Widow Ghost #2:  "Whenever someone is going to die at the cliff, you always want to wail first and, frankly, after 175 years, we're getting a bit sick and tired of it.  Give someone else a chance!"

Gerard

I would be flabbergasted if the DS actors agreed to a cruise with several hundred DS fans.  If it was a cruise of a few hours, maybe.

On the several cruises/crossings I've been on, I've seen scores of celebrities, from actors/actresses to authors to politicians.  From my experiences, it's rather remarkable how other passengers leave them alone when they're "off duty" - many will give lectures and presentations, and have a time set aside for autographs, but beyond that, I've never seen anyone bother them on the "confinement" of a passenger ship.  They go about, enjoying a drink in one of the lounges, taking a walk on the promenade deck or resting in a deck chair, and no one bothered them.  It was like an unwritten rule.  (Not to sound gauche, but one time when I was in the men's room, Telly Savalas stood at the urinal next to me - we both did our business without exchanging any words.)  On a transatlantic crossing on the retired Queen Elizabeth 2 (the same one with Telly Savalas, who gave an incredible lecture on the history of television) was Edwin Newman, the noted newsman, journalist and author (who also gave several lectures).  I and my friends, one day, saw him standing alone at the railing of the QE2's First Class sundeck (we were interloping from Tourist Class) and we decided to approach him sheepishly.  He said:  "Well, finally, someone wants to talk with me.  I thought I was all alone on this ship."  We stood there, in the 32-knot wind, and talked for over an hour.  He thanked us profusely afterwards.  We could've gone on, but that mighty breeze made things chilly, even though it was August, but it was the North Atlantic.

So I don't think DS stars would have to worry about being stalked constantly while "confined" on a ship by exuberant fans.  I know some of us DS fans are nuts and go overboard (which might not be a bad idea on a ship if they behave badly), but I've never, ever seen a celebrity driven to the confines of his/her stateroom/suite by constantly annoying fans.  Ever.  I've actually seen them looking for some human connection because everyone knows not to bother them to the point of loneliness.

Gerard

Maggie:  "No!  Please!  No more tapioca!"

Gerard

Burke:  "I don't understand what you're talking about, Vicki.  What do you mean, you like the 'first Darren' better?  What's that got to do with me?"

Gerard

Vicki:  "You need to accept it, Carolyn.  They told us Maggie's dead.  The obit's right here.  Now, you need to decide:  do you want chicken or fish at the funeral's repast?"

Gerard

And don't forget, that in that same review scathing the original television DS, Cleveland Amory also said, after a week of watching it, he "missed it."  There's a lot to read into that comment.  He panned it (as most soaps, if not all soaps, were panned back then), but he obviously enjoyed it.  For him, it was undoubedly a guilty pleasure (and I wonder if he did go back to watching it, while never admitting it). 

It was like my mom, who always would yell from the kitchen:  "Are you watching that spooky crap again?"  But the moment Joan Bennett appeared, my mom, dish-towel in hand, would creep into the doorway of the living room and watch.  And when Quentin's Theme played on the radio, she'd turn up the volume and listen and afterwards would hum the melody over and over.  She even learned to ear-play it, one finger at a time, on our organ (I had the sheet music and performed it during the annual concert at our local conservatory where I took organ lessons).

Sometimes I think DS haters just like being contrarians.  DS was the most popular and one of the most iconographic soap operas of all time.  It set standards which exist to this day.  It influenced highly popular literary takes on vampires, from Salem's Lot to Interview With the Vampire to Twilight.  Other soaps began to introduce direct supernatural plots.  It's the only soap from its time where every episode (save parts of one) has been preserved in some form, has re-aired many times, is available on DVD, had two television remakes and inspired three motion pictures, all successful and profitable.  Is there any soap opera that has an annual festival that draws several thousand people?  How many soaps have had numerous documentaries produced about them?  Only one.  And soundtracks - don't forget the soundtracks.  I have seven of them and I don't think that's all of them.  There's a lot to be resentful of and to hate when one likes to go against the grain with something so unique, groundbreaking, successful and continuing in popularity.  Don't forget, many if not most critics initially panned The Wizard of Oz.  It's now listed in the top ten greatest motion pictures of all time.

These DS-haters, especially among the "younger" crowd, simply like being contrarians.  Being conditioned to enjoying what's only here for the moment and gone the next, they don't have the concept of something that has endured over time (with some exceptions).  For example, The Avengers was their big lovey-huggy, but no one hears much about it anymore.  It's now yesterday's news; it's no longer "trending."  Now it's the latest Batman movie (its reputation, however, sadly sullened by the tragedy).  Today's younger critics are formed by the do-it-now mentality.  For me, this little non-DS-related clip pretty much sums it up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSSDeesUUsU

Gerard

Regarding the MSN "review" of the top best and worst films of 2012, listing DS as one of the worst (saying such things as a "film nobody wanted to see" about a soap opera "no one cares about" and "no one remembers" [parapharsing]), it said that it went, parapharasing again, "into theaters and vanished quickly," it's surprising that it keep resurrecting in more and more theaters.  Again, what's this media hatred for DS?  How many theaters keep resurrecting that avengers super-hero stuff?  I know I don't care about super-heroes with sculpted abs and big pecs and hooters.  How utterly stupid.  I haven't seen the latest Batman thing.  I have no intention to.  Who cares about something so utterly stupid?  (Sorry to you Batman fans.)

Gerard