Jump to content

What diffrenciates one soap from the other?


Recommended Posts

  • Members

I've asked this before but with few results but this time I'll try a diffrent angle--what is the differing factor.  Also, would you call it a theme?  Premise?  Concept? 

 

Agnes said AMC was 'The Brotherhood of Man'. 

 

If you look closely, especially in the 70s, each character strived to find a sense security--Kitty trying to find her parents; Erica searching for a father figure (In a way, she was less in love with Phil and more jelious of Tara for having a father, thus, she tried wrecking her life to make her feel as missrebal--or to 'create' someone whom she could relate to).

 

 

AW opened with:  We are not in the world alone but in a thousand other worlds.

 

Guiding Light was based upon the peom by Edwin Markham:  There is a destiny that makes us brothers; none goes his way along; All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.

I'd say Holly and Roger's 70s run defined that well because of the give and take---all culminating into the rape.   From my understanding, Holly was trying to 'guide' roger but he ultimately betrayed her.

 

One Life to Live seemed to be the struggle between living your life the way you want and trying to honoring your roots and holding onto your convition.

Carla posing as white.

Vicki torn between being Victor Jr and pursuing Joe Riley

Nora throwing the gang-rape trial

 

 

Of course, Days opens with:  Like the Sands through the hour glass so are the days of our lives.

In essence, that means ones time will end at anytime so you need to live life like its the last.  Thus, the drama was conflict which hindered that.

The emotinoal burden from the bearers of the Mikes paternity secret.

 

Anyway, can anyone add or correct me?

 

What would Y&R's be?  How about SFT or GH?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 7
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

GH, in the early days, really seemed to be about the human condition and the deep emotions of the doctors and nurses caring for their patients.  Especially Dr. Hardy and Nurse Jessie.  I think Lesley Webber really carries that torch for a second generation too.  The hospital was the family, and the emotional trials of the patients were given weight.  Almost like a prime time hospital show would treat the patients vs regulars.

 

By the time I started watching it was still more about the family you create (the cops and adventure characters, the hospital staff, the lower income people/young people that lived and worked at Kelly’s, etc) than a traditional soap, but it had moved away from the hospital.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Remember when you could tell the difference between soaps? For example, no one would have mistaken urban, gritty, working-class Ryan's Hope for sun-splashed, upper-class and often satirical Santa Barbara. Writers like Irna Phillips, Agnes Nixon, Bill Bell, Henry Slesar, Claire Labine, etc., each had unique voices and put unique stamps on each of their shows. Now, everything is so micromanaged and network mandated that all creativity is stifled.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

The differences used to be so stark that if I tuned into a soap I didn't normally watch, it seemed alien/foreign.

 

I remember Y&R as quiet, dimly-lit. This would be 1989-1995ish. You had to turn up the volume to hear them half the time.

 

At one point, Days was super bright and yellow, which looked very cheap and off-putting, but ever since Y&R went insanely bright 6-7 years ago, it's not even noticeable.

 

In the mid '90s, Y&R and Days were still on opposite sides of the galaxy, but ATWT and GL were beginning to melt into a generic slop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

How about in 2018? Is it wrong that the first thing I think of is their differences in production values? 

 

Thinking back when I first started watching soaps, I'd usually lump them together as follows: 

 

Y&R/B&B

AMC/OLTL (and Loving)

GH/PC 

ATWT/GL (and sometimes AW) 

DAYS  (and sometimes AW)

 

To me, AW kind of hovered between the P&G soaps and its NBC sister, DAYS, with its P&G type of stories and casting, but the production values of DAYS

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy