What's with soaps????

[ditchdj]

Why are they so appealing, especially to women??? It's the same thing all the time. Right now as I'm typing this my wife's watching on recorded on DVR and I hear gut-wrenching, psychotic wails from some woman losing her mind, then it shifts to a scene where some man and woman are screaming at each other like they're ready to play a contest to see which one dismembers on the most before dying on the spot. Does anything fun or positive ever actually happen on soaps today???? The script writers: I sure they hope they dont practice what they write. :eek:

[ShinyGreenApple]

I can't help ya much here. I've looked at them from time to time and honestly I can't understand the appeal behind them. The stories are nauseating, so is the acting. If people acted like that in real life (not to say we don't have the unfortunate case every now and then) I'm afraid I would have been jailed for murder by now. I really can't stand soaps. Give me a weird drama like LOST or a good sword/lightsaber movie anyday.

[Misanthropical]

My grandmother loved them, but I never saw the appeal.

[flybye023]

Well, they're cute, they smell good, I can decorate my bathroom with them....Oh!, wait, wait...you meant soap operas.:lol: Sorry, I have no idea. I've never watched them.:p

[ditchdj]

No I've smelled the neo-fancy type of soaps that smell just as obnoxious as the ones on Daytime TV.

[Plaidman]

Ya know I've watched like, one soap eposide, (Passions) because it had a kid in it. (At least I thought it was a kid at the time). Not much intrest in it.

But I have the feeling most of this people would be terrible SC.


Soap Woman: I can't belive it, the agony of it all. I paid 1.50 for the eggs...
Soap Man: Well I have bad news.... the eggs, are BROKEN!!!!
Soap Woman 2: Yes, I broke them.... Because your a greedy bitch!
Soap Woman: Well, it was YOUR MONEY!!!
Soap Woman 2: NOOOO!!!
Soap Man: I slept with the chickens to make the eggs! YOU MURDERED MY CHILDREN!

[XCashier]

My mother was a soap opera freak. She watched all of them. All of the shows were about rich, beautiful little Barbies and Kens sleeping around and backstabbing each other. All of the plots were identical, and all of the actors and actresses looked exactly alike. I couldn't tell them apart! How utterly boring, stupid and a total waste of time. :p

[TruthHurts]

Well while most soaps are of the Barbie/Ken sort, I do admit to watching General Hospital something about it draws me in. I blame my mother she started letting me watch it when I was 12.

[Ree]

LOL...what a coincidence that I should see this post today.

I called in sick today because of a cold that I have developing, and it just happened that the girls had the day off school.

I was lying on the couch, fighting off a fever and trying to breathe, and I opened my eyes at one point to see that they were watching "the soaps".

Guiding Light was on.

I haven't watched that show for years, but the very same love triangle that was going on way back when I last saw it, was going on again.

Reva is sick (again). She loves Josh and Josh loves Reva, but Josh is married to a woman whom he also loves, and just happens to be Reva's sister, I think.

Reva, I believe has been married to Josh numerous times over the years, and it has always ended either with one or the other dying, I think, only to have the body go missing and one of them turn up years later, alive and involved with another person with whom they have had a child. Either that, or they get married, and one of them cheats on the other with someone else.

What an insult to intelligence these things are.:headscratch:

[DGoddessChardonnay]

LOL...what a coincidence that I should see this post today.

I called in sick today because of a cold that I have developing, and it just happened that the girls had the day off school.

I was lying on the couch, fighting off a fever and trying to breathe, and I opened my eyes at one point to see that they were watching "the soaps".

Guiding Light was on.

I haven't watched that show for years, but the very same love triangle that was going on way back when I last saw it, was going on again.

Reva is sick (again). She loves Josh and Josh loves Reva, but Josh is married to a woman whom he also loves, and just happens to be Reva's sister, I think.

Reva, I believe has been married to Josh numerous times over the years, and it has always ended either with one or the other dying, I think, only to have the body go missing and one of them turn up years later, alive and involved with another person with whom they have had a child. Either that, or they get married, and one of them cheats on the other with someone else.

What an insult to intelligence these things are.:headscratch:

Don't forget Reva's previous marriages to BOTH Josh's brother Billy and their dad, H.B. back in the 80's. And her grown son Dylan (I think he was fathered by Billy back when they were teens.)

