Soap Operas in Sports??

Today I’m going to take a different spin on soap operas. I’m going to look into the sporting world and look at all the drama that goes on in that perspective. A lot of people are referring to Brett Favre and his career as a “soap opera”.
Favre, who ‘retired’ from the NFL after his many seasons with the Green Bay Packers, came back to the league last year, out of retirement, to play for the New York Jets. After saying he was going to retire again after last year’s season, there is talk now, that he will come out of retirement once again and possibly play this time for the Minnesota Vikings.
I personally do not care either way what he does, but it’s a little strange to me that he is beginning a pattern of playing, retiring, and then miraculously coming out of retirement to play again. I mean come on, if you retired from the sport, accept it and help maybe elsewhere. Clearly you think that you have done what you can do in the sport and you should move on. Apparently Favre is having a bit of trouble let’s say… letting go?
This to me, sounds a little too much like the well known pitcher in the major leagues, Roger Clemens. Clemens made his name playing in Toronto and after a few different teams, multiple times of retiring and coming out of retirement, he landed himself in Houston. I liked Clemens when he was a Blue Jay, wasn’t really a fan when he was a Yankee and then definitely wasn’t a fan when he was an Astro.I mainly felt that way because I find it frustrating when these guys retire, then decide to be heroes and come out of retirement. Okay, I can understand you doing it once, maybe you made a wrong decision. But doing it multiple times? Come on guys… figure out what you want to do with your life and stick to it please.

Soap Opera Pregnancies

Soap opera pregnancies are always the most dramatic, I mean you didn’t think things could get much more dramatic on a soap opera, but I think pregnancies succeed everything. There seems to be plenty of these each year on many different soaps. As I have mentioned before, I watch the Young and the Restless more than any other soap. So that is mainly what I am going to concentrate on for this blog.
Recently, on the Young and the Restless, Sharon Abbott became pregnant. Now, the next question is who is the father? And that is definitely a good one. There are three options, her recent ex husband Jack Abbott, her ex-ex husband Nick Newman, or her recent fling with Billy Abbott. Talk about craziness. Sharon has been up and down and all around with so many different guys on the show but she seems to be back and forth between the same ones, Nick and Jack. Although, I think that if Brad Carlton was still alive on the show, his name would probably be thrown in the mix as well.
Nick and Sharon have been in love for how long? They were high school sweethearts, anyways, Nick and his current wife, Phyllis, their marriage is currently on the rocks because Nick has been seeing Sharon. In my heart, I’ve always had a soft spot for the whole Nick and Sharon thing, they have a son already together, Noah. In my opinion, it would only be the beginning of a happy ending for the two. Nick get a divorce from Phyllis and start his life with Sharon again, we all know that’s what both of them want!

Jack, will definitely want this baby to be his, in his eyes, this may salvage anything him and Sharon may or may not have at this point. I’m not really a huge fan of Jack Abbott, so personally, I hope that it isn’t Jack’s baby. But knowing the writers of the show, they will probably script it to be Jack’s baby. To make things just that more difficult.
Billy on the other hand, was a random kind of out of nowhere. He came back to Genoa City to work for Jabot and apparently was seeing Sharon? I don’t really think that it would bother me if it did turn out to be Billy’s baby, but I guess that would put an end to my fantasy Nick and Sharon ending.
Let’s see what the writers have in mind for Sharon and her baby..

-Media-

Hello everyone, sorry this is a little delayed but things have been pretty hectic with moving back home, playing softball and I’m sure everyone knows what I mean. Unfortunate things had to end the way they did, but there really isn’t a whole lot we can do about that.
This blog, for my media topic, I am going to do media in general. According to dictionary.com the definition of media is the means of communication, as radios and televisions, newspapers, and magazines that reach or influence people widely.
The media is around and influences, I believe, everything a person does. We listen to the media in hopes of good news, searching for bad news, and even for satisfaction. I also personally don’t think that we could live without media. The media helps us learn more about scientific discoveries, it helps us with learning about natural disasters around the world and how to prevent from suffering the same losses. The media also helps us with learning what type of weather or what type of storm will be coming through our area.
People always have arguments that media is showing far too many negative things, which at times is true. But there are so many horrible things going on in the world right now, that it can sometimes be hard to focus on the positives, one of the negatives being the wars going on around the world.
Another thing that is often brought up is the amount of violence that is shown in media. People often believe that with the amounts of violence in the media that is a main cause for all of the violence in everyday life, with the crimes in the streets, abuse, and even rape. There has been an argument on this topic for over three decades about whether or not media violence actually does cause real-life violence or not. In my opinion it does affect people, especially young children. For the simple fact that if they see someone on TV go and do something they will believe it is okay. But at the same time I don’t really think there is a whole lot more you can do to prevent it. It then comes down to Mom and Dad to explain that that is not okay, it’s just TV.

