How do Soaps do it?

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TabulaRasa

Buffy Girl
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Now don't you wonder, asside from Buffy cause I thought that they were ready to end it...how in the hell's bells do stupid fluffy soap operas stay on the air for so freaking long but great, GREAT tv shows don't get that chance ie Angel????
 
nerd4hire
nerd4hire
Hehe, you said fluffy, and in my head I started going "let's see that would be Buffy and Fl..."
TabulaRasa said:
Now don't you wonder, asside from Buffy cause I thought that they were ready to end it...how in the hell's bells do stupid fluffy soap operas stay on the air for so freaking long but great, GREAT tv shows don't get that chance ie Angel????
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Bad people at the networks, lets raise some money and frame them for crimes and lock them up so we can get new clearer minds :lmao:
 
Yes, a target audience is hit and then hooked with certain characters before the extraordinary occurs, [[so they don't lose to many of the audience]. Shows like Angel tend to have an audience that doesn't increase unless another hook is used. ie With a normal Kate the audience would have been allowed to increase but making her part of the vampire world [her dad], that part of the audience growth would have gone. For increased ratings they'd have to try something new.
 
They suck us in when we're babies. Toddlers, even. They nab us while we watch at our moms' and grandmas' feet. At least, that's how it was for me. By now, I've watched for so long that I literally can't imagine my life without it. Investing all of that time adds layers and depth to the current stories. An outsider can't see it, but it's there. So, for example, when the camera zoomed in on Mac's face when he saw the body of his murdered daughter, a piece of my heart broke for him not just because it was sad, but because I remembered the look on his face when Felicia told him she was pregnant, when she told him he wasn't the dad, when she was born under a table in a jazz club, when Mac held Georgie for the first time, etc. Granted, some writers and some actors do it better than others, but that history is always there. 🙂

Also, soaps are on every day five days a week all year long without any breaks. They don't give you time to forget or lose interest. And they keep you waiting for that next fix. It's like a drug! Soap addictions make weekends seem waaay too long. soap fans spend as much time per week watching one soap as they do eating dinner. Two soaps? Lunch and dinner. Three soaps? You spend as much time watching soaps as you do eating. It just becomes a necessary and automatic part of the routine. That's how they get viewers. Once they snag you, they become essential to your being. lol.

Edit:

Buffy Summers agrees: OMG Georgie died???
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OMG! I'm sorry about the spoiler! It happened right after New Year's. Kristina Wagner is back for this story and everything. She's working with the police and Mac to solve the case. Maxie is also unbelievably hostile toward her. lol. And Dillon came back briefly, too. I'm so sorry to spoil it for you, but yeah. You really need to see this.

Go take a look at the clips, man. John J. York and Kirsten Storms really turned out some high quality work on this story.
 
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers
OMG Georgie died???
E
Evilyn
100% agree. I've also been watching since infancy, because my mom and grandmother watched AMC, OLTL and GH!
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TrueVengeance
I too have been watching since I was wee little (though I cant remeber half of it to save my life)! There's just something about soaps that reel you in!
palabravampiress said:
They suck us in when we're babies. Toddlers, even. They nab us while we watch at our moms' and grandmas' feet. At least, that's how it was for me. By now, I've watched for so long that I literally can't imagine my life without it. Investing all of that time adds layers and depth to the current stories. An outsider can't see it, but it's there. So, for example, when the camera zoomed in on Mac's face when he saw the body of his murdered daughter, a piece of my heart broke for him not just because it was sad, but because I remembered the look on his face when Felicia told him she was pregnant, when she told him he wasn't the dad, when she was born under a table in a jazz club, when Mac held Georgie for the first time, etc. Granted, some writers and some actors do it better than others, but that history is always there. 🙂

Also, soaps are on every day five days a week all year long without any breaks. They don't give you time to forget or lose interest. And they keep you waiting for that next fix. It's like a drug! Soap addictions make weekends seem waaay too long. soap fans spend as much time per week watching one soap as they do eating dinner. Two soaps? Lunch and dinner. Three soaps? You spend as much time watching soaps as you do eating. It just becomes a necessary and automatic part of the routine. That's how they get viewers. Once they snag you, they become essential to your being. lol.

Edit:



OMG! I'm sorry about the spoiler! It happened right after New Year's. Kristina Wagner is back for this story and everything. She's working with the police and Mac to solve the case. Maxie is also unbelievably hostile toward her. lol. And Dillon came back briefly, too. I'm so sorry to spoil it for you, but yeah. You really need to see this.

Go take a look at the clips, man. John J. York and Kirsten Storms really turned out some high quality work on this story.
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Agreed on that point.

However....uh,wouldn't it have more sense to have the death until...oh,I don't know...AFTER the holidays? To me,nothing says "Happy Holidays" more than seeing two of your young heroines...one of them who grew up on the show...dying within weeks of each other. (Yes,that is sarcasm.) I'm sure you'd agree with me on this point....no one's ever said "Hey,I want more violence on (whichever soap(s) you watch)!" You want to see couples fall in love,fight to stay together..maybe crack a few jokes,etc. But violence? Eh,not having it.