Don't ask me what's going on there now . . . I quit the habit over 10 years ago and don't regret it. I found the storylines to have becoming increasingly farfetched (as in a Reva clone storyline going on some years back) or being abducted and suffering memory loss (such as Taylor from B&B) and there's only so many times people can fall into a coma.

Besides, I can find better things to watch on cable that aren't quie as insulting.;)

[rvdammit]

Might it be that when they fist started they were designed to keep women interested during the breaks between soap commercials? :p

[Knightmare]

Good Gawd, I haven't watched any soaps since Luke and Laura on General Hospital (mid 80's, I believe), and I only watched that because a neighbor girl I liked was into it. So she'd come over, we'd watch the soaps then go outside and swim or whatever.

I glance at them from time to time, and I still see some of the actors from 20 years ago.
Ah well, at least they have fame and fortune. I'd trade places with them anyday.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Heh, I don't watch soap operas, I watch wrestling. See, last week, Edge and Randy Orton beat up Ric Flair who is best friends with Triple H and Shawn Michaels. So now Shawn Michaels and Triple H are going to try and get revenge on them, but at the same time, Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury are fighting with Matt and Jeff Hardy who are brothers who have been feuding with each other off and on for the last five years but right now they're friends. Now, the Hardys have gotten caught up in the fight with Shawn and Hunter and Edge and Randy because a couple years ago, Edge stole Matt's girlfriend Lita and Matt's still pretty pissed about it, and now Lita's left Edge for Hollywood, meanwhile, Lita's arch-nemisis Trish has left to marry her boyfriend but Trish's old boyfriend Carlito is now seeing Torrie, but just last week, Viscera started hitting on Torrie...

Heh heh. Yeah, they're totally different, I swear, they are. :lol:

[NightAngel]

I've never understood the appeal of soap operas either. I don't watch them and no one can make me!!! *hides behind couch*

The only cool thing about soaps is that no one ever really dies- they're just stranded on a deserted island until such a time as when it's convienient to write them back into the script.

And just why are they called "operas"? Actually, why are they called "soap"?

[Rapscallion]

They used to be wrapped around adverts for soap, and the soap companies paid for them, or something along those lines if memory serves.

Think yourselves lucky nobody's mentioned Eastenders yet. Back in the day when I watched a bit of television, that one was enough to make people reach for the happy pills. I'm told it's even more depressing now.

Rapscallion

[Phoenix79]

Yes, my name is Phoenix79, and I'm a soapaholic . . .

I blame it on my Mother as well. I grew up watching the stuff, and just couldn't shake the ABC soaps!

When I can, I watch All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital. GH is my favorite . . . Luke and Laura just got remarried on their 25 year anniversary of their first wedding! Of course, she has been in a catatonic state for the last four years, and shortly after they remarried she went right back into catatonia . . . wait a minute . . . no one here gives a crap, do they? :lol:

Phoenix

[Linda]

I only watch Neighbours. But I watch that religiously and always have done.
Eastenders is so ridiculously depressing I can't bring myself to watch it.

Christmas is so cheery in the soaps. Death, funerals, marriage breakups is par for the course.

[TruthHurts]

Yes, my name is Phoenix79, and I'm a soapaholic . . .

I blame it on my Mother as well. I grew up watching the stuff, and just couldn't shake the ABC soaps!
. . . wait a minute . . . no one here gives a crap, do they? :lol:

Phoenix


I do lol, it's good to have someone in the same boat as me:)

[ditchdj]

I only watch Neighbours. But I watch that religiously and always have done.
Eastenders is so ridiculously depressing I can't bring myself to watch it.

Christmas is so cheery in the soaps. Death, funerals, marriage breakups is par for the course.

I remember stumbling across that show when I used to live in Michigan near Canada and I used to pick it up on one of the Canadian channels that my cable company carried there.

[stormtreader]

I dont understand the appeal of soaps either - doesnt real life have enough things to think about and problems to solve, without volunteering for a whole additional set?

[protege]

Maybe it's because I'm a guy...but I can't understand the appeal of soaps either. To me, they're all the same and boring as hell. My grandmother though, watches the damn things constantly. In fact, she tapes them while watching tennis on ESPN :eek:

[Seanette]

I'm female and have zero or less interest in soaps. That was one annoyance during my "full-time homemaker" period: daytime TV *sucks* if you aren't into soaps, talk shows, "People's Court"-style shows, etc.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I used to watch Days of Our Lives in college, but mainly because I liked watching sexy men. Days had the hottest men at the time.

