Posted on 04/03/2022 9:38:18 AM PDT by DallasBiff
1: (The) Guiding Light (1952-????)
2: As the World Turns (1956-????)
I spent the summer of 1959 living with my Grandmother. I worked as a railroad brakeman and was not home that often.
She kindly offered me free rent and a lot of food. She was a tremendously hard worker and a widow. I mowed the lawn, did odd jobs around the house and helped when I could re her chores. I would buy groceries if she made a list.
Every weekday, she watched those soaps.
I learned quickly, that we didn’t talk during either soup. She would talk during commercials. It was like going to church when the shows were on. Be quiet, listen and be ready to discuss what happened when the soaps were over. Often she would do dinner preps while watching the soaps.
She hated the tv broadcast news and loved the local news and local weather guy.
My granddad after his retirement would watch the soaps with her and would read the headlines and comics during the commercials when he was alive. They ate lunch during the soaps and discussed current news as well as the soaps. He was retired and only did custom carpentering for people he liked.
He told his daughters that he really liked those lunch hours, tv watching and discussions with his wife. Raising 5 kids and working 50-60 hours a week had not given them a lot of time together.
Years later after I was married, I found out that my wife’s grandmother and her friends were hooked on both shows. On Fridays, they would met at one of the widow’s homes for a lunch and some serious soap watching and discussions.
Apparently, my grandmother told her neighbors and friends not to come over when I was there nor to call her.
Now that my wife is fully retired, we understand how enjoyable it is to be with each other. We talk and enjoy our own internet sites and discuss what is happening locally, state wise, national and world wide as well as about our family. Our friends and family wait to call us in the early afternoon or early evening.
Our tv doesn’t come on until about 6:30 pm, and we mainly watch UK shows and a few of the CBS action shows. By nine we are usually in bed or heading there.
The Soaps have been an American addiction for decades.
Love those commercials. My husband laughs at them too. He says he must be a pretty good actor to pull it off. I agree. Although I think his acting could be better on Bold and Beautiful if he had better dialogue. The writers kind of stuck.
I haven’t see a soap opera in many decades.
As a kid, I liked ‘The Edge of Night’. It was sort of ‘noir’ compared to the others, and...edgy.
I haven't seen a bar of soap since I moved to my ol' country home.
My grandmother was a big fan of ‘As the World Turns’.
I remember her telling of how it was interrupted by Walter Cronkite when news of the Kennedy assassination came through - the show was still live in those days. Apparently the actors just carried on in the studio as they didn’t know what had happened, and the network rejoined them in progress.
It didn’t take much for Sheila to be pushed over the edge, anyhow. She may have switched Brooke’s drink from non-alcohol to alcohol in retaliation, but then Brooke deciding to flirt and smooch with Deacon was on Brooke, not Sheila (where Steffy was wrong). I don’t really care for Brooke and painting her as some paragon of love and virtue when she was, after all, rightfully nailed by Stephanie as “the slut from the valley.” Ridge going back to her time and time again made him an idiot. Even Eric fawning over her after what she did to him wasn’t much better. I also don’t know what all these other men (including Bill Spencer and Deacon Sharpe) see in her except for an “easy lay.” You’d think she was the only viable female in Los Angeles.
BTW, I’ve never adjusted to “NuRidge.” Ronn Moss was the quintessential laid-back California dude as Ridge. Thorsten Kaye is still playing his thuggish, emo jet-black Zach Slater role from “All My Children.” Way too intense and ready to just explode. Add to that, I don’t think he has much chemistry with Brooke. Always seemed forced. He had better chemistry with Quinn
Any way one looks at it The B & B is without a doubt one of the BEST Soaps ever! By the way Sheila could kill off Steffy & bring back her dead twin Phoebe!
I don’t think that one was live, but they did it on a shoestring and it was hilarious when the actors made mistakes and couldn’t contain their giggles in the middle of what was supposed to be a dramatic scene.
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Okay, undead then. I concede.
It's one of the 4 remaining soaps when there used to be around 15(?) or so. I think it has been in a bit of a lull in recent times. They should've killed off Brooke, because a real whore like her would've gotten tons of STDs. Sheila is about the best thing on the show. Resurrecting Phoebe would be bizarre. You'll note they recast Taylor, since the former actress had so much botched plastic surgery she had a face that scared small children and plenty of grown men. She went full Joan Van Ark, and you never go full Joan Van Ark.
I know, I got sucked into a soap opera.
I got sucked into them, too (including GH and Y&R). I’m not exactly their key demographic. 40s male, straight & Conservative.
JR did it.
If I were to watch this show, should I go back to the first episodes in 1987 so I know what is going on?
BTW, the actress who plays Shelia list her political party as Republican. Got a hoot out of it when I read it.
You could, though only just the three characters and two actors remain from 1987.
More than that. Kimberlin Brown was the 2018 GOP candidate for Congress in California’s 36th district, in what had been a solid GOP seat until 2013 (the former Sonny Bono seat). Given the massive voter fraud in the state, more than likely she probably won or came quite close to it. It’s amazing her affiliation (and she’s pro-Trump) hasn’t permanently destroyed her acting career prospects.
What you said.
Nice stories! I remember my eldest auntie making time for As the World Turns every afternoon back in the 70s or 80s. She dressed up for Bob and Kim’s wedding.
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