The Soapgeist: July 5, 2010

[All My Shadows]

We've been counting the cancellations for several years now. 2003 - Port Charles. 2007/8 - Passions. 2009 - Guiding Light. 2010 - As the World Turns. That's four soaps in a matter of seven years. There have been more cancellations-per-year in the past (11 soaps were canceled from 1970-1980), but the simple fact that there have been no new soaps to replace them at all means that the death certificate has been signed, the will has been finalized, the obituary has been written. Daytime soap opera has died at 80-90 years old.

I can't disagree with this enough. I just don't understand this line of thinking. If the show is going to morph into a song-and-dance hour filled with non-daytime stuff and an award here and there, then why do we want it to stay on TV? If it's just going to become something totally different -- something that is barely the Daytime Emmys at all - then why is it important to daytime that it stays on TV? If the plan is to phase out daytime-related content in order to catch "more fish," how is that important to daytime? Why are we still calling it the Daytime Emmy Awards if that's not what "mainstream America" wants to tune in for? Take out the awards, give it a new name, and promote the fact that acts that were "mainstream" over 30 years ago are going to be coming, putting out a watered-down, half-baked performance of one of their hit songs from 1973, and let's see what the f'n ratings would look like then. Remember, the people who tuned in to the AB tribute and gave it high ratings were people tuning into the Daytime Emmys.

Be glad. You only think two minutes were wasted. Try feeling that 20 minutes were wasted.

EXACTLY!!! I don't get it, man, I just don't get it. When I tune into the Daytime Emmys, I expect to see Emmys being handed out to the men and women of daytime television. If the show is 75 minutes of stuff not remotely related to daytime television and 45 minutes of awards, then it is no longer the Daytime Emmys, and I no longer give a damn.

Hey, they gotta "do what they have to do." They have to save the Daytime Emmys by making them everything but. Next year, the Daytime Emmys will be held in the Westboro Baptist Church banquet hall, with hosts Fred and Shirley Phelps who will open with a rousing medley of "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for IEDs." After a three-hour sermon from Fred on the evils of double coupon days at the Piggly Wiggly, the winner for "Best Drama Series" will be announced via news ticker.

They should have just had all of the people come out, sing a big group performance of "Bandstand Boogie," and let that be the end of it. That's all that was needed. Remember the Sesame Street tribute from a few years ago? They had random daytime stars sing "Sing" with the Muppets after a video package. Perfect. Not too long, not too short.

[SFK]

Isn't Connie Francis the one going on tour with Dionne Warwick? They did the Joy Behar Show a while back.

I think Chubby may be ill. He seemed a little thinner and a bit slowed (yes, I know he's older), and he ended with a tag I've heard all my life growing up in the church, "Pray for me saints", which is code for, "I'm going through something right now."

[SFK]

I think another thing that makes the Emmys such a dud these days is that we've for the most part lost our generation of great soap stars. A Daytime Emmy broadcast without Linda Dano, something's missing. Now we have a lot of vapid young stars who love their noms and wins but would rather be starring on the CW. Maybe that's not fair, but even if they love their jobs, they just don't endear me. Many of our older stars can't or won't make the trek, others were on shows that have now been cancelled. Frankly, if I had cable I probably would have been watching the BET awards, none of the noms excited me while many made me scratch my head. They could have always incorporated more soap stars into the musical numbers, but I'm with quartermainefan on this one... spare us. I think the soaps need to dial it back and take the Emmys right on back to daytime. Look, the soap pool is getting smaller and smaller by the quarter, please, let us go to the banana leaved Beverly Hilton or back to the Waldorf Astoria, we don't need a big production. Soap stars cutting up at their tables and mixing it up with muppets and Judge Jeanine Pirro, that's fine by me. Primetime? It's not that deep. The boradcast is for the fans not the industry's ego.

[DRW50]

There's a lot of truth to this. Daytime has no real glamour or fun anymore, and that just keeps getting worse and worse because entertainment general doesn't really have glamour now -- look at the common, embarrassing Real Housewives. These are "rich" women who act like bad trash. In daytime itself, your young stars are as vapid as can be. The amount of dead eyes and frozen faces on women in soaps today, especially the younger women, is just awful to watch.

[bellcurve]

[brad Bell]I LOVE WESTBORO![/brad Bell]

[DRW50]

A very special storyline where Maggie Forrester's never seen husband/Eric's never seen brother, John, played by Jon Voight, pickets the funeral of the never seen but beloved Forrester leafblower, Pepe. In flashbacks, we see Pepe, played by Cheech Marin, being treated with great kindness by the Forresters (they gave him an extra turkey leg every other Christmas dinner and sometimes let him have a sick day off without threatening to have him deported). John is outraged over the news that the Forresters are going to pay for Pepe to be cremated (his ashes will be thrown on Brooke), and he leads a hate rally.

They wonder why he has now started hating Latinos as well as gays, and then a traumatized Felicia remembers her 18th birthday party, when she accidentally walked in on Pepe showing John another definition of the term leafblower. Since Felicia cannot actually have a story of her own, Stephanie angrily confronts John, who says he is also going to picket her funeral. Stephanie insists she is not a lesbian, and John bursts out laughing. Stephanie punches him through the wall.

