ALL: Helpful Hint for TPTB

[Sedrick]

Question to fellow soap fans: in one sentence, can you describe what you favorite show is all about?

Remember back in the good old days when each show was distinct and unique? Remember when the programs all had basic THEMES that ran throughout every story and tied the canvas together...themes that served as a helpful guide to steer the show through the years?

IMO, if the HW's and EP's of each show took a few days to sit down and actually devise a real and true THEME for their programs, it could put then at least on the road to recovery.

Your thoughts?

[aMLCproduction]

Days, they don't even know right now

B&B Stephanie the dominate Best

Y&R, good entertain ment

[brimike]

Absolutely. I think for many years that was One Life to Live's problem. All my Children was always multi-generational, social-issue storytelling. General Hospital was... well... about the hospital. (Whatever's happened in recent times is irrelevant... I'm just referring to their original conceptions) And One Life was more blue collar, more diverse.

the only soap that's really stuck to its original theme over the years is B&B. Guiding Light, whether you love it or hate it, has really tried to get back to its "Find the Light" roots, so if nothing else, I have to give them some credit for trying. Even if it doesn't always work.

the soaps do seem interchangeable now. Your rich bitch, your steadfast doctor, your older, grizzled cop, your wise-cracking lawyer, your Romeo and Juliet teens, your butting-in mother, your edgy younger cop, etc. I think you make a very good point.

[MichaelGL]

Guiding Light used to be about families. It just seem that these days it's about one family; that family being the Coopers. The show also was about character driven drama. Of course the 80s somewhat changed that, but the show found it's way back in the early 90s. Gawd Bert's battle with cancer in the 60s would pale in comparision to Reva's battle with the disease, because Reva's story only seemed to be used mostly for plot; not a test to the character or the family of that character.

This year GL has tried to return to it's roots; spouting the old "There's a destiny that makes us brothers...." and even doing a special episode about it. Such an episode was about depending on the kindess of strangers; or depending on the kindness of your neighbor in the small town of Springfield. However I don't know these days. Springfield just doesn't feel like Springfield anymore these days. Families and friendships of Springfield is what made the show so easy to connect with like Maureen and Vanessa's friendship or even Hamp and Billy's. Anyways the fact that the show tried is alot more than what I can say about half the soaps on air right now. Some of them don't try, but get further away from their roots these days.

[Sedrick]

Historically ONE LIFE's overall theme has been a dead giveaway---it was the show's very title itself! The legendary stories of the show that brought about audience loyalty were those that dealt with the characters facing the fact that they had one life to live, and the struggles that came with them trying to change and/or improve or deal with their lots in life...think Viki's DID and struggles with her father; Karen's struggle with her past and self-hatred; Carla's racial identity problems; Marco taking over the life of his dead brother; Dorian's ambitions to gain power and acceptance.

[daysfan]

Days was about family and character-driven stories, that were normally realistic until the eighties and ESPECIALLY nineties.

Over the years, people have changed it's identity to supercouples, crazy whacky plots, which is why all the fanbases are so fickle and there are so many.

[Dan]

In a word, Guiding Light is about hope, not necessarily in a "everything will be ok" way, but that we have something or someone in our lives that provides us with direction and guidance. For many years, the lighthouse (and before that, the lamp on Reverend Ruthledge's windowsill) has served as GL's symbolic theme because it guides helpless travelers to find their way through the dark paths on the seas or in their lives. The hope in the lives of many is family, friendship, and faith. Through these entities, one can find the light of hope in even the darkest of circumstances. The message of Rev. Ruthledge also encourages selfless acts toward others. We do this so that our own lives may be enriched through the act of helping because we might need the help at some point in the future. This is why Irna Phillips had the reverend preach that "We are all one family, God's family."

Quite frankly, I applaud GL's service to areas that are in need, but the problem IMO stems from the fact that it seems to be more of a way to promote the show than to genuinely help others. What ever happened to humbleness in not always boasting about the good things that we do? Besides, the show itself is still really dark and is still populated mostly with characters that have no moral compass. It's almost like being a philanthropist to everyone, then coming home and abusing your children. Sure Ellen Wheeler and Davey Kreizman do all these good things for other people, but they have shown that have very little respect for the audience that they have.

The Coopers are now the "moral" family, yet they really appear very sanctimonious. When Ed or Bert Bauer gave advice to someone, it didn't come from a place of condescension, but of experience. Ed Bauer made many mistakes and KNEW he made many mistakes. There doesn't seem to be any of the hope that I spoke of above. I also like that they are bringing religion back on the show to coincide with the anniversary, but it seems to me to be a farce. The fact that Josh, out of nowhere might I add, wants to be a minister is laughable because it is so out of character. It seems that they are only playing up this conversion to add more conflict to Josh's adultery and inevitable reunion with the "sinful" Reva. Just like the entire "Find Your Light" campaign, Wheeler and Kreizman's attachment to history and identity is only a shallow, half-hearted one. They have no clue what GL is supposed to be, nor do they care.

