On 10/10/2026 at 3:59 PM, chrisml said:

Sadly, I think only reading the dialogue in books transcends age. I've come across that many times as someone who used to run a book group. I also think that a lot of teens back during the 90 minute AW time would not have had the attention spans to watch even a 30 minute soap let alone a 90 minute one. My mother was one of those. The only reason she had any knowledge of soaps was because they played in the office she worked at. Even now, it's an ordeal to get her to sit and watch something. She would never sit for a soap opera or episodic drama, but she watched all-day streams about court cases.

It's interesting to me because a lot of these GEN-Zers or older people like my mom will then watch hours of vertical dramas, Tik tok skits, or shorter form BLs, but if you were to suggest they watch a soap, that's a step too far for them. Yet most of the content they consume is based on the soap opera format.

Interesting comments. I admit I've NEVER heard of the phenomenon of only reading the dialogue in a novel... huh?

I do think the short attention span issue is not as youth heavy as people assume. Let me be clear, it is more of an issue I'm sure with younger generations, but it's pretty epidemic and I know at least as many older people now who drive me crazy because they can't watch a TV show without having their phone in their hand, etc. Before people regularly recorded and watched their soaps that way, I would be curious to know (and it's impossible to know, I'm sure) just what percentage would sit down and daily watch their soaps, and what percentage would have it on in the background while doing chores and other things. I suppose it depends--in Dan Wakefield's All Her Children (gee, I probably haven't brought up that book in a good week!) he mentions how he got hooked because an artist friend of his who, if I remember correctly, he was staying with. She would have the TV on in the background while she painted--mostly to soap operas. But when All My Children came on she would tell him that they had to stop what they were doing and sit down and pay attention, which is what made him think there might be something special about this show and start paying attention himself.

Since I didn't come to soap operas until I was 11 when I got hooked myself on AMC in the Summer of 1991, it was just something I discovered I could watch on my own at noon before I had to do whatever I had to do that afternoon--then, because I lived a block from school and would come home, again on my own, for lunch, I made it a habit when school started but within a year I got tired of having to miss the start and endings and would tape to watch after school. My point is, I never experienced watching soaps either as something that my mom or grandma just would have on in the afternoon, or without the convenience of a VCR. So I always have to check myself about how different it would be to watch a soap in the 1970s--reading Lisanti's book drove that home. I always thought that I probably would have been a big fan of Lemay/Rauch's AW due to my love of the more theatrical style of soap, etc, and surely I would have gone out of my way to check out Lovers and Friends. But if I had been home when it was on, I probably would already have been watching AMC (and depending on the dates, Ryan's Hope,) so why would I have skipped those to change the channel to try a new show? It makes a lot more sense why people became addicted to one lineup and rarely broke from that--though what surprises me is how that loyalty did, admittedly to a lesser degree, carry over into at least the 90s for many soap fans, even with things like VCRs and more and more people watching soaps on their own time.

Edited October 22Oct 22 by EricMontreal22

On 10/10/2026 at 11:04 AM, SoapDope78 said:

TV seasons are shorter now. Back in the 50's and 60's a series had about 35-40 episodes a season. By the 70's and 80's is dropped to about 25-26 episodes. Now you're lucky a season has 8 episodes.

Dallas was must see TV and viewers held on the entire season to see the cliffhanger.

To be fair, I think multiple factors are in play here. Before Dallas, most tv series with a long number of episodes were purely episodic, and it didn't matter if you missed an episode (and of course to some extent daytime soaps were done this way too--Agnes Nixon said that the expectation is most viewers will see 2-3 episodes a week) Dallas became appointment TV and you had to watch it at a set time, etc. The fact that now there isn't any tv series where you have to sit down and turn it on when it is airing or you'll simply not see it, doesn't exist, and that creates a different type of viewer just as much as younger people having shorter attention spans, or whatever.

On 10/10/2026 at 11:34 AM, Soaplovers said:

Even if you could get a Gen Z individual to watch a 60 minute soap opera from the 1970s, or even 1980s, they would might be interested in what is going on.. but they'd not be able to understand the subtext and/or hidden meanings. They would need it simplify for their eyes and ears.

I'm gonna sound overly defensive about Gen Z or whatever, but I don't think that's true, at least not to the degree you paint it as being. A lot of younger people (I know, I've taught lit to many of them) are VERY savvy about reading media and do understand subtext, etc. And I bet a lot of soap viewers in the 1970s watched them without thinking about the subtext at all.

On 10/9/2026 at 10:51 AM, Soaplovers said:

In terms of soap operas, I think they should have stayed with half hour soaps and only do an hour and/or 90 minute episode once in awhile as a special event. When the hour format worked as a one time event for AW (I believe it was for Steve and Alice's wedding or maybe for their 10th anniversary).. it should have remained 30 minutes and only expanded to an hour if there was a story line climax or a long awaited wedding (i.e the Mac/Janice/Rachel climax could have been a special 60 or 90 minute episode... or the fire that killed John Randolph could have been a special 90 minute episode instead of it just being a typical 90 minute episode).

