JOHN WESLEY SHIPP Talks About the Abrupt Fall of Soap Operas Over the Last Decade

[@mattb6369]

Honestly I've always had a huge respect for those that work on daytime soaps, they've had arguably the most grueling production schedule in television shooting history pumping out episodes for practically every weekday of the year.

[@samsong24]

In NZ, our local soap Shortland Street has the fastest turn around production on earth :O

[@thegladve]

not to mention that as an actor or actress you'd have to buy in the craziness written on the script's page on some level; and let's be honest, daytime soaps are notorious for having absurd plotlines.

[@ElizabethT45]

I started watching "Guiding Light" as a Freshman in high school in 1981. Kelly and Morgan's wedding at Laurel Falls was must-see-TV!

[@taiwanarnold5927]

You Mean Luke and Laura Wedding 1981 General Hospital ABC 40 year Anniversary I was a 6 years old when that was on lol

[@gabrieleriva651]

Watching it with my mom for YEARS during the 90s. I still remember the Roger Thorpe murder trial with memetic precision.

[@thomasrude4512]

Ship’s the man. Such great insight.

[@mikeha]

I will always remember John Wesley Shipp playing Douglas Cummings in As the World Turns. It was a great role for him

[@zardox78]

Soap operas only rose to popularity in the first place because they were offering something that no other TV shows were offering at the time. Continuity. Something prime time shows of the era would've considered a dirty word. But people craved it. They wanted stories that kept going forward and didn't just reset at the end of the hour... or the end of the quarter-hour as many of the earliest soap operas were. It didn't matter that they were cheap. It didn't matter that the conversations just seemed to go around in circles. Things (slowly) changed. And it wasn't until Dallas that prime time producers started to catch onto the notion that continuity could actually be a draw instead of the deterrent they'd always assumed it would be. But as of the past couple of decades, continuity it everywhere. Even procedurals have _some_ continuity. And people are far less tolerant of repetitious dialog and plots that go nowhere for extended periods of time.

[@natasha7760]

He's such an underrated talent - god I remember seeing him in OLTL, and he was so intimidating and brilliant

[@aliali-ce3yf]

memorizing all those lines after doing a full day's work on a soap and broadway?? i'd have a nervous breakdown , that sounds like way too much work

[@City-of-lights]

Charismatic!

[@ljrockstar69]

I loved him on GL, loved seeing him in those speedos❤

[@angelaburress8586]

Well now they do 2-3 episodes a day along with blocking 🤷🏽‍♀️💁🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

[@michaelwojcieszek6902]

? the title was very misleading - again. Don't keep doing this or people will stop clicking

[@Timmeh_The_tyrant]

You never addressed the topic.

[@trublue2952]

That's what we call a clickbait.