Members allmc2008 Posted October 15, 2013 Author Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 That was so depressing on many different levels. Don't get me wrong. I do not defend hacks. That said, it really isn't soaps fault because it is TPTB that place hacks on the shows to run them. The actors have to either put up with them or leave. Clair Labine was a great writer but ABC made her time there difficult. Not to mention Agnes was kicked out of the writers room at AMC. It is the networks fault for the quality of the shows. The main reason why I hate it when mainstream people bash soaps is becuase it reminds me of what soaps should be like and what they were like at one time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members edgeofnik Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 C'mon we bash the media and other who trash soaps, when 90% (or more) of the postings are exactly that - the stories are weak, the plot lines are ridiculous, blah, blah, blah. However, they are entertainment to us and it's the family/community thing that soaps enable people to talk about - more than any type of other genre. I only get upset when ungrateful actors (Meg Ryan, I'm looking at YOU!), dismiss what soaps did for their career. Counter that with Julianne Moore, who always valued her time on ATWT and somehow managed to make a cameo when she heard the show was cancelled because the experience meant so much to her. Oh, and as far as talent and Hollywood cred/respect, JM has it in spades. Don't think ATWT ever hurt her career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 In Llanview in the Afternoon, one of the actors, Stickney I think, mentioned how soaps seemed to reach their peak of integrating casts around 1996-97 and then they started getting more conservative again (partly as ratings fell forother reasons,) and I think he's right, especially when it comes to black actors. They also mention that the network rational often is that, even though soaps have a disproportionately large black viewership, the execs like to think that the fans want to see rich, idealized (and, by implication, white) people who they wouldn't see in real life. However, I am not sure I agree with--or get your point about melodramas. Serials by definition came out of melodrama--be it serialized melodrama that's now considered literary like Dickens or disposable gothic penny dreadfuls. Maybe I just don't get your wording--I think why people refer to the primetime serials as soap-like is due to the serial nature, and there's no denying that there's some truth there (as even Alan Ball pointed out when talking about Six Feet Under and his influences.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dragonflies Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 Uh Romance novels are what soaps should be lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 Depends on the romance novel... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members applcin Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 I feel the same way about sports fans/fanatics. It's okay to act like an idiot over guys throwing a ball around or punching each other's lights out yet soap fans (and scifi fans) get mocked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cassadine1991 Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 I add anime/manga and comic book fans as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members allmc2008 Posted October 15, 2013 Author Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 And that is what I am trying to get at, which is what most her don't understand. Regardless of the quality of the show it isn't far and I am done being ridiculed and mocked for the same damn thing sport/scifi/anime/comic fans do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted October 16, 2013 Members Share Posted October 16, 2013 We expect better from soaps. Or I do, anyway. I don't watch them to point and laugh. People like Chelsea Handler do (although she might not be able to move her face enough to laugh). And that's her right, but it bothers me that soaps are now pandering to this and have abandoned everyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Darn Posted October 16, 2013 Members Share Posted October 16, 2013 From one of the producers of Sleepy Hollow on being compared to Scandal: http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/why-fox-sleepy-hollow-breakout-hit.html What a nice and rare thing to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members marceline Posted October 16, 2013 Members Share Posted October 16, 2013 Sports fans get mocked too. How many times do we see the stereotype of the drunk meathead football fan standing in the bleachers topless in winter covered only in body paint? Every fandom takes its hits. Which is why I don't get the preciousness around soaps. Try being a Star Trek fan. We've been mocked and derided for 30 years by every corner of the pop culture universe including our own actors. So what? We suck it up, put on our Uhura costume from "Mirror, Mirror", buy our tickets to the convention and slap down $200 for a Patrick Stewart/ William Shatner photo op. