4.14.2011

The Day the Soaps Died?

ABC announced this afternoon that it will be pulling the plug on two of it's three long-time daytime serial dramas - 'All My Children' in September 2011 and 'One Life to Live' in January 2012.

As a child, "The Young and the Restless", "The Bold and the Beautiful", "One Life to Live" and "General Hospital" were a standard part of my life each summer when school was out. Like old friends, I found comfort in leaving the cares of the real world behind and being engrossed in the drama of these shows. There was high romance, spectacular rivalries, wondrously brilliant super-villains and loads of comedy relief. The school year could come and go and I could pick up the shows again. No other genre can quite have the same effect or require the same dedication as soaps.

Over the last couple of years, the shows rapidly declined in quality. Look at General Hospital. Love in the afternoon has been replaced with mob violence. Stories about long-standing fan favorite characters have been tossed aside to pave the way for silly plot lines and poor editing. Entire well-written, popular families have been whacked off. In desperation, story lines have been pulled out of the history vault (butchered) and recycled unsuccessfully due to horrific writing.

Through all of that, GH will live on for the moment as Guza's pet science project, which he runs into the ground a little more each day.

On the other hand, OLTL manages to come in under-budget with fabulous writing, terrific nods to character history, enriched character relationships, flowing editing and daily cliff-hangers.

Apparently the powers that be prefer mob-o-rama 'Soparano' knock-offs.

The shows will be replaced by ill-conceived filler content that in reality, no one will watch.

Thanks ABC.

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