An Open Letter from Ken Corday to Marlena De Lacroix

[EricMontreal22]

Good point. I doubt you'd have an audience anymore that would dress up for a character's wedding. That's partly due too to modern audiences being more "sophisticated" (I'm sure the days of someone attacking Fulton cuz of her character are pretty much gone), although the fact that shows like True Blood still tap into that spirit audiences crave, says something.

[Sylph]

True Blood taps into what spirit?

[EricMontreal22]

The spirit of obsessive fandom. The way it sounds like many 60s soap fans were--where it's almost as important as their real life. True Blood and many other shows, just not daytime soaps much anymore.

(I know you dislike Alan Ball, Sylph, but surely you can agree with that statement?)

[Sylph]

Well, Ball does it rather lousily.

[You're Soaking in it]

In fact, no, it would not be a gramatically proper acronym. But acronyms are sometimes subjective, and people take liberty with them.

Whether someone says "SOW" or "SPW," we generally know what they're talking about. It's not that big a deal to me, one way or the other. (Not something I'd care to debate - the soaps haven't become THAT boring yet... have they? )

I was just explaining why they didn't consciously use SOW. The mag's original publisher may have even been involved with that one.

[EricMontreal22]

Does what? Gets fans to obsess over his shows? I'd say he does that tremendously well! Otherwise I think you're arguing something that hasn't been mentioned or discussed here

[Bright Eyes]

As I have naturally become the ditz of this board, I feel I can freely ask, in SPW, where does the P come from? (confused, )

[EricMontreal22]

Last letter of soaP - this is done with acronyms sometmes when the next letter normally used would be a vowel. Don't ask me why...

[Sylph]

Precisely: he has his fans, he doesn't really draw new people in.

[EricMontreal22]

The fact that True Blood more than doubled its audience in season 2 says nothing? Or that Six Feet Under gained viewers in Season 4?

At any point, I just meant that primetime can still get people to become absorbed in the drama and characters in a way daytime no longer seems able, for a myriad of reasons.

[Sylph]

No, it really doesn't. It's a niche show.

[EricMontreal22]

Well a huge niche, one that HBO is glad of, anyway. But few mainstream shows stay that way long, anyway. Any faves?

[Sylph]

Moved here.

[SFK]

Oh I was just asking YurSoakinginit, please don't think I was trying to start a debate. I've just always used and seen "SOW" and I didn't know that "SPW" was also widely used.

[Jay]

It always was their official abbreviation. I was never sure if it stood for "Soa Popera Weekly" or "Soapo Pera Weekly." I've always called it SOW, though.

It was SOW's Mimi Torchin who made spoilers mandatory in our little corner of the television universe, and I blame those for killing soap opera. SOD always used teasers to make you want to watch next week, or the week after (it was bi-weekly). When SOW came into being, spoilers were a way to get readers to buy SOW instead of the more sedate SOD, by telling them exactly what was going to happen next week. And they only got worse over time, moving onto the cover in 72 point (at least) type.

Mimi and her spoilers spoiled the soaps for me, permanently. I haven't been a serious watcher since AW ended in 1999. I gave up ATWT after Marland died, went back to it, and quit it again when Carly came to town.

Then I tried OLTL. The week before Easter in either 2000 or 2001, the issue of SOW that was on the racks at the grocery store gave up some essential plot point about a train wreck involving Bo and Nora and Will Rappaport as they were taking Will to Statesville Prison. It happened to be the same week the Elian Gonzalez story was coming to a head. I knew what was going to happen on OLTL, so I tuned in Fox News and CNN to see the latest Elian developments. I like not knowing.

I never watched OLTL again except for a peek at the gay characters.

I know some people actually like spoilers, and I'm not seeking to pick that fight again. You win. But it was the end of the thing for me. I'd been watching AW and ATWT from 1988 and 1989, and I had a mostly good run with those shows. I didn't watch anything for about five years after the Elian/OLTL weekend, and then started up with Y&R in 2005 or so. I never liked those people, but Kevin and Gloria made it mostly watchable. I didn't mind LML, either. But this latest bogosity made me give up entirely some months back. Especially with spoilers, there's no reason in heaven or earth to watch this show.

I watched Luke and Noah on ATWT at first, but realized CBS or P&G wasn't up to the task of presenting an authentic gay relationship on that first, kissless, New Years Eve, and gave up on soaps again. I picked World Turns up again when Reid came to town. How sad they couldn't have done this story 20 years ago, when soaps were better written. OTOH, it may be that whoever's in charge of things there now just doesn't give a [!@#$%^&*] about the Religious Wrong, and that's the only reason we're getting this very decent storyline. And there's not a whole lot of "what happens next?" tension, so I just watch my boys. [!@#$%^&*] the rest of the show. It died circa 1995.

But once ATWT's done, then I'm done. No more soaps. And I blame Mimi Torchin and her spoilers for setting the stage of my discontent. When a parasite like a soap magazine takes "what happened next?" away from the creator of the thing it purports to love, support, and promote, something is very, very wrong. It destroys what it nominally supports. And it's been that way for a good long time. For this reason, if for no other, the thing deserves to die.

I'm glad I got to see a gay love triangle on a daytime drama. I had hoped it would star Steven Frame on AW, but Luke Snyder is really the next best thing. And that's all there is.

Bravo and adios, daytime.