Best Soap of Each Decade?

[Planet Soap]

What was the best soap of each decade? 

For example:

I'd say GH was the best soap in the 1990s because of Sonny & Brenda, Luke & Laura's return, Carly's revenge on Bobbie & Michael's paternity, Jason's transformation, Liz's rape, and Stone & Robin. The storylines could be heavy, but there were huge romantic pairings and all the mob stuff had gravity. Wendy Rich, Claire Labine, and even Bob Guza did some good work during that era. 

Y&R was a close second due to storylines revolving around George Rawlins murder, Sheila, David Kimble, Kay & Marge, Malcolm & Drucilla, and Diane Jenkins.

*if you can't choose the best, at least pick your top three

Edited February 1, 2022 by ironlion

[prefab1]

Tough question, because each soap had its highs and lows during each decade, and even with the shows I watched a lot, I never stuck through an entire decade's worth of episodes. But off the top of my head (and based on the limited episodes I've seen), I'd say:

1970s: The Edge of Night (with The Doctors as a runner-up)--intelligently-written mysteries that didn't dumb down its characters

1980s: All My Children (with One Life to Live as a runner-up)--nice balance of humor and drama

1990s: General Hospital (with Guiding Light as a close runner-up)--great social issues stories, plus very interesting couples like Kevin & Lucy

2000s: Guiding Light (with As the World Turns as a runner-up)--hard call, because GL was atrocious in the first half of the decade, during the same years when ATWT was much better. But even as budgets were cut, Ellen Wheeler produced some really interesting and experimental character-based drama.

2010s: Days of Our Lives (with General Hospital as a runner-up)--the right balance of camp with intriguing cliffhangers, plus the best dialogue on all the surviving soaps. 

[Planet Soap]

Agreed. Y&R was strong in the early and late 90s with a bit of a lul mid decade. 

The 90s was hard choice for me because several shows had strong periods. AMC with Erica & Dimitri, Tad & Dixie, Janet, Ryan & Gillian etc, OLTL with Marty's rape & Viki's DID, and DAYS with all of JER's greatness and foolishness (LOL). 

[Faulkner]

The 1990s were indeed tough because so many shows had great highs and abysmal lows. GH had the some of the highest highs of all time in the ‘90s while Y&R was great but also steady.

For me, the toughest call is the 2000s. The last gasp for most shows. I’d also say GH simply on the strength of its day-to-day writing staff and production values, but the quality was largely so poor across the board as to be a meaningless call. Same with DAYS in the 2010s.

Upon rewatch, my favorite soap of the ‘80s is probably ATWT (very layered and rich) with GH, OLTL, and AMC all up there. ‘70s probably Y&R (so lush and innovative), AW, or OLTL.

It’s so weird that my second favorite soap probably wouldn’t top any of these lists (GL). Too erratic. Haven’t had the opportunity to watch much ‘70s GL due to availability obvs, aside from all the 1979 stuff.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Faulkner

[AMCOLTLLover]

2010‘s definitely GH! Love it or hate it but compared to the other 3 it was still entertaining and had a lot going on.

Y&R had his ups and downs but the issue o have with putting Y&R up there is that when Y&R is bad then it’s really bad. But with GH there is never a dull moment. Even though I may not like the direction or some of the storys at least it’s fast paced!

2000‘s.. That’s tough coz I loved nearly every soap in the 2000‘s.. I’d go with Atwt and GH!

90‘s I would say AMC and B&B! Days was nice but the stupid mid 90‘s to late 90‘s were horrible besides a few plots so I would really go with AMC and B&B

80‘s… Days and GH

[MichaelGL]

Someone said one of their favorites not topping many of these lists, Guiding Light, because it was too erratic, and I would agree sadly. And the decades GL would probably top, was before my time.

1990s: Honestly if we're going by consistently good, All My Children, Bold and the Beautiful, and Young and the Restless. Runner up General Hospital. 

2000s: Very mixed bag here but I'm going to go with Bold and the Beautiful. Runner up being OLTL, and GH (GH for production and day to day writing). 

2010s: DAYS with GH as runner up. 

[Faulkner]

Yeah, me. The early ‘90s were top notch but oof, did things fall apart circa ‘93-94. 1997 was also great, but again, mess afterwards. The ‘80s also felt a bit all over the place. 2000s had some good stuff and some awful, unprofessional stuff.

