Soap Opera First Impressions

[passionsfan]

Hi Everyone! I wanted to start this thread to see what your first impressions were of the soaps you currently watch/ or watched. When you saw those first advertisements, did they live up to your expectations, and for the soaps that have been around a while, how did you get hooked or start tuning in? Feel free to post videos as well, here are a few I found...

Port Charles

The Bold and the Beautiful

Passions

[JackPeyton]

That Passions promo was 100x's better than the show ever was.

The show was NOTHING like that, sadly.

[passionsfan]

I remember when I was a kid, my parents and grandparents woud all watch Another World and Days of our Lives. They were big NBC Daytime fans. I never got hooked on a soap until I saw Sunset Beach. That was the first soap that hooked me in and I faithfully watched. Here's thefirst promo I found for Generations.

[beebs]

My first impression wasn't even of the adverts, moreso just gran watching AW and little 3 year old me thinking Frankie was the coolest thing ever (not sure why, even).

What got me hooked onto Days was Eileen Davidson's outright madness, I think the Susan thing is what really hooked me onto that, even though I started watching regularly well before then. It was more about having a soap to call my own around mum taping ATWT and GL than seeing a promo and getting excited about what was coming up. I had the soap mags for that.

The only one that really made me curious was SuBe's spoilers in Soap Opera Weekly, particularly around the Turkey Baster incident. But WDIV didn't air SuBe so I never got to watch it

[Gray Bunny]

The first time I saw a promo for DAYS was in late July 1995 while watching The Today Show (because all 12-year-old boys love getting up early during their summer vacation and watching Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel, right?) where John was going into the morgue to visit a dead Marlena one last time, only she wasn't quite dead, and instead grabbed him by the neck while her eyes were white. Then we see what we're led to believe is somebody charging into the church, surprising Kristen, Caroline, Shawn, etc. I was happy to see the promo included in the following clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5rc7B5umOg

I didn't see much of the possession story when it originally aired, but that was enough to stir curiosity. I didn't even know at the time when the show aired, so I just channel surfed and hoped to luck out. As I watched to see if there'd be any freaky happenings with the crazy demon-possessed lady, I got caught up in the Austin/Carrie/Sami story (Austin & Carrie about to be married while Sami was coming back to town with a bun in the oven), and I got interested in Hope and Alice as Hope opened up the puzzlebox and the Bo/Billie/Hope story (I never originally saw Robert Kelker-Kelly in the role of Bo, Peter Reckell came right back when I started watching).

I didn't have high expectations for the show, so to be sucked in was just a natural occurrence, and I fell for the characters and their storylines almost instantly.

[alphanguy74]

5 years old at my mother's knee. 1973. Y&R. We would go out to the vegetable garden (it was was huge... 100 feet by 400 feet) every morning in the summer and weed and work.. and then come in and eat lunch together while Y&R was on the tube. Great bonding for a big mama's boy, and memories I always cherish. We STILL watch together a couple times a week. She watched Search for Tomorrow and the Doctors, but they didn't hold my intrest. Y&R was the only one that looked "expensive", and it sucked me right in. I even got to see it during the school year alot, because I faked sick to get out of school. Every school year I was absent a minimum of 28 days.

[DaytimeFan]

The ads for Passions and Port Charles were better than either soap ever was.

[SFK]

The City, it was love at first site. Those promos were divine.

In the late '80s/early '90s, whenever I caught a glimpse of AW I thought it looked cheap and poorly lit.

I cannot remember not knowing AMC and many of the other soaps as a child.

My first experience with B&B was that frenetic violin intro of the opening theme, hearing that from the living room while my grandmother watched it in the dining room/kitchen. "What was that? " I heard it several times before I realized it wasn't a random commercial or something, but this new soap opera's theme song.

[DRW50]

My first impression of PC was Lucy in an elevator with machine guns firing on her. Geez...

First impression of Passions was that it got AW canceled. Unfair I know -- but it was my first impression.

DAYS first impression was before I watched the show. Some of my distant family watched and would talk about Calliope and Patch and Shane among others.

First impression of ATWT was family and friendship.

First impression of GL was Reva in the Florida Keys, losing her mind.

First impression of Santa Barbara was the opening credits, and Eden.

First impression of AMC was a weddings tape, and the 25th anniversary book, which I devoured.

First impression of OLTL was an old tape I saw, with Viki in a wheelchair and really ugly living room wallpaper.

First impression of Y&R was Cassandra drama.

First impression of B&B was Caroline dying.

First impression of AW was reading about it in the soap magazines. I remember that article where they celebrate the JFP era at Planet Hollywood and Tom Eplin was on his motorcycle.

[passionsfan]

You know what, everytime I think about The City I just think how much there logo seemed to rip off Circuit City, haha.

I also remember being excited for Passions, which turned out to be my favorite show...don't judge me. I remember the character sketches they used for advertising before it aired. Here are the ones I found forTheresa and Miguel.

[DRW50]

That commercial is very well produced.

I never really got what she saw in the first Ethan though.

[remos]

Edge of Night is my earliest memory, and the only real impression I had of that show was my father scoffing from the living room door - and yet he knew every storyline and character, hmmmm......

Oh, one other impression that really sticks with me is a wedding on GH in 1981 I believe. I was bored to tears and left to cross the lawn back to my mother's house to watch Days of our Lives. I was 12. Maggie Horton was a bigger draw, but apparently I missed LIz Taylor!

[SFK]

Yeah, I very much remember that Theresa promo ("...and the Passion...").

LOL, yes, folks on one The City board back in the day used to make fun of the Circuit City thing fairly regularly. Kind of how the LG logo is a modified Pacman:

[Titus Andronicus]

I first remember Days from a promo. If anyone could provide a year for this, I'd be happy:

Roman (Drake) is a dark room with a small beam of light coming in. He's looking at Marlena's ghost. Seems the promo said either something about Marlena rising or actually said Roman sees Marlena's ghost. I figure it's 1987, 1988, or 1991. I have no idea which, though.

I can remember the first time I sat down with my mom and watched Days. Late summer 1993. Sami had bulimia and Carly's patients were dying. I got hooked on the Buried Alive story. I'm embarrassed to say that.

[Khan]

Gee, I wonder whose wedding you're referring to....

;-)