Why Are Soap Operas STILL On The Air?

You've probably seen them while channel surfing. Daytime soap operas - a genre of a bygone era, yet a few series (like George Romero zombies) still stagger on. Ask any soap fan, and they'll tell you: the medium is dying. Will the daytime soap manage to survive into the next decade?

[@hapgood22]

My mom said this happened on One Life to Live: A rich woman named Dorian meets a young woman living on the streets and starts to feel motherly toward her, eventually asking the young wonan to move in. One day a guy confronts the young woman and says " I recognize you from Las Vegas and I'm going to tell Dorian what you did in Vegas." The young woman kills the guy to stop him. Two or three other people recognize her from Vegas, threaten to tell Dorian and she kills them. When her murders are revealed and Dorian asks her "What did you do in Vegas??! And the woman screams "I WAS A WAITRESS! !!!,

[@ACETYGRA]

Strange right? I could see if she was a hooker or a former stripper but a waitress?!? OMG LOL

[@redfeildre349]

I think this beats mine out and I have a woman dressing as a giant Raggedy Ann doll.

[@bbbunii614]

Are soap opra's usually this funny? I laughed my ass off at that.

[@Lexivor]

That sounds like the greatest show ever!

[@LibraGamesUnlimited]

Oh my God that is hilarious. I at least expected her to a stripper or a hooker. Good on them for being so out of left field. Not so good that the implication that being a waitress is so shameful you have to kill people to hide it. :) My mom told me, on one of her shows, an older rich lady took in a homeless young woman and it just happened (totally by chance) the girl was a daughter she gave up for adoption years before. Even beyond the random chance od all that, as old as the rich lady was and the age of the young woman she would've had to have been pretty old when she had the kid. :)

[@mesektet5776]

I say let it die. Everything has natural life-span. Besides it will just be back in a week anyway cause that soap opera was in-fact it's evil half brother from the Congo, while the real American soap was recovering from amnesia in a Turkish hospital.

[@TheOnlyGHero09]

Mese Ktet "Let it die, let it die, let it SHRIVEL UP AND....'cmon whose with me, eh?"

[@Ryan-gq2ji]

Y O U G R E E D Y D I R T B A G!!!!

[@greatwhale6476]

Sounds like metal gear to me

[@nezumi6554]

Because metal gear is the best soap opera

[@veritateseducational217]

Let in die Let it die Let it shrivel up and die!

[@alaskawoolf3737]

A mexican soap opera: A poor but honest girl falls in love with a handsome, rich and good guy. Then she's kidnapped, gets sued, sent to jail, proven innocent then hit by a car, becomes paralytic, gets cured then goes blind, gets cured then gets amnesia, the evil bad woman hits her with a car and she recovers her memory, then her best friend betrays her and she becomes crazy, gets cured then her kid is kidnapped, then she saves him herself, then she drowns, then she fights with her boyfriend, goes find a new love but he turns out to be evil so she has a stalker now... In the end the bad guys go to jail, the protagonists get married and the poor but honest girl discovers she's the long lost kidnapped daughter of the richest people in town, and they live happily ever after. How could you say it's badly written, you know how much creativity you need to keep new bad things happening every day?

[@nifralo2752]

No getting struck by lighting

[@Dave102693]

Still sounds better than American Soaps

[@ghostwire6262]

oh man, I cried with laughter reading this

[@useraccount333]

Yikes. All this and more also happens in Korean soaps, but at least THEY end after a 100 or so episodes.

[@communism2047]

@@useraccount333 IKR? Korean soaps are sometimes so over-the-top it's laughable, like the infamous korean Kimchi Slap. If anyone only watched korean soaps to learn about korean people and culture, they whould probably think koreans cried every time they got bad news, announced their intire phone conversation out loud (e.g WHAT? MY GRANDMOTHER'S DEAD? I'M THE ONLY HEIR SO I RECIEVE 500000000 DOLLARS? OKAY, I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!!!!!) and has really big, clean houses that looks like nobody has touched it, let alone lives in it. However, they get a lot of love within korea, so they just keep airing.

[@michaelbrennan6123]

You missed the most important reason soaps are dying. From the 1950s to the 1990s there were only a handful of networks at one time 3. People had no choice but to watch. Today there are literally 100s of channels to pick from and on top of that, networks that specialize in material. It also explains why there are fewer recognizable stars today outside of movies.

[@SigmaRho2922]

Michael Brennan There were 12 soaps in 1990, 11 soaps in 1998, 9 soaps in 2000, 8 soaps in 2004, 7 in 2008, 6 in 2010, and 4 since 2012. The cancellation of Port Charles in June 2003 marked the start of a major decline in soap opera ratings. The digital television transition in 2009 accelerated that decline.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

100s of channels and nothing to watch.

[@blobydude420productions4]

The major point in soap operas was in 1970 where there were 19 soaps on television some of the bigger titles include: _As the world turns, The Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, _*_The_*_ guiding light, Another World, Days of out Lives, General Hospital, All My Children,_ and _Dark Shadows_

[@smo-king6504]

@@jeffkardosjr.3825 😔

[@ryanbeaty4893]

Lol We actually had quite a few channels in the 80’s and 90’s, plus the addition of tapes (beta and vhs) and satellite tv. Also, you could just not watch. We had radio for music and so forth.

[@joshhale9355]

Craziest moment in a soap opera for me was when Dr. Drake Ramoray died from falling down an elevator shaft. But then came back almost 5 years later after a brain transplant on Days of our Lives. Absolute insanity.

[@KiwiRawks]

finally

[@flaminpaige8480]

Joshua Hale i didn't think that show was real - i thought it only existed in friends

[@nanakirima3711]

was all I was thinking through the whole video

[@ehdollet9641]

Wow, thanks for spoiling that!

[@MH-sg8rn]

Joshua Hale lol

[@PyrotechNick77]

Soap operas, where you can find more unexplainable resurrections than in DnD.

[@danielnaranjo6321]

Nerd

[@maxseaii1159]

Their social life consists of talking to people still, unlike yours apparently.

[@brettonjohansen1619]

@@maxseaii1159 you are a sad person

[@shojodraws3399]

Man everyone who's commented on this is so mean. You enjoy your hobbies. Personally I found the joke very funny.

[@mackielunkey2205]

Oh yeah. Soap Opera deaths are usually left ambiguous or so.

[@WhaleManMan]

One time, a soap opera villain shook a box of Frosted Flakes and shouted "THEY'RE GRRRREAT" at another character. Yep.

[@ProjectLifeShow]

Wow. Just... just wow.

[@maxinator317]

Fascist Whale Imagine if that wasn't product placement

[@namingisdifficult408]

Fascist Whale interesting

[@browngirlinaclownworld2077]

Frosted Flakes, the #1 choice of the clinically insane!

[@thema1998]

Fascist Whale What show did that happen in?

[@mr.worldwide4758]

if i had to describe every soap opera ever in 2 words: dramatic slapping

[@christopherbruderle684]

Just like my Japanese anime.

[@etel_unraed]

just like Indonesian soap operas

[@NIN10DOXD]

Sleeping with your spouse's friend or an in law.

[@etel_unraed]

@@NIN10DOXD i think thats just porn

[@mackielunkey2205]

Weekly!

[@debbydhill]

Days of Our Lives - Julie was pregnant, passed out, Doug tried to call, no answer.. she regained consciousness, crawled to phone, picked up receiver and promptly passed out again. Doug called back, line was busy...she awoke again, put receiver back on hook and passed out again, Doug called again, no answer. This went on through an entire episode until Doug thought something was wrong and headed over there. Bear in mind this was in the 70's and my babysitter watched it. :)

[@Red_Lanterns_Rage]

LMFAO!! on the other hand all the stuff on Days with Stefano was legendary good gods that guy was crazy good...well evil but you know what I mean like I think his best bit was in the 90's? when he had resurfaced after a long absence and he played the part of being crippled or something like that? yet egging on Roman who was really a brainwashed John just to get a reaction....then John later on shacking up with some chick, I forget the name then come to find out she was Stefano's agent or daughter or something....show was nuts like that but man anything with Stefano pulling the strings was epic I also liked the Dimera twins, Cassie & Rex, more Cassie though, actress was super cute and I saw her in another movie, The Man From Earth, she didn't say a lot in it but she made the best observation.....it's a Jerome Bixby story about a cave man who lives to modern day and recounts his life to his friends anyways IDK some of the soaps even days have some messed up plots, the baby plots to keep lovers schtick is a particularly bad one.... I know we cheated on each other but I love you and I'm having your baby.....

