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You Be Me and I'll Be You

By Tater Barley Banks | Posted Under Comment Diversions | Comments (48)

Days-of-Our-Lives_l.jpg

A couple weeks ago Dustin put up a Trade News post about Sarah Chalke in which he referred to her as Becky No. 2 and “the superior Becky.” I seldom watched the show because I thought Roseanne Barr was a loudmouthed load and her voice was like fingernails on a chalkboard (see what I did there?), but still I recognized this as a reference to “Roseanne” and the fact they switched Beckys in midseries.

I was trying to think of other shows that changed the actor playing a prominent character, because that kind of thing creeps me out. The character looks different but nobody on the show acknowledges it. Am I the only one who thinks that’s weird?

Mrs. Tater watches a couple soap operas, and they do this kind of thing routinely. In fact, they do such weird shit that I think the soaps should be labeled science fiction.

For instance: On “General Hospital,” Sarah Browne, who I think was already replacing someone who played the character Carly (I get this stuff mainly from osmosis, I might be reading while Mrs. Tater has it on), left the show, so they had to get a third Carly, a horseface whose name doesn’t matter because eventually Sarah Browne came back to the show under the name Claudia. Sometimes the old Carly and the new Carly are in scenes together (and often those scenes are close to catfights, RAWR). And, of course, NOBODY in Port Charles seemed to notice there was anything odd about this. NOBODY said, “Gee, Claudia, you look kinda familiar, did you used to live around here?”

Not that I saw, anyway.

Not long ago the same show pulled one of my favorites, the one Stephen King called “The Kid Trick.” It happened with the character Michael, Sonny’s son (yes, I know way more about this than I should). One month Michael was, I dunno, 10 or 12, and then he disappeared for awhile, and when “Michael” came back like the next month he was maybe 18. And NOBODY in Port Charles thought this was weird at all. (King wrote that he wouldn’t have dared try to pull that off in a novel.)

Mrs. Tater also watches “One Life to Live,” where the character Jessica has multiple personality disorder, which seems to run in the family. (Because of course it does.) Not long ago one of her other personalities held her sister captive in the basement and had a bomb set to go off to kill her, and kidnapped a baby as well. When this all got sorted out, everything went right back to the way it was. I kept asking Mrs. Tater when her family was going to have Jessica locked up in a hospital for the criminally insane, but turns out that because it wasn’t really her, it was this OTHER personality, well, everyone’s fine with having this highly unstable psycho attempted-homicide babynapping bitch right back under the same roof, and life just goes on …

I’m sort of rambling here. Pajiba pays no attention to the soaps whatsoever, which seems about right since they’re going the way of the dodo, so maybe nobody here watches them.

But I bet some of you do. More of us than probably want to admit it.

So, to finally get to the point of the diversion, of which there are several:

1. Who here watches soaps? ‘Fess up.

2. What are the best/worst soap tropes? I didn’t even scratch the surface of the insanity so there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit for you.

3. What other shows switched actors playing a major character, and was it for better or worse?

and

4. As a viewer, where do you draw the line at such shenanigans?









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Comments

I used to watch the reruns of The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire on TBS when I was in high school, and I was never sure if they were airing them out of order or what happened, but one episode, the mom was pregnant, a few episodes later, the mom was being played by a different actress and there was a six year old kid. I thought Mom #1 was better but as far as the kid trick - was it really a kid trick or was there a crucial episode I missed that explained everything, did they flash forward in time, or did the baby die and they adopted another kid? Or was the child mutant spawn that grew at exceptional rate? Did it kill Mom #1, and then the family had to find a new Mom for that reason? I mean mutant spawn tends to be rather unpredictable.

Didn't they do the kid trick on Growing Pains and Family Ties, too? Did TV producers think audiences were particularly stupid in the '80s and early '90s?

Nope, don't watch soaps. I don't even have my TV hooked up to anything but a DVD player - I watch all my shows in 22 episodes sittings months after everyone else. I just don't think that would work so well with day time television.

Posted by: Jen K at February 20, 2010 3:17 PM

1. In the year and a half between grad school and employment, I got hooked on The Bold and the Beautiful. It pains me to admit it. I've seen bits of episodes since that time, and either it's gone way downhill, or I was on crack back then.

