Soap opera premieres: Best & Worst

[Sapounopera]

TEXAS has to be the worst ever. A random episode with random characters. No big story, nothing.

PASSIONS: I was horrified after the first five minutes. It was really bad, but I had no idea how bad it could get.

SUNSET BEACH: Back in the day I thought it was ok. Being on NBC during the DAYS madness and with Spelling aesthetics that is. I am not that crazy about late 90s-early 00s soap trend of shows looking like porn without the sex scenes.

PORT CHARLES: They brought familiar GH faces, started with a bang and the cast didn't look like porn stars. 

CITY: I wanted to watch because I still cared for the LOVING crowd. NY is the perfect setting for a soap opera. Didn't care for the camera work, but I loved the 90s vibe and aesthetics. 

GENERATIONS: It grabbed my attention. The show looked good, the stories were not that interesting for a premiere, but it had something. I wanted to see where they would go with it. The prominent black family was something new.

B&B: I loved it. The fashion element was something new and I loved the Logan family dynamics from day one.

SANTA BARBARA: I loved it. Interesting backstory and it felt like the primetime soaps I was obsessed with at the time.

LOVING: I didn't really care for the movie's story, but I was fascinated by the characters and the Agnes Nixoxn vibe.

CAPITOL: Another one I loved. It felt like a primetime soap, loved the older cast and the DC setting. It was really a show of its time.

RYAN'S HOPE: I was hooked from day one with this New York bar owned by an Irish family. Kate Mulgrew was someone whom you wouldn't forget. It felt like a UK soap. 

Y&R: I loved the show's tone. The opening grabbed my attention. 

DARK SHADOWS: Obsessed from day one. It was unique and there was a story I wanted to follow.

[DRW50]

Great thread. I am trying to remember how many I ever watched. Not as many as I should have. 

The premiere of Search for Tomorrow is a good setup for the show's central identity - some focus goes on Keith's struggles at work and with his father (I think it was his father), but the moment that feels so "real" to is Jo comforting a hysterical Patti after she dreams of her father's death. A clever way to set up Keith's fate, but even outside of that moment you immediately know Patti and Jo and the relationship between them is the heart of the show.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

I loved The Guiding Light's premiere. Ellis Smith, an outsider, being lured into Reverend Ruthledge's church by Mary Rutledge's organ playing and then collapsing. Set up the mystery of Ellis Smith really well and let the listener be introduced to this new world via Ellis as he entered into it. It got the audience interested immediately in who Ellis was, what Five Points was all about and how they would affect each other. In a way, similar to the premiere of Y&R which had a stranger entering Genoa City for the first time.