[@debbydhill]

Almost sad to say....but...There was a spin off of Another World that was only on for a couple of years. It was called Texas. There was an actress on this that played Dr. Courtney Marshall. You will know her by her real life ex-husband David Hasselhoff. Her name was Catherine Hickland, she was beautiful...well my story is, I went to the hospital with a boy name, had a girl and named her Courtney after this character. Oh to be young again..lol I do remember the characters you speak of, that darn babysitter had me hooked for years... :) Even though there were plenty of eye roll moments, I still watched..

[@JadenTapscott]

+Debby My mom *still* watches & *enjoys* Days of Our Lives (as of the time of my comment).

[@JonatasAdoM]

Debby It's funny because that's exactly how people tell it.

[@CorbCorbin]

darthXreven Hope and Billy in the mid nineties was insane. My high school girlfriend got me into it.

[@kagitsune]

"The stories are structured to last forever". So soap operas are basically Shonen Jump anime?

[@austinmcconnell]

Yes, actually. They both use the serial format.

[@gregoryisntmyname]

one piece. over 800 episodes. all i have to say.

[@eignigma1]

Superhero comics too

[@Kevin-fj5oe]

Space Cadet the creator says that it only cover around 60% of the story

[@SilverBullet27188]

Superhero comics have the problem of Spectral Creep and I think it is getting harder and harder for anything to be even remotely relatable while new fans are turned away by the deficit of backstory they have to dig through just to make sense of it.

[@neilfordan]

You should watch soap operas here in the Philippines. Hahaha. They use water guns as weapons. Nurses in serious scene don't know how to perform CPR. And may more. :D

[@phatcrayonz]

lol!!!!!!!!!

[@FrizzleLamb]

To be fair, you're taking the water gun scene out of context. As far as I know, it was used to disguise it as a real weapon/flamethrower. You can't bring flamethrowers in malls, for crying out loud. Now, the downside for that is we don't exactly know how the water gun spews out the fire since they didn't exactly unscrew how it works, so now it's a meme. The CPR is just straight up awful. I understand they don't want to break the actor's ribs, but they didn't even TRY to make it convincing.

[@SubjectZ3RO]

@@FrizzleLamb is there a clip of this scene?

[@Dave102693]

The Rich Man Daughter was hella coaster ride.

[@mrmaniac3]

Neil Fordan this sounds hilarious!!

[@ThatOneEyedDog]

"Let it die, Let it die, Let it shrivel up and die"

[@noahgormley4456]

But i say let it grow

[@taylorslade8080]

TheOneEyedDog C’mon! Who’s with me, huh?

[@viktorberzinsky4781]

I can get that louder for the people in the back?!

[@magiccheeseball]

sadly its a like an annoying fungus that won't go away

[@Jono997]

@@taylorslade8080 YOU GREEDY DIRTBAG!

[@johnobrennan8612]

I got an ad for soap on this video.

[@namingisdifficult408]

John O'Brennan how fitting

[@thema1998]

John O'Brennan The irony.

[@ThatIrishLass]

John O'Brennan I got an ad for Destiny 2. Not that anyone cares, because holy shit. People want to hear about which ad I got like they want to hear my personal opinion on popular shows--not at all. Looking at you, guy who writes three paragraphs about why he's unsubscribing from a channel when we all know he'll be back in two days and even if he left forever it would CHANGE NOTHING, and the only reason he's writing all this at all is because his mama told him he was special. Damn, that got pretty fucking meta.

[@slayerofthend9752]

i got a weak attempt at gamestop trying to convince their consumers to come back, so a cringey gamestop ad it was about a phone printing money at a hostpital and the people acting the money as a baby.

[@FailOfKing]

I remember watching a dutch soap where one of the main characters was taken hostage by his stalker. and then the stalker held a speech about toast... i wish i was kidding.

[@ben_jamin4529]

**clinks glass** I'd like to make a toast....

[@r.p.4756]

KINGFAIL oh god 'goeie tijden slechte tijden' is the worst thing ever next to my son.

[@MusicalMissCapri]

What? Lol.

[@granderondeproductions3286]

Waar is de mol?

[@tijn0770]

Northern Sailor it’s “Wie is de Mol” and it isn’t a soap opera

[@martinvadakara7759]

I guess people just don't want to drop the soap...

[@ProjectLifeShow]

lololol

[@ProjectLifeShow]

pun of the day. take my thumbs up.

[@Canotefilms]

hello there.

[@ProjectLifeShow]

sup?

[@deetvleet]

Isn't prison rape so funny guys? I just love rape! It's the best! HAHAHA

[@Ama-Elaini]

Telenovelas resemble soap operas in many ways except in one major difference: they actually do have a clear plot and a definite ending. But I cannot say that I'm a huge fan of either.

[@LawAndBedlum]

They have started to take off here in South Africa. In the last ten years or so they have overtaken soapies.

[@selexie]

I was looking through the comments to see if someone had commented on this. Also, they are not multi-camera.

[@blobydude420productions4]

They usually stick to one story when that story ends the shows over, unless you're an anthology you'll go on forever

[@mackielunkey2205]

Yeah they do have better stories. What holds it back? Glacial pacing and plot contrivances.

[@m0j026]

Telenovelas for young girls basically all have the same plot, but it's changed just enough everytime so that it can be considered a "new" story. It usually goes something like this: Girl moves to a new school She falls in love with some guy Despite being the best person ever, he is somehow the boyfriend of the "popular girl" He leaves her for the protagonist. Drama ensues Somehow the popular girl gets absolutely trashed by life in some way or the other They live happily ever after And once it ends, a year later or less a new one of these comes out which repeats the cycle.

[@colmoe]

An Israeli soap opera that was interrupted by an actual rocket attack, and they kept filming, all the actors just stared out the window.

[@pix_d20]

source and what soap opera show?

[@jackmcgwire2078]

MoshedZ please send link

[@thomaswiseau2421]

Pretty sure this is a joke, but this doesn't sound too far-fetched to be true.

[@CONFUCIUS-f2x]

Link, or it didn't happened

[@brandonjustis]

so you're not gonna provide a link to a clip or an article or something?

[@finnmaccool5063]

okay but I love how you fight for both sides, you prove that soap operas can be boring and low quality, and they’re meant for advertising and passing time, but you also prove that soap operas work very hard to do what they do and we should at least appreciate their efforts. this and many other videos of yours are so well constructed and informative (and, rather witty) and I absolutely adore it. keep up the great work!

[@ZiX8outoff8m824disisgr9]

The stupidest moment I've seen in a soap opera was in this Turkish show, some dude jumped off of a 100m building and somehow he didn't die. Even my mom said it was stupid which saying a lot considering she's watching soap operas on a daily basis...

[@markoskoutmanis8902]

Oh dearI think I have that series in Greek translation

[@Almondoto]

ilyriandevil as an Albanian whose family is living in America, Turkish soaps are all the rage here too... my mom watches them when she does housework all the time

[@hydrolito]

Was he bungee jumping or did he have a parachute? Some guy jumped off a bridge with a parachute and broke both his legs it takes time for those things to open so didn't slow him as much as planned.

[@stanen]

ilyriandevil yep im from macedonia we suffer from the same shit. they should ban them.

[@goldenfoxa1810]

the Turks never stop expanding lol. it is all the rage in most Arab countries too

[@AmeliaOak]

I was so into Guiding Light when I was like 11. I watched it with my grandma. I remember my favorite character Reva “died” and her husband was so heartbroken that he had her cloned. They accelerated her age and she was nothing like Reva. Then we find out that Reva is ALIVE but stranded on a desert island, and I’m pretty sure she had amnesia. She comes back and there’s a fight over her man. I can’t remember how it happened but I think her and the clone became friends

[@moonbeans7042]

I had to look this up to see if this was true because I forgot American soaps are like this. British soaps have an unwritten rule that it all has to be somewhat grounded in a veneer of reality so you can have natural disasters, serial killers and tragic accidents but clones, resurrections, aliens and magic are forbidden.

[@kellicoffman8440]

That’s the fun of it I remember reva even though it wasn’t one of my soaps we were days of our lives another world 🌎 and Santa Barbra people oh and of course I I had to watch Luke and Laura

[@Drod.riguezm]

This sounds like Supernatural “then they die then they come back then they get amnesia then they blow up”

[@Ray03595]

haha, funny because Jensen Ackles actually started off on a Soap. Don't think his character died and came back to life though.

