Soap Operas on DVD (1 Viewer)

[Gregory V]

What with them releasing Dark Shadows on DVD, I would love to see the great mystery soap THE EDGE OF NIGHT from about the mid seventies on. I think it is available in syndication from about 1978 on. I have seen some tapes of things from as far back as 1974 and it seemed like an interesting story. I only started watching it in about 1979 or so and even then couldnt watch it all the time. But I liked the eerie, mysterious atmosphere that is absent in the others.

 

[Amy Mormino]

As a watcher of daytimes soaps, I have heard of some of Edge of Night's stories and thought that they sounded interesting. However, even modern daytime soaps have hardly received any DVD attention. Dark Shadows is the only exception so far because of its large cult.

Actually, another show with stories somewhat similar to Dark Shadows would be Days of Our Lives, especially given all the attention they received for stories like Marlena's demonic possession and the recent serial killer plot. I'd love for some of those stories to be on DVD!

 

[Angela_K]

I wouldn't mind "best of" DVD sets for daytime soaps, let the fans choose the episodes online or something.

Really the only soap that could have a reasonable DVD release is Port Charles from when they started doing the story arcs, cause those were like seasons, they only lasted 13 weeks

 

[Tory]

I want Days on DVD but this current stuff, it is drivel and only exists because the writer is trying to kill Days so as to spare his creation Passions. I want Days from the 80's. I think Soaps on DVD would be grewat, season sets may be out of the question though and best of's may not be the best thing either. I think they can edit down the mass of soaps down to core storylines removing alot of repeated filler that happens and string together more concise retellings of the Soaps past. You could probably get a year down to the equivalent of a season box set, maybe two. Soaps have great acting often and interesting stories but the long drawn out storyline elements of little import like say someone answering the door with total shock on their face about 20 times and we the viewer not seeing who it is until three weeks later only to find it is the pizza man.

 

[LeonaB]

I would kill for old soaps to be released on DVD, but I can't see it ever happening. Someone suggested "Best of" sets or edited down storylines, but I cannot disagree strongly enough. I'm an old soap fan (I gave them up over 10 years ago) and I would demand complete and entire episodes to be satisfied. I'm sure something like that just isn't feasible right now.

What most people forget is that it's the minutiae of everyday life that made soaps special and unique and what caused millions of people to tune in every day. The scenes between mother and daughter, friends having coffee, family dinners, those are what remain most important and what has been lost. I can watch an old soap from the 1950s, the 1960s, or the 1970s and despite the cheap old-fashioned production values, get sucked in and swept away. Oh, how I miss what the soaps used to provide.

Sorry...lost myself in a dream of soaps on DVD that will never come true.

 

[Angela_K]

Really "best of's" are the only way they can be released, they can't do them by year, or by week or month, that would take a very long time if they did that.

 

[Kevin L McCorry]

I'd love to see Edge of Night DVDs released that encapsulate such things as:

The Adam and Nicole Drake story (circa 1974-1975).
The Serena and Josie Faraday split-personality story (circa 1975-1976).
The murder of Adam Drake (circa 1977).
The Nola Madison (Kim Hunter) story (circa 1978-1980).
The Draper Scott story (circa 1979-80)
The Sky Whitney imposter story (circa 1981-1982).
The Puppet Killer story (circa 1980-1981).
The ISIS Building/Robbie Hamlin Disco story (aka. the Take-Over of Monticello; circa 1983).

Sadly very little of the pre-1978 years still exists as a visual record.

 

[danak]

HD DVD might be the way to get soaps out on DVD. They would then be able to cram a whole lot of episodes onto a disc, making it possible to put out season sets or something close to that.

Dana

 

[Angela_K]

Regarding HD DVDs the more episodes you put on the discs the more the quality goes down, just like with regular DVDs wouldn't it?

Since soaps don't have seasons, then I'm all for a "best of" DVDs, maybe the best of for each year, or the "best of" for each decade or something.

 

[Steve Phillips]

I admit I've watched DAYS OF OUR LIVES for 20 years now. As it exists today, it is a pale shadow of what it was then.

I'd be interested in a best of series, maybe divided up by decade? 2005 is the show's 40th year, so they've got a lot to work with. While the 80s era stuff would probably sell the best, I'd love to see a best of 1965-69, 1970-74, 1975-79 set, etc. I don't know how much I could take, but a few hours of each might be interesting. I've already got DARK SHADOWS, might as well go for another soap!

 

[Carlos Garcia]

What, Demon possessed/serial killer Marlena isn't good enough? LOL I agree, soaps today just aren't what they used to be. Not only that, but today's writers always take the easy way out (My wife calls this "writers in the crack den" LOL). An hour episode is really no more than a 30 minute episode when you see all the flashbacks they use and re-use in each episode...Lazy writing. It used to be they gave viewers some credit for having seen the previous episode, now everytime you watch a soap, someone is daydreaming their way to a flashback for no reason other than to give us filler instead of a complete episode.

