I think young people would watch soaps if they had a reason. They don't. No one does today.

+1.

As much as I prefer slower-moving stories, I think even fast-paced stories have their merits, as long as they don't insult viewers' intelligence. That's the issue w/ soaps today: not that they move too fast, but that they operate on the principle that audiences are just too dumb to discern "good" storytelling from "bad."

+1.

As much as I prefer slower-moving stories, I think even fast-paced stories have their merits, as long as they don't insult viewers' intelligence. That's the issue w/ soaps today: not that they move too fast, but that they operate on the principle that audiences are just too dumb to discern "good" storytelling from "bad."

The slower-paced stories are much better, since they allow the characters to react. That's what soaps are and should be about: the characters' and their reactions to what goes on. The plot used to be, and should be, totally secondary and incidental. Y&R was particularly good at that, even to the point of tedium at times. But it worked.

Let's be honest...the plots have almost always been silly and trite in a way (endless cliches of love triangles and murder trials), but the good shows were redeemed by placing the characters' reactions and relationships over the plot, and the key characters were usually played by professional and trained theater actors who could give the sometimes stilted dialogue depth and make the situations believeable. The aster-paced stories don't allow the writers to play all those story-enriching character beats, and these types of shock-shock-shock stories only call attention to what has always been the soaps' greatest flaw IMO: very weak storytelling with poor character motivation. I fell in love with these shows because of the characters and their relationships and from the sense of community a lot of these shows portrayed. Not because of the stories. That's all lost now. Harding Lemay once said in an interview that when people come up to him to discuss his time at AW, they inevitably want to talk about the characters and never about some particular story. TPTB have forgotten that plot should take a backseat to the characters.

Like I mentioned upthread, that Secret Storm ep I recently watched on youtube was fascinating. I'm not even sure what the plot was about, something about a character not taking a job. It didn't even matter. Just watching these great characters enacted by talented actors just interacting in very long character-revealing scenes was mesmerizing. I'm probably overthinking all of this, but I sort of mourn for the loss of the old format of the soaps where the characters just talked about what was going on in their lives.

Edited April 1, 201114 yr by LoyaltoAMC

+1.

As much as I prefer slower-moving stories, I think even fast-paced stories have their merits, as long as they don't insult viewers' intelligence. That's the issue w/ soaps today: not that they move too fast, but that they operate on the principle that audiences are just too dumb to discern "good" storytelling from "bad."

Exactly.

I don't know, faster paced doesn't mean more modern or contemporary to me. Like someone mentioned many primetime shows are slow paced and it works. I think the daytime model could stand to change a bit. Contemporary is diversity, a diverse set of characters was never incorporated faithfully. Honestly I think that's a bigger problem than the pace.The daytime production model could stand a change also, jmo.

Y&R's 38th Anniversary Party

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YCJckh30-Vw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So that's what MAB sounds like! Check out Jeanne Cooper, Eileen Davidson and Tracey Bregman giving the back of her head the death stare. We also see more of Bryton in this 1:38 clip than we have all of 2011.

Nice dance moves, CLB. Question, Y&R viewers: is Michael a convincing straight? Discuss. When Michael was terrorizing Cricket, I thought he was sexy as hell. And speaking of famewhores, WTF is Kate Linder doing being interviewed? I mean, I love Esther as much as the next audience member, but she has always been a strictly recurring player with average acting skills. Heck, wasn't Y&R some part-time job that Linder did when she wasn't one of the Delta flight crew?

Dude. Josh Morrow really is just a frat boy, isn't he?

Edited April 1, 201114 yr by Cat

Y&R's 38th Anniversary Party

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YCJckh30-Vw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Dude. Josh Morrow really is just a frat boy, isn't he?

If not it's the best acting he does