ABCD: "Previously on...."

[Cheap21]

anyone remember when ABC used to play a short recap before its shows highlighting what happened the day before? I loved it as it helepd if you missed the show and helped cutback on unnecesary flashbacks and repeated dialogue. I really wish they would bring them back. Here are some examples for those who dont know what Im talking about

from AMC:

OLTL

GH:

[psychofan]

I like that idea. I like how the flashes were brief and didn't take up several minutes like some primetime shows do on their "Previously on..." segments.

OT: But I love that OLTL opening. I really wish they'd bring it back. Also, all three soaps had some great stories going at that time!!

[alwaysAMC]

Yeah - I definitely remember when they did this. I don't really know why they decided to drop it, unless they wanted to encourage fans not to miss a show and rely on the 'previously on'.

That second AMC video was when Gillian died And nuDimitri!

I remember when AMC first started doing the previews - we had blue borders and it was right when Noah started getting into the photography business - just before Julia/Noah left the show. Then AMC got the yellow...and still has it...

I miss that GH opening I really hate their current one.

I miss OLTL's Max

[ATWTCarOn4Ever]

I rmemeber those! They always got me excited for the upcoming hour and I loved em because of it. I really do miss them...ABC should definitely bring them back. I don't think ATWT has ever done something like that. As it is I'm still kinda disappointed that they removed the halfway preview in the day to day episodes. I liked those as well.

[Addison Montgomery]

They got rid of them because when you think about it, instead of recapping they could squeeze in an additional ad or two in the hour.

And, with the Internet, VCRs, and SoapNet, they probably felt if you missed a show, you could get caught up by other means.

[Cheap21]

I remember the exact day the AMC ones started and it was the episode that Hector caught Anita with Bobby at the boathouse and flipped. I remember these previews getting me pumped and if Im correct the new opening debuted that day too. It was during the summer and AMC was the first one and the other 2 hour long soaps followed

I beleive I read once that one of the reasons why they were dropped was bc ratings went down. I dont know how true that is but I can see how people may not care so much to watch with these as a crutch even if they werent that long

The only other soap I know that did these was Passions but that was only during its first month. Dont know why since they repeated anything anyway. These days Y&R could definelty benefit from these bc there are WAY too many flashbacks on the show

[angel2devil]

Aww they should *so* bring those back.

[ATWTCarOn4Ever]

Just listening to AMC and OLTL's opening song and credits made me tear up. Especially OLTL. The ones that ABC has no are just pathetic really. Not as exciting or as cool. God how I miss AMC. Just seein Vanessa, Anna, Edmund, and LEO made my day.

[KLN]

Oh, I miss that opening for AMC!

[All My Shadows]

I don't really miss the recaps. They were cool, but I didn't really have a need for them. I made it a point to watch every single day no matter what back then, so I rarely missed an episode.

Oh, but what I do miss, though, was back when they'd do the "created by/EP/written by/directed by" credits at the end of the show, between the previews and the squeeze credits. They'd play a snippet of the closing theme song while the credits were seen over a silhouette-type background with the show's title in the corner. Sometimes the announcer would give a teaser for the following show.

Didn't they just start the show for a while? I think I have an episode or two on tape where the show just began with the opening. No recap and no teaser segment.

ETA: Oh, and OH MY GOD, thank you for posting those videos. The second AMC one is from not too long after I started watching the show. I totally remember Laura and Leo's hospital wedding. It might not seem like a lot to everybody else, but that crap is what got me interested in this show in the first place!

[Addison Montgomery]

I didn't think the summer of 2001 was too bad. I mean, I thought the heart transplant episodes were a bit too much (Leo practically kicking down Gillian's hospital room door to get her heart was just ridiculous), but afterward...dealing with the ramifications...I liked quite a bit. I also liked the Leo/Laura/Greenlee story. Laura was pathetic, but Greenlee was on fire that whole summer. No matter how idiotic the Laura/Leo pairing was, the writers always wrote Greenlee as being in the right, being the one that Leo really wanted, and always having the upper hand.

Gabriel "Dog Boy" Devane aside, I thought the last three months of Jean Passanante's work were her best.

[All My Shadows]

I floved that stuff. The very first scene of AMC that I ever saw (to my knowledge at least; I might have seen it here and there throughout the 1990s, but my grandmothers were strictly CBS ladies) was of Jesse McCartney's JR and VI's David. The second scene I remember was when Greens sprayed Leo in the eyes by accident with perfume at the mall. It was pretty much the story that got me hooked on the show. At first, I watched only for that story, but then I started to get introduced to all the others. Ryan and Gillian, Tad/Dixie/David, etc. I believe that was around the time Chris Stamp first appeared too.

[ATWTCarOn4Ever]

Lol the Laura/Leo/Greenlee story was among the first storylines I started watching in Daytime. I found Laura to be pathetic and annoying. I hated watching her and I kinda hoped she'd just expire. The only reason why I liked the storyline was because of Brooke's performance. Her mother was awesome in her scenes.

[KLN]

Pine Valley doesn't seem like Pine Valley anymore... does that make sense?

Speaking of PV, I have a funny story about that. About six years ago, I wrote my own soap on my computer. I didn't put it on the internet or anything -- I just wrote it for my own enjoyment. Anyway, in the process of creating the soap, I was trying to think of a name for the town. The way I described the town was like a "small village in a valley between two mountains." I pictured the mountains being covered in pine trees, and so I came up with the name "Pine Valley" for the town. It wasn't until about five minutes later that I realized, "Damn! That's the name of the town on AMC!" LoL I wasn't even thinking about AMC or anything, and still came up with the same name for my town through the description of the setting as Agnes came up with for AMC. She and I must share the same brain.

[Cheap21]

As crappy as the way the ABC shows have been over the past year, these recaps would have defiently been helpful

Oh I think you mean this. I miss them too!