OLTL's tagline on SoapNet is something like, "Where family dysfunction is only rivaled by sexy seductions."

IMO, that's the problem. How would we feel if, say, "Friends," for example, stopped being about the six friends and started becoming about the people downstairs from Monica, or the people who lived a floor above from Ross? The show's general idea should always be carried through -- despite changes in writers. Saying that this show that started out this way has now become about this -- and has now become about that -- which leads into this -- is basically saying that it's okay for a show to lose its identity and lose what drew its initial audience in in the first place.

YES! That is the problem with soaps today. There's also the question of tone. As long as I know, GH has always been a darker and slightly fantastical show, so there are things that GH fans expect and will tolerate. When TPTB explained Lucky's death as his being kidnapped & tortured by Helena, that worked for GH. AMC though is supposed to be more humanist and more grounded in reality. Obviously Tad killing Madden was a big mistake, as well as the UnAbortion. Brian Frons though seems to want to make all three ABC shows into the SAME show. Dark, dreary, depressing and filled with angry anti-heroes. It doesn't suit OLTL and especially AMC. The three ABC shows should be distinctive. I believe that in the long run that would help increase fanbase for each show.

YES! That is the problem with soaps today. There's also the question of tone. As long as I know, GH has always been a darker and slightly fantastical show, so there are things that GH fans expect and will tolerate. When TPTB explained Lucky's death as his being kidnapped & tortured by Helena, that worked for GH. AMC though is supposed to be more humanist and more grounded in reality. Obviously Tad killing Madden was a big mistake, as well as the UnAbortion. Brian Frons though seems to want to make all three ABC shows into the SAME show. Dark, dreary, depressing and filled with angry anti-heroes. It doesn't suit OLTL and especially AMC. The three ABC shows should be distinctive. I believe that in the long run that would help increase fanbase for each show.

AMC is supposed to be light and whimsical and fun and carefree and just...idk...a show where people aren't buried alive and tortured. Agnes put in the social commentary, but it was never in a way to depress the viewer more than to simply enlighten and inform. Somehow, it worked.

I always say that ATWT is supposed to be a melodramatic masterpiece, the quintessential soap opera. A hot pot-stirring mess, but in a good way.

Can you stick to a brand or central question after 30, 40, 50 years??

Can you stick to a brand or central question after 30, 40, 50 years??

no.

Can you stick to a brand or central question after 30, 40, 50 years??

Yes, but the writers have to stick to the question. Most writers don't even care about the question, just the bottom line at this point or they're trying to answer the question for everyone else: past writers, creators, pop culture, the soap sub-culture...

The prevailing conditions that created the shows still exist today, innovation makes them relative. You can still address the central question without having to retread on history. Too many writers out of touch with the society in which they want to write about.

Some shows can keep the same question for decades. AMC's question is about the changes in society, so since there will be always be changes, there will always be stories. And if Y&R and B&B are about class struggle, that's something that will always be in fashion.

I remember reading somewhere that OLTL's theme was about diverse, real characters that have sensational things happen to them. I'm sorry I don't remember who said it but I think it was either Robin Strasser or Bob Woods.

Can you stick to a brand or central question after 30, 40, 50 years??

Yes.

Can you stick to a brand or central question after 30, 40, 50 years??

You'd be surprise how long brand loyalty can stretch.

I remember reading somewhere that OLTL's theme was about diverse, real characters that have sensational things happen to them. I'm sorry I don't remember who said it but I think it was either Robin Strasser or Bob Woods.

It's still apart of the DirectTv description of the show. "People of diverse backgrounds cross paths in LLanview, Pa..."

Brian Frons though seems to want to make all three ABC shows into the SAME show. Dark, dreary, depressing and filled with angry anti-heroes. It doesn't suit OLTL and especially AMC. The three ABC shows should be distinctive. I believe that in the long run that would help increase fanbase for each show.

I agree. All the ABC shows are losing their identity and are now too similar. AMC has lost its uniqueness even more under Charles Pratt who seems determined to turn it into GH.

Edited June 25, 200916 yr by RomeAt50

I agree. All the ABC shows are losing their identity and are now too similar. AMC has lost its uniqueness even more under Charles Pratt who seems determined to turn it into GH.

You mean sort of the way GH introduced a dead woman's twin sister who was sold at birth storyline a month after AMC did? Pity.

IMO, classic soaps are evolving creations. They do not need, nor should they have, "central questions". Too many cooks exist to muck with the central question.

A primetime show, or a next-generation soap, could well have this central question. But I don't think it is remotely reasonable to expect this of classic soaps with so many 'auteurs'.

All soaps: Boring triangle dramas.