5 Things You'd Change Tomorrow if You Ran a Soap

[mikelyons]

What are the five things you'd change tomorrow if you ran a soap opera? Go!

 

1. Turn down the lights.

2. Hire competent dialogue writers who can move a story along.

3. Fire half the cast.

4. Make the head writer edit every script to ensure consistency in story and character motivation/intent, etc. If Irna and Bill can do it, so can you, Ron! 

5. Bring back rehearsals and stop rushing to block tape 900 episodes in one week.

[BoldRestless]

1. Get a good headwriter and give them a very long contract, creative control, and the ability to build their team. We need stories that are built to last, stories that have been mapped out and paced years in advance.

2. More commitment to the cast. Finding good actors and keeping them.

3. Improve the directing and play with different camera angles. This doesn't cost anything!

4. Classic music cues

5.  Stop cheaping out on the sets. I would rather see less variety but better sets. 

[titan1978]

In the soap world we are in right now-
 

1.  Writing- invest in mentoring and identifying new talent, and hire proven talents that have been driven away over the last 30 years and are still alive to train and help.

 

2.  Diversity in all matters- behind the scenes, in front of the camera, and in storytelling.  If you have a good umbrella story going, and romance and a mystery of some kind, then take a chance on a subplot you have been unable or unwilling to do.

 

3.  Use the budget you have- smaller

casts, diverse ages in characters, and get back to character.  Shows like Edge of Night could tell a well crafted mystery without location shooting, and even more simple sets than we have now.  GH did a lot with a nurses station, Dr. Hardy’s office, a patient room and the medicine room.

 

4.  Better music- either classic cues or new ones.  The lack of music under many scenes is contributing to the shows being boring and lacking energy or any emotion.

 

5.  Go to 4 episodes a week, and the network lets you keep the budget you have  to produce 5 for one full year.  Use that extra money for time to craft a better product and and performances.

 

I truly think if an show did these for one year, they would see ratings going up!

[Forever8]

1. Telling multi-generational storytelling -It seemed after Frons left ABC, the shows decided to start focusing more on the vets, which is great and should always be the case. However, shows like YR and GH have neglected their next generation by not giving them a story to showcase their younger years and by the time the regime finally wants to put them on front and center we're expected to care about their longtime off-screen relationship or the ramifications of them being in a cult which we're only told. Show and Tell, please!!! 

 

2. Budget -If you don't have the funds to do a storyline when a character is on the run to some overseas locale, or suppose to be living in a new apartment building but it is only an old set that is dressed. Stop It! Tell human stories of family, friendship, romance, and corporate machinations. I don't need to see the best of Reilly on a shoestring budget. Go and research your show's history and modernize them. 

 

3.Diversity - From the cameramen to the stylists, and the cast and production staff, all soaps should represent the world today. When was the last time Hamilton-Winters was mentioned? And why couldn't they get the Dark Horse set instead of Chancellor Media? They could've built up the show's first black ran company on the show, which could've been history in the making. But instead, Devon is doing business in the living room of his penthouse. Where are the Black, Latino, and LGBTQ characters on Bold? They reside in one of the most diverse cities in the world in LA. And I've seen more diversity on 7delaan, which is a South African Soap Opera. Why can't they be a new black family running a fashion dynasty in competition with Forrester and they actually succeed at it too?

 

4 Bring Back Legacy/Core Characters More - I get the temptation of creating your characters since I'm a writer and write a weekly serial via web text. But it seems some writers get off on it most of the time. And yes everybody in town can't be related. But there is no reason why characters such as Serena Baldwin, Fen Baldwin, Ana Hamilton, Jeremy Horton, and Tommy Hardy aren't on their respective shows? However, we get Willow's and Sasha's every day on the screen. Makes no sense. 

 

5 Axing Members Of Cast You Don't Need - It should be more of a limit as to how many people can be in contact with the four remaining shows on air. GH doesn't need 85 people on a contract (exaggeration), but you only write for let's say 20 (If we're lucky) at a time. It seems like a hindrance to having all of the people on contact, and you only write for so many, and it seems the rest of the cast get little scrapping to work with. I mean I hate to say it, but it is a reason why stunts are there perhaps kill off a few inessential characters that way, and write off the rest. 

[Aback]

I agree with everything people said before me! I'll had my 5 cents.

 

1. Research, research, research. You can't write a compelling storyline without properly investing in research. These writers may have never stepped foot in a corporation for all we know, yet they are writing stories businesspeople? Research also means reading the papers and see what's happening around the world. I think story should come from an authentic place. It's either your fervid imagination (see: Quint & Nola, GL) or an actual experience (yours or someone else's).

 

2. Enough with the soap tropes. They're overdone. Nobody cares who the baby's father is going to be. Another trope they should do without is SORASing. It's cheap. I realize it's complicated to hire teenage actors but if one takes the time, again, to research current teenagers and/or draw from one's own experience, the possibilities are endless.

 

3. It's not sustainable anymore to churn out 250+ episodes a year. Especially if the quality is at risk - and it is. Do a Sept-May thing, maybe spin off for the Summer with the teens, trying new writers, experimenting new stories and such. Or do a 4 days a week schedule, but something needs to be done.

 

4. Have someone from the writing team watch old episodes and find new ideas there. Watching Y&R old episodes, there's so much that one could draw from its rich history if new ideas are running dry. 

 

5. Characters can come back and go for 3-month, 6-month story arcs. As previously stated, I don't need to have everyone on contract all the time. Take B&B for example: keep the main characters on (Eric, Brooke, Ridge, Steffy etc) and everyone else can come and go.