Soap Viewer's Survival Guide: How To Keep Going, When Watching Gets Tough
Watching soaps can be a blessing and a curse. There are highs— such as the amazing work by Melody Thomas Scott and Trevor St. John last year— and there are lows— such as anything on The Bold and the Beautiful at the moment. Because watching soaps are addictive by nature— we as fans are often reluctant to give up on our favorite show. Instead we prefer to stick by it in the hope it will be struck by lightening and improve.
Recently I've been thinking about what a fan must do to survive watching a soap they've all but given up on - in my case All My Children - until the soap gods look down from heaven and bestow upon it good writers, executive producers or a miracle in the form of the next Grant Aleksander.
I've come up with six things that can and will help soap fans, such as myself, who are waiting for the next soap messiah to return. I'm certain there are countless more and look forward to reading soap survival tips in the comments.
Find Humor In The Good Things and The Really Bad Things.
Have you ever been in a situation where something was so depressing or sad there was nothing else left to do but laugh? Watching soaps can feel like that sometimes. The Bold and the Beautiful and All My Children are current examples. The Bold and the Beautiful is so bad it is easy to laugh about. All My Children has been so bad for so long I had forgotten how to laugh with it, or at it.
I came to this realization after The Pine Valley Podcast's Ashley and Jordan brought their hilarious perspective on All My Children to an episode of Daytime Confidential. I actually had more fun discussing All My Children with them than I have had watching it, in months. What is the old saying? If you can’t beat them, join them? If you can’t laugh with a soap, laugh at it. If you are lucky enough to be watching a soap that is good, laugh at the good things. Take pleasure in them. Good soap is great, but it doesn’t last forever.
Find Other Soap Fans You Disagree With and Enjoy the Debate
Never underestimate the value of having a friend or group of friends with whom you enjoy arguing about soaps. Consensus can be overrated, but arguments are often inspiring. When watching soaps becomes unbearable, debating a topic with friends is therapeutic. Trust me, I know. I often find myself on the island of unpopular opinions. I love moustache twirling villains, Jamey doesn’t. I love Gloria on The Young and the Restless, Mike, Jamey and Jillian don’t. I’m a fan of Trevor St. John’s Todd Manning, Tina would do almost anything to get Roger Howarth back in the role. When watching All My Children feels like going to a dentist to have a tooth pulled without anesthetic, my all time favorite debate – whether or not the Martins are as upstanding as they claim to be – is a topic guaranteed to get me watching All My Children again, if only to gather more ammunition for my point of view.
I am so thankful that Daytime Confidential has brought a wonderful group of people into my life with whom I get to argue and debate about soaps on a daily or weekly basis. I would highly recommend finding your own group of soap fans to debate the ins and outs of the genre with.
DVR
DVR’s may bring about the demise of soaps, but for me they are the difference between not watching and keeping up on daily basis. The first benefit is obviously the ability to fast forward through commercials. It saves at least 15 minutes per show and when you watch as many soaps as I do, it only takes watching four soaps to save an hour of time. The second benefit is that once a soap is programmed into the DVR, it will almost always record and I rarely have to worry about it.
The third benefit is that it allows one to create their own version of a show. For example, the As the World Turns I watch isn’t the As the World Turns you may watch. On my As the World Turns the Paul, Meg, Dusty, Lucy storyline does not exist, other than as a blur as they flash by at warp speed. On my As the World Turns Casey is a great character because I don’t watch him opposite Alison, unless they are sharing scenes with Margo, Tom or Emily. On my As the World Turns Henry, Vienna, Brad and Katie are really zombie characters controlled by aliens. Once Mulder and Scully give the characters a much needed anal probe – not to be confused with SORAS – I’ll believe that these characters are really who they claim to be.
My As the World Turns revolves almost entirely around Carly, Jack, Janet, Parker, Liberty, Craig, Luke, Noah, Lily, Holden, Tom, Margo and the occasional appearances of Bob, Kim, Barbara, Susan and Lisa. I’d put my As the World Turns up against The Young and the Restless or One Life to Live any day. The As the World Turns the executives try to shove down our throats doesn’t deserve to be in the same room.
