I give the actors due credit for taking those scenes so seriously.
You know....we never talk about that, and we should.
This stuff could not have been easy to do. We're always laughing about how bad the writing (sometimes) is, and how chaotic the lack of continuity is, and especially how amusing the gaffes and screw-ups are.
But these people showed up every day and worked with what they were handed.....and kept straight faces (almost always)..... and spoke those (sometimes idiotic) lines with the same effort they might have given to Shakespeare.
Think about how much harder it is to give life and excitement to drivel than it is to work with really wonderful dialogue. How easy it is pace and modulate your performance when you're doing "Hamlet" and know you're going to end up with a stage full of dead bodies....as opposed to being handed pages of dialogue changes every morning, having NO idea where the story is going and STILL managing to make your character believable.
Surely film work, TV series and plays had to be EASY compared to Soap Operas.
I think applause all around is in order.