Saturday, January 2, 2016

2015: Year in Review Likes & Yikes News Edition


I'll be posting my normal "Likes & Yikes" for soap opera stories in another post. Here are my ones about things that happened in soaps during 2015.

Likes: Hulu added "Home and Away" to its offerings.

Yikes: Hulu deleted "Neighbours" from their site after a year's worth of material, so people like me who became addicted have to go elsewhere to find it.

Likes: We didn't lose any daytime soaps for two years running the last time that we went multiple years without nearly a decade ago.

Yikes: "The Doctors" was moved to an overnight slot on Retro TV though at least they are still airing it.

Likes: While we didn't have a red carpet show, the Daytime Emmys returned to television on Pop. (Eventually it was posted online by the station for those who don't have access to the station like those in Canada where it is not carried.)

Yikes: There was a lot of back and forth with "Twin Peaks", and well now we're only getting it in 2017. That's what I get for complaining about the 2016 air date. 

Likes: Pop has added "Days of Our Lives" to their channel, so now three out of the four soaps have that as their second home. So their schedule is 6:30 pm ET "The Bold and the Beautiful", 7:00 pm ET "The Young and the Restless" with Days being at 8:00 pm ET.

Yikes: If anything I'll remember this as the year of stars behaving badly. If it happened once, I'd think nothing of it, but it happened numerous times especially with people attached to "General Hospital". While I appreciate candor,  there is a difference between that and some of what happened in 2015. (For the record, I have no issue with people disliking costars and/or members of behind the scenes staff, just when discussing such situations keep in mind that fans like characters based on what is on screen more than what makes the actors happy off it.) Also viewers should be allowed to have opinions that aren't 100% complimentary as even actors I adore have faults.

Likes: Somehow a few copies of the "Guiding Light" Christmas DVD became available, and I was able to get it. That is one my fandom highlights for the year.

Likes: That "Days of Our Lives" celebrated its anniversary with a new book and "People" did a special issue about the show. Other than the "General Hospital" 50th anniversary magazine, the majority of features in publications have been for cancellations. So I was glad this wasn't the case.

Likes/Yikes: While I haven't seen "Joy", I appreciate how soap actors were used on the show to portray soap characters. Also, I like that John Oliver's show didn't make fun of soaps when they did the on screen EJ/Sami reunion. That said, I'll miss "The Soup" even if at times their making fun of the genre was more a yikes than a like.

Likes/Yikes: This is more of a general television one than a soap opera one. There are just so many new good programs, which is wonderful, but hard to keep track of everything. Also due to the amount of different things it is impossible to keep up and view all the quality shows whether they are in the soap genre or otherwise scripted.

That's my highlight list for 2015 in soap opera news that had nothing to do with story, casting or production issues.

1 comment:

  1. Another yikes moment would be days being pulled from Hulu too. Though it could be watched on the NBC site but to watch it on tv for those who don't have a dvr or cable there is the NBC app through roku etc.

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