When and Why did Soaps Start Making Fun of Themselves? And has That Trend Led to the End??

[DramatistDreamer]

Someone posted an early 1980s episode of As The World Turns over the weekend and I posted my appreciation for the detail contained in a sequence involving a veteran actress on the show. The intricate camera work highlighting the actress’ facial expressions, the subtle music. It was so subtle that, if you didn’t know what to look for, it might pass unnoticed but for me, the timing of it all…it was art! Do the people making these shows today believe that they are genuinely making art? 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

I can honestly say that Irna's inclusion is the only thing that makes me glad I have that book! We think of her as inventing all of the tropes & all of the cliches of traditional televised soap operas & here she was being modern & forward-thinking about throwing out one of them & they didn't want to listen to her! Other people, like Lee Phillip Bell, without any reservation at all, call her a genius. 

Personally I think soaps have always had a sense of humor about themselves. But BITD that was not negative or destructive, just self-deprecating. 

Now, I completely agree that the whole industry has a horrible self-esteem issue. People honestly do not believe they are "as good as" other genres. I wonder if other genres in similar positions experience this. Comic books? Sci-fi? I don't think so. 

I also agree that when individual soaps began to be less differentiated & more carbon copy that soaps lost a sense of themselves. 

[Xanthe]

Interestingly, SCTV's The Days of the Week doesn't use organ music. In many respects the parody feels very true to the form and (at least here) doesn't have any obvious jokes beyond the utter brainlessness of Mojo.

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[Khan]

The "SCTV" crew were paying very close attention to the actual soaps when they made that parody.  Even "Violet" and "Mojo" are so close to being like AW's Iris and Vivien that it's eerie, lol.

[Paul Raven]

Well soaps were seen as womens' entertainment so that immediately placed it lower on the ladder.

And coupled with lower budgets and salary and working conditions they were at the bottom of the pecking order.

And we have to be honest,sometimes the finished product was lacking.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Someone termed a coinage about pink collar ghetto!

[DramatistDreamer]

Never forget that at one time many of these shows were cash cows for the companies that produced them as well as the networks that broadcast them.
Something else that hasn’t really been mentioned but should be factored in is the fact that these shows were ostensibly created to sell product, so the intersection of commerce and entertainment was very strong, and unlike other shows of the period (variety shows etc), it seems like the people who produce these soaps never quite got past the mentality that nowadays the entertainment aspect should take a higher priority than the commercial aspect. 

[Contessa Donatella]

P&G began to get out of the domestic products business in 2000. In the 70s daytime coughed up 70% of network profits. P&G was once the major advertiser. 

[SteelCity]

That's how I feel! It's hard to find a single redeeming thing to say about Passions! The writing was bad, the acting was bad and the worst part is that they were serious. It to me was the catalyst for the failure of modern soaps. There were still 10 when it premiered, Passions included and it took them down quickly. It was such a joke. It actually angers me that it was on so long and Sunset Beach got screwed.

[SteelCity]

That's exactly what I was looking forward to. Instead we got overdrawn, exploitative parody. Oh, and lots of rape!

[Sapounopera]

Also... Desperate Housewives. It was meant to be a soap opera, yet it was winning awards as a comedy show. People thought that it might work in daytime as well. Look at CW's Dynasty. It never took itself seriously. There is no point in watching a soap that doesn't take itself seriously (and that was my problem with Santa Barbara at a point where things got too crazy).

[te.]

Especially since Sunset Beach did the tongue-in-cheek thing much much better, while also playing a straight soap. I've said it before and I'll say it again - if it had at least premiered later in the afternoon it might've had a chance to get that 18-34 audience that it was actually written for watching. It was always bizarre to premiere such a youth-skewing show at noon.