ALL: What are your lost soap media "holy grails" for 2025?

[Paul Raven]

More for February

1966 Search for Tomorrow

[SoapAnon]

I really wouldn't expect much 70's stuff to come out. It's always possible, but they were wiping stuff until the late 70's and it's likely gone. I'd expect mostly everything from 1980 on to exist in a studio vault though.

I find it interesting how poorly soaps are preserved for the most part. I'm from the wrestling world. Soaps were like 20x more popular than wrestling yet the preservation is so much worse. The NFL is maybe similar to soaps popularity wise and was also preserved much better. I think it would make for some good research to figure out why it is. My guess is because there were so many soaps that people just took them for granted and I think the male and female audiences are just different when it comes to that. Almost every guy collects something.

I'll never understand why soaps haven't been re-run as much or why they aren't on the big VOD services. You'd think they would be able to bring in some cash and would provide content.

Edited February 23 by SoapAnon

[DRW50]

Soaps aired five days a week and were looked down on (and still are), so there was never the care or effort to keep them. And some of the moments that were kept were destroyed in fires. 

They aren't usually that successful when repeated, although Dark Shadows did well, probably due to only being on about five years and being seen as more of a horror/fantasy show. 

[Contessa Donatella]

What comes up is unusual. I'm aware of several that began with the Rosemary Prinz. What we hope is kinescopes & one-off video tapes now in attics will see the light of day.

The reason daytime is not streaming is that the cost is prohibitive.

[Khan]

I agree.  IIRC, too, they even discovered (or RE-discovered) taped footage of Super Bowl I, decades after all the footage had been deemed "lost."

[Marco Dane]

One Life to Live Pilot Episode.

[Paul Raven]

March gifts.

Mitch S has added some snippets from ATWT 79 and SFT 79/77 including a brief scene with Stephanie and husband Walter Pace (Jennifer's father) who I have never seen before.

Also a grainy B/W BTS of GL 1980

And Tom Lisanti's book on Texas has been released.

Edited March 9 by Paul Raven

[Paul Raven]

Now thanks to Eric Montreal we have Megan McTavish's crazy memoir.

Edited March 16 by Paul Raven

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, even if I say it myself, which apparently I must, I would just mention this. It's where I posted Friday morning offering the Mctavish pdf & began gifting it to people off & on since then. 

 

[Paul Raven]

OK 

[Khan]

After reading Megan McTavish's memoir, I think someone needs to upload Irna Phillips' unfinished memoir as a sort of palate cleanser, lol?

[Joseph]

SFT The rest of 1986

ATWT The Episodes of the DVDs in a good shape, as well as the final year or so in HD

[Contessa Donatella]

I've still got my DVDs but I converted them to digital so they're just being stored, basically. Although a weird thing happened & I cannot find CarJack so I am sans it/them. 

Really? The last year? I began to be disenchanted when they (1) got rid of Scott Holroyd, (2) when they drastically foreshortened the umbrella story & killed off Rose, (3) Goutman threw Martha under the bus, (4) Goutman said he knew what was best for the show & he did not want or need to hear from fans. 

[Joseph]

Anything for me is game since I never Watched ATWT when it was originally on

But I know the final years were of inferior quality entertainment wise, but if I can bear to watch all the currents soaps as long as they're in HD I think I could do the same with ATWT

[Contessa Donatella]

Very interesting. What is your soap history in real time? I mean, if you don't mind saying. Me, I began watching in 1970 with DAYS & AW & ATWT being my first soaps because they were my mother's soaps. When the shows expanded to an hour, we gave up ATWT & then I was a traditional full schedule NBC baby for a long time. Now I say my favorite soaps are 1-AW, 2-GL and 3-Santa Barbara with Honorable Mention to some of AMC & some of PC & GH since 1993.