I was a fan of the show since 1997-1998 off and on. Martha Byrne’s Lily was my favorite actress ever. I will be purchasing the DVD at the beginning of the month!!

Please please please listen to this podcast from Daytime Confidential featuring Roger Newcomb at: http://daytimeconfidential.zap2it.com/2011/10/18/dc-646-we-love-soaps-roger-newcomb-previews-atwt-dvd-collection

And please please please if you have been a fan of ATWT in any form buy the DVD at: http://www.soapclassics.com

It is only $19.95 for 20 classic episodes and the episode descriptions and clips are on the website!

Soaps Forever!

Nice we got Kate 2.0 and Carly’s hot saucy new squeeze added. But look closer…can’t see it? Ok. Let me put it into continuity.

ARE THEY PHOTOSHOPPED WITH MS PAINT AND WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER SHOT ON A CRAPPY GREEN SCREEN???

This looks bad. And it makes me think of this:

Amanda Baker (Babe) was so out of place in that opening. I understand that they had to quickly film something to replace Alexa Havins but the background doesn’t match the other people’s background. I am glad that they eventually updated her shot before they killed off the character.

Now I know GH has more problems than it’s opening…like its future. But openings are suppose to be presentable. Please fix this as soon as possible. Especially since Sean Blakemore was on the show longer than a month. There is no excuse for him not to be added sooner with a presentable shot. SHAME!!!

Also, here is the main page for Dirty Soap on E! Online: http://www.eonline.com/on/shows/dirty_soap/index.html

I may cover the weekly episodes since I may watch them on xfinity’s website (Comcast and E! are connected that way.)

New Promo for Dirty Soap!

http://youtu.be/Mxhek1KV3QU

The version of the opening with Peabo Bryson’s lyrics debut in the opening in 1986, so if you are keeping track it has been 25 years.

It was a very awesome opening for the mid 1980′s. Having characters faces superimposed over video shots of “Llanview” (really Harrisburg, PA.) There is a period of time, however where they were too lazy to update the shots of the actors and it showed because they were trying some new effect with the newer characters:

That’s really my only complaint of the opening but that problem comes with every opening that features characters.

It was so popular and iconic to One Life fans that during Starr X’D (<—that is not a laughing till you cry emotocon, it means crossed) Lover’s musical episodes, 3 versions sung by 4 actors on the show aired on top of the horrid version of the current opening. These versions were sung by Kassie DePaiva (Blair), Mark Lawson (Brody), and a duet by Jason Tam (ex-Markko) and Brittany Underwood (ex-Langston). I personally like the DePaiva version the best. Here are all three versions (I can’t put audio on wordpress):

Kassie DePaiva: http://youtu.be/zF2pCB5D7E8

Mark Lawson: http://youtu.be/ciIp2LQGmtc

Jason Tam and Brittany Underwood: http://youtu.be/jTIeQdsvq4Q

I think Prospect Park should remake the opening when they start airing OLTL in 2012. It would make the fans feel like they are watching the same show (add great writers, executive producer, and the same cast from ABC Daytime with some cuts since I keep hearing its suppose to be a weekly drama.) I know the opening video was remade in the 1996-2004 version but it wasn’t as iconic or catchy as the 1984-1991 version. If All My Children brought back the 1990-1994 opening in 2002, then this can happen. But let’s not make it a crappy opening like the 2004-2012 opening.

Dirty Soap stars Monaco (Sam, General Hospital), Kirsten Storms (Maxie, General Hosptial), J. P. Lavoisier (Rex, One Life to Live), Farah Fath (Gigi, One Life to Live), Nadia Bjorlin (soon-to-be-ex- Chloe, Days of Our Lives) and Galen Gering (Rafe, Days of Our Lives.) Gering’s wife, Jenna, also stars.