The Daytime Emmy Awards

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog on Soap Operas. My topic for this week is something that I’m sure everyone knows about or has at least heard of. The Daytime Emmy’s.
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards that are presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming. The first Daytime Emmy was awarded in 1972 to the show The Doctors, The Doctors and General Hospital were nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Daytime television.
The Emmy is awarded in 68 categories, including acknowledgements for series, performers and all other technical and creative areas. The Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards season culminates with a televised show that pays tribute to the exceptional work of daytime broadcasting's elite. There have been 35 Daytime Emmy Awards, two of which were not televised (1983, 1984).
As I have previously mentioned in quite a few of my blogs, the acting on soap operas is horrible and people know it, even those nominating people and choosing the winners for the awards. That is the main reason why year after year, they usually have the same people to be nominated for the same awards. In fact, All My Children star, Susan Lucci was nominated 19 times without any wins. She finally came out on top and won for the Best Actress in 1999.
As for the 36th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards, it was announced in March that The CW, for the first time, will broadcast the Emmy’s in August. They will be hosted in New York City, the big apple. The location for them is currently unknown, whether they are at the Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, or another venue, they will find somewhere!
In my opinion, the Emmy’s are kind of an award show that people often forget about. Even though the acting maybe isn’t quite up to the caliber of the actors and actresses on The Oscars I think they still deserve to have the same recognition of others.

Another Soap Off the Air..

Welcome back everyone, this week’s blog is going to look into CBS’s recent decision to pull the plug on their epic soap “Guiding Light”.
Shows go on and off the air all the time, but they aren’t always daytime epics that have aired for decades. They are usually shows that no one watches or don’t have as good of a plot line as they had originally expected.
April 1st it was announced that CBS’s “Guiding Light” would air its last episode on September 18 of this year. CBS’s daytime soap is the longest-running television drama, it started its 72-year run in 1937. The show began as a 15-minute radio serial and then moved to television for the last 57 years. Their reasoning for pulling the show was their loss of 13 percent of their viewers and ranking last among other daytime soaps. As of right now, they are searching for a new home for the show, but no news as of now.
“For many of us, it was the first show we ever watched,” said Lynn Leahey, editorial director of Soap Opera Digest. Unlike prime-time shows that came and went it was constantly in people’s lives. “It really is heartbreaking to see something like this go away.” (Courtesy of baltimoresun.com)
Soap operas in the last few years have been losing popularity in a slow decline, the main reason for that is that the women that were dedicating their time to their soaps are no longer at home during that hour of the day. They are out working, and they are finding the experience that the soap gave them elsewhere in their life.
The show has this year, averaged 2.1 million viewers (since September), with in comparison to last year has a drastic drop. Last year’s viewers were 2.4 million. According to Nielsen, a New York-based TV researcher, the show “The Young and the Restless” is the number one watched soap opera with a viewing audience of 5.3 million.
One thing that may give “The Young and the Restless” a bigger fan base is the time of day it appears on television, it is closer to supper time, after people get off work and come home. I found “The Young and the Restless” an easier show to watch just because of the time it was on television. I can honestly say I’ve never watched “Guiding Light” therefore I don’t know how the show was, but with it being on the air for 72 years, it had to have been good and seeing it go is a great tragedy.

