Poll: Best daytime soap of the 1980's

[Steve]

Hands down, AMC! The 80s were the golden era of this show with Erica's modeling career, Cliff & Nina, Greg & Jenny, Chuck & Donna, Palmer & Daisy, Phoebe & Langley, Jesse & Angie, Brooke & Tom, Mark's drug addiction, the Adam/Palmer feud, Laura Cudahy's death, Tad & Dixie's initial go-round, and Stuart falling for Cindy who died of AIDS.

[daysboy]

Days easily gets my vote. The Bradys came on the scene, the supercouple era was in full swing and both serial killer storylines were in this period. I loved all this stuff plus, it's when I first started watching the show at six years old. I still remember a lot of the things that happened back then.

[darraholic]

Just because they were campy doesn't make them horrible soaps. Who wants to watch 10 or 12 soaps that are all the same. Each soap needs it's own uniqueness. DOOL & GH were quite popular in the 80's so I highly doubt they'd be considered the worst.

[jookie10]

ANother World

[BoldBeauty]

B&B is my favorite. I only saw a few weeks of B&B from the 1980s, and it was brand new.

I think Santa Barbara was FANTASTIC.

[JoelMTL]

Generations was off to a great start. Shame on NBC for not giving it time to catch on. Today it would be #1.

[Raven04]

Days- They began the "supercouples" era with Bo/Hope, Jen/Jack, Marlena/John. Great stroylines, action, actors. They were the best..though GH is a close second

[mamasita]

Young and Restless 1983-1986

Santa Barbara 1986- 1990

honorable mentions: Ryan's Hope, Guiding Light

[Greg's GL]

No surprise here. My favorite was GL in the 80s.

80 - 82 written by the great Doug Marland. Introduced the Reardons, Roger's death in South America, Kelly and Morgan....

83 - 90 (off and on) written by Pam Long. Introduction of Reva and Lewises, and Buzz and the Coopers.

Even held the #1 spot in the ratings for a time, beating GH. It was a great show back then.

[DevotedToAMC]

AMC....they had the couples (Chuck/Donna, Cliff/Nina, Jesse/Angie, Greg/Jenny, Tad/Dixie, Tom/Brooke), new and interesting characters (Adam Chandler, Stuart Chandler, Natalie Marlowe, Liza Colby, Marian Colby, Greg Nelson, Jesse Hubbard, Angie Baxter, Jenny and Opal Gardener, Dixie Cooney), great stories (Erica's career, Brooke's daughter being killed, Cindy with AIDs, Jenny/Jesse in NYC, Liza/Tad/Marian, Jack/Erica/Travis, Dixie/Adam/Brooke, Adam/Palmer feud, Chuck/Donna trapped in the Swiss Alps), many Emmy wins (Writing Team, Darnel Williams, Dorothy Lyman, Ellen Wheeler, Kathleen Noone, Debbi Morgan, David Canary, technical categories)...and, I believe, in 1989 they were named by Digest as the Best Soap of the Year.

They did not rely on action adventure like GH to gain fame and have great stories...they created typical soap stories that viewers fell in love with and made it just that more popular

[stenbeck212]

I have to say GL, even though Reva's takeover changed the dynamic. It's amazing how the decade is bookended with tales about Roger.

[Noel]

I had to go with Guiding Light too even though I remember a writers strike in the mid 80's, but once Pamela K. Long came back as HW, everything was okay with Guiding Light. Days of Our Lives was also great in the 80's, so I also agree with those of you who voted for DAYS too.

[S&BFanForLife]

Santa Barbara was just AWESOME!!!!!

[Mark]

I had to vote for Days!

I got hooked on it by accident. We got our first VCR in late 84 and my cousin who lived below us asked if I would record it for her because we were the only ones in the area who had a VCR at that time. I had NO interest in watching a soap whatsoever (I thought), but I HAD to be the one to operate the VCR....... I remember the first day I accidentally recorded All My Children and she was so upset. I don't know why I thought it was an ABC soap (show's how much I knew at the time as I was only 13) I remember being completely SHOCKED at the CREEPY background music and it caught my attention quickly. I think DAYS had the best background scores, cues (whatever the proper name is for them). I also thought it was cool the way they would roll the credits with the background music from the last scene still playing, whether it be creepy, sad, or romantic.

I tried watching some of the other soaps, and the ONLY other one that I was able to watch was General Hospital......

I suspect I would have LOVED Santa Barbara but I never had time to watch it....I always remember thinking how odd it was that SB seemed to always be going on location more than the other soaps, yet it was near the bottom of the ratings. It must have been one of the more expensive soaps to produce.

At any rate, I haven't watched a soap at all since 1995. I stopped watching all of them around that time. It just didn't seem the same to me anymore. No more exotic location shoots or heavy duty action scenes.

[Jess]

Another World with SB a close second.