Soap On A Rope (With A Noose)

There are many things I do not understand.  Why leaves are green and the sky is blue, not the other way around.  Why there can’t be room for books and e-readers in this world.  Why someone felt it necessary to kill Billy on Ally McBeal (if ever a show needed a ‘it was all a dream’ sequence..!).  Why television shows are cancelled after only one or two episodes.  Why someone actually thought it was a good idea for James Franco to host the Oscars.

And I do not understand the soap opera industry. 

I don’t know if I want you to take offense or not at this, but if soaps have gone downhill, it is because of all of the execs and “powers that be” and people who put their hand in a pot they’ve been entrusted with from generations past, who only look at a dollar sign and not the chance at goodwill toward their longtime viewers.

It was announced that Guiding Light was being cancelled after 72 years of production on April 1^st, 2009.  I honestly thought it was an April Fools’ prank the media was playing.  It wasn’t until the next day when the articles persisted that I realized it was true.  I have never watched an episode of GL in my life, but I was heartbroken. 

We live in a time when we want to hold on to the things that link us to our youth, to our past.  Our younger generations are not just the money-spenders that executives covet so badly.  They are up and coming and they are bonding with their elders, and investing in the lives of Erica Kane or Bo and Hope Brady.  Someday, if the show still exists, a mob of these youths forty years from now will cry their hearts out when Elizabeth Webber-Spencer is laid to rest, just as we all did this past year at the funerals of Alice Horton and Nancy Hughes. 

Soap operas are a generational legacy of pop culture, and even if a network can’t make as big a profit on them as they will a game show that I promise will not keep their coveted demographic tuned in nearly every day for the next few decades, they make enough money on their prime-time and talk shows to give a bit of leeway when it comes to their daytime line-up.  They should consider it “viewer appreciation” for those who are loyal, and tune in to those other programs. 

It is a different time, the ratings may seem lower, but a good chunk of that is due to Tivo, SoapNet, and online viewing.  If the producing companies want money, why in the hell haven’t they cashed in on the video/dvd craze?  Soap fans are a rabid breed that will snap up every wedding and Nurses Ball and special event that could be released.  And it’s not too late. 

I’m not one who might take the time to write in and attempt to save a show, but maybe today I will.  Maybe today is that day I’ll take ten seconds to send an email of polite protest.  I’ve seen these campaigns work, as recently as Rebecca Herbst being rehired at General Hospital.  Hope you’ll join me in the exec inbox. 

For starters, let's head over to the Mouse House.