The Last Soap Fan

Greetings!

Ok, so I'm probably not the very last soap fan but I find we are a dying breed. I have been watching daytime drama most of my life...literally. As a toddler, my mother worked and I stayed with my grandmother during the day.  One day when my mother came to pick me up, I asked her if she wanted to know what happened that day on the "Young and the Westless." I started daycare not too long after that. 

But alas! It was not enough to quell my affinity for this genre. Holidays, summer vacations, sick and snow days were always an opportunity for me to check in with the citizens of my favorite fictional towns. Most kids my age did the same. They too had spent time in the care of older women who tuned in daily to at least one of the many daytime dramas that aired in the 70s, 80s and 90s. 

Maybe that's one of the reasons I'm drawn to it, because of the longevity. Most of my friends outgrew soaps in their teens or early twenties. I can't say the same. While I haven't tuned into all episodes of every daytime serial for the past forty years, I always seem to find my way back. Life, work schedules, other circumstances...or frustration with a storyline may have forced my beloved soaps to the back burner over the years but I always stayed connected if it was only through a daily or weekly recap. And whenever I found my way back, the soaps were there, waiting for me like an old friend or family member.

My favorite sitcoms or primetime shows would be lucky to last five or six seasons (unless it's Friends, The Big Bang Theory or everyone's sacred Grey's Anatomy) but my soaps remained. Well...some of my soaps. Over the past decade, I’ve seen my favorite daytime soaps canceled; something I thought would never happen. They have been replaced with talk shows that while might be entertaining, and less expensive to produce, don’t seem as endearing to me.    

So many people mock or scoff at the art form of daytime drama. I’ve actually had people –with an air of derision, I might add--tell me I don’t seem like the kind of person who would watch soap operas. I found it offensive. I didn’t address it but I found it offensive. What does that even mean? What “kind” of person watches soap operas?  Ok, they can be campy. Yes, the storylines can be outrageous. I mean I can name five characters that have returned from the dead multiple times in less than ten seconds but that’s part of the fun! Suspending disbelief or indulging one’s imagination for the sake of entertainment is one of the few joys you can find in life. And yes, after almost a century in existence, some of the storylines are retold. It’s kind of par for the course these days since the same writers shuffle back and forth between the remaining shows on the air (we’ll discuss that more another time). But sometimes watching a new twist to a familiar plot can be just as satisfying as something never seen before.

Daytime dramas produce new content to air five days a week with the exception of a few holidays. 

Let's think about that for a moment. That's writing new material, shooting and editing over three hundred days of the year, give or take. Other than nightly news programs, I can’t think of any form of entertainment that produces more new content on a regular basis. That alone is enough reason have some respect for this dying art form.

Which I guess is my reason for starting this blog. I want to come out of the shadows of soap opera fandom and said proudly, “I love soap operas!” Because I do and I want to be free to do so without judgment or scorn. If I don’t judge those who sleep outside overnight to be the first on line to get tickets to the new Star Wars movie, I’d like not to be judged for tuning into daily to watch the latest in a baby switch plot. Not that I think Star Wars fans are judging me but you get my meaning.

I also wanted to reach out to other like-minded people. People who have grown up or have had a decades’ long love affair with emotionally complicated characters of make believe towns who grace our screens during the afternoon. As I get older, I find my tastes change. Characters I used to adore now get on my nerves and the types of characters I used to hate appeal to me. I want to open up healthy and fun dialogue about shows, characters and storylines. I want to learn more about current shows and those no longer on the air. Thanks to the internet and social media, I can see that soap operas still have a strong fan base.  There is a community of us and as the saying goes, there’s strength in numbers. I may be able to reach old soap opera fans and bring them back into the fold. I mean lets face it, the only way to keep the soaps on the air is to get people to watch them.

Finally, and this may be a pipe dream but I want soaps restored to their former glory. I know the days of tuning in from noon to four every day on every major network are over. But the idea of a platform where I could tune in and watch soap operas whenever I wanted would be so awesome. I’d gladly pay ten bucks a month to stream soap operas old and new on a snow day. Ooh! There’s an idea.

Now, while I dabble in all the soaps airing right now, I am most knowledgeable about General Hospital. It is the one I have watched most consistently over the years and I try to never miss an episode so I’m sure most of my content will be about that show for the time being. But fear not! I am dedicated to becoming well versed in the other three as well as past soap operas. I hope to use this platform to expand my knowledge and love of the genre and share it with others.

So Happy New Year to you all! I wish you peace, blessings and prosperity. And I hope you wish me luck as I try not to be…The Last Soap Fan.