[@aggressivelyamerican1551]

Supernatural became a soap lmao. I quit watching it.

[@Scarletcroft]

@@aggressivelyamerican1551 Yeah, I used to really love it............but it has just lost its magic. It should have ended years ago. We could have had great memories of a great show that lasted just long enough to have a great build-up with a fantastic bittersweet ending. But nooooooooo lets just keep milking that cow until it shrivels up.

[@aggressivelyamerican1551]

@@Scarletcroft Or if they didn't bring the whole spiritual thing into it. If they coulda just kept riding around the country killing monsters and saying their typical one liners it could've been great. Albeit they were probably running out of mythical creatures to kill.

[@dinozero2]

It should have ended with season 5 too be honest. Even it mean Sam stuck in hell forever.

[@kalvus5270]

And I thought Naruto had a lot of episodes

[@XavierZara]

HAH! NARUTO?! Look at ONE PIECE, with 831 episodes. Detective Conan has 900. Sazae-san has 7000+ and all of these shows are still ongoing, with no rebranding or change in title.

[@supremecocktusleader9959]

Neither is Naruto.

[@maliwanzero7239]

trashman dragon ball was cool at first, it’s stupid as fuck now though to be honest

[@jameswallace1926]

Xavier Zara sazae san is pretty much a sitcom tho

[@missdaisy11000]

Soaps are the filler in Naruto

[@StopCopCity1312]

I saw a guy get his hand cut off once. By his father, I think.

[@PageMurray]

Milius. Genghis Khan. 2017 I really, REALLY hope you're talking about a soap opera.

[@austinmcconnell]

I think I saw that, too. Didn't the dad have breathing problems, or something?

[@StopCopCity1312]

austinmcconnell Yeah. There's gotta be a way to shoot an opera in space. A star opera if you will. Wait... Wait... Nah, let's go with that.

[@StopCopCity1312]

Matthew McClain I didn't anticipate I'd get this far. Everybody abandon ship!

[@thetrollcritic]

Is that... legal?

[@ianbyrne465]

So far, this channel has made me care about the traffic patterns of a town in Missouri, the ineffective and dangerous design of the American mail truck, and now daytime television. This must be a sign of the apocalypse

[@michaelrandall4862]

No. You are becoming "woke"! Pretty cool huh?

[@omkarkulkarni8918]

A woman turns into a bad cgi fly. That's the craziest thing I have seen in a soap opera.

[@omkarkulkarni8918]

Yep.

[@freindmaker4473]

What the fuck

[@neilisbored2177]

​@@freindmaker4473 I second this because what the fuck

[@ayaanqasim7583]

@@freindmaker4473 😐😑😮😯😕😴😮

[@ayaanqasim7583]

@@freindmaker4473 ujhn.hbm.

[@yPGzRicardo]

The stupidest thing I've seen in soap operas? A woman trying to murder another woman and not leave a trace by hiding a snake in her car so that she would crash. And it worked. The car even did like 2 barrel rolls while flying in the air

[@austinmcconnell]

Maybe the snake took the wheel.

[@Fire-in-the-sky]

i mean whats so wrong with this one?

[@yPGzRicardo]

Honestly, if you wanted to kill someone, you could think of more practical or more guaranteed ways than this, couldn't you? I forgot to mention that the woman survived the crash afterwards.

[@ghenulo]

Wasn't that in "Never Say Never Again"? And after the crash, Fatima Blush took the snake back out and drove away.

[@yPGzRicardo]

No no it was in Brazil Reply to this comment and I'll be able to send you a link later

[@Blubatt]

Craziest thing: I'm British, so our Soaps are very different. Our soaps air during prime time and are less glamorous than American soaps. They're meant to be normal, working-class people struggling with normal, working-class situations. The craziest moment I've seen was from a Soap called EastEnders; which is based in a fictional part of East London. A woman called Heather, who was the comic relief, was giving birth to a baby. She was driven to a hospital in an Ice cream van that 3 pensioners stole from a chain-smoking and volatile alcoholic woman, who was in a relationship with the area's local gangster, Phil. One pensioner went with Heather, and supported her; sang George Michael with her in the delivery room (Heather was a big fan of the artist, and named her son after him), while the other two pensioners sat in the van, drinking vodka they found, eating ice cream and sweets, while Phil and the woman; Shirley, found the two women (one of the women being Phil's mother). It turns out that Heather's baby daddy was a 19 year old boy who shagged her out of pity after she was humiliated at a night club. And that was one half hour episode.

[@donet0death240]

Ben Attwood that sounds fucking awesome

[@jakmanxyom]

Ben Attwood I remember an episode of Screenwipe USA where Charlie Brooker showed a episode of EastEnders to a selected American audience - and they preferred it to their own soap operas for looking more grounded and down-to-earth...

[@stephenmarcus9601]

That sounds really fun!

[@ilittlemonster22]

@MenteAbiertaPlus Does your country offer BritBox?

[@katysmith1284]

Ben Attwood I was so confused by his hatred of soaps because I’m used to British ones, that actually deal with contemporary issues and seem quite down to earth - glad to see I’m not the only one that spotted a difference!

[@mutantmacrophage6653]

The Young and the Sudless General Hospital Sanitizer Bars of our Lives Guiding Soap As The Soap Foams Soapy Passions

[@pacmanindy]

All My Soapsuds Another Bar of Soap One Sud to Use Dark Soapsuds

[@Ziploc530]

The Soap and the Beautiful

[@mackadoodless]

“As the Soap Foams” 😭😭😭

[@HaLoFreQ2000]

I've always considered professional wrestling as a soap opera....they rehash storylines and you can stop watching for a long time and come back and it's still the same shit....sure the faces might change but they just drop new faces into rehashed storylines

[@lauriem6352]

That's the reason I quit watching.

[@slayer-22]

mike humm But they also have the wrestling aspect. Which can be QUITE entertaining.

[@pavv7741]

If a soap character suddenly and out of nowhere RKO'd a bad guy holding someone hostage through a table I'd watch that shit.

[@stapuft]

thats because it is a soap, just aimed at men, the characters even have to stay in character when not on the stage or on camera.

[@MarsofAritia]

wwe is not the only wrestling that exists you know

[@nittanyburg20]

Soaps are always so excruciating to watch. Just turning off the TV and staring at my own reflection in the black screen would be more entertaining

[@inkbold8511]

Hot Cosby we watch Barney show instead the stupid purple dinosaur was better than those soap shows. Alternative was tellatubbies.... this is why I no longer watch any tv, it's all online on my computer instead.

[@adondriel]

Hot Cosby honestly, i think you gotta be stoned to watch em. Im gunna try it sometime... If i remember this video ill let you know how it went.

[@columbus8myhw]

*[Black Mirror intro plays]*

[@jewelbrava7829]

I've actually done that before...it sounds so depressing

[@Floof-hd8bi]

Embrace in the bea- ugliness

[@Ronnie06spartan]

A ton of those soaps have been on/were on for decades with so many devoted followers who watch daily to this day, especially older folk... I've always wondered how many times the same plots have been recycled over and over again... like, how many love triangles can one show have over the years? lol

[@hackermangage1703]

Ronald Maya My Nanny (great grandma) would kick me off the TV as a kid to watch her stories. She would watch Days of our Lives everyday.

[@gregorymckenzie7511]

I kind of want to see your math behind that Mars trip segment.

[@MatyPoov]

xd

[@KnakuanaRka]

Me too.

[@stefan6347]

Yeah

[@pollall2793]

Gregory McKenzie Around 7 months there, and 7 or 8 months back, that is if Earth and Mars are optimally orbiting, which he was most likely assuming, that’s around 15 months, or around 450 days, around 200 full days left, somehow the math does actually check out.

[@williamphillips6684]

The US soap operas all seem to have stories based on the rich or supernatural plots. Meanwhile British soaps are all about middle class-working-class people.

[@bridgettethehumanbean4752]

Yeah thats more or less the same with Australian soaps (Neighbours and Home and Away). I guess thats why Neighbours does well in the UK.

[@catseye1009]

William Phillips : In addition, British soap operas have actors that look like the rest of us.

[@rsync9490]

Ironically shameless is an American drama that plays like a soap and it does better than every daytime drama. Which was a spinoff of a British drama of the same name. The British soap system is superior to the American one.

[@melissacooper4282]

I thought that the only soap opera dealing with the occult was Passions. In it there was a witch named Tabitha I think and a boy named Timmy. The show is now cancelled and the little person who played Timmy passed away.

