ALL: Day and Night Cycles

[AbcNbc247]

There’s long days and then there’s Passions days lol 

I don’t mind long days, especially like during sweeps, or a day when multiple storylines are meant to reach their climax or culmination. Like posters have said, it allows you to play every beat. 

But I don’t like Passions days, where a day starts in the summertime but ends with characters preparing for Thanksgiving. 

Edited November 18, 2024 by AbcNbc247

[SteelCity]

Passions was THE WORST! For several reasons that I care not to list but, this is a huge one!

[Broderick]

Back when Y&R was a half-hour in the late 1970s, the timeframe was often very "vague", lol.  

Leslie and Lance might meet for lunch, and a couple of episodes later, they'd still be out on their "lunch date", except it would clearly be nighttime, and they'd be dancing.  You'd start wondering if they'd been in the Allegro continuously for several hours, or did their lunch just magically turn into dinner.  

Meanwhile, Jill Foster might drop a document in the mail, and before Leslie and Lance's long "lunch and dance party" has ended, Kay Chancellor has already received the package in the mail and confronted Derek about it, as though multiple days have passed.  

[AbcNbc247]

When it comes to launching new soaps, maybe things have changed in 25 years lol 

[Paul Raven]

Perhaps with Y&R they were showing different timelines for different stories but that was never clear or consistent.

[Mitch64]

I loved ATWT/Marland's use of the sun rising clip to show us it's a new day, sometimes in the middle of an episode. Marland had people recapping constantly but making it morning and people having breakfast (usually reading the Argus "James Stenbeck is ALIVE..AGAIN??")  made the recaps make sense. Old time soaps would have Nancy and Chris, or Bert and one of her family recapping things at dinner, but that lost vogue for soaps later with a disdain for traditional kitchen scenes ( I thought ATWT and GL lost a big sense of their midwestern identities when they got rid of kitchens and really people eating..that is when people gossip and talk about the day...I guess New York producers and writers never eat in their kitchens.)

The weekend thing always bugged me, no one ever says, "How was your weekend?" ..."Well, I worked out, met friends for drinks and found out my supposedly dead husband is still alive..." Big parties and weddings would naturally take place on weekends, but the day after, everyone is back at the office. It made more sense in hospital based shows, but why is Alan back in the office after a masked ball the night before?

[All My Shadows]

I think it should be set by whatever story/action is happening. Some “days” might include only one or important things happening, while others might have a ton. Any big wedding should last at least a week’s worth of episodes, IMO. I need to see morning preparations, what the uninvited are doing (no doubt talking smack about the happy couple), the threat of chaos, the ceremony, the reception, and the juicy things that happen after the reception.