Story of Soaps

Poirot

Poirot

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So, watched Story of Soaps last night...at least the 1st hour plus a bit more. Fell asleep! Mostly was covering the ABC soaps, figures - since it was on ABC channel. Don't watch any of those. Was glad to see Reva Shayne of Guiding Light at one point, but only a few seconds. Saw a couple of Days actors but overall, the show was...to me...boring.

They did cover the Luke/Laura rape, & their eventual marriage.......but also how, years later, they dealt with how Luke hurt Laura so badly then, how she felt. Overall, to me, I did not know the actors who were talking about scenarios, and feel.......if you missed it, you did not miss anything.

They did talk a lot tho about how advertisers loved the soaps, the audience was who they wanted, plus how the format even went to night time, mentioning Dallas.

But, really......to me, overall, BORING.
 
I started to watch it, as it looked like it would be fun. But most clips were so short/fast, that if you blinked, you missed some. I realize they wanted to cram a lot into the 2 hour show, but all of those super fast clips were annoying. I turned it off after about 30 minutes. Did enjoy, though, the brief clips of John Stamos on General Hospital back in the 80's. And got to see the brief clip of Marlena floating above the bed during the possession storyline.
 
Yes, the clips just flying by.....They should have used less clips, making them longer...or done a 2 parter over a couple of nights. But, to me, they really did use mostly ABC soaps... Even Carol Burnett talking of how she was such a fan of All My Children......and citing an instance of a friend sending her a recap of the week, when Carol was in Europe or something.
 
A friend here called me this a.m., and actually brought up what a waste of time the show was, done so badly. (She was a big fan of All My Children). I was surprised when she mentioned watching it, but she said she had watched the Gary Marshall show a week or two ago, was such a good one, thought this would be, too Nope! Tis a shame, for sure.
 
I was disappointed in it. It was very superficial.

Someone else described it as "a soap overview for the casual viewer or someone who hasn't watched since college." That nails it because every soap person I know loathed it, felt it too glossy/superficial/condescending, and too ABC-focused.

I actually turned it off when they previewed Andy Cohen's bit. I despised him before this and now even moreso.
 
I didn't see this show, but I'm disappointed that it turned out to be so unsatisfactory. Any real history of soaps should have started the with most popular of the old radio soaps and then covered the major shows, which appeared on all the networks. over the years Speaking of the old soaps, I can still recall hearing a few broadcasts of the long-running radio soap, Romance of Helen Trent (1933-50) as a child when I was home from grade school with some ailment or another. I had no idea of what I was listening to, but I can remember rather enjoying it.
 
Dr. B........you are very fortunate not to have wasted your time. So many were looking forward to seeing this, so to have so many so disappointed....and ABC knows it, only too well. I have heard titles of some radio soaps, no idea if my mom ever tuned in, or if relatives just talked of them. But yes, they came way before TV soaps, for sure. This TV show seemed to focus on prime time stars who began careers on soaps, & a few groundbreaking stories, i.e. first time formerly taboo subjects were story focused. But as noted, concentration was on ABC soaps, with any clips lasting 1 or 2 seconds, if that. Lots of bragging about happy advertisers, target audiences reached, etc. Maybe this fiasco will give some producer the idea to actually do a History of soaps......rather than a mishmash as this was. Could be a 2-3 parter????
 
I'm disappointed. I taped it because my Mom was watching The Voice finale, but planned on watching it later this week. After reading this, I don't know if I care to watch it.
 
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