 

[Doug^Ch]

There is only one Soap I'd be interested in and that would be Guiding Light from the late 70's. I would love to see the Hope Bauer and Alan Spaulding love story from pre-desert island plane crash until the breakup. Also, I would like to see a best of from 1950's through the 1970's. What a lot of people who disdain soaps forget are all the big name actors that got their start on Soaps. Off hand I'm thinking of Kevin Bacon and John Wesley Ship from GL and Meg Ryan from As The World Turns.

 

[Steve Phillips]

Aw, we all knew Marlena didn't really kill anyone!

 

[Charles Ellis]

Kevin, you show good taste as to your "Edge" storylines! I was 10 years old when the Serena/Josie saga took place and I still remember the shock of seeing Josie killing Mark on the courthouse steps (which was part of the memorable 90-minute ABC premiere episode in December '75), and was blown away by Louise Shaffer's performance.

Regarding the feasability of daytime soaps on DVD, the big problem is the huge gaps in network/producer archives of past episodes, especially from the 1970s. Videotape was an expensive commodity back then, and no one thought of possible reruns (with a few exceptions), so reels of previously taped shows were taped over and reused to tape newer episodes in a very vicious cycle. This is why there are practically no color videotapes of General Hospital from 1967-77, and only a few existing color tapes from One Life To Live, As The World Turns, All My Children, Another World, Guiding Light and other shows prior to about 1978-79.

There are some notable exceptions. Both Dark Shadows and Ryan's Hope are about 99% complete because they were made by independent production companies (not a network or Procter & Gamble, though Ryan's Hope was later sold to ABC in 1981), and these were among the first US soaps to go into international syndication. The fans of Days of our Lives and The Young and the Restless are the luckiest: both shows are made through Columbia/Sony's TV division and ALL of their episodes have been archived in vaults, dating back to the 1st episode of Days (in living color!) from November 1965. Longtime fans of these shows have seen in recent years flashbacks dating back to the 1970s and earlier. I would love to see these two shows rebroadcast from their first shows. A while ago, there was talk of a new SoapNet Classics channel, but I haven't seen any progress on it yet.

As for DVD releases, special compilation discs are the way to go, as General Hospital did in 1994 on VHS with a 2-tape set on Luke & Laura, or as Guiding Light did on the notorious Roger Thorpe and heroine Reva Shayne Lewis.

Days could easily do discs on couples like Doug & Julie (whose storyline goes all the way back to 1970!!) and Bo & Hope (with flasbacks from the past 20 years). ABC/Disney recently re-released the 1994 wedding compilations from their three soaps on a single DVD (but no post-'94 footage!!), so this may be a sign of things to come.....

 

[EricSchulz]

I would LOVE to see a set for Young and the Restless...I've been watching for 15 years now and there are SO many storylines that are STILL being played out!

 

[Angela_K]

Another idea is something like the "best of" for characters.

Like the best of "Erica Kane" the 1970's.....etc....

Or the "best of" for couples like Luke and Laura.....etc.....

 

[Kevin L McCorry]

Thanks, Charles, for the compliment!

Wouldn't you know, I missed the Josie killing Mark portion of the 90-minute special. It came on before I could get home from school. I remember seeing Mike, Nancy, and everyone else talking about the murder and Chief Marceau bringing Josie into his office. Actually, I saw the murder coming when Serena bolted from the courtroom in the episode preceding this...

And seeing the amnesiac, presumed dead Nicole in a Paris clinic was a shocker as well. It was in the same episode, wasn't it?

The biggest shock of all in the Serena/Josie saga was when,
after we'd thought Josie had gone away after killing Mark and that Serena had been herself for months (despite rather extravert tendencies coming to surface that were unlike her) and was now standing trial (as Serena) for Josie killing Mark, Adam while questioning Serena on the witness stand pulled Serena's blonde hair off to reveal Josie's black perm beneath. My chin hit the ground with a thud!

That was great stuff. Most of my all-time favourite soap moments came in the Serena/Josie storyline. Louise Shaffer's performance was indeed excellent.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I wouldnt mind a Best of for Day of our Lives (Weddings maybe) but there is no way they could come out with 30 something years of a soap that is on everyday. Anyone have the room for that?

 

[LeonaB]

A few years ago, I interviewed some of the marketing people behind those "Best of" soap tapes that were put out by ABC and CBS (the ABC Weddings tapes and the GL Roger Thorpe and GL Reva tapes). The sales were surprisingly lackluster and the people behind the scenes didn't have an answer for why that was.

I mention this only because I honestly don't think that "Best of" compilations are what soap fans would spend their money on. I bought those soap tapes and, although they were good, they still left me wanting more. Those tapes proved frustrating to watch, knowing that there were edits made and scenes left out. And that's my problem with anything less than everything.

 

[Chip_HT]

but who would have time to watch every single scene of every single episode of just one soap on dvd? (recent soaps like Passions dont' count)