Are you a soap opera addict? Was there ever a time that you had to watch soaps? Were you ashamed or were you a proud watcher? Were you there for Luke and Laura's wedding?

What is the appeal of soap operas, and what makes people give up so many hours of their lives for these things?

Are online journals just the internet's version of soap operas?

-- Anonymous, June 04, 1999

Answers

Many years ago, I used to watch All My Children every day. I'd even tape it if I wasn't going to be home. I was totally addicted and even my friends and family were. We'd actually have long conversations about Jenny and Greg and Jessie and Angie. I even shared some experiences with the characters.

For instance, just as Cliff found out how Nina cheated on him, my mother called having found out that I had been cutting out of school for 2 weeks.

Cliff: I can't believe you cheated on me Nina. I'm going to kill you now.

(Two minutes later my mother called...)

Mother: I can't believe you are not in school Maggie. I'm going to kill you now.

Anyway, after watching it for a year or so, I started to see how stupid and silly these shows are. The last thing I remember watching was the evil sister (don't remember her name) had thrown the good sister (Natalalie) down a well and left her there for weeks with no food or water. Evil sister only come by to tease Natalie about her being trapped in a well and how she was going to steal her husband.

Besides the fact that Natalie survived, it pissed me off everytime Natalie was "almost" found.

I also noticed how everyone in soap operas are beautiful. They have perfect hair, perfect make-up, and perfect bodies. And you never see one bum or drug-addict in any of those towns. It's so fake. When I started to notice the things that I've mentioned here, I knew it was time to stop watching.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 1999

I haven't posted here before, but pamie, I love your journal. The thing that scares the everliving crap out of me is that when you mentioned the spring break/Days of our Lives episodes, I knew exactly who and what you were talking about. Character names, histories, etc.

The really sad thing is that I'm normally really intolerant of trashy tv. I guess it stems back to watching it with my mother as a preschooler and on sick days or something. Now, when I don't watch it, I read online summaries, and that is truly a sign of sickness. Ack.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 1999

I used to be totally addicted to General Hospital. But i have this habit of not watching shows when things don't go my way. When Sonny left and I knew Brenda wasn't going to be with him, I quit watching the show. Ever since Brenda and Dylan from 90210 broke up, I've never again watched the show.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 1999

ER! I'm addicted to ER, even the reruns. That is the only television show I watch these days. And Dr. Carter needs to grow his beard and moustache back, darn it.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 1999

Ack! I, too, was right there with you when you mentioned the Days acid pit story line. Tragic! My friends were all hooked on it in high school and would tape it every day and watch in the afternoons. I didn't get into it until college when I was at home between classes one semester and it came on at exactly the right (wrong) time for me to watch it. Days of Our Lives. What a hilarious joke - this soap really pulls out all the stops. They even had a demon possesion a few years back.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 1999

I was such a soap opera freak during middle school and high school. I was on constant patrol for all of the ABC soaps. I remember watching Ryan's Hope and getting hooked because this one character went up to this man when i was a kid and asked him to seduce her.

hooked.

i strayed from ABC soaps only once, and that was to watch GENERATIONS on NBC. I had to support my Afro-positive soap opera. And it was good for a while.

I have not been as happy as I was last week when I found out that Susan Lucci finally one her EMMY.

And for some reason I can't consider the primetime shows as soap operas....knowing all the while that is what they are.

Let's talk about some Dynasty, The Colbys, Falcon Crest, Dallas, Knots Landing. the memories.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 1999

it's very hard to like soap operas when you can't get any work done because of them! No, I don't miss work because I'm addicted... I miss work because my clients refuse to visit with me between the hours of Guiding Light and Days of Their Lives! God forbid I should schedule something during these times; I hear about it for months afterwards! It is, after all, my fault that my client missed the misscarriage and the car accident because we had to go to the Section 8 office! Life is just not fair.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 1999

days of our lives! i love love love that show. i'm not really too sure why, either, because it makes me so mad sometimes i could just spit. especially when they take three months to wrap up a storyline by simply killing the main character off. or, worse yet, just forgetting about that storyline all together. but days is the best if you're not into the whole realism thing.

