75 replies to this topic

[MarlandRulez]

Some documentary compares British soaps to American ones, the guy pretty much goes for the jugular... especially with NBC lol.

[Andre]

Some documentary compares British soaps to American ones, the guy pretty much goes for the jugular... especially with NBC lol.

Especially with Passions. DAYS and AMC seem to have been the only others focused on.

[DruRocks]

I love the US soaps because they are not 100% reality. That's dull. I love the glam, b!tchiness, long pauses & all. Besides look at what they are comparing it too? As well, soaps are nothing like they used to be. I've tried British soaps but they are so boring IMHO. I watch Prime Time and the news for more realism. The PSNS stuff is pretty much spot on LOL at R Kelly!

Edited by DruRocks, 26 December 2006 - 10:48 PM.

[Drew]

Alistair ... "the most evil daytime gameshow host you've ever seen"

[Drew]

I find the Australian soaps to be the perfect mix of US and UK soap. You have the escapism of the US soaps, with the reality and character based drama plus the budget of the UK ones

[Andre]

As an added point of interest, using Passions' Vendetta storyline as an argument against U.S. soaps is a very, very flimsy way to go about things. Anyone can win that debate. Vendetta was one of th biggest embarasments in all of daytime.

[Kennylicious]

OMG! I'm not even five minutes into it, and I'm FURIOUS!

They call Martha Madison a poor man's version of Heather Graham, Mary Beth Evans a poor man's version of Meg Ryan (what... because if the haircut?! EFFERS!!), and they called Stephen Nichols a poor man's version of Kurt Russell.

Go to hell, all of you!

I'm gonna finish watching this garbage...

Edited by Kenny, 26 December 2006 - 11:22 PM.

[Darn]

I love the US soaps because they are not 100% reality. That's dull. I love the glam, b!tchiness, long pauses & all. Besides look at what they are comparing it too? As well, soaps are nothing like they used to be.

Agreed. If I wanted to watch ugly people do ugly things I'd go to a mall. Not that I dislike realism in soaps and real looking people but look at the way Y&R is criticized for it's PSAs, it's not about having one over the other, it's about achieving a balance and a good American soap does that.

If that was an example of British soaps "realism", well, bad example, real people don't scream at someone "YOU'RE DEAD TO ME!". I had Sonny flashbacks for a second. It was nice to see them rag on DAYS, PASS and AMC. All three deserved the swipes.

[Vee]

I am with the British. Their soaps may be rougher and have "realer" people, but that's just it: The people are real and they don't SORAS, they just keep their original families. I love and appreciate our soaps for what they are and they used to be just as good but I think, especially in terms of dialogue these days, the UK shows have it all over us.

One thing I don't agree with though is that they kill mercilessly. Especially soaps like Eastenders, it seems they all have very strict "ethics" clauses or something for offscreen actors who, if they act up, can be quickly axed, no matter how long they've been on the show, and killed off violently.

[Drew]

I find the UK soaps to be very boring. Coronation Street ... EastEnders ... both very drab and depressing. EE especially. Emmerdale is populated by mostly 60 year olds. The only one I like is Hollyoaks. But I dont watch it.

as I said ... the Aussie soaps are my fav rendition of the soap medium. Home and Away especially!

Edited by Drew, 27 December 2006 - 12:10 AM.

[Kennylicious]

I watched EastEnders a few times and found it completely depressing and... it made me feel tired afterwards, LoL. Not sure if I was just bored to tears, or the fact that the show was so damn CLOUDY!

It was almost too realistic, in that afterwards I just wanted to die (as with real life after walking a day in my own shoes).

Edited by Kenny, 27 December 2006 - 12:21 AM.

[darraholic]

At least the American soaps can be interesting. I'll watch a British Soap if I'm wanting to some sleep.

[Drew]

nt

Edited by Drew, 27 December 2006 - 12:50 AM.

[bellcurve]

God, someone tell that dumbass that the "Brad Pitt"-lookalike is an actor on ALL MY CHILDREN not THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. Get your G*ddamn clips together!

I hate it when people trash soaps. I mean, REALLY hate it.

And his focus group consisted of people who probably never even watched soaps before. And "TRAPPED IN THE CLOSET" in comparison to daytime soaps? What a crock of [!@#$%^&*].

[Nixsoaps]

OMG! I'm not even five minutes into it, and I'm FURIOUS!

They call Martha Madison a poor man's version of Heather Graham, Mary Beth Evans a poor man's version of Meg Ryan (what... because if the haircut?! EFFERS!!), and they called Stephen Nichols a poor man's version of Kurt Russell.

Go to hell, all of you!

I'm gonna finish watching this garbage...

