Soap operas down the tube

[jblum315]

ABC is dropping "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" and replacing them with health and fitness programs.:cry:

[teachnmo]

I have watched both One Life to Live and All My Children since the start. Granted it was much better when DVR's came into existence and I could keep up with the story line. There was that little thing called work that got in the way before.

Today it looks like Erica has been kidnapped from her wedding! My husband makes fun of me for watching them. I think they provided a way to escape from my own problems or situations in life.

I will miss you both! :(

[BritParrothead]

We have both these programmes here in England. I have never watched them. the reason? I tried to watch while on vacation, but could not even try to catch up! I watch a couple of Australian soaps, and i would be verry miffed if they were taken away. why do the t.v. companies, execs do this ?? So unfair :(

[pooh]

How sad! I started watching AMC and OLTL in 1971 after my son was born. He'd take a nap and I'd relax with the soaps. Watching Erica over the years has been a trip! Over the years, I sort of narrowed it down to OLTL and for the past 9 or 10 years, haven't really watched even that, though every once in a while, I'll tune it just to see the old familiar faces that are back. As a youngster, I remember watching The Guiding Light with my grandmother. It was only 15 minutes then. Ah, an era has ended...and both stories will be sorely missed.

[HawkeyeBarb]

That is sad news! I remember watching As The World Turns as a kid while my Mom sprinkled my Dad's work shirts with water before she ironed them. I think As The World Turns was live for either 15 or 30 minutes. I can just hear, "And now live, for the next 30 minutes, As The World Turns!"
Another soap that brings back memories would be Dark Shadows with Barnabus Collins the vampire! And these teenagers think they invented vampire shows! HA! :laugh:

[oot]

There are many of us who will be sad to see them go. Kind of funny because people of all ages (like my mom and her sisters who are in their 80's and my niece who is 27) still watch them.

When my dad was alive he would always complain about mom "watching those stupid soaps"! My mom and her sisters would get into discussions about the characters (you would think they knew them personally). As much as my dad would deny it - he knew every character as well. Still gives me a chuckle to this day.

[barb1191]

Too many commercials on the soaps!! Or, any programming now, even the news!!! Whatever we watch now, we record everything and fast forward thru the commercials.

Even thru the programs now they have runners of advertising while the story is on; that's disgusting.

[graciegirl]

Helene is not likin' this at all.

Also Kentucky Blue's(who posts on here) better half Sharon's daughter is a mainstay on one of them, and visited her mother recently who has a home in TV. There was a nice story in The Daily Sun about this television actress when she was here visiting.

[Schaumburger]

That is sad news! I remember watching As The World Turns as a kid while my Mom sprinkled my Dad's work shirts with water before she ironed them. I think As The World Turns was live for either 15 or 30 minutes. I can just hear, "And now live, for the next 30 minutes, As The World Turns!"
Another soap that brings back memories would be Dark Shadows with Barnabus Collins the vampire! And these teenagers think they invented vampire shows! HA! :laugh:

My mom was also a big As The World Turns fan from when it started in the 1950's, then I got hooked on it as a kid and a teen. I stopped watching it when I went to college, but I was surprised to find out that Bob and Kim were on until the the show ended. And I think the actress who played Nancy Hughes just passed away a few years ago. Unfortunately my mom developed dementia the last 3 years before she passed away, and gradually she had no memory of who the characters were on ATWT, and stopped watching it about a year before she passed away.

So what will Susan Lucci do after All My Children becomes history in a few months? I think she was on the AMC since it started.

[chachacha]

OLTL has been one of my favorites for over forty years! i also love The Young and the Restless. i used to feed my babies while watching barnabas collins on Dark Shadows! i agree about the fast forwarding through commercials. saves 20 min per hour of soap! i guess networks are losing advertising revenue now that the soaps can be seen on internet. at least Upstairs Downstairs has returned to PBS! now i have gotten into the spanish soaps to keep up my spanish...can you imagine a title like "Labyrinths of Passion" on an english speaking soap? am currently enjoying Manana es para Siempre. but the spanish soaps end in about twelve weeks...they do not go on for forty years like our old favorites! very sad to lose OLTL!

[Sally Jo]

My next door neighbor, in high school, was a big As The World Turns fan. When her husband got transferred to New Jersey she started an Eileen Fulton fan club. She got to know Folton and even had a cameo once, on the show.
I tried watching a soap once in Septemeber of 1970, It was just starting. I don't know which one it was. I wanted to be able to talk to my friends about a soap. I lasted fifteen minutes and then went back to Art Fleming and Jeopardy. My mom loved soaps. I'm the odd ball.

[Schaumburger]

My next door neighbor, in high school, was a big As The World Turns fan. When her husband got transferred to New Jersey she started an Eileen Fulton fan club. She got to know Folton and even had a cameo once, on the show.
I tried watching a soap once in Septemeber of 1970, It was just starting. I don't know which one it was. I wanted to be able to talk to my friends about a soap. I lasted fifteen minutes and then went back to Art Fleming and Jeopardy. My mom loved soaps. I'm the odd ball.

Was Eileen Fulton on As The World Turns until the show ended? Her character, Lisa, had more husbands than Liz Taylor, I think.

[Sally Jo]

Schaumburger--- Since I never watched the show I googled Eileen Fulton. She was on the show until the end. She was off a couple times for short periods of time. She had eight husbands. Divorced three times, widowed four times and one annullment. Busy woman.

[swrinfla]

Ages and ages ago - like maybe 60 some years - my Mother became hooked one summer on radio soaps.

She admiited that she would have been embarrassed about her "addiction," but made sure that she listened every day!

Of course, one could probably have listened only on Friday, and been as "up-to-date" as those who listened every day!

But, since she didn't believe that, I was recruited (for which you should understand, "instructed") to listen for several days when she had friends visiting, and to report "in detail" (and, for sure, in private) what had happened. And, of course, I was never, ever to let her friends know that she had even the smallest interest!

These were the 15 minutes a day soaps, the forerunners of the now lamented tv soaps.

SWR
:beer3:

[Schaumburger]

Ages and ages ago - like maybe 60 some years - my Mother became hooked one summer on radio soaps.

She admiited that she would have been embarrassed about her "addiction," but made sure that she listened every day!

Of course, one could probably have listened only on Friday, and been as "up-to-date" as those who listened every day!

But, since she didn't believe that, I was recruited (for which you should understand, "instructed") to listen for several days when she had friends visiting, and to report "in detail" (and, for sure, in private) what had happened. And, of course, I was never, ever to let her friends know that she had even the smallest interest!

These were the 15 minutes a day soaps, the forerunners of the now lamented tv soaps.

SWR
:beer3:
I remember my mom telling me years ago that when As The World Turns was first shown on television in the 1950's it was on for 15 minutes. Then after a few years the episodes went to 30 minutes, but my mother didn't know that for several months. She would turn off the show after 15 minutes assuming it was over for that day. The next day she would tune in, and she couldn't understand why she was having a hard time following the plot as she unknowingly missed the last 15 minutes. My mom was among the last generation of stay at home moms, and since she didn't drive, ATWT was her way of getting away from housework and kids for a short time each day. My sisters and I didn't dare cause any problems during ATWT.