Dirty Soap premiers September 25th at 10pm. Here is a preview:

Now I have to deal with an awkward transition… sorry…

Anyway, I am ecstatic to know that All My Children and One Life To Live have been picked up by Prospect Park to continue on the Internet:
http://daytimeconfidential.zap2it.com/2011/07/07/breaking-news-abc-confirms-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live-have-been-licensed-will-c

However, it leaves me with one problem. Since General Hospital is basically getting the shaft in some cities (including my home affiliate WPVI in Philadelphia) due to Katie Couric’s talk show in 2012, does this give ABC more of a reason to cancel its final soap on the lineup? It may be a disguise in a blessing. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love web soaps (in fact, I will list my favorites and links to them at the end of the entry) I think they are in the same new media boat as when Guiding Light successfully crossed over from radio (which it had been at the time on since 1937) to TV in 1952 and lasted for generations before ending in 2009. However, if AMC and/or OLTL become successful as a result of the crossover, will soaps on  TV’s days be numbered? I mean most of you can argue that they ARE numbered. Even Jesse Tyler of Modern Family tweeted WHY they haven’t been cancelled decades ago (…and I tweeted him back a rather snide/offhand/borderline nasty comment but thats another story) but Sony/CBS has The Young and the Restless renewed until 2014. The same CBS who announced cancellations of two soap operas in one year (although the rumor had it that Proctor and Gamble wanted out of the soap opera business since Another World went off.)  So its very confusing as to WHO wants soap operas to stay and who doesn’t. We thought Brian Frons had no soul (apparently he laughed at protestors of the cancellation of AMC and OLTL) but he was sort of behind the transition of Nixon’s soaps to the Internet so…a half hearted thank you? Also, if you take more soaps away from TV, then the fact that they are in first place or last place won’t matter. I remember when there were 11 televised network soaps in 1998 now we will be down to (as of January of 2012) a heart wrenching 4 in a little over 10 years with the last 4 years (starting with Passions ending on NBC in 2007) having at least one soap off a network a year.

Now, my hope is that Prospect Park will be patient with AMC and OLTL and NOT let this go in the same direction that Passions being on DirecTV’s the 101 (now the Audience Network…ok?) did. I think the 101 dropped the ball with that one. I mean, not EVERYBODY can get satellite TV (my mom’s house for example is not allowed to get satellite TV and my friend wasn’t able to get it at his apartment.) And to think that it WILL get more subscribers was DUMB. I think DirecTV should have given it more of a chance.

My hope is that the two new reality shows on ABC will fail. But what I think will happen is this: The two new reality shows will have less overall numbers than AMC and OLTL but Frons will pull something out of his ass and say that the numbers are strong in other demos and they will stay on the air (also because reality shows are cheap to produce…which is why they have writers??)

Anyway, here are my favorite web soaps (or as We Love Soaps coined them, Indie Soaps)

Empire: http://www.empiretheseries.com/

Steamboat: http://www.steamboatseries.com/

Anacostia: http://vimeo.com/anacostia

The Bay/Far From The Bay: http://blip.tv/thebaytheseries

Gotham: http://www.youtube.com/user/GothamTheSeries

Paper Cuts [Finished]: http://www.youtube.com/user/PaperCutsTV

Imaginary Bitches: http://www.imaginarybitches.com/

That’s What Mama Said: http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalArtsUCI#p/c/D179D1E4D6BCA810

Prom-ably Not (Personally, I think its the WORST of the ones listed but I am still going to give you the link because people’s tastes are different): http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalArtsUCI#g/c/B28D3A494021CA74

California Heaven: http://www.stjohn-fisher.com/california-heaven/

Here’s a treat: my last semester at University of the Arts in Philadelphia I was involved in UArts Video. The web series project I worked on as an co-editor/crew member was titled “Three Kinds of People.” The other editor (this is before I grew a backbone) would take the project and do it on her own with me hardly being involved. This resulted in many errors that were not noticed before the release (including my and other crew members names being spelled wrong in the closing credits and the title in the first episode being “The Kinds of People.”) And also a very STRANGE soundtrack that I kind of thought what the fuck when first hearing it. By the third episode, it was better in quality. I am not sure WHY it ended because I was forced out of UArts after that semester. But my guess would be that the group didn’t have the patience producing a web series. Paper Cuts (another UArts production that was outside of UArts Video) was far more popular/taken seriously/organized as a web series so there was a higher bar to be set. The other series, Used Shoes, apparently had far less problems (except for controversial content.) That being said, here is…sighs…web series of UArts Video: http://blip.tv/uarts-video