[@williamedongesiii541]

Dark Shadows was all vampires, and Sci Fi time travel and aliens abound. Oh and in Days of our Lives Marlena was literally possessed by Satan...

[@likeastarbaby]

the ONLY THING i will forgive british soap operas for is that they do draw attention to a huge range of serious issues, especially mental health issues. its partly because they run out of ideas and need to cover everything, but they've delved into things like parkinsons disease, anorexia, depression, suicide, grief, MS, child grooming, cancer, bullying, dementia and so much more. health education (mental or physical) is really important, so i don't really care where people get it because i'm sure that seeing this issues on TV has and does help people all the time. they are shit though. boy, are they shit.

[@MyssBlewm]

likeastarbaby Like on Footballers' Wives one character had a baby that was born a hermaphrodite. And then they had that plot about one of the up and coming players being in the closet and how he had to deal with public scrutiny when he was outed. That show was shit, but I couldn't help but love it.

[@freemantle85]

Aussies lap up British soaps and in return British audiences kept Neighbours alive in its early days.

[@Mooba456]

I think the only reason that I have heard is that Neighbours is still going is because of the Brits. If they went by Aussie audience then it would of being canceled years ago. But then again watching Home and Away and Neighbours is better than watching A Current Affair.

[@ej_tech]

LET IT DIE. I saw a woman get her head slammed into a photocopier by another woman, then that other woman starts the photocopier...

[@ej_tech]

Search on KZbin: Ika-6 na Utos: Ingudngod ang maharot! You don't need to understand Filipino. Just skip mid way and be amazed.

[@MaddyBlackbart]

Holy crap I would watch THE HECK out of that show!

[@GalanDun]

Kill it if you have to.

[@BloodRider1914]

Are you kidding, that's amazing

[@nicholastosoni707]

I daresay the writer was working through a few issues...?!

[@adambuckley2270]

Anybody remember when Dr. Drake Ramoray fell down an elevator shaft in Days of Our Lives?

[@tessaminick8745]

He was the best character lol

[@thezachmarsh]

I love how three comments in a row were this 😂

[@thomperrigo1846]

Actually was Friends and was a parody

[@mackadoodless]

This also reminds me of when Brooke Logan fell off the Eiffel Tower in B&B 🤣

[@GenerationWest]

Craziest thing? Anything from "Passions" remember "Passions", it had Witches, Hermaphrodites killers, and people getting naked all the time in the most PG-13 way, it was all a bunch of bullshit, I think As the World Turns had something similar with a Friday the 13th like arc, man, the summer of 06/07 was goddamn boring for me. Oh eah, my mom to this day watches Corranation Street, she's part of the problem.

[@slayer-22]

GenerationWest HOLY SHIT! My aunt used to watch this. One time I walked into the room after she had to go to work before the show was on. There was a motherfucking evil clown with a dilinger. Yeah. Oh, and a good clown. God damn, that shit was just so wtf I left the room immediately.

[@telilah85]

GenerationWest my best friend and I used to watch Passions in junior high school.... That show was so messed up we had to give up cause it got too crazy, the only reason why it even had an audience is because it took the timeslot of a relatively good soap that got canceled and it tried to trick us in the beginning by being normal... My mom also still watches coronation st to this day, in Canada they air all of the episodes a second time on the weekends so that if you missed an episode that week you can catch up. They've been doing it for years to make up for those who work during the day, even my uncle is hooked on that show.

[@Sandwich1414]

I used to get home from Primary School and my grandmother would always be watching Passions and then Bold and the Beautiful. Passion had that all in black Queen Witch and there was some little ventriloquist dummy little kid thing that came to life as a boy called Timmy or someone. I remember, even as a 12 year old, thinking "Wow, what is going on in this show for this to be happening?"

[@NicDoesDumbThings]

Yoo, I remember Passions as a kid. That shit was so stupid but it was still entertaining somehow. I remember at one point the shit got so ridiculous that they had a witch baby that spoke by a thought bubble popping up with words in it

[@miss_anne_thropic_]

Ha, I went to elementary school with someone who was in Passions: "Miguel" on from '99 to '05. It was the silliest show!

[@alisande_]

craziest soap opera moment was from days of our lives. i was like 8 and walked into the living room while it was on and i saw a girl sleep with a guy, wake up to realize that he's dead, proceed to cut open his chest, remove his heart, and squeeze it manually to keep it beating??? i don't think it worked in the end since the only other scene i remember was her breaking down in the bathroom while washing the blood off of her hands but damn, that traumatized me as a kid

[@ivythay4259]

The hell...?

[@nixedphoenix]

that would have traumatized me as a fully functioning adult

[@thesatanicdemon1239]

Tf is up with american soap. Holy shit.

[@phatcrayonz]

wtf?! whoa

[@AluraAlua]

Ahaha my Grandma ran a daycare in her house and would watch soaps on with subtitles during nap time.. I used to stay awake and watch them but I don't remember much as I never liked them.. glad I never saw that episode

[@kchishol1970]

You forgot to mention how the soaps influenced prime time TV programming. I'm not talking about the prime time soaps like Dallas and Dynasty, but the "serious" dramatic series beginning with 1980s series like Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law where story arcs and interlocking narratives, standard stuff from the soaps, became prominent elements. In that sense, the Daytime Soap is dying, but their influence has permanently etched into prime time.

[@Ray03595]

Keep them. The ridiculous plots may be offputting to people, but the reason they still have an audience is that people appreciate the history of the soap and characters. At the end of the day, people like to watch their fav soap character, and the small settings in all the soaps give a nice sense of community. It's like seeing old friends every day sorta. I agree they must evolve if they want to last tho. One thing they could do is cut the time to half an hour and up the quality a bit more instead

[@GLBizzie]

i have to say i enjoyed Soaps more when they were just about 20-25 minutes a day like B&B.. i mean there were thoughts about giving B&B another half hour.. i think if they would've given the bold 30 more minutes the show would be cancelled by now.. writers were more creative when they were limited :(

[@blobydude420productions4]

Another world at one point was stretched to 90 minutes for a time but that failed cause in reality *Who wants to watch a 90 minute soap opera?*

[@hpsmash77]

let them die

[@CSLucasEpic]

Half an hour episodes are the standard for soap operas in other countries, and it works for them. So yeah, cut the episodes by half the time. See how it goes.

[@ArtyCraftZ]

18,000 hours? That's 18 full school years. You could literally (and I don't mean figuratively) skip every grade from first grade to senior year watching Guiding Light and you'd still have 6 school years worth of content left.

[@KeithBoehler]

Sounds like a bachelors and a masters to me.

[@unliving_ball_of_gas]

And even school is more entertaining

[@zbombzbyhislonesome]

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL

[@annikaoffermann2830]

zbombz123 ikr this channel is so underrated

[@harambeharambe5905]

You need more subscribers, like seriously, this is channel is criminally underrated.

[@shadowzeal]

Harambe Harambe at this point he probably makes more than people with 10x the subs. Since his content seems to be advertiser friendly.

[@ProjectLifeShow]

He'll only get more subscribers if people share his videos. He's got plenty of content that is, as you say, criminally underrated. Only way to help him out is to link to him and get friends to watch his stuff and share it, too.

[@ryanwellence]

Subscriber count doesn't mean anything. It just shows that people hit a button that says "subscribe", although; I do get what you're trying to say here.

[@jamrockingston]

Harambe Harambe I agree

[@BrodyxBrown]

Well he actually only had like 10k a couple of months ago, so the channel is definitely growing

[@joeescobar6575]

I'd say the entire run of Dark Shadows, which was on Netflix for a long time is about the craziest thing I've seen on a soap. It's about a vampire, a werewolf, a witch and a crazy family. It ended 125 years before it began in a parallel universe. It's probably the only soap to go from TV back to audio, resurrected by Big Finish. It fell on its face many times but creativity was encouraged and embraced.

[@adrianazashen]

Because foreign soaps have themes and endings and the American soaps keep going and going and going. . . . . . There are even periodical soap operas in Latin America. There's one scene that still makes me laugh to this day... The main character is shunned by her neighbors so she becomes a prostitute to support herself and her slaves. She becomes​ so rich, she hires someone to make dresses for her neighbors who have shunned her, and asks the dress maker to make the same dresses for her slaves. Come Sunday, she and her slaves walk in front of the women, her slaves wearing the same dresses the neighbors were showing off. Such an expensive way to insult people who have wronged you, but so funny to watch. 😋

[@sqfath7490]

Sadly in my country the soap operas are just the exact same thing like in America. Thousand of episodes, airing everyday (yes! 7 day a week) on prime time for years. Even if it ends, the replacement will be the same thing with same actors and actresses, just with different title.