2. It was a family drama, and oh man, they were bad for "Oh heavens, the man who I grew up thinking was my biological uncle actually isn't my uncle. I think I'll hook up with him!" and the like. *eye roll*

3. Not a soap, but I was miffed when they re-cast Jimmy Olsen in Lois & Clark (the Teri Hatcher/Dean Cain Superman show). Had such a crush on the original Jimmy, and thought the replacement actor was goofy and annoying.

4. Eh, I think when they brought some sort of supernatural crap in (I don't know, a character's ghost or something), I broke it off cleanly with B&B and never looked back.

Posted by: meaux at February 20, 2010 3:21 PM

I consider myself a soap-watcher only because since so many prime-time shows now use multi-episode storylines, they use soap-opera tropes.

LOST is a soap opera; don't try to deny it. I also watch Fringe, which is getting quite soapy. X-Files, Angel, Buffy The Vampire Slayer--the more I think about it, the more series spring up that I think of as soap opera-ish.

I watched actual daytime soaps through college. I was cured when I bought a VCR. I'd tape my "stories" throughout the week and on Friday nights I'd sit down with a pot of mac and cheese or something and watch five hours straight.

About three weeks of that and I was cured of soap opera addiction.

If you like your stories, don't ever watch 'em that way.

Posted by: Jerce at February 20, 2010 3:26 PM

The summer of 1994, I was a babysitter/nanny for a three month old. There wasn't much to do so I started watching One Life to Live and General Hospital. I was super pissed when the O.J. Simpson trial interrupted them.

Sadly, at one point I also watched Passions where an orangutan served as a live-in nurse and Timmy, the witch's doll, turned into 'a real boy.' Even more pathetic is that these situations did not deter me from watching. I only stopped because they often repeated the exact same scenes and even some of the exact same lines from the previous day's episode. I could skip watching the show for two weeks and still find that the plot had not advanced.

Posted by: ang at February 20, 2010 3:45 PM

Obviously the classic example is Bewitched and the two Darrens.

But the one that pops atop my head is the change in The Mummy series of Evey from Rachel Weisz in the first two movies to Maria Bello in the third movie while the little kid in Part 2 went onto being a damn near 30-year old guy. And while I love Maria Bello, there's no way she's anything remotely like Rachel Weisz.

Posted by: Fredo at February 20, 2010 3:49 PM

When I was much, much younger I watched Santa Barbara. Like, back when Robin Wright was on it, before she was the Princess Bride. There was this actor on it, this incredibly WRY actor, who was just SO good, I always thought it was fucking CRIMINAL that he didn't move on to an actual career outside of soaps. Can't remember his name... wait. Gotta look it up...

LANE DAVIES! Oh, my god, he was so good. SO funny. Christ, I wish he had a career.

I loved that show, too. It was really well written, like the writers KNEW it was a joke, so they just wrote it like one long, ongoing joke. And most of the actors seemed to be in on the joke.

It was cancelled, naturally.

Posted by: Maryscott O'Connor at February 20, 2010 4:05 PM

1) I used to watch reruns of 90210, Melrose Place, and The O.C. obsessively, and that was mostly during the day while I was unemployed, but I've never watched daytime soaps.

2) Best trope: "this character is dead, we see this character die, but next season or maybe years from now in a remake, she'll turn out to have been alive all the time," but that's only because it meant Sydney could come back in Melrose Place.

Worst trope: "That woman who faked her death and is actually alive? Yeah, now she's dead again, because ten minutes into the show she's going to drown in that fucking cursed pool." Why bring The Sydney Andrews back only to waste her like that?

3. I wish Melrose had pulled the actor switch on Jane. Billy too. God, Josie Bissett was a pill. And Andrew Shue trying to act was just painful.

4. I draw the line at haunted pools that only bring back irritating characters. Ugh, BROOKE. You're dead, we're happy, please leave us the hell alone.

Posted by: SaBrina at February 20, 2010 4:08 PM

Right now on As The World Turn, Lily and Holdens daughter Faith is in boarding school. This is usually code for "coming back as someone new and older". She was about 14-15 when she left and word is that she is coming back as someone about 18 to 21 years old. On soaps, fifteen year olds can't really get drunk, or sleep around...well they could if they were on MTV but on day time TV it's easier just to pull a kid trick.

