SoapSuds and Other Afterthoughts

Soaps: Survival of Pedigree

Rating: 3 votes, 5.00 average.
6 Comments
by
IheartCarly
, 01-22-2009 at 12:53 PM (2801 Views)
I am firmly convinced that the reason all soaps struggle these days is because of a fundamental change in writing and cast turnover. Once upon a time - these "stories" were investments in characters, families and - like neighbors we loved - issues everyone cared about.

If it took two years to find out who someone's biological father was so that the groundwork could be laid to introduce a family, social issue, or tie in the rest of the story canvas - we watched faithfully for two years. If we didn't watch, we asked someone who did or listened on the radio. In today's technology, that's the equivalent of watching online or reading the daily recaps.

Unfortunately, the time is no longer taken in daytime television to build a story arc of any substance. Take nighttime television with resounding success (Friends, 24, Gilmore Girls, CSI, ER, Prison Break, or Will and Grace). Regardless of the network, they have a commonality that can't be overlooked. The writers stay true to the characters, develop a story arc over a season or several seasons and invest the viewers emotionally in the characters.

Daytime was the model for this. Was being the operative term. Now, daytime insults the faithful by twising the past and characters they have built to suit a current storyline "trial". If the trial fails, they twist everything again in another direction trying to hook new viewers, sustain ratings, or please investors. With every twist they lose the faith of the viewers and ratings fall - you would think the trend would stop, but instead it continues in desperation.

Families are never portrayed and whole and happy, any character is up for destruction, and stories come and go so fast - the details are usually lost in the shuffle which leads to sloppy dialogue and illogical character behavior.

So how does the daytime soap opera survive? By embracing the idea that just because it was the old way, doesn't make it wrong. Go back and watch your roots, writers - take notes. Become faithful fans like your viewers and preserve what little integrity is left.

A starting point would be to take all the old episodes and start releasing them as box sets. Entice viewers back to your scenery with visions of the amazing towns, people and relationships you used to portray. Perhaps by the time they get to the current storyline, you will have rediscovered the love for writing a true story - and not a current comic strip.

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Comments

  1. aria's Avatar
    Wow, what an articulate and eloquent post; it really expresses what a lot of people have been trying to say. I wish you could send that to tptb at my favorite soap.
  2. unchainedheart's Avatar
    "Families are never portrayed and whole and happy, any character is up for destruction, and stories come and go so fast - the details are usually lost in the shuffle which leads to sloppy dialogue and illogical character behavior.

    So how does the daytime soap opera survive? By embracing the idea that just because it was the old way, doesn't make it wrong. Go back and watch your roots, writers - take notes. Become faithful fans like your viewers and preserve what little integrity is left."


    Couldn't have said it better myself! I wish writers would follow Marland's rules to writing soap operas. I feel like they should have a copy hanging in the offices. I would love for old episodes to be released in box sets but I'm sure they couldn't really do it because most were done live until the 1970s and used tapes that were copied over on. But I do wish they could reissue some of the best episodes from maybe the 1980s.
  3. dolce_amore's Avatar
    Very well said. I agree that they should release box sets - I think both old and new soap fans would really love that.
  4. Jayhawk1's Avatar
    Great post! I've been trying to say the same thing for years, but not nearly as well. I started watching soaps with my babysitter, before I started school. I continued with my grandmother and continue to watch - about 50 years worth. Unfortunately, the only one that I watch regularly is Y&R - the others just bore me to tears with the same sl over and over again being played by characters, once almost family, now unrecognizable. Let's hope that the writers and producers get a clue before it's too later for them all.
  5. Semperfidani's Avatar
    I could not agree more with the quote below.

    [QUOTE]
    Families are never portrayed and whole and happy, any character is up for destruction, and stories come and go so fast - the details are usually lost in the shuffle which leads to sloppy dialogue and illogical character behavior.

    So how does the daytime soap opera survive? By embracing the idea that just because it was the old way, doesn't make it wrong. Go back and watch your roots, writers - take notes. Become faithful fans like your viewers and preserve what little integrity is left.[/QUOTE]
  6. Serenella's Avatar
    Very eloquent! I've been thinking a lot about what would need to change in order for soaps to survive... Do they go the route of the telenovella with short-term series? Do they go back to their roots, as you note? Should they return to the half hour format? What about podcast on iTunes to really go back to the original format of radio? I also wonder just who is watching television during the day and, as I've heard mention in the news, when will the industry catch up to the changes which the internet and DVR have brought? Part of the problem also seems to be that they don't yet quite know how to measure viewing properly with DVR and internet viewing so that skews the ratings. I also am reminded of the old adage that the definition of insanity is doing more of something and expecting different results. Like you say, they need to go back and remember what drew people in to soaps in the first place. Maybe they can't replicate those days, but there is a lot to learn from them to incorporate into today's television world.