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Anyone else CRINGE when people diss the SOAP genre without watching a single episode?


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Yesterday after my class me and the professor were talking about the past. We where both wishing that cars still looked stylish. How all appliances/electronics look the same. Then he went on about how TV is not quality anymore. I then said Yea, I watch soaps and.....

He interrupted me and started to rant:

How could you watch soaps?? They are pointless BS. They have no character development. No storylines. They are just CRAP!! How do people like you watch them? Do you just pick a character and hope they have a good day? Is it like a game??

I then said. No they use to do social stoylines like AIDS and Drug Addiction. He then said.

I hope you seriously do not believe what you are saying. I doubt they ever did social issues. I can not possibly see how those shows are able to carry out stuff like that. They just make it up Day by Day.

I then asked, "Have you ever watched one??".

He replied "I never watched one because I know I would have to change the channel after 20 minutes of pure crap"

If you can combine the crazy's in these next few clips you will know how I felt after he said that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3cIaiB4IL8

Don't get me wrong because I know everyone has their tastes but you do not judge a GENRE if you never even bothered to find out yourself.

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Well if they are talking about American Daytime soaps now I can't really blame them. Most days I cna't sit through a full epi of Y&R or GH. And I can't remember the last well written social issue storyline I saw on a soap opera. I swear I saw AMC getting called out for badly handling HPV. And GH's abuse storyline was horribly written and the message was so wrong they had to pull the PSA fro mthe end of the shows. My friends use to watch soaps with me a few years ago but I wouldn't dare recommend the current ones to them now unless the writing drastically improved.

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Whenever I discuss soaps with individuals who don't watch them, I always make clear how and why their quality have declined over the past two decades; and that what I love and admire about them is the potential they had BITD. Not everyone is convinced by my arguments (which is fine with me, I'm not out to convert anyone). Invariably, though, they're impressed by my clarity and sincerity.

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No offense, but the last 20 years, American Daytime Soaps have produced just that.. Garbage. All they Do is repeat the same crappy storylines from 40/30 years ago! They use to be daring and stuff, now it's just a joke. They use to push the envelope, but now how many of the same crap can we stand to watch.

Daytime is only watched by a very very small percentage of Americans, while 30 or 20 years ago, they had a huge fan base.

Btw.. I think the cars (some not all) are much more stylish than before. The 70s and 80s produce some ugly ass cars.

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Right, I know the stories suck now. This guy who I am talking about says he NEVER watched one. He is in his mid/late 50s. What I was upset about is that he would not let me get a word in edge wise. He was the one ranting after I said "Soap Opera". I could not defend myself. All I could say was what I put in quotes up above. He was going on making his own opinions and assuming they where always bad. That was the worst 10 minutes I have ever lived!!

Right, that is actually what the conversation was originally about. How quality has deteriorated across the board. From Cars to TV. I was not trying to convert him either. I was just talking.

Also, what does BITD mean??

I am talking about American Soaps BTW.

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Soap Opera have never gotten the respect it deserves. I think mainly because it was cheaply produced entertainment geared towards housewives. For every bad soap opera storyline, I can point to a primetime show or movie that is as equally as bad or worse; and those primetime shows had a lot more rehearsal time and a much bigger budget. When daytime gets it right, it is some of the best entertainment out there.

Unfortunately, network television is in a bad place right now which has had a major effect on daytime. The interesting scripted stuff is all happening on the cable channels and the cable channels don't have the budgets or desire to produce a daily soap opera.

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Also, network censors kinda took a complete turn around. Back in the day shows like All in the family could get a way with murder compared to network sitcoms now. It seems like the networks became much stricter as the years have gone by as opposed to the opposite like it should have gone. I was watching Agnes Nixon's archive interview yesterday and she said that up until recently (The interview was recorded in 1997) there was only one person in daytime now it is so departmentalized that I can not tell you everyone's name. She went on saying that they would ask her to write a story for a specific demographic like 18-39 and she did not like that. She stated in that interview that telling someone to write for a certain demo just does not inspire creativity.

I think the same thing happened with all of network TV across the board. Daytime and Prime time. Things are so bureaucratic that creativity is lost.

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