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