I was reminiscing and thinking about the site and how it was truly ahead of its time. I miss this time of the year when WOST would whip out classic holiday episodes along with their archive of soap themes. Yes, we have YouTube, but I just miss that site so much...😔

7 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

I was reminiscing and thinking about the site and how it was truly ahead of its time. I miss this time of the year when WOST would whip out classic holiday episodes along with their archive of soap themes. Yes, we have YouTube, but I just miss that site so much...😔

Of course!

 

This was back in the REAL PLAYER days when it took you 50 minutes to download/buffer 20 minutes of soap material... It feels sooooo close and long ago at the same time. The site was one of the reasons why I upgraded my internet connection for the first time. Not yet to ADSL, but still, we are talking about the early 2000s here!? Or was it even before???
 

 

The site was special because it was the first true celebration of video (and audio) of soap material on the WWW. Plus, Webmaster Brian (?) really loved the genre and tried to curate the material like museum pieces at times. Material was uploaded at some show's anniversary, some ultra rare other show were added to the mix etc.

I also think it was one first sights trying to sell memberships (I think I paid at some time...) to cover for server costs. It all felt so genuine and groundbreaking.

Edited November 3, 20196 yr by sheilaforever

It was such a wonderful website. As I was born and have always been living in France, it was my first encounter with classic soap history. It took ages to see an episode with Real Player as mentioned but it was lovely. And in the forum many people learnt me so much about soaps. I saw Victor and Nikki’s wedding for the first time, and Days premiere I think. It was really outstanding for the time, mostly around 2000 because this was when I first got Internet as a teen.

I remember it as well. It was always such a treat to not only watch the classic episodes, but also listen to so many soap themes as well.

Sigh... I wish I had spent more time on WOST! 😕 I didn’t realize how much I missed out on.

 

 

WOST was my favorite Soap website for quite a few years there. In addition to being able to watch all the various openings and closings of all the Soaps, ability to watch so many hours of classic soaps, and the inclusion of being introduced to some international soaps, I dare say WOST had the BEST soap opera message boards I have ever come across. So many very knowledgeable and colorful posters, especially in the AW section of the board. "What's a Wesley Ann Pfenning?" asked one poster when remembering hearing Bill Woliff announce Pfenning taking over the role of Alice on AW LOL. The Snark Weighs In opinion pieces on the nine soaps on the air at the time were a hoot. Brian the Webmaster's interviews with so many classic Soap names were fabulous--Don Hastings, Jada Rowland, Sharon Gabet etc. I like how in his interview with Harding Lemay he blatantly ignored the usual Lemay dirty laundry list and had Lemay talking about his love for Susan Sullivan instead. It was best the interview with Lemay I have ever heard/read. 

 

It's too bad we don't have WOST around anymore. I remember there was "great controversy" over requiring paid membership but I gladly paid anyways and enjoyed WOST right through the very end!

 

1 hour ago, sheilaforever said:

Of course!

 

This was back in the REAL PLAYER days when it took you 50 minutes to download/buffer 20 minutes of soap material... It feels sooooo close and long ago at the same time. The site was one of the reasons why I upgraded my internet connection for the first time. Not yet to ADSL, but still, we are talking about the early 2000s here!? Or was it even before???
 

 

The site was special because it was the first true celebration of video (and audio) of soap material on the WWW. Plus, Webmaster Brian (?) really loved the genre and tried to curate the material like museum pieces at times. Material was uploaded at some show's anniversary, some ultra rare other show were added to the mix etc.

I also think it was one first sights trying to sell memberships (I think I paid at some time...) to cover for server costs. It all felt so genuine and groundbreaking.

 

 

I remember you @sheilaforever and various other posters here on SON from our WOST days. Lord I remember trying to watch WOST videos on dial-up before switching to Broadband on Real Player and what a nightmare it was! After WOST closed down I had remember the ugly flame war(does that ever happen anymore lol??) between WOST and SON 2006/2007ish and just migrated over here to stay.

It brings me back seeing you mention Snark and his Snark Weighs In column. He was hilarious and had great insights. I remember he was a big fan of Malone era OLTL. I wonder where he is now.

16 minutes ago, Bright Eyes said:

It brings me back seeing you mention Snark and his Snark Weighs In column. He was hilarious and had great insights. I remember he was a big fan of Malone era OLTL. I wonder where he is now.

 

Good question lol. It was fascinating had grown up an ABC soap fan but his favorite soaps ultimately became Y&R and B&B. He only watched PC for Kelly Monaco and Passions for Ben Masters and Juliet Mills.  I remember first following him in 2000 when he wrote a fabulous piece about Labine taking over GL and Hogan Sheffer taking over ATWT; his last opinion piece I remember seeing was when Hall and Hogestyn were fired from Days in late '08. It's almost as if his blog lived and died with the decade. 

Edited November 3, 20196 yr by soapfan770

It was a wonderful site! I still have a cd that I purchased from there with some of the greatest soap themes ever. My sister loved Love of Life back in the day and she was beyond thrilled a few years back when I played her the Love of Life theme from that cd. She hadn’t heard the theme in decades but that instantly brought back memories. WOST was great! 

Yes. That was the first place I saw many of the old soap themes. Sadly by the time I had high speed Internet it was mostly on a paywall. 

I use to be a member of WOST towards the end. It was a pain watching the classic videos on dial up. Didn't the owner Brian post here? Haven't seen him post in a long time.

I miss the forum the most. So many interesting tidbits and pieces regarding the classic era of soaps. There are several posters here who provide a lot of that same information, and I love it, but to have so much conversation on it all in one place was divine.

There are still so many audio and video clips from WoST that had never made it to YouTube or anywhere else online as far as I know. I have the original Y&R soundtrack and an album of 70s soap themes on vinyl, but there were GL and ATWT underscores there that I have not seen anywhere else along with some other re-arrangements of various themes that have disappeared.

He also had a great library of radio soap episodes that I would love to hear. They're probably available on OTR websites, but once again, to have it all in one place!

I didn't care for the Real Player either, but boy when that thing ran, it ran good. 

 

I remember when they were celebrating the anniversary of EON and they post classic episodes of the show along with a special page for ATWT too. 

 

This site was the first time I got to see the episodes at Dream's End (death of Doug Cummings) and the Puppet Doll killer arc. 

 

*sighs* 

 

I remember that the forum is the first time I got to see the Capitol story bible. Ugh! I kick myself every day that I didn't download that damn PDF when I should've. 

If I remember correctly, WoST was the only site or resource to post a full video episode of WHERE THE HEART IS.  I’d kill

to see that episode in full. *sigh* Gotta love the Internet. 

Didn't WOST also load a bit of LOVING episodes that have never popped up on Youtube yet either? 

 

I remember a few classic episodes of Y&R being on the site too.