Best/Worst Production Value Periods on Soaps

[Planet Soap]

DAYS looks atrocious. GH has nice sets but the lighting is awful.

[DemetriKane]

!!!!! I agree with that!

[John]

Yep and by mishandling, I for one dont think PP needed to do cater meals every day. Save that cash and put into the episodes

[Contessa Donatella]

Does anyone understand why DOOL looks blue?

[Gray Bunny]

 

Yikes. Right around the time DAYS was gearing up for their 50th anniversary, with their returns of Steve and Bo, suddenly everything was lit with a greenish hue and it stayed that way at least through 2016. Nowadays whenever it's nighttime in Salem, everything is lit up with a harsh blue, like it's a very bright moonlight even indoors. I don't get it. 

At least get back to the moody dark shadows of the mid 90's (think: Aremid, etc.) to help cover up the cheapness of the sets. 

Speaking of Aremid, I definitely appreciated DAYS' production values in the 90's up to the mid-2000's, when sets were large, mostly lit properly, and sets of homes and establishments had multiple parts to them, instead of just one flat room that everyone goes in and out of like a highschool play. 

 

Edited May 16, 2022 by Gray Bunny

[Liberty City]

Yes, unfortunately it did, and it still semi-happens. According to one of the soap magazines (I believe Soap Opera Digest) reported they updated to 4K lights, which with non-4K cameras can end up looking like the result we had from the end of 2015 to now. But, we've seen with their Day of DAYS cameras and their YouTube-exclusive filmed content that things can look rich with the proper use of cameras. Plus, the change also happened when they brought in Albert Alarr. May be coincidence, but still makes me wonder.

[MichaelGL]

The only time DAYS seemed to be regaining some ground back in regards to production quality, was when Ed Scott was EP. However that didn't last long. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Apparently production quality is too expensive for them.

 

[Liberty City]

Looking back at it, their production value reminds me of how [some] British soaps are producing, and it's sad they couldn't continue. However... the fact the doors opened backwards always felt like a mistake they should have fixed.

Yet they keep an ever-revolving door of talent, and their regular cast list is one of the longest in current American daytime history.

[John]

Yeah I would hate doors like that

[Contessa Donatella]

I'd said that DOOL can't afford production values, and you'd replied as above.

 

Okay, they can't afford to keep cast on permanent full time like what everyone is used to, so they devised this rotation where they literally rotate contract players on & off affecting how they tell stories & how the fans experience seeing too much of one or more characters & none of others. Did this count of cast list size take into account their rotation? And, that's supposedly the reason KA left, they wanted to rotate her off for 6 months then bring her back with some again supposedly fantastic storyline with a Navy seal (Who thinks of these pitches?) What am I missing? All I see & hear & read convinces me that they are broke.

[Maxim]

Bold was the best from 1989 to 1993... consistent till 1999... cheaper and cheaper till 2005... but still okay... then next 10 years it looked cheap as hell... and from 2016 till now... its like a school project at moments.