What was it like to be around during the glory days of soaps? (Pre-2000's)

[SoapAnon]

I'm a new soap fan and I'm decades late to the party.  I didn't get to see the glory years of soaps and it sounds like I really missed out.

What was it like to be around during the glory days of soaps (or prior to the 2000's)? How many of the soaps did you watch? How did you choose between them? How did you manage working and stuff around their daytime schedule?

Edited February 11, 2023 by SoapAnon

[Faulkner]

Paging @vetsoapfan

[dragonflies]

It was amazing, OLTL, GH in the 80s and 90s OMG yes! 80s GH was the height of the show IMO. as was the early 90s 

[DramatistDreamer]

Speaking only for myself but as a kid in the 80s, I got into it seeing my mom watch sometimes. She worked outside the home and when her shift changed, I wanted to record her soaps for her and taught myself how to program a VCR and soon found myself wanting to get home early at least to catch the end of what soon became my favorite soap.
It’s the feeling of anticipation, really wanting to get home to see what happens next. And if there was a lineup of soaps that you watched, it felt like there was always a storyline to grab your attention and hook you.

It’s the agony and ecstasy of wanting a story to unfold (will the villain’s dubious deeds finally be revealed? Will the long suffering characters finally feel relief and resolution? Will torn apart lovers finally be reunited?), even as you enjoy the story and performances all the way. It’s the absolute certainty that, even as one story ends, another story is unfolding and will be just as compelling.

It’s the feeling of everything be laid out in front of your eyes and not seeing the limits even when there was executive and/or network interference, etc. Just artists being innovative and creative. Not being obsessed with behind the scenes, just enjoying what’s in front of you onscreen.

[Paul Raven]

Watching and having no idea what was to unfold-no spoilers, BTS info. Not being able to watch everyday (pre VCRs)

I recall an episode of Y&R where Jill and Kay were arguing and Jill held a letter opener behind her back.Of course the scene didn't finish that day and we were left wondering would Jill stab Kay etc. Then the next day it didn't happen but the tension and anticipation was palpable.

I wonder what it is like for today's soap watchers who watch cold w/o any outside knowledge-is it the same feeling for them as it was back in the day?

[Contessa Donatella]

Welcome to soap fandom! 

My mother watched ATWT on CBS & then switched to NBC to watch both DOOL & AW. So, that's what I began watching, too. Last year @victoriafoxton found this guy uploading to YouTube DOOL early stuff. I knew what the first storyline I remembered seeing was so then I knew what dates I had begun watching & it was the first week in August in 1977. Bill Bell was the HW for DOOL then & Pat Falken Smith was his second in command of the writing. At the time I knew nothing about the making of the shows! Of course, I didn't know it at the time but I now know it was classic Bill Bell, classic DOOL, iconic, one of soap's early great rivalries, etc. As it happens I just posted this story elsewhere yesterday & I'm going to post it here, too. It's long. But, it will give you a feel for soaps then. 

Susan and Julie was was one of those classic Bill Bell rivalries. They started out as best friends. Susan came from a broken home and was unhappy. Julie was dating a rich bad boy, David Martin, who her family didn't like. They were supposed to elope. Julie didn't show up to elope, David thought that Julie no longer loved him. David met up with Susan, they got drunk and had sex. As the way these things end up, Susan got pregnant. Tom Horton talked her out of getting an illegal abortion. Susan and David married with a plan to give the baby up for adoption after he was born. After giving birth, Susan saw the baby and couldn't go through with the adoption plan. This pissed off Julie who was planning to reunite with David after the baby was adopted out. Susan wouldn't give David a divorce and Julie started pressuring David. Julie saw a "moment" between Susan, David and baby Dickie that looked like David was enjoying his new little family and freaked out. Julie then used her feminine wiles to lure David away, seducing him and eventually starting a full blown affair with him. Julie convinces David to run away. Susan and David's baby dies. Susan goes temporarily insane and shoots and kills David. In one of the best soap trials ever Micky Horton brings his niece Julie on the stand and pretty much reveals her to be the town tramp, that she was planning to run away with Susan's husband and also reveals that she's pregnant with David's baby. Salem is in shock and Julie becomes the town pariah. Even Tom Horton is on Susan's side. Julie gives her baby up for adoption and leaves town. The baby is adopted by the Bannings. Julie returns to town and wants her baby back. Meanwhile Scott Banning's wife has died and Susan and Scott have gotten closer. So basically Susan is helping raise Julie and David's baby. Julie, once again, uses her feminine wiles and gets Scott into bed and eventually he marries her. Julie did all this because 1) she really did want her son back but she also wanted to 2) screw over Susan. Julie marries Scott and then renames the baby David. Susan, wanting revenge against Julie brings Doug Williams to town to seduce Julie and the rest is history.

 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

I have NOT WATCHED these soaps: LOL, STORM, EON, RH, Y&R, SOM, TX, PSSN. The list of soaps that I have watched, all of the rest of them, is too long!

When I was in high school & attending class, technically I wasn't "watching" but my mother told me everything that happened every day. The Hortons were discussed at the dinner table as if they were family friends. During college different people would be able to see one day & they would fill everybody else in. The seniors & grad students I knew all arranged their class schedules so they could see LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING. But, all the underclassmen watched DOOL & AW & the ABC fans watched AMC & OLTL. Then came work life but by then there were mags & you could read recaps. And, I bought a Betamax video recorder as soon as they went on sale. At that time I taped & watched & taped over

Please register in order to view this content

for the full NBC line-up GEN, AW, DOOL & SB. In 1985 I got an IBM PC jr & my first modem, 14.4K dial-up & went online & found other soap fans. 

