End of a soap opera era

[seminolewind]

September 23 will be the last episode of All My Children. Although I haven't really watched it in years, I remember growing up with it, watching it because Mom watched it. I remember watching it since before Erika married Tom. I'm guessing that was about 40 years ago.

I surely did appreciate AMC as something my mother and I did every day of summer vacation. I appreciated being able to watch it after school when my family lived on an Air Force base in Turkey, and later on , an Air Force base in Germany.

It was one of the highlights of my day when I was a housewife, then a new mom.
But eventually I joined the millions of women working outside the home, and really didn't have time to watch anymore, except sporadically.
Life went on for me, but there will always be a place in my heart for AMC.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, I can say this. The last thing we need is another "lifestyle" show, which is basically what they're replacing those two soaps with. Few TV shows have as long history as any of the older daytime dramas. They were very challenging for an actor due to the many, many pages of daily dialogue to learn; many stars cut their teeth on those shows in their early years.

Honestly, I'm so close to dumping TV altogether anyway. Not much of any consequence on today anyhow. Golly, there's enough drama in real life as it is! Too much real horror and mayhem, but then again, sometimes, it's nice when it's not real.

 

[terrilhb]

I know. It is so sad. And they replace them with silly shows. It will be a sad day.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
I'm with you. I really can't stand those reality shows. The only thing I watch right now is the weather channel and House Hunters International.

 

[EweSheep]

Glad to see those soapies gone....I used to watch it with my mom which I hated the drama but that was all we could watch out int he country.

I love my satellite but only a few shows I love to watch, like the Waltons, old movies, certain movies that I can watch on DVD and the local news and CBS evening news and horse channel.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I guess too many of us boomers quit watching when we grew up and got real lives. Although I remember a party at my boss's home years ago when I was in my early 20s. We had an evening shift which everyone occasionally sifted through, but normally I worked days, as did a co-worker with whom I was conversing; one or the other of us had had a night shift recently, and we were catching up on General Hospital. So we proceeded to have a long conversation about who was doing what with whom, and our boss was looking back and forth between us with an incereasingly perplexed look on his face. He asked HOW we knew what was going on--he saw us there at work every day. This was long before VCRs or even huge numbers of cable channels. CNN was pretty new. We smiled and told him that we only needed to see an actual show about every 4 or 6 months as it took so long for the show to progress from one miniscule bit of story to the next. And his wife jumped in and agreed

.

 

[speckledhen]

That's a good point. You don't have to be there every single day to follow the story line. You can go out with the chickens and enjoy the day outside, but if you need a rest or it's too hot, you can plop down with a cold drink and catch a few minutes. You know the characters very well and it's not hard to follow, even if you've missed a few days or a week of it. No VCR needed, LOL! It's sort of always been there, like a comfy pair of shoes you don't want to toss away. I was a SAHM until my sons were in high school, then was a realtor with odd hours and they were handy when I was home during the day and needed to unwind. Can we live without them? Sure we can. But, the planned replacements are not even mediocre enough to consider watching so guess I'll just have to stay out with the chickens even more in the afternoons. They were just a unique genre with continuing story line and not usually in danger of being cancelled every single season.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
You are so right. I think the boomers-during the stay at home mommy time-really needed that break. But like everything, as the years went by, and 2 salaries were needed, and women got back into the work force, fewer and fewer had time for the soaps. I'm surprised soaps hung in there for the past 20 years.

And yes, you didn't have to watch every day, LOL

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
EweSheep, your statement is interesting, glad to see them gone, but something you and your mom did together, a part of your life way back when.

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

Quote:
Me too...glad to see any of them end. I got close to being depressed watching those when my first was born..."days of our dreary lives" and "as the stomach churns" apart from that the acting sucked and still does to this day