Soaps:- Cigarettes

[Khan]

Leave it to LML to be politically correct, lol.

Personally, I abhor smoking, but to pretend people in the real world don't smoke is dishonest. Just as it would be dishonest to say, IRL, people don't drink, or gamble (yes, that includes playing the lotto), or have unprotected or pre-marital sex.

Of course, it would be nice to show viewers, esp. young viewers, that indulging in such activities to excess can lead to serious consequences. But, I forgot, soaps are here strictly to entertain.

[stenbeck212]

That's right, and that was the same year Dinah returned to GL almost smoking a pack per episode herself. I remember being shocked about it at the time, since people don't even go to the bathroom on soaps. But obviously someone was trying to send a message about deviant characters by linking them to cigarettes. For P&G, that's pretty interesting.

[brimike]

I distinctly remember Jagger (GH) smoking alone on the docks in one of his very first episodes. I remember thinking how strange it was, because I'd never seen a character (much less a hero) smoke on a soap before.

[YRBB]

William Devane said he got into arguments with LML at Knots Landing because she refused to allow his character to smoke, which had been a trademark prior to her arrival.

Did he get his way, or did the hack destroy that too?

I agree that soaps should have more smokers. I am not a smoker, but to pretend that no-one smokes and only tramps and villains do is RIDICULOUS.

[Chris B]

I'm going to guess he got his way. You don't mess with William Devane. Nicolette Sheridan said he'd rip the pages out of the scripts and shout, "What is this [!@#$%^&*]?!" Then he'd write his scenes the way he wanted them written. These would've been LML's scripts since Nicolette first started working with him when LML arrived.

[Pine Charles]

I wouldn't mind it. It would add some realism.

If characters can drink, why not smoke? They don't have to sugarcoat it or show it as glamorous. Anyway, I think anyone with a brain knows smoking is bad for your health. They're afraid kids will see soap characters smoking and pick up the habit? Are the majority of soap viewers children? If parents don't want kids to see it, turn the channel.

[JackPeyton]

[JackPeyton]

i agree. however i could see it being used in some scenes - as in someone at a party or event slips out to have a smoke and someone follows to talk to them or something along those lines.

they could also have younger memebers hangout at a hookah bar instead of a real bar. but idk how big hookah is where the soap towns are set.

[tina m]

Ha..well I don't smoke so I really have no opinion on it.

A few times in the past few years I've seen smoking on soaps was Tess on OLTL, remember she had the whole thing with the smoking incident and how she burned RJ's apartment with Jamie in it? Something to that element, I forget.

I think Starr had some cigarettes to when she was in her growing pains stage, we didn't actually see her smoke.

It does bring out a 'bad' element in characters, so I doubt we see of it unless it has some meaning, showing a character is bad/tough, stressed out, or experimenting.

[Bill Bauer]

Gwen on ATWT smoked just long enough to kill her baby and as soon as the storyline was over, she miraculously stopped smoking. Funny, she was so hooked that she couldn't even stop when she was pregnant but later just stopped cold turkey with nary a slip. Maybe she should start again. She was more interesting when she smoked.

Someone above said that the characters in the GL 70th anniversary show were all smoking because they thought it helped them lose weight. Well, that's not why everybody smoked back then. They smoked back then because it was more socially acceptable, even encouraged and nobody had any knowledge of the health risks(the 30s, 40s and 50s were pre-Surgeon General's warning). Also, smoking causing weight loss wasn't something that people just believed back then. They still believe it today and it's partly true. Smoking increases heart rate and satisifies the oral fixation without food. That's why people usually gain weight when the stop smoking.

Anyway, it's just one of those silly things that the folks in charge of soaps decide to make themselves feel good about themselves. On one hand, they think soap viewers are so stupid that they can't portray things like cigarette smoking or suicide because the viewers will want to copy the behavior of the characters and they don't want to be responsible for that. For some strange reason, they don't apply that way of thinking to things like promiscuous, unprotected sex or murder or any of the other less-than-desireable behaviors soap characters engage in.

If you look at the old episodes of soaps, a lot of characters were smoking casually in the scenes. Not just villains. In an old episode of ATWT that I have, two doctors(and heroes) on the show, Bob Hughes and David Stewart, are sitting around talking and having a smoke!

[Quent]

There are more smokers than African-Americans in the US, but, miraculously, nobody on soaps smokes. Smoking is absolutely legal. Until that changes, it's ridiculous that nobody in "soapland" smokes.

[juppiter]

I think it's ridiculous that ATWT's Gwen couldn't get enough cigarettes while she was pregnant and now you never see her smoke. Maybe they wouldn't have had to write such silly Will/Gwen storylines if they had written a storyline where Gwen struggles to quit smoking.

[juppiter]

I think it's ridiculous that ATWT's Gwen couldn't get enough cigarettes while she was pregnant and now you never see her smoke. Maybe they wouldn't have had to write such silly Will/Gwen storylines if they had written a storyline where Gwen struggles to quit smoking.

[Andrew]

Is there smoking bans in the studios like in the uk?, anyone knows?

A lot of actors on english soaps, actors like, Anne Kirkbride, June Brown, Simon Gregson, Beverley Callard probaly wasn`t that glad of the smoking ban.

Not sure how Emmerdale smokers like Shirley Stelfox, Andy Devine and Steve Halliwell how they feel about it.

But is there anyone who knows whether there are smoking bans in the studios like in the United States?.......

[MarkH]

In the US, esp. New York and LA, smoking bans are everywhere.

It is very good that we don't see smoking, for all of the well cited public health reasons. Even if this detracts from reality a little, there are lots of disgusting and damaging things we don't want to see on soaps--and smoking (for me) is one of them.