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Darn Posted October 16, 2013 Members Share Posted October 16, 2013 But there's a balance, yes sports and Star Trek fans get mocked but the work also gets celebrated to ridiculous heights. Star Trek has 12 films and has made billions of dollars and is enjoyed by obsessive fans and casual ones as well. Sports have millions of fans, also makes billions of dollars and have multiple networks dedicated to them. Soaps are nothing but mocked. They're still associated with organ music from 60 years ago. It's not the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members marceline Posted October 16, 2013 Members Share Posted October 16, 2013 Soaps are mocked because they've earned the mocking. Sorry but it's true. Just like Trekkers have earned our mocking. The difference, as you've touched on, is that Trekkers and sports fans generate profit and soap fans don't. The bottom line for me is why shouldn't soaps be mocked? Why do soaps deserve some form of special protection? Especially given their current state. For the record, I see this same kind of preciousness in the sci-fi community all the time but IMO, If you're going to get butthurt because the rest of the world doesn't love your fandom the same way you do, then you deserve to be unhappy. I do agree with the points made above about sloppy reporting of the genre however. If you're going to write about a niche, put in the effort to do it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members allmc2008 Posted October 16, 2013 Author Members Share Posted October 16, 2013 I couldn't agree with you more!! The only reason I know about the Organ Music is because I have studied the genre for 5 years. The reason why it was used to begin with is because it was cheaper than an live orchestra yet more vibrant than a prerecording. As far as the other things, were is our Classic Soap channel or our Foreign Soap Channel?? I would to anything for there to be a channel dedicated to foreign soaps. The reason why the genre isn't as profitable is because they never promoted the shows during prime-time and other avenues. Also, people keep forgetting that soaps for years gave most of the networks there profit. GH alone was 25% of ABC profit. The PGP soaps from my understanding were the same yet the networks always allowed the soap spoofs. What happened is that the networks bit the hand that tried to feed them for too long and now they are no longer able to fund/support primetime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members applcin Posted October 16, 2013 Members Share Posted October 16, 2013 Actually, I don't have to try being a Star Trek fan, I've been one for about 40 years as TOS is my alltime favorite show. I still have the dolls and bridge set. I had a Star Trek poster in my room as a kid and a ton of books, magazines, calendars, etc. I have the phaser and communicator. I have me in a framed photo with Leonard Nimoy and John deLancie. I wrote Nimoy a fan letter when I was a kid and he was doing In Search Of. I even use a trekkie screen name on other sites sometimes. When I shut down my computer, Shatner's voice says "Disengage this computer now!" Can't say that I've ever been to a convention or dressed the part, though. But I was so loyal to Trek as a kid that when the original Star Wars came out, I refused to see it. (When I did get around to watching that original trilogy years later, I never did become a fan of SW, lol.) And I remember that Shatner and Nimoy were born 4 days apart, on March 22 and March 26. But I digress (I do so love my Trek...) Actually, I did mean exactly what Darn said so well and I didn't. Yes, many genres and forms of entertainment have their stereotypes and their image of the over-the-top fan. Some, like sports, are not only celebrated but elevated to the level of its participants being treated like heroes and permeate other aspects of life, like politics. I mean, I happened to catch a few seconds of the NYC mayoral debate last night and someone was going on about the Yankees....during a political debate? As Darn said, soaps are just mocked. Oh, they had their heyday back in the 80s when Luke & Laura caught everyone's attention (even Time Magazine) and suddenly, they were being copied by other soaps and it was okay to admit that you were glued to Luke and Laura's wedding. But that was a brief moment in the sun. For myself, it's not so much that I get annoyed that soaps are mocked. I've watched them long enough to know some aspects of them are mockworthy. I dunno....I think because I'm basically a "live and let live, to each his/her own" kind of person what seems to annoy me more is the hypocrisy of, as allmc was saying, the idea of a soap fan getting mocked for the same kind of behavior that, say as a sports fan, would get celebrated. If somebody were to make fun of me for being a Trekkie or having co-owned a website on David Andrew Macdonald (and having paid a fair amount of money in website fees and collecting stuff to put on it), I could probably point out even crazier behavior on their part for whatever they loved. Heck, when I turn on Haven on the Syfy channel, I see the last few moments of wrestling and I shake my head at not understanding its appeal but whatever floats their boats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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