Stars on Soaps

Welcome back everyone, this week’s blog will be on my take on the quality of actors and actresses that are hired for soap operas compared to those in movies and TV shows.
First of all, there have been a few stars that did have their breaks on soap operas, such as Josh Duhamel out of Minot, North Dakota. He originally was attending Minot State University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and had planned to be a dentist, but his grades were unfortunately not good enough to get into dentistry school.So Josh decided to move to Los Angeles and he auditioned for All My Children, after his little go on All My Children, Duhamel landed his role on the hit show Las Vegas. From Las Vegas he scored the role as Tad Hamilton on the movie Win a Date With Tad Hamilton, also starring Kate Bosworth.

From what I have noticed, Josh Duhamel is part of a small group that make it to the bigger scenes from Soap Operas. I think one of the main reasons for that is because soap operas are normally known for their horrible acting. If someone sees on their resume that they were previously on a soap opera they may immediately throw them to the “no” pile. But you never really know I guess until you are put in that situation.
I know that if I ever saw a movie that had someone I recognized from a soap opera I probably wouldn’t run out to the store or movie theater to watch or buy it. I laugh at the acting on soap operas. They aren’t exactly the best of actors and actresses but they do their job, they simulate reality and everyday life for those people who enjoy that kind of thing. As far as I’m concerned, if they want to try and go out to act in a movie, then all the power to them. I’m not saying that everyone in soaps don’t have the ability to catch the role in a movie, but their chances are probably smaller than other actors making a name for themselves in movies and TV shows.

Soap Opera Digest

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blogs on soap operas. This week I am going to talk about the well-known magazine of Soap Opera Digest.
The Soap Opera Digest is a magazine that covers every American daytime soap opera that airs on television. It is an overview of the actors on and off camera. You will learn about what the actors are doing on the screen, during shows, behind the scenes, and even what is going on in their personal life. Because really, what star’s personal life don’t we know about?
The magazine first came about in November of 1975, it currently boasts a subscription sale of around 500,000 as well as more than one million issues bought at newsstands and supermarkets each week. Statistics show that in the early 1990s the magazine had up close to 1.4 million subscribers. Lynn Leahey is currently the editor-in-chief for the magazine and columnist Carolyn Hinsey reviews current series and soap-related events in her regular feature “It’s Only My Opinion”.
I can honestly say that I have never actually read this magazine nor subscribed to it. I’m not saying that it is a bad magazine or anything by any means. Clearly it can’t be that bad with all of the high ratings and subscribers it has had in the past. But the real meaning behind the magazine seems to be letting you know what is up and coming in your favorite soaps. Wouldn’t this just ruin what you are about to see. From what I have heard and see is that it lets you know what is coming up in the next month and to me if you have read it, it would then be silly to actually spend the time each day to sit down and watch the show if you know what is going to happen. I don’t know, that may just be me, but I think I would either have one or the other. Either sitting and watching my show faithfully everyday or subscribing to the magazine and reading it ahead of time. To me, you are getting the same thing out of it either way. It’s just redundant I think, to be reading it and then watching it a week or two later.

Hello everyone,
Every soap opera obviously has its own unique name and they also obviously have their own theme songs. Today I am going to talk about these names and songs and hopefully give you a little more of an insight on both.
We’ll start with the names. You have to admit there are some pretty interesting names for soaps. As the World Turns, The Bold and the Beautiful, One Life to Live, and Guiding Light just to name a few. There are so many different soaps on TV yet they all have names that are related to the same kinds of things. I know that they are shows that are about everyday life and you pretty much are living in these people’s lives but I think they could maybe become a little more creative with their names. They all pretty much relate or refer back to living life, the children, how people act, things of those sort. My personal favorite that makes me laugh every time would definitely How to Survive a Marriage, why on EARTH, would you take a soap operas advice on how to survive a marriage. That has to be the silliest idea I’ve heard in a long time. The show however didn’t last very long only aired for about a year, but it still makes me laugh. So next time you hear the name of a show on daytime television that refers to any of those things I mentioned before, you can almost bet that it is a soap opera.
As for the theme songs, they are pretty recognizable, for some reason whether we watch soaps or not, we know a few of their theme songs. Go to the following website TV Soap Opera Theme Songs and listen to the examples they have there and see how many that you can recognize or at least say that you think you’ve heard before. I am willing to bet that there are more there than you would expect. My favorite soap theme song would probably have the be the Passions song, or what it was I guess, as the show is no longer a go, with The Young and the Restless in a close second. The Passions song was just so catchy and I would always sing along with it!

