Agendas in Soaps: Name Them!!!!!

[SteveFrame]

Today the powers that be cannot only be concerned with putting out a well rounded soap opera to please fans they have to be worried about the many agendas on fans minds. And I personally feel that many of the agendas are what is getting the focus of the powers that be and instead of concentrating on putting forth a good soap they are worried about trying to make these folks with these agendas happy. In the end they [!@#$%^&*] the whole thing up and give us a very uneven soap opera and nobody ends up happy.

This thread is inspired by the way from a post made by someone else who listed some of these. Sorry I don't remember who but you can take credit for this.

Anyway here are some of the agendas that I see.

1) The Feminist Agenda - for years men have been treated like [!@#$%^&*] by daytime soap operas but in the process of writers in the last few years making men stronger women have often got pissed on - so now there is the whole agenda of mysoginistic writers and etc. that have riled up the feminists

2) The Supercouple Agenda which can be broken down into some of the most vocal Jarlena, Zendell, EJami, Lumi, Phick, Shick - who all have their own agenda for their shows which for the most part only focus on what is best for their couple.

3) Actor/Actress Agenda - same as above except for not just a couple but for a performer.

4) The Real and Faux Agenda - no performer except for one is given a chance to play a role and no story is accepted as long as the fake is in the role

5) The Gay Agenda - in some ways daytime has come a long way in that gay characters are now featured, but the stories they have given them have not been great. No story they have done yet has been accepted at all except for the initial coming out of the main characters.

6) The Get Rid of Agenda - so many fans are so gung ho these days on getting rid of any potential threat to their favorites whether it be an interloper in their romance or just the fact that someone else is getting more airtime

7) The Favorite Writer Agenda - so many of today's fans have a favorite writer - usually a former writer - and no one can write the show or their couple the way that writer did - so they are constantly saying if so and so would only come back - in particular you read or hear that a lot with Sherri Anderson on Days

So those are my Top 7. What are some others you know or or see?

[All My Shadows]

Awesome thread, Steve, and whoever you got the idea from! I'm interested to see what people think. I have some confessing to do as far as some of these are concerned lol

I hate this. Hate it. It's one reason why I can't invest the time to watch DAYS anymore. Supercouples run that show, and it makes for a very boring experience. You can have popular couples, but please, if you're going to keep them together forever, don't do the same homewrecker storyline every year or so. It gets old and it doesn't make the couple look good at all.

I don't think this one is as prominent at SON as it may be on other boards. It exists, but I don't think this type of thing produces as many biased opinions and crap-talking as the couples one does.

Guilty as charged lol. I tend to judge recasts before I give them a fair chance, especially when it's a character that I wanted to see return as played by the original/previous person (i.e. ATWT's Jade). Some recasts just don't get better, though, so I think there's a point where it stops being an agenda and becomes a legitimate issue.

I'm so sick of coming out stories, in both daytime and primetime. ATWT's Nuke made progress with soap operas, but not with the portrayal of LGBTs on television. What ATWT did with Nuke (well...what ATWT likes to say that they've done...we already know how I feel about Nuke) is so...played out, it's not even funny. Give me a story where one of the characters is already out of the closet, or better yet, they both are. And then there's romance, and then there's relationship problems that arise from within the couple, and not because others can't stand to see them together. Oh wait, that's AMC's Reese and Bianca, isn't it? I'm enjoying them, and I'm proud of AMC for going there. My only gripe is that they got together offscreen. But honestly, I understand why Reese and Bianca fell in love better than I understand why Luke and Noah fell in "love" onscreen.

Hand in hand with the couples agenda, IMO. Anybody who dares to come between a couple (even if said couple screwed up their own relationship) is called every name in the book and wanted off the show until the precious "money couple" reunites.

An agenda that bugs me is the "everything was great 20-30-40 years ago and everything sucks now" agenda. It's no secret that daytime was different and, in most opinions, much much better, in the past, but to believe that no one made mistakes back then and that everything going on now is one horrible thing after another is just ridiculous. What makes it worse is when people only hold this agenda because they feel they have to. I know that I like 70s AMC more than, say, AMC circa 2005, because I've seen 70s AMC, I've seen clips and full episodes. I don't hold that opinion just to seem intelligent or cool. I hold it because it's true.

I also hate the "we don't want to see teens, let's just have vets 1/5!" agenda. That's ridiculous and just plain dumb, to be honest. And when those vets (gasp!) die or retire? What then? Automatic cancellation? Families include teens. Multi-generational storytelling includes teens.

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

I can think of a poster who wont be happy with any head writer on their soap until their favorite couple is Co-Headwriting the show.

[rangethatrover]

That someone was MOI!

It had been on my mind for and I have been noticing the Y&R vs. OLTL thing brewing everywhere....

And that Marlena thread became wild so I figured that was the place for it- as I find OLTL's posters very agenda driven, sometimes myself included.

