vetsoapfan

Yes. Once all the master writers (who were both gifted AND understood the heart and soul of the soap opera genre) left us, daytime TV collapsed. Micro-managing and clueless suits started inflicting their idiotic mandates onto the soaps, and allowed/encouraged inferior scribes to take over. It was a lose-lose scenario. The soaps and viewers paid the price. To me, the problems arise when writers (and other PTB) who simply do not understand the essence of soaps, or who seem to deride the genre itself, refuse to adhere to any of the principles that work; ignore the principles which had kept the soaps hugely successful and beloved for decades.

I agree that the problem exploded in the 1980s, but some soaps like ATWT and Y&R were able to hold out and continue producing good material. But by the mid-1990s, most (if not all) of the soaps had collapsed, and daytime became a wasteland.

There are some performers who just have an undefinable but undeniable presence/charisma/magnetism to which the audience responds. IMHO, Courtney was one of them. I agree. I've seen other actresses whom I deemed weaker (hello Charity Rahmer, LOL), but being "less bad" than someone else is not a ringing endorsement of anyone's talent or appeal. "Uneven" is the word. Some casting choices were spot-on while others were truly painful. Of course, this is true for all soaps, not just Rauch's AW.

I know that there are fans who considered Borgenson to be at least adequate as Alice, and others who deemed her to be Jacqueline Courtney's best replacement in the role. Having watched the show for so many years, however, I found the dismissal and replacement of JC to be...sacrilegious, like replacing Mary Stuart as Joanne on SFT, Deidre Hall as Marlena on DAYS, Susan Lucci as Erica on AMC, or Genie Francis as Laura on GH. Some actors just cannot be replaced IMHO. The only Alice I wanted to see on-screen was Courtney. Runyon did not strike me as a strong actress (Cathy Green had been so likeable and good), and the Pat-Brian pairing strikes me as a "we don't know what else to do with these people so we'll push them together" plot device.

Thanks @slick jones.🙂

Yep. I sound like a broken-record and crusty curmudgeon when I say this, but overall, the soap genre has been in the toilet for 30 years. How OLTL, TEON, AW, TGL and ATWT ended up will always be painful for me.

It's natural for die-hard fans to clamor for more and more vintage episodes to come to light, but you are 100% right: we are truly lucky that so much classic material is already out there. I started video trading (by exchanging Beta and VHS tapes via snail mail) long before Youtube and other sharing site existed. The mountain of soap goodies we have today is like a cornucopia to me! And most often, the quality is at least acceptable if not downright good.

I am one of the people who loathe when soaps focus heavily on the mob and glorify degenerate criminals as romantic leads, so I had no interest in watching GH at the time. That being said, I do know numerous fans who have praised the Metro Court stuff. I noticed a major drop in quality on B&B after Bill Bill stepped down as head writer in 1993 and his son took over. I was sorely disillusioned by the soap medium by that point (except for Claire Labine's GH and Nancy Curlee's TGL), so I missed the Taylor-returns story as well.

Thank you, @Maxim, for alerting the community to these episodes. And as always, @DRW50, I appreciate your tagging me about such things which I might otherwise miss. It's true that I was disappointed in AW by 1981 and couldn't stomach watching the show live, but a break of 44 (!!!) years makes me less bitter about the show's destruction, and just seeing folks like Jim and Pat is nostalgic and touching. I'm looking forward to watching these eps.

I appreciate being tagged, as always. Thanks, @DRW50.

Thank you very much, @DRW50 These shows are new to me, but I am always interested in hearing about and listening to vintage radio broadcasts.

To be fair, any "sensational and lurid" rape storylines on DAYS in its first decade were conceived, plotted and launched by William J. Bell, the head writer. Early in her tenure as a dialogue writer on that soap, it wasn't PFS, herself, who "featured" the rapes. PFS is on record as being against the Bill/Laura Horton scenario, believing that this would never result in a beautiful love story. She was also against the idea of Jack Clayton sexually aggressing his stepdaughter Trish, when Bill Bell presented her with that saga. I don't remember her creating or writing rape stories on Where the Heart Is and/or Ryan's Hope either. As far as I know/can recall, the only sensational and lurid soap sexual-assault storyline that lives on in infamy, which can be attributed to Smith, is the irresponsible Luke/Laura fiasco.

