diva-centric to appeal to the straight male members of my family.

R200 Dallas was very much like some of the old family-based westerns like Bonanza or The Big Valley, but set in the modern day with the patriarch portrayed by Jim Davis, who seemed to be a regular guest star on almost every western in the 50s and 60s.

I will catch Big Valley reruns from time to time and have thought that it could have easily been converted to a 80's primetime soap with the family drama and the various characters fitting various soap roles - matriarch, hot-blooded son, more sensitive, ingenue daughter - potential clashing with neighboring ranchers etc. Even the big instrumental theme song would have fit in with the big primetime soap themes of the 80's.

R202 Agreed. Out of the big primetime soaps of the eighties, Dallas, Dynasty, The Colbys, and Falcon Crest all basically felt like modern day versions of shows like the Big Valley, Dynasty and The Colbys even had some of the stars.

Knots Landing, however, felt like a modern updated Peyton Place.

I've been going down a Peyton Place rabbit hole. I'm linking this scene of Hannah Cord on the witness stand for other lovers of classic soap opera. This is some good stuff.

One nice thing about Datalounge is that if you want to start a thread on a particular subject—say, nighttime soap operas—you are able to do so.

R205 Ok I will take it back to daytime, The Buchanans on OLTL were to me the most successful of the Dallas inspired families on daytime, staying a core family until the end, precisely because OLTL cast Phil Carey as Asa. Just like with Dallas, it gave the family credibility to be led by an actor people were used to seeing in westerns.

The primetime soaps were not actually soaps. They were no different from The Sopranos which was never referred to as a soap. Soaps by their original definition are daily serials, not broadcast just once a week.

This thread prompted me to look up long-gone soaps on YouTube, and a surprising number of them have many full episodes on there.

I've just started watching Ryan's Hope and The Edge of Night for the first time, and I'm pretty hooked already!

[quote]One nice thing about Datalounge is that if you want to start a thread on a particular subject—say, nighttime soap operas—you are able to do so.

Oh take it down a notch. This thread was circling the drain and someone resurrected it with a question. A soap is a soap is a soap. Daytime, nighttime, it doesn't matter.

R207 That is something that has been debated for years, all the way back on radio. One Man's Family is considered to be one of the greatest radio hits of any genre, but it was the big primetime weekly soap of radio. Soap Operas are just serialized melodrama, it doesn't matter if it is daily or weekly.

Also, yes I would categorize The Sopranos and most "prestige" drama of this century as soap operas. If you watched Game of Thrones, I have news for you all you did was watch a medieval version of Passions with an endless budget.

[quote]I'm linking this scene of Hannah Cord on the witness stand for other lovers of classic soap opera. This is some good stuff.

I like when the judge kept banging his gavel for order even though the courtroom was totally silent.

Who’s your favorite tertiary (third-tier) character? All soaps – past and present – are eligible.

Third-tier doesn’t mean third rate. A more appropriate term might be guest star. These are characters who usually didn’t push story, though their escapades were wildly entertaining. They were often shit-stirrers, comedic relief, or eccentric in some way. They may have been criminals, grifters, or royalty … or any combination of the three! Another way to identify them is that they usually didn’t stay on canvas for long. They frequently jetted off after stirring things up, leaving the show’s main characters to pick up the pieces.

My favorites:

- Cecile Depoulignac (Another World): I was a dyke-ling when Cecile began swanning in and out of Bay City, but I always recall her as a bright spot. I loved Cass Winthrop, so even this budding lesbian understood Cecile’s absolute obsession with the town’s dishiest attorney. Points for her bringing Wallingford to town. I loved me some Cass/Felicia/Wallingford!

- Alex Olanov (One Life to Live): Upon my 1994 rewatch I realized something I didn’t understand when the show initially aired. Alex was nuts. Completely insane. And she was so casual about it too. I love her audacity. I aspire to have her batshit confidence. Bitch was straight looney.

- India Von Halkein (Guiding Light): While I don’t know India as well as I know the other two yet (I’m burning my way through 80s/90s-era GL at a speedy clip) this character is always a treat. She’s quick with a quip and always stylish, even when funds are low. I love the looks of horror, bemusement, or fear that come across various characters faces when she deigned to visit Springfield.

Who’s your favorite guest soap guest star?

Cecile, India and Alex Olanov were all originally contract roles.

Cecile was on AW from 1979-84, India on GL from 1984-87, Alex Olanov on OLTL from 1990-96.

Then after the actors decided not to renew their contracts, the show persuaded them to come back for visits here and there.

I was raised on the young and the restless. When I was in college I applied for an internship with them and got it. That started my career in Hollywood.

A contract role doesn't mean your character pushes story, R213. Hilary Edson's Stacy (AW) or Eve (GL) characters could tell you that. Lillian Raines is the best example I can think of.

While Cecile, Alex, and India began life as contract roles, they became more known for their visits after their initial stints. They were never the stars of their shows. They were, at best, supporting. Great support, though. And since none remained glued to their respective canvases after their initial runs, they became special guest stars of sorts.

Liz Taylor as Helena Cassadine on GH was a guest star.

Carol Burnett as Verla Grubbs on AMC was a guest star.

