Greenfield Recorder Sat March 10 1973
Soaps are like home Susan Brown says By DON FREEMAN
To all the followers of the art form known as soap opera, the delicate but strong features belonging to Susan Brown have assumed a familiarity, a familial closeness. Before assuming her role as Allison MacKenzie's mother in "Return to Peyton Place," Miss Brown appeared regularly in four other soaps —they are "Brighter Day" "The Young Marrieds," "From These Boots" and, most recently "Bright Promise," where she starred for two years as Martha Ferguson
When Bettye Ackerman elected to leave "Peyton Place," Miss Brown was summoned and she was delighted. "I love working in the soaps," she said with a very large smile. It's comfortable, it's like home. It's like a repertory group or a football team. You do feel a togetherness that's rare anywhere else. And there's no time for temperament.
"The way it is with the soaps, we all work 52 weeks a year. If somebody in the cast catches a cold, for instance, she's have a cold on the show. An actress I know on 'General Hospital' broke her arm — so they put it in the script. That's the soaps.
She paused. 'I know the networks all like to call mem 'daytime serials,* which is fancy. But even though we don't have soap products as sponsors any more, the term itself, 'soap opera,' is too deeply entrenched by now. It certainly doesn't offend me. In fact, I like it Soap opera - it has a nice ring to it.
Since Miss Brown knows the territory, it seemed wise to inquire about the inner workings of the soaps. "Often the pace of the action is geared to the ratings, if the ratings should drop, a soap might put in a trial sequence. Trials are very, big on soaps. Or they might throw in a murder. Who do they have murdered? Well, that's up to the writers and their ingenuity. Weddings are another big grabber if the ratings need a jolt. People like to see weddings.
The pacing of a soap opera is a very tricky thing. They have learned through some survey that the average soap opera viewer sees a show 2 1/2 times a week. People just tend to miss shows or they go out shopping or something. So we do have to have a lot of recapitulations of the story line. We cant go too fast and we rant go too slowly. Now our show is running in England but they only take two segments each week. I have no idea how they keep the continuity going.
Who, I asked Miss Brown,watches the soaps? "Well, they are aimed directly at the women," she replied, "but it always amazes me how many men are glued to the sets. What's the attraction of the soaps? Well, outside of being good stories, often skillfully told and enacted if slightly exaggerated, the soaps tend to give the viewer the feeling that she isn't alone with her troubles. The Women's Lib movement, it seems to me, had the same appeal— it told women they weren't alone. On the other hand, I'm sure the zealous Women's Lib advocates wouldn't like a lot of things we do on the soaps."
By
Paul Raven ·
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