Soaps during 9/11

[Nate4]

I was a child during the attacks and I've also been curious how soap operas reacted during 9/11. How long were they postponed? Did they drop any storylines?

[soapfan770]

They were dropped for the rest of the week and picked up on the following week of 9/17.

As for story-lines having to be changed I specifically recall GH and PC having to rewrite storylines because they involved terrorism. SOD and SID had some pretty bad timing as well, as the 9/11/01 of SOD and SID featured Brooke and Taylor from B&B and the taglines where "B&B Explodes!" and "Old Enemies Declare a New War!" respectively, and it was noted by the media at the time.

[John]

GH dropped a story where Stavros Cassadine was gonna plant a bomb that exploded the hospital

[Nate4]

Oh wow . Talk about weird!

I didn't know that.

[Sindacco]

On DAYS Victor, Nicole, Brady and Chloe were in a plane crash. The episode aired on 9/17 instead of 9/11 and I think the plane scenes were cut during the US airing.

[DRW50]

Blair was supposed to be in a plane crash on OLTL. They quickly rewrote it to where there was just some turbulence or something.

[Khan]

Megan McTavish has the WORST timing sometimes. Her biotoxin story involving the Cassadines and Spencers on GH had to be scrapped due to 9/11. Years before that, she planned for Janet Green to detonate a bomb at Trevor and Laurel's wedding on AMC; however, b/c of the Murrah Building bombing in OKC, they had to change the contents of Janet's package from a bomb to a gun.

I wonder what she might have had cooked up had been she writing a soap during the recent Boston Marathon bombing.

[Kendall]

I know the east coast soaps were affected. I remember Kelley M. Hennesly saying something like she had to walk to her home from brooklyn because the studio sent everyone home. I would like to see a special or interview on how the moods and reactions were from the casts of ATWT, GL, OLTL, and AMC.

[DRW50]

I remember reading about charity drives. I think GL and DAYS had their cast saying something after the credits.

[quartermainefan]

I think I remember OLTL having a remembrance scene where either Viki or Blaire or someone gave a speech while everyone stood around. It might have been AMC that did that.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

There was sort of a special back in 2011 about Pop Culture and the 9/11 attacks and a few OLTL stars were interviewed about that day. I know Robert S. Woods was one of the people interviewed. He was talking about how one of the guys that worked on set was also a cop and ended up getting killed. That's why his picture stayed in Bo's office until the ABC finale.

Other than that. I remember that all programming was interrupted including the soaps during the whole week. That's about it. I was in middle school then and didn't get home in time to watch the soaps. My mom just told me that they weren't on.

[jo.frank88]

I was in middle school as well and I don't remember any of the DAYS storylines at the time being scrapped or anything (although it could be true about the plane stuff with Nicole, Victor, etc) but I do very clearly remember the entire DAYS cast singing (I think) 'America the Beautiful' at the end of one of the episodes that aired the following week when the soaps returned. It was very well done. The singing was lead by Kyle Lowder and Nadia Bjorlin. I recently saw it on YouTube a while ago. I think you can still find it there.

[Khan]

I remember characters on GH suddenly appreciating the time they had with loved ones. Then, Bob Guza came back, and said, "Enough of that [!@#$%^&*]!".

[JAS0N47]

Kyle Lowder and Nadia Bjorlin actually taped their "Silent Night" vocals the evening of 9/11. The song was included on the Days Christmas CD and also as part of the special Christmas 2001 episode.

Here is the video of the Days cast singing "America the Beautiful", which was aired at the end of the 9/17 (and due to more local preemptions on 9/17) the 9/18 episodes:

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

[EnglishTea]

I also recall that the following Thanksgiving seemed to be more about peace, forgiving one another, loving thy neighbor and appreciating family.