If you don’t have a DVR, I would highly recommend you get one. It’s almost impossible to survive watching soaps without one, unless you just quit watching completely.
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Comments
23 April 2008
8 hours 22 min
I recently watched the Bold and the Beautiful's first ep on youtube. good, sharp stuff, but no Stephanie. Watching the million old GL openings is always fun. B&B makes me sad though, they have been in the same rut since Christmas.
8 May 2008
2 weeks 4 days
Luke, the bright spot on soaps is the chemistry between Brody and Jess. They are hot and I love watching them on screen. And Matthew and Destiny's friendship is cute and I like them too. Y&R always doing it right, and GL is getting back on track with Grant back. But the other soaps are bad and don't watch.
16 August 2007
12 hours 20 min
siomonstuart you are right on the money. Though I will say, watching B&B - as awful as it is - can be fun if you don't think of it as a soap. Instead think of it as a REALLY cheesy movie that no one else in the world likes, but you. The Fifth Element is such a movie for me. I love it and very few people do. I laugh at it every time. B&B is like The Fifth Element....cheesetastic.
12 February 2008
1 day 10 hours
DVR has saved my life! It cuts my soap watching down and gives me glimpses of good saop when the rest of the show is lacking...
Watching old YouTube is fun to an extent. After a while, it pisses you off to see how good a show was before it went straight to Hell in a hand basket...
28 March 2008
24 weeks 2 days
Luke, you forgot to mention drinking games. Often a bad soap can suddenly become a lot more fun again if you start taking a shot everytime Ridge says "Rick" on B&B or everytime the writing on Days makes you say "WTF?". It's amazing what a little booze can do!
And apparently we are watching the same ATWT. It's amazing what a skip button mixed with a little FF can do to improve a soap -lol!
30 October 2008
1 year 51 weeks
I'm back into GL again and I have been recording it on disc and listening to it at work on a portable DVD player. Listening to any of them while working makes them seem better than they actually are. It helps pass the time. I would still be listening to Days if the digital switch hadn't knocked out my tv band radio. Even though I wasn't liking it at all.
6 September 2008
9 weeks 5 days
i only watch OLTL...Ron C do me so riiiight!!!!!
6 September 2008
9 weeks 5 days
heres how the end of AMC came about for me....
originally, i took pride in *never* ffwding.
that ended this year.
first, i only ffwded thru CRYAN scenes.
then i ffwded thru any of ANNIE'S DR scenes (that woman was AWFUL; i enjoy MCE but that DR actress was so bad, i couldnt deal!)
then i ffwded thru any scenes were anyone was mean to AMANDA (whom i love).
i just could not bear to hear anyone call her a "whore", "bitch", "slut" or anything, not even one more time.
hell, even ERICA was abusing her!!!
(my work situation was abusive at the time, & the *last* thing i needed was more abuse when i got home!)
then i was ffwding thru JR's hammy scenes.
then anything with JERKSON.
(i get whiplash watching him, it was better for my spine to just ffwd)
eventually, it ended up that i was just watching scenes of OPAL & BROT...which added up to about 4 minutes per week!
& thats when i realized, i can live without AMC.
16 August 2007
12 hours 20 min
Drinking Games! That is a good one! How could I forget? My problem is that with eight soaps if I started drinking every time Ridge said Rick, Ryan stared blankly Paul obssesed over Meg, Stacy went after Rex, Daisy or Eden spoke, Sonny acted depressed or dour, EJ acted dumb and Cane acted like an idiot I'd be a drunk in less than 24 hrs. They may be fun to watch on soaps but I don't want to be one. lol
20 February 2008
1 year 17 weeks
Great write-up, Luke!
3 December 2008
1 week 5 days
On my As the World Turns the Paul, Meg, Dusty, Lucy storyline does not exist, other than as a blur as they flash by at warp speed. On my As the World Turns Casey is a great character because I don’t watch him opposite Alison, unless they are sharing scenes with Margo, Tom or Emily... My As the World Turns revolves almost entirely around Carly, Jack, Janet, Parker, Liberty, Craig, Luke, Noah, Lily, Holden, Tom, Margo and the occasional appearances of Bob, Kim, Barbara, Susan and Lisa. I’d put my As the World Turns up against The Young and the Restless or One Life to Live any day. The As the World Turns the executives try to shove down our throats doesn’t deserve to be in the same room.
