My first memory of television soap operas goes waaaaay back to the late Fifties/very early Sixties. It's a vague recall of a spooky set of opening credits, mood-i-fied by the cheesy genius of soap opera organ music.Then I started watching classics like "Ryan's Hope", "All My Children", "Another World", "As the World Turns", "Guiding Light", and, of course, "General Hospital". I was a freelance writer; I could work and stay up to speed on storylines like the wedding of Luke and Laura on GH. I thought some of the actors and stories just radiated creative spark. I thought they were plenty good enough for nighttime television; sometimes, too good. Other actors and plots, unfortunately, smelled like very old gym shoes. True soap fans were able to go from "wonderful" to "horrifying" in a single episode, being delighted by the inconsistency itself. Most soap fans knew that there was little or no rehersal time, very little turnover time for scripts, and that part of the genius of those who did it well was their ability to be brilliant on a half-second's notice.So it's with real sorrow that I note, along with thousands of other scribes, that after September 2011, we'll only have six soaps left. Cancelled in the last few years (or the last few months): "Another World","As the World Turns", "Ryan's Hope", "Passions", "Guiding Light", "Port Charles", "Sunset Beach", and, finally, "One Life To Live" and "All My Children". It's true. Erica Kane is momentarily out of work.
I'm not going to add my theories about why soap operas -- or, much more accurately, daytime dramas -- have been leaving the screen. I only know that I'm losing the chance to see some of the best young talent, and the best older talent, on a daily basis. I tip my hat to all of them. They gave me decades of bad TV, mediocre TV, good TV, and, sometimes, great TV.
