Soaps By Remote

So much time…

…wasted?

SoapHunks has posted their 100 Most Memorable Moments in Soap History list.

An interesting list. Otherwise known as I have watched way too many soaps over the years.

The first thing that struck me was that I have seen a hell of a lot of those memorable moments live.

I guess that’s aided by GH and Days, the shows I have obviously watched most over the years, getting the most coverage. But still, I’ve seen quite a number of others and now have reasonably definitive proof that by virtue of Y&R showing straight after Days here down under for decades, I watched a hell of a lot more of that show that I would have first thought.

A quick count leads me to believe that I saw about 34 of the 100 live (or as near live as you get down here, which is to say in the case of GH watching a first broadcast of early 80s GH seven or eight years later. Which was by no means a bad thing). Not via clip libraries or You Tube or internet nostalgia.

We’ll not even get into the ones I’ve seen by those means.

That’s a lot of time watching soaps. Especially as I took over a decade off watching Days, and chunky breaks from GH forced by both unavailability and inclination.

Perhaps having watched a third of the list live just means that I had good watching instincts.

Anyway, head on over there, because the list comes with clips! More time wasting ahead!

Word Limit

I seem to recall reading years and years ago an interview with Linda Dano in which she joked that on Another World the actors used to read the scripts and argue about who got to say "hell" or "bitch" because the networks would only allow them a limited number of uses of the words and everyone wanted a turn.

Watching GH the last couple of days I'm beginning to think that ABC (or, the FCC) only allowed them a certain number of uses of "abortion" and "termination" because they've completely let loose this week while over the last couple they studiously avoided the "a" word to a ridiculous point.

I had been beginning to wonder if the whole Lulu pregnancy story was going to be dealt with with the only "a" word used being "adoption", which would have made no sense whatsoever when dealing with the unplanned pregnancy of an 18 year-old no matter your pro- or anti-choice leanings. So I'm thrilled that this week they are actually openly discussing all the options, which makes the whole story seem real.*

I do wonder what the word use limit is though, because I suspect they're going to use up their year's supply pretty damn quickly if they keep going at Monday and Tuesday's rate.

*I am choosing to ignore parts of what they're discussing, of course: Nik's Laura had me and therefore went insane theory was only one step better than the generiac such-and-such had an abortion and therefore went insane theory. Note to Nik: Laura went insane because the writers and producers are bastards with no respect for Genie Francis or Laura.