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One Down, Seven To Go
Sep. 18th, 2009 08:23 pmI'm not sure how man of you on my Flist watch soaps, but I'm sure just about everyone has a mother or grandmother that followed the classic "stories", like As The World Turns, The Young and the Restless, Days of our Lives or Guilding Light.
The last of that list is ending it's run after 72 years today. The finale has already aired as I typed this. While I never got the chance to watch that show since it didn't air in the Sacramento market, that the mother of soaps is ending is pretty damning to the genre that's been in slow decline over the last decade. I hear stories of head writers that don't give a shit, fan favorite pairings being shoved off to the side because of race or sexual orientation, and a lack of continuity that would make the idiots that ran Star Trek into the ground feel shame.
I did have a rant to plan out, but as it would use too many fandom specific examples to site out, I'll just say that if you haven't watch a soap in about...say five years, I doubt you'll even recognize most of the characters personality wise or casting wise. As The World Turns is getting saddled with one of the writers being blamed for stories that helped kill Guiding Light. That, along with another headwritwer that ran an NBC soap into the ground 9 years ago and was fired from All My Children for sagging ratings spell nothing good for that show, and I suspect I'll be lamenting over that show's demise on Sept 17th, 2010.
Ugh. It's such a shame that the genre passes headwriters around like Swine Flu--some, who even admit they have a love-hate relationship with what they write about. That's just...what are the words for that? Even the bad fanfic writers have some enjoyment about what they write about. And these guys get paid for this? Once the last of the soaps is over and done with, who else in Hollywood will have them? Talk about cutting your nose to spite your face.
Hopefully, ATWT's inevitable cancellation with pave the way for The Bold and the Beautiful becoming an hour-long show. For all it's flaws, there's at least attempts at romance, and I don't have to watch SL's involving gaslighting a pregnant woman to stab her husband and brother in the back, only pseudo-incest and women sleeping their way through whole families.*
*It's a fandom thing. :/
The last of that list is ending it's run after 72 years today. The finale has already aired as I typed this. While I never got the chance to watch that show since it didn't air in the Sacramento market, that the mother of soaps is ending is pretty damning to the genre that's been in slow decline over the last decade. I hear stories of head writers that don't give a shit, fan favorite pairings being shoved off to the side because of race or sexual orientation, and a lack of continuity that would make the idiots that ran Star Trek into the ground feel shame.
I did have a rant to plan out, but as it would use too many fandom specific examples to site out, I'll just say that if you haven't watch a soap in about...say five years, I doubt you'll even recognize most of the characters personality wise or casting wise. As The World Turns is getting saddled with one of the writers being blamed for stories that helped kill Guiding Light. That, along with another headwritwer that ran an NBC soap into the ground 9 years ago and was fired from All My Children for sagging ratings spell nothing good for that show, and I suspect I'll be lamenting over that show's demise on Sept 17th, 2010.
Ugh. It's such a shame that the genre passes headwriters around like Swine Flu--some, who even admit they have a love-hate relationship with what they write about. That's just...what are the words for that? Even the bad fanfic writers have some enjoyment about what they write about. And these guys get paid for this? Once the last of the soaps is over and done with, who else in Hollywood will have them? Talk about cutting your nose to spite your face.
Hopefully, ATWT's inevitable cancellation with pave the way for The Bold and the Beautiful becoming an hour-long show. For all it's flaws, there's at least attempts at romance, and I don't have to watch SL's involving gaslighting a pregnant woman to stab her husband and brother in the back, only pseudo-incest and women sleeping their way through whole families.*
*It's a fandom thing. :/
