TV LINE ranks 10 greatest soaps of all time

[vetsoapfan]

 

True, any review/critique or Top 10 list  is always subjective. But I'm much more apt to take it seriously if the writer or editors involved have actually watched the material in question. When I know they have not, it's easy to dismiss their "opinions" as irrelevant.

 

It would be interesting to read the lists submitted by posters here at SON from among the soaps that they have actually watched first-hand. The problem for me, personally, putting together my own Top 10 would be that, after several decades of soap viewing, I've seen almost all of the long-running soaps be "the best" at one time or another.  I thought TEON was the best soap of 1971, Y&R the stand-out of 1973, AW the king of 1974, DAYS the champion of 1976, OLTL the winner of 1979, GH the jewel of 1994, etc.  Veteran viewers have been treated to a cornucopia of excellent soaps throughout the years. Selecting a mere ten for recognition would be tough!

[Wendy]

I LOVE(D) Santa Barbara except for its last miserable year. But even I concede it should no way be #1. On the list? Yes! But at the top? No.

[Faulkner]

I’d be interested in seeing the year by year, at the very least!

 

Even though I’ve watched since I was at my mother’s knee, I’ve only been a committed soap viewer since the early ‘90s. I’ve watched a considerable amount of pre-1990 stuff via YouTube and other venues (not nearly as much as other posters here, though). But I’d have to really think about a list. The problem is that soaps became so dire so quickly in the mid-1990s. Y&R, GL, GH, OLTL, AMC, AW, ATWT, and even DAYS (roughly in that order, with GH/OLTL tied) have all been favorites of mine since 1990, and when they were really good, they were transcendent. But man do the dreadful years outnumber the good. IMO, of course. Plus, my viewing in the early 2000s was spotty due to school and work obligations and decreasing interest.

 

If I were including my limited viewing of older episodes, AW, ATWT, AMC, and DAYS would all be in contention for the top five, and shorter-lived shows like Ryan’s Hope (so good in those early years) would also be considered. But I haven’t watched enough Capitol or SFT or Santa Barbara or TEON to really include those.

[BetterForgotten]

As if they couldn't get more click-batey - TV LINE also has a Which Daytime Soap Do You Belong In? QUIZ

 

I'll admit to doing it, and apparently, I belong on B&B. 

Please register in order to view this content

 

You got 'The Bold and the Beautiful'! You were born a star! You're ready to join the glamorous Los Angeles life. 

[Fevuh]

No ATWT is crazy.  The number of people that came off of that show to film and TV and even music is crazy - I can think of Julianne Moore, Steven Webber, Marisa Tomei, Meg Ryan, Lauryn Hill, Jason Biggs, Parker Posey....I'm sure there are others...and the social impact storylines, along with the other elements other people posted.  Lisa was known for being the first daytime person to need a bodyguard....I heard an interview with her around when they were cancelled and she mentioned a woman on the street came up and slapped her...asked if she was Lisa Miller and she said, Yes, I play her on As the World Turns, and she said "I hate you" ansd slapped her.  And CBS got her a bodyguard...

[Marlenaphan]

The quiz is from TV Insider, a different site.

 

I got Days!!!

[BetterForgotten]

Oh sh!t, they look similar and have similar (pedestrian) content. Thanks. 

[All My Shadows]

I’m actively refusing to do it because I wanted to change one of my answers, and it isn’t letting me, even after exiting the window, refreshing the page, etc. 

[JellicleCat]

I haven't seen enough to make a list of all-time best soaps, but if I were to pick the soaps that, in my mind, were the most important to the soap genre it would be (in alphabetical order):

 

All My Children:  Susan Lucci/Erica Kane! Enough said! She gave this show, and the soap genre, mainstream attention, and is probably the single most famous soap star.

 

As the World Turns:  The first half-hour show, #1 for 20 years, introduced the first super-couple (Penny & Jeff) and the original soap vixen (Lisa), the quintessential soap

 

Days of Our Lives:  Famous for its many super-couples, bucked the trend in the 90s when most shows lost viewers and soared in the ratings through its outlandish storylines, setting a new trend for soaps

 

General Hospital:  Luke & Laura, the most famous daytime couple ever! Changed daytime in the 80s with action-adventure and then reinvented itself again in the 90s to critical acclaim.

 

Guiding Light:  Started on radio in the 1930s and survived the transition to television to become the longest-running soap in history.

 

Honorable mention:

The Young and the Restless: The #1 daytime soap for over 30 years, longer than any other soap, but the competition is less fierce than it was during earlier decades.

[Gray Bunny]

LOL that nobody is clamoring for The Bold & the Beautiful to be included on this list. 

[Khan]

Every soap, save for the ones that didn't last very long (DS, RH and SANTA BARBARA notwithstanding), made some impact on the genre as a whole.  Therefore, it's difficult for me to compile any sort of "Best Soaps of All Time" lists.

[JellicleCat]

 

I've been thinking about that too. It's not surprising though. It feels like B&B has always been looked down upon and been underrated.

Of course it doesn't help that it is so dreadful at the moment. But back during the first decade or so it was actually a great soap. Back when Bill Bell was still involved....

It's easy to see that Brad Bell has not inherited his father's talent, and what little talent he had is evaporating rapidly in front of our eyes.

It is a show which has had some incredible highs, but also some awful lows.

[John]

Brad Bell is destroying his father's creation. Plain & Simple.

I watched B&B reguraily from 1993-2012 and then stopped

I wonder why Jessica Forrester was never recast

[BetterForgotten]

B&B just struct me as Bill's attempt to own a show outright without outside interference from Sony or anyone else. Y&R was his crown jewel and he never deserted it until his heath started to deteriorate. 

 

That doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable, but it was certainly never anything innovative or contributed much to the advancement of the genre. I think Bill knew that, but couldn't turn down the opportunity from CBS  to launch a new soap he owned 100% outright. 

[Gray Bunny]

 

Agreed. It can/could be great at times; it can/could be awful at times. But nothing really stands out in the overall landscape of daytime drama. I'm not even going to bring up Maya because by 2015 soaps are irrelevant to mainstream pop culture (DAYS' Marlena could be giving birth to possessed baby clones with remote-control mood devices in their gums tomorrow and nobody would bat an eye in the mainstream world), but B&B's biggest claim to fame is by literally riding on the coattails of its sister soap by having Sheila Carter jump ship from Genoa City to L.A.