Former contract player Nancy Frangione returning for a visit as Cecile on AW is not what I would consider a guest star.

Former contract player Gerald Anthony returning in the late 80s for his yearly visit to Llanview as Marco Dane, is not what I would consider a guest star.

When Genie Francis returned to GH in 2006 for a month long visit, she won her Emmy as a Supporting Actress, not as a Guest Star.

You win, R216. I attempted to begin what I thought was an interesting topic, but you've proven that I am ill-informed. My apologies.

I’ve never forgiven P&G for dropping THE from TGL!!!

Ada’s dish rag is a waste of space.

It's a fantastic topic. I commend you on starting it.

It's merely the wording of it as "guest star" that I have issue with. As I said, big difference between Liz Taylor's three-day role on GH and Genie Francis coming back for a month in 2006 and your "guest star" label doesn't take that distinction into account.

A better label might be "shit stirrer" or just "coming back for a visit" or even maybe "TroubleMaker Returning to Town."

Anytime Cecile came back to Bay City, I was excited. She certainly knew how to cause trouble, make the show more watchable.

Ditto India. Springfield was always more exciting with her in town.

I do not understand why those shows didn't sign them to contracts again. If they didn't want to be tied to the show long term, then the shows should have made arrangements to bring them back regularly, at least once a year.

That's how Days handled Stefano in the 80s and early 90s. They'd build up the story hinting Stefano was responsible for something for months. There was usually talk of "Stefano's coming." And then when he finally arrived, usually during a sweeps period, it was always exciting. Sometimes he was only back for a month or so. Sometimes he was back for three months. But we knew we would get regular visits from Stefano.

Yearly visits from Cecile and India would only have enhanced the shows!

Cecile and Felicia masquerading as nuns on AW, Summer 1984 was one of the funniest things ever. They both had long fingernails, while donning a full habit.

[quote]My grandparents watched the noon news followed by Ryan's Hope. I loved the music intro. My parents were too educated and professional to watch or care about daytime dramas but I loved the eighties and all the soaps during that time.

R150 Too educated and professional to watch or care about daytime dramas. In other words, they were just too smart for that kind of thing. Hey, guess what? My parents had high school diplomas from the 40s, my mom was a housewife while I was growing up, but they didn't watch or care for soaps, either. Imagine them having that kind of taste when they weren't "too educated and professional" Just mind-boggling.

We can still save THE Another World!

If my mother had any down time during the day, she was much more likely to take a nap or read a book than turn on the TV. But when she did, it would be one of the afternoon talk shows like Mike Douglas or Dinah Shore. She did watch the morning news religiously; the Today show when it was the only one, then she defected to Good Morning America. Later in the 70s, she often stuck around for Phil Donahue at 9 if the topic was interesting.

When I was very young my father came home on his lunch break every day and watched Search for Tomorrow at 12:30 while he was eating. He got teased by family and friends a little for that.

My older sisters watched Y&R faithfully and would laugh and dissect the plot lines at family gatherings. I started watching in my college years just to get in on the fun. I stuck with it pretty consistently through the 80s. The stories were pretty entertaining at that time, with Cricket and Danny, and Jill and Katherine, and Tracy & Brad, and all that nonsense. I also got into Capitol for a year or so. Being ignorant of soap conventions, I was disgusted when Kelly went back to Trey and couldn't watch any more. Little did I know that these couples break up and get back together again ad infinitum.

My passion as a kid was the daytime game shows. The 70s was the best decade for games, with all those garish sets and actual props instead of computer graphics. It's a shame so many of them (just like the soaps) were erased or thrown out.

That KooKoosadora at SON is still fighting to save Another World!!!! Go KooKoo!

Dumbass Dylan will break the news about the return of THE Another World, which will be produced by Vee who is in the biz. You know! The biz!

DUMBDUMB DYLAN HAS THE SCOOP

KooKoosadora is still rambling on about how she got a park bench for Another World. So fat asses park their fat cabooses on a bench that says Another World. KooKoosadora is a fucking lunatic!!

Ada was the type of frau who'd watch soaps. Old school soaps like Secret Storm and Search for Tomorrow. She used to rub her clit at the sight of Mary "Stewart".

R202, I'm with you... The big Valley could easily have been brought back as a nighttime soap. It could have been brought up to the 'times' too. Why not use the Barkleys, just couple of generations later? The grandchildren of Jared, Nick, Heath and Audra? Christ it's practically Yellowstone way before Yellowstone.

BUT this thread is about daytime soaps... my go-to when in college was All My Children, circa 80 - 84. Oh how I loved Devon hiding her alcoholism! The early Cliff and Nina. Tad Martin getting stoned! Greg and Jenny. Jessie and how he hated Liza Colby. I've forgotten so much but for the record, Dr. Joe Martin was a stud.

For the record, the Bay City thread is M'd.

That nutjob KooKoodora is starting a campaign to get Donna Soap killer Swajeski as headwriter of Days. What a fucken loon.

We have the new thread now

R221 Yes!

They were strong characters and perhaps too strong for constant airplay, but only some HW's or producers seemed to know what to do with Cecile or India.