As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[j swift]

I guess it bares repeating that asking P&G to stream soaps from their archive is like asking GM to remake the Oldsmobile.  The company got out of soap production not because of ratings or disinterest.  According to Alecia Swasy's book Soap Opera: the inside story of Proctor & Gamble, (which I encourage everyone to read) lawsuits over faulty testing of consumer products created such huge loses in revenue that it took down the company.  Toxic shock from tampons, not poorly written characters or insipid plots, caused the company to be insolvent.

 

Since the 1990's P&G product divisions have been sold multiple times.  I mean when was the last time you saw Prell shampoo or Dreft detergent that were staples of daytime commercials?  And once they stop producing the items that were intended to be sold on daytime TV, it negated the purpose of producing soap operas.  The company was negligent in testing the safety of their goods before bringing them to the marketplace.  This fact is indisputable and bares no relationship to a lack of desire to continue producing or distributing television dramas.   Those that were in charge of production are long gone, and there is no infrastructure in place to set up a streaming service.

 

Fans hold such a degree of ownership over soaps that it feels like corporate neglect when soap history is not respected.  However, much like Buicks. Oldmobiles, and the AMC Pacers, the company is no longer in the business of producing that type of content and the multiple new owners have no interest in getting back into that field.

Edited June 11, 2021 by j swift

[FrenchBug82]

It is entirely fair but it is still hard to comprehend why they couldn't at least sell it to someone who is in that business. Might or might not make a decent buck out of it - but it would at least be more than they are making by letting it rot out of sight doing nothing with it.

[j swift]

Without going too far into the weeds on consumer corporate history, you would have to ask who is "they"?  P&G now exists as at least 15 different entities, raiders sold off parts of the company to numerous other owners.  So there is no "they" in charge of P&G anymore and it would be like asking people in charge of selling toothpaste to develop a strategy to sell spaceship parts (which P&G also produced at one time).

Edited June 11, 2021 by j swift

[FrenchBug82]

I don't want to belabor this because you are probably right and it is not happening regardless of what I say but nevertheless *someone* has to be enough in charge that they could make that call. The rights to that stuff are not lost in outer space; a business has clear lines of authorities and the responsibility for legacy material must lie somewhere, even if they are not active in that field anymore.

 

[j swift]

Agreed

 

But, I don't want my main point to get lost.  P&G did not stop producing soaps because they lost interest in the genre, or even because of low ratings.  They stopped producing them, (and presumably are disinterested in digital distribution), because their consumer testing division was negligent in producing honest research about the safety of their products and once this was proven, civil lawsuits bankrupted the company and caused it to be broken up and sold off by corporate raiders.

 

My main impetus for responding to this discussion is because every few months somebody writes about how stupid P&G is for missing the opportunity to make money by streaming the soaps, when in reality the company that we all knew as P&G really doesn't exist any longer and it has nothing to do with music rights or lack of interest in making money. 

 

I feel like we are all at various levels of expertise when it comes to soap history or critical analysis of characters and plots, because we are long term fans of daytime TV.   But I get annoyed when fans assume the same expertise when it comes to production, distribution, or networks executives without any actual experience in those roles.  I apologize for ranting but it remains a pet peeve when fans assume that those with power are dumb or disrespectful because they disagree with their ideas.

 

Lastly, let's say you did get the job at P&G.  After the failures of Soapnet, Pop TV, and Retro TV, would you want to be the one to try to convince a board of directors to fund a streaming effort for soaps that were cancelled 20 years ago?  Because there is significant data that nobody beyond this website wants to watch those shows.  Disney and Paramount are making money hand over fist by streaming reruns, does anyone really think that if the market existed then old soaps would not be a part of those services?

Edited June 11, 2021 by j swift

[titan1978]

The fact that Sony and Corday, who own DAYS and have their entire catalog intact have not been able to come up with a way to have a DAYS streaming service with classic episodes tells me that it’s going to be nearly impossible in the current climate for anyone else to do it, especially with shows that have been cancelled and companies without employees at high levels that even know what they have when it comes to those shows.  And Corday has been talking about this for years, with no results.

 

If we get anything close to a streaming service with classic episodes on it, I would imagine the Bell shows and DAYS would be the ones on it, just due to having their catalogs intact and still airing.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Nice summary of what I was trying to say. Sometimes I know I use too many words. Occupational hazard.

Also, it was only two years ago that P&G was out there trying to promote the idea of "Choose Your Own Adventure" programming via streaming where they would produce content that sounded a lot like television shows.

They probably didn't really mean any of it, but the fact that they mentioned it, said a lot. 

[Mitch]

P&G cut up into little pieces is still P&G...if they cannot totally control something they are out.  Not interested, etc.

[wonderwoman1951]

wanted to note the passing of douglas cramer.  a supervising producer in the late 1950 for both ‘world turns (where he work closely with irna phillips) and gl, his is not a name familiar to a lot of soap fans, but it was he, in the early 1960s, who recognized that serials belonged on primetime as well as daytime.

 

this is a link to his obit in the hollywood reporter

 

also check out interview for the television academy’s oral history

[wonderwoman1951]

 

i spent some time on the atwt setin the mid-90s, and got to know marie a bit. she was always up to talk with the media, so i’m surprised, and frankly, a bit concerned, that she hasn’t participated in a reunion. 

 

i hope she’s okay. at 80, she’s younger than many who have participated  — hastings, hays, coaster, printz — but it’s still possible she’s just not well enough, which is likely the case with eileen fulton. 

[Bill Bauer]

Does anybody know a good website that has yearly synopses for ATWT? Or if there even is one? I'm trying to fill in gaps. Does anybody know off-hand what happened to the character of Colin Crowley? 

[DramatistDreamer]

 Tamara Tunie, who's about twenty years younger (and has never been shy to do interviews) doesn't want to participate, so it may not be that serious. 

[Soapsuds]

Yeah, Scott Holmes did one and you could tell he didn't want to be there. He was still angry at how ATWT ended. MM may feel the same way.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

 

 

Didn't he and Sabrina elope then divorce? I thought that once he was no longer connected to Sabrina, he just faded.

 

A thorough, year by year storylines synopses would be great but about every website I've seen looks a mess and is incomplete to boot.

 

Does anybody remember when Wikipedia had that extensive, encyclopedic section on ATWT? It got removed many years ago (well over a decade) but that was the most thorough listing of characters and storylines I had ever seen. I had even tried to save it. Pity it was removed.

We fans can never seem to get nice things for long.

Edited June 13, 2021 by DramatistDreamer

[Soapsuds]

There are episodes of Colin on YouTube.