The articles for Search’s cancellations can be found at these links:

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2011/04/flashback-will-search-run-out-of.html

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2011/04/flashback-nbcfrons-cancel-search-for.html

When I first saw the final episode on The World of Soap Opera Themes in the mid 2000′s, I nearly cried even though I wasn’t a fan of the show since the show aired its last episode eight months after I was born. I would like to share the final scene of Search For Tomorrow (which includes the emotional closing credits) before I create some fire and hellstorm:

Now for the real reason I posted this. I have found a petition to get Brian Frons fired from ABC Daytime. It may not bring back All My Children or One Life to Live but it does show that Frons is unstable and wants the soap opera industry as a whole to suffer for whatever reason.

The petition can be found at this link:

http://www.petitiononline.com/bsfrons/petition.html

Mess:

OLTL- 1992-1995 opening

I use to like the music to this opening when I was a kid. But now, seeing where OLTL was back then with the groundbreaking storylines, such as Marty Saybrooke’s (played by Susan Haskell) gang rape and Viki Lord’s (played by the sensational Erika Slezak) multiple personalities that was created after her own father molested her, did we really need to see the champagne exploding when the new man walks into the girls bedroom? Also the whole opening in general reeks of a bad Calvin Klein commercial (One Life…Calvin Klein) and is a rip off of what the soap opera Loving’s opening which ran from 1991-1992.

I actually like the Loving opening way better than the OLTL one. The glass shattering was an awesome effect (more so than the phallic champagne) and the couple at the end embracing in the sunset was more realistic than the couple on the OLTL opening. Where the fuck do babies comes from? A champagne bottle? The more I try to make sense with this gawd awful opening, the crazier and senseless it becomes.

So 1992-1995 opening of One Life to Live: Messier than Jessica Buchanan’s back to high school storyline. NEXT!!

2004-2012 opening:

This was where a man, whom I referred to a Daytime’s Biggest Dummy in the last entry, decided re-branding ABC Daytime with similar openings would be a great idea. This was the worst excuse for an opening to come out of the ABC Daytime re-branding. The worst part is, when the show goes off the air, this is the opening that we will associate with the final year of OLTL.

What is so bad about it? The cast shots are horrid especially Bree Willamson’s Jessica Buchanan-Brennan-Ford’s sad attempt to be sexy. The fact that a stage light is in the way of Blair Cramer’s (played by Kassie DePaiva) shot. Don’t get me started with Jerry VerDorn (who portrays Clint Buchanan) awkward shots.  The first opening at least had some signs of buildings but as it evolved, it was replaced by squares and the title of the show flying around. A lot of the cast members who have been with the show throughout this opening , failed to have their cast shots updated. For some reason, current cast members John-Paul Lavoisier (who plays Rex Balsom) Michael Easton (who plays John McBain), Farah Fath (who plays Gigi Morasco) all had different opening shots through out the years the opening was in place. Long term actors like, Melissa Archer (who plays Natalie Buchanan) Bree Williamson (who’s opening shot I hate for another reason, the fact her hair grew like a lot since that shot first got recorded) and Robert S. Woods (Bo Buchanan) had the same shots since 2004. Aside from Williamson’s sexed up pose of Jessica needing a make over, Hillary B. Smith’s (Nora Buchanan) shot desperatly needed an upgrade. It looks weird now that Catherine Hickland (Lindsay Rappaport, Nora’s sworn enemy) got fired from the show. The initial shot in the opening was a shot of Hickland and a transition shot between Hickland and Smith’s shots. I think that they should have redone Smith’s shot when Hickland was taken out of the opening.

I think this is the only soap opera that if it weren’t for it ending in January 2012, I would say cut your losses and have a non-cast opening, like the good old days. You didn’t see Judith Light (who played Karen Wolek from 1977-1983) posing in an opening when she was on the show. The opening was centered on the sky (and *spoiler* I will talk about it more in the best section.) Once again I am going to bring up Loving. All of Loving’s openings were non-cast openings. As The World Turns would up having a non-cast opening in its last year after failing to put half the cast in its 2007 opening. Just please, put some music that is not from the end of the first act.

