It’s been a sad several months, but this week marks a dark, gloomy time in the world of soap operas as Guiding Light fades from TV screens. Permanently.

Back in February, I thought the return of the Phillip Spaulding, played to perfection by Grant Aleksander, might be enough to save the sinking show.

Silly me, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Less than two months after Phillip’s return to Springfield, CBS announced it was cancelling GL due to low ratings. Turns out good ol’ Phil didn’t stand a chance against Ellen Wheeler and her deluded, murderous ways as she and her band of cronies killed the longest-running show on television.

For the last year and a half, Wheeler decided to try something new. She threw out sets, fired video editors and breakdown writers and introduced new production model cameras that would shoot from every angle, as well as outdoor sets that were supposed to be this huge, groundbreaking thing.

Ha! Instead, fans of the show got what seemed like a spit in the face: terrible sound, awful location shoots (the people of Peapack N.J. should’ve sued Wheeler and her posse for making their town look so crappy), and shaky handheld cameras — it was like watching Cloverfield or The Blair Witch Project. Barf.

Despite the show’s fantastic cast, Wheeler completely ignored the talent, giving the actors no rehearsal — and no respect. And because of that, the ratings plummeted even further, giving CBS the green light to yank Guiding Light forever. And despite all of the backlash, Wheeler did nothing to fix the dismal situation, and only made it worse. She added loud music to scenes, drowning out the little dialogue in existence, and even though Wheeler had time to correct her mistake, rather than admitting it, she plowed through — literally and figuratively.

Sept. 18 is going to be a sad day for Guiding Light fans, and for fans of daytime dramas altogether. Because while most executive producers aren’t burying their own shows, I’m sure this won’t be the last time a soap dies a painful death.

In 1976, Time magazine described American daytime television as “TV’s richest market,” noting the loyalty of the soap opera fan base and the expansion of several half-hour series to a full hour in order to maximize ad revenues. Wow, how times have changed. In the early ‘70s, there were almost 20 soaps on the air; when Guiding Light goes off the air, that leaves us with seven. Seven.

Soaps are clearly a dying breed. Despite prime-time shows borrowing from daytime’s structure, adopting continual storytelling as part of their narrative arcs (think Dallas, Dynasty and Knots Landing to Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and Lost), soaps have done the opposite, abandoning their storytelling forms for shorter, less satisfying arcs. Soaps used to be about family and romance, fairy-tale weddings, love triangles. Now, there’s no character development, no idea what the motivations of our favourite folks are. Instead of being inspired by characters, shows are driven by plot, and that’s been the genre’s biggest mistake.

I’m not sure when the decline first began. Was it the introduction to the reality genre and all things Real World? Or was it because of the O.J. Simpson trial, which ate up hours upon hours of daytime programming? Pfft. In any case, watching a daytime drama used to be about escaping reality; you could fall in love, find your evil twin, die a slow death, rise from the dead, get amnesia, become half of a super-couple, become part of a love triangle and live happily ever after — and not necessarily in that order. Then, you would just rinse and repeat.

But no matter how preposterous the stories were, the characters would always grow and learn from their mistakes, and move in a better direction (albeit slowly). Ultimately, there would be a payoff for everyone, whether it was the show, the writers, the networks, the actors, and most importantly, the fans. Loyalty would be rewarded, making our investment worth it.

I’m not sure when the shows stopped caring for the fans. Characters were left at the mercy of the plot, and controversial storylines were introduced instead of giving viewers the old-fashioned stuff that we always loved. But as character after character continues to be destroyed on our favourite shows, it begs the question, what will be left of the remaining seven?
The Bold and the Beautiful is an international success and because it’s a half hour, it probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The same could be said for The Young and the Restless, which still is the only one that balances its characters with stories and keeps fan favourites on the front burner. But what about the rest? Despite One Life to Live being the most consistent and inexpensive ABC show, its future continues to be in question, particularly because of sister soap, All My Children, moving from NYC (where One Life currently films and will continue to film) to the much-cheaper L.A. What will happen to the gang of Pine Valley when All My Children moves to the west coast — perhaps without Susan Lucci? Also, will General Hospital continue to go down its much-maligned, mob-heavy path? And, as Days of our Lives is on an upswing, can the writers continue its forward momentum?

Which leaves us with one: As the World Turns. Procter & Gamble used to produce several soaps, but with Guiding Light done, that leaves only World Turns. No longer P&G, it was renamed TeleNext to distance itself from its other big brands, and it’s been a longtime theory that P&G/TeleNext had been trying to get out of the soap game for the past decade, ever since the cancellation of Another World. Argh. So it’s no shocker that World Turns will be next. If ABC’s Brian Frons doesn’t beat it first by canning One Life.

But at this point, whatever. It’s all just so sad — in an annoying way — merely because the problems seem so easy to rectify. Pure and simple: write for characters we care about. And while some might think the yucky love stuff is boring or not cutting edge enough, for the overall soap fan, that’s all we really want.

What do you think? Are soaps dying? denette@tvguide.ca

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Denette’s not ashamed to say she has loved TV for as long as she can remember, whether she was rolling her eyes at Polkaroo on Polka Dot Door, catching up on soaps recorded on her family’s trusty Betamax, crushing on Face from The A-Team or laughing along with The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Nowadays, Denette digs Glee, Mad Men, Chuck, So You Think You Can Dance, Big Brother, awards shows, and Friends reruns. Things that annoy her to no end are Samantha Harris’ co-hosting Dancing With the Stars, the addition of Kara DioGuardi on American Idol, someone calling during Lost and her PVR crashing. If you’ve thought it, it’s probably crossed her mind, too. Denette will gladly praise a show, but she’ll be more than happy to slam something if it sucks.

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