Posted by: Taylor at February 20, 2010 4:11 PM

1. Yeah, that one summer. Days of Our Lives. It was around the time when Marlena (?) was possessed (by the Devil!) and became the SALEM SERIAL KILLER. I remember she stabbed the shit out of some dude in his bed, and then when he was at the hospital he had one little slice mark. snicker

2. pass

3. When I watched Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (pause for laughter) they replaced the niece midway through. Colleen! That's her name. It's all coming back...Sully! Man was he a poseur. Native American wannabe. I bet they lit up their peace pipes and laughed at him when he left the teepee.

Posted by: squeak at February 20, 2010 4:15 PM

I've never watched the soaps but as a young boy I did get really into Pro Wrestling. It's really the same thing.
I bet more than a few 'Jibans used to follow it. (or maybe still do?)

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at February 20, 2010 4:17 PM

oops I forgot to add the most mind numbing story on As The World Turns. And yes I watch that and Days of Our Lives, not so much because I love them but more because I'm on disability and there is shit all on during the day. Plus sometimes they are weirdly addicting. James Stenback has "died" several time on the show. He has kidnapped people, poisoned people, tried killed people, and is now back (in the body of a 30 year old named Mick Dante). He controls Mick some of the time and other times Mick fights him (and I'm not making this shit up, it usually gives him a gushing nose bleed). It kinda hurts my heart even just writing that.... I can't wait till I can go back to work

Posted by: Taylor at February 20, 2010 4:35 PM

TATER NOTES: Maybe DR just isn't familiar with the song, or maybe it's just a typo, but the headline was supposed to be "You be me FOR AWHILE and I'll be you."

It's a lyric from a song by (who else with this thread?) the Replacements.

Carry on. I'm liking the comments.

Posted by: , at February 20, 2010 4:37 PM

I don't any more but I used to watch every soap that was on in the UK. They switched a couple of actors over the years. Usually kids go away and come back older, and evil/rebellious and get up to all sorts of shenanigans. I'm very fond of characters coming back from the dead.

The best soap ever though was Sunset Beach which had every bad soap storyline in its relatively short run. Evil twins! Stolen babies. Wives back from the dead. Some weird magic gems, and also weird magic that caused Vanessa to have a scabby face that would mean her love wouldn't like her any more unless she did...something. I forget. Priests falling in love with their brother's wives and leaving the church! Being impregnated by a turkey baster! There was one week that was a pure rip off of the Poseidon Adventure.

I wish they showed this shit on repeat. I would so watch it again.

Posted by: Carrie at February 20, 2010 4:41 PM

I grew up with All My Children. My mother would watch the previous day's episode as we got ready for school and, as the lone male in the house, I was often responsible for fast-forwarding through the commericals. I got hooked on Tad & Dixie, especially when Billy Clyde Tuggle blew up a bridge (right?) and everyone thought Tad was dead. It was like a low-budget action movie. I loved it.

Now I miss Pine Valley and VCRs. And my mom. (Not dead, just far, far away.)

Posted by: The Wandering Parakeet at February 20, 2010 4:44 PM

I watch "One Life to Live." Mrs. Pajiba-hyphenate and I should get together sometime. The actor recasts are mild compared to some of the stuff that goes on. There have been 2 incidents where adult children have come to town, and the mother does not remember birthing either one. Recently the show had 2 characters time travel to 1968 and played the roles of other characters (Don't ask). This was to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary.

I have heard the kid trick called SORAS or soap opera rapid aging syndrome, as in "Have you seen Todd's long lost daughter? She's been SORASed from a 7 year old to a 15year old."

I used to watch "All My Children" and "General Hospital" too when I was in college. Somehow I broke the soap habit for these two, but never got away from OLTL.


Posted by: rlr260 at February 20, 2010 4:44 PM

Oops! Sorry, I meant Mrs. Tater.

