soap opera

Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera
$29.95
Let's face it, Soaps, because they are generally geared and attracted to a largely female audience has never received the respect that it richly deserves. Think about it, where else is one hour episode done per day with constant revisions and a good memory to memorize all the lines. Of course, there is romance which women crave but it doesn't take just sex and romance to sell a soap. The soaps are largely family oriented in small towns or cities like Genoa City, Salem, Springfield, Llanview, Port Charles, and Oakdale. I was reading a British soap actor, Mike's Reid's autobiography, where he was dismissed by other actors on a morning show because soaps are still considered to be trash television. Unfortunately, American soaps which was as many as 14 and now as few as 8 on the networks today are seen as too expensive and the audiences are not the same as they were in their popularity. But I love soaps and so does my whole family including my late father who watched him, the soaps provide a different form of entertainment. You're not going to get Shakespeare every day and you don't want it. Some episodes are just brilliant and phenomenal while others are just typical much like life itself. The shows are quite conservative in nature and are very sensitive to delicate topics like homosexuality and abortion. Besides Luke and Laura, there is Roger and Holly on Guiding Light who fought more than made up and they were as equally complicating and intense. I'll never forget actors and actresses who has passed on and neither have the cast members who continously work. Soaps have provided roles for women on daytime like Erica Kane on All My Children or Marlena Evans on Days Of Our Lives as well as Reva Shayne Lewis on Guiding LIght. The actors and actresses as well as the cast and crews of these shows deserve a lot more credit. A few years ago, I tried to get the attention of the Kennedy Center HOnors to recognize William J. Bell, soap's Shakespeare who wrote for 35 years, and actress Helen Wagner who epitomize the good wife on As the World Turns since day one for the last 52 years. Sadly, Bell has died and Helen will turn 90 years old. Nowhere else would you have such longevity, dedication, or devotion. Every day is different from yesterday. With Soapnet, I hope more people tune in to watch, give it a chance, you can't just decide in one episode. Some soaps like General Hospital has had their share of crazy storylines. We have RADA graduates like six time Emmy Winner Erika Slezak and Jennifer Bassey among them. Soaps are better than any play, musical, or even films on television or at the cinema. You don't know what you got until it's gone and soaps are now endangered of being extinct with network politics. It is easier and cost effective to have another court show or talk show in it's place. I never gotten over the cancellation of Another World in 1999. I have watched many soaps kick the bucket before their time. These shows launched some of the finest actors and actresses of our time. It's time to show respect to the soaps in America.

Soap Opera
$26.95
A great read! If you're interested in what makes a good soap opera tick and why, this is definitely the book you're looking for! While its main focus is on British Soaps, there are some good comparisons and incorporations from American and Australian Soaps, creating a broad examination of the complete genre. D. Hobson is thorough, accurate and insightful.

ALL MY CHILDREN
$24.95
I've been watching AMC ten years this July. So I thought if I got the BIO of AMC it would catch me up on the early years. Well I was wrong, this was pretty much just a day behind the scenes at AMC and was pretty much a big o' waste of time.

Soap Opera
$16.98
Despite their smash hits from the sixties, the Kinks never seemed able to maintain the fan-base that other English groups attained and manipulated so well. I think it's a sad reflection on the intelligence and imagination of my generation. Oh well, it's over and done with, isn't it? I mean, what have we to look forward to now but Social Security, physical decline, ill health, and, ultimately, death.
But, doggone it, SOAP OPERA was a wonderful album. I'm not going to dissect it and attempt to grade or degrade individual cuts on the work. I just want to say that, from my perspective, this album has it all. It was great fun everytime I put the disk on. The artwork was outstanding, the performance impeccible, the lyrics, the feel for the mood of the time, the music.... Why couldn't everyone see that?! It has often been said that the Kinks' "theatrical" period was their least popular. In my mind, it was the artistry of Ray Davies and the Kinks at their best. If you didn't "get it", it's your loss.