The atrocious music changes discouraged me from buying the DVD sets. If Paramount were to restore the music, I'd probably but the series.

Thanks, @slick jones. I always appreciate getting tagged in posts of interest.

I'm glad that it's been remastered and looks outstanding. Now if the original music has been restored (as much as possible, anyway, with some serious effort made), the fans will be in ecstasy. I was over the moon with how well Time-Life brought China Beach to DVD.

Wait, what? The show has been remastered? The DVD and syndication versions were of poor quality and badly edited (or, more accurately, butchered). Could you tell if the original music was included in the remastered prints, or do we still get stuck with that dreadful musak replacement junk?

I would say that overall, no. The Dobson' brand of quirky storytelling and characters did not permeate GH the way it did Santa Barbara. Perhaps it was ABC or Bridget's parents who ruled the show with an iron fist at the time, but while they were overseeing Port Charles, GH was a fairly generic soap with only a quirky character or two (i.e. Kira Faulkner). It was interesting to see the ratings dwindle as their reign went on. The Dobsons were significantly superior to the next three headwriting teams who succeeded them.

ITA with all of your points. Y&R needs to move away from the dry, tedious boardroom plots and return to the lush romance and interpersonal relationships that brought the show its ratings success in days of yore. Do the majority of viewers even care about corporate takeovers and infighting? In a secondary capacity, perhaps, but not at the forefront of the show. Like all the remaining soaps, Y&R could easily clean house, and do away with some actors/characters who have long since run their course. Viewers are strongly attached to their vets, but having the bulk of their characters well over 50 leaves Genoa City feeling lopsided. TPTB have failed for years to nourish and replenish the younger generations and keep a solid balance of youth and maturity intertwined on the canvas. Its past time for Victor, Nikki, Jack, etc., to move into supporting-character status and for the writers to develop viable, charismatic romantic leads upon whom to build rich and emotion-based drama. With savvy PTB in charge, Y&R could regain its former glory.

I am curious: are there any changes TPTB could make on the current soaps to elevate them to greatness? Once upon a time, DAYS, Y&R and GH were masterfully done. I can't honestly say B&B was ever a "masterpiece," but it was certainly better under William J. Bell than Thudley. How would you polish up the existing soaps to elevate their quality and status? What characters/elements would you eliminate/introduce or reintroduce? Could you recommend any specific changes in the writing regimes? Would you change the length or frequency of episodes per week? Give your imagination and creative juices free reign!

This GIF is hilarious.

It's been my experience that many dedicated soap fans enjoy learning about the history of their shows. Every time I began watching a series which I had not followed from the very start, I did everything I could to acquaint myself with its past and discover as much information as I could. It adds so much to the enjoyment of the show as a whole.

While I have not watched any of the current soaps on a daily basis for many years, I still remain a staunch fan and advocate of the genre, thanks to the decades in which they were intelligently done and provided engrossing entertainment. Any opportunity to delve into and learn more about those glory days is a joy. Sharing links to rare episodes is a way all of us get to see material which we might otherwise miss, ourselves. Thanks!

Excellent work. We need documents like this for every year of every classic soap. Even the official history books, authorized by P&G and the networks, skimp on details, and many facts are glossed over or missing. Even worse, a lot of the "information" they provide is simply inaccurate. You should do summaries like this for every year of every serial you enjoy and find worthwhile. Collect everything together and publish it (even self-publish it!) in a book. Soap historians would be ecstatic.🙂

This is a hugely valuable document for preserving the rich history of our beloved soap operas. So much information we see about the early years is inaccurate, and a lot of data are missing altogether. No one seems to be intent on gathering and disseminating all the facts. Thank you for doing all the work it took to compose this in-depth synopsis. It is much appreciated.👍👏🤗

As a life-long soap viewer, it pains and baffles me to see that mediocre (or, worse, truly weak) scribes are allowed to continue writing the shows year after year. Just as frustrating, a handful of hacks keep getting shuffled around from series to series, regardless of how atrocious their previous material has proven to be. Granted, most of the master writers are no longer with us, but even hiring outside, new talent and giving them a shot would make more sense to me that allowing proven failures to remain employed forever.😡