Are soaps in danger of extinction?

[Planet Soap]

This is true. Im just sad the genre (and broadcast tv as a whole) is dying in my adulthood when I'm old enough to appreciate it. 

[Faulkner]

I totally agree. So much of popular culture (from music to cinema to literature and newspapers) is dying due to the fracturing of the old monoculture, and I’m certainly grieving it to an extent. Streaming has been a godsend for TV in many ways but most stuff serves a niche these days, which has its pros and cons. Everything is preaching to the choir nowadays. The stuff that breaks through to find a huge audience feels less interesting to me than it did in the past. Very calculated and algorithm-determined.

One of the great things about Spotify is that you can dig into all kinds of old music. There’s so much that I’ve never listened to that I can discover. It may not be new music, but it’s new to me. I wish we had something similar for the soaps. I don’t need new soap content when I could dig deeper into the old stuff, which often holds up way better than I thought it would. (Certainly, the stuff from the ‘70s and early ‘80s was in many ways more progressive than what GH, Y&R, B&B, and DAYS are putting out today, even accounting for the LGBT inclusiveness that didn’t exist then.) Give me ‘70s DAYS before any new soap. Let’s make some effort to preserve this history, which most people alive haven’t seen. But that’s also a tough ask. Classic soap is a niche, and I’m not sure the ROI is there for it.

Edited October 29, 2022 by Faulkner

[Contessa Donatella]

I think this is the perfect time for some streaming service to find a way to access classic episodes! DOOL has all but Season 2 (lost to a fire). AMC I believe starts with 1976! RH & OLTL & DS of course are full or nearly full libraries, as is THE DOCTORS which is on Retro TV. Five 5 P&G soaps begin with 79/80. I want to watch Bill Bell's DOOL again! I can't get enough classic AW. Early AMC would be like eating dessert! It's getting those tapes, having them digitized & curating them. But, getting them is the rub right now. Dammittohell. So, I strongly agree with you about wanting it and it being a tough nut to crack.

[SteelCity]

I does suck that we have 10 ESPN channels, but not a single soap channel. SOAPNet really screwed itself, and I'll die on that hill.

[Contessa Donatella]

We almost had two, no three. Ted Turner floated/pitched a package of 4 channels including a Classic Soap Channel & The History Channel & 2 others. Only the History channel got made. Then, Sony's SOAPCity website was almost a channel, too, but it fell through. Disney did mount SOAPnet & at first they ran it well. RH from the beginning, AW from I think 1987. Later on it really was mismanaged. ABC/Disney Daytime Head Brian Frons, who hated soaps, a real #SoapKiller, turned it into *another* Disney Jr. channel. Yes, what we need more of - teen, pre-teen, sports and above all NEWS!

[SteelCity]

I used to love the Dysfunctional Family Night, and my afternoons of dynasty and Knots Landing. I just wish they had stuck with that formula. No one asked for One Tree Hill/The O.C. and 90210! I just wish they would have showed Loving/The City.

[Contessa Donatella]

There's a guy on twitter who also runs a soap YT channel who is soon going to start showing The CITY from scratch through to the end. I'm subscribed to his channel but have never been because he has no AW, tons of OLTL, some AMC, etc. But I'm going to go once he begins with THE CITY. I will watch it over! Do you want his info?

Oh, yeah, I complete agree about One Tree Hill & 90210.

Edited October 29, 2022 by Tonksadora
more

[SteelCity]

That would be great! I'm about to start Spyder Games from the beginning as well.

[Contessa Donatella]

Where? I have always wanted to see Spyder Games!

Just a sec.

Okay, here he is:

Rad Rockefeller (he/him)

@Rad_Rockefeller

Follows you

 

Documenting Soap Operas, one juicy story at a time! Check out my YouTube channel below for all my Soap Opera Documentaries, Catfights, & Top 10 countdowns!

youtube.com/c/CarToob

[SteelCity]

Spyder games is on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/spydergamer/videos

Edited October 29, 2022 by SteelCity

[Contessa Donatella]

Thnx!

[SteelCity]

It's gets a lot of flack, but I think it was pretty good. I wonder where Shawn Batten is?

[Contessa Donatella]

Just as long as you're not looking for Susan Batten, who actually was on GH on that Home & Hearth show where Sasha went ballistic. Susan Batten was an unfortunate part of the

ABC-ification of ATWT when Allyson Rice-Taylor got fired & "replaced" as Connor BITD. I still have nightmares. She was a typical Oakdale high profile business woman. Batten didn't know what to do so she dusted her mini-blinds in her office.

[SteelCity]

I don't even know who that is!

[Planet Soap]

My sentiments  exactly. 

This! I get that SOAPnet was ABC centric but more CBS and NBC soaps should've gotten airtime.

SOAPnet could have been so much more than it was. Classic episodes should have been more frequent, it could have been like the Turner Classic Movies of daytime. Anything other than constant Beverly Hills 90210 reruns and OLTL episodes from two years prior dubbed "classic", at 8am.