RIP - Soap Operas

As a huge TV fan, I've loved soaps since I was a kid. My first soap memories are Meredith's death on One Life to Live -- it was so sad; and the string of saliva between Philip and Tara on All My Children -- it was so gross. I was fasicnated by the relationship between Marlena and her evil twin Samantha on Days of Our Lives and was sad when Marlene and Don's baby was killed by SIDS. By the time I hit the college years I was totally into Luke and Laura's adventures on General Hospital followed by plenty of Bo and Hope on Days of Our Lives. Then it was the star-crossed romance of Cruz and Eden on Santa Barbara, and the tragic death of the saint-like Mary by the letter C. I went to visit my cousin in Florida and she started me watching the CBS soaps too -- oh dangerous James Stenbeck and Alan Spaulding kept me interested for quite a while.

I used to take a late lunch so I could watch Days of Our Lives and I would put my tape recorder on so I could listen to at least part of General Hospital. I got my first VCR so that I could watch the soaps. As the years went by I became less and less interested in the soaps. A sick day was only fun because if I could stay awake I would watch my shows. I subscribed to Soap Opera Digest magazine to help me keep up.

As time went by General Hospital deteriorated into "Stories From the Mob" with occassional guest appearances by stories that actually dealt with a hospital and with love and loss. I stopped watching. Days of Our Lives deteriorated into "The Stefano DiMera Evil Show" with occassional guest appearances by stories that actually dealt with a real people and with love and loss. Again, I stopped watching. One Life to Live became "The Most Boring Show Ever" with very few guest appearances by the previously mentioned stories and I stopped watching.

My "soap" life didn't go away completely because I found Eastender's. A British soap opera that had real people with real situations. The actors had a normal attractiveness about them and I bet that most would have never even gotten past the doorman of a U.S. soap studio. The stories were enthralling, they had everything I could want in a soap. Sure, if I was sick I would run through the U.S. soaps, but the remote would be working the entire time, just picking and chosing the stories I was interested in watching.

Eventually I got my first overseas posting. Paraguay didn't have much in the way of television and for a TV-aholic like myself this was a disaster. I found a company that would tape TV shows and mail them to me. I got one tape of soaps, General Hospital and As The World Turns and one tape of dramas, mostly from the Aaron Spelling school of drama, Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. I got back into soaps again because General Hospital brought back Luke and Laura, with their young son Lucky. And As The World Turns brought back Lily, and the fun triangle between Lily, Holden and Damien. Soaps were interesting again, they were fun again. The drama inherent in just Luke and Laura -- even with the occassional mob stuff thrown in, kept me glued to the mailroom waiting for my tapes. Watching Lily struggle between her long-lived love with Holden and her new-found love with Damien. When I went to my next posting in London, well my interest in the U.S. shows faded and I started watching Eastenders again. But there were a million other things on television and I just didn't care that much for my soaps anymore.

In London, Tel Aviv, and The Hague I've found that U.S. soaps are popular, about 5 years old - but popular. I've found The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, as well as Days of Our Lives on TV just about everywhere. Occassionally, All My Children is on too. But they are all old, and while I haven't seen the actual episodes, they don't really interest me.

Through all this, I did keep my Soap Opera Digest subscription and kept up on all the stories. I really like the magazine itself. You can tell the writers and editors enjoy soap operas and are trying their best to save this dying medium. However, it's the soap operas themselves that are letting the magazine down. They don't build story, they alienate their long-time views by bringing in young actors who have no training or experience. It's like they're just giving them on-the-job training, a sometimes lackluster story can be redeemed by the performances of competent actors. They focus the stories too much on what worked once and don't even try to go in another direction. Sure the mob thing worked for Luke and his cohorts, but it totally doesn't work anymore. Especially since The Soprano's showed just how violent that life is. I don't want to watch Kate or Michael get shot every sweeps period. I want to watch love, romance with a hint of danger and sometimes I want the danger to be psychological rather than violent. I'm tired of bombings and shooting sprees in my soaps. I get that on the news and on night time TV, which by the way people are not watching anymore.

After nearly 15 years I've let my subscription to Soap Opera Digest lapse. Not because of the cost of the magazine and not because of a lack of quality in the magazine both have remained more than acceptable. But because I just don't care about the soaps anymore. They occassionally peak my interest, when they bring back the characters I actually care about, when the stories are ones that wring the heart. But those are so few and far between that it isn't worth my money, nor any effort to try to watch them or pay for a subscription to a very good magazine devoted to them.

People say that soaps started going down the tubes with the OJ trial. I suppose that could be true -- I can't say whether people actually watched all that trial stuff during the day when soaps were pre-empted or not, I don't have the statistics and don't care to Google them. I can only speak of my own experience. When the OJ stuff was on I turned to another channel -- like millions of other Americans. When OJ was over, I didn't turn the channel back -- like millions of other Americans.

RIP my beloved soaps.