Oh man, my first post here in God knows how many months and it's on an old thread in the off-topic board, one I only found because I was interested in seeing if there was ANYBODY else on this board who watches soaps besides me. You guys are going to give me crap forever over this.
I LOVE soaps, and I'm so sad that the genre is dying out. I should point out here that, since this thread began in 2006, four of these American soaps have been cancelled: Passions (twice: by NBC in 2007, it moved to DirecTV but was cancelled a year later), Guiding Light (2009), As the World Turns (2010--my grandmother watched this show forever), and All My Children (this past September, although Prospect Park was originally going to move it online).
Which brings me to the cancellation of my all time favorite soap this January 13th (my sister's birthday, no less): my beloved One Life to Live. Long considered the red-headed stepchild of ABC Daytime, OLTL was beating both AMC and GH in the ratings by this past summer, and is still beating GH now (the only time it wasn't on top was during AMC's final week). It's not perfect, but it was starting to rebuild in the ratings before the cancellation announcement in April, and (from what I understand, I only read about the other soaps in SOD and on other boards) it is absolutely the best soap on the air, although the other soaps don't make that mean much, unfortunately (ESPECIALLY in the case of GH--someone said something about the mob stuff--THAT'S WHAT'S KILLED IT. It's NOT ABOUT the mob--it's about the hospital, and the awesome characters it had in the 80s and 90s--I've watched YouTube clips). But Brian Frons, the ABC Daytime President, has been disrespecting the fans since he took that position nearly a decade ago, and it hurt all the soaps on the network tremendously. OLTL was going to be moved online by Prospect Park, but I think PP just got in over their head when it came to the financial aspects of the idea. It was certainly in a stronger position to move online, though.
Since this is an old thread, I'd be happy to give my view on soaps in a new thread if you guys are interested. And there ARE straight men who watch soaps--The Edge of Night was, from what I know, MUCH more popular with men than with women when it was on the air.
I'll admit that I'm a young female soap fan--I'll be 23 in February (and I started in TV history early--what can I say? I was always a precocious child!
)--but I love TV history, and my TV book collection includes coffee table books on many of the soaps. That's just who I am: A political junkie with a PoliSci Bachelor's Degree (as of this past May!), but also a lifelong classic (okay, all, emphasis on classic/nostalgic, though) TV junkie with a love of sitcoms, game shows, and yes, soaps. That's just how I roll.
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