SOD

[j swift]

I remember that ironically when Mimi Torchin was interview on Daytime Confidential's podcast she was amazed that people remembered the photos in SOW.  She mentioned that she had previously edited the ABC-owned (and long forgotten) Episodes Magazine which featured lots of glossy editorial photoshoots with soap stars and given that SOW was published as a tabloid, she felt that the photos were often subpar.

I would greatly disagree.  I think we didn't know how good we had it back then when actors would pose specifically for the magazine.  The final page with photos like Kelly Ripa as the green fairy are imprinted on my memory. 

And where else could one reliably find ads for Princess Di collector plates, realistic (and spooky)porcelain baby dolls, and ponchos that doubled as a cape?

[Noel]

Somewhat, but more along the line with one's attitudes and belief systems and it all varies on a whole scale of ranges from demography to subpopulations (e.g., Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z). For example, if Target or Starbucks wanted to promote a salmon chard quinoa salad, do you think that would favor well in California or Alabama? Which age range do you think would buy that product? That's just a silly simple example, but yes, it's behavior. And yes, this SOD sales topic got me all nerdy inside, but it's a good feeling.

ETA: I get tickled when I read the tweets on Days of Our Lives on Twitter. You've got a little bit of everything from gender ->educational level -> age demographic. 

OMG, I know. I don't pay much attention to reality shows. I just find them silly and even the game "reality shows" are rigged AF (e.g., Survivor, Amazing Race, RuPaul's Drag Race) when the producers are behind the decisions in the first place. LOL! SOW put 'American Idol' on the front cover? Now, that's thirsty! 

Please register in order to view this content

Edited May 15, 2022 by Noel
Forgot to Mention Twitter

[Contessa Donatella]

Over the years the company that owned Digest & Weekly was owned by a wide variety of corporations who often as not, had no idea what to do with them. When they were owned by a company that owned lots of niche publishers, they had a fighting chance.

Weekly, the company that owned them & Lynn Leahey all really did Mimi wrong. I hit upon her farewell to Weekly just the other day in my FB Memories so she must've just had an anniversary of. She's a very happy married lady, to a sweet young thing, who is learning watercolor right now. She's very good! Not to worry, they are as out as it is possible to be. I always thought it odd that the publishing companies that owned the soap mags each owned two. Of course the number of mags started diminishing many years ago.

I do understand things like demos, age groups, lifestyle groups, etc. both from an advertsing & a sociology perspective.

[Contessa Donatella]

For a long time the bias was toward DOOL & Y&R. I mean, it may not be fair to say bias, since they had statistics to show what covers sold! Eric Braeden big seller. MTS Q score out the roof. Of course, the editors for AW, ATWT, GL, AMC, OLTL advocated for their shows. Mostly I did not read Hinsey. 

[Contessa Donatella]

I really liked a soap mag that I think was out of Atlanta, SOD size, called Soap Opera News (maybe it was Soap Opera Now) with a triumvirate of 3 editors, Michael Kape, Don West & Joanna last-name-I-forget. Michael would come to our weekly chats on AW on the Delphi Soap Forum & they were the only mag that ever attempted to report on the ratings, what they meant & what caused changes, etc. Michael's still around.

I don't know anything about NBC's opinion with regard to PSSN but it was well known that they really had their nose out of joint over the anti-DOOL bias of the Emmys. Since it was accepted that there was such an anti-DOOL bias of the Daytime Emmys, there really wasn't much to say & then DOOL under JER ran with demonic possession & no one cared anymore that there was an anti-DOOL bias because they were just off on a walk on the dark side. Still today they think they should get Emmy recognition despite more than half of their stories being a schlock fest! They have real talent in actors & it doesn't matter as long as they are so disrespectful of the genre. It's amazing that the market supported as many mags as it did, say, in the '90s. Month, Update, News, Dish, Bauer Publications in NJ had In Depth & one other I can't think of, ... They all fell far behind when it came time to have a web presence, too.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Tonksadora
Maybe it was Soap Opera Now.

