Soap Operas: Daytime Comfort TV

 

This blog has been around for nine years (no, I don’t believe it either) and in all that time I’ve never devoted a single piece to soap operas – outside of Dark Shadows, which was awesome but hardly a typical example of the genre.

 

And yet, for millions of people over the past eight decades, daytime dramas are the ultimate comfort television. They may have been parodied, derided, stereotyped as tawdry escapist romance for lonely housewives to watch while ironing. But like a good friend they were always there with new stories to tell, five days a week, twelve months a year. 

 

 

And even with the vast expansion of the television landscape and the changing tastes and expectations of a contemporary audience, they are still here.

 

True, there are just four left on the networks, when there used to be dozens. But show me four other scripted series that debuted in 1987 (The Bold and the Beautiful), 1973 (The Young and the Restless), 1965 (Days of Our Lives) and 1963 (General Hospital) that are still airing new episodes every weekday. 

 

 

I began watching General Hospital when I was in high school. I turn 57 this year, and it’s still something I watch almost every day. What’s amazing is that there are actors on the show now who were there when I was still worried about passing algebra. They include Genie Francis (Laura, of the famous Luke-and-Laura), Jackie Zeman (Bobbie Spencer), Leslie Charleson (Monica Quartermaine) and Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio). 

 

 

Why am I still a regular viewer? Part of it is because these people have been part of my life as long as anyone outside my immediate family. I’ve watched as they’ve coped with marriage and divorce, illness and all manner of violent confrontations. And, yes, amnesia, switched babies, evil twins, and all the clichés so easily (and understandably) mocked by those who look down on them. Somehow, as you watch those daft stories unfold over weeks and months, they still hook you in.

 

At least now I’m down to just one soap a day. In my 20s I was also all in for All My Children. Back then Greg and Jenny were the popular young couple in love, Tad “the cad” was one of daytime’s most appealing rats, and Susan Lucci’s Emmy losses were still in the single digits. 

 

 

Speaking of the Daytime Emmys, it’s remarkable how far that ceremony has tumbled on the pop culture landscape. Once it was a prime time special with the same prestige as any awards show – now, with so few soaps, talk shows and game shows, it can’t even get a TV deal on the Golf Channel or C-SPAN 3.

 

I only stuck with All My Children for about three years; I stayed with One Life to Live quite a bit longer; partly because it was on right before General Hospital, partly because Erika Slezak was as brilliant an actress as any in film or TV, partly because it could occasionally be as bizarre in its storylines as Dark Shadows (anyone remember the underground city of Eterna?), and partly because at the time I thought Andrea Evans, who played Tina Lord, was the most beautiful woman on television. 

 

 

That title now belongs to GH”s Katelyn MacMullen.

 

 

And even when I was watching three soaps, I wondered about all the great stories I might be missing on Another World, The Guiding Light and other daytime dramas. Usually I remembered to catch Ryan’s Hope around St. Patrick’s Day to hear Maeve sing “Oh, Danny Boy,” but while I knew about Victor and Nikki on The Young and the Restless I never tuned in to see what made them special. I was perhaps most curious about The Edge of Night, where Sharon Gabet’s character of Raven Alexander was reaching legendary status among soap aficionados. 

 

 

Of course, even if there were access to the material now, it’s not like a prime time series where it’s easy to jump in and catch up. Taking the full journey encompasses thousands of episodes, and I just have this one lifetime.

 

Still, it’s that very longevity that deserves to be celebrated. Whether it’s Joe West umpiring more than 5,000 games, that weatherman on your local news whose hair was black when you started watching him but has long since turned gray, or the hostess at the restaurant who has been showing you to your favorite booth since your kids were small. These are the anchors of continuity in a world that changes too quickly, and not always for the better. I’m happy we’ve had soap operas to provide that continuousness across the decades. 

 

 

And for those who still think the entire genre is overheated nonsense, all I can say is this: there was a scene on General Hospital that aired close to 40 years ago, in which Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) struggled to come to terms with the death of his wife Laura (who was later found alive but that’s not relevant here). Alone on their boat, the Haunted Star, to the strains of “Key Largo” by Bertie Higgins, Luke suffered an emotional breakdown with angry, devastated, violent outbursts that was as difficult to watch as I’m sure it was to perform. It was as moving and memorable a piece of acting as I’ve seen in any film, Broadway theater or television show.

 

I’m sure that viewers of other soaps could share similar stories about equally powerful scenes.