Another Soap, how would you like?

[Andrew]

If there could become a new soapopera on air in the Untied States, how would you like it?....

I have always thought i could be nice to see different soaps with meening, like an soapopera from the around 1890/1910/1920, if the actors and actresses where dressed in clothes from that time i think it could become very interesting, they could still have the fights, the drama, the romance, and also have issues from the time, like women, their work. Another issue is all the disseases they had, a time when you could die from Tuberculosis and Pnemonia,. Only me who think that might be interesting?... What do you all think...

[CassieFan]

I would like to see an American version of Forbidden Love. FL is a remake of Sons&Daughters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_and_Daug...an_TV_series%29

[Faulkner]

I know there was TEXAS back in the early '80s, but I always wondered why there was never a soap set in the Deep South, like in the backwoods of Georgia or the bayous of Louisiana. Traditionally, soaps were set in the generic Midwest or Northeast, and newer soaps like SANTA BARBARA, B&B, or SUNSET BEACH were located on the West Coast. But so much of the U.S. population has moved to the South in the past 40 or so years, and its culture (gossipy, church-based, wealth vs. extreme poverty, traditional vs. modern, racially charged) is PERFECT for a soap. It's a wonder that no network has attempted it in recent years.

[UKBoi]

SON member Josh used to write an original web soap, All or Nothing, which was set in a fictional Texan town and followed two wealthy families as well as a few other characters, it was really great and I was sad when he ended it to focus on his GL blog.

[Josh]

Thanks Allan! I have actually thought about bring AON back to life, I like both the projects I am working on...I become so torn! LOL

[UKBoi]

Bring back AON! It sucks now the website is defunct, I was always so looking forward to seeing how the stories panned out (particularly the outcome of the Valerie/Jillian thing), and it's a shame the big AON/H&S crossover never really got to reach it's full potential.

[R Sinclair]

Until we can actually tap into the untapped pool of new writing talent out there, we're screwed as far as any "new" American daytime drama is concerned. Because before you know it, it will be passed around to McTavish, Higley, Sheffer, Culliton and B&E in a game of Hot Potato like all the other soaps on all the networks have been.

I miss Once and Again.

[MichaelGL]

I'd like to see a soap focusing on the hospital, something like how GH was in the mid 90s under Claire Labine. I would kill to have another soap helmed or created by Labine.

[foxhunter]

i always felt as though soap operas should feel like a great novel. the character should be fully fleshed-out instead the one-dimensional characters that we are used to. the best soaps and novels always had characters that you could relate to for one reason or another. when i read the bluest eye i could identify with the character's because they were black (i'm native, i can identify with the struggles of visible minorities) and i could especially identify with the character of pecola because she was crippled by her self-image. in the diviners and the fire-dwellers i was able to identify with the protagonists because they were women (i'm gay as well) who were struggling with the confines of their marriage. these women felt pigeonholed by the social rules and roles for women. to me, all of these struggles are universal and they draw you into the characters and what happens to them really impacts you emotionally. coming to the end of an emotionally powerful novel can be sad because you know that your time with the characters have come to an end. there is not one single character in soaps today that i feel connected to because they are all the same and they don't have a place in the real world. i don't care who carly beds this week on either atwt or gh. i don't care that john died (for a few months at least) on days. soaps are only as good as their characters and today none of the character truly stand out. if there will ever be a new or reborn soap i want characters that have character, that can be differentiated and that won't be defined by their bra size or by their hair colour. i am a big fan of good dialogue, dialogue that lets you peer into the heart and soul of characters. clearly though, that will never happen.

[JackPeyton]

if they were to create a new soap opera i would want them to use all new or pretty much new writers. get a great E.P. like ed scott or someone who knows how to run a soap. i think that combo of one person knowing what needs to be done to run a soap along with fresh new writers is whats needed.

also, no matter what they need a network that will back them and support them and advertise for them. it needs time to build an audience and get on its feet.

also id want a mix of casting. some old faves, some new talent, and some surprised choices that work out.

as for what it could be about. anything really. i wouldn't mind them just picking a few random people to be the main people and then pulling in friends family etc from those people. but they don't need more than 20 contract players, IMHO, esp in the start. and take them time to tell the story! make me fall in love with a couple before you rip them apart! i wanna see it all happen, not some lighting speed thing where we just assume things happened that we didn't see.

i read a great blog on a soap site about how lulu & logans storyline so far could have told over a years time. the way they went down was wayyy to fast. they met. she didn't wanna date him at first, then gave him. they fell in love. logan realized making a bet with Maxie was a mistake. they have sex. he sleeps with Maxie. she moves in. she finds out the truth. she moves out. she forgives him. they get back together. she meets a new boy she likes. all that in what... 4 months?

[Vanguardian]

Definitely a soap needs to be created that closely resembles "The Edge of Night". Something that focuses largely on mystery, crime, and larger-than-life characters. I think a show like that would work really well today.

[CassieFan]

I didn't watch TEON, but what you describe is Generally Depressed alias General Hospital right now. Enough with mystery, enough with the killing, bring back love, family and traditions

[Vanguardian]

If you never seen TEON then you missed quite a treat. It wasn't just the mystery and crime of the show, it was also the way it was so expertly written and one story always seemed to tie in with another. General Hospital is a disappointment and is playing out nothing like TEON.

[CassieFan]

Too bad I didn't see it. It was shown in Croatia under the name "Monticello's Stories".

[Cat]

For anybody interested, WashesWhiter on YouTube has posted a classic TEON epiosde from the mif-1970s.

I personally think that, to create a new soap, they would need a mix of talented and experienced old hands like Kay Alden, Karen Harris or Claire Labine, coupled with new, young writing talent with a true appreciation for the soap genre. Somebody who has been watching soaps their whole life! Not somebody who wants to come in and change the entire genre. Soaps are in the sh!tter right now but the genre as a whole is vibrant and relevant. It is precisely the soaps that want to abandon the genre they are in (Y&R, GH, AMC) that are suffering creatively, I feel.

Quality and intelligence. I don't care where the soap is set, and whether it is a Bell soap or an EON or a GH/Santa Barbara or an Another World... it needs to have characters I love, whip-smart dialogue and writers & EPs that do not underestimate their audience. Shows like Days and B&B are getting there but a new soap in this vein may be just what Daytime needs to kickstart itself.

Oh, and a Single Vision as pioneered by Irna Philips, Douglas Marland, Agnes Nixon and Bill Bell. Cut out all that crazy network interference.