Posted by: rlr260 at February 20, 2010 4:48 PM

OH! I remember that AMC had a real dick move of a re-cast when they fired the actor who had played Tim Dillon since he was a leeetle wee lad and then replaced him with a super-hunky guy, like, 10 years old than he was, but still supposed to be about the same age. It was pretty obvious that it was just about looks. I can't imagine having a job for, I don't know, like a decade, and then my bosses tell me I'm fired because puberty wasn't so great on me.

Posted by: The Wandering Parakeet at February 20, 2010 4:50 PM

When my teenager was a newborn, Mr. Snuggie and I had one car. I was on maternity leave from my teaching job, but he was in the Army and left for the day at 4:30 am. Guess who got the car?

So I was stuck in a two bedroom apartment with a sick baby all day, every day. I got desperate enough to watch anything (we had a computer, but in 1994, the internet was pretty boring). I watched the entire O.J. Simpson trial. I watched soap opera after soap opera. My middle of the night feedings were FILLED with infomercials.

I think I was watching Days of Our Lives back then, because my mother watched it all during my childhood, so I hooked on to that one. Oh God it was silly. But I watched it every day, along with Oprah.

You know you need to get out when your entire day's activities revolve around what time shit comes on. Seriously.

I didn't answer about character switches because I was too sleep-deprived, bleary-eyed and PPD crazy to notice anyway.

Posted by: Snuggiepants the Deathbringer at February 20, 2010 5:17 PM

The Oilers used to have this Gretzky guy who played the leading role in the 1987 NHL season. I tuned in in 1988 and he was mysteriously gone and his replacement was some shmuck called Fifteen Million Dollars. Sadly, I still tuned in but it wasn't the same.

Posted by: admin at February 20, 2010 5:24 PM

I dabble with Days of Our Lives watching. They are always pulling casting shenanigans. Recently a character who was born on screen some 4 or 5 years ago has now returned in his 30s.

Just in the last couple of months they have recast a couple of main characters.

I remember seeing episodes of One Life to Live when I was a kid and Jessica's mother was running around with multiple personality disorder.

My favorite soap opera trick is the heretofore unknown evil twin. One show that my mom used to watch went for triplets who were named Ted, Tad, and Todd. Amazing!

Posted by: MiniTs at February 20, 2010 5:31 PM

Optimus pro wrestling absolutely counts as a soap opera. In fact I would venture to say it is better written than most of the daytime sudsers.

Posted by: MiniTs at February 20, 2010 5:33 PM

I started watching DoOL when I was leetle and my Mom watched it every day. Pretty much kept up with it until my 30s whenever I was between jobs. Hardly ever see it any more, but once in a while I marvel that so many characters are still there.

Even with all the crazy stuff that happens on DoOL--the demonic possessions, kids aging overnight and I think recently they had Sammy go "undercover" as a man for a few months while Allison Sweeney was out on maternity leave; the thing that freaks me out the most is how the older characters never seem to age. I can go years without seeing an episode and turn it on and Marlena looks just like she did 30 years ago. This does not work so well for the men though, they all look freeky plastic surgery messed up (yes, I'm looking at you John Black). But like Maggie has been on that show since the 60s and she still looks pretty much the same, just stretched a little tighter.

Posted by: Mrs Smith at February 20, 2010 5:53 PM

I watched Days of our lives from about age 5 to 10, because my baby-sitter watched it. I picked it up again in college and briefly when they brought back Stefano. The stories just weren't like they were before so I stopped watching.

I think it's funny when the younger kids age. What gets me sometimes, is the time line, sometimes I couldn't figure out if the events were happening on the same day or different days or weeks apart.

Posted by: DoubleH at February 20, 2010 6:39 PM

I used to be hardcore hooked on General Hospital when I was in middle school. Started in a summer between grades, and then I got a VCR for Christmas so I could record the episodes while I was at school, and I stayed up too late catching up. When I'd go on long vacations, I'd record as much as my tapes would allow (usually Friday and Monday's epidoses. Because everyone knows that soap opera days = 3 real days and Friday and Monday had the most plot resolution). And I might have a friend who watched write down notes for me for the episodes between.

So yeah. I know exactly who you were talking about when you said 'original Carly' and Sonny.

They replaced Lucky on that show when Lucas Whatshisface decided to get a 'real career.' And his little sister (lucy?) went from about 2 to 20 in the span of 10 years, which isn't as bad as some shows.

