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24 Sep 11 - 06:13 PM (#3228473) Subject: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: GUEST,josepp I'm sorry to see all the soap operas going off the air. It's not that I watched them at all--I didn't. I work during the day, after all. I guess it's because they haven't been replaced by anything worth watching unless you consider Springer worth watching. The soaps can't compete with the talk shows and crap. They are expensive to make and the networks can't recoup their expenditures. Now that "All My Children" just bit the dust, I think there's only three left--General Hospital, The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives. Christ, there used to be a dozen on all three major networks back in the day. They were kind of iconic in American life but, like equally iconic institutions as drive-Ins and milkmen, have fallen by the wayside. It seems with the more technology we have, the less there is to do with it. We needed HDTV 20 or 30 years ago but not now--there's just shit to watch now. "Well, josepp, if you never watched them, why do you care if they go away?" There's a pang of nostalgia, I guess. Being home sick from school and hearing the soap opera themes in the other room while my mom watched them. There was a kind of comfort in assuming they'd always be there. It was part of my America. My America is slipping away and I should be happy about that but I'm not. Every time something goes away, nothing replaces it that's worth a shit. It just gets worse. I don't watch Springer and why should I care if someone else does? I guess I shouldn't but I do. We're being fed trash tv and we can't get enough. That just bothers me. |
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24 Sep 11 - 07:01 PM (#3228490) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: Leadfingers Same in UK , though I dint think we have ever had quite as many soaps as in USA ! Daytime TV here seems to be al that Reality Crap - Where to buy a new house etc etc . Not that it bothers me - I threw my Television set out in 1986 ! |
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24 Sep 11 - 07:39 PM (#3228505) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: Mrrzy Much as I disliked soaps, even the one that my sister would watch whenever she was in the States (it's later that same day...), I too am sorry to see any era that I grew up with come to an end. Nobody in college watches General Hospital so what are they up to? Nothing good, I haven't had TV since the twins were small. However, once a week I go to a friend's and take over the remote. Aaah, sin and luxury. |
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24 Sep 11 - 07:45 PM (#3228508) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: Ed T There is already an open thread on Sexual Fantasies:) |
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24 Sep 11 - 07:48 PM (#3228509) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: Bobert I hate to see them go, too... It has made my wife, the P-Vine, very cranky... B;~( |
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24 Sep 11 - 11:04 PM (#3228535) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: Stilly River Sage As silly as they were, I suspect in their day they influenced some of the fashion and cosmetics and household decor markets. Who couldn't see the beautiful people and beautiful homes on those programs? I didn't watch them, but in a couple of instances I was around people who did and they took the time to explain the convoluted story lines, so on a couple I actually knew what was going on if I walked into the room. In later years they were the way some people probably were introduced to topical issues; the Susan Lucci character apparently went through a lot of events that had to do with laws and attitudes. Abortion, a gay daughter character, etc. I won't miss them, I never paid attention, but I suspect that whatever comes on won't be nearly so satisfying to the viewers who will miss, as my great aunt Mabel used to call them, "their stories." (Mabel loved General Hospital.) SRS |
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24 Sep 11 - 11:07 PM (#3228536) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: Stilly River Sage P.S., on Spanish language cable and television the telenovelas are still wildly popular. SRS |
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25 Sep 11 - 03:55 AM (#3228592) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: Lizzie Cornish 1 I can't *wait* for the 3 main British Soaps to go off air. Coronation St, Eastenders and Emmerdale, that is. They're filled with nastiness. Everyone is double-timing everyone else, murdering them, stealing their babies, shouting, screaming, losing the plot etc..or being as common as muck, as bitchy as hell, or dishonest beyond belief and ALL at a time when young children and young people are watching... This is *their* 'REALITY'...and it stinks, to be honest... I've watched the standard go down and down over the years, when I occasionally summon up the strength to see what the producers are now up to. It's deeply disturbing...and nowadays my country seems more like Eastenders than the show itself... |
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25 Sep 11 - 05:40 AM (#3228623) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: John MacKenzie Well Lizzie, my theory is, people watch soaps in order to feel better about themselves, when they see how bad the lives of others are. So the deeper in the shit the country is, the more sordid the soaps become. I'm sure that if they were stopped, the NHS bill for tranquillisers would halve! |
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25 Sep 11 - 09:07 AM (#3228683) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: MGM·Lion John ~~ I suspect you mean "halve" ~~ otherwise I cannot follow the point you make. |
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25 Sep 11 - 09:09 AM (#3228684) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: MGM·Lion Hell ~ you've got me at it now: I meant I suspect that you mean 'double', not 'halve'... |
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25 Sep 11 - 10:15 AM (#3228703) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: John MacKenzie Nah, I mean the soaps are depressing people. They certainly make me feel suicidal whan I catch a glimpse of whatever crap the addict in my house is watching at the time. |
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25 Sep 11 - 10:25 AM (#3228707) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: MGM·Lion Ah! Thank you. |
