What network did you grow up with?

[Eric83]

Of course, many of us watch soaps on different networks, but which one did you grow up with? Which one had the most relatable and appealing soaps to you? Which one has the soaps that will always live close to your heart?

For me it would be CBS. That network runs through my family. My mom loves/loved Y&R, ATWT, SFT, and GL. My grandma loved GL, ATWT, SFT, TEON, The Secret Storm, etc. My great grandma listened to ther radio soaps and loved the early days of SFT, GL, ATWT, The Brighter Day, and so many others.

I myself loved the Y&R/B&B/ATWT/GL lineup and watched all summer long. GL is the soap closest to my heart, as I was able to watch it all-year round. I came home at 2:45, fixed me a snack and sat down at 3:00 to watch. I was hooked from 1994-2005.

So what about you guys? Which network and their soaps will remain closest to you?

[LoyaltoAMC]

Interesting topic! My mom was a huge NBC fan in the 70s. Especially loved AW and Somerset. She had an enormous crush on Nicholas Coster (Robert Delaney). My aunt was ABC all the way, especially AMC & OLTL. No one in my family seemed to watch the CBS shows. As kids in the late 70s, my sister and I followed our aunt and latched onto the ABC soaps, probably because they had a more youthful appeal. We particularly loved AMC because of its unique characters, socially relevant stories, and comedy that you just didn't find anywhere else. My mom gave up on AW in the late 70s and finally joined the ABC camp.

[cityfan01]

ABC completely for my family. Ever since I was little at my grandparents, we'd switch it over from CBS and The Price is Right and go from Loving to General Hospital on ABC. Good times

[Khan]

I think I was a fan of all three networks' lineups, actually.

Mom and I would start every morning with LOVING at 10:30, followed by AMC at eleven. Sometimes, though, we would flip over to Y&R, which aired opposite AMC, if nothing particularly interesting was happening on the other soap.

Then, after the 12 p.m. news, it was RYAN'S HOPE @ 12:30 (or CAPITOL - again, depending on which soap was more interesting at that time). And though most of my specific memories of characters, events and such are related either to ATWT or OLTL, both of which aired (and still air) @ 1:00, I also have vague memories of Mom watching ANOTHER WORLD and THE DOCTORS, too. (I, myself, remember SEARCH FOR TOMORROW as the first soap I watched on my own w/o her.) Once CAPITOL was canceled, however, it was strictly RYAN'S HOPE until that show was canceled; then, it was waiting around until one.

Two o'clock, OTOH, was "reserved" strictly for GUIDING LIGHT. Not only did Mom and I tape and watch that, but so did my grandmother. However, around the time of the so-called "Johnny Bauer Cancer Years," I got so fed up w/ the show that I started watching SANTA BARBARA on my own whenever I was home from school (and yes, I would occasionally feign illness to do just that, guilty as charged, lol) and didn't come back until the time Michael Zaslow returned. Between those two shows, I don't believe I had time to watch much GH, although I would sporadically.

And after that...? Well, as long as THE EDGE OF NIGHT was still around, that was what Mom watched @ 3 (or so) on the local ABC affiliate. Once EON was gone, though, I think it was "Donohue," then (of course) "Oprah." I, however, got hooked on DAYS, which aired opposite all this, during our family's annual summer vacation in Las Vegas, so I'd watch that. (Plus, since school was over by 3:30, it was easy for me to come home and catch the last half-hour or so every afternoon.)

Here's how I would break down what I loved about each networks' soaps:

ABC (LOVING, AMC, RH, OLTL, EON): Larger-than-life characters, mixed w/ good, old-fashioned storytelling.

CBS (Y&R, CAPITOL, ATWT, GL): Emphases on communities, families and history; balanced canvas (w/ good mix of younger and veteran actors/characters).

NBC (SFT, SaBa, DAYS and AW): More "adventurous" storylines (for lack of a better word), with greater emphasis on action, romance, and unpredictable characters.

[CSF]

Such an interesting topic.

My earliest memories of television as a child were of my mother and sister watching Ryan's Hope, Loving and AMC. My grandmother watched OLTL and GH. My sister did as well and my mother always watched OLTL after AMC, but never GH. For some reason, however, I have no early memory of scenes from OLTL as a child. So I definitely grew up on the alphabet network.

I kinda got hooked on AMC growing up, and when I would get home from school at 2:45, I would do my homework and watch General Hospital with my sister. However, one day when I came home from school, I was about 10, I put on the TV and CBS was on and Guiding Light was just about to start at 3:00 and something just drew me into the show. I don't know what it was exactly, but I was just so into it. From then on, I decided to "sample" each soap that I had never seen before on a "sick day." lol I saw Days and AW, but they didn't do anything for me. Then on another day, I caught Y&R, B&B, ATWT and of course, continued on to my new found favorite, GL. I really liked Y&R and GL the most out of the CBS shows and I've always watched GH with my sister after school and I felt like AMC was a part of me since before I born, I kinda found those 4 shows as "my soaps." It was always ironic that they were each others time period competitors, so I would record Y&R when I was in school in my room and watch GL when I got home and catch up on AMC and GH from my sister. Thinking about GL always makes me kinda sad since it was my true favorite, even when it would get kinda sucky, I still loved it. It wasn't until EW and DK took over that show that I was forever turned off.