I was not very impressed with the comments of the actors myself. I knew first up would be Jacob Young's comparison to Brad Pitt, well ya know what, I like me some Jacob Young and not so much Brad Pitt, so I guess that I like the poor man's version.

Of course, at the time of the scene's that were shown, all three shows were very easy to make fun of, but things have changed. If you want to compare soaps, be more realistic than choosing some of the most stupid storylines (passions vendetta and the Madden Murder Mystery on AMC)... Sure he made some funny comments about Passions, but overall I disagreed with most of what was said.

Of course, I have never watched British soaps, or Australian one's for that matter. Sure everyonne wears a lot of makeup and some soaps have women dressed for cocktails in the dead of winter, but we know that and watch anyway.

I did get a good laugh though! Especially the R.Kelly garbage, what did that have to do with Daytime tv?

[alwaysAMC]

Ok this is just stupid.

First of all - he mainly uses Passions as the example - as the 'standard of all American soaps' - when it is FAR from it. And why did he use PSNS? Bc that is really the only soap that proves his point. You didn't see him using ATWT did you? No, bc then he wouldn't have a point.

Second - how pathetic and unprofessional to have your research WRONG. Most of the AMC clips had a caption which said it was Y&R.

Ridiculous.

Edited by alwaysAMC, 27 December 2006 - 01:33 AM.

[mateo22]

I agree, the lack of the majority of our Soaps as examples was one of this guys biggest faults. I love Passions, but c'mon, you expect me to think your credible when; 1) you can't even get your clips right and 2) and you can't even showcase all of our soaps...

what a crock...

[JER Soaps Fan]

I love, love, LOVE "Passions" -- I think everyone here knows that -- but I had to laugh out loud when they showed the clips of Siren and Sam's voiceover, "Is she really a mermaid?" I'm sure that focus group and that Brit show's viewers immediately thought we were all stupid for watching such a show. And DANG, they had to show the clip where Siren, as a mermaid, with her powers, sicked the crabs on Kay when she didn't get her way. That was just wrong. Representative of the show but wrong, lol. Talk about one shot after another.

As for "Days," I think the jerk was, well, a jerk about it, but I do see the resemblance of MBE to Meg Ryan, SN to Kurt Russell andTHANK YOU GOD for pointing out whom I though MM looked like all this time but couldn't put my finger on it -- Heather Graham!

Still, this guy was such a snob. And to NOT include B&B clips and showcase that soap, when all the actors including the men look so unrealistic due to botox injections and God knows what else (Don't get me wrong, Jack Wagner looks incredible because of it), well that's just silly.

[All My Shadows]

This annoys me so much more than anything else in the world. If it was presented in any other way, I'd just take it as someone's opinions, but this guy is obviously trying to play a game of Revolutionary War!

I have no problems with UK soaps. I enjoy reading their histories and classic storylines and such. As a matter of fact, based solely on reading, I'm thinking their "Crossroads" (1964-1988) was very close to our style of soaps. That being said, however, I don't see why those who scream "realism" feel the need to scream "realism." Okay...and our soaps are based mainly in "escapism." Who is to say which one is better?

UK soap ratings are high...yea, because their shows air in early fricken primetime. If you put B&B in the place "Wheel of Fortune" in most markets, B&B's ratings would soar.

Something that does turn me against UK soaps (and I've only seem multiple episodes of one - "EastEnders" on BBC America) is that they are constantly replacing characters with new characters. The result is a show of mainly newbies. I mean, I know AMC is very guilty of that at this point, but nowhere near as bad as some of these shows. Look at the "Hollyoaks" page at Wikipedia. This is a show that debut in 1995, yet only 6 current cast members (according to Wiki) debut pre-2000. Compare that to "Passions", which of course debut in 1999, and still has 12 *original* cast members, not to mention Dana Sparks on recurring. "Hollyoaks" has had entire families debut over the course of the last two years, and they make up the majority of the cast. "Passions" is still focused on its original characters, for the most part.

And I agree with Drew. The Australian soaps were a great mix of UK and US soaps. Oxygen aired "Neighbours" for a few months in 2004 (episodes from 1999) and I *loved* it. But then they moved it opposite AMC, and this was when the baby switch was in full force...

Edited by All My Shadows, 27 December 2006 - 01:54 AM.

[bellcurve]

UK soap ratings are high...yea, because their shows air in early fricken primetime. If you put B&B in the place "Wheel of Fortune" in most markets, B&B's ratings would soar.

Agreed. I've always said that if I were program director for a local CBS affiliate(and if CBS allowed), I would totally air B&B before the primetime programming.

B&B would get much higher ratings in the 7:30EST/6:30CST timeslot.