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Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome


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I'm sure there is already a thread for this but i was just watching old One Life to Live clips and how rare it was that the actors who played Kevin and Joey stayed on for so long as children. They actually celebrated Kevin's 10th birthday in 1986 (The correct month and year too). Usually in the course of 10 years they are already teenagers or "away at school." and even little Jessica wasn't aged that much during the 1990 SORAS that occured when all Viki's kids were aged. Instead of being four i think Erin Tourpy was a young looking eight year old and she stayed on the show for the next 11 years before being played by Bree Williamson who looked a lot like Erin and wasn't that much older.

To me the worst case of SORAS is Nick Newmen on Young and Restless. He was born in 1988 and by 1994 he's been played by adult actor Josh Morrow. Josh played him as a teenager at first but still that's only six years since his birth. and i think they are going to do the same thing to hid daughter summer. She was born in 2006 and this year she'll be a 15 year old teenager.

I personally like it when it shows the kids growing up. i know you can't do much with kids but they always managed to put Kevin and Joey in several scenes throughout the year. Joey didn't do as much as Kevin but they did Kevin getting into his first fight in 1983 then he and Tina battling over the stupid chinnese stature (that opened the secret room) in 1985 and then helping Viki find Clint in 1988 when he was transported back in time. and many more things before he was SORAS'd in 1990 into a teenager. and the boys were always around for Christmases and they took family trips and other events.

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I was saying this a few weeks ago... soap opera is the one television medium afforded the luxury of letting children grow in real time, and yet they always got so impatient and felt the need to hurry up and make kids a "relevant" age.

If AMC were still around, within the next three years or so J.R. would be dealing with a rambunctious teen, Little A, and I would NOT have been ready for that.

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Little Adam was already getting a little sketchy by the end with that long hair. I still salivate at the thought of that group being the new generation of AMC teens/20somethings somewhere down the road. Bitchy and conniving Emma, syrupy and virtuous Miranda, rebellious and sketchy Little A, gay and fabulous Spike. Kathy, Jenny, and Gabrielle are all irrelevant.

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I wonder if Erika Slezak had it in her contract that her kids could not be SORASED at that time.Maybe she worried that if Kevin and Joey were in their twenties she would be pushed into an age group that would deny her a love interest and maybe turn her int a grandmother type.

On the other hand it could have been the producers choice for the same reason.They might think viewers would not buy Viki as a viable heroine if she was the mother of grown children.

Love of Life and Secret Storm were two long running shows that did not age kids.

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It seems like One Life To Live was pretty conservative with their SORAS'ng, even Starr stayed and grew up on screen, and when they did age the kids, they would be off screen for so long and they never aged the kids to be older than kids who were born before them.

That's leads me to DOOL, for instance CHAD...Ok rewrite history to make Chad become Stephano's son who was born when Kate was a young hooker (Before both Lucas, EJ and Phillip were all born)...Now he's apart of the TEEN scene. And there's EJ who was born in the late 90's now look at him...lol

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I hated the way GL aged Alan-Michael. He went from age 6 to 18, no better than Y&R's Nicholas Newman. Another one that really annoyed me was Phillip Chancellor III who was born in 75 and 11 years later was like 17.

I agree with the above and OLTL. I actually don't think they SOARS'd the younger generation all that much on ABC until McTavish's final stint. Then again, let's not forget Christopher Lawford's Charlie Brent...

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and yet then they decided in 1988 to give her the already grown child of Megan Gordon.

the only thing i ever heard about Erika and Viki's kids was that she was pregnant with her 1st child in real life and they asked her about Viki having a second child (joey) at the same time. She only agreed to it as long as nothing bad happend to him during the pregnant or at birth unlike with Kevin. With Kevin, Viki was worried about him inheriting Joe's heart diease when she was pregnant and then he was kidnapped at birth by crazy Cathy Craig. the only thing Joey had as a child was asthma (sp?) but even that was only touched apon a few times.

and lets not forget One Life's Dan Wolek, the son of Merridith and Larry. He was born in 1971 but by the summer of 1984 he was all grown up and working at The Banner played by Steven Culp from Desperate Housewives. He would have been 13!

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