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

[victoria foxton]

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Edited February 13, 2023 by victoria foxton

[KLN]

I grew up watching the CBS soaps with my mom who recorded them on VHS and watched when she got home from work every day.

(When I was younger she used Y&R as my naptime so I fell asleep to Nadia's Theme as a toddler.)

I remember Kay vs Jill, Cricket vs. Phyllis, Dru and Olivia, Nina, Sheila vs. Lauren, all the Brooke/Ridge/Taylor/Thorne/Macy bedhopping, Sally Spectra, Carly vs. Rosanna, James Stenbeck, Lily and the Grimaldi's, Roger and Dinah, Buzz and Jenna, Annie vs. Reva, etc.

I was lucky to find Days right at the start of Reilly's first run in 1992/1993. I saw J&M's affair, Buried Alive, Maison Blanche, Aremid, Possession, Sami vs. Carrie, Kristen vs. Marlena, JLB's Laura, 'Gina' (Hope) and the puzzle box, Jack/Jennifer/Peter, Vivian vs. Kate, the Secret Room, Stefano's obsession with Marlena, Lady in a Cage, etc. I recorded it on VHS and watched after school every day. It was legendary!

From there I started watching Another World and Sunset Beach but neither held my interest like Days. (I still miss Annie Douglas and Aunt Bette.)

I got into the ABC soaps (mostly AMC and OLTL) more towards the late 90's.

Edited February 12, 2023 by KLN

[dragonflies]

I grew up with AMC, OLTL and GH when my sister in law baby sat me and my brother. When I lived with my grandma she got me hooked on YR and Days lol

I eventually gave up DAYS for BOLD 

[Broderick]

It was a different time.  Soaps were more mainstream.  Most Americans tended to watch TV when they congregated in a house, or when they were home alone.  There were pretty much 3 networks to choose from.  

If a kid -- or a group of kids -- sat down in the living room during the daytime on summer break, Christmas break, or spring break, your viewing choice was a soap opera, a soap opera, or a soap opera.  lol.  

As a result, they became an integral part of the 1970s/1980s American culture.  

Some people hated them, some people were connoisseurs of them, and others (probably the majority) had a passing knowledge of them in a casual manner.  You might not know who Laura Webber's parents were, or why Amy Vining lived in the house with them, but you probably knew that Luke had raped Laura in a disco, and now they were on some exciting adventure.  You might not know exactly why Mrs. Chancellor hated Jill so much, but you knew that if they crossed paths, it was going to be messy.   

You could turn on the radio in the early 1980s (or go to a dance), and a song would play called "General Hospi-tale" about the storylines on General Hospital.  That's just how mainstream the entire experience was. 

Most of us who were alive then probably thought the cultural significance of soaps would continue far into the future.  That wasn't the case.   

[kalbir]

Would you say that the 1970s were the peak of soaps in terms of impact to the genre and the 1980s were the peak of soaps in terms of impact in pop culture?

Many of us feel that soaps never really recovered from the aftermath of OJ but could the decline have started nearly a decade earlier w/ Summer 1987 Iran-Contra pre-emptions and 1988 Writer's Strike?

[vetsoapfan]

Thank you for thinking of me. Over the years, I've vehemently complained (many would say ad nauseum, LOL) about how the quality of the medium has dive-bombed since the golden age of soap operas. Long-time readers of SON are surely well aware of my opinions by now.

The main thing I would like to reiterate is, that during daytime dramas' halcyon years (the 1950s-1970s for most shows, into the 1980s for a lesser number of them, and then into the 1990s for a few), high-quality material was to be expected. It was maintained by many/most soaps on a consistent basis. If individual programs faltered, steps were taken within a reasonable time to correct the problems (obviously weak/incompent PTB were replaced). Viewers could simply take intelligent, well-produced drama for granted. The cracks started to appear in the 1980s, with the crippling science-fiction/fantasy craze, and got worse over the decades that followed. Shows' individual nature and unique identities were gutted, as veteran actors were jettisoned, as history was ignored, and finally, as soaps  in general seemed to become dumbed down for gum-chewing high-school drop-outs who moved their lips when they read. (Excuse the sarcasm.) Poorly-chosen writers and producers, who failed miserably at one show, were routinely shuffled to another one, only to fail there too. It was (and is) unfathomable how proven incompetence can be rewarded by consistently employing the incompetent to wreak havoc on multiple shows, with similar damaging results at each one. Irna Phillips, Agnes Nixon, William J. Bell, Henry Slesar, Claire Labine, Douglas Marland, Pat Falken Smith and other writers of their ilk being rotated among soaps was a blessing. James Reilly, Ron Carlivati, Thom Racina, Charles Pratt, Megan McTavish, Hogan Sheffer, Jean Passanante, etc.? Not so much, in my personal, curmudgeonly opinion. 

During my most obsessed/addicted period in the 1970s (soaps' very best decade IMHO), I followed most of the shows on the air. God only knows how I juggled them all. I would alternate watching or recording some of them which were on competing networks at the same time, but there were several dramas that I would never miss if I could help it. I thought the glory days would go on forever, but by the end of the 1980s, I was down to following only a handful of shows, and in the 1990s, it was only Claire Labine's General Hospital, Douglas Marland's ATWT  and Nancy Curlee's TGL that captivated me. 

All this to say: watching the good old days of soaps was a blessing, and I am happy knowing what the medium was capable of; the heights it soared to at its peak. That's why seeing what it has disintegrated into today is so heartbreaking.