[rangethatrover]

And Steve, you covered all the agendas perfectly. I cannot even think of another..

The Feminist agenda is very prevalent regarding OLTL (and perhaps rightly so). Women were disgusted by Todd and Marty. I thought it was gothic and compelling. They are not real people. They are characters.

But when an entire network and show is run by women for a female driven medium- It bears discussion.

[miajere]

I like this thread....But I see the agendas going both ways.

That mentality can work against agendas in order to hold onto some personal standards. I call it, "If I even smell an agenda I'm highly skeptical."

The agenda being to get rid of all agendas for some fair or impartial system of only the best survive. Pity it doesn't exist.

I'm all for agendas/ lobbyist, as long as it's in good spirit and for the purpose of entertainment. When people start getting personally offended because their agenda doesn't get through, I'm not sure they're entertained anymore.

I've participated in all the above.

[All My Shadows]

You got that right! I realized that the day people starting saying that "Krystal and Babe raped Bianca!.......Well, they emotionally raped her! They raped her, they raped her!"

That's just ridonk.

[miajere]

I don't believe there's not a person on here without an agenda.- which is to be heard about whatever they're thinking. What the agenda is means absolutely nothing to me. But sometimes the agenda gets huddled under this TRUTH umbrella, and that's subjective. An agenda is merely someone's perspective.

I've come to not expect much from daytime beyond the cliches that this industry is founded upon. I don't plan on changing my opinion much, but every once in awhile there are those convincing somebodies who get me to take a second look, and that's always exciting. I'm all for agendas.

[SFK]

Yes, I don't care for such metaphors... "emotionally rape", or calling people "cancers". If I was raped (physically!) or had cancer, I'd be very offended by people playing fast and loose with such words. And now I can't help but think of those, "Rape ME Luke/Todd!" nuts. The "Soap Scum" who make the *thinking fans* look bad.

Speaking of which, I especially detest fan agendas. Obsessive people really turn me off. Anyone who goes out of his/her way to give their fav soap star 1,000 hits a day on some SOD popularity poll and campaigns for like fans to do the same needs to get up off his/her ass and plant a tree or take a shut-in some soup or something. If you've ever been to the Emmys, or I'll guess Super Soap too, you know these fans when you see them.

[miajere]

How so? Curious.

[marceline]

See the feminist thing is the only one on the list that rings false to me for that very reason. Women are the target demo so the shows should be programming toward them and that means dealing with the full range of concerns. The important thing to consider that not all women want to see the same thing.

I'm also piggybacking on All My Shadows and adding the CoreVet agenda. Some people want to see the exact same cast and characters featured with the exact same prominence as when they started watching the show 10, 20, 30 years ago. Anyone else is a newbie airhog. If you don't give newbies a chance, the show can't evovle. And a sucky character is a sucky character regardless of whether they're a member of a core family. (Sarah, OLTL or Josh, AMC)

[JackPeyton]

i assume they were speaking of the crazy people with custom amde t-shirts, banners, posters, pins, hats, socks, pants, bags, and everything else you put a face of a couple on. the ones who scream at you if they want to talk about whatveer couple they love and you reply "oh, well i really dont like them" etc...

however, on the flip side its not a soap fan only thing. sometimes people forget that. its no diff than people dressing up for star trek and star wars events. going to comic con. wwe fan events. or for that matter people who are crazy for harley davison or coke-a-cola stuff, etc...

[miajere]

Truth is I just love intense soap fan stories..My mom would tell me about people slapping actors on the street, etc....Talk about having an agenda. I've never been to any of those events, and I've never seen these intense fans in person.

Back on topic.

[SFK]

Well you know, there are some fans who just seem to lose their s#!% (assuming they ever had it) when around soap stars. From my experience, I have seen packs of rabid fans, loud, obnoxious, overbearing... not just excited to be there, but like ravenously *hungry* for interaction (which is fine), and much worse, validation. They need to know that these stars remember them from the last event where they met, that they got their letters/emails/Starbucks and Olive Garden giftcards. It just looks really sad and pathetic, and I know that sounds mean and judgmental but I'm sure we've all been in situations where we've witnessed someone embarassing themselves and you just want to crawl out of your skin and pretend that you didn't just see or hear what you did. We are not their friends, we are their fans. They should be apprciative when we show our support, but they don't "owe us" anything beyond a "Thank you" because that's basic human decency. It's a pretty one-sided relationship and fans need to grasp that, they don't know us, they don't get weekly magazines where we're interviewed, they don't surf the net reading articles and message boards about us. We look silly when we assume that they want to know more about us. They don't want us grabbing their arms and telling them uninteresting (to them) stories about our lives. I just feel that some people really need to understand that in order to protect their own feelings... invest in their real family and friends, be excited, but don't lose yourself.

[rangethatrover]

Is it WRONG that I have Mark Lawson's face screenprinted on all of my undies?