4 minutes ago, JellicleCat said:

 

That's absolutely true. But then they should have called this list "Top 10 greatest soaps of the last 20/25 years" or something.

 

Or, "Ten Shows Our Camp-Loving Editors Are Old Enough to Have Watched & Enjoyed." 😒

These click-bait articles have got to stop. It’s all subjective at the end of the day.

5 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

Exactly.

 

It’s a perfectly legitimate response to compare eight years of Santa Barbara to 54 years of As the World Turns and conclude that, pound for pound, Santa Barbara was better. In your opinion. Just as it is a legit response to prefer 60 episodes of The Wire to 500+ episodes of Gunsmoke. But if you haven’t watched *a good amount* of Gunsmoke, you have little credibility in making that judgment.

 

Right. Michael Ausiello might as well write an editorial for Parents magazine lecturing about the effects of pregnancy and childbirth on a woman's body. 

 

He'd be just as credible, LOL.

5 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

These click-bait articles have got to stop. It’s all subjective at the end of the day.

That’s it. I’m sure we’re giving this more thought than the editors did. They’re churning out content to keep the machine going. If, say, @vetsoapfan wrote a list like this, I’d be much more interested, as he has demonstrated a wide knowledge of the genre. Even knowing it was simply his opinion.

Edited June 16, 20196 yr by Faulkner

7 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

That’s it. I’m sure we’re giving this more thought than the editors did. They’re churning out content to keep the machine going. If, say, @vetsoapfan wrote a list like this, I’d be much more interested, as he has demonstrated a wide knowledge of the genre. Even knowing it was simply his opinion.

Let's do it! Start our own list here 

1 minute ago, Faulkner said:

That’s it. I’m sure we’re giving this more thought than editors did. They’re churning out content to keep the machine going. If, say, @vetsoapfan wrote a list like this, I’d be much more interested, and he has demonstrated a wide knowledge of the genre. Even knowing it was simply his opinion.

 

6 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

These click-bait articles have got to stop. It’s all subjective at the end of the day.

 

 

Every Top 10 list, printed or posted anywhere, merely represents the authors' opinions. I get that. But what irks me is the obvious and unacknowledged ignorance and bias in how certain lists are composed and framed. The mere fact that TVLine's editors COULD NOT HAVE WATCHED most soaps during their halcyon years, and therefore cannot rationally judge the shows' quality, invalidates their final choices.

 

(And thank you, Faulkner, for the kind words. Arrogance aside, I think I COULD compile a Top 10 list with more authority than TVL's staff...and so could many other fans across the internet!)

3 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

Let's do it! Start our own list here 

 

OMG, this might keep us up all night long!!!!!

Go for it, start our own, it could be fun 

Any 'Best of' list is subjective. We all have our opinions and biases and it's impossible to put something together like this without that being accounted for. It's just the way it is. I try to not to take these things too seriously, but it's sometimes enraging when the author/editor is so mis-informed. 

Edited June 17, 20196 yr by BetterForgotten

Whats this horny love affair with Santa Barbara? It was trash and low rated soap. This list is bull s hit.

I really don't hate this list. It seems to value soaps' more grounded history in such a way that they're saying when these shows were good, they were so good that it's enough to dismiss the more outlandish plots they've all had. I actually find their write-up on AMC to be quite lovely.

And jesus, I am absolutely living for the blatant bashing of the Tim Burton DS movie.

My only complaint, really, is that ATWT should obviously have been on this list, and because I kept my screen at a way so that I couldn't see the thumbnails at the bottom as I clicked through the gallery, I honestly thought it was going to be #1. But then came Santa Barbara, and I felt like ATWT fans watching the Daytime Emmys in the late 80s.

Obviously, no one's going to agree on a ranking, but to bring out classics like TEON, RH and GL....but include Dark Shadows and Santa Barbara and not have ATWT ?

 

ATWT redefined the genre. 

ATWT is definitely a glaring omission - it set the stereotypical template for the masses for a what soap opera was in the 60's and 70's. Hell, I could even make a case for Search For Tomorrow as well. OLTL has always been overlooked, even by it's own network, lol, but it should definitely be on some list. B&B also didn't make the list - but is anyone surprised by that?

 

If we go by network, my personal opinion is that ATWT, GL, and Y&R are the definitive CBS soaps (maybe Search is in there somewhere). With ABC, GH and AMC have always had the most pop cultural reverence. For NBC, DAYS and AW are a must. Santa Barbara is a bit polarizing, I think it deserves to be on a 'Best of' list, but at #1 when it only ran for 9 years and most would say it had more bad years than good? 

 

All my opinion, of course...

Edited June 17, 20196 yr by BetterForgotten

Y&R below Santa Barbara & General Hospital?

1 hour ago, BetterForgotten said:

If we go by network, my personal opinion is that ATWT, GL, and Y&R are the definitive CBS soaps (maybe Search is in there somewhere). With ABC, GH and AMC have always had the most pop cultural reverence. For NBC, DAYS and AW are a must. Santa Barbara is a bit polarizing, I think it deserves to be on a 'Best of' list, but at #1 when it only ran for 9 years and most would say it had more bad years than good?

This is always how I've seen it, as well. When you think soap opera, those are the seven shows you immediately think of (I"d also include OLTL by virtue of it forming the middle of ABC's defining soap lineup for over 30 years). When my friends want me to entertain them by talking soaps, these are the shows they want to know more about.

Going off of that, ranking those shows according to influence, popularity, general quality, etc. I'd say something along the lines of...

 

1. The Young and the Restless

2. As the World Turns

3. General Hospital

4. Days of Our Lives

5. All My Children

6. Guiding Light

7. Another World

8. One Life to Live

I'm at a loss for #9 and #10, but I figure Dark Shadows would have to be one.

Oh, well.  At least EON made the cut.