View From the Phlipside - The End of the Soap

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

And then there were four.  Or rather there will be four by the fall of this year.  Four what you ask?  Why four afternoon soap operas left on the major networks.  For the record that would be: “The Young and the Restless” (CBS) along with “The Bold and the Beautiful” (CBS), “General Hospital” (ABC) and “Days of Our Lives” (NBC).  But honestly with the cancellation of “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” you have to wonder how much longer these four will hang on.

Once upon a time soap operas were a BIG deal.  At their height there were 19 of them on.  At one point early in our marriage I was unemployed while my wife worked.  Since this was before VCRs it was my job to watch her two favorite shows, take notes and report back at the end of the day.  I remember students gathering in the student Union at Edinboro to follow the hot stories of the day (those were the days of Luke and Laura on General Hospital).  And they were BIG business.

None of which is true any more.  The audience is mostly gone of course.  Soap operas were aimed at the stay at home mom, the housewife looking for something to bring a little drama into a day of, well, housework.  And it was the days of only 3 or 4 channel choices as well.  With more women in the work force and the selection of TV programming through the roof those afternoon “stories” as there were usually called have been in trouble.  Viewer trouble as the audience diminished.  Financial trouble because they are expensive to operate.  They have large casts, large writing staffs and have to crank out five episodes a week.  No TV show other than the nightly newscast even attempts such a schedule.

So how deep is the hole they find themselves in?  Let’s put it this way.  Soap fans went to the queen of day time TV, yes Oprah herself, and got turned down.  Thousands of fans begged Oprah to flex her influence to save their stories and Oprah said no in a video released on YouTube.  All things come to an end she says and it’s hard to argue.  The remaining four all have been recently renewed for either two or four year runs.  It will be astounding if they run any longer than that and pretty impressive if they make it that far.

In a soap opera you never believe a character is dead till you see the body (and sometimes not even then).  At the moment the body count is rising.
Call that the View From the Phlipside

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2011