Something worth mentioning, Erika Slezak has two different shots. One wearing a pink top and one wearing a black top. I like the black top shot better. The pink top looks like she is thinking “oh, you are actually going to watch this crap, be my guest.” Not that OLTL is a bad show now. It was at the time of this opening, in my opinion. So I think the black top should stay and they should have had her re-shoot the pink top with more of a “Welcome to Llanview, PA” look on her face. Just my opinion.

So I that wraps up this mess. So I am going to go over why I love rest of the openings next time.

Daytime TV’s biggest dummy, Brian Frons, thinks that replacing the shows with reality/talk shows will fill the void in our aching hearts. Umm, no. Yes soap operas are a dying industry but wouldn’t saving two iconic shows by keeping them on the air prove that you care about people who watch soaps. First SOAPnet going off the air, now this.

Full article at this link:

http://abc.go.com/site/abcdaytimenews?cid=facebookabcannouncement

Why is it that telenovella’s in Spanish-language countries and international soap operas like Neighbours in Australia and EastEnders in the United Kingdom are profitable? I am wondering if 10 in Aussie and BBC in the UK are actually listening to fans. Telenovella’s are a different story. They only stay on for a year and get replaced by, GASP, another telenovella. Keeps people interested in it.

My heart goes out to the hard working cast and crew of One Life to Live and All My Children. I saw an interview with Susan Lucci (when you think of soap opera’s you think of her) and she honestly didn’t know the show that made her famous was getting taken off the air.

Interview and article:

http://www.popeater.com/2011/03/28/susan-lucci-all-my-children-cancellation/

Now for all you fans of OLTL and AMC fans. I shall do what I do best. Post the first openings to each soap opera:

All My Children:

One Life to Live (ok second opening but I couldn’t find it on YouTube. Strange because their last anniversary show had the first opening.):

Here are a few recreated openings (via youtube) that I have found :

The City Opening- DavidEvanSmith

This opening is actually for the continuation of the storylines of the short-lived gem, The City. Smith wrote a few chapters of life happening in SoHo after the last episode in 1997. He included characters that weren’t on the show including Port Charles’ Ion Overman (who played doctor turned sexy vampire, Gabrielle), and the creator of the opening himself David Evan Smith. He is no stranger to putting himself as a character in openings. If you check out his channel, he casts himself as various characters in various openings he has created. I give mad props to you, Mr. Smith,  for doing that. I know I would love to be cast as Angie Hubbard’s daughter Cassandra Foster but I don’t have the guts putting my fat butt in an All My Children opening. Though, if Lorraine Broderick is writing now I could see a social issue storyline about gaining weight. But I digress.

I do love the casting choice towards the end of the opening. How great would it have been to see Heather Locklear as Sydney Chase’s (Morgan Fairchild) sister? Yeah, it would have cost the Mouse House more than she ever got paid on Melrose Place,  but it would have gotten viewers to see what is going on in SoHo.

I love shots of SoHo at the beginning and Sydney’s famous white boots when coming off the airplane was from the first episode. I like the shots of the characters from the first promo and even shots from the actual show.

As the World Turns Opening-njlee8785
Perfect! The cosmic sounding opening did scare me for a time when I was a kid but once I found the opening on WoST, I loved it. Then to go a step above Chris Goutman and include the openings from the 1980′s (The World Turns On and On), 1990′s (Jelinda’s Theme) and the video globe from 1999. Bon appetite! If the world didn’t stop turning, I would have marched to their studios in Brooklyn and DEMANDED this be the opening. No cast members to screw up the opening, no “fancy” CGI opening, none of those bells and whistles. As the World Turns started out with an iconic opening, I think it should have ended with something iconic.

Mr. Lee (of “Buzzworthy Radio”) you should be proud.

Note: I, in no way, endorse Buzzworthy Radio money wise. I am just a fan and longtime soap opera peer of Na’vell J Lee.

I would like to thank people for the early support. The good news is that in my class we are required to write more postings (at least one a week.) So expect more from me,