Soaps & the Tearjerkers

This morning, on CBS Sunday Morning, they did a segment on tearjerkers and how they have disappeared from the movie theaters. If you would like to read about it click here. That story inspired this entry.

Tearjerkers are a genre of film specifically for women, like soap operas. And according to the segment, these films have been going away for the last 15 years. Mainly due to how flicks, that appeal to young males do the best overseas making more money for the studios. In the US, more than half of moviegoers are female, but they are not targeted. Instead they go for movies that attract people to go more than once and on opening weekend like comic book flicks.

So again, what does this have to do with soap operas? Over the years, soaps have been inspired by what is going on in Hollywood cinema in creating story. If the movies are no longer writing stories targeted at women, is it really surprising that soaps have stories that focus less on character and more on plot? Of course, the problem with that is in soaps they don’t have the money for the elaborate special effects or unique locations. Also soaps aren’t being made for the worldwide audience even if some are shown throughout the world.

Soap operas have tear-jerking elements as well. Two characters fall in love and tragically are torn apart. They finally reunite, but soon after one dies. These stories are sentimental, and at their best soaps can be too. While some tearjerkers have sad endings others do not or if there are sad elements the story ultimately is about being strong in the face of adversity even if one doesn’t win. They may make one cry, but they are uplifting in their way.

During the CBS Sunday Morning program, it was mentioned how Pixar’s animated films fell into this genre. Which again is kind of bizarre, but I agree as they have done so with me. If I came up with a list of movies that have made me cry in recent years, Up and Toy Story 3 both would apply. One of the most well-known and beloved movies of all time Casablanca would fit into this category too.

I’m trying to think of the last time a soap opera did a story of this fashion. Angie’s pregnancy on All My Children in which she became blind due to helping a child, and the fetus’s life is more important than the drugs that may allow her to continue to see. That story is the only one at the top of my head, that I could consider a tearjerker. It is about family, love and sacrifice. Of course, while watching this plot all I can hope is that in the end Angie will be able to see again. Stone’s death on General Hospital in the 90s would be a great example of a tearjerker as was BJ’s death. If a death is for shock value, then I would not consider it a tearjerker kind of story.

We can’t say that soaps are incapable of doing this kind of plot. I do wonder if it isn’t because they aren’t seen as popular in Hollywood anymore that we see these kinds of stories less often. I’m not a fan of a character dying every month just to provide tears to the audience. Like on The Young & the Restless, Nina mourned her dead son Chance who wasn’t really dead, and now Lily, Jill and others are mourning Cane who was shot. I don’t see the hope just sadness, though with Lily talking to Cane, there could be more to the plot.

Even if there are less tearjerker stories in soaps or movies, at least books still exist that fulfill this genre. Some of these books like those written by Nicholas Sparks have been made into the movies of this genre. Usually at the end of the novels, one of the main characters ends up dead or without their true love sacrificing themselves as it is for the best. These books don’t appeal to everyone, but they touch something in many.

Touching people and reaching them on an emotional level is what soap operas in this viewer’s opinion do best. Causing tears to fall down the faces of those watching is just one way to cement the bond. Stories that provide a catharsis are needed and I consider this kind of storytelling paramount to daytime television.