[Contessa Donatella]

Please register in order to view this content

This is just Wikipedia & there may be other figures shown elsewhere. But, some of what you think of off the top of your head are Missing Persons here.

[soapfan770]

LOL @Noel They sure did!! See below:

 

[DRW50]

I  agree. The covers and photo shoots for SPW were terrific through a lot of the '90s, especially the first half. I sometimes  wonder how much Torchin may have just been burnt out by that point. I still remember how many weeks in her last years writing editorials for SPW she seemed more interested talking about English Patient or primetime shows rather than daytime.

[Soapsuds]

The last SOW I bought was in 1997 ....

 

Please register in order to view this content

And of course I bought the tribute magazine of ATWT.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

There was discussion of Carolyn Hinsey in this thread & of her book. Full disclosure: I am not a fan of her, as a person or as a soap journalist. But, when her book came out I got it & read it & blogged it. I blog a lot of soap stuff. I included all of the chapter heads & sub-heads because that should help people decide if they want to read it.  If you want to read the whole thing, it's not long, PM me. But, I wanted to quote myself, here:

“Thank you to Patty McGreevey for letting us turn her bar, Blondies, into a Soap Opera Clubhouse for charity events – raising almost $100,000 over the years.” [ I have only the very fondest memories (and some pictures) of soap events held at Blondies over the years culminating for me in the two June AW Fan Events we held there after the show was over including both Linda Dano Day and the dedication of the AW Fan Bench in Central Park.]

...

This book is 250 pages but it seems like there must be more because there is so much information written in such a delightful way that it is dense with data. Carolyn Hinsey as a resource is like she's today's Christopher Schemering or someone else as full of factoids.

I disagree with her about when GL was canceled. She said it was in March. But, it was on April 1^st, April Fools' Day and that was much written and talked about everywhere. More disagreement comes from me about GL: I blame EP John Conboy and his HW Ellen Weston for hammering in coffin nails. ...

I agree with her about P&G and CBS micromanaging GL & ATWT in their final years. It's the only thing I can come up with that happened too much to ATWT EP Chris Goutman to explain the change in him. The same man did not oversee the final years of AW and the final years of ATWT. In a Q&A with DIGEST's own ATWT Editor at the time, Jennifer Lenhart, Goutman said outright that he didn't pay any attention to fan feedback, further stating that he didn't want to get thoughts from the fans and that he knew what was right for the show, not the fans. Maybe that man had been beaten down too many times.

I agree with her about how devastating it was for Jill Farren Phelps to kill off Maureen Bauer. I like to say that 'Mo was a Reardon by birth, a Bauer by marriage, Michele's mother, seen by many fans as the inheritor of Bert's matriarchy, a tentpole legacy character and Roger's only friend, … she was lost to the ages. Jill didn't even have the guts to tell Ellen Parker in person. They were both at the studio that day but Jill waited until Parker had gone home and called her with the bad news. Of course, there's no mention of the fact that Jill with Margaret de Priest killed off Frankie Frame in a gruesome murder on AW.

There's also no discussion of innovative things that happened on THE CITY and on PORT CHARLES, the little soap that could.

But, by and large, what can be found in this book is an astounding attempt to relate everything about soaps – from history to demise. She also does a fine job predicting what could and should be done to save soaps. If you asked me I would add that the soaps should have been shortened back to the half hour format. And, I remain convinced that today's modern soaps could have been mounted on the web. The fact that Prospect Park couldn't do it is more a reflection of what they thought than of raw potential.

If you're a soap fan and you buy only 1 book about soaps this year, let it be this book.

And, the fact that I wrote that last line is what decided me to do the unusual, and quote myself. Remember, this is about someone I don't even like.

[Noel]

LOL! I like the subtitle there: "It's Like a Soap!" OMG! That's so thirsty!