Planet Soap

It felt like there thankfully weren't too many celebrity deaths last year but since Betty White passed, 2022 is proving to be the opposite😔

YR: Victor/Ashley/Nikki/Matt + Jack

Shemar Moore Y & R 2004

Brenda Dickson's Jill in a scene with Victor! Rarely have I ever seen them interact. The original Mamie gives me slight Esther vibes. Subservient and ditsy. Veronica Redd's Mamie Stood up for herself and fought back more.

I take it that budget crunch was in response to the "great soap purge" that was occurring at that time.

Agreed. Not too many CBS shows from the 90s are relevant today (as far as I can think of). Seems like CBS did really well in primetime in the 50s-70s. ABC had the late 70s. I'm not too sure who was the difinitive network in the 80s. NBC had the 90s & early 00s, and Fox did really well in the mid 2000s.

Queens surprised me. It was better than "Our Kind Of People" and less trashy than "Empire". I do think the pacing needs to slow down. Modern primetime soaps move too quick, but I do understand the need to hook people by making a throw-everything-in-there pilot episode.

I know Y&R likes to repeat names (ex. David Kimble's mistress Diane), But it's odd that she had Robert as her chauffer, then they had her hire Robert who was involved in the Marge swap.

In the episodes being posted by D Goldenson to YT, you can really see the the production value begin to slide around 2009. I've said this before but DAYS looked pretty good up into the mid 2000s in comparison to the ABC soaps especially.

Y&R's sets are pretty bad now but DAYS definitely looks the cheapest.

Reminds me of the rural purge back in the 70s. Black-ish and Grown-ish are now attempting to replicate that.

Understandable. B&B's problem is that it's plots are strictly bent on romance, w compared to GH whose plots range from sci fi, mystery, crime, and romance. I think the cutting would reduce casts to illuminate redundant characters who have a little storyline, and make plots more focused. Hypothetical formats (CBS for example) Mon-Wed y&r 1-1:30, b&b 1:30-2pm; Thu-Fri ATWT 1-1:30, GL 1:30-2pm (or) mon-wed y&r 1-2pm, Thu-Fri B&B 1-2pm

I was literally just thinking about "The Daytime Purge" the other day, though I'd say Passions (which deserved cancellation) was the first nail in the coffin. The only way I could see soaps surviving is if they cut back from the five new episode per week all year long format. I'm amazed that we still have all four post apocalypse soaps 10 years on, but I question how long they can continue with ever shrinking budgets and 💩💩writing. I think the only audiences that remain for soaps are the diehards that have been watching for decades. I only know about two people in the millennial/zoomer age group who keeps up with modern day soaps. On the positive side, we're in the age of nostalgia and reboots. This may not be the end of soaps, even if it means not in it's traditional format. Hype around characters like Sheila returning to B&B, the "Locher Room" and the increasing availability of classic soap episodes online proves that there is at least niche interest remaining in the genre.

If that's how much it cost to produce the modern day young and the restless, I can only imagine how much an actually well produced and written primetime show amounts to!

Flashbacks!!! Did Sheila & Deacon ever really interact back in the day? Feels weird calling 2002-03 back "the day" lol!

I'm here for it since I saw that "What If: Ryan met Carly" episode.

I always wondered what would happen if Ron were writing Y&R and that's exactly how I picture it. Pulling historic characters out of the woodwork via a superficial use of history, and a darker more suspenseful but somewhat lacking show like the final years of OLTL. It wouldn't be the best, but it'd be better than whoever's writing the show now. At the very least some classic characters might return.

Drew & Carly👀

To my surprise Queens was actually decent, much better than Our Kind of People. It just can't find an audience though. One thing I believe daytime used to better at than prime time is slowly building up a continuous plot. Primetime serial dramas like Riverdale seam to eat through plot way too rapidly. Primetime soaps seem to be limited to romance, business and occasionally crime storylines where as daytime gives you a variety of melodramatic plots.

Now that we're back down the the Hope vs Steffy/Taylor vs Brooke rabbit hole again, maybe it's bad writing but I thought Hope & Steffy made peace at Steffy's wedding? Now all of a sudden she's getting territorial about the Logans versus Forresters again? This is why Hope shouldn't have been Steffy's maid of honor or whatever, especially considering that the latter just slept with her husband. Moreover, 30+ year olds are still pining over parental neglect and and wanting their long divorced parents back together??

wait, Trina knew what Ava did to Morgan all this time and was still close to her, wow! Liking Victor and Spencer. Perhaps Mr. Sheffield becomes the new Cassedine patriarch if he stays on long term. I want to imagine Sarah and Tamera's Carly reacting to Nina bragging about her quasi affair with Sonny.

Lauren & Sheila both!

Exactly!

I liked Scott but I agree that he wasn't a strong charachter on his own without the Sheila/Lauren drama. Who do you supposed would have been a better man for them to fight over? Perhaps Paul as the actual baby daddy, then him suing Lauren for child custody after her affair with Brad, then that feeding direcly in to her reignited feud with Tracy? In watching some early 80s episodes...I'm sure this was discussed at nauseum, but but what exactly led to the Brooks and Fosters being phased out?

Something significant better happen at the cabin because they've been talking about this since about October‼️