As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

Wow, the SoapClassics people had the rights to 12,000 episodes of As The World Turns?? Seems like P&G pulled the plug before the SoapClassics people even had a real chance!

 

https://www.welovesoaps.net/2012/02/soapclassics-begins-streaming-as-world.html?m=1

 

How many episodes did they stream, how many episodes collectively on those DVD sets?

Oh okay, it was for Guiding Light and all of the other soaps too. Still, they didn't even get to Another World and the others. Wonder what really happened?

Edited February 20, 2021 by DramatistDreamer

[soapfan770]

A tribute to Michael Morrison as 2/18 marked the 28th anniversary of his death:

 

https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/591645/as-the-world-turns-michael-david-morrison-death-anniversary-tribute/

[titan1978]

The stories might have been ridiculous and the characters did become idiots, but people forget Reilly featured THE characters on the show.  Some newbie nobody wasn’t possessed, Marlena was.  And all the stories were rooted in romance and love- having it, losing it, wanting it.

 

People also forget there was an evolution- they wanted the ratings of his last 18 months, but he had laid the groundwork of those stories for years.  The show didn’t just become crazy for sweeps one year like everyone else tried and failed at.  There was a long period of time between the experiment of Carly being buried alive and then the possession, and then the Secret Room.

 

I didn’t think about it this way back then, not until Curlee complimented it in the interview Toups did with her, but Reilly was great at structure.  The plots dragged on, but he kept the interest up with those mini-stories he would tell around the larger plots to build excitement.

 

Back to ATWT- when Riche left GH, I hoped she would go back to daytime on another soap, and I though she would fit well on ATWT.  I’m not sure why, it just seems like it would have benefited from her and she would have made a good fit.

Edited February 20, 2021 by titan1978

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Did the writer actually watch the show? Pretty sure Caleb was the older brother. Can remember that Caleb referred to Holden as "baby brother" more than once while trying to goad Holden and put him in his 'place'.

[Forever8]

Riche would've been good at ATWT. Wasn't there talk for Claire Labine to come head write there too? I think she would've flourished there more than she did at GL. 

[Bill Bauer]

 

 

It's ironic that a company that produced and brought us so many great shows ended up killing them and seems intent on keeping them buried. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

The SoapClassics company must have assumed that P&G would renew the license agreement because they were given so little time for so many episodes.

In that short time frame, the SoapClassics people were expected to digitize 12,000 episodes from analog, which was totally unrealistic. It seems like P&G didn't want the SoapClassics people to succeed. Too bad nobody has asked either company on the record for an explanation of what really happened. I think the customers who anticipated buying future compilations deserved an explanation. Not to just have the whole entire outfit just up and vanish.

[j swift]

After my recent reading of the Soaps of Yesteryear Tumblr, I question this assumption. In 1983 when P&G syndicated Texas to TBS, it was noted that they had the foresight to add a limited residuals clause to the contracts for all acting, writing, and production staff which made it cheaper to rebroadcast on cable.  Clearly at the outset of the production of Texas, and later EON, they did not know if the market would allow for syndication because no soap had ever done it before.  However, given the fact that those contracts exist, it would make it easier to reproduce the soaps in either in syndication, or later on streaming services, in order to maximize profits. 

 

I would suggest that it was the dissolution of P&G's media production, not an overall corporate disinterest, that keeps their soaps in the virtual vault.  When I read the book Soap Opera: the inside story of Procter and Gamble by Alecia Swasy, it was clear by the 90's P&G was hit with huge losses due to environmental issues and consumer lawsuits.  They shut down production because they couldn't afford it anymore after years of red lines due to corruption around the research on consumer safety.  So, it wasn't a loss of creativity in the writing or production that killed ATWT as much as customer payouts for tampons that caused toxic shock and animal testing on detergent.  ATWT might still be on air today if corporate raiders hadn't destroyed the consumer product industry by trying to cut corners.  Bad writing didn't kill the soap, as much as actual bad soaps killed the commercial viability.

 

Thus, it may not be that P&G didn't want SoapClassics to succeed, as much as that the people who might of cared were no longer a part of that corporation's future.  So, P&G considers soaps a discontinued product, just like Prell shampoo.

Edited February 23, 2021 by j swift

[Soapsuds]

I would love to own everything from 1983 to 1992 on DVD. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Still, I would like to hear from the SoapClassics people to hear their take on the matter, especially since it was they, not P&G who were doing all the work in the digitization process for those box sets. Surely, if PGP/P&G made them sign a NDA, or something in the licensing agreement, the statute of limitations must have run out by now.

 

 

I wonder what the future is for the DVD?

 

I still have my DVD Player but I know that today's PCs no longer even include the DVD-ROM.

Edited February 23, 2021 by DramatistDreamer

[DramatistDreamer]

I always thought it would have been a cool idea to let people download episodes and allow them single transfer to a DVD-R. It would be cheaper for the producer/distributor. A single or a group of episodes per DVD-R but one transfer each, so it can't be reproduced and resold.

When SoapClassics built a streaming platform, that's the direction I thought they would eventually go.

[Soapsuds]

I have a DVD player and blu ray one too. I own many DVDs and blu rays. I was going to purchase the finstones blu ray and mission impossible but both are available online. One on HBO Max and CBS all access which I have.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

My gaming laptop's CD/DVD-ROM drive had Blue Ray.

[Soapsuds]

Mine didn't have one so I had to buy one separately. Now I need a new laptop to use it with..lol.  I use to burn music on it. I'd buy from iTunes and burn the songs to cd-r disc.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

When that next stimulus check comes in, let's just say, I'll be "off to the races" to buy my laptop. The only thing is, that I'd like to figure out how to detach my old gaming laptop screen from the rest of the chassis, so I can use it as a second monitor. The screen is still in excellent condition. It's the rest of the computer that has bitten the dust.

 

Last night, I just found out that Count Stovall played a character called Dr. Hank Chambers on "The Doctors" before playing Detective Roy Franklin? Why hasn't anyone tried to get him for one of these reunion livestreams?

 

Also, why were there two Black doctors with the first name Hank? Couldn't they come up with any other names? Even Henry "Hank" Aaron didn't want to be called Hank.