Soaps Original Openings

[All My Shadows]

:o Crystal Gayle is LOVE!! I have all of her singles on my iPod because I love her that much...all except for the AW theme. I have to agree with you there...that song is ultimate cheese.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

What's worse is that they kept that crap going until 1996! That thing was so 80's, even in the 80's!

[MichaelGL]

I hated that AW opening. The purple was just too much for me. The music, the opposite of timeless. I actually didn't like any of the openings that proceeded after the one during the Lemay era, except for maybe the last one.

If GL kept it's original one, at least I'd be able to sit through it and not have to change the channel. They should have kept the one Ellen Wheeler first put into place. Sure the music was all over the place, but it finally made GL feel like your typical soap with it's cast shots in the opening. Up until then, the lifesaver opening was the only one and that only last a few months.

I find it funny how some people mistake GL for being one of those soaps set in a farm town. Springfield is actually supposed to be set in a bustling metropolis, and has been since the Marland era. Execs since then have tried to change that like Robert Calhoun, placing clips of corn fields, barns, and dirt roads into the "Hold Onto Love" open and today with Ellen Wheeler who, well she just tries to put that notion in both the opening and the show itself.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Well, wasn't the Jessup farm in Springfield? LOL!

I think Springfeild is supposed to be some weird hybrid.

[JackPeyton]

i love the late 80's/90's AW theme. Its my ringtone for my soap buddies! lol.

[MarkH]

I just love the overlapping circles (70s, early-mid 80s). My favorite. I could listen to that music (e.g., extended closing) forever. Total pick-me-up, even though it was elevator music.

[JackPeyton]

Im not saying the revamp was better just that i enjoy it.

IMHO AW's best opening was its last.

[MarkH]

I liked the last one too.

[Paul Raven]

To me,the last AW opening was more like a night time soap.

Like Passions,it didn't match the content of the show.

It gave the feel of a hip urban type of show.After the credits,you expected to see characters on location,not some smallish indoor set.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It was totally JFP's attempt to rip-off the ER opening, which at that time, was the #1 rated show on television.

But the opening definitely needed to be changed, still, I don't see why that paintbox opening lasted until 1996, while the other PGP soaps got new openings in the early 90's, AW was like the bastard child of PGP then.

[MarkH]

I liked that ripped off opening.

I don't recall it being like ER at all...in the sense that the AW opening had people walking down the street and laughing and stuff, while the ER opening was all set in the hospital. But if you mean "flashes of pictures and music", I guess there is some similarity. But rewatching it the ATWT opening holds up beautifully.

OT: I was so delighted they brought out the ER theme in the final episode.

 

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I meant the music was incredibly similar, as well as the MTV-like directing style.

I've never liked the 1993 ATWT opening, the music felt like something straight out of a funeral - talk about depressing. I much more prefer the ATWT opening from the 80's that lasted until 1993.

GL's original Hold On To Love opening is dear to my heart, and the graphics still hold up amazingly well nearly 20 years later.

Me too!

[bellcurve]

LOL. I would have disagreed with saying the show needed a revamped opening until I realized they were using that till 1996. Even post-dating The City's debut. That's really pathetic.

[All My Shadows]

LMAO. AW ran opposite OLTL, so imagine the in-your-face blue and white OLTL opening being on at the same time as the paperback romance novel-inspired AW opening. Poor, poor AW.

The sad thing is that AMC, GH, and DAYS were still using ancient openings in the early, early 90s, but those were less out of place then than AW was in the mid 90s.

[MarkH]

I would argue that the three you mention were not "ancient" but "classic". I think Days is pretty much the same (except for CGI), and GH's should be. (A modern ambulance and different street shot, maybe...but I'd basically use that again). Never needs updating, establishes the brand.

It is noteworthy that ER--while people came and went--never changed the opening (until they dropped it altogether).

That said...I wish wish wish that Y&R would return to -- and stay forever with -- the porn opening.