[@heta330]

Sq Fath indian?

[@sqfath7490]

deltA Emreald No, Indonesia. But Indian soap opera like Uttaran airing in our TV station, just before prime time, when Indonesian soap opera play on TV. Well, the basic story still the same despite from another country...

[@tupacshakurfourlife]

Don't act like it's any better. It's shit with a bit of glitter on it.

[@L013-r9y]

The other day while my mom was watching Days of Our Lives, I asked her how often it was on. As soon as she said “five days a week, an hour a day,” I immediately understood why it was so bad. Considering how often just single movies or prime time shows have bad writing, it’d be impossible to work on that kind of a pace and have anything resembling a good coherent plot.

[@ascendance22]

The weirdest thing I've seen on a soap opera is we're the kids turn into adults within a week

[@vannalaws1692]

accidence HELL YES!

[@VIpown3d]

"We are the kids turn into adults within a week"? What does that even mean

[@vannalaws1692]

HulluHili Kahi You know what it means Grammar Nazi.

[@januszeal6693]

No soup for you!

[@munjee2]

My mum watch's this show where the main couple celebrates their 1 year anniversary (8 years real time ) and the the 8 years old kid (his age mentioned hundreds of times) was shown to be 13 like in an episode the next month which is still wrong

[@fluffedfeathers1930]

I think the appeal in these structured-to-go-on-forever shows lies somewhere in their habit-forming familiarity to the audience. It's not about narrative or story, so something entirely different is going on here, and I think it's worth studying in depth. Not all art is about communicating ideas, sometimes it's about provoking a familiar feeling, or building a long-term relationship between audience and character. I think it's easy to write off soap operas if you judge them by the same standards as other literary screen work, but they aren't trying to achieve the same goals. They have an entirely different relationship with their audience. Very few "primetime" shows that don't go on for a long time (and there are exceptions), are able to achieve many years worth of investment in a character. Soap operas operate on high stakes, because for the audience, the investment in a character can go on for decades. This is fascinating to me. Also, I think this vid unfairly singles out soap operas as designed to sell products when most media content outside of high art circles is designed to sell, or at the very least quickly gets devoured by moneyed interests and thoroughly monetized.

[@bonniesoloninka3071]

I watched General Hospital from April 1 1963 the first episode, until about 2000. I still put it on once and awhile for old times sake. And because it is less offensive than the stuff on television today. It was always on when I came home from school. The one thing I have always found interesting is that unlike the grocery store gossip rags, that slander movie stars on a regular basis, I never saw any scandal about any soap star. Ever! I guess those papers figured that soap stars were not interesting enough to gossip about. Soaps to me were a way to have a one hour break before I had to make dinner. They were a good thing for us in our generation.

[@tnate6004]

You understand the appeal of soaps, unlike the idiot that made this video.

[@ambypez185]

Holy shit! The Walking Dead is a soap opera!!

[@4everdays116]

Dean P Yes, it is, and almost as good as Days of our Lives!

[@bcubed72]

"The Undead and the Restless"

[@KoeSeer]

It is, but with zombies.

[@zaph9790]

How?

[@joelbizzell1386]

Most things are. Game of Thrones. Deadwood. House MD. Star Trek TNG...the goddamn robot had an evil twin for crisesake. 😆

[@violetofthevoid]

Soaps don't have a bad story... They have virtually no story.

[@jlhabitan50]

Or rather: The trials and tribulations of a particular group of families whose lives intertwined with one another in a small town (or big city) that they all live in.

[@melissacooper4282]

Or too many storylines to keep up with.

[@jlhabitan50]

​@@melissacooper4282 There's an easy way to follow storylines in soaps. Most daytime dramas tend to have frontburner stories, or Story A, and minor ones that complements the former, Story B. Story A features most of the show's majaor players for most days of the week, while Story B features at least one major character from Story A, and a few minor characters connected to that character. So here's an example: On Days of our Lives, the ongoing Story A at the moment is Abigail and Chad recovering from months of manipulation from Gabi, who was on a revenge trip after Abigail's mental health episode got the latter unable to bear another child, among other things. Abby's Story B involves her and her family after learning that her dad was alive (he was presumed dead after a gas explosion caused a building her family was in to collapse). Her husband Chad, meanwhile, is involved with corporate drama between him and his family's former rivals, the Kiriakises. As both the actors playing Chad and Abigail are leaving the show early this year, their Story A is now winding down to its resolution, with Abby's Story B becoming front and center in its place. Chad's Story B will become Story A as the Kiriakis family tries to deal with the blackmail placed on them by a relatively new yet menacing character named Leo.

[@hurktang]

But why did you had to cheat on your own brother to write this comment. *Dramatic stare*. Curse you !

[@NIN10DOXD]

Or too much story.

[@DCMarvelMultiverse]

Reality Shows are the new soaps.

[@12DAMDO]

Lost Age Comics reality shows are so 2012... it's all about binge-watchable superheroes now...

[@AyaneFukumi]

They're really notl

[@donaldjgumpofficial5754]

12DAMDO Don't trash talk my Incredibles.

[@12DAMDO]

EctoplasmPhantom i didn't trash talk, like at all... i said nothing negative... just pointing out the facts of main stream media: reality shows are so 2012 (jersey shore, geordie shore, nanny 911, honey booboo... they're all passé) binge-watchable superheroes are in (arrow, flash, daredevil, black lightning... they're all in at the moment)

[@cinammonstyx7622]

12DAMDO It's more in turnover rate though. Super hero shows are still made like primetime tv.

[@scootover7]

There is one daytime soap that I wish was still on the air, The Edge Of Night. It feels more like a detective mystery, adventure soap . It had characters named Raven, Draper and Preacher.

[@ricknibert6417]

It should be called a true "serial"... Kellogg's was once ID'd as a sponsor.

[@TwinPeaksArchive1]

EON was awesome! A crime serial soap.

[@ZOMBIEthree3]

Craziest thing I've seen on a soap opera was at the end of a General Hospital episode where some crazy old lady was holding a baby in her arms and sitting on the edge of a building. Just before the episode ended she said, "If I can't have this baby... then NO ONE CAN!!"

[@rsync9490]

Heather webber? Lol didn't just before that scene she assaulted a women and laced her with a near fatal dose of lsd that had her believing she could see into the future.

[@thecrazydisneyparksfanatic921]

I remember one time some woman who was apparently an avid soap opera watcher, Who apparently who was so engrossed into this junk, that one day she came into my church and requested us pray for a character on there, the character mind you not the actor the character,

[@ranamahran4918]

That...makes me kind of sad, actually :( I hope life deals her a better hand and some more exciting shit soon

[@nanakirima3711]

that is so hilarious hahaha, like sitcom-stuff hilarious

[@RaymondHng]

joshua witt Did other people at church take her seriously?

[@thecrazydisneyparksfanatic921]

RaymondHng not any that I know of

[@cooldude2251]

That is sad and if I was there I would go to hell for laughing

[@RavenStorm332]

in defense of soap operas they are a good starting point for actors to get some experience in acting while it's not ideal it is a way to get your foot in the door. Case in point Jensen Ackles from Supernatural he was on Days of Our Lives from 1998-2000. Also if anyone wanted to get into film/TV production soap operas would be a good start while they wouldn't be doing complex things they can hone in on the basics of the profession as well get some references for future work

[@mikepuppetz9]

Eva Longoria was on Young and the Restless for quite a while too. Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) has been in some pretty big movies over the years, most famously in Titanic where he played John Jacob Astor (the resemblance they have is uncanny). Tommy Lee Jones was on One Life to Live in the 70s. Julianne Moore was on As the World Turns for the longest time and even won a Daytime Emmy. Soaps may not be great, but they keep people employed.

[@brieep]

The Hemsworths and Heath Ledger started on a soap in Australia

[@rsync9490]

Sarah Michelle Gellar was a soap actress before buffy and Emilia Clarke was one before game of thrones. Lets not forget Shemar Moore of criminal minds.

[@Dave102693]

@Reader B same thing with Disney Channel and Nick teen live action shows and the Power Rangers.

[@undyingsoul3949]

I love the art of acting, but I wouldn't even work in soap operas for initial practice. I would never want to embarrass myself like that.

