Lapsed Viewers: What Would Lure You Back In?

[DramatistDreamer]

I'm pretty neutral since I don't bother watching anymore.  This doesn't contradict what I said of the daytime soaps being unwatchable for me.  The changes I suggested are extensive, so I doubt they'd ever accomplish any of them.

 

At this point, I'm more interested in getting access to classic episodes of my favorite shows.  The only reason why there's no Hulu version for classic soaps is because the production companies that produced these shows won't get out of the way.

 

As far as the lack of working class and middle class characters and families on these shows, I blame Dallas and Dynasty.   Seriously.  Today's current daytime soaps forgot one crucial element in trying to copy those night-tjime shows, Dallas, at least, had an industry where everyone worked-- the oil industry.  The show was built around that industry.    I think today's soap writers and executive who grew up on Dallas, wanted to model their show and characters on the ones on Dallas  but only took the superficial elements and not the deeper ones.  

 

Also Dallas and Dynasty came on once a week and didn't have to sustain their drama 5 days a week.  It's a big difference in pacing of drama between a primetime, once a week drama and a daytime drama.  Far more than people acknowledge.

[NothinButAttitude]

OK! Tell 'em, @Khan! Come join us b/c ain't no use and hoping for the worst with these shows. I'd rather them die off, the genre takes a mini break, and we get some newer soaps from people that actually love the genre. That's what I want. I'm over hoping these shows will get better. They won't

[quartermainefan]

If you want to offer up a cozy mystery as an example of a show about people getting pregnant and having affairs fine, but I would offer that up as an example of a show that is not about that and is instead about murder or what have you.   If you go back to my first post I think I said I think a mystery soap could work.   Shows about people having babies?  not so much.

[frequentsoapfan]

Telemundo takes a $1 million budget and creats a 3-6 month soap in Miami. 

[Soapsuds]

See I think it work…if the soap isn't doing well in the ratings it can be shortened or extended extra months depending on how well it does. I don't know why no one has tried it. The only soaps that last 3 months are the low rated ones….I'd love to see Kathryn Hays working with Hillary Bailey again….or Hillary with Rick Hearst……Rick Hearst and Colleen Zenk ….etc…etc….

[frequentsoapfan]

 Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso from Caracol ran for one month and it was very popular and and one of my favorites. I ended up borrowing the dvds from Netflix to rewatch. It had like 3 remakes too.

[Soapsuds]

You should check out Tres Veces Ana on Univision on May 23rd…it is a remake of Lazos De Amor which featured Lucero. It is about 3 sisters…all identical…one nice…one shy and one evil…..LOL.

[NothinButAttitude]

But do you all really think that the telenovela model will work? Especially, with stories that are a few months run? I think if the story arc is 2-3 years, maybe. IDK about 1 year telenovelas. We (Americans) love to savor every moment of a show and it's characters. I think that people would b-tch and moan about telenovelas. I'd enjoy it but I don't the majority liking it. 

 

Like previously, I've said soaps need to be 3 days (Mon/Wed/Fri) a week like the UK soaps used to be. I'd also say that they need to take a hiatus like the Australian soaps do in mid December and return early to mid January. That'll give the audience time to rest and give the cast and crew vacation time too. I think it'd also cut down on a budget for soaps tremendously. 

[Gray Bunny]

I don't think the current American audience who still love daytime soaps would be receptive to the telenovela format. The networks would definitely try to bring in a different and younger crop of viewers, but would they really come? I suppose it's worth a try, but if they ever did go that route, I think it would be a couple years after they've axed the remaining dinosaurs known as Y&R, B&B, DAYS and GH. 

 

ITA that Dynasty/Dallas/80's excess is what brought "the big cities" to all the quiet soap towns, and now they look goofy calling people like Victor Kiriakis and The DiMeras as multimillionaires with tiny homes and no proper security. 

 

Sidenote: I'm currently watching Guiding Light from early 1996, and it's pretty interesting to see the different feel the show had right before Paul Rauch took over. You still had a lot of the lower middle-class representation and overall feeling of different levels of class throughout the town. Once Paul Rauch took over, the lower class like the Reardons/boardinghouse were phased out... and every single set was repainted yellow. But that's another story. 

 

I, too, wish they would offer reruns of old soaps from the 80's, 90's, etc. 

[NothinButAttitude]

@Gray Bunny Exactly. Didn't America already try with the telenovela format with flops like American Heiress, Fashion House, Desire, and Saints & Sinners? I don't that filling these shows up with a bunch of scenery chewing youngsters, which they'll do, will help the matters even more. I'd only watch if it had serious actors tied to like @Soapsuds said--Kathy Hays, Don Hastings, Eileen Fulton, Hilary B. Smith, Ric Hearst, etc. I couldn't bear to watch something with someone with the acting abilities of Hayley Erin, Yvonne Zima, Vivian Jovanni, etc.  I just can't....

 

I also never got how multimillionaires on soaps too had these big ass estates but were so accessible for everyone. Ain't no way that'd be possible for real people with money. 

[Cheap21]

Oh god I HATE that.  Whats worse is when people open the doors to these mansions bc they arent locked. Really? Or when people walk in through a side or back door. Unrealistic

[NothinButAttitude]

That annoys me too. Up until I stopped watching GH, I think Sonny was the ONLY soap character who had an estate that emulated real life where he had guards everywhere and it isn't easy for everyone to get on. 

 

When family members get on with ease, OK. I'll accept it. Friends, OK. I'll overlook it. But when random ass people they don't talk to or enemies just walk up to the estate with ease, that pisses me off. Especially, with the Dimeras on DAYS. That family has done too many heinous acts for them not to have security, which is why I find it odd to hear Hope got on that estate with ease and shot Stefano dead.

[YRBB]

I think a great way to redefine soaps and change their formats would be to run from late September to July (i.e. for about 200 episodes a year), with a few breaks inbetween for Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving. The pacing/breakdowns would be somewhat similar to Marland's ATWT, meaning a relatively faster, but still pace-conscientious show. A big cliffhanger or two, a 2-3 month break, and then they're back. Shooting starts a month before the premiere, there is time for writers to take a break, relax, regroup, plot LONGTERM, and return to the show. 

 

If they are new soaps, they can be designed to last a few years (anything from 3-4 seasons to 8 or so). But, then, when the time comes, when they've naturally run their course, they END. It's a good compromise between the supposedly eternal American soaps and the fast and sloppy telenovelas. Also, if they could receive better budgets and a later timeslot, even better!  

[frequentsoapfan]

Those telenovelas Nickelodeon keeps forcing on the kids are the worst. Because they film some of their children's telenovelas for their Latin American channel in Miami they've been reusing the sets and doing English counterparts of the same stories for the US. I had to suffer through more than one with my young niece. It was terrible  and it had the look of 90s public access TV shows. And yes they do follow the 5 day a week format for them. 

[YRBB]

They did, but let's be honest. How were those ever going to work? The writing was so uninspired that, despite only running for a whopping 65 episodes, they filled each and every episode with coooooountlessssss flashbacks of whole scenes, over and over again. It was like the new material was part of a clip show, not the other way around. Not to mention they expected people to tune in 5 days a week against major primetime hits at 8 and 9 PM on a new format that the US was not accustomed to, without good writing, and before TiVos and DVRs were everything. Even I, as a rabid soap fan, could not commit (but would have if the writing was good). It was doomed to fail.