Oh, Amber Tamblyn from Travelling Pants used to be on there, but then she left for Joan of Arcadia.

And Ricky Martin used to be on there as Miguel. He was a singer. Big stretch.

And Vanessa Marcil was on there as 'Brenda,' who 'died' for a long time while she joined the end of 90210 (Ver. 1) and then Las Vegas, and now there's probably another Brenda.

Rena Sofer who was on the horrible US version of Coupling and was Nathan's first wife on Heroes (another soap, really) was Lois. As far as I know, they didn't bring another actress back for her.

OH MAN I HAVE SAID TOO MUCH.

I turned on GH on SoapNet not too long ago, and found that I could more or less tell what was going on, despite not having watched it regularly since 1998. I had to look away, lest I get hooked again.

Posted by: Sara at February 20, 2010 6:45 PM

admin, heehee!

Posted by: meaux at February 20, 2010 7:16 PM

Sara, Mrs. Tater continues to hold out hope for the Vanessa Marcil return and hookup with Jax. In this case I can say stranger things have happened and really mean it.

Posted by: , at February 20, 2010 7:28 PM

Speaking of GH, one other thing: Gentlemen, you can do lots worse than to Google pictures of Kelly Monaco. See if you can find the nude ones, they're worth it.

Posted by: , at February 20, 2010 7:34 PM

My grandma watched Days of Our Lives when we were little, so everyone in my family has this sort of vague idea of basic character histories. Every once in a while I catch an episode, and it takes me half the show to figure out who everyone is again.

" The hell? I for real remember that guy being born when I was in third grade! How is he in his 30s now? Also how is Kate two decades younger than she should be? And WHY are they sleeping together?"

Characters have also nearly committed incest I don't know how many times, but someone always turns out to have been adopted or something. The writers must have a giant chart somewhere for tracking potentially incestuous relationships.

Posted by: [...] at February 20, 2010 7:38 PM

Wait? Is "..." related to you, bucdaddy?

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at February 20, 2010 8:08 PM

Mad Men switched out the child playing Bobby between season 2 and 3 if I'm not mistaken. He got too big too fast, though the older sister wsan't replaced. Not like the son was important to the show, but still: replaced.

Posted by: Robert at February 20, 2010 8:42 PM

This isn't a replacement actor story, but it's the most unbelievable storyline AMC ever did (and that's saying something). I quit watching in 2003, but before that when Tad supposedly died or something, Michael E. Knight played an evil--not twin!--random guy who showed up in Pine Valley and happened to look EXACTLY LIKE TAD! Down to the scar on his chin. I can't remember the details, but I just could not suspend disbelief for that one. Most identical twins don't even look completely identical. What are the odds that a guy will look exactly like another guy and not even be related? And then end up in the guy's hometown? I almost quit watching then--but I'm ashamed to say I didn't.

Posted by: Grace at February 20, 2010 9:35 PM

When they replaced Jerry O'Connell with Charlie O'Connell on "Sliders." That one sticks out in my head because that is when I quit watching the show.

Also when they replaced Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny with Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish on "The X-Files."

I remember those.

Posted by: DeistBrawler at February 20, 2010 10:32 PM

Wait? Is "..." related to you, bucdaddy?

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at February 20, 2010 8:08 PM
---
Nah, just somebody having a really bad period.

Posted by: , at February 20, 2010 11:35 PM

Fuck fuckity fuck, looks like SOMEbody took down the Monaco porn. Sorry if I misled you guys, but what's there is still pretty hot.

Posted by: , at February 20, 2010 11:40 PM

1. Not currently watching any soaps, but I have definitely gone through soapy stages. We moved to Holland 5 weeks after I had my first baby, so I was stuck in the apartment in a new country with nowhere to go and nothing to do but care for a newborn. (That's my first excuse.) Also, there was a limited selection of daytime shows in English, so I ended up watching As the World Turns every day. I conferred with my sister back in the U.S. and it seemed the Dutch channel was showing it about 2 years behind the U.S. I got a bit into it but had a clean break when we moved from there to London.

