By
Suzanne
I was sad when they canceled "Passions", but maybe it's a good thing
for daytime (as a soap fan, I never thought I would say that).
The people who produce and write soap operas have to get off their
butts and realize that the reason soap viewers have left and not
returned has nothing to do with O.J., or even that women are at work
rather than staying at home watching soaps. The reason is that soaps
have stagnated over the years instead of improving, and there is so
much competition that they can't compete.
Primetime TV has improved over the past 20 or so years; daytime has
not kept up. While I hate how the networks cancel primetime shows so
quickly, sometimes after one or two episodes, I think this has
contributed to their improvement. People writing and producing
primetime shows realized that they had to work hard on improving
their product in order to sell it, and the result is that primetime
TV has more exciting and complex stories. Soaps, on the other hand,
have not improved. They are stagnant.
If you can't believe it, think about all of these soap opera cliches
that the writers use over and over again. These are major stories
such as characters coming back from the dead, suddenly having psychic
visions, getting plastic surgery to look exactly (and sound exactly)
like other characters; characters who suddenly remember something
shocking from their past that they never even hinted at; women who
sleep with the wrong person once just so they can do yet another
"who's the daddy?" storyline, missing security in hospitals and
police stations, and people just not behaving in realistic or
rational ways.
The day-to-day shows are riddled with lesser soap gimmicks such as
characters walking in just when two others are talking about them,
having long monologues with themselves, never shown going to work,
and getting upset about something one day and forgetting about it the
next.
Try describing your favorite soap opera story (even the best ones) to
a non-soap watcher and watch them smirk or roll their eyes. That's
because these horrible cliches have attached themselves to the genre
like cankers and have destroyed it. How can you expect to bring in
viewers when they know how stupid soap stories can be?
Gimmicks like bringing in lame pop stars or other walk-on
celebrities, or repeated acts of violence just to make a show
momentarily suspense-filled for the day, are not enough. To get
viewers to keep tuning in, the people in charge have to care about
the characters and the story, and respect the viewers who already
watch. Romance and adventure has to come from the characters, their
lives, and their families. Stop being deritive and contrived and
write from both the heart and the head.
Why would anyone start watching "All My Children" or "Passions" when
they TIVO'ed CSI or a good movie the night before? Even die-hard
soap fans have great primetime soaps they would rather watch, such as
"Ugly Betty", "Men in Trees", "Desperate Housewives", and "Grey's
Anatomy" (shows that are all better than daytime shows). Most
primetime shows today are serialized and have soap elements, such as
"24", "Battlestar Galactica", and even "American Idol". There are
only so many hours in the day to watch. Unless soaps improve their
writing significantly, they will not survive. Perhaps they deserve to
die off if they can't keep up with what people want to watch. It's
sad for those of us who love the daytime genre, but we will
understand because we are the ones watching the uneven or crummy
stories faithfully, every day.
My advice to people in charge of soaps, if they really want to save
daytime: get rid of all the cliches and hackneyed storylines. Fans
want romance, excitement, adventure, families, humor, pathos, drama,
and more. We want you to know the history of the show and honor it.
We want to have good actors- not pretty models or teens who shriek
and mumble. We want to see people of all ages having exciting
stories interwoven among all the characters that make sense. Write
stories as if your jobs depend on it because THEY DO! the whole
genre depends on it. Cancel the soaps, fire the writers, do whatever
you have to. They quoted Irna Phillips on "Guiding Light" the other
day as saying that the actors need to believe the stories because she
does, and the viewers do, too. Soaps need to heed those words and
bring in more excitement and believability into the shows so that
everyone will want to watch. Irna didn't just create soaps, she was
constantly re-inventing them. They should still be doing that,
instead of relying on their past triumphs.
I would rather have two or three very good daytime soaps than 10
mediocre or disappointing ones. My advice to fans: write letters to
the networks, and stop watching if the shows are bad. Maybe that will
be the only thing get to real, lasting change in daytime.
Page updated 12/27/11
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