 

Edited February 12, 2023 by vetsoapfan

[Contessa Donatella]

If when you speak of the decline you are primarily speaking of ratings, we probably need to go further back. Look at these ratings (below).  Of course, the way ratings were computed changed multiple times so the numbers don't compare one-for-one, exactly. But, the point is made. I have a friend who says he can prove mathematically that broadcast ratings for all shows always were going to experience decline until they died or were cancelled. This shows peak ratings long before soaps had even reached what anyone calls their golden age. So, in the 70s & 80s perfectly acceptable ratings were already less than the monster ratings shows got in the 50s & 60s. But, production quality in those 70s & 80s was better than in those 50s & 60s. You make a good point with those pre-emptions & that strike. Many people point to it as the start of something at least "not good".

1952–1953 Season

• 1. Search for Tomorrow 16.1 (Current record for daytime soap ratings)
• 2. Love of Life 15.1
• 3. Hawkins Falls 13.7

[Broderick]

I'd say the "lack of ironclad rules", the creativity, and the willingness to "push the envelope" made the 1970s a golden period for the unpredictability of the genre, really encouraging more and more people to watch.  By the early 1980s, the pop culture aspect was fully evident.  

As for the decline, it began (for my generation) with the advent of MTV in 1981.  In the very early years of MTV, a lot of homes still didn't have cable or dish TV, so MTV wasn't as much of a diversion.  Also, MTV was more "niche" in its early years, playing mostly rock and metal, with very little dance music or rhythm & blues.  By about 1983-1985, with the increasing popularity of Prince and Michael Jackson, MTV had to change their programming in order to maintain any sort of relevance.  MTV gradually evolved into a channel resembling the type of music we were all listening to on the radio, and "dorm viewership" (for lack of a better term) of MTV began increasing among adolescents at a surprising rate, meaning that soap viewership in dorms began declining in a corresponding manner. 

With the "discovery" of MTV among my generation, there was also an increase in viewership of the two cable "pioneer superstations" -- TBS out of Atlanta and WGN out of Chicagoland.  Not to mention ESPN and CNN Headline News. 

By about 1987, I really noticed much more time was being spent on MTV, TBS, WGN, ESPN, and CNN than on the three traditional networks, at least among my own friends.  

I believe the Iran Contra scandal in 1987 -- which preempted the soaps (for days or weeks) -- definitely exacerbated the trend away from network viewership during daytime hours among Generation X viewers. 

The generation older than mine (Boomers) likely still watched the three networks in greater numbers than my own generation (Gen X), and the OJ preemptions were kind of the "last straw" for them, leading them to embrace cable in the manner my own generation had done a decade earlier.        

Edited February 13, 2023 by Broderick

[Faulkner]

You’d watched soaps when they were truly in their “golden age.”

Elana Levine in her book Her Stories mentioned that soaps’ lucrativeness for the networks peaked in 1984 with about $1.25 billion in ad sales. It was mostly downhill from there.

[vetsoapfan]

Yes, once upon a time, soaps were both hugely profitable for the networks AND capable of providing high-quality, absorbing drama that kept millions of viewers hooked for years/decades/generations of families.

Those days are long gone, alas.

 

 

[Soaplovers]

I remember the late 80s (around 1988 or so) on DAYs when you had the magic of Patch/Kayla and their beautiful wedding on the boat.. and Cruz/Eden's wedding as well.  Those were memorable times for late 80s NBC soapdom.

The late 80s and early 90s was the last time that soaps were consistently good.. even the worst quality at the time (SB, Loving, AW) were tons better then the content that is considered suitable nowadays.

[Planet Soap]

Would you say all soaps should have never touched the ultra-melo dramatic material or should have been a balance with shows old-school stage play feeling while others went over the top?

SB: Outside of medical and supernatural,  I'm surpirsed the genere never went for more distinction between soaps like primetime. A few comedy soaps here and there, a legal soap etc.. Largely all daytime dramas have been about the same with a few subtle differences. 

[Broderick]

Those variations were attempted. 

The Edge of Night very successfully mastered the "legal/crime/who done it" for decades (from 1956 till 1984), and I believe an NBC soap ("Somerset") used the same formula in the middle 1970s, utilizing Edge of Night's head writer.

In 1976, a late-night, syndicated soap attempted the comedy route ("Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"), with limited success.  (The strain of writing comedy daily and perfecting it in the performances are pretty evident if you happen to catch a rerun of the show.)  A once-per-week ABC primetime soap (called "Soap") used the comedy formula with much greater success (from 1977 to 1980), as the once-per-week schedule allowed them far more time to perfect the writing and the delivery of each episode.    

[Contessa Donatella]

I know that the people who worked on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, say that they were not a soap, that they were a satire of a soap. 

But, soaps definitely attempted to make comedy a part of their shows after a certain point. Santa Barbara did. Another World did. I'm sure there are more. It's an element Elana Levine talked about in HER STORIES. 

I know that Stephen J. Cannell pitched a lawyer soap but NBC made Sunset Beach instead. 

[Paul Raven]

In the late 60's CBS were making more money from daytime than their #1 primetime schedule.

As for the lack of diversity in soaps, I think this was pretty much due to the inherently conservative nature of the networks-they liked the tried and true. This was just as evident in primetime.

Quite often, anything outside the box that worked was regarded as the exception to the rule.

In daytime the innovations eg soaps in the morning, teen orientated (Never Too Young) gothic (Dark Shadows) never really took off. 

CBS /Irna pushed the envelope with interracial romance on Love Is A Many Splendore Thing but it was soon dropped.

Only Agnes Nixon really had success with more daring plots but she was smart to incorporate plenty of traditional soap stories also.

So Gloria Monty incorporating sci/fi adventure really was an innovation that worked and other shows followed. But it was another nail in the coffin along with the 60 min format and the 'star system'.