7 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

I think Gene Bua (Bill Prentiss) on Love of Life preceded Doug.

And Mary Stuart definitely sang live on SFT.

Isn't that just typical?! And, yes, of course, Mary Stuart did. 

18 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

And Mary Stuart definitely sang live on SFT.

Question for any and all SFT fans out there: how did y'all feel about Mary Stuart's musical performances on the show?  Did you enjoy them and look forward to them, or...?

1 minute ago, Khan said:

Question for any and all SFT fans out there: how did y'all feel about Mary Stuart's musical performances on the show?  Did you enjoy them and look forward to them, or...?

Hmm, are we about to be tacky?! 

On 1/23/2024 at 9:39 PM, Paul Raven said:

90 min premieres

How to Survive a Marriage and Edge of Night both had movie length episodes (in EON's case to mark the move to ABC)

I would say extended episodes for special occasions in general. The Doctors had an extended episode to mark its tenth anniversary in 1973, AMC aired a week's worth of hour-long episodes in the lead-up to RH's premiere.

One of my fave 70s soap trends is actually one I first noticed before I ever got into classic soaps - soap stars appearing as panelists/contestants on game shows. Bill and Susan Hayes were judges on The $1.98 Beauty Show, several LA soap stars appeared as panelists on Match Game (as well as Tudi Wiggins from Love of Life!), NYC stars appeared as celebrity contestants on Pyramid, various ABC soap casts played against each other on Family Feud, etc. This one continued into the 80s before slowly tapering out in the 90s.

Adding characters to opening title sequences. Y&R led the pack (though it wasn't the first - Never Too Young had done it back in '65), with Ryan's Hope, The Doctors, and Love of Life following suit. Interestingly, outside of Y&R, the big huge hit soaps didn't start doing this until the mid-80s and later.

Soaps being studied/discussed on a critical level. The Daytime Emmys, cover articles in mainstream magazines (TV Guide, Newsweek, People, etc), talk show episodes, books, etc.

4 minutes ago, All My Shadows said:

Soaps being studied/discussed on a critical level. The Daytime Emmys, cover articles in mainstream magazines (TV Guide, Newsweek, People, etc), talk show episodes, books, etc.

TIME January 1976, Doug & Julie of DAYS on the cover & 3 articles inside! All articles are online in the TIME archive. 

I wonder if any of the soap characters were into 70's trends like of macramé ? I can picture SFT Mary Stuart as Jo uttering " If you will all excuse me, I'm off to my macramé class". I could also picture her making terrariums and talking to her plants. 

There were also mood rings, pet rocks, and those self help group sessions. Did any character sign up for primal scream therapy ?

Lamaze classes started becoming trendy in the 70's. 

 

Can we declare Andre's/The Medicine Man on The Doctors as a fern bar? We know that Ryan's Bar wouldn't be.

 

5 hours ago, SoapDope said:

I wonder if any of the soap characters were into 70's trends like of macramé ? I can picture SFT Mary Stuart as Jo uttering " If you will all excuse me, I'm off to my macramé class". I could also picture her making terrariums and talking to her plants. 

There were also mood rings, pet rocks, and those self help group sessions. Did any character sign up for primal scream therapy ?

Lamaze classes started becoming trendy in the 70's. 

 

Whether one would include it in this conversation or not, Mary Hartman was basically built around exploring and lampooning various 70s fads. Flashing, talking to plants, self-help gurus, faith healers, countrypolitan music, trucker culture, etc. And that's all just in the first half of the series.

1 hour ago, All My Shadows said:

Whether one would include it in this conversation or not, Mary Hartman was basically built around exploring and lampooning various 70s fads. Flashing, talking to plants, self-help gurus, faith healers, countrypolitan music, trucker culture, etc. And that's all just in the first half of the series.

🤣

Love of Life had a story in the early 70's set around ESP, which was a big thing at the time.

Did any other show touch on 70's trends/fads/buzzwords etc?

10 hours ago, SoapDope said:

Lamaze classes started becoming trendy in the 70's. 

 

Mary Ryan on Ryan's Hope went to lamaze classes while she was pregnant with Ryan; they even showed her practicing her breathing technique on at least one occasion. This was during the period when she and Jack Fenelli were separated, and she kept asking him to attend class with her.

19 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Love of Life had a story in the early 70's set around ESP, which was a big thing at the time.

Did any other show touch on 70's trends/fads/buzzwords etc?

I'm sure Erica's disco wasn't the only one. There's that ATWT episode from 1978 where the younger characters head to a disco later in the ep.

This might be a bit of a stretch, but when watching all of those great GL eps from the latter half of 1979, if Jackie Spaulding didn't proudly but cavalierly mention her condominium at least 5 times per episode, she never mentioned it at all.

70's ATWT and disco together is a mind blowing concept.

I think Love of Life had a disco also.

It was always amusing to see the extras bopping along to music that was added in later.

Y&R also had a disco. Lorie took Lucas there. GL also had a disco in some of the 1979 episodes. Dallas showed a disco several times circa 1978-1979. 

 

 

Abortion was dealt with for the first time.

Erica AMC, Kathy SFT, Connie RTPP, Marianne AW and probably a few others  all had abortions and didn't suffer greatly as a result. And others considered it, but changed their minds.

And homosexuality was touched upon with Mike and Sharon on Days and Joanne/Kay on Y&R.

Inter racial relationships with David/Val on Days.

But these were isolates, definitely not a trend or even the beginning of one.