GH,Y&R: Have you read Kay Alden's post?
Nymann
http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/2006/11/legacy_characters_and_rich_his.php
Someone on SON posted it some time ago.
Then go and read this:
http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/2006/12/building_soaps_as_longterm_bra.php
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1167905796....@31g2000cwt.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<lis...@cg.yu> wrote:
Is there anyone who can shed any light, any context, on this blog & blogger?
Thanks. I'll reserve my comments waiting to see.
--
Still catching up from the holidays, ... DonnaB : ^> shallotpeel <*> Yahoo
Messenger: shallotpeel
record hunter
DonnaB shallotpeel wrote:
> In rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs on 4 Jan 2007 02:16:36 -0800 in Msg.#
> <1167905796....@31g2000cwt.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
> <lis...@cg.yu> wrote:
>
> > If you haven't, look here:
> >
> > http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/2006/11/legacy_characters_and_rich_his.php
> >
> > Someone on SON posted it some time ago.
> >
> > Then go and read this:
> >
> > http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/2006/12/building_soaps_as_longterm_bra.php
>
> Is there anyone who can shed any light, any context, on this blog & blogger?
> Thanks. I'll reserve my comments waiting to see.
>
Click around and you'll see that Sam Ford is a graduate student in the
Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. There's even a picture, if
you scroll down. Lots of other info, just a click or two away.
http://www.convergenceculture.org/aboutc3/people.php
MarkH
record hunter wrote:
> DonnaB shallotpeel wrote:
> >
> > Is there anyone who can shed any light, any context, on this blog & blogger?
> > Thanks. I'll reserve my comments waiting to see.
> >
>
> Click around and you'll see that Sam Ford is a graduate student in the
> Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. There's even a picture, if
> you scroll down. Lots of other info, just a click or two away.
> http://www.convergenceculture.org/aboutc3/people.php
As an academic type, this is a terrific set of materials for me to
read! I'm atwitter over the over-intellectualization. My kind of
folks:-)
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1167925533.7...@v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>, "record hunter"
<record...@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, thanks, I meant more along the lines of history reading or knowing
about his commentary, etc. But, thanks.
I'm also interested in any info anyone might have about the authenticity of
the 'Kay Alden' post/s.
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1167950420.9...@11g2000cwr.googlegroups.com>, "MarkH"
<MarkH_s...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> As an academic type, this is a terrific set of materials for me to
> read! I'm atwitter over the over-intellectualization. My kind of
> folks:-)
You really would enjoy reading some of the published materials, articles &
books from & by Sociologists with a primary interest in culture as well as
folk from similar fields. And, of course, there's also material from soap
scholars, specifically.
Over-intellectualized? Really? Where?!! <G> Seems regular to me.
Nymann
DonnaB shallotpeel wrote:
> Yes, thanks, I meant more along the lines of history reading or knowing
> about his commentary, etc. But, thanks.
>
> I'm also interested in any info anyone might have about the authenticity of
Well, I don't think he'd lie that she's his thesis advisor... Since she
has a PhD in sociology about soaps, too. That is how she met William J.
Bell...
Kolbard
<shall...@comcast.net> wrote:
>In rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs on 4 Jan 2007 14:40:21 -0800 in Msg.#
><1167950420.9...@11g2000cwr.googlegroups.com>, "MarkH"
><MarkH_s...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> As an academic type, this is a terrific set of materials for me to
>> read! I'm atwitter over the over-intellectualization. My kind of
>> folks:-)
>
>You really would enjoy reading some of the published materials, articles &
>books from & by Sociologists with a primary interest in culture as well as
>folk from similar fields. And, of course, there's also material from soap
>scholars, specifically.
>
>Over-intellectualized? Really? Where?!! <G> Seems regular to me.
I read Sociologists as "Scientologists" and spent nearly forever
trying to figure out your post. :>
Kolbard
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1167989454.2...@s80g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<lis...@cg.yu> wrote:
I think it's natural to question things which are posted here without any
context. It doesn't mean you have specific reason to suspect, but you also
have no specific reason to automatically accept without info.
And, no, I didn't know she has a PhD in Sociology. Do you have a link for
her C.V. by any chance?