[MichaelGL]

Definitely agree. 80-82, that period between Marland and Long/Culliton was a off period, and then things picked up for GL from 83 til perhaps early 85 (I'm being generous by including 85 at all 

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) The show really wouldn't pick up again until 89. 

[Planet Soap]

Agreed. BEST Soap of the 2000s: GH runner up OLTL, ATWT in third.

GH's sweeps events like the metro court, contagion, PC hotel fire, train crash and more solidifies it's place as king of the 00s for me, despite Sonny/Carly/Jason eating the show.

OLTL went down in quality drastically during this time. But there was never a full moment. Gary Tomlin had a decent run as EP in 2001-2002, during which time the show got an emmy. I enjoyed the Todd/Blair dead they baby lie, Natalie and Jessica being twins, Mitch, and Lindsay/Colin vs Norah. The Frank V/Ron C era kept things alive too with Tea's false brain tumor, Powell Lord returning, Jared & Nash, Tess, and 2 Todds.

As FOR ATWT, I grew up with the show in the 2000s particularly on Jack & Carly. I have now come to realize how revitalized the show was from 99-05 ish compared to the mid 90s. 

Best Soap of the 2010s: GH

this is currently the worst GH has even been but it's still the best on soap currently on tv as it maintains a fast pace and some action despite shotty writing and iffy production values.

Edited January 31, 2022 by ironlion

[Soapfan8]

I think Bold was in a potential shape 2011-2016 compared to the rest. 

[kalbir]

In terms of impact to the genre

1970s: Y&R (casting, lighting, music, taking classic soap elements to a whole other level)

In terms of pop culture

1980s: General Hospital (Luke/Laura, starting the supercouple and action/adventure trends), All My Children (Susan Lucci), Days (for taking the supercouple and action/adventure trends to a whole other level)

1990s: Days (Reilly's sci-fi era)

Edited February 1, 2022 by kalbir

[titan1978]

It is hard to discount Monty’s GH from overall impact to the genre IMO.  Every soap suddenly had a performer with an accent, and even Y&R told a couple of action oriented storylines.  And though that classic era of GH is slow compared to today’s version of a fast pace, it was faster than classic soaps before it, and again, even Y&R sped up some compared to the decade before.

I also think Edge needs a mention because the mysteries really did have an umbrella storyline effect, with other mysteries starting and moving along while the main one played out.  And GH took that and ran with it.  Every soap that I can think of did their version of this in the 1980’s, taking their cue from GH.  DAYS especially.  I think only Y&R and AMC avoided becoming umbrella storytelling central.  OLTL certainly had many times where one story was dominating at a time, and everyone was involved in it.

Edited February 1, 2022 by titan1978

[titan1978]

In my viewing lifetime-

1980’s- Y&R.  Though they had a rocky start to the decade, it’s hard to deny the complexity, look, appeal and storytelling of Y&R in the 1980’s.  From bringing Jill/Katherine back to the forefront, introducing characters like Lauren, Nina, Cassandra, the Abbott family…all that glamour and yet always grounded in stories about emotion, especially passion.  And so loved GH back then.  But with more critical analysis at the age I am now, Y&R takes the decade.

1990’s- GH for me.  Wendy Riche really grounded the show and all of her major head writers-Levinson, Labine, Guza, and Culliton really told emotionally gripping stories with high stakes.  There was still that element of action and adventure.  But it was more grounded and the characters were very rich.  I didn’t even hate the part of the decade before Wendy got there.

Special mention to that magical period on Guiding Light in the early 90’s, mostly when Robert Calhoun was EP (although it carries over a year or so for me with JFP there).  I think that was a perfect soap, completely unraveled by an EP with no idea how to recast major characters and storytelling tastes that I just don’t agree with.

2000’s- this one is hard for me, as almost all these soaps drove me away from daily viewing.  I will give some credit to OLTL for trying  new things while maintaining many veteran characters.  And GH really did have excellent day to day writing and pretty decent production, even if I didn’t enjoy the show overall.

2010’s- hmmm.  I got nothing.  No soap has consistently been good for the decade for me.

 

[kalbir]

@titan1978 Yes, Y&R jumped on the action/adventure bandwagon during the H. Wesley Kenney years, but that element did not suit Y&R and it pretty much disappeared when Ed Scott took over as EP.

Edited February 2, 2022 by kalbir

[j swift]

To me this is the definative answer as I agree wholeheartedly with each choice of this list