Soap Operas Are Dying a Painful Death
Soap operas are steadily loosing ground due to bad storytelling. Viewers do not get any payoffs, so after a while they just stop caring and choose to watch something else.
Once upon a time, viewers were watching soap operas to escape from reality. Reel life seemed to be much more interesting and pleasant and rewarding than real life. Fictional characters could live in reel life what viewers could not live in real life. And it was easy for the viewers to identify with those characters and emotionally invest in their stories. Because you just knew back then, that you would get what you want:The loving couple would eventually overcome the huge obstacles and would get married, the underdog would eventually come on top, the lies would be revealed, the manipulative stunts would be exposed, the long lost child would be found. In a few words; Justice would be served. The characters were allowed to learn from their mistakes and grow and move to a better direction. There was a payoff for everyone, because the writers wanted to be a payoff for everyone.
Unfortunately, during the years things started to change. The writers stopped caring for the viewers. They started writing plot driven stories with no consideration for the characters. The characters found themselves at the mercy of the plot- their values, everything they represented, were all sacrificed in the altar of the plot. Forbidden affairs, incest, murder attempts, rebound relationships which were later called great loves, sudden changes of heart, turning against loved ones, are only a few examples of senseless plots that happened again and again and again, and finally managed to destroy the characters and any love the viewers had for them.
The result; Soap operas are now dying a painful death. The ratings for all soap operas are lower than ever. Last August Passions was cancelled, Guiding Light is going to be cancelled in September, and the rest of them are heading to the same direction as well. Within 5 years, none of these soap operas will exist (the Young and the Restless may be the only exception to that rule). Networks have no reason to invest on soap operas when they give them no money- it is easier and a lot cheaper to replace them with reality or game shows.
I can’t help but feeling sad. For the life of me, i cannot understand why writers would simply refuse to care for their characters and the audience. Why tricking viewers into believing they will get what they want only to shove your personal likes down their throats. Is a ”Gotcha” moment really more important than a ”Wow this is amazing work” moment;
Ratings think otherwise.
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I agree. It is a shame that the whole industry is dying. The writers, to me, are to blame. If Desperate Housewives can make, there is no excuse for the lame writing for the day-time soaps.
Thanks,
Clay
My problem with soaps today is the excessive use of sex scenes, often at the cost of character development. It used to be soaps had ‘good girls’ and ‘bad girls’. Now, any character will commit adultery, or fornicate with a complete stranger. In the real world people who do this type of thing are looked down upon— and tend to get a lot of nasty diseases.
The worst part is the heavy-handed promotion of teen sex. In ‘One Life to Live’, there is the story in which Markko’s father objects to Markko’s having become sexually active with his girlfriend Langston. It is claimed that Markko’s father, who is a Christian, has no right to object to his son’s behavior. A large number of the potential soap opera audience consists of Christians and other religious people with traditional values, who will not enjoy being informed that they no longer have the right even to speak their minds about their moral values.
But I believe the death of the soaps is in large part the result of increased competition. When the soaps got started there were only a few television networks available. With the advent of cable channels, the daytime viewer had a whole world of other choices. Most of them are not as demanding as the soaps, where the viewer has to keep a herd of characters and their stories straight. And after the reality TV revolution, networks are reluctant to spend money on writers and actors when they can produce a show more cheaply by simply pointing a camera at members of the public acting stupid.
My thing is who ever heard of a witch and an imaginary midget friend running around town wreaking havoc? (Passions) And remember when Marlena on Days of Our Lives became possessed with the devil? I men come on no one can really identify with that mess in real life! The writers for these shows should be fired and moved on to Nickelodeon networks if they are gonna write imaginary kid plots for so-called mature audience only television shows. Besides, when moms are watching television while the kids are in school I would think they want to be immersed in the back-stabbing and plotting of the richies of these soap opera towns then laughing and being clowned to death by kiddie scripts.
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This is an excellent article. The soap operas are dwindling away. With the recent cancellations of All My Children and One Life to Live, there are only four soap operas left. I would even dare say that in a couple of years there will probably be two left.
I blame bad writing for the audience decline. At one time, I tried to watch all the soaps to see which ones I liked best. I loved all the super couples (which is a rarity now) and loved rooting for them to be together.
You touched on the writers not caring about their audience and writing plot driven storylines instead of character driven thus insulting the audience’s intelligence. The soaps are in a very sad state. The reason why the novellas work in comparison is that they have the formula the soaps used to have: a couple with a larger than life love story, the obstacles the couple must face in order to be together, and pay off at the end. Another plus is once the story is resolved, that is the end of that novella and another one starts up. I’m afraid the damage is done in regards to soaps and all we can do is watch them fade away one by one until there is none left.
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Back in the 80s, I lived with a girl who was into the three main soaps on ABc (AMC, OLTL, and GH). I hafta say, the writing and story lines were captivating and the characters were well developed and deep.
Fast forward to today, and I guess like everything else, soaps are going the way of all good things.
I think that like everything else, the world just started going too fast for people to care about soaps anymore.
It’s a different era, and whenever society goes through changes, there are going to be casualties. In this case, the casualty is the daytime soap.
Thanks for the article. What a great way to express the way I feel about Soap Operas today. It’s one downer after another. Young and Restless included. The characters we loved are not even recognizable. They have been sacrificed for plot-driven stories that make absolutely no sense. I will actually be relieved when they finally bury them in a tomb with other icons of the past!
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