Did You Hear?? He's Getting Written Out of the Show Again..

Welcome back everyone. This week I will talk about how actors and actresses get written in and out of soap operas on a regular basis. It is something that people who are watching the shows regularly maybe don’t really notice quite as much as those who pick up the show every now and then and watch an episode.
Personally, the switch of characters doesn’t really bother me, it is something that in a way just reflects real life. People have to move away and relocate for a variety of different reasons, although we secretly know that the real reason for writing characters out is that the actors and actresses don’t want to work for the certain show anymore. For example, in The Young and the Restless, the character of Katherine Chancellor’s granddaughter Mackenzie Browning (Mac), is one character who has been written out of the show for quite some time.
She has been overseas in Darfur, Africa working with a relief organization. Mac is one of the characters who has had many actresses and many writings in and out of the show. Since she became a character on the show in February of 1999, she has had 5 different actresses. Ashley Bashioum was the first (February 1999 to February 15, 2002; April 20, 2004 to March 10, 2005), Nicole Tarantini was a temporary replacement in 2001 for a short period of time, Kelly Kruger was from February 19, 2002 to July 1, 2003, the next Mac was Rachel Kimsey from March 25, 2005-May 17, 2006. Finally, the newest Mac will be Clementine Ford, she will start on April 1 of this year.
There are many examples on many different shows of characters who leave and come back to the shows. The show Days of our Lives is well known for people dying and then coming back. So they don’t actually die, they somehow every time escape death, and eventually are returned to the show. One guy who has died and come back to life about a million times is Stefano Dimera, he is often related to on the show as the “Phoenix” .

Some people may argue and say that characters should keep and stay to the same and others say it is a good thing to get different people in there. Personally, I could really care less either way.

Are Soap Operas Targeting Younger Audiences?

Hello again, today I am going to tackle the topic of the possibility of targeting younger age groups with the soap opera genre.

Traditionally, soap operas have been more directed towards women who are probably 20 or older, in my opinion they are attempting to lower the number from 20. I know that recently I have become more interested in trying to follow soaps, and although that may be because of my mother watching a lot when I was younger I think that the plot lines and the shows they are coming out with now are contributing factors.

Such as the show The Secret Life of the American Teenager that airs on ABC at 8/7 central on Monday nights. The plot is based around a 15-year-old girl named Amy, who becomes pregnant by a boy (Ricky) that is not her boyfriend. So there are decisions that need to be made not only on her part, but on the part of the baby’s father, the mother and also Amy’s current boyfriend Ben.

This to me, is just promoting the fact again that there are people who are under the age of 16 who are having sex and who may have the possibility of becoming pregnant. Personally I don’t think that this is really helping matters. Yes, we know that people are still going to do it. But if there are 8-year-olds watching this show, which I am willing to guess that there is, they may get the idea that it is okay to become pregnant at the age of 15 with a boy who is just another guy in your life.

The plot line on this show, is so crazy and outrageous that it is also considered a soap opera, even though it doesn’t air, during the afternoon, it still falls under that category, mainly because if they aired it during the day they would lose majority, if not all of their viewers because of them attending school.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying getting pregnant at the age of 15 is a horrible thing, it’s just not something that I would want to do, my life right now is so involved with sports that having a child is just not an option at the moment. If you were to go back even 10-15 years, on television 15-year-olds being pregnant was not even HEARD of, was not SPOKEN of. Now there is an entire show based around this. Yes this is where society is going, but some may question, is a show like this really going to help lower these types of statistics? Hmm….

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179817/

What Ever Happened to Passions?

Some people who used to watch the show on a regular basis may ask what ever happened to the crazy, magic filled daytime drama. The series was created by James E. Reilly, and produced by NBC Studios, it debuted on July 5, 1999. Passions’ last airdate on NBC was September 7, 2007, it then moved to DirecTV and began on September 17, 2007. Although, shortly after in December of 2007, DirecTV decided that they didn’t want to renew their contract for the series and couldn’t sell it to another company. The last episode of Passions aired on August 7, 2008.

