Guiding Light: I wish DS had ended as well!!!

I watched the historic final episode of Guiding Light today: they were clearly wrapping up all loose ends and giving the series a real ending~I wish DS had done that.

It appears that  Alan Spaulding~~once played by Chris  Bernau~~died a few days ago.

I hope soaps make a comeback one of these days!

David

From another topic:

...the death of Alan Spaulding occurred during this final week of CBS' The Guiding Light.  DS fans may recall that the role was originated by Christopher Bernau, and the character was also briefly played by '91 series alum Wayne Tippit.

I'm with you, David--I hope soaps revive someday too. Guess I first got hooked with DS as a senior in high school. I've watched ABC soaps All My Children, One Life To Live & General Hospital for at least 15-20 years. In fact, the first time I saw AMC, Erica Kane was  just out of high school! I blame DS for my soap addiction--thanks, DS!

Soaps aren't going to survive until you have producers and writers who understand and care for the genre. Barbara Bloom, the head of CBS's daytime division and Ellen Wheeler, the executive producer of GUIDING LIGHT, hastened GL's death with their ineptness. Did anyone watch GL in its final months with those shoddy production values? I've heard rumors Bloom might allow Ellen Wheeler to take over AS THE WORLD TURNS. If so, that show's death warrent has been signed. Not that the current ep is any better - Christopher Goutman brags about never paying attention to the viewers and what they like and dislike.

The great soap writer, Douglas Marland, once published a sort of "ten commandments" for soap writers and it is well worth seeking out. The soap industry also needs to think ourtside the box and search for soap writers who can bring a fresh point of view to the genre. It seems like most of the current crop of soap writers are just plain, ol' written out.

Also, the networks need to quit micromanaging the soaps and allow talented and trained people to do their jobs.

Here is a list of the remaining soaps and the order in which I expect they will depart from the airwaves in the next ten years if not sooner.

1. AS THE WORLD TURNS 2. DAYS OF OUR LIVES. 3. ONE LIFE TO LIVE. 4. ALL MY CHILDREN 5. GENERAL HOSPITAL 6. THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL 7. THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS

R.I.P. GUIDING LIGHT...

Even though he passed away more than 15 years ago, I still worship Doug Marland to this day.    His genius at soap writing seemingly knew no limits - and his kind will probably never be seen again.    And as much as some of us make fun of/complain about the writing on DS, even at its lowest it's brilliant when compared to some of the extremely odd writing on too many soaps today.  

I can't believe that all soaps seem to be on the way out!  Reality TV rules these days, and I enjoy a few reality shows, but it looks like entertainment may come down to us all looking at ourselves in the mirror. 24 7 

I still worship Doug Marland to this day.  

I'm right there with you, MB! He was one of the very few highlights of the 80s.

Me thinks that between them, MB & Markyboo make a number of valid points.
My praise for GL applied only to that finale episode, where a real attempt was made to wrap the show up and give it a real ending.
I wish DS had done the same~~I should have called this thread "I Wish DS had ened as well AS THIS!"

Today's soaps are lacking something basic to soaps of the past: a heart and a sense of romance.

David

Soaps are very violent now. Just watch a few episodes of GENERAL HOSPITAL which is full of all these SOPRANOS wannabes. The attitude towards women has also become very disturbing. Strong, independent females have been replaced by slutty, clingy bimbos (I'm talking about you, Stacy on ONE LIFE TO LIVE!). Beloved veterans are reduced to maybe one or two appearances a month if we're lucky. I can't even remember the last time I saw Eileen Fulton on AS THE WORLD TURNS and she has been a regular since 1960!

If DS was on ABC today, I can only imagine what Dan Curtis would be ordered to do by Brian Frons (head of ABC's daytime division), another joker who has no business being involved with soaps. I can see his memos now: "I want to see less of Joan Bennett and Grayson Hall but more of Nancy Barrett and Kathryn Leigh Scott especially wearing bikinis. More scenes of Barnabas beating Willie to a pulp with his cane. Can we get the mob to come to Collinsport? No more time travel stories - they are too expensive and those costumes cover up too much of the actresses' bodies. Plus they confuse the audience. Also, we are going to start shooting on location (in New Jersey) with my brother's videocam..."!

