...and shouldn't be revived. I just read the once great American Soap Opera is one of them. It is 25 years since Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married and that same year just as many people watched the wedding of Luke and Laura Spencer on ABC's 'General Hospital.' ABC's quest to bring them back for the anniversay has become an ill attempt to revive a genre people no longer watch. Although ABC itself thinks otherwise, but the numbers show a different story. I have always thought they were silly. My mother never let me watch them because of all the "fornication"...her words. But their ratings are as low now as the big network evening news and even lower than that for some shows. I do not think soaps will make a comeback especially when there is more salacious stuff to see on regular tv. Soaps no longer have the corner on that market. Just think...something such as a genre like Soap Operas is going the way of Atari and VCRs...remembered fondly but NOT MISSED!
4 comments:
I got hooked on GH really bad during the Luke and Laura era when I was the manager of a one-man radio station in Korea. I'd do my morning show and then flip the switch to connect to network and had nothing to do for the rest of the day but watch TV. After I left Korea, I stayed away from soaps like they were drugs. And they are. I imagine a lot of the falloff in viewing is that moms no longer have the luxury of staying home. They have to get jobs to pay off the family's tributes to the government. And families these days NEED STUFF. They NEED STUFF RIGHT NOW! That means both parents have to work.
yeah maybe that is it. because I know I watched this wedding but really have never watched soaps like that again.
actually you know what I compare this too...God help us all and every retirement home and geriatric ward in the country when the "Price is Right" is cancelled. I hear Bob Barker is retiring this year at the age 83...he said he wants to now while he is still young :)
Because talk about an institution...Soaps and "Price is Right" are sacred cows for some people but they seem to both be dying off.
When I practically lived in the stroke rehab ward in the hospital with my dad [twice now] there was NOT ONE television to be found that did not have the "Price is Right" on when it was time. You can hear that show from anywhere on the floor and the patients refused to be disturbed...the nurses stopped serving breakfast or taking blood, etc until it is over and they see who won the washer and dryer.
OK, two words in that comment triggered a memory -- Barker and washer.
The first game show I can remember seeing is "Queen For A Day," hosted by former carnival barker, Jack Bailey.
The game went like this; Bailey interviewed four women on each show, whoever was in the worst shape, assessed by the audience applause meter, was crowned Queen For A Day. They told the most horrific hardship stories, and what would the winner get? A washing machine. I don't even know if they got to keep the crown. These days those same women would get a house on "Extreme Makeover - Home Edition."
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