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25 Sep 11 - 10:40 AM (#3228710) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: alanabit Even when I was nine years old, I preferred sitting on a river bank with a wet bottom drowning worms (I was attempting to catch trout). I would do anything - anything at all to get out of the house when Crossroads was on. It really was beastly and I was shocked even then that so many people had so little going on in their own lives that they found it interesting. The disgusting "reality" TV shows, the "look at me cult" and the exaltation of mediocrity in general makes the off switch the most attractive part of a television for most of the time! |
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25 Sep 11 - 01:25 PM (#3228770) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: gnu Way back when, my buddy's mum would watch the soaps. No matter. But, getting on the phone and discussing them with othermum's as if they were real was very puzzling to me. Hmmm... then again, I suppose I do the same thing with sports. |
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25 Sep 11 - 01:34 PM (#3228778) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: GUEST It's no good complaining about soaps - just don't watch them!! |
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25 Sep 11 - 02:20 PM (#3228793) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: John MacKenzie Wow, deep and insightful remark there Guest ;-) |
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25 Sep 11 - 02:35 PM (#3228798) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: MGM·Lion Well, I think it's a perfectly sensible remark, John. If they distress you so much, ignore them, avoid them, don't even listen if you happen into a room where someone's watching. Some people seem to like them, so what are getting so worked up about and so censorious for? I regard your threats of suicide on exposure to them as self-indulgent hyperbolical rhetoric, I fear. There are far too many self-appointed arbiters of other people's tastes around, on this forum & elsewhere. I am reminded again [I say 'again' because I used this analogy on another thread quite recently, but it seems to fit here so I'll repeat it ~~ if you don't want to know the score look away now!] of the woman who complained to the police that a male neighbour would undress in sight of her window. The policeman who came round to check said he couldn't see anything. "Oh, you have to stand on tiptoe on that chair," she replied. ~M~ |
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25 Sep 11 - 02:40 PM (#3228799) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: fat B****rd I remember the old days of 'Corrie' when it was quite original in concept. Nowadays it's the only one Mrs. fB watches and that's fine with me. I simply retreat into the 'real' world of Mudcat. If millions of people want to watch 'Soaps' it doesn't bother me and shouldn't bother anybody else. Mind you I think most of them are shite. |
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25 Sep 11 - 02:45 PM (#3228805) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: GUEST,999 I watched soaps (The Young and the Senseless) for a sociology course I took lotsa years back. Five months of it. When the course finished I stopped watching. Time passed. About 20 years. I happened in to a room where TYatS was on. In 10 minutes I knew what was happening as though two decades had not passed. It's reassuring to see nothing has changed. Soaps are better than tranqs. Put one on today (which is again two decades later) and I'd be asleep at minute eleven having caught up on the latest. |
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25 Sep 11 - 03:00 PM (#3228811) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: GUEST,josepp The problem for me was that I was on vacation last week and flipped on the TV just to have a look before going out. There were a bunch of talkshows and these "news" pieces that consisted of stuff that couldn't make the prime time news--bullshit. And I knew immediately what was going on. "Talkshows" like Springer rule the daytime airwaves and those networks that can't make a dent in it deliberately show bullshit because it's cheap and no one is watching it anyway. Why show a soap opera if it can't compete with Springer--that's a lot of money down the toilet. So the eradication of the soap opera isn't about the soap operas themselves but about how our tastes are changing in ways scarcely conceivable 20 years ago. Soaps tried but can't capture this new audience. I know people who watch Springer and they LOVE the tawdry, trailer-trash shit that goes on--they are hooked on it. There's no way these people would ever watch a soap opera for two seconds. Daytime has certainly not gotten any better with the demise of the soaps. |
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25 Sep 11 - 03:24 PM (#3228822) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: John MacKenzie Basil: Can't we get you on Mastermind, Sybil? Next contestant - Sybil Fawlty from Torquay. Special subject - the bleedin' obvious. From: Series 2 : Basil the Rat) |
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25 Sep 11 - 05:50 PM (#3228878) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: Joe_F In 1970, the same mixture of superiority & sentimentality inspired no less a person than W. H. Auden, in regard to *radio* soap opera (in _A Certain World_ s.v. Opera, soap) to reflect: "While it flourished, it seemed awful, but now that television has killed it, one remembers it with a nostalgic regret." The entry contains two observations on the subject by James Thurber ("Next to physical ills, the commonest misfortune in the world of soap is false accusation of murder"). |
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25 Sep 11 - 06:08 PM (#3228885) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: GUEST,999 josepp, you and I have disagreed on so much so often that if I owned a TV I'd probably watch Springer just to celebrate. (I may be the only person alive who got through about a minute of a Springer show and said, "WTF is THIS?") Needless to say--well, I don't know what's needless to say, but you are so right when you call it bullshit. Bravo, buddy. |
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25 Sep 11 - 07:43 PM (#3228934) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: CapriUni I'm not a fan of soaps, either. But I am a fan of storytelling, and fiction writing. And with soaps disappearing from our culture, being replaced by "Self-help" books, and [un]reality shows, and "Tell-all" memoirs... That's what I find depressing. Sometimes, it feels as though the whole realm of |
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26 Sep 11 - 09:04 AM (#3229182) Subject: RE: BS: Never thought I'd say this, but... From: GUEST,Patsy There seems to be a trend at the moment for the soaps in the UK to steal similar storylines from each other. If it is such a struggle for a decent storyline then maybe it's time to call it a day. |