With a lifetime of soap watching ongoing & meeting my soulmate through soap fandom, I now watch DOOL & GH but my favorite soaps are: (1) AW, (2) GL and (3) SB. If someone would just stream them I would watch them over. 

Edited February 12, 2023 by Tonksadora
just had a thought

[jam6242]

I took them for granted, for one thing.  Didn't imagine there would be so few around when I got older.  I think I watched most that were on the air in the 70s, to varying degrees.  I could only watch when I was out of school though.  My mom watched the NBC soaps, so she could catch me up on those if I had questions.  I would sometimes get home from school in time to watch the shows that came on in late afternoon.  There used to be synopses in newspapers for the others, and then Soap Opera Digest.  I remember calling a phone line to get synopses too.  I would channel surf if my favorite soaps weren't showing anything I was interested in.  Had a radio that could pick up tv broadcasts, once I left school.  Bought a vcr in the 80s, which obviously made keeping up easier, but I also cut down on the number of shows I watched, as I didn't have as much free time.

[DramatistDreamer]

Didn’t TV Guide used to do a brief weekly synoptic of the soaps too or am I mistaken?

I remember there used to be these intriguing ads for some soaps with photos of different characters from their respective shows. I can’t really imagine any of today’s daytime soaps getting that type of ad space in mainstream media (then again, TV Guide itself is no longer the ubiquitous periodical it used to be) on a regular basis, without the story being a cancellation or an anniversary or an appraisal of a specific actor.

Do people remember Clarence and his radio commentary on soaps like Y&R? I think I first saw him doing promos for CBS Daytime, then I went away to college and realized he had an entire radio show (before the big conglomerates swooped in, carved up and ultimately wrecked terrestrial radio)

[Planet Soap]

I sympathize with this thread's question. It must have been great to have a plethora of shows with great storytelling unfolding every weekday afternoon, and watch it live. 

Growing up in the 2000s I thought soaps were the greatest thing until vintage YouTube clips made me realize how far they'd fallen. The only good thing about today is the ability to DVR soaps. 

There's so little left on the air air that you watch all three tv soaps back to back on many markets (12:30-3pm).

Edited February 13, 2023 by ironlion

[Contessa Donatella]

Did he do a broadcast style voice but talk quite fast to get in as much as possible? 

[Kane]

I became a soap watcher in the mid-90s when I was in middle school. If I was home during the day, then I watched the ABC block from beginning to end, checking in with other soaps during commercials. If I was at school, then I taped one show during the week and watched the episodes over the weekend - which soap that was usually depended on which show best hooked me during the summer. I was pretty ABC loyal, but I was a daily Guiding Light viewer for a while, and Sunset Beach was pretty big with me and my friends.

I was lucky because at the time in Canada the affiliate aired Days at 4 and Y&R at 5, so I could watch both of those daily, and so did seemingly everyone else. There was also a show called Northwest Afternoon that aired at 3 and had 15-20 segment dedicated to recapping the day's soaps, so it was easy to keep up with what was going on even when I wasn't watching a certain show, which in turn made it easy to pick up a new (to me) show.

Soap magazines were plentiful and easy to find and occasionally a publication would put out special editions (I still have special issues dedicated to soaps' "Greatest Couples" and "Greatest Moments" put out by Soap Opera Update in 97 or 98) that filled you in on the major stuff that happened before you became a viewer.

The idea that the genre could die out wasn't really on the radar because there was always talk about potential new soaps being pitched and some of them even came to fruition. I remember eagerly anticipating the debuts of Sunset Beach, Port Charles, and Passions because they were opportunities to get to watch a show from the very beginning.

[Contessa Donatella]

I loved PC!! I called it The Little Soap That Could! Poor thing, it desperately needed to be tucked in between AMC & OLTL! A bunch of half hour soaps that aired at/around lunchtime as the first soap of the day, all failed. 

[Soapsuds]

The glory days of soaps was fantastic!!  I watched all the CBS soaps and dabbled sometimes with GH in the late 80s and the Kim Zimmer years on Santa Barbara. My mom was a CBS soap watcher so I got hooked because of her with nighttime too ie Dallas and Knots Landing. I was at school at the time so I recorded them on my Sony vcr.  I recall a few times forgetting to set the vcr and I'd remember at school and would rush to the public phone to call home and tell my mother to hit the record button on my vcr.

Please register in order to view this content

The soaps were so popular that the school cafeteria had the tv on YR during the lunch hour. Students had to see Nina shoot David Kimble. A usual loud cafeteria was silent as everyone was glued to the TV. When Nina shot David the cafeteria erupted in cheers. So loud that the principal came running to see what was going on.

Edited February 12, 2023 by Soapsuds

[kalbir]

I was too young for most of the 1980s but I was there for the tail end of that decade plus the early 1990s. I was a CBS fan and the best era for CBS daytime was Spring 1989 to Summer 1992, all four soaps hit their stride plus the game show block. Then came three pivotal events of 1993 (GL kills off Maureen Bauer, Douglas Marland passed away, Bradley takes over the reigns at B&B from his father) and Summer 1994 OJ pre-emptions. Daytime was never the same in the aftermath of OJ.