DramatistDreamer

That was a pretty good status discussion. Here's your quote: "You can do the soaps for 30 minutes at 2-4 episodes a week tops like the UK. You can airdrop them in a package on streaming, 30-40 episodes done in seasonal blocks, arc-based then let them take months off, like PC did with its production schedule but with an actual break in broadcast/release. It's perfectly doable and it's something Linda Gottlieb experimented with (and never fully abandoned, IMO) 30 years ago at OLTL. Also something Degrassi kind of did more recently. " ________________________ Still, a fair number of soap die-hards expect the 30-60 minutes, 5 days per week format when it comes to their favorite soap. I even heard chatter demanding that Netflix do this. When has Netflix ever streamed a daily show?? I feel like a fair number of soap fans would still have to be taught the vagaries if online streaming because they still don't get it.

Another one with Evans. SMH.

Yeah, but any truly well-made documentary will appeal to an audience beyond those fans. A thoroughly researched, well done documentary will garner attention and interest in the subject. And I am not talking about reboots or anything, just enough regard for the genre to look at preservation efforts (or lack thereof).

I hope that there is a second chance, but sometimes there are no second chances, especially for a genre that is often thought of as belonging to an era that has come and gone. I do hope that at some point someone can see the possibility of trying again.

You're welcome. It's like you said, people have no idea what they have missed. I blame P&G/PGP for this. Something that I have been saying for years was mentioned in this podcast segment- the devaluing of the impact and artistic value of the soap opera because it was perceived as a genre directed at women. That is a massive part of why the archives have been so poorly preserved, if preserved at all. It's also why I have been saying for years that the genre needs a very thorough, scholarly and entertaining documentary series (a la Ken Burns' "Jazz", "Baseball" or the recent one on Country music for the History Of the Daytime Drama. And a big part of that should be a "warts and all" examination of Irna Phillips, on all her genius, faults and foibles, the sexism she undoubtedly faced as well as the actions she took in its wake to build thos genre. Until we get something of that level, with that sort of gravitas and scholarly examination, the likes of P&G will continue to devalue parts of their entertainment legacy, because they can and aren't facing pressure to do otherwise.

France should probably (although it's unlikely) take a look at their role in this, as they supported and helped with training of the fighting force that grew out of the fighting in Libya, that later would become part of the rebel force in Chad.

Surprising (okay, maybe not) that this has received virtually no mainstream news coverage. Then again, Deby was an autocrat who had been in power for thirty years and he had support from the U.S. as well as E.U. countries like France. And unsurprisingly, his son is being installed in his place.

This won't bring George Floyd back to his loved ones but it is all the justice to be expected for today and that does count for something today. I must admit that the emotion kind of washed over me once I actually had a moment to process the actual verdict.

Here's the link: https://the1a.org/segments/guiding-light/

Many of us already knew these aspects but it is interesting that Krugman acknowledged them nonetheless.

I mean, they are not my favorites, but they do have fans, so 🤐 Tell you what though, if I were to write a reboot, Katie would only make occasional visits, like Aunt Penny. Also, I would cast the characters according to their actual ages. Katie should be about 32-33 years of age.

It's very unfortunate that there was so much complaining and whining about the format. I often think that soap fans have no foresight in terms of what can happen down the road. Neither AMC nor OLTL were "my shows" (I grew up watching CBS soaps, for the most part) but I was eager to watch these shows, thinking that perhaps the show of support would encourage other producers to want to 'dust off' other cancelled soaps and revive them, on a less ratings-focused platform, where they could get a little more time to build and grow. Yes, Prospect Park was a mess, but there might have other production companies who might have gotten the impetus to join the trend, and they might not have been a mess. Who knows? And all those people saying "I would've watched if it had been streaming on Netflix". Well, Netflix cancels shows the fastest of all the major streamers, so there was no guarantee that these reboots would have been renewed. Hulu was hardly the hinterlands of streaming platforms. I wish that fans of these shows would take the time to think and ponder the possibility that a genre that skews as old as daytime soaps might not get another chance to see another soap stream anywhere other than in bootleg clips and episodes of varying degrees of quality now because there was so much moaning and whining on previous efforts. And you're right, House Of Cards was extremely popular, so there obviously was a mainstream audience watching dramas on streaming platforms. As The World Turns fans keep talking about when AOL provided a streaming platform for that show's episodes but I guess that was seen as acceptable since ATWT was still airing on a terrestrial broadcast platform, rather than solely in cyberspace? It would be nice to see a day when ATWT, GL, etc. could be streamed on Paramount+ but we'd only get soap opera die-hard fans complaining about the shows not airing in their regular T.V. time-slots.