i guess it's maddening because it's so addictive. last year i used to skip art class so that i could go home and watch it. isn't that sick? and then, when i actually did go to art, i'd just sit and talk about it with the girls in my class. yikes. i want to know how that show can be so silly half the time, and still actually have people watch it and enjoy it. i'm sure the fact that jensen ackles ( eric brady.... ::::swoon:::: ) is in it helps, but that can't be all of it. go figure.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 1999

I used to work nights, from 4-11pm. So I had all day to watch soaps. I would get up at 10am and do anything and everything I had to do for the day, and then I would settle down and watch my ABC soaps - Port Charles, All My Children (I never did like Erica but I am happy that Susan Lucci finally won), One Life To Live (I went back and forth on actually -liking- that one, but I always watched it), and my absolute favorite I-won't-miss-this-for-anything - GENERAL HOSPITAL! I didn't see Luke and Laura's original wedding, but I saw a replay of it back a year or two ago. I can't believe that Laura is messin' with Stefan now! I am totally devastated that the soaps' Super-Couple would be splitting up. Anyway, then back in October I got my current job, and since I have to work all day I miss the soaps. I tried taping them for a while, but I never had time to watch them, so I gave up. Now I just see them sometimes on Fridays when I get off work early enough.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 1999

MAGGIE - Janet threw Natalie down the well and stole her identity. I didn't see all of this, but I have the All My Children book, and I read about it.

That was another part of my soap obsession - I bought the All My Children book. And by the time I went to get the GH book, it was out of print. I hunted for it everywhere and anywhere, and I finally found a copy of this $40 book for $6 at Pic-N-Save! Woo-hoo!

-- Anonymous, June 05, 1999

Maggie-- I guess I picked up on "All My Children" where you left off! I only have vague memories of Natalie-in-the-well 'cause that was when I first started watching.

I got pretty into it for a while because I worked next-door to a hospital, where people could sit in the waiting rooms and eat their lunch while watching the show. And when my schedule changed, I started taping it so I didn't miss anything.

But that gets old quick when you go on vacation and come home and realize you have to find TEN HOURS to watch a soap when really, only about a day's worth of stuff happened in Soap Opera Land.

So I stopped recording it, and now I only watch if I'm home (my work schedule is different every day). And anyway, it's not as good as it was when I first started watching.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 1999

You know those organizations where pro-life people arrange sort of halfway houses for pregnant women to live rent-free until they have their babies? Maybe you don't. Anyway, once my mom got suckered into housing a pregnant girl for three months - the summer months, so my sister and I weren't in school. Mom had never approved of TV, and we didn't watch that much of it, but Silena got us hooked on Days of Our Lives. Maybe I was just really young, but I really think it was better in those days. I held my breath waiting for Patch and Kayla to finally hook up, followed the saga of Jack and Jennifer, watched the dancer chick live her dream and chortled at the antics of Calliope. Once I got back to school and couldn't watch it, though, I lost interest because by the time I had a break from school all my favorite characters were either gone or stupid.

I don't like soap operas, really. But really I do. I mean, I don't like the real ones, but I turn absolutely everything I watch into a soap opera. I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation not from any love of sci fi but to see whether Picard and Crusher would ever hook up. I can't remember most of what I learned about music in Music History 202, but I can tell you all about the personal lives of Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms and Wagner. The loves, the losses, the illegitimate children. Oh, the drama!

There's just something about good gossip, even if it's about people I don't know. Even if they're fictional.

-- Anonymous, June 07, 1999

I was totally addicted to Melrose Place. It was the only show I would actually block off time to watch every Mondy, with no interruptions. You can imagine my concern when they canceled it. You can imagine my horror when they gave it the worst series-ending episode possible.

-- Anonymous, June 07, 1999