In London I watched a soap called Family Affairs, which actually ended--I'd never known soap operas ever ended. What I learned from that one (and from brief glimpses of other British soaps) is that the actors on British soaps were less attractive (on average) than U.S. soap actors. I know there are some funny-looking and older characters on U.S. soaps, but they just had fewer really attractive people on theirs. Also, the characters had less glamorous jobs--they were cabbies and pub owners and that sort of thing, instead of fashion designers and CEOs.

2. I remember a really crappy story line where one (or more?) of the women had been kidnapped and drugged and were in a spa in Switzerland. I think that she had amnesia but then she started to remember who she was and had to escape. I'm rather fuzzy on the details, probably because it was such an eye roller of a story line. Hated it.

3. I hate the actor-switching thing. I recently turned on As the World Turns (just out of curiosity--I have no idea what's going on now) and the character Craig is played by an ugly dude--he was a fairly attractive guy back when I watched--sort of the semi-hot bad boy.


4. I don't know if I ever could ever draw the line at the shenanigans. I just moved to a new country where I couldn't keep watching it. I was always hooked by cliffhangers, even though it took FOREVER for the story to actually advance.

Posted by: lainiefig at February 21, 2010 12:10 AM

We have some charming drivel in Australia, known as Home and Away. I never really followed it but I know at one point the main star left, of course, for a music career (bwahahahahaha). But the writers weren't finished with her story line so they just replaced her. Except rather than try to find someone who even vaguely resembled her, they replaced a blonde with a redhead in the classic 'we don't need someone who looks the same, we just want the best performer'. The next time I saw the show, redheaded Hayley was gone. I don't think she lasted 6 months.

Posted by: redfeather at February 21, 2010 2:57 AM

No input on the daytime soaps, but I'm sure most everyone here will remember the crap move Dallas pulled - that whole season that was supposed to be the one dude's dream? Too lazy to look up all the names, but they began the season with one dude's death (because the actor was leaving the show), which lead to his funeral, and characters from Falcon's Crest attended the funeral and a whole pile of angst and sobstories and "We miss Bobby" (it was Bobby, wasn't it?!?)

Gah - it's all coming back to me now...

Anyroad, the actor playing Bobby found life away from Dallas was cold and lonely, and came back - so naturally the writer's chose the it was all a dream angle to shoe-horn in his return.

Literally the final scene of the season finale had him turning over in bed, opening his eyes, looking at his wife and saying, "I just had the strangest dream!"

Oh, and as for characters being played by a different actor, isn't something like that gonna happen in a couple of months for this Iron Man sequel? Bet you Terrance Howard could just wake up from this particular dream...

Posted by: malikvlc at February 21, 2010 10:33 AM

I don't watch them these days, but I loved them throughout middle school. My grandma was always devoted to ABC soaps, so those were the ones I watched too. I LOVED when they did the Port Charles spinoff from GH, because Lucy was totally my favorite and she was the central character there. Shit got weird QUICK... hospital interns performing brain surgery with literal power tools, like a drill or something... vampires, demons, all kinds of supernatural shit. And even though this all happens in the same town, NO ONE on General Hospital ever knew a thing about the vamps etc!

Crazy soaps.

Oh, and after those soaps, I did move on to pro wrestling. I don't watch these days, but if/when Jeff Hardy comes back to WWE, I'll tune in again.

Posted by: Gabs at February 21, 2010 11:01 AM

Nah, just somebody having a really bad period.
Posted by: , at February 20, 2010 11:35 PM
---
Ack! Get thee to a punnery!

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at February 21, 2010 11:41 AM

This has been one of my favorite threads ever to read. I'm more of a PM soap person. My husband hates Grey's Anatomy because it's such a soap. And any Aaron Spelling (RIP) show? Total soap.

I remember watching Days for awhile during the Salem Killer thing. That was okay.

Posted by: TWoP_Fan at February 21, 2010 1:12 PM

"Charles in Charge" swapped out the entire family Scott Baio was in charge of. They explained it as some sort of weird "he comes with the house" indentured servitude thing. I think the second family had the girl who ended up on Baywatch. Oh, and Optimus, my father was a wrestling fanatic. During the 80s, it was on TV almost 24/7, we got the extended cable package just to get more wrestling. Of course then, the extended package was about 30 channels.