And trust me...with the nature of soaps,they're going to have dumb plots-more than,say,primetime-simply because it's the nature of the beast.
 
I think the trick is good advertising. NOW I'm starting to notice more commercials for different shows on different networks. But, it hasn't always been that way.
I never watch the WB. I watched UPN for maybe a few years while Voyager was on it, and I very rarely watch Fox. I only heard about Bones from Court TV and I only watch House because I caught it on USA.
I was aware Buffy was on, but the movie kind of made me totally uninterested. I NEVER saw ads for it and I had no idea what it was...other than the movie. I may have been vaguely aware that SMG and AH were on it. Maybe.
I was vaguely aware that there was a spin off called Angel and that was as far as it went. I never saw any ads, couldn't have told you who was on it and even if you showed me pictures of them, I couldn't have said, "Oh, they're on Angel".

I'm CONSTANTLY surprised with the "hype" around CSI and CSI:Miami....there's not nearly the hype around CSI:NY and it's a better show. Criminal Minds is a GREAT show, but CSI will always get more attention.
I think the shows that GET the attention and advertising are the lesser shows, although the networks like having smart shows, they promote the shows that you don't actually have to BE smart to enjoy.
Face it, not only do people who aren't as smart WATCH the TV, but you also have the people (sometimes me) who just want to stare at something and NOT think. And the networks know it. They know that it's smarter to promote something that's flashy, gruesome, and will walk you through anything complicated parts while holding your hand because it will appeal to the largest audience....and they just hope that the smarter people will stay tuned for the actual smart stuff.
 
I think some of the top-rated shows get unfairly judged anyway by fans of series that are not as popular. The original CSI series is not amazing, but it's way more intelligent and well-done than a lot of people give it credit for. Its seventh season was especially well-crafted and smart, which is why the show is getting more positive critical reception than ever.

As for daytime soaps, they're cheap to produce, but it's not like they get stellar ratings. One time I was looking on ABC Media Net and noticed they usually average 1.5 million viewers - way, way, WAY less than what even your typical show on UPN and The WB received (but not that far below several CW shows, sadly).

I don't think it's really fair to compare a daytime soap to a primetime series anyway. Daytime shows air five days a week, after all, and most of them have been on the air longer than most of us have been alive. They're a completely different creature. 🙂
 
They're also meant as a way to fill up the time, when a lot of people aren't watching tv. It would be prohibitively expensive to put "regular" shows on all day long.

🙂
 
see, our Soaps over here are different. they mostly air between 7pm and 8:30pm every night, and are the most watched shows on UK telelvision. there's a huge ratings war going on, with each show trying to come up with a more dramatic storyline than it's rival.
 
lol, i don't really watch any of them, but there are prettier people on Hollyoaks!!
 
Is it because I'm a guy that I find them way too over dramatic and weird or is it because they are? But then again the soap I've ever "ACCIDENTLY flipped on" was some old lady, a little boy, they were witches, chanting some nonsence, I think they were evil and they kept playing that overdramtic music at the end of every scene!! lol It was funny, but I don't think it was meant to be, if you know what I mean? It was more laughing at then with. So your saying that they just make shows to fill time and to not mean anything or inspire or be complex or something? I don't know how a soap can get all the way to evil withces weird children and crazy chants and not be thought out.. lol maybe I can 😛 but then again I shouldn't judge I have maybe seen an hour of soup operas for MY entire life. So I'm a crappy judge of them. Just the one weird one I saw which turned me far far away from them.
 
palabravampiress
palabravampiress
That was probably Passions. I watched that show for one day when it first came on, but I never watched it again. It was really bad. It also had consistently low ratings. :-)
I think instead of traditional soaps, the networks should start doing telenovelas instead, with 65 episodes for each show, lasting 13 weeks. And I wish they would hire actors who were actually talented. And not be so melodramatic. I mean...is the overacting, over-the-top music, and melodrama really necessary?
 
Oh I would hate that. The beauty of soaps in that they go for so long, so you really get to know the characters. I'm not going to invest my time in something that's gone after 13 weeks...

The new UPN did that and I liked the show, but then it was gone. I didn't bother even starting to watch the second one.
 
palabravampiress
palabravampiress
I sooo agree. Soap fans would fight tooth and nail to keep their shows open ended!
They could do cycles, have one show go for 13 weeks, have another one on for 13, and then bring the first one back. I think it would allow for more time to film, which means slightly better acting. Except the ones on My Network TV filmed most of it in one take, which would explain why the five minutes I watched of one was so horrible.

And, I do have experience with a few soaps. My grandmother watched like four every day, and when I was younger during the summer I had to stay with her, so for like four months I had to watch those, I think she watched The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital, and....I think the fourth one was either Guiding Light or All My Children. Anyhoo, I can't say any of them had realistic characters IMO. 🙂 I think soaps would be better if they weren't CONSTANTLY about everyone cheating on each other ALL THE TIME.

But I guess I'm not a soap opera's target demo so it doesn't really matter.
 
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