A Soapy Situation

17 Comments

Soap Operas are a topic close to many people’s hearts.  Once soaps were on at least 3 hours a day on all 3 networks. But they’ve hit hard times, including the recent cancellations of long-time faves All My Children and One Life to Live. Now comes word of a reprieve of sorts – but in a format you might not be used to.

Here is where I would usually provide a link to some article online, but I read this in ten different places yesterday. Specifically, AMC (leaving the tube in September) and OLTL (exiting in January) will now continue…online.

In our house, if we miss one of our faves like Community or Parks and Rec, we will download it on Hulu, drag the laptop into the living room, cram together real tight on the couch and watch. That’s the occasional half hour, but 5 hours a week, every week – or 10 if you like both shows? I don’t know. The articles say that the shows will eventually be available in other formats like “additional emerging platforms including Internet enabled television sets.” But for most of us, for the foreseeable future, this means the PC.

So what do you think? Obviously, MindField folks are pretty computer-savvy, but will you be able to make the switch? Or is it the end of an era? Give us a shout, soap fans!

17 thoughts on “A Soapy Situation”

  1. I find it a little uncomfortable and distracting to watch anything more than fifteen minutes on my laptop. I am sure for the die-hard soap watcher it will at least be an alternative to missing them altogether though.
    I think internet enabled TV is the future of TV but as with all new things, I prefer to wait until it is perfected.

  2. I was happy to hear that the soaps will continue in some form but I agree it wont be as enjoyable as watching tv maybe they will figure out some other format but I will watch ever which way is possible

  3. it will be different. I’ve been watching Days since forever so will be sad when it goes. I figure it won’t be long before it joins the rest of the soaps. Online will be ok, but sure not the same as on TV.

    1. I haven’t watched since I worked in TV news back in college. Imagine a bunch of union electricians sitting around the studio watching Guiding Light!

  4. it will be different. I’ve been watching Days since forever so will be sad when it goes. I figure it won’t be long before it joins the rest of the soaps. Online will be ok, but sure not the same as on TV.

    when I was little my granddad watched Days. Mom said he would shake his cane at the TV when they did something he didn’t like.

  5. I’ve been watching AMC and OLTL since the beginning, when Erica was still a teenager lol. As an adult I’ve watched them when I’m at home and not working. It’s always easy to catch up to what’s going on. I’ve seen lots of soaps go away over the years and you get used to it. I’d already mentally prepared myself that these 2 soaps were ending. They’ve been building up their storylines and bringing back people from the past in preparation for this ending. Now this news that they won’t be ending. I have no problem watching things on my computer. I stream movies all the time from Netflix and watch them on my computer. I just don’t know if I would regularly watch the soaps on the computer. I kind of think their time has come and gone and it’s time to move on.

  7. I’ll watch, but maybe not every day. Depends on how it does, I guess. But I am happy they will continue no matter how that is.

  9. hmmm if you have a flatscreen tv you can hook up a vga cable from your pc to your tv and watch hulu on your tv…or use Playon through your wii or ps3 and watch it on your tv….lots of new ways to stream your hulu and internet shows on your tv!

  10. I used to watch both shows, now I watch Young and the Restless, OK my box records it if I am out of my house, and if it is close to 7pm or Midnight, I watch it on soapnet, I would have a hard time just to a DVD in my PC to watch it. If I was to get back into both shows, I am not sure if looking at it on my computer will do it. I am afraid that the next soap to go is Y&R, and if they decide to put in online, do I have enough of a fix to watch on my computer. My mom is not computer savvy. All you die heart AMC and OLTL fans let me know how it works for you, but in the meantime, Debbie Morgan MAY be coming to Y&R. Yay!!!

  11. I would do it for All My Children. The Pine Valley folks have been an extended family for me for 41 years. What’s the difference between watching it for an hour on TV or in my comfy computer chair? BTW, the grandmas I know use their computers all the time. I’m one myself!

Comments are closed.