:End Rant:

That felt good.

[Gray Bunny]

A problem I see in finding a theme is that some shows (Hi, Guiding Light!) are so scattered, that it's nearly impossible to tie it all together. Yeah, we can make it a theme about hope, but it'd be all about these separated characters that don't have many family members around and there isn't that sense of community anymore.

I can still see potential in DAYS. The ingredients are there; it just needs to be written correctly. With GL, it's honestly like watching an old friend hanging on for life dearly, but we all know their condition is never going to improve.

[stenbeck212]

That may seem like a farming philosophy for Emma Snyder, but it seems like a basic statement that ATWT is a reality based show about life's ups and downs. The kinds of things you'd expect to happen as the world turns. She just chose to demonstrate that through family drama.

[billyjill]

IMO Days should be centered on family. There's room for a lot more -- mystery, romance, etc -- but that feels like the "right" center for it, just in my opinion.

[EricMontreal22]

People always go on about the good old days when each soap had a unique concept but while that was true more than it is now I think it's been exagerated--watching old clips from the 70s (when the shows were undeniably almsot all of a higher standard) you don't see each show trulywith a unique and different vision

It's amazin how even back then they were recycling the same HWs between shows--even people liek the arrogant Dick Lipton (now hos tof Actor's Studio) who had one flop stint at a soap opera after another had ENDLESS chances--after almost causing AWorld to be canceled he was givent he chance to create his own soap, Best of Everything for heaven's sake--that flopped but he was sitll in the writer's circle--HW the final silly year of Capitol...

[RuAsRuAnAu]

GH: More more than just about a hospital (simplistic way of describing The Hursley's show). I've always thought it was primarily about health & sickness in its many forms. Financial (working class Webbers/rich & upscale Quartermaines), emotional, physical, sexual (Steve & Audrey's marriage/Monica & Rick's adulterous affairs), mental, spiritual, moral (law enforcement-Scorpios)/mob-The Smiths/Sonny/Jason)

B&B: About passion, how fierce it can be within us (making us BOLD), and the beauty/BEAUTIFUL things that surrounds us as we age.

[Pest Spray]

DAYS: The Core Four. You may not like it, but DAYS was centered on those core four (Marlena, John, Bo and Hope) in the 90s, some of the 00s, and you can't just ignore that. It doesn't work.

[Paul Raven]

I think that the shows have lost their identities over the years due to a lack of a clear vision.

That means holding on to the original families/characters on the show.

As the World Turns should still be about the Hughes family.The priority should have been to keep them front and center.Of course,other characters get to be front burner and some may become as important but there should always be a link somehow to the history of the show.

Frannie Hughes was dropped in the early 90's and never heard of again.Fair enough,if the actress wanted to leave and the writers wanted to rest the character for awhile.But,in keeping with the philosophy of the show,the character should have been back in the next following years and had children by now.

Christina Hughes(Don and Mary's daughter)was never utilised.Chris Hughes was constantly recast.

Why couldn't Maura West ,Michael Parks etc been written in as members of the Hughes,Stewart or even Snyder families (In the case of Jack,they had to create a cousin,when neither Seth or Caleb were on the show)

When the show does bother to return a character.their personality and history is changed/ignored eg Meg

It seems every new character takes the show further away from it's roots until we get to the point where all the main characters have no real ties to the core of the shows.

[Sedrick]

Simply compare the current programs to the synopsises of shows way back when...sure back in the day they were all still SOAP OPERA, but each program had its own individual voice and feel...while yes there was a certain interchange between shows during the glory years of writers and producers going back and forth between the shows, it was in no where out of control the way it is now. Certain writers were known for their certain talents, and those talents simply were not forced upon a show whose theme and tone didn't match.

I shook my head in disappointment when recently reading the 'big' fall previews of the current soaps...the stories and characters are all so interchangable!

Having grown up as a faithful ABC viewer, I feel that that lineup's ultimate decline was hastened in the late 90's when TPTB attempted to turn the entire lineup into one long ongoing piece, having characters travelling freely between the shows and introducing one crossover story after another as Jill Farren Phelps and Megan McTavish hopped from one ABC show to the other spreading a path of destruction. Even though ONE LIFE and AMC (plus LOVING/THE CITY) were all created by Agnes Nixon, that didn't mean they were supposed to just morph into one huge suburban Philadelphia show!