Luke, your ATWT sounds like the one I watch because I FF over the Vortex of Suck - though I will watch Paul with Emily - and I FF over Casey/Alison. I can't watch this show live unless I know neither of those two storylines will be on that day.
Shame, but I can't sit through them sober or without wanting to punch my TV. Absolutely ghastly.
Of the two must-flee storylines we both FF over, I don't know which one is more excrutiating to try to watch.
6 January 2008
12 weeks 6 days
If I FF GH than I'm FF the whole show. I can not find anything humorous with GH. I use to shout out whore, ho, etc everytime Lulu came on screen and I use to shout greaseball, bad tracksuit when I see Sonny. But I can't do it anymore. Not after they broke up LuSam, there was nothing funny in that.
8 May 2008
2 weeks 4 days
Luke, I try to find the good in all the soaps.
AMC-I am loving the Brot character because he is real and the guy playing him seems like a good person who be through a lot for our country and is finding a silver lining in things and have a talking to anyone he contacts with. Erica and Adam has so much fun. Love Opal. Hate Krystal and David, love Tamara Braun, even though Pratt ruined Reese for a lot of fans. Hate Ryass.
ATWT-Want a Nuke scene, hate Paul and Meg, and Dusty, Love Carly and Jack, and Henry and Vienna, hope and pray that Chris and Jean are fired, love Casey and Alison, I think they need to develop the Alison character a little more, though, Get Bonnie and Derek and Jade a s/l. Bring Emily into it.
B&B-I love Susan Flannery and KKL scenes, because even though I sick of the same old same old, they bring it everytime. Ronn Moss and JMW makes me laugh when they try to "act". Lesli Kay is so underused it not even funny. Bring her to Y&R or use her.
DAYS-Loving Rafe and Sami. I want her with him and back to her scheming ways and make misery for Nicole. Melanie makes me laugh when she tries to "act".
GH-Kimberly brings it every time, even though Guza is ruining this PPD s/l. I feel her pain and anguish. Maxie is just awesome. Am liking JoMax. Spin needs to tone it down. Loving jasam scenes. Liking Patrick and Liz and probably want them as a couple. Sorry Scrubs fans.
GL-Love Phillip and Otalia, Josh and Reva needs to get back together, Bizzie needs to be married, loving Shayne and Dinah.
OLTL-Love Brody and Jess, Matthew and Destiny's friendship, sTACY needs to die, love Nora and Marty scenes, REx and Shane father and son bonding scenes, Bo and Rex scenes, Roxy being Roxy.
Y&R-love Billy mIller, Phyllis and Nick, ADam scenes, love the undoing of Jill/Kay mother-daughter crap. Jeanne Cooper performance, The show overall, except the Tyra, Neil and Karen mess.
3 December 2008
1 week 5 days
You had me with your ATWT choices, siomonstuart2003 til you mentioned loving Casey/Alison. When they're together, it's like watching paint dry, IMO. I can't think of 1 good reason, let alone 4, on why that pairing is entertaining, good, or makes sense. I blame the character of Alison for why the pairing doesn't work.
How many men is Alison going to ruin?
And isn't she like the last stop before they disappear from the show... Chris, Aaron, Matt and all in less than a year!
16 August 2007
12 hours 20 min
Rafe and Sami are great together on Days. I'm really enjoying them.
14 December 2008
2 days 28 min
Great article, Luke! I've been trying to find the humour myself. At the end of yet *another* pep talk from Erica regarding Kendall's relationship, when Erica said "Who are you gonna call?" I couldn't help shouting out "Ghostbusters!"
21 February 2009
7 weeks 5 days
"Amazing" work by TSJ?! I must be watching a different OLTL than you are! He is such a bore, I wish they would just kill off Todd and pray one day the real one comes back