I sometimes think it's a blessing that the original DS isn't still a part of ABC daytime today. Just like the vets on most of the soaps that have survived, our beloved characters would have been written out long ago - or they would be extremely marginalized and barely putting in appearances. And never mind David and Carolyn's children - everything would be focused on their grandchildren and probably even their great grandchildren along with characters who would most likely have no connections whatsoever to the characters we knew from the '60 and '70s. And, of course, the emphasis would be more on sex than on the supernatural. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with making DS more sexy, it shouldn't be at the expense of maintaining what makes DS DS. But the kind of storytelling that DS originally did went out the window when people who are solely concerned with the bottom line took over running daytime.  

Mark...may I ask why you think these are going out?

I have ALWAYS HATEDDDDD! *reality* TV!!

Patti

If Cheap Productions ever produces more Dark Shadows parioies. They shoud do one about the ABC Newtwork parallel Time whre DS was not Canceled in 1971 and is still on the air in 2009  and how it might look if it was sill on the air.

Patti (and to anyone else interested): I think the networks believe the soap genre has lost its traditional, core audience, the stay-at-home-wives-and-mothers, who are now en masse in the workforce. Also, the networks feel that there are not many up-and-coming viewers for soaps. I grew up watching soaps with my mother and grandmother while I played with toys on our living room floor or reading comic books or waiting for reruns of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND to come on. Nowadays, young people are more than likely to be planted in front of their computers with Facebook rather than waiting for the next episode of DAYS OF OUR LIVES to air. In other words, young people aren't being "trained" to watch soaps like previous generations.

Also, networks are looking to cut corners anyway they can in this economy. Budgets are being slashed and even Susan Lucci had to take a paycut. It's cheaper to put a game show (one standing set) or a talk show rather than a soap with a cast of thirty to forty players (many of whom aren't even on contract but on recurring status) and multiple sets. This type of thinking has even spread to primetime television - you can bet your last dollar that the industry is paying close attention to how well Jay Leno's new, primetime talk show is doing in the ratings. If it succeeds, well, you'll probably start seeing fewer hour-long, dramatic programs on TV...

However, I still think, no matter what, the soap industry has brought a lot of their problems and turmoil on themselves simply by treating the viewers with contempt. I watch AS THE WORLD TURNS everyday, but I cringe at how mediocre most of the writing is compared to what is was in its Golden Era (i.e. when Doug Marland was headwriter!). It's very plot-driven and the characters act very inconsistent. Most of the soaps used to be produced in NYC and producers cast roles with experienced, seasoned actors and actresses from the theater community - remember all those great actors on ANOTHER WORLD? Now most soaps are produced on the West Coast and it seems like the casts are full of beautiful, vacuous people who have probably never seen a play much less been in one.

I wish we could find the daytime equivalent of a writer like MAD MEN's Matthew Weiner or Joss Whedon or David E. Kelly or ...

P.S. I don't hate all reality programming. I never miss THE AMAZING RACE or PROJECT RUNWAY and I even, for the first time, voted for an AMERICAN IDOL contestant on AMERICAN IDOL this past season (Adam Lambert!), but I do think most reality program is garbage.

Also, networks are looking to cut corners anyway they can in this economy ... you can bet your last dollar that the industry is paying close attention to how well Jay Leno's new, primetime talk show is doing in the ratings. If it succeeds, well, you'll probably start seeing fewer hour-long, dramatic programs on TV...

Being way OT, I'll simply post this as a one-time illustration, so please let's not get into a discussion about it unless it can somehow be related to the topic at hand. 

While I have nothing against Jay Leno personally, I hate that NBC, in its cost-savings insanity, has put a talk show on in primetime five nights a week. Last week he had decent ratings - but that was with no competition as everything on the other networks was reruns. The good news for those of us who hate what NBC has done is that this week it has been a totally different story so far. Monday's rating was his worst so far. He rebounded a bit on Tuesday - but he was still coming in a distant third. And I couldn't be happier.

In my opinion, the demise of Guiding Light, the Jay Leno Show and the cancellation of Dark Shadows all have one thing in common, $MONEY$.  Guiding Light may have become a victim of changing demographics.  The Jay Leno Show was an attempt by NBC to keep a very popular figure like Jay from competing with Conan Obrien on another network, even FOX.  He too, was forced off the Tonight Show stage because of changing demographics.  As for Dark Shadows, it was still a popular attraction when ABC cancelled the show.  But the bulk of its audience was young people and the network probably thought the show would just go away quietly when it was replaced with Password.  They could not have been more wrong.  Dark Shadows was an escape from the trials of everyday life.  I watch the show every day on video to remind me of a happier time when money wasn't everything and quality, ground breaking programming meant more than ratings and profits.  Michael Hackett Todd