The tone of your favorites soaps

[titan1978]

What would you say is the tone that comes to mind when you think of the soaps you have watched?  For me it’s mostly what they were when I started watching them, even if they moved on from that eventually.

GH- an adventure show, even during Labine’s realism it still had that energy.

DAYS- romance, romance, romance!

Y&R- moody and gothic, while also being kind of reserved.  Like old school Hollywood films.

OLTL- harder to pin down for me, but even in the 80’s it had an upper crust, northeast vibe.

AMC- Community, everyone knew everybody.

 

[Althea Davis]

BB - over the top, privilege, women crying because of paternity tests, rich people problems

SUNSET BEACH - free, young and fresh With a side of crazy 

 

 

[Faulkner]

AMC: Community, but with a touch of kitsch; almost like a British soap with its messy, meddling, sometimes sexy older characters and its sharp awareness of class differences that is very Agnes Nixon (the balance between the extreme wealth of Erica/Adam/Palmer with the more middle-class Martins and lower-class characters was very well handled)

ATWT: Community but somewhat cold and dark

GL: Community but with a warmer, more upbeat/uptempo feel than ATWT

OLTL: Fast-paced, East Coast urbanity/high society with several dollops of adventure, grit, irreverence, and masculine energy

GH: James Bond, mafia, intrigue; more about the families you create in your friends and coworkers than the family you’re born with (and, in the case of the Quartermaines, often felt trapped by, aside from Lila); masculine energy

Y&R: Film noir meets Douglas Sirk, Gothic melodrama, larger than life, as much about atmospheric, set decoration, lighting, blocking, and camera movement as it is about characters and stories

B&B: Like Y&R in some ways with more sleaze, brightness, and glamour; sometimes a bit stilted, artificial, and on the nose 

DAYS: big romance novel energy

[BoldRestless]

GH - Plot-oriented but different genres depending on the time period: could be medical, action-adventure, or mafia stuff. When SoapNet had that GH 50th marathon, I almost instinctively knew what big moments they would feature, even though I didn't watch much of it over the years and had only just begun viewing regularly.

 

Y&R - Old Hollywood, more like a novel come to life with rich subtext. For Y&R I don't think it terms of big moments (though there are many great ones) but characters and arcs that flowed naturally into the next, over decades.

 

B&B - More like a primetime Aaron Spelling kind of show in its heydey. Sometimes deliberately trashy.

 

ATWT - Homespun, middle class oriented. Snyder and Hughes family come to mind.

 

GL - Kind of like ATWT but different. Can't quite put my finger on why. GL was more romantic and heartfelt. I liked it more than ATWT.

[kalbir]

For CBS, I'd say the Bell shows are family/business conflict based and the P&G shows were community based.

[Planet Soap]

GH/Guiding Light: big city action adventure soap; Guiding light has more of a small community feel

OLTL- urban soap, dark campy storylines, touches of comedy

ATWT- conservative, multi generational community based soap

AMC- community based, multi income diverse soap, social issue oriented

B&B: trashy tabloid scandals surrounding rich glamorous people

Y&R: glamour, dark, moody, charachter driven, little comic relief; business executive focused, more individualistic than community

DAYS: high camp, reality bending stories with a touch of supernatural

[YRfan23]

Probably saying a lot that's been said, but sticking to the main 4 I've watched the most over the years.

PSSNs - Campy, Wacky, Dramady, Supernatural, Unrealistic, OTT characters.

DOOL - Also Campy and supernatural, but to a lesser extent then PSSNS, family oriented, Action Adventure, Super couples, Romance, Super Villains,  Comedic

Y&R - Moody, Gothic, Old Hollywood Style acting and Lighting, Dry subtle Humor, Cooler Characters that leave lasting impressions, Beautiful looking actors and actresses, psychological , rich, seductive, Business oriented, Lush and Lavish

B&B - Similar to Y&R in style and mood, scandalous, sexy, Incestuous, Glitz and Glamour, Beautiful Remotes, Campier then Y&R

Edited February 15, 2023 by YRfan23

[BoldRestless]

I agree with this. Classic Y&R's humor comes in the dialogue and the looks between characters.

[Melroser]

AW: Friends and family with humor thrown in. 

[GLATWT88]

GL: small town-y, wealthy and working class families, a big focus was family and family dynamic. 

I started watching around 2003, so my perception may be different. I feel like a lot issues from 2003-2007 when I mostly watched centered around family. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Depends on the era. The tone of these shows could shift and change depending on who is at the helm. I don’t think the tone was ever consistently the same for any of my favorite shows

[BetterForgotten]

Especially when you consider that much of the same writers and producers were passed around from show to show - that alone made each show seem shockingly generic and lacking in unique identity over the years. 

Unless the show stuck to being a pure auteur vision for an extended period of time (Bell’s Y&R or Slesar’s EON) or was totally uprooted (like Monty’s GH or Reilly’s DAYS), it became difficult over time for these shows to “stand out.” 

[Planet Soap]

This! 90s Guiding Light felt like a big/medium city more .than small town It reverted to even smaller town with the new production model.

One category I'd like to meditate on is the multi faceted soap. Dramas with a wide variety of plot themes. GH, DAYS, OLTL, ATWT and somewhat GL. Those shows had a consistent mix of action adventure, romance, business, medical, crime, mystery, sci fi and occasionally supernatural stories. Other soaps like Y&R, B&B and AMC all dabbled in different kinds of stories over the years but largely stuck to romance and business. 

Edited February 24, 2023 by ironlion

[Faulkner]

I just went with what I personally thought was the ideal tone of the shows I watched (or the tone of the time that best represented those soaps to me). In GH’s case, it’s what came to represent the “brand” in the popular imagination during the Monty era and persisted even through the relatively more grounded Riche/Labine era.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Faulkner

[titan1978]

That is my feeling too- Labine’s stint was more grounded, but it still felt like an overall action/adventure show.  Human drama around those situations.  Remember Robin learns Stone is HIV+ after he was hit in the leg in the mob shootout.