Now, don't be putting all of that on us chicks. I would hazard that at least as many men watch. I worked a summer at a car dealership when I was younger, and that breakroom would fill up at exactly 1pm sharp for DOOL. With male mechanics. Women worked there, but the soap fans were all men.

And when I worked public TV, there was a male switcher that always took lunch in our office because we had an outside TV line. And we could get DOOL. (men seem to like that show... and I'm fairly certain it isn't for the same reason I did.) :lol:

[AFpheonix]

When I was younger, my best friend and I would watch....with the sound off, so we could insert our own dialogue. Of course it would go straight into the grade-school gutter. :lol:

These days the only person I knew that did watch them was my dad before he died, but his dementia was far enough along that I don't think he was really registering what he was watching.

[TNT]

I confess -- in the mid 90's I watched Days of Our Lives all the time. I lost interest somewhere around the time the entire town was possessed by the devil or somesuch.

I still have super respect for all the people involved in soaps.. Primetime shows act as though 20 half-hour or hour episodes a year requires heroic effort. Meanwhile, the soaps are out there for an hour a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Speaking of soaps, we finally got to see our new channel line-up today. Soapnet, which airs the afternoon shows in primetime, is moving from basic cable to digital. In return, our basic cable subscribers get... hockey. I have a feeling many of our customers are not going to be as happy about that change as I am. When I pointed it out to the customer service supervisors, a general panic ensued... there's nothing quite as challenging as a disgruntled soap fan. (Ever notice that whenever a major news story breaks in the afternoon and the networks interrupt the soaps for live coverage, there's always a sidebar about how unhappy soap fans overloaded the switchboards to complain?)

[Lace Neil Singer]

English soaps seem to be very different; people die all the time, car crashes, murders, suicides... plus they are more depressing. I don't watch, but my mum does.

[Cia]

I watched 'Texas' until it went off the air same thing with 'The Edge of Night'. Watched 'General Hospital' for awhile but got bored with it and now I don't watch any soaps.

[Crosshair]

I think it is mabee because us guys think up interesting stuff to do. Things such as.

Throwing a PC monitor off a 6 story parking garage. (It was 2AM so there where no cars around. Though it was also 2 blocks from the police station.)
Wonder what happens when you shoot a running blender. (The blender flies apart and the motor will stop a 7.62x39 round.)
Will school books stop bullets. (In most cases, no)
Take a wraped 12 pack of bottle rockets and light all 12 without unwrapping them. (It's interesting.)
Doing the same with a pack of 144. (RUN!!!!!!)
Play with hommade Napalm. (That stuff sticks to everything.)
Do doughnuts in the parking lot when it is iced over. (Personal record is 5 roatations)
Play car-tag with paintball guns. (Even more fun when you play it with 4 or more teams.)
Build a flamethrower.
Ice cream eatong contest.
Drinking contest.
Play hide and seek at midnight.

Us guys have no need for Soaps.

[Spiffy McMoron]

Speaking of soaps, we finally got to see our new channel line-up today. Soapnet, which airs the afternoon shows in primetime, is moving from basic cable to digital. In return, our basic cable subscribers get... hockey.

What's wrong with hockey?!? :p

And Mysty, I completely agree with you. My ex and my buddy's girlfriend were ragging on us to stop watching wrestling, and constantly mocking it's square-jawed men, fake-breasted women, and rediculous plots. (For those of us who watch wrestling, this was when Kane and Lita were married, and then Snitsky killed Kane and Lita's baby. Kane was attempting to get revenge on Snitsky when we discovered that Lita was cheating with Edge. OK, OK, they may have had a point. :o ) We then asked how their soap opers were. My ex loved Passions, and my buddy's girlfriend would rather cut off her arm than miss Coronation Street. (She would actually watch the episodes shown during the week, then re-watch the week's episodes on Sunday's, when CBC showed the re-runs). The complaints then stopped. :D

But other than the WWE, I can't be bothered to watch the "problems" of people far richer, better looking, more tanned, and f*cked up than I am. This includes "young person" soaps such as the OC or Laguna Beach. I watched five minutes of the OC, and wanted to shoot myself.