[P.J.]

CBS. Not only for daytime, but primetime as well.

Sadly, after ATWT departs, there'll be very little reason for me to tune into CBS daytime.

[Soapsuds]

Ditto same here. CBS since I was 8. And for me there will be no reason to tune in to CBS daytime in September when ATWT is gone. I guarantee you that CBS daytime will suffer will even lower ratings once ATWT is gone. Y&R and B&B will lose viewers from those that watched ATWT. I hope ATWT fans tune out CBS daytime once the show airs its finale.

[IMissAremid]

NBC!

My earliest soap memories come from my grandma watching Santa Barbara (she had lived in Santa Barbara for a few years during WWII before coming back to Chicago and I think that's why she loved it so much... well besides Cruz and Eden) when I was over at her house.

While I got into Y&R as my first soap on my own and occasionally tuned in to B&B, I never spent the afternoon with CBS and only tuned into GL for the final epi and have never seen a full episode of ATWT. I adored Another World and started watching Days of our Lives waiting for Another World to come on. It wasn't long though before my Days love outstripped my AW love and by the time AW was canceled I had stopped watching and got into Passions when it aired. Never got into SuBe.

Never got into the ABC soaps until a couple years ago thanks to SoapNet, but my mom, who watched soaps when she was in college and when she was home with my brothers and not working when they were little but hasn't watched them much since was a total ABC soap person.

[Faulkner]

My mom was a full three network soap watcher, and I grew up in St. Louis, so our soap schedule was pretty much this from as early as I can remember to around 1993-94:

10 am - Santa Barbara (NBC)

11 am - Y&R aired in this slot for a while (CBS)

12 pm - All My Children (ABC)

1 pm - As The World Turns (CBS)

2 pm - Guiding Light (CBS)

3 pm - Oprah (NBC station)

4 pm - The Young and the Restless (CBS)

In '94, when ATWT and GL started to lose their luster, I started watching OLTL (Malone era) and GH (Labine era) from 1 to 3. My mom still watched ATWT/GL, and I'd tape OLTL/GH.

Around '95, our family moved to Mississippi, and in our town, the NBC station was the only one you could pick up well without cable. Everyone there watched DAYS, and that was the height of the Marlena possessed story, so we got sucked into that. We did have cable so I pretty much watched all the soaps from '95 to '99. But at the end of the day, CBS was probably our mainstay.

[kalbir]

CBS for me. Starting with The Price is Right, then Y&R, the game show block ($25,000 Pyramid, Card Sharks, Family Feud), As the World Turns, B&B, Guiding Light. Currently Y&R is the only show on CBS Daytime I watch.

[Scotty]

ABC

Cable didn't come into my little hometown until the mid-80s, when I was a young kid....and we had an antenna before that. However, all we could really get with it was the local KET (Kentucky Educational Television) station and the ABC station from nearby Bowling Green, KY. So my parent's watched ABC and when we got cable, we kept on watching the ABC station.

[quartermainefan]

ABC

I used to laugh at soaps but then I had a long bout of pneumonia, was home from school. GH had the fame, and I didn't know about any soaps really since my family never watched. I naturally enough in 1981 picked GH to kill an hour. The commercials like these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U198lquQ7JA

introduced me to the fact there was more than one soap. The man who always talked to me (his voice narrating the second promo) is probably the man most responsible for getting me to watch AMC. There I saw Palmer and loved him because he was so mean for no reason whatsoever, and that cracked me up. OLTL and EoN eventually followed. In 2004 when all the ABC soaps were at the worst I tried DOOL on a whim and loved the Melaswen story and have been watching ever since.

[EricMontreal22]

I discovered soaps on my own--my family was too snobby to ever watch, but ABC for me all the way. I was a snobby kid as well, and thought soaps were beyond dumb, but then was sick at 11 during the time Janet threw Natalie in a well--soon after AMC and Loving started crossing over and I got hooed on that and then OLTL had the Billy Douglas storyline. So, that said, specifically Agnes Nixon's three soaps, GH has never held ANY appeal to me--and in a greater sense the NYC based soaps in general--on CBS (and briefly NBC) as well

[Marco Dane]

ABC

[EricMontreal22]

That's interesting--I know a lot of people who watch daytime by network--know NO ONE who watches primetime by network or even pays much attention (besides me) to what show is on what network.