ALL: General Retro Soap Discussion

[Contessa Donatella]

They had real problems with too much outdoor noise.

You complaint about shaky camera syndrome is a common complaint when people go to handheld digital cameras.

[Maxim]

I can only say this - when thе camera-spiel technique is used properly... with good direction... it can actually help the narrative. I gave "Dancer in the dark" as an example.

It's not only the shakiness that disrupts me... it's the inappropriate moments when the camera is shaky and going from face to face while people are just casually talking. Or just moving from left to right on the same face. It's a technique that if you are going to use... you have to be very careful... because the end product MAY look like Guiding light.

I've seen amazing movies that have camera-spiel (play of the camera) and I'm okay with it. But in Guiding Light it does not work.

 

[Reverend Ruthledge]

I'm not saying ATWT was good towards the end or that Goutman was anything other than an abomination. I'm just saying ATWT was the most salvageable of any other cancelled soap towards the end. It hadn't gone full exterior and held-hand camera, it still had it's original core family around (albeit in a weakened state), and it had a lot of veteran actors still on the show that could have come back to front and center with the right writing. It even had vaguely interesting stories still going on. Not enough to warrant a daily viewing but enough to interest one to check in periodically. 

I can't really comment on All My Children as I never watched the ABC soaps. Of the soaps I'm familiar with that got cancelled, ATWT was the most recognizable to its roots. But kind of like an 80-year-old is recognizable to their 10-year-old self. 

Edited February 3 by Reverend Ruthledge

[Contessa Donatella]

I was still a daily viewer of ATWT at that time. If Goutman had pre-taped the finale we could have had Nancy narrate that last day, as was intended. Beck offered to step away & let Martha play out Lily's end. Goutman NO. STILL no story for Lisa!!!! Then, Reed & Luke, no consummation, instead Reed is dead. And, this all after 2 years of drek. When CBS mandated the new production model for GL, they mandated a different style of narrative, story-telling & Oakdale was stuck with pod stories, rather than the traditional tapestry weaving storylines. Honest, I understand what you're saying. We just must agree to disagree. It's not that I don't respect your opinion. Mine is just different.

[Contessa Donatella]

Love of Life end 2-1-1980

The Secret Storm begin 2-1-1954

A Woman with a Past begin 2-1-1954

The Secret Storm end 2-8-1974

Executive Suite CBS end 2-11-1977

From Here to Eternity NBC begin 2-14-1979

Bare Essence NBC begin 2-15-1983

[Maxim]

I forgot to say how much I loved this description. I instantly remembered it and have been occasionally going back to it during my day. So memorable.

[vetsoapfan]

I agree 100% The show had been badly damaged by years of abuse, but there was enough of a familiar core remaining. The right PTB could have salvaged it, if P&G and CBS had given them enough time, patience and support. There was no longer any "will" to save Oakdale, alas, even though there was still a "way."

AMC had also been badly decimated for years before its cancellation, but shortly before it was axed, the show's two best head writers (Agnes Nixon and Lorraine Broderick) were allowed to return and clean up the mess. They worked miracles with the garbage they inherited, and Pine Valley was looking up. It felt like Pine Valley once more. AMC would still be with us, had the will had been there among the suits at ABC.

[Paul Raven]

That was the premiere of the mini series.

The series began March 10 1980

[Khan]

I'd say EON was the most salvageable at the end of its' run, if only b/c the show was still recognizable.  All it might've needed was a stronger HW (or the return of Henry Slesar).

[DRW50]

This is one of the reasons why ATWT's last years just make me angry to even think about - so much of their last 10-15 years. Many of the pieces were still in place. Yet we got so much heartlessness, callous, and sickness with people who were clueless or ashamed of ATWT's essence - and as a bonus, a steady stream of stunt casting that no one asked for and led to a slew of characters being ruined.

I don't really care about how location shots looked as that was never what I watched soaps for. You could bring F.W. Murnau back from the dead, I'm still not going to sit through Danielle pawing all over Craig as she calls him "daddy."

Edited February 4 by DRW50

[kalbir]

The P&G shows were effectively over in the aftermath of OJ. The ABC shows were effectively over with the sale of ABC to Disney.

[Khan]

Which is tragic, because, for many years, ABC and CBS appeared to be very invested in their soaps.  More so, I would say, than NBC, whose interest, IMO, was half-hearted.

[P.J.]

I don't think that's just your taste. I would've called it off-putting and amateurish.

[Contessa Donatella]

I like slinging words! Glad ir resonated with you

[kalbir]

NBC never really recovered in daytime from their ratings drop in the second half of the 1970s. The only highlights you could say NBC had in daytime in the 1980s and 1990s were supercouple Days but even that collapsed at the end, Santa Barbara Emmy/SOD awards run but that didn't translate into ratings, and Reilly Days which shook up daytime at a level not seen since ABC's huge rise and domination some 15 years earlier.

Edited February 4 by kalbir