Posted by: Mrcreosote at February 21, 2010 1:54 PM

I grew up in South Africa, and we only got three channels. At any given time, probably two of those would be airing something in another language. I wasn't allowed to watch TV very often, but my mom would usually be out from 4-6 in the afternoon and I would watch Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful, in addition to Isidingo (one of the most popular soaps in SA). I don't know why I was so obsessed, but I watched them every day from ages 8 to 12 or so.

Posted by: sonk at February 21, 2010 5:39 PM

1. After graduating high school, I was unemployed for the summer and started watching "Passions," the crazy person's soap opera.
I also watched Days of Our Lives when those alien twins were on, All My Children for a while until I got tired of forgetting which girl was Kendall and which was Greenlee, One Life to Live when they ripped off High School Musical, and I sometimes watch General Hospital because that Spinelli kid amuses me and I loved the James Franco guest plot.
2. Passions was regular soap opera on meth, so they did the regular stuff turned up to 11. I learned a lot from the show, too, like the terms "johns" and "turning tricks" from the Jessica becomes a prostitute storyline and I learned "on the downlow" from when Chad was having an affair with his nephew(/niece) Vincent. They also had these big mysteries, the Vendetta and that nail polish one and they were kind of awesome but predictable.
I never enjoyed the repetition, though, like when Fancy was raped about every day for a month or when that stupid Pretty girl (Her name was actually Pretty) would wine about her stupid scar. It was to be expected, I guess.
3. The main characters stuck around for the most part. Sometimes the women left on maternity and the replacements sucked. I hated when they replaced the hot Justin Hartley with a less hunky non-acting guy (allegedly) because he married Lindsay Korman, Theresa on the show.
4. Apparently, they could stomp all over any line and I'd watch that junk. I watched orangutan nurses and fathers who dress up as fake lesbians to kidnap their daughters and steal their babies. I have no standards.

Posted by: Caitlin at February 21, 2010 6:09 PM

I don't watch daytime soaps, but I have been known to watch the evening equivalent (Greys Anatomy, Dallas, etc). And the trope which annoys me is the actor-replacement trick.
Like Becky 2, Miss Ellie, or Jimmy Olsen (absolutely, meaux!) The original, Michael Landes, was so much cuter. I heard he was replaced because he looked too much like Dean Cain. Uh, so what? I'm sure we viewers can take on two dark-haired hotties at once.
(No, not like that. Though, hmmmm.....)

Where was I? Oh yeah, soaps. I don't watch the UK soaps either, but from what I've seen of them, I think they'd be less annoying than the US ones - mainly because they are more realistic as far as looks and behaviour go. I realise that 'more realistic' is not saying much in soap terms, but at least the actors look like people I might see in the street. Scary plastic surgery is not a feature of Eastenders.

Posted by: tarn at February 22, 2010 12:44 PM

1. I watch Hollyoaks kind of religiously. It's amazing. UK soaps put US soaps to shame - mostly realistic, no soft-lighting, no retcons. It's a regular TV show that happens to be on every damn day. (Check out the production values: they even blew up a car.)

2. Everyone is always sleeping with everyone, but no ever mentions it - like, "Oh, but didn't you sleep with both my sisters that one time?"

3. N/A

4. When people die, they don't just die of natural causes or because they got shot or stabbed. They get pushed out of airplanes with their parachute slashed, or something. Which is still less embarrassing than anything US soaps pull. So, Hollyoaks has a long leash with me.

Posted by: Alex at February 22, 2010 12:49 PM

, -- You mean hook up with Jax again. ;)

Posted by: Sara at February 22, 2010 2:37 PM

Days of Our Lives :) Mostly just a lot of people pop up and you think, "Damn, you're not dead? You've been on the show for the past 50 billion years." Just recently one of the characters we haven't seen in months "died" but we hadn't even seen them in forever, so it was kind of a moot point. But knowing soaps, he'll come back to life again anyhow.

Posted by: Rachel at February 23, 2010 1:58 AM

Your Roseann hatred is uncalled for, that show is funny and good because Roseann's voice is loud and annoying. She's awesome and there is some superior tv in there.

Name the last time a lower class family was #1 on tv?

Posted by: Mebe at February 23, 2010 3:02 AM