Another World

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Knowing how P&G and PGP ran their TV production company, I cannot say that it surprises me.  They began to disregard their TV properties in the 90s and beyond.  Instead of seeing their soaps as assets, they regarded them as former "cash cows" that needed to be put out to pasture.

Truly disrespectful.  

I keep hoping that someone at that company would sprout some vision and find a way to 'make good' on the treasure trove of classic soaps in their library but so far, PGP has shown themselves to be lacking vision.

 

I know that at one time Roger Newcomb, site owner of the We Love Soaps blog used to post here and he was involved in assisting with the short-lived Soap Classics effort and he mentioned how much of a challenge it was in finding and digitizing the Master reels of episodes of the surviving episodes (1979 and beyond).  

This would be labor-intensive, for sure, but considering they've already done some episodes and all episodes beyond 2002 are probably already digital-ready, it's not completely impossible.

At the very least, they could stream and/or work with a substation (like Get TV, Decades or RetroTV, even though less people get RetroTV these days) to show some episodes just to test the waters.

 

Even if PGP made a list of the most requested storylines and considered streaming them, that could be possible.  You Tube, Yahoo Screen!, AOL, all have streaming platforms and they could even run ads but PGP hasn't had that type of dedication for the soaps since the 80s when soaps were bringing in buckets of $$ and PGP has long since stopped caring about respecting the loyalty of soap fans.

Edited June 25, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[adrnyc]

 

I so LOVED the Soap Classics and all that Roger and everyone there did to bring as much as they did to us!  I'm surprised that P&G gave them the rights, only to take them away a year later. They clearly have no plans to release all of the material themselves so why not let others do the work? It's clear that they hate their old soap opera properties but why not let the people who enjoy them be able to do so?

 

I'm sure P&G will never let their show air on a TV station or on the internet anymore. They seem to have just washed their hands clean of the entire thing. 

 

Making a list of the most requested storylines I don't think would be a help to them. I remember when Soap Classics was looking into streaming episodes online and they asked people what era they wanted to see '79-'85, '85-'90, 2000 and beyond, etc. If I remember correctly, the answers were split evenly. Each era of the show has its fans and they want their era to be streamed. I'm not sure if there is enough of a fan base to make it financially viable?

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I see what you mean but era is different than storylines.  Storylines are very specific while era encompasses a much wider swath of years.

I think many of their post 2001 episodes are already digitized so I don't think they would have to do much work there. I'd also omit '96-'00 (or at least de-prioritize them) for the moment and focus on what preceeded those years in terms of most requested storylines.

 

Edited June 25, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[adrnyc]

 

All good points!  What storylines would people want to see from AW if given an opportunity? Personally, I'd love to see the Who Shot Jake storyline play out and Jason Frame's murder. Both had me enthralled when I was a teenager - I'd love to see if they hold up today. As I've said before, I'm in Nov '88 now in my re-watch. Looking ahead, there doesn't appear to be much of the Frame murder mystery on YouTube. I also loved the John/Sharlene/Taylor saga when I was in college. My friends and I were enthralled - day after day we'd meet at someone's place to watch it. We were seriously screaming at the TV at times - Taylor made us insane. And we LOVED John and Sharlene. 

 

I also enjoy seeing entire eras so, I'd love to go as far back as they have ('79?) and just watch the damn show as much as possible. There does seem to be early AW (79-81) YouTube but I haven't looked into it to see just how much. Has anyone here catalogued what's available by chance? I'm doing it as much as I can from what I've seen (1987 is easy - there's a playlist) but I started in '87 as that's when I watched as a kid.

 

I would so love that. I'd watch. I would pay good money to stream them for crying out loud.  I don't have RetroTV but I know that what has aired of The Doctors can be found online. I tried getting into it but it just moved too slow? Also, I'm never into the hospital shows, in general. I think it being centered around hospitals might just turn me off. Anyway....I wonder if the ultimate failure of SoapNet keeps any channel from running older soaps? Or maybe P&G just won't let them. Somebody could always try a non P&G soap - maybe Ryan's Hope since we know so many years of that exist - and test the waters. Did SoapNet stop showing AW because they were losing money on it or because P&G pulled the rights?

 

As I say, I'm thankful for YouTube. I'm watching RH that way (never saw it on the SoapNet run) and now I'm re-watching both AW and an era of ATWT that I've never seen. It *is* frustrating when there are large gaps of episodes missing though. 

[DramatistDreamer]

@adrnycCome to think of it, since AW ended in '99, PGP ideally would include the best storyline from its last years on air on that list. ATWT, OTOH- they can put '96 and beyond on the backburner for that show. 

 

I guess each show would be different in this process and ideally you'd need different people in charge of digitizing the episodes from from each soap.