Oh, yeah, that spinning globe pretty much remained the same for quite a number of years, with the most minute of tweaks. Both GL and ATWT had such strong identifiers with the Lighthouse and The Spinning Globe that it was likely a question of veering to far away from a visual image that was so strongly connected with their identity. P&G seemed like a highly traditional company and probably viewed it as anathema to change too drastically, the look of their two stalwarts, unless they felt they had little choice. In the late 90s when the show seemed to fall into a kind of rut, and ratings trended downward, you began to see a highly noticeable tinkering with the look and sound of the theme. That's my take on the concept, anyway.

Funny how many people have claimed the opposite. Make up your minds, people! 😬😜

Interesting findings. For several years, I have said that I don't understand the mentality of Democrats that insist on leaving certain states "for dead" because they are red states and not perceived as "winnable". Why not take the time to at least attempt to build some type of infrastructure that could pay off several years down the road? And here it is, benefitting candidates at the top of the ticket.

And did Lisa refer to Duncan as "...that ugly Scotch person"?

Lucinda: "Big, dumb cop". 😂 Shannon mocking Duncan by mimicking his laugh always struck me as funny every time she did it.

OMG According to some reports that I have read, 6 out of 8 of the victims of the Indianapolis shooting were of the Sikh faith. A hate crimes investigation is in order.

Yup, by 1988, they had tweaked the theme song. They also removed most of the percussive elements from the song, which I didn't care for, at all. It sounded overly synthesized, overly "produced". If anything, they should've stripped it down a bit. Added strings, the sound of a piano, changed the pace, either slower or a bit quicker. Ironically, the variations on the theme song that they sometimes did within actual scenes were usually very lovely.

There were some minor tweaks that go unnoticed by most people but having studied music, I can tell. I will say that the basic melody stayed the same. If you ask me the theme song actually got worse when they changed it some years later. I never understood why they just do a variation of this or the first theme song to make more contemporary. Technically, Y&R has had the same basic theme for decades, so having the same basic theme was not the problem, if you tweak it in the right ways to update it in a way that works.

Surprised. Not.

Just based on results this week, MC is reading very much like a Challenger tournament.

On an impulse, I decided to check out a livestream of the last 25 minutes of today's episode and it looks like somebody is trying to give Victoria a backbone where Victor is concerned. It's been over 15 years since the character showed any spine with her father. I haven't been watching, so I don't know whether there have been improvement in how Victoria is characterized as a businesswoman. Yes, there is a high school set, so there's that but who is writing this awful, dated dialogue for these teens?! Maybe consult with someone who knows something about how teenagers and young people talk. Also, the actor who plays Moses looked so adorable in his headshot, why is he being styled with zero swag?? Didn't he used to live in NYC with his Mom Sophia (by the way, has Sophia been seen with her teen son in GC yet)? No young man, let alone young Black man who grew up in NYC is going to go around being styled that dumpy way. Also, does no one in production know how to style curly hair?? Just a mess!🥴 Is Stafford still resistant to being paired PB? Looking at them both today and I no longer see that much of an age difference between them. I'm not sure why she would object now when Jack now looks less than five years older than Phyllis at this point. That's not meant to be a slight against either, btw. Maybe because I have been watching so many classic episodes, this Y&R feels very unsatisfying, like there's nothing to dig into. It barely held my interest for 20 minutes. Maybe it's more interesting with Hilary's kinfolk (*shrugs*).