Right, and that was part of the problem. Again, in All Her Children, Nixon talks about being asked to do a week of hour long shows (to condition viewers to a 30 minute earlier timeslot and to watch the premier of Ryan's Hope,) after saying at length why she does not like the idea of an hour long soap. Wakefield asks why she agreed to them, and she said that she wants to show ABC how to do an hour long soap right and how carefully they've been working out how to take advantage of the format. Wakefield then understandably points out but then if they do it so well won't that make ABC decide it should always be an hour--to which Agnes says it doesn't matter she never will agree to it except for occasional special events (...)

13 hours ago, EricMontreal22 said:

Right, and that was part of the problem. Again, in All Her Children, Nixon talks about being asked to do a week of hour long shows (to condition viewers to a 30 minute earlier timeslot and to watch the premier of Ryan's Hope,) after saying at length why she does not like the idea of an hour long soap. Wakefield asks why she agreed to them, and she said that she wants to show ABC how to do an hour long soap right and how carefully they've been working out how to take advantage of the format. Wakefield then understandably points out but then if they do it so well won't that make ABC decide it should always be an hour--to which Agnes says it doesn't matter she never will agree to it except for occasional special events (...)

Interesting that she would be so against it. I know I had a preference for the hour long format. The half hour shows always seemed too short to me. I don't know whether that is because the shorter format meant that there were fewer characters and therefore progress in their storyline in a given episode or if the scenes seemed more abrupt.

Ninety minutes seems excessive however.

December 30, 1977 just uploaded to YouTube!

Thanks @GymnastGuy

I'm trying to remember if this is some of the material Eddie used to put out on tapes or if this is new. Either way it's nice to get material from this time in such good quality.

2 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks @GymnastGuy

I'm trying to remember if this is some of the material Eddie used to put out on tapes or if this is new. Either way it's nice to get material from this time in such good quality.

I think it might be new.

27 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I think it might be new.

That's great to hear. I think it must be as AWHP has some new photos for Jamie and Dennis.

What a wonderful last few days we've had with new Lemay-era material also now being available!

@vetsoapfan @Vee @EricMontreal22 @Jdee43 @Xanthe @Paul Raven @slick jones @Tisy-Lish @chrisml @Franko @Soaplovers @SoapDope78 @Lust4Life76 @teplin @anthonymolchan @All My Shadows @Efulton @gimmetoo @DeliaIrisFan @TheyStartedOnSoaps @Khan @cody_1990 @bongobong @watson71 @Melroser @Stevel @denzo30

Edited October 24Oct 24 by DRW50

May I ask... I remember once reading that Alma Rudder trapped Blaine Ewing in an attic, or a closet, and tormented her dressed as a life-size rag doll. Was there any method to that particular torture, was it just to scare Blaine, or did the rag doll gimmick have some sort of connection to Blaine's past? Thanks!

11 minutes ago, Lust4Life76 said:

May I ask... I remember once reading that Alma Rudder trapped Blaine Ewing in an attic, or a closet, and tormented her dressed as a life-size rag doll. Was there any method to that particular torture, was it just to scare Blaine, or did the rag doll gimmick have some sort of connection to Blaine's past? Thanks!

I think the rag doll costume was exactly like a doll that Blaine had when she was a little girl, that her father purposely destroyed when he was drunk or something.

Holy cow. New Lemay. What a world.

In case some don't know -- the maid in the scene with Mac Cory is Helga. She originally claimed Sven had followed her to Bay City because he was her cousin. But near the end of the plot it was revealed that he was actually not her cousin, but her former lover from many years earlier, and that he had murdered Helga's husband, Knut. There was a lot of Scandinavian background in the storyline, but it was seldom referred to in the scripts. This is the plot that took Another World to number one in the ratings in 1978.

On 10/22/2026 at 11:34 AM, Xanthe said:

Interesting that she would be so against it. I know I had a preference for the hour long format. The half hour shows always seemed too short to me. I don't know whether that is because the shorter format meant that there were fewer characters and therefore progress in their storyline in a given episode or if the scenes seemed more abrupt.

Ninety minutes seems excessive however.

I think a daily half-hour soap may actually work better these days in terms of audience commitment.

22 minutes ago, 1974mdp said:

I think a daily half-hour soap may actually work better these days in terms of audience commitment.

You're probably right these days. I was thinking of the 70s and 80s when there were fewer distractions.

5 hours ago, GymnastGuy said:

December 30, 1977 just uploaded to YouTube!

Wow, this is great. Bobby Doran is very engaging.