At right is a picture of a Soap Opera Weekly cover from 1997 for Guiding Light's 60th on television. Seeing this magazine go away after I've been reading it for over 20 years is depressing to say the least. On the heels of SoapNet being eliminated from television packages in late March or in my case early April, shows again how it seems that it is the one month it is hard to be a soap fan. And we all had to deal with the news that Guiding Light (2009), All My Children (2011) and One Live to Life (2011) would be cancelled.I miss the days when SOW had amazing covers with original photographs, as actors did shoots. The earliest issues I own are from about 1991 or so. I even remember the first time I read SOW, it was at a Kmart in Paramus, New Jersey. I had no idea the magazine existed, but for good reason as I saw the first issue with Days of Our Lives Patch and Marina. The actors who played those roles are now on Young and the Restless & the Bold & the Beautiful respectively as Tucker and Taylor (Stephen Nichols and Hunter Tylo). In those days, I didn't see every issue as not every store carried it, and I had to hide it in a tabloid to read it. There was more stigma within my family about reading a soap magazine than the National Enquirer, but I digress.
Soap Opera Weekly gave me a lot of entertainment over the years, as I bet it did other soap viewers. I wish the staffers who are losing their jobs good luck in their future endeavors. Hopefully within the last issue, they will be able to say goodbye.
No comments:
Post a Comment