Passions took place in a fictional New England town called Harmony. The many different, hard-to-follow storylines circle around a number of multi-racial families, the African American Russells, Caucasian Cranes and Bennetts, and half-Mexican half-Irish Lopez-Fitzgeralds — as well as the supernatural including town witch Tabitha Lenox.

The first time I watched this soap opera, I shook my head and quickly changed the channel, it is so out there and very farfetched compared to the rest of the soaps on TV. Even though soaps themselves tend to have crazy plot lines that are almost hard to follow, this one included witch craft. Then I got a little bit older and I got a kick out of watching the show and following the crazy plot lines. Watching this soap usually was my comedy for the day. I wouldn’t be the person to like rush home to watch it, but if I was home during the day I’d watch it also because there is nothing else on during the day time, but it was most definitely to most farfetched show along with some of the worst acting possibly on TV.

But for me, even the terrible acting doesn’t keep me away from watching these shows, in fact I think it’s the bad acting that continues to bring me back time after time. If Passions were to come back on the air I would probably still try and watch it whenever I could. Like I said in one of my earlier posts, soap operas let your mind wander and you know that they aren’t real so after they are over, you can snap back into your life and not have any issues, at least I can. Bye for now.

Bo & Hope Brady - Days of Our Lives

Their love has stood the test of time, death, lies, infidelity and even betrayal. Days of Our Lives fans new and old can visit the best the Internet has to offer about Bo and Hope Brady.
Brady and Fancy Face is what they refer to each other on the show. They are loved by all on and off the show, on and off set. The following link takes you to a my space user who created a site based on Bo and Hope.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=114045688
Ever since I can remember (again, my Mom has watched this show ever since I was a little girl) and even then it was Bo and Hope always together, so in love, and they had the most perfect relationship imaginable. Although, it wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies.
When Bo first came into Salem, with his motorbike and leather jacket he immediately had his eyes set on Hope Williams, a classy, well-known, well-liked girl. Unfortunately Hope was already engaged to Larry Welch. She married Larry but soon realized she had made a mistake and quickly divorced Larry to pick up a life with Bo Brady. But as we know, relationships never last long on soap operas. After thinking his wife had died in an explosion, he remarried twice and then after it all got back with Hope. For more details on the entire story from start to present go to http://www.soapcentral.com/days/whoswho/bo.php
Relationships on soap operas make my head spin, that may be the one thing that you may get lost on if you miss a week of your show, who is dating who this week?!
Going back to my last week’s post on how guys hate soap operas, I think this is another reason they dread it when there is a soap on the TV. Guys don’t really like talking about relationship stuff as it is, never mind having an entire show on 5 times a week for an hour a day basically all based on relationships. This may also be another reason as to why women enjoy the soaps so much more, I am willing to bet that women who watch soaps are more likely to enjoy romance movies.
Bo & Hope… Always have and I think always will be my favorite couple on TV! <3

Men and Soap Operas

“You know what is happening all the time, acting is horrible and they are dumb story lines.” Is what a typical guy’s answer will be about any soap opera. You could stop every guy on the street and I bet you’d get an answer like that of some sort. They all probably haven’t even watched a soap opera but because it is against society’s norms, none will admit to watching any of them.

Men and their egos, certain things that may corrupt their ever so perfect “Male-ish Image”, those are the things that bother me most! I know a lot of guys who tell me something very girlish and if I was to repeat it in public they would shoot me! I wish they would all just realize they all say certain things that may make them look not so macho, but other guys do it too! According to ezinearticles.com: “Men like factual things and hate anything emotional. The emotional nature and lack of facts in a Soap are probably the biggest reasons for men disliking Soaps,” Although those definitely aren’t the only reasons.
The biggest reason that men hate soap operas is because they know almost 100% that women will compare the soap plot line to their own life. They feel that women want to relive what happened on Days of Our Lives yesterday, but don’t make the mistake that they want your life to be exactly what they saw on TV, because that is definitely not the case. Although, not going to lie, I definitely wouldn’t complain if this scene from Days of Our Lives would just so happen to happen to me.
Shawn surprises Mimi --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Si5ceIjxS0&feature=PlayList&p=DB7CC3A38D64BC9C&index=0&playnext=1
I don’t understand why it is such a big deal if guys want to watch soap operas or not. So they enjoy watching them, who cares? To me it’s the same scenario as girls watching sports. Would guys think it’s weird and would girls be ashamed to admit they watch them? I know I’m not, in fact I’d prefer to watch sports on TV on top of anything else. Does that make me any less of a girl?
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Do-Most-Men-Hate-Soap-Operas?&id=908565