[@franita1988]

Here in Chile there were usually 2 soap operas per year. The biggest tv networks would have 2 main cast "teams" and they would alternate: one production each. During the "golden era" of tv, soap operas were set in different parts of the country, showing different cultures and ways of life (north, south, countryside, fishermen, people from the circus, etc) and most of the time production value was REALLY good. All characters had an arc, there were beautiful landscapes and unforgettable characters that people still remember 20 years later. We miss those times 😔

[@oregonjohnson]

Also it should be worth noting that shows like Desperate Housewives, Greys Anatomy, Scandal, etc are in many ways soap operas, taking the core ingredients and spicing them up with the higher production values and wider story options that their prime time slots and lower episode counts allow for.

[@GummyDinosaursify]

Once Upon a Time is 100% a soap opera, complete with recycling storylines, recast characters, characters that are disposable and no actual ending.

[@shadowzeal]

Oregon Johnson wwe is pretty much a soap opera as well.

[@samosler4009]

Oregon Johnson yes they're considered nighttime soap operas. Nighttime soaps were MASSIVE in the 80s with shows like Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest etc. people were obsessed with them and the cliffhangers back in the 80s.

[@CommodoreFan64]

the difference with WWE or Wrestling in general is the fact people actually do get injured at times doing their job, travel a whole hell of a lot, and a good chunk of it is not even seen on TV.

[@CommodoreFan64]

+Sam Osler Hell yeah they where big events like on Dallas where everyone glued to the TV wondering who shot J.R. or waiting for the next Dynasty cat fight. Also don't forget the 90's shows like 90210 bought in a big female Teenage audience, or Melrose Place that got a good chunk of the 20's and 30's female audience(my ex step mother was crazy for that one).

[@KennedyBoston]

I remember sitting with my grandma and watching one and seeing a really poorly written scene as this character learns he has a murderous twin Dude 1: “So we know you didn’t murder them” Dude 2: “who did it then” Dude 1: “Well...when you were born the doctors were confused after you came” Dude 2: “why?” Dude 1: “After your birth your mother was still having contractions” Dude 2: “what do you mean? Dude 1: “you have a twin, your twin committed those murders.” Can’t make this shit up people

[@xtrashocking]

wOw 10/10 detective work right there

[@r0bw00d]

"Can’t make this shit up people" Obviously you can.

[@TheGhostFilmer]

In Ireland we have Fair City. It's garbage I feel so bad for everyone working on it. There's one story line that's been progressing for so long. There was a petition made to RTE to kill it already

[@EhrisaiaOShannon]

TheGhostFilmer Oh God I remember that. Lmiao.

[@TheJrockfreak]

lol i live in the states and i have watched fair city, i will say while it has a few decent moments it does get bad at times i finally gave up on it

[@ghenulo]

And people say to watch Tatort to help you learn German, but it's awful! Sure, there's some naked guys occasionally, but not enough to hold much attention.

[@Keithf441]

lmao. I love when there's a comment of someone repping Ireland.

[@EhrisaiaOShannon]

Keith Fitzgerald IKR!!!? LMIAO. I feel the same way. We have to start repping ourselves. So proud to be a daughter of Ireland. I'm a County, Clare girl. WBU, Honey?? 🇮🇪 🍀 🇮🇪 🍀

[@pdelly]

The craziest soap opera moment I’ve ever seen was… The ending

[@sporeham1674]

Lies.

[@samuel-wankenobi]

When was that

[@agoodname7089]

@@samuel-wankenobi Episode 12,372 part 3, duh

[@pcu9284]

holy crap dude

[@kellicoffman8440]

Howe hoffsteader marriage to Hopes fiancé

[@loralogue]

Look, I procrastinate a lot, quantity is what I need.

[@Shay45]

I know people that watch soap operas. Anytime I see them on my eyes are continually rolling back to in my head.

[@christophercaldwell5093]

Ah yes another Austin video.

[@mishtaromaniello8295]

4:07 That “Oh boy!” in sync with the video is one of the best things I have ever seen.

[@SudsyMedusa53]

To answer your initial questions in order: Some polish guy from a local asylum. He changed his identity and used the money to write, direct, produce and star in 2003s "The Room". Abducted by aliens. No. No. Yes. Respectively.

[@Timbobjr]

SudsyMedusa53 Nailed it

[@MH-sg8rn]

SudsyMedusa53 he wasn’t actually a polish guy

[@RaymondHng]

Oh hi, Mark.

[@Skallva]

I have no clue how you could think he's a Pole.

[@Vitorruy1]

Xeno He talks using polish expressions like "keep your opinion in your pocket"

[@hapgood22]

You know, some genres just die out eventually. I read somewhere that in 1959 about a third of the primetime TV shows were westerns. Fifteen or twenty years later they were all gone.

[@pheonixrises11]

I wonder if westerns in space will ever become a thing...

[@drezel]

you mean like some sort of "wagon train to the stars" i can't see that catching on

[@KanaidBlack]

The craziest!? Oh boy, it belongs to one scene that can be summarize in this: "¿¡QUÉ HACES BESANDO A LA LISIADAAAAAAAAA!?

[@bondfall0072]

Last Christmas, i decided to watch an episode of General Hospital as a joke. For the rest of my Christmas break, I tuned in from one to two to see where the show was going. I had to see what the heck the writers were going to do, because it was so ridiculous. It turned out that this women had a miscarriage, but it turns out that the baby was okay, and has been kept a secret for five years. It was glorious in how hilarious stupid it was.

[@johnathonhaney8291]

I make this comment in memory of my late grandmother, who never missed an episode of Days of Our Lives and Mrs. Vivian Harris, who did the same for Young and the Restless. Improve the writing on this stuff and you might turn heads again.

[@PraecoLumieres]

I had a 93-year-old (she'd be 95 if she hadn't died) who also watched it. I don't know how much of it was her really watching versus it just being on, though (she got to that point on senility where she'd just kind of sit there most of the day).

[@AnitaNewport]

The first intelligent comment!

[@gufu21]

"People standing in rooms and talking to each other." So . . . the Star Wars prequels?

[@danielkingston5731]

I was also reminded of a crazy alcoholic man complaining about "shot, reverse-shot" in the Star Wars prequels.

[@VoltasP]

Women watched soap operas when I was a kid because evening TV was just news and sitcoms back then. If you wanted drama, you watched soap operas. Now we have dramas aplenty on tv. Good dramas. Big budget dramas. Period dramas, supernatural dramas, sci-fi dramas... It's a golden age of drama and it's all extremely re-watchable because you notice something new every time. But most of all? On-demand streaming is what's killing soap operas. On-demand streaming makes the hours fly by and forget to switch off the Netflix. You're 15 minutes late to the show and now nothing makes sense....Unlike Keeping up with the Kardashians, which is on-demand AND all the characters are celebrities. Plus, we're living in very dramatic times full of anxiety and big emotions and tragedies. Comfort TV isn't "Wow, I can't believe that this beautiful wealthy woman is cheating on her husband with the husband's lawyer who is only doing it because he wants revenge on the husband"-- that's a news headline that we can expect any day now.

[@cmgmaharg1217]

yeh you can watch it and then not watch it and still pick up the story fairly well. I knew people who recorded in the day while at work or school so a lot were pushed back for after school so women could watch with kids after picking up kids from school. in Australia in 70s and 80s you had a time slot of mostly day soaps in the morning , the less popular ones and then after noon the more popular ones and more aggressive advertising, especially when the kids started watching it as well. and then there was a different evening formular of soap like 2 or 4 part story but it would keep going like Dallas and Dynasty etc. I personally like the soaps and see them as education grounds cuz I gave up on Days of Our Lives at college and university but by then they were doing witchcraft, possession and Holi gams etc that turns out they were somewhat real and futuristic, the holograms were seen in star wars earlier but to ad them to soaps was interesting stuff. I am not into B& B much but see bits occasionally because that one they put on just before the news for the old folks nursing homes and now the kids loved it for some time. I would like to see new soaps really around other places. Ground Breaking ones in Australia were NO96 and The Young Doctors and The Sullivans. among others. its like Mills and Boon most of it is dialogue but it works. I liked Falcon Crest and a few others that didn't last long. I wonder where they got all the lines and story themes from. Suggest a soap The CRiNGWORTHS ABOUT A FAMILY WHO MAKE SOAP PRODUCTS. OR radio show set in 1950s .

[@amaravazquez8591]

You know what also still exists? Actual SOAP OPERA MAGAZINES. I usually see them at the market near checkout, right next to the trashy tabloids. Although I've never actually seen anyone buy one, skim through the pages or even talk about them while waiting in line. They're just...there. Talk about a dying medium dedicated to ANOTHER dying medium.

