Is there anywhere to find recaps pre 1995/1996

[SamandWillowFan]

Other than GH, I can’t find recaps for other soaps prior to 1995/1996.

[AbcNbc247]

Check out Jason47's Days site and the Another World Home Page

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, AW has synopses some of which were written up from scripts. Some from here, some from there, etc. The links are here & explanatory notes indicating what year ranges came from what sources. I don't know how good they are, just that they exist & they've been a labor of love for Eddie & Mike. The first link is the first year, 1964. 

 http://anotherworldhomepage.com/synopses.html

And Jason47 has DAYS way back although he also has gaps during the years Bill Bell was writing DAYS. But more is there than is missing by far!

Here's Jason explaining about missing weeks to me in an email & then the links to his pages: 

As you will see he has a LOT, too. 

So that's 2 NBC soaps. 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
more info

[Franko]

Would a moderator please move this thread to the Discuss The Soaps page? Thank you.

[BoldRestless]

What shows? Are you looking for daily, weekly, or monthly? Usenet has a lot of early 90s recaps, and there were tumblr accounts featuring Soap Opera Digest scans 70s-early 90s and weekly summaries from the late 70s/early 80s.

[Contessa Donatella]

https://www.usenetarchives.com/index.php

This is one Usenet Archive. There are others. When this guy began loading Usenet posts he started with 1981-1991 with the stated intention of continuing to add more. Soap discussion was first in Rec.Arts.TV & then a splinter group was created Rec.Arts.TV.Soaps so Usenet archives are one place to look. And that's all the search info you need.

(In 1995 there was another split into rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc, rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs & rec.arts.tv.soaps.misc and also about then some alt.* groups were formed like alt.something.days-of-our-lives etc. but that is all older than you want. So you can ignore this.)

In 1975 a woman named Bryna Laub ran an email soap updating service. She began by herself & by 1975 she had a half dozen employees & they did *I believe* weekly summaries of all soaps then on the air. At least one year, 1977, she put out a book of them, an Annual, which of course is out of print. I have no idea if a copy is findable to purchase. I looked 3 places for archives of her summaries online but didn't find any. So the book is the only realistic lead there. Back then I think most who did them did weekly, not daily. 

Hope this helps! Happy Hunting!

Edited August 12, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
combine 2 posts

[SamandWillowFan]

Thank you 

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay, here is an EON website with storyline synopses. I believe they are monthly, not weekly. But still a great resource back all the way to 1956 & only missing one year, 1970, for some unknown reason. 

https://edgehomepage.com/storylines.html

[Contessa Donatella]

Just found this in a 2014 post in "Ratings of the 60s". It's Matt's sig line at the time. No idea what years. Matt still has the same twitter acct & still does soaps, so, ... 

SOAP OPERA HISTORY TUMBLRS:
Classic Soap Opera Digest Covers
Vintage Weekly 1970s Soap Opera Recaps
Vintage Weekly DAYS Recaps
Vintage Weekly Capitol Recaps
CLASSIC SOAP OPERA DIGEST SYNOPSES TUMBLRS:
AMC - AW - ATWT - DAYS - The Doctors - EON - GH - GL- LOL - Loving - OLTL - RH - SFT - Y&R