CBS's The Young and the Restless

Genoa City, Wisconsin. On the map, it’s nothing more than another town in another state. But on daytime television it is a lot more than that. Genoa City is where the plot of The Young and the Restless takes place. “The rivalries, romances, hopes and fears of the residents of the fictional Midwestern metropolis,” says tv.com.
The show premiered on March 26, 1973 and right from the start has been dominated by the Newman, Abbott and Winters families. The show seems to be based on a couple of lifelong, show-long rivalries. One, being between Victor Newman and Jack Abbott and their long time arguments with business and always trying to out-do one another. The other being between Jill Abbott and Katherine Chancellor, for the longest time they didn’t know they were mother and daughter and would fight like cats and dogs somehow living under the same roof. Then shortly after finding out they were related they had a civil spell, which quickly took a turn for the worse.
There are so many ups and downs in the plot lines of soaps but the one in CBS’s Y & R never seizes to amaze me. You think that maybe they finally calm things down and come to a normal plot line, but it will always get extremely out of hand again. Especially with the help of Gloria Abbott, mother of Michael Baldwin and Kevin Fischer, she is always scheming up something to make her look like the better person. When really, all it ever does is dig her a deeper and deeper hole. Maybe that is why her son, Kevin, is exactly like her. Thank god that her other son Michael is a lawyer, who can somehow always win over the courts to release either his mother or his younger brother. One of these days, one of them, or maybe even both, will get themselves into so much trouble that Michael will not be able to help them out.
Another thing that baffles me about this show is the relationships that take place. If a couple dates, marries or what not they are almost always guaranteed to break up, see someone else and yet still get back together afterwards. For example I think Victor Newman goes through a cycle of women. He is never satisfied with a new one; he will always go back to one of the ladies he has previously married. Personally I think that he should give up trying new relationships and just go back to being with Nikki, they have and I think always will love each other and no one else.









http://www.tv.com/the-young-and-the-restless/show/100/summary.html
http://www.cbs.com/daytime/the_young_and_the_restless/

Soaps in the Beginning

A soap opera by definition is a drama, typically performed as a serial on daytime television or radio, characterized by stock characters and situations, sentimentality, and melodrama.
The term “soap opera” was given during the 1930s by the American press to refer to the extraordinarily popular genre of serialized domestic radio dramas. By the 1940s they covered 90% of the commercially-sponsored daytime broadcast hours. The "soap" in soap opera represented their sponsorship by manufacturers of household cleaning products; while "opera" suggested an ironic absurdity between the domestic narrative concerns of the daytime serial and the most elevated of dramatic forms.
Soaps tend to be extremely dramatic, they have a completely unrealistic plot line, but I believe that is why there are so many people who enjoy watching them, they kind of let your imagination run a bit but it seems real because it is real actors and happens typically Monday-Friday. In other words, you feel like you are actually living in their life, because you are exposed to it daily and you can somewhat relate to what you are taking in from the television, radio or internet.
I quite enjoyed my grandfather’s take on soap operas. He was flipping through the channels one day as I was scrapbooking and we came across The Young and the Restless and he stopped for a moment to watch about 30 seconds of it. The show went to commercials and his comment was, “These things they call soaps, the characters on them are always either kissing, fighting, crying, getting married, in jail or coming back from the dead”, which is basically completely true! Each soap airing today will have a different version of the plot of one another. Growing up, my mom always watched Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless and if one person died on one show, another person was to shortly after die on the other. The same thing would happen if there was a wedding on one of the two.
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/soapopera/soapopera.htm