Best/Worst Production Value Periods on Soaps

[Planet Soap]

Name a time period in which a soap had either great or terrible on screen presentation.

Y&R obviously had solid production value from the 70s into the early 2000s.  The early 90s and 1995-2001 especially, even though the wardrobe had gotten toned down at that point.

DAYS did not look great in the late 70s clips I've seen. It did look great from the mid/late 80s up until about 2009! I was surprised at how great some of DAYS' sets were as late as 2005.

B&B in the early 90s was peak glamour!

Edited May 1, 2022 by ironlion

[YRfan23]

While B&B lacks some of the production values of the past, I think it overall has one of the better looks of the current soaps. They are the only one that can still do remotes so you gotta give it to them. 
 

I actually think it was around till 2002/2003 Y&R had the best production but it honestly didn’t even look that bad past 2005 I would say….it’s been so cheap and tacky looking since JFPs reign imo. 
 

 

 

[kalbir]

Y&R production values were good until 2003. Burning down Gina's was a sign of things to come. Granted, that set had been around since Day 1 and it may have been retired due to age (probably getting too expensive to maintain).

[Khan]

CAPITOL might not have been the best-written or best-cast soap ever, but I definitely think it was the best-looking.

[Paul Raven]

I don't think Gina's was around since the debut.

The original Pierre's restaurant became The Allegro.Did the design change at that point under the guise of Leslie doing a revamp?

When amnesiac Les got involved with Jonas, they created a set for his club,(Oh the days of those kind of budgets!)

When Les returned to GC,Jonas followed so she had The Allegro transformed into a replica of his out of town club)

Obviously,they didn't want to waste the Jonas set and probably The Allegro was looking a little tired at that point.

Then Gina took over and that set became Gina's.

[kalbir]

@Paul Raven I always thought Pierre's/The Allegro/Jonas/Gina's were the same set. Perhaps I was wrong.

[Khan]

William Mickley's set designs for AMC throughout the '80's might have been on the cheap side, but they still managed to evoke the feeling of being in a small town on the Philadelphia Main Line.

[Broderick]

Pierre's was the same restaurant as Gina's, but it changed tremendously between 1973 and the burndown circa 2003.  The Allegro didn't resemble the original Pierre's very much, and Jonas's didn't resemble the Allegro very much, and Gina's didn't resemble Jonas's very much.   

[Planet Soap]

GOOD: ATWT despite shrinking sets still had decent presentation up to the end.

BAD: AMC and OLTL looked really cheap in the mid 2000s, coupled by cheap looking openings. AMC recovered when they moved the show to LA by the end of it's run.

[Sapounopera]

I liked the way both ATWT and GL looked during Robert Calhoun's time. 

Can it get worse than Days cartoon-like freeze frames?

[gtru1981]

Still miss Salem Place, the outdoor set Days used from the early 1990s to mind 2000s.

I believe it was the only soap to actually used an outdoor set, well at that time.

wish they could bring it back Instead of Horton Square. 

[carolineg]

I loved Salem Place.  You could see it from the street if you drove past the studio in Burbank.  

The last big set I remember Days doing is that huge set for Basic Black.   John had a humungous office with views lol.

The moment Marlena sold the penthouse (offscreen-while John was in a coma) I knew the money was gone for Days. 

[Khan]

Believe it or not, I once snuck onto the SP set while at the NBC studios to watch a taping of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."  (Don't worry, no one was there that afternoon, lol.). It was...a'ight.  Seeing it up close and personal, though, I realized - perhaps, for the very first time - how the television cameras can do wonders for sets, lol.

[carolineg]

I always wanted to take a set tour lol.  I would have probably gotten arrested for fangirling Deidre Hall too hard though.  I have only seen it from the street because I lived in LA and was going from point A to B.  There was a lot going on with that set.  It had the movie theater, the java cafe, places for people to walk and bump into one another, and all the store fronts.  It was cool even though I believe it probably wasn't as impressive as it looked.

[Khan]

To me, it just seemed like a lesser version of something I would see at Disneyland.  Then again, it's been a long, long, LONG time since I was impressed overall with DAYS' production values, lol.