Now that Pepe's secret is out, his younger lover, Ricardo, played by Ralph Macchio, says he will be made homeless now that Pepe is gone. Donna takes kindness on him and tell him that they will pay his rent. He is overcome by her generosity and the beauty and sex appeal that is Donna Logan turns Ricardo straight. They have hot sex. Donna gets pregnant and passes his son off as Eric's new baby boy, named Karate.

Ricardo vanishes, and all is happy for John as he is elected to Congress as a member of the Banana Leaf Party. In his honor, Pam smokes a bunch of banana leaves, gets high, and accidentally runs over Ricardo on his way out of town.

[JackPeyton]

Word to all of this.

[SFK]

And the icing? Cheech and Ralph walk off with Image Awards.

"They have hot sex. Donna gets pregnant and passes his son off as Eric's new baby boy, named Karate."

[remos]

Oh yeah.... you're talking basic Class and I think that was thrown away when producers realized the legalized voyeurism of Jerry Springer and airing dirty laundry a la Trump vs O'Donnell appealed to people. You can almost draw the generational line between those who want their privacy/practice their art and those who like celebrity/walk through scenes. I know a popular target is writers who don't write brilliantly, but when you have such diversity of acting ability on the same show, it's not the writer's failings. We are not watching Shakespeare daily, arguably - and soaps have always been campy - however in the past actors were able to sell that camp with a higher degree of credibility. I often wonder if this isn't the real reason behind the call for vets to return... it's not that the vets guarantee anything (cough OLTL cough), it's that they worked harder for it.

[chyti]

I personally could care less about the daytime emmy's they either come on or they don't and it appears that the entertainment industry feels the same way. What people are missing is the fact that if the show did not give Dick Clark his 20 mins of shine nobody would have wanted to air it. No network wants to air the emmy's if soaps is the big draw. To tell the truth the daytime emmy's is probably a big joke no media attention, no more red carpet. no big name recognition. I am not in the industry to I am taking the word of someone who is when they say it is important to keep the show on the air

The people who tuned into the AB tribute and gave it its high rating tuned out right after which is how it became the most watch part of the show. 20 min of a two hour performance isn't taking over the show, daytime was represented in the show Dick Clark was a very impotant part of pop culture I have no problem with entertainers from the past performing in a tribute it happens all the time and believe it or not it doesn't bring down ratings at all. Music is one of those things that is timeless and watching someone perform their original hit from whatever time period is a joy not an insult.

Fans alone aren't going to keep the remaining shows on the air, daytime soaps have to matter to the networks, the industry. If a couple of music acts and a tour of a hotel is needed to finance the emmy's so be it. It brought more eyes to the show and maybe next year a network will want to produce it without all the added fluff

[remos]

This is like saying the fat girl is never going to amount to anything so they never give her the chance.

We don't KNOW that the Daytime Emmys wouldn't be watched otherwise. No one KNOWs that. What we do KNOW is that the networks aren't giving Daytime it's Pride of Place. I'm willing to bet if they did a real show around celebrating daytime - rather than a Vegas show or an Oscar's rip-off, they would see how loyal and interested soap fans truly are. At the end of the day who wins or looses isn't the point - that's conversation for the next morning. What viewers really want to see is their shows honoured and their memories respected.

[DRW50]

Given TV's hostility to most people over 50 (if that), I can't see any network wanting to air the Emmys if their high spot is sold as being Tony Orlando and Marie Osmond.

[dragonflies]

The emmy's were watched last year when they were about daytime so IMO saying that people wouldn't watch is a cop out.

[SFK]

I agree, but as per usual, instead of focusing 100% on appealing to the loyal following it does have, daytime is more concerned with chasing an audiece it doesn't have and never will have by pimping its splashy awards show in primetime and cramming in a bunch of acts with dubious appeal to non-daytime fans. If I am not a fan of soaps or even talk, why am I watching the Daytime Emmys to begin with? No amount of cajoling is going to make that telecast appointment viewing for me. If I'm a big Tony Orlando fan from way back and I catch wind of the fact that he'll be performing I'll flip back and forth from whatever else I'm watching until I catch him and when it's over, I won't turn back.

That's why I say the Daytime Emmys should go back to daytime and if daytime execs aren't even willing to preempt and hand over two hours for ONE DAY, then I say [!@#$%^&*] the whole thing. You have your built-in audience right there, and they could do all of the cheesy soap star-centric song and dance numbers that they wanted to which might even be more fun and endearing in an intimate daytime "for us, by us" setting. They could beef up the presence of the Drs. Phil and Oz and the slew of TV judges to widen the appeal. Just make better use of daytime's personalities, do some clever, fun pre-taped skits like the TV Land Awards or something. The Golden Globes-style awards shows of the '80s were charming, classy even, but of course Cameron and Sherri weren't our hosts.

ETA: And on the subject of daytime specials/preempted programming, I think it's a shame that shows with histories like those of GL, ATWT, and even AW, haven't gotten sort of Knots Landing Block Party-type hour specials airing before their finales. They don't even have to preempt another show, they could just air the day before the finale, hell, online even if they're that pressed to rush these shows off the air and not rock the boat. Just an hour devoted to interviews with the shows' longer running and more popular actors of the past, of course some stuff with newer actors peppered in, but the focus on the rich histories without worrying about trying to appeal to fans of newbie wannabe super couples. But I guess GL got this in the form of its primetime 40th anniversary special and the piece on 60 Minutes.

[Jay]

"Chance" should never have existed. More proof they don't know how to structure a story.