In tough times, keep soaps alive

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In tough times, keep soaps alive
Tweet Topic Started: Dec 14 2008, 09:55 AM (635 Views)
Karen	Dec 14 2008, 09:55 AM Post #1
Advanced Member Posts: 7,269 Group: Members Member #3 Joined: August 31, 2008	This is an opinion column from my local newspaper, the MetroWest Daily News about the importance of soaps in hard times. I wonder if our poor economy and all the layoffs could actually help soaps. Spitz: In tough times, keep soap alive By Julia Spitz/Daily News columnist MetroWest Daily News Posted Dec 14, 2008 @ 12:23 AM This bad-economy, changing-times thing has finally gone too far. No money. No jobs. No prospects. Now the threat of no soaps? That's just unthinkable. But there it is. Right in this week's TV Guide, under a "Breaking News" banner: "Can Daytime Soaps Stay Afloat?" The article starts out with "The entire daytime-soap industry seems to be on the bubble." It reveals even icons like Erica Kane herself, Susan Lucci, are being asked to take big pay cuts, and states most soaps' ratings are half what they were 10 years ago. Maybe whippersnappers are spending too much time on the Internet. Maybe they're spending time in school. Whatever the reason, there doesn't seem to be much of a market for soaps among young folks today. They're too young to know how valuable soaps are in hard times. About the only thing booming during the Great Depression was the demand for radio soap operas. "Ma Perkins," "The Romance of Helen Trent" and "Today's Children" were just a few of the favorites. "On the eve of World War II, listeners could choose from among 64 daytime serials a week," according to the Museum of Broadcast Communications. Proof positive bad times call for something worse. Like having an evil twin pop up. Or finding out your husband is actually your ex-father-in-law, and your sister's one true love, back from the dead. In my book, the daytime drama industry is as worthy of a bailout as any bank. Why isn't anyone looking into having Sonny Corinthos testify before Congress about how Port Charles' mob wars have brought joy to millions? Or getting Viki/Niki Lord Gordon Riley Burke Riley Buchanan Buchanan Carpenter Davidson (have I left out any?) and her host of alters to explain how she has shined much-needed light on the problem of having twins with different fathers and then having your babies switched at birth? All these people have ever done is try to make us feel better about ourselves by making us realize we could never be as beleaguered as they are. Not many of us could bounce back from bullets as many times as Jason Morgan on "General Hospital." And still look smokin' hot, I might add. Look, it's not as if Kay Chancellor ever stole real money from real stockholders and gave out massive bonuses to bad executives on the taxpayers' dime. Soap folks are usually too busy trying to beat a trumped-up murder rap to do any harm. Now they need our support to carry us through the tough times ahead. I may not have been around for 1930s bread lines, but I do know how a daily dose of serial can brighten a dark day. Barnabas, the "Dark Shadows" vampire, and his hunky werewolf pal helped make the transition to yet another new school a little easier for me in 1968. When that went off the air, I latched on to its replacement, "One Life to Live," which got me through the rigors of two more new schools, the angst of teen breakups, and the first days of college. A toddler and a sick infant in the apartment called for something a little stronger: "One Life to Live" plus the first few minutes of "General Hospital." If naps were on track, the last few minutes of "All My Children" could be squeezed in while I picked up toys or washed dishes. Thanks to the invention of the VCR, soaps didn't have to stop once the kids outgrew naptime and started getting into things that would have turned my hair slate gray, if I hadn't had Tina Lord going over a waterfall to keep my priorities straight. Tina survived, of course. She gave birth in the Amazon jungle and returned back to Llanview. Somehow her baby and another got switched for awhile, but then again, the only shock for soap characters would be to actually have the right child all along. Hospitals in soapland do a very good job of fixing folks up. There's no life-threatening illness that can't be cured, no limit to the number of times a character can be brought back to life. Maternity wards, however, have a pretty abysmal record of keeping track of babies. Which somehow causes extremely unusual growth spurts in soap children. Some have been known to start kindergarten and finish law school on the same day. Is it any wonder amnesia runs rampant in Genoa City and Pine Valley? And couldn't we all use a little amnesia in times like these? Pull the plugs on soaps if you must, TV execs, but for the love of Luke and Laura, please at least wait until we're on the road to fiscal security. Dire times demand doomed romances and star-crossed young love. (Julia Spitz can be reached at 508-626-3968 or [email protected]. Check metrowestdailynews.com or milforddailynews.com for the Spitz Bits blog.)
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loves2turn	Dec 14 2008, 01:12 PM Post #2
Advanced Member Posts: 29,326 Group: Members Member #2 Joined: August 31, 2008	Well, I don't know, but it's hard for me to make any kind of leap from a recession to that helping keep the soaps alive. I guess anything's possible, though.



Judy	Dec 14 2008, 01:36 PM Post #3
Advanced Member Posts: 17,843 Group: Members Member #6 Joined: August 31, 2008	Well I can relate. When you have a recession you have more people out of work. That means you may have more people available during daytime to watch TV, I know when I was between jobs in the early 90's was when I got really hooked again and became a regular viewer as opposed to more casual in recent years. Sometimes it's just a good break to watch or you might have the TV in the background as you are writing letters and things in a job search. What I would think soaps would want to do though is provide some "feel good" storeis as opposed to all the gloom and doom we hve. When you are struggling in life is watching solid angst really what you want? I think there is a big overreaction to Susan Lucci being asked to take a pay cut since it sounds like she was paid far more than most of the actors. And I think there have been a lot more actors taking pay cuts but just not publicizing it. My guess is quite a few already took them on ATWT. We know Martha took a pay cut the year before she left. Soaps too have to balance budgets and that is one of the ways they do it.



Karen	Dec 14 2008, 01:58 PM Post #4
Advanced Member Posts: 7,269 Group: Members Member #3 Joined: August 31, 2008	Well, I do think that soaps can be an escape from reality. When I was home with my kids when they were younger, I'd try to watch during nap time and it was definitely a break from all the every day stress. I do agree with Judy that the writing has to be better than it's been and there has to be some feel good stories and/or couples with happy endings. I'm not feeling at all bad for Susan Lucci, that's for sure.
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