[@dantheman8103]

Not that I would know but I would think anyone who wanted up to date news on Soap Opera's could just go online.

[@amaravazquez8591]

Exactly. Which is why I think it's weird that they are still being sold on newsstands.

[@Tyburn109]

My thoughts exactly. At times when I'm shopping for groceries and I go to the checkout line, I think to myself,"They still print these?"

[@elizabethfoster4297]

omg my mom used to buy these! To try to keep up with the stories when she started working and couldn't always catch them. They had them out before getting everything online was easy and older women that used to be die hard about soaps aren't the most tech savvy. God this brought back memories lol

[@thema1998]

Tyburn109 Same here. I see those whenever I go to Rite Aid. I skim through the pages sometimes and I get bored immediately.

[@OldSchoolRasslin]

American soap operas are weird. Why are they always about rich people and filmed in way unlike anything else on TV (I don't really know how to explain this but there's an unreal glossy quality about them). In the UK soap operas are about working/middle-class people, and shown in prime-time and regularly top the ratings charts.

[@thecinematicmind]

OldSchoolRasslin If only the UK soap operas can end also.

[@SchoolRumble4ever22]

OldSchoolRasslin Why is it that English people can't go 5 minutes without pulling a comparison with America out of their ass?🤔🤔🤔

[@TheJALOBE]

OhSoVeryKawaii because we are just more sensible with just about everything.

[@marlonyo]

i mean every telenovela is about a group of rich people and a group ofpoor people that are conected because a woman from the poor and a rich guy fall in love

[@4evarwithU]

marlonyo ahh if that isnt the case for indonesian sinetron also

[@kevinlee6261]

so happy I found this gem on youtube

[@MusicalMissCapri]

Me too. My mom and I - and my niece used to watch this one soap, but Mom and I quit when the equivalent of a concentration camp victim falling in love with Hitler happened. Rachel Cory began falling for Carl Hutchens. That was so incredibly vile it was beyond words. And I was so freaking sick of Jake McKinnon the rapist and tomcat getting away with everything.

[@jesuszamora6949]

Miss Capri WTF show is THIS!?

[@brianfoster3615]

My father used to call them “Mope Operas.” He also had alternate names: “The Shy and the Ugly”, “As Your Stomach Turns”, and “Guiding Blight.”

[@janismacolley2395]

Don't forget "The Dumb and the Breastless".......

[@ZeeZeeEf]

Watching this all I could think of is British soaps like EastEnders or Corri or Emmerdale or even Hollyoaks. We take our soaps very seriously. There are award shows for them, high budgets and moments that everyone no matter the age remembers. Also most Australian big actors used to be in a soap, either Neighbours or Home and Away. Just some insight on a different type of soap.

[@MozzieMutant]

was this Austrian actor named Adolf by any chance?

[@xSwordLilyx]

Moses Ssebandeke Can I report you for a bad joke? 😂 I don't think he was THAT kind of artist. I think it was the much more basic painting some trees kind.

[@ZeeZeeEf]

Moses Ssebandeke whoops, fixed

[@DeepScreenAnalysis]

Exactly. In Britain, the soap opera genre is respected and so gets better production values. In America, it is looked down upon.

[@ZeeZeeEf]

Ngl, that was painful to watch but you can't deny the drama!

[@RichardVernadeau]

The soap opera is a dying, much maligned, underrated dramatic art form. Like anything else, if the writing, acting and production values are good, the final product is good as well. Has 70% of most soap operas been either mediocre or downright junk? Sure. Have some of them risen to Daytime Grammy winning heights? Yes, sometimes.

[@TomHPMc]

Things are very different here in the UK. Soap Operas are prime time.

[@samosler4009]

Tom McRoberts There are primetime soaps in America too. Dallas anyone?

Tom McRoberts Doctor Who

[@paulfeu]

Fucking Eastenders lol

[@tomkenning5482]

Theyre still as shittily written and shot

[@Jokester6293]

My mom used to watch soap operas all the time. The two that I know of that she really liked both involved Vampires. Dark Shadows, and Port Charles. All I remember from Port Charles is that the vampire was struck with a stake, but somehow became immune to it. I forget his exact words, but he was like "Well. Guess I'm immune to the steak now..." This sticks out to be for some weird reason.

[@AnnoyingMoose]

My mom used to watch 3.5 hours of soaps per day and one that I occasionally watched with her was "All My Children" because it was on at lunch. One of the main characters (Erica Kane) once answered her door to reveal someone new and they cut to the commercials so that we had 2 minutes to wonder who this person might be. I told my mom that it was probably the long lost daughter that Erica never knew she had. My mom laughed at the thought since not knowing of the existence of their children was something that only men could claim. When they came back after the commercial we found out that Erica (who had been married at least 6 times before) was also raped at age 17 and the resulting birth was so traumatic that SHE BLOCKED IT OUT OF HER MEMORY! So, as it turned out, I was right! XD

[@pcu9284]

well that took a turn near the end

[@qw000pz]

'Scuse me for a sec, I'm gonna spend the next 10 years watching all those shows so I'll have a better answer for your craziest moments question.

[@timsomething6281]

Just imagine trying to binge a series so you understand it all. And that series was guiding light.

[@MTMiPower]

Now that I think of it, Soap Operas can possible be a gold mine for youtube poops and memes.

[@arandomdaciasandero925]

You're right.

[@Ebakoba]

What I remember from watching Tellenuevas as a child, they usually had a predictable storyline but they also had a real ending after couple of hundres of episodes and they did not last forever.

[@ryanwellence]

I get what you mean. There's this French speaking program called C'est a Toi. It's a foreign language soap opera that goes along with the company's English to French program. I've watched some (and that's a little some) of the first series through my French class in school. Me and my classmates make fun of it for it being a crappy soap opera. Plus you're totally right about these not being about the story or characters, it's about the service. It's trying to teach me basic French, while trying to make me have feelings for Julien and Aurellie, both are high school students who are having a poorly written relationship which seems to almost always disappear from episode to episode and then reemerge, just to teach me how to say "I don't want to see you again!" By the way it's "Je ne vous plus jamais te revoir pas!" or something like that, trying not to use Google Translate. If what you say is true I'm hoping that the two eventually get nuked one episode, but then they'll just do that to teach me to say "Oh no! It's the end of the world!" Except that exclamation mark will just be acted out as if Aurellie just found out that her favourite bakery got shut down.

[@iagas9]

Ahh yes-- there's a Spanish version of this as well. It's called Extra, and it's designed to teach kids Spanish, I think-- we watched it in junior year of high school. It's about a rich guy from America who moves to Spain and has to choose between two girls (I think?). But the actor was clearly European. And he kept on talking about going to dinner at the White House. Like that's what America is.

[@ryanwellence]

Are you telling me that you've never split a brunch with America's Main Man?

[@tgc1635]

Ryan Wellence Yeah, having a good old Linner with the commander in cheif. Pffshh.

[@agathesol1928]

actually, it's "je ne veux plus jamais te revoir !" you were close

[@ryanwellence]

You deserve a medal

[@Blinkehyo]

My mom used to love these as well. I never knew why. I wonder what would happen if they turned into an innovative daily contests for aspiring writers would it make things less dull?

[@tgc1635]

My mom was in love with this stuff, would say that Steve Burton was the man of het dreams

[@CommodoreFan64]

+TGC My mother since the late 90's has had a crush on Eric Braeden the actor who plays Victor Newman on Young & the Restless, but yes for a lot of women soaps are pure escapism, and nothing more. Just like people play video games, watch sports, or pro wrestling to escape their boring day to day lives.

[@MusicalMissCapri]

It's really too bad that my favourite instrumental got used as the theme music for Y&R. It's like the movie "Ghost" with Demie Moore, the theme for that was Unchained Melody. Ugh. Music way too good for the show/movie.

[@nicolasnicolas5238]

Blinkehyo HOLY SMOKES THAT'S A WONDERFUL IDEA!!!!!!!

[@TheSponge278]

Blinkehyo We could make a religion out of this!

[@Astai]

Austin: Your grandma's loved watching soap operas My grandparents in a gulag in Siberia: Whats soap?

[@btchnotme1587]

It's funny that you used Guiding Light in your example of all things you could do while the show was on. Your home town is Springfield, Missouri, Guiding Light was set in Springfield, Illinois.

