Comments on: You Know You Do…

By: I'd rather poke my eye out...

I'd rather poke my eye out... — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:44:25 +0000

Oh my goodness, when I was in elementary school my Great- Grandma & Grandma watched me after school. We used to watch General Hospital & Golden Girls. I don’t watch soaps anymore but I still catch every re-run of Golden Girls I can!

By: Pam@IW

Pam@IW — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:06:45 +0000

When I was I believe in high school or middle school I loved Dark Shadows. I don't think it was on for that long.

In college, our whole dorm floor would schedule classes around Ryan's Hope and The Young and The Restless. It started in the spring of 1973 and I was a freshman in the fall of 1973 so it was a brand new soap opera. We only had one TV in the lounge. That brings back great memories.

Ryan's Hope was also a new soap in I think 1975. Both were geared towards the younger crowd although I did love All My Children and General Hospital.

By: Pam@IW

Pam@IW — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:01:39 +0000

I remember Demi on GH. Wow, when was that?

By: Samantha@IW

Samantha@IW — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:58:29 +0000

Jennie,
If you were my evil twin you would have to kidnap me and hold me captive in a cave or mine or abandoned warehouse. Then you would assume my identity and convince my signifigant other that you were me. Ultimately I would escape, and there would be a showdown where each of us would try to convince my man that we were “me”. Are you up for it?

By: jennie

jennie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:08:40 +0000

I do remember her on GH! Wasn’t she someone’s sister? Maybe Felicia’s? (Of Frisco and Felicia fame.) I can’t quite remember.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:45:47 +0000

Oh, forgive me if this was mentioned, but remember when Demi Moore played Jackie on General Hospital (I think she was an investigative reporter, right?), I remember my Mom saying, “That girl has a smokers voice!”

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:39:18 +0000

I used to watch most of them. My Mom got me started, she used to watch As The World Turns (she had gone to grade school with the actress that played one of the Bauers). I watched All My Children from the very first episode and just stopped watching a few years ago, I traded soap operas in for twenty-four hour news shows and home-improvement shows. But in between I watched almost all the soaps, I watched Ryan’s Hope from the first episode until it went off the air (I loved the early story lines!), and I watched General Hospital from when it was in black and white! And I’m dating myself but I also watched The Guiding Light and The Secret Storm! And I loved Dark Shadows! Yes, I was a big soap opera buff, then real-life became a soap opera and I didn’t need them anymore.

By: Jennie@IW

Jennie@IW — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:18:26 +0000

Politics is one thing, but now this? You wound me! And I like mayonnaise! Pretend we're on a soap and I'm your evil twin, opposite in every way.

By: Kiki

Kiki — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:33:04 +0000

Soaps have always gotten a bad rap because they’re associated with housewives. Most of the popular nighttime dramas are essentially soap operas. It’s sad to see the genre going away. I think they could save it, but they cost too much to produce. If they would just go back to basic relationship stories, instead of back-from-the-dead, when did I have that baby?, who owns Jabot this week? stories, they could keep more of their audience.

I watch the CBS shows from time to time. I had given up on Guiding Light long before they took it off, but I had to watch the last Bauer Fourth of July picnic, as well as the last week or so. One of the things I like about soaps is the continuity of seeing the same people who were there when I was a kid. Helen Wagner, who plays Nancy Hughes on As The World Turns, was onscreen when Walter Cronkite broke in to tell us President Kennedy was dead. Now, even Walter is gone, but Helen (at 91!) still shows up sometimes. I’m always happy when she’s there on a day I watch.
Y&R will always be that “new soap” to me. My older sister entered a Jamie Lyn Bauer (what was her character’s name? she was one of those sisters from one of the original main families- I know she almost married a guy who turned out to be her half-brother) look-alike contest. She lost.

By: Anya@IW

Anya@IW — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:25:02 +0000

Lily@IW — Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman — that brings back memories! I was a little young for it, but I remember my mom and aunt being gaga over it. My mom never watched TV, but she made an exception for MH MH.

Ann@IW, I see the resemblance between soaps and reality TV too. Both depend on outrageous characters, heroes and villains, and suspending belief.

I have watched many of the ones you all have mentioned at one time or another. I was kind of a fickle fan – there were usually one or two stories I was interested in and I would fast forward the VCR tape past the stories that didn’t interest me. I still remember being excited or bummed if the character/storyline that I was most interested in was or wasn’t featured on a particular day.
I read recently that As the World Turns is due to be cancelled in September. That makes me sad. There is so much history there. I haven’t watched in years, but I still remember newcomers like Meg Ryan and Julianne Moore before they made it big. Yep, I am old!

Along with the daytime soaps, I was very invested in the nightime soaps that were big back in the day — Knots Landing and Falcon Crest being my favorites. I remember another star – Alec Baldwin – who got his start on Knots….