The Demise of the Soap Opera and Life as I Remember It!

I flipped the channel to 60 Minutes last night so as to not miss my weekly dose of reality television, Big Brother.  (Just because my life isn't real enough?)  I instantly recognized the characters being showcased.  It was the faithful cast of The Guiding Light.  There they were, Josh, Reva, Lillian, Beth, Phillip, Alan, Alexandra, all of them.

It's been nearly a year since the show went off the air.  I remember watching The Guiding Light since I was old enough to remember watching t.v.  I remember when Beth fell in love with Lou Jack and out of love with Phillip and back in love with Phillip before the end of a week.  I remember when Reva took a nose dive off a pier and proclaimed her love for "Bud" or Josh.  It was a little sad seeing the actors talk about their characters with such passion and commitment.  This was truly the last soap opera that I watched faithfully when I was not at work for holidays or the summer. 

Now, As the World Turns is next on the chopping block, leaving us with just The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.  I like Y & R enough, but B & B  can take a long walk off of a short pier.  It's the sad ending to many years of story lines and drama.  I wonder what they will put in the place of ATWT?  Hopefully not another game show like Let's Make a Deal.  Don't get me wrong, I like Wayne Brady, but that show is rediculously, well, rediculous. 

I've said all of that to say this...Life as I remember it from growing up is drastically changing.  It is leaving.  Simple daytime dramas are exiting to make way for faster-paced talk shows, syndicated programming, or the dreaded info-mercial.  As a child, I remember hearing older generations say, "When I was your age, I remember listening to the radio for our favorite program."  I likely rolled my eyes and thought something along the lines of "Gees, were you born before electricity too?"  Now I know the feeling.  I accidentally mentioned remembering when the Internet was started in class one day.  My students gasped and looked around the room; as if to say, "Do you think her arm will fall off from dry rot?"

The times, they are a'changing.  Whether it's for the good or not, I'm not certain.  This I do know, life is getting easier and easier for these generations, and they are getting lazier and lazier.  They literally don't know how to use a telephone book, dictionary, and heaven forbid they encountered a card catalog in a library...why it must be sent here from the aliens!  Maybe we should return to simpler days of soap operas and the good ol' Kool Aid commercials.  We turned out perfectly fine, thanks to the likes of our parents, Josh and Reva Lewis, and of course good ol' Bob Barker who reminded us to, "Help control the pet population, have your pet spayed or neutered!"