 

I bet a good, effective and targeted crowdfunding effort could raise the funds to hire people to do this. If someone did this right, very little of the money to do this would have to come out of PGP's coffers (since we know they don't give a damn, let alone want to spend $$$).

A small crew of technologically savvy "digitizers" could be in charge of this effort and some of that raised money could go toward paying them and even college students could assist, either for college credit during the summer and/or a small stipend.

 

I mean, it would take some time but time will pass on its own regardless. Might as well use it to do something to make some people happy.

 

If there was truly a will, there would be a way to make it happen.  Too bad the will is lacking.

 

 

Edited June 25, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[vetsoapfan]

 

The incompetence at ALL the networks throughout the 1990s made it astonishing that any soaps survived the decade.

 

I doubt Passions would have been a success either way, but the supernatural elements ultimately hurt its chances. It was just never well written, and the available audience had so many better choices.

[watson71]

 

The viewers who made the P&G soaps popular in the 60s and 70s are now of retirement age, so there would be a built in interest to see the P&G soaps again on one of the TV channels.

 

AOL streamed AW, Texas, SFT, and EON.  I would imagine that the saved episodes start with the late 70s, no later than 1980.  AW started with the last 90 minute episode and the first 60 minute episode- in August 1980- when Texas debuted.

Most of  Texas episodes were in tact on AOL.  EON episodes were from late 70s/1980. SFT episodes were from 1984.

 

Hulu streamed episodes of AW, GL, and ATWT from the 90s for a brief time.

 

USA Network reran EON from the 80s and SFT from its NBC run.

 

TBS reran Texas cut into half hour episodes, along with the short lived P&G cable soap The Catlins.

 

Whether all this material still exists is the question, and how organized it was kept?!?

[teplin]

 

NBC was reportedly unhappy that Rachel and Carl drew more fan mail than any other couple on the show, interpreting it as a sign that AW's viewers were old, mostly holdovers from the AW glory days, and that there was little to no potential to grow the audience as long as that was the case. They got rid of Charles Keating in an attempt to reposition the show, and I'm sure they would have loved to dump Vicky Wyndham as well, but they didn't think the little audience they had left would stand for it. 

[cassadine1991]

I didn't know ABC was rumored to want AW.

Interesting because PGP rebranded itself as Procter & Gamble Entertainment (PGE) in 2013

 

http://news.pg.com/blog/entertainment/pgs-soap-opera-era-ends-our-innovation-entertainment-continues

 

 

[NothinButAttitude]

 

That's stupid that NBC was unhappy about that. What did they expect? Carl & Rachel were the only stable couple on the show the last 3-4 years of the show. Of course people would flock to them. 

 

People could add Joe/Paulina to the list as being the other stable couple on the show, but who was fanning out over them? Especially, with Joe being the chauvinistic pig he was. 

[Melroser]

I never liked Joe as a character. It was such a disappointing pairing for Paulina after the chemistry she had with Jake. Even though I'm glad that Jake ended up with Vicky in the end, I think he was by far the best pairing for Paulina. If only Ryan had stayed around to end up with Vicky and then Paulina could have ended up with Jake. 

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[MichaelGL]

I remember watching AW as a kid and really hating the Joe/Paulina/Jake triangle. Paulina and Jake were incredible. Joe was a horrible character whom I wish would have succumbed to a death similar to Frankie's. 

[NothinButAttitude]

 

I didn't like Vicky/Jake either. Sorry but I found that pairing repulsing. I could buy them as friends. As lovers? Hell no. He raped her sister. I HATE how the show tossed that aside. Vicky would've never gotten with w/ Jake. Jake's soulmate was Paulina and that's who he should've ended up with.

 

 

It should've been him instead of Frankie. Joe was not needed at all. We already had a good amount of law enforcement characters in Ryan, Frankie, Josie, and Gary by the time Joe popped up. I even liked Gabe more than Joe. 

[Melroser]

Jake and Vicky came to town together as a couple and then he turned to Marley. I enjoyed them from the get-go because I always found Marley annoying as Hell and hated Jake with her. The two had history way before he raped her sister but I do agree that "real people" would never be attracted to their sister's rapist after that. At least, I would hope not. They wouldn't likely fall in love with their rapist either (Luke and Laura) but this is tv so I went with it. To each their own....

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Seeing how tense it was at the height of Marley's rape, I just don't see how Vicky could've ended up with him. I mean they all wanted him dead at one point. I just found Vicky with Jake to be icky. Again, I could accept them being friends again. Lovers? Hell no. I don't care for rape romances either with the exception of Holly/Roger b/c we saw Holly rebuke Roger many times b/c it was wrong, and we saw Roger constantly and genuinely apologize for his action.