Save the Soap Opera

Well, to tell the truth, I only watch one now. I guess you can tell that I am talking about Soap operas and not just standing around watching bars of soap. That really would be dull. My grandma used to call soaps her stories and that is really what they are stories about people who's lives are a lot more interesting then ours are. In Spanish they are called novellas or stories! Heck these people's lives are a regular soap opera!

The sad thing is that the soap opera as we know it today is probably not going to be around much longer. The Guiding Light was cancelled last year and it has recently been announced that one of my old favorites As The World Turns is going away next September. I remember coming home for lunch eating chicken noodle soup watching As The World Turns while we ate. We didn't always watch really closely but the show was on and we kept up with the Hughes and the Stewarts and of course at that time Lisa was raising cane with everyone.

Then of course after school the TV was still on and the Guiding Light led the way. Roger Thorpe came back from the dead and Bert Bauer delivered pearls wisdom along with papa Bauer. Of course her son Tom was a Doctor and a drunk.

It wasn't long before I got caught up in the dealing of the Fosters and the Brookes and then the Abbotts and the Newmans. Not to mention Mrs. Chancellor who is still going strong on The Young and The Restless.

You know if they do cancel my soaps I think I will start watching the Novellas in Spanish. I get quite a few Spanish stations over the air. And what with Victor Newman's mumbling I can understand Spanish as much as I can him and some of his fellow actors. Heck maybe I can even get subtitles in English. I could learn Spanish!

Of course I have to take part of the blame for the end of soaps. I quit watching Guiding Light shortly after Bert Bauer died. I don't know, I just lost track of it. It was about that time I started taping As The World Turns and Y&R and watching them in the evenings or on the weekends with my mom. My dad would tease us and make fun of our soaps but I heard him telling someone about what a jerk "Mr. Mustache" is. That's what he called Victor Newman.

Then yes even after my mom died I still taped As The World Turns and Y&R. But I didn't really watch the tapes. Though I do keep up with Y&R because I usually have the TV on when so I see it, or at least hear it.

I have been trying to figure out why the soaps are slowly slipping away. One thing I've noticed is they're not being sponsored by the soap companies anymore. No. During the main part of the shows they are sponsored by, get this, two or three different drugs! I know one is for depression another for arthritis and I am not even sure what the third one is for but I am supposed to ask my doctor.

Maybe that's it! The name! They should be called drug operas. That at least would explain some of the plots they come up with now a days. I gotta go...Patti is about to kill Emily, I think!