[@rolandbaldwin]

Taylor being thought dead in the middle east but really she was married to a prince as his captive bride and watched Ridge from an adjoining room. Sheila poisoning Stephanie with mercury. All in B&B. On Days Caliope inspiring Harley Quinn. Also on Days Marlena being possessed. The twins being brainwashed. Hope and Beau I think they were. On Another World Frankie Frame being psychic was a stretch. That's about all I got.

[@Red_Lanterns_Rage]

and with Days don't forget the infamous black glove.....that man get's AROUND for 30+ year OMFG that's worse than the Mysterious Stranger in Fallout if you think about it....I mean the stranger just kills people for no reason but the black glove, he switches baby DNA results, poisons people, kills people, sets up traps, lurks, stalks, lurks some more, stalks some more, kills right I;m repeating myself now....guy get's around lolz I own some black gloves dun dun dun [dramatic organ music plays]

[@NightFuryScream]

Oh, Sheila.

[@GoodByeKittyGoodBye]

Used to watch All My Children with my mom every single day until it was cancelled. I was a kid, but my mom grew up with the show and would fill me in when an old character or actor returned. I would find that fulfilling, but I could and would never now get back into soaps lol

[@m.woodsrobinson9244]

GoodByeKittyGoodBye All My Children was one of the better soaps...

[@ashikrasool6609]

"Stay at home moms are getting fewer and fewer" * laughs in 2020 *

[@P00katube]

There are still stay at home moms......who are mainly on welfare.

[@W81Researcher]

​@@P00katubeand that is who soaps are appealing to now and targeting. If they attracted straight males they'd be better off.

[@nathanl7018]

Craziest thing in a Soap Opera? Anything with Stefano Dimera from Days of Our Lives. Dude was basically a Bond villain with secret bases and submarines.

[@kellicoffman8440]

Us had to live Seohano he was my mom’s favorite

[@melissafain741]

Once Upon a Time is a prime time soap opera. They once saved the day with the power of love.

[@thedudewhomadethisvideo]

They've done that more than once on the show and also they use the "every bodies memories have been erased" plot device a lot.

[@dcaseng]

I grew up watching All My Children, and I really had a difficult time when they decided to cancel it. I literally watched that show for 24 years. It's too bad that great programming has been replaced with low budget, and easy to produce reality television garbage.

[@Nathan-em2kr]

id say that television today is significantly better quality than older tv-shows

[@nursetobee.]

@@Nathan-em2kr same

[@evanwhite2680]

That show had a special place for you but in no way was that good programming

[@GLBizzie]

@@evanwhite2680 it was good progamming.. maybe some storylines were dragging, boring or not anyones taste that doesn't mean it was bad.. I mean what shows/programmes do you like? i don't even get why SOAP OPERA HATERS are enjoying hanging all day on KZbin to search for soap opera videos lmao

[@fatimagic1365]

in all seriousness, soap operas are a really under-appreciated art form, and the actors involved are some of the most hardworking on tv. soaps shoot year round, and actors have to memorize anywhere from sixty to one hundred pages per day. from an audience member's perspective, there's something really reliably comforting about watching your favorite characters grow up (sometimes in real time...kimberly mccullough has played robin scorpio on general hospital on and off from the time she was seven years old), have their own children, get caught up in corny, campy schemes, etc. it becomes like your own little tv family that's often watched by multiple generations. that's really unique, especially for a medium that started out as literally just advertisements for soap. sure the corny storylines about cheating and infidelity are always gonna be there, but soaps have also given audiences groundbreaking storylines about race, sexual orientation, the hiv/aids epidemic, and lots of other important issues for the times they were written in. as an on and off soap fan, the fact that this format is being dropped in favor of so many cheaper to produce reality shows is really disappointing to me. everyone loves primetime shows like grey's and htgawm without acknowledging that those are as much soap operas as the ones they deride and make fun of. i'm not saying soaps are masterpieces of television or anything, but they are a legitimate form of entertainment that i wish got a lot more respect.

[@hshawn00]

Couldn't have said it any better. Your argument is lost on people like him. They will never understand what made soap operas so special. I had a hard time in middle school and soap operas were my saving grace. I'd rush home from school to my TV family and friends to escape from my miserable life and get caught up in their crazy lives. I don't watch soaps any longer but I still appreciate them. As you said, The Walking Dead, Grey's Anatomy and almost any other television show with a continuing storyline have soaps to thank for the format.

[@caseyhutchison7812]

This is so perfectly said and even better than this god awful video. I bet this guy loves Star Wars or something which is such a soap opera in itself. Furthermore, he "to sell soap" and propped up the "product instead of story" thing. But, soaps actually SAVED this country during The Great Depression because they sold product during the day to EVERYONE who had a radio. Also, soaps stopped being about product first a long time ago...somewhere in the 70s in fact. Sure it was so very important to the fabric of the genre's beginnings. But, when their ratings were high enough, and paying for their network's sporting events and primetime lineups, they actually made it more about story because their worries went away with bigger ratings and they didn't have to advertise so much because so many people were watching. Also, this guy should've done his research on what soaps have meant to people and TV. In the 1960s, Guiding Light did the FIRST uterine cancer story and cancer story for a main character in broadcast television. This made women fight to get better healthcare. And, then there was One Life To Live that brought awareness to child molestation via the character of Victoria Lord. Or when All My Children brought awareness to abortion when the character of Erica Kane had the first abortion on television. Soap operas are embedded in the fabric of television.

[@suryamohan3410]

I take it you didn't see the full video

[@theshamanite]

A dad hugged his son but choked him a little later, all inside a dream within a dream within a dream.

[@KoeSeer]

somebody just one upped Christopher Nolan.

[@rjr81]

British soaps seem to be doing better with higher production levels. The two big differences are that they film half as many minutes per week and they air during prime time, which gives them a less brutal schedule and more money to work with.

[@OneHandClap]

This video was alright but I would've liked to see more example clips from actual soap operas to get a better sense of what you're talking about. And in the end, I think you do more to answer the question, "Why are soap operas bad?", than, "Why are soap operas still on the air?"

[@shoehunter3928]

OneHandClap who hasnt seen a soap opera dont you have a female gaurdian?

[@sherlockian6770]

Potential necro, but the reason they're still around is exactly because they make everyone involved money on a consistent basis.

[@SciFiFan2012]

OneHandClap soap operas are weird slow as hell episodic tv series that one could watch for months/years, stop watching for months/years and the storyline that was going on then is still happening, just different characters.

[@samventurer375]

OneHandClap what the video and you would now dumbass

[@florenciab.5457]

That's his question, he doesn't understand why they still make them as they are so bad

[@NIN10DOXD]

I remember my mom used to watch these. They changed actors on General Hospital for Jason after killing him off temporarily, but eventually the old actor came back so they made it where the replacement was actually his long lost twin brother and they had their memories switched by some Russian doctor. Not to mention that the brother who thought he was him him even got his wife pregnant while he was gone. The funniest part in all this is that the OG actor is also Cloud in Final Fantasy VII which has an identity crisis of sorts in it's plot too.

[@SlapstickGenius23]

Holy crap, a final fantasy reference in play!?

[@chazofalsa]

I think the russian doctor you're talking about is Leslie Obrecht (I think).

[@bruxxy6814]

Well, I guess it's for elderly who have nothing to do 'cept watch tv all day.

[@dantheman8103]

Even so that audience will change too in time. The fact is in this day and age most people have access to something, be it Netflix, Hulu, DVD;s or even just their cox channels On Demand to give them some options in what they watch, not to mention if not they possibly have hundreds of channels. Soap Opera's like a lot of bygone genre's thrived in a time when people had little choices in what they watched. Back when we had 3-6 channels on network TV or hell, even the early days of COX with 64 channels, which most people still only actively found 10 or so interesting to their taste, if you wanted to watch TV at a certain time, especially in non premium time slot you watched what was out there. If in the 80's my job had me where the only free time I had to watch TV was 1PM I would have watched Soap's because with No Netflix and VHS Tapes being expensive out the butt, I would have had to chose between a Soap or Opera and Soaps are the more interesting of those two choices. But now the vast majority be it housewives (the ones still left), students who don't have class at those hours, people who work odd hours or even retired people (all the primary groups who would watch Soap Opera's daily) don't have to simply watch something because "it's what's on" they can turn on Netflix or pop in a DVD or go on their cables on demand and watch something they want to watch, not the best of limited options. And truth is most people who got hooked on Soaps never would have started watching them if they had those options back in Soap opera's heyday.