The End of a Soapy Era
I would be remiss if I did not take time to note here that yesterday marked the end of the ABC Soap Operas One Life to Live and All My Children. If you’ve never been into soap operas, it’s sort of difficult to explain the levels of bummerism that this is creating in a lot of people. The best way I can explain it is that it’s like following a sports team, the same sports team, for years and years years. You watch all of the drama, you watch players come and go, you watch players come back as coaches or owners. Except, of course, in soap operas you also have everyone marrying each other, having kids, getting shot, and all that kind of stuff. Not so much of that in say, baseball.
When you talk about social networking, people who have been into soap operas know what that means on a deep level. Fans of a show were part of families like the Chandlers from All My Children. We all knew that Erica would very likely find some other guy to catch her eye, often on her wedding day. We would heave big sighs at 1:15 on a Thursday knowing that so and so was going to get through surgery and be fine. Even before Al Gore invented the internet, everyone who watched the soaps, along with the people on the soaps, were all tied together.
Soap Operas are unlike any other medium out there. My mom has been watching stories involving the same characters for 40 years, since All My Children began. I remember watching AMC when I was home sick from school. During summer vacation, my mom and I would eat lunch and yell at AMC. My freshman year in college, I made sure not to schedule any 1 PM classes so I could watch and not feel so homesick. It was like that for a lot of people. It was a way of checking in, not just with the characters but all of the people who watched the show with you. Even if you didn’t talk about it every day, the storylines on these shows were part of the fabric that made up your life.
It’s true that the soaps are going to try to become online serials. I’m not sure if that will work or not. I feel like it’ll be a rough struggle. And anyway, it won’t be the same.
I’ll miss you, ABC Soaps. I will feel really sad when shows like South Park and the Simpsons at long last come to an end, but those characters never aged, and for the most part never matured or changed. Certainly none of the characters experienced multiple personality disorders or baby swaps. There’s just nothing quite like you, and I don’t think there will ever be again.
Thanks for the memories.
Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Ambrozjo
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Interesting coincidence ~ end of soaps with the start of the new FB ~ or the day FB changed the world. Is FB a viable substitute for all that before”internet” togetherness you mention brought about by watching soaps together?
I dunno. I think there are two nice things about soap operas that Facebook doesn’t offer. One, the drama is not real (thank goodness!), and two, there is a unique facet to gathering together, even if you’re far apart, to watch the same thing. I suppose groups on Facebook tied to shows could be similar, but does that compare to calling up a friend and yelling SQUEEEEEE after a couple finally gets together? Probably not 🙂
Margie,
You know how I will often say to you something like: “No, I never did that!” Well, today is slightly different. I never watched ABC’s soap operas, but I did enjoy CBS and NBC’s soap operas over my lifetime. I think the first summer that I watched was 1961. We had moved the December before, so it was a new neighborhood and we looked for new things to do. My two older sisters were getting older, so they were not as interested in bike riding or playing outside!!! We would go to the library and we started tuning into CBS – we watched As The World Turns, The Secret Storm, Edge of Night and The Guiding Light. (Remember, there was only one TV and it was black and white, no tuners…no one wanted to get up and change the channel!!!) I have a couple of little anecdotal stories to relate:
1. In 1974 The Secret Storm aired its final episode. I remember sitting in my apartment with tears streaming down my face…saying good-bye to “my friends.” I called my old college roommate. A long distance call…to San Francisco. MaryLou and I commiserated over the phone. Later that day my then husband came home from the hospital (medical student). He asked me why I was so sad…and I told him I had to say good-bye to some friends. A month later he said good-bye to me!
2. You really did, for better or worse, feel as if you knew the characters. I was once in LAX (Los Angeles Airport) and Frank Runyeon (he played opposite Meg Ryan in As the World Turns) was coming towards. His character’s name was Steve. And as he approached me I said “Hi Steve, how are you.” He smiled and then I realized what a nut I really was/am.
3. When I had my oldest child (Dec 1980) I shared the hospital room with the first cousin of Doug Davidson – he still plays Paul Williams on the Young and the Restless. My roommate’s name was Lynette. She had a little girl and I had a little boy. We shared the room for 3+ days…and became friends. Sharing our lives until we were transferred to Alaska 2+ years later. We stayed in touch, but it was Lynette that convinced me to watch the Young and the Restless.
4. In 1984, I was living in Anchorage, AK. I had a three year old son and a new baby boy. In the quiet of the afternoon, Aaron (the oldest) would sit on the couch next to me while I fed the baby. We would turn on the soaps. One day Aaron said to me: “Dr Dixon is not a nice man!” That was when I realized that even little children became drawn into the stories.
Here is what impresses me about this art form. Five shows per week – 52 weeks per year, fresh script every day, no reruns, the cast has to learn their lines every night. For many years it was live TV. Think of the set designs, the character development. I have a few friends that work on Broadway and as one said the other day: “They are certainly the hardest working actors/actresses in our business. Day after day after day…” Truth is many actors that we have all come to admire over the years started in the Soaps: Meg Ryan, Marisa Tomei, Leonardo DiCaprio, Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, James Earl Jones…the list goes on.
A lot of world of make believe – one of my favorite things about soap operas is that you could or would step away for a few years or many, but then sit down and watch an episode and immediately know what life was like for the characters and you’d feel right at home.
Thanks for the memories,
Judy
Wow, Judy. What a fantastic list of connections and memories. See, that’s what the big station execs lost track of. For people who have been watching these shows for 30-40 years, all of these people are like family! It sounds crazy if you aren’t into soap operas, but it really is true. You watch people get married (over and over), age from 7 to 27 in a week, and all of the other crazy stuff soap characters do. You get to hate them or love them and just like family, you keep coming back no matter what. And it’s SO fun to talk about the crazy storylines. I will miss it all a great deal.
Margie,
You won’t beleive this, but last evening i was watching the season opening for The Good Wife. Do you watch this series? Well, anyway, who do you think had a guest cameo appearance as a really not so nice professor? Larry Bryggman – the man who played Dr. John Dixon in As the World Turns from 1969 through the end of the run. I think my son was right —, I almost joked when I saw him last night.
Judy
Margie,
I am testing Gravatar…don’t pay any attention to this comment!
Judy
You know I probably shouldn’t admit this but way back when, in the summers of high school, I got hooked on AMC. Haven’t watched them in many a year but I guess I thought they would be around forever. What’s amazing is many of the same actors lasted all these years. Times change and so do our tastes I guess. Good post Margie.