Preserve Or Die: The Case For Professional Soap Archives

[DramatistDreamer]

I got sent this article a few weeks ago and am just getting around to reading it.

The headline that I saw was Preserve Or Die and it made me think of how tenuous a state (some would saying dying) the remaining daytime soaps are in and the looming possibility of a day where there are none that remain. I am fine with this tbh, as there are no daytime soaps that I still watch, even casually (I don’t judge anyone who still watches though) but it does gnaw at me that these companies that produce soaps place so little value on their creative property that they seem willing to let their holdings rot (literally).

Even B&B that has been uploading episodes from the beginning of their run has put up a surprising number of videos in terrible visual quality. I can only hope that someone is digitizing those episodes for future archiving, after the originals have been uploaded to YouTube.

Somehow, I can imagine many of these companies eventually coming to regret this neglect they’ve been showing their episode libraries.

https://variety.com/vip-special-reports/archiving-entertainment-a-special-report-1235260942/

[Jdee43]

I worry about the P&G archives. With P&G allowing no access to their old shows at all, maybe they will come to a point where they say to themselves why are we bothering to hold onto these tapes, and then decide to just junk everything 

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Edited May 18, 2022 by Jdee43

[DramatistDreamer]

I am so exasperated by P&G and their lack of effort. They go on and on about Irna Phillips and their part in her pioneering work, yet they make no visible effort to preserve that work. As much as they have gone on and on about their part in her legacy, I would)ave to think any preservation efforts would have been just as public and also would have been publicized.

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, I doubt that there's been any real effort at preservation. I'm sure they have been responsible for important papers to be placed in libraries & that sort of thing but I would be shocked if they'd done anything but maintain whatever they have, in whatever shape it is in. I think their stuff is too valuable to them to let anyone else in on it but not valuable enough for them to actively caretake.