Members Jack Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 SoapNet had great potential... before Frons was put in charge of it. There were classic soaps on during regular hours, not banished to 4 and 5 am. Classic primetime soaps. Soap news/talk shows. It was a great channel, had a central theme and carried it out well. Then it became Fronsified and turned in to a lifestyle channel for women with a primetime soap block. I'm sure online streaming and the DVR becoming common place impacted the channel as well. But, if Frons never changed everything up the channel could have been established enough at this point to attempt original scripted programming along the lines of daytime soaps. The magazine have been nothing but a PR mouthpiece for the networks, online sites like this one have been the best place to get actual news. Hopefully with the number of soaps airing dwindling down we will have a successful 2-3 of them on the air for a longer time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members All My Shadows Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 I totally agree. Variety is the spice of life. The sameness turns a lot of younger people off of soaps. I mean . "The trials and tribulations of the citizens of Fake Town, USA" either needs to get with the f'n program and start reflecting current society or get out of the way for other premises that will. Wasn't AW regularly pulling a 0.0 on one of the ratings charts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 I really wish Fox would try a late night half hour soap. Of course they had their chance way back with 13 Bourbon Street... I think the fact that The City routinely performed better in markets where ABC affiliates aired it after Nightline shoulda caught people on to something (our local CTV here in Canada also reported got much higher ratings showing NBC late night--though I don't think NBC had much luck when they showed Sunset repeats VERY VERY late night). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 What I don't get--and I'm sure I'm being naive here--but with the HUGE HUGE amount of cable networks out there--tiny things like Reelz, wouldn't a network that showed say classic ABC soaps from 1978 on pull in enough tiny amount of viewers to make it profitable? I know there's been a weird thing with specialty cable networks--they start off different and then within five years all seem to be showing Law and Order reruns, Iassume when they start getting big, but... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jack Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 I recall the numbers not being all that great but I dont think they were ever 0. Someone here must be more familiar with the SoapNet ratings. All the cable networks that used to specialize in a niche market have just become so homogenized. I don't think a specialty network would last very long. They'd have to get the rights from ABC, I'm sure ABC wouldn't let the rights go cheaply. Now what ABC should do is take their library of classic eps and stream like a select 3-5 eps of each show a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 AW came fairly late in the evoluition of SoapNet I think... Didn't it? Like sorta during their last gasp at pulling in classic soap fans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SFK Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 I hate that 13 Bourbon St. never happened (that pilot needs to show up on YouTube already). As someone who loved The City but often missed it, I would have gladly watched it late nights (and I actually dig the idea of that having been its permanent spot). Look at The Wire, an intelligent, ugly, intricate, paced serialized drama that gets the "Dickensian" label more than Agnes Nixon's AMC. Men, women, black, white, and everything in between were devoted fans. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan Chamberlain Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 I would actually like to see an all soap network like soapnet come up only being a regular TV channel. Not a cable TV channel. Maybe get the rights to new AMC, OLTL, and GH. And, take some of the websoaps and turn them into real 1 hour soaps. Maybe air a 6 hour block during daytime. Have a soap news type show during 6-8. Including interviews and news. Then repeat the 6 hour block from 8-2 and then go off air until say Noon the next day. I actually would do that if I was rich as f##k. I'm into the art of journalism/writing/broadcasting and soaps are one of my passions. So, I would love to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SFK Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 (Not to mention tons of inexpensive local talent and crew, filmed in cost effective Baltimore.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members All My Shadows Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 And take soaps out of the daytime ghetto? Never! Game shows EXPLODED outside of daytime in the 70s thanks to huge syndicated versions of Match Game, Price is Right, Family Feud, Pyramid, Name That Tune, Hollywood Squares, Let's Make a Deal, Newlywed Game, Concentration, and tons of others. And that success is only now cooling down (though Wheel and J! are still riding high...no new successful syndie games have showed up lately). In that episode of "Tomorrow" from '75 with Agnes, Mary Stuart, and others, they were all mostly very interested and willing to try bringing the daytime soaps into more visible time slots, but it never came to pass, for whatever reason. Daytime soaps air in daytime, all of their promos air in daytime, their stars only appear on typically daytime talk shows, CBS puts aside it's humiliation once a year now to do the Daytime Emmys, but even then, the daytime programming (not just soaps) has to be disguised with bull crap. "Don't you know...that it's true...that for me...and for you...daytime is a ghettooooo." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SFK Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 Haven't they been talking about The Doctors on Hallmark for like 5 years now? My main SoapNet gripe is that The City and Capitol weren't given a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jack Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 Don't even get me started on the stigma assigned to daytime within the industry and society. Anytime someone finds out I've worked on various daytime shows I get a "Oh, poor you... can't find anything better" look and have to constantly defend my career choices. If only people had any idea what it takes to do this. This stigma is what is contributing to the death of soaps. It's like it's taboo. No one wants to be caught watching them, no new talent interested in working in them. It's just slowly becoming stagnant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members All My Shadows Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 People were foolish to believe that Doctors thing for any longer than five minutes. Come on, now, people PLEASE. DOC hadn't been a true contender in at least 30 years, and that was the soap Hallmark was going to pick up? Though I'd love love love it if they got with P&G and gave GL and ATWT reruns a decent chance. I think they'd do extremely well with Hallmark's daytime audience. CBS is no longer in the way, so just put 'em on in their old time slots, start them off in a year that was good and solid for them both, and go on from there, one episode a day, like it's all brand new. Sammich it between Golden Girls and LHOTP, and I can't see it doing any worse than that random petkeeping show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chris B Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 The people that own The Doctors are asking for too much money which is why nothing has come of it. The Hallmark deal fell through, a remake and even DVDs which honestly, they should release themselves. ETA: Isn't Lifetime an ABC property? Maybe they have a better chance at doing a soap spin-off than the PGP soaps. I hate that the producers, writers and fans didn't get on that backwagon. It was all about moving the entire soap to a new network, but it would be a good way to get our foot in the door. Develop a strong primetime soap pilot for Lifetime, bring only a few characters from AMC or OLTL and market it as a new show/spin off. That way you can try and bring AMC fans over and it'll also be accessible to new fans. I hope thats something they would cosnider, but doubtful I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted April 2, 2011 Members Share Posted April 2, 2011 Doesn't Colgate-Palmolive own it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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