I think what hastened the demise of soap operas was alienating their base. A lot of these shows got their audience via word of mouth, as many viewers introduced the programs others. The whole older generation pulling in the younger ones, and over the years that got lost as grandma got pissed and turned off their show(s) in disgust. Or if they continued to watch they wouldn't pass it down because it wasn't good enough. Also those who are younger who watched for many years were also being screwed in a sense as what attached them to the programs were being thrown away. I know I'm not the only viewer under 40 who has favorite performers that fall in the 50 plus club for example.

That said, evolution is okay, but throwing things overboard is where they went wrong. The planning went into the dumper and instead of changing course during rough times they threw out the rule book instead. They broke things that weren't broken if that makes sense.

cityfan01, I totally understand the broken feeling as that's how I would describe myself when it comes to soap opera viewing. I feel the shows let me down as it is their job to entertain me. I will not just accept whatever they toss on screen and call it golden. Sometimes couple/character agendas come to pass because you have viewers who invest in most of a canvas and over time are left with only one or two people on an entire show they enjoy. That's on the show, not on the viewer, when it happens.

I remember years back reading an interview with Jimmy DePaiva (Max on OLTL) and how he was told the reason he lost his job at the program was because the focus group said while they all liked him, they wouldn't stop watching if Max was written out of Llanview. My reaction to that was abject horror, as for me the people who you should keep on a show are the ones who are well liked by the audience (silent majority and all that). If all the shows were cutting casts in this manner, it explains a lot of what happened with GH and earlier GL. The elimination of the performers who are common ground to viewers whether due to death (like Days' Alice Horton) or firing (like Stuart Damon's Alan on GH), is what causes divisiveness. The character/couple agenda only became insanity when it felt like the only actors who kept their positions had loud viewers who sent mail to the programs en masse.

That said, general viewers don't watch for one or two people they watch for the show as a whole, and over time if they lose too many people they do like, and the new people aren't as entertaining they stop watching. This kind of gradual loss cannot be measured.

P.S. to me cancellation doesn't always equal death as to some their favorite show died years before the airing of the final episode.

BTW with Bill Bell and Y&R, well that was a different story. While he may not have catered to viewers, he had a defined point of view, even if there were missteps. I think with that show losing Bill is what hastened its issues.

Really great post! I agree that focus groups suck. Bill Bell was an artist and his point of view was what made ATWT, Days, Y&R and B&B great during his tenure. Same was true of Irma Phillips who pissed off the people at CBS as well as some fans.

Oh yeah? Well, about a half-dozen cancelled shows that used to be that enlightened, for lack of a better word, might say otherwise.

No one has tried a crime soap in 30 years. I also would not call these sort of shows 'enlightened', but, instead, just a means of taking the focus off hack romance. A format designed to avoid Nikki and Victor fall in love 60 times without either of them opting, instead, for suicide.

No one has tried a crime soap in 30 years. I also would not call these sort of shows 'enlightened', but, instead, just a means of taking the focus off hack romance. A format designed to avoid Nikki and Victor fall in love 60 times without either of them opting, instead, for suicide.

GL tried the crime soap thing when they introduced the mob.

GH can consider themselves a crime soap and I'm sure they do. They are certainly not a medical centered melodrama.

For me there's a difference between a crime soap and mob stories, mostly because mob stories are always toothless on soaps, as they want the mobsters to be misunderstood angels.

GL tried the crime soap thing when they introduced the mob.

GH can consider themselves a crime soap and I'm sure they do. They are certainly not a medical centered melodrama.

I don't mean that current soaps should flip to a crime format--it never works, feels staged and you still have Sonny with his flavor of the week and Carly in heat. A new, crime based soap might have made for a good Passions replacement.

What's a "mute point"?

GL died because it was the oldest soap, yet it was the number one soap to ignore it's own history and not honor it. Hell, even what might have occured 10 or 7 years ago would have been trashed or retconed.

Years? Try 10 or 7 minutes.

All My Children died when they had Palmer selling fried chicken. That was pretty much the death of AMC's classic era.

When Disney bought ABC and they hired "that man', things went down hilll from there, actors, characters, writing, production value and finally cancellations.

Edited December 7, 201114 yr by reallyhateskateonlost

Years? Try 10 or 7 minutes.

This is true, sadly.

Up until the final episode, Susan Lemay was Harley's daughter, not that Daisy character that plagued our screens for the last few years. One of the most idiotic retcons to happen on GL.

Because of the daytime hours, they started out on TV during the era of the housewife, whom they tried to direct - tell them what they like. They never got rid of that mentality or tried to change it when it obviously didn't work.

Then recycling the failed writers and hiring their friends instead of on merit. Whoever would have produced and written good ones did not get the job.

I have so many thoughts about what went wrong with AMC, but to me it comes down to bad writing. Beginning in 2006, the show fell apart in a really disastrous sort of way, and it never really recovered. I *might* have been able to get past Erica's unabortion and Madden-in-a-box if they'd written those storylines much better or at least followed them up with some decent storylines.

But we just got year after year of crap: Erica/Carmen/Jack/Sam Woods, Erica in prison, endless Rylee crap, the Satin Slayer, the awful casting of Jeff Martin, Kendall and her boys constantly being seriously ill or in danger, the constant break up and back together of Jack and Erica without any growth in their relationship, Ryan and Erica together, Aidan turning evil, Annie going crazy, Adam shooting Stuart, the whole Zarf fiasco, the tornadoes, the endless dysfunction that was JR/Babe, Dixie and her poisoned pancakes, David bringing people back from the dead, Bianca having Zach's baby without telling Kendall, everyone and his brother practically living at Fusion/ConFusion... there just wasn't a whole lot of good in the show after 2005. There were some bright spots, but overall the show just collapsed.

What's a "mute point"?

:::chuckle::: That reminds me of back when a young Sunset Beach fan was bashing the new soap Passions, and said all the actors were "hasbins" (as opposed to has-beens, which is also ironic in calling them that, considering they were never famous to begin with so how could they be a has-been?)

What's a "mute point"?

Snicker. I am reminded of an episode of 'Friends' in which Joey said something was "a moo point - you know, like a cow's opinion. It doesn't mean anything."

LOL, this is mind bottling....