ALL: Oprah-Are You The Biggest Soap Opera Fan?

[Kylie]

LOL, yes. While I think the gesture is probably a decent and nice one, this isn't going to end well.

LMAO, I've met her too. Ugh. I wish that they would let some of you guys be the fans to go on there. Give the genre's fans some perspective and depth. Make RATIONAL arguments and statements other than "OMG, so and so is cute" and "JaSam belong together".

A few years ago, at WonderCon, during the X Files panel, this woman got up to ask her question. She proceeded to tell a room of about 500 people how her husband had a stroke a month prior (don't worry, he was okay... but she still came all this way for the panel. How she loved the show so much she named her son after it. You'd think, Fox, Mulder or William...SOMETHING. No, it was Thaddeus Xaiver Fox...The X Files. Even the fans were cringing and looking at each other, in pain. Of course the media outlets ran with THIS woman, and ignored the questions before and after. The really good ones, about plot, characters, fan concerns about storyline and writing, etc. We were painted as these nutcases who would leave our dying husbands, name our kids The X Files all while wearing hand designed t-shirts (yes she was). The whole thing was lost on this ONE clearly not in touch with reality woman, and it made the entire group look like we were pathetic.

I know this is nothing new for soaps and soap fans, but I don't know if the genre can handle these types in such a public spotlight right now. What the genre needs is something to endear it to others, make people want to watch or start watching again. Fangurls aren't going to do that.

[All My Shadows]

Oooooh, dear.

And you know, the more they put the crazies out there, the more people who don't watch soaps push them away. I've come to my own personal belief that people aren't seeking out soaps because of the complex network of stigmas, and the few who DO seek a soap out don't stick around because the soaps royally suck. It'd be hard for some really good behind-the-scenes to come in and make the shows really great again, but I think it would be much, much, much more of a struggle to shake that stigma. When you've got hausfrauen who name their kids after shows (and I can just SEE her giggly ass trying to contain her excitement as she Sharpies "TXF" in the kid's underwear), who's going to want to say "Yeah, bro, I watch The Bold and the Beautiful" or "My BFF and I love General Hospital"???

I love my soaps and, God forbid, if I ever have kids, if they're boy/girl twins, I wouldn't be above naming them suckers Ryan and Hope, but this is not the time to focus on the frivolous stuff. Any soap fan who gets on television to discuss soaps owes it to the genre we love to call some bitches out.

[Money]

It would be thoroughly interesting if they got someone who was irate with the continued racism in Daytime and the fan could list every single AA actor/actress with years of longevity that never got storylines and airtime to that of the rest of the cast. Somewhere Victoria Rowell would be doing back flips.

[Cheap21]

I guarantee it will be full of obsessive crazies

[marceline]

You guys are making me want to try and get on. I could send Oprah some crazy submission about how much I LOVE my soaps and can't live without them. I could gush and coo with the best of them. Then once I'm the show I could put some folks on blast. LOL! Anybody want to be a sleeper agent with me?

[Sylph]

Bellcurve, Shadows and you should all go.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I think am going to submit something. Its good to know she doing one last tribute to soaps her last season on the air. I don't think those fans who send in bedding or things of that nature are loonies or crazy, they just deeply in love with their soaps. Its some "crazies" on are the same way and often times call the actors by their character names. its also some true fans who knows about the changes in soaps who don't get on here at all. Some people just get excited about seeing celebs.

[All My Shadows]

I was THISCLOSE to making this suggestion! That would be too crazy. Get someone to video-interview you while you're watching a soap (three inches away from the screen), make sure a framed portrait of Eric Braeden hangs on the wall and is visible in every shot, change your ring tone to the "rockin'!" GH theme, etc.

Then when you get there, pull on your lawyer glasses and go down the list. Oprah: "Here we have marceline, who's been watching the soaps for YEAAAAAAARRSSSSS! Tell us, don't they just DRAW! YOU! INNNNNNNN?" Marceline: "Brian Frons is the worst f!cking thing to happen to ABC Daytime, and here is why..." Oprah's jaw drops.

[ReddFoxx]

I don't know how this will turn out, but the possibility of weirdos getting in is high. This is her final season, so it's clear she wanted to cover something that she had never done before.

[Money]

Be the proverbial fangurl then when you get on promptly put Frons on blast. Watch Oprah balk that you weren't the Sonny/Jason/Rylee fangurl you claimed to be. A few members wearing T shirts in bright bold red letters saying "Frons - Daytime's #1 killer" will be gold. I'd pay good money to have a front row seat.

[~bl~]

That's my fear they will have on people who are extreme fans who are way too extreme meaning they aren't self-aware. I'm crazy, but I know it. Loving soaps does not mean you think the people in charge are golden.

[BoldBeauty]

Am I the biggest soap fan?? Hell NO!!!!!! I would have said yes about 10 years ago, but not now. Ugh. I am not surprised they get cancelled one by one.

Good that the Oprah show does this, but IMO it's 20 or at least 15 years too late.

[marceline]

We could all go with our "Frons sucks!" t-shirts on under our clothes then during the first commercial break peel off the disguises and let er rip! LOL! Honestly though, Oprah came to town a few years ago for a charity gig and a friend of mine told me everything that happened BTS. Believe me, Ms. Winfrey doesn't like surprises. Just ask James Frey.

[DavidsMuse]

Rather than a fluff show about soaps and soap fans that everyone will forget as soon as it's over, I'd rather see Oprah invest her considerable wealth into ensuring some, if not all of the soaps survive for the next 5-10 years, even if they all have to air on her OWN network!

[bellcurve]

I'd prefer Oprah start anew and do some sort of tri-weekly telenovela or soap that tapes out of one of her studios in Chicago. Not that it would be cheaper to tape a soap there, but it would give actors/directors there an opportunity to work.

Preferrably none of the same recycled daytime hacks and dear God please no Tyler Perry Presents: Madea in the Daytime.