--
DonnaB : ^> shallotpeel <*> Yahoo Messenger: shallotpeel
"Your side hates my side because you think we think you're stupid. My side
hates your side because we think you're stupid." - Matt to Harriet, STUDIO
60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP 2006
DonnaB shallotpeel
<mg8sp2d13iccofn06...@4ax.com>, Kolbard
<kol...@alternate.reality> wrote:
Bwa Ha Ha, oh, yeah, let's all try to 'get clear' about our stories!! <G>
Good one.
--
DonnaB : ^> shallotpeel <*> Yahoo Messenger: shallotpeel
"You were born together & together you shall be forevermore ... But let
there be spaces in your togetherness & let the winds of the heavens dance
between you." - Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) _The Prophet_ "On Marriage"
Nymann
> I think it's natural to question things which are posted here without any
> context. It doesn't mean you have specific reason to suspect, but you also
> have no specific reason to automatically accept without info.
>
> And, no, I didn't know she has a PhD in Sociology. Do you have a link for
> her C.V. by any chance?
Yes, it's natural; but consider the episode about her child's birth,
eg.
I wish I had her CV! Or her email, BTW!! ;-D
She did a doctoral thesis on daytime serials as a medium for social
change. I also know her husband is Vernon Nelson. That's all.
Do you have any bio titbits?
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1167998680.7...@i15g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<lis...@cg.yu> wrote:
In only recall seeing or reading: doctoral candidate in communications,
taught high school debate & speech, ... back in the 70s, or late 60s & early
70s, more currently that she's been very invaluable in contributing 'papers'
to soap opera collections in a University library - which are invaluable
sources of information!
I'd really like to see her CV, yes. And, I'd love to read her dissertation
if that's the subject!!
If you want to email her, you could email Sam Ford & ask him to forward what
you've written on to her.
--
DonnaB : ^> shallotpeel <*> Yahoo Messenger: shallotpeel
"You should stay here. I'm going to have to do a little bit of what I do to
you at home." - Brenda to Fritz, THE CLOSER 2006
Nymann
DonnaB shallotpeel wrote:
> If you want to email her, you could email Sam Ford & ask him to forward what
> you've written on to her.
Unfortunately for all of us, those who meant something in the soap
world as top-notch storytellers are either dead or do not use email (A.
Nixon). But she is among the best in this epoch.
I thought Mark or you would contribute to the debate. ;-) Maybe next
time.
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1168023204....@51g2000cwl.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<lis...@cg.yu> wrote:
> Unfortunately for all of us, those who meant something in the soap
> world as top-notch storytellers are either dead or do not use email (A.
> Nixon). But she is among the best in this epoch.
Others, whether they use email or not, contact info is hard to come by from
a fan perspective, and for valid reasons.
> I thought Mark or you would contribute to the debate. ;-) Maybe next
> time.
Oh, I'm not done. <G>
Nymann
DonnaB shallotpeel wrote:
> In rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs on 5 Jan 2007 10:53:24 -0800 in Msg.#
> <1168023204....@51g2000cwl.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
> <lis...@cg.yu> wrote:
>
> > Unfortunately for all of us, those who meant something in the soap
> > world as top-notch storytellers are either dead or do not use email (A.
> > Nixon). But she is among the best in this epoch.
>
> Others, whether they use email or not, contact info is hard to come by from
> a fan perspective, and for valid reasons.
Of course. ;-)
Nymann
for allthese years as HW she must've accumulated a wealth of at least
$10m. At least.
MarkH
ProQuest Dissertations).
I searched for Dissertations between 1973 and 1983, and did not find
Alden's.
But, I have this vague memory that she did not complete the
dissertation...she was interviewed by Bill and he snapped her up or
something...
Of course, I could have the years wrong, or she may have used another
lastname at the time (although her husband's name is now Nelson, I
believe).
I also tried title searches ("daytime drama", "daytime serial", "serial
drama", "soap opera"), but none of these netted an Alden dissertation.
Nymann
MarkH wrote:
> I also tried title searches ("daytime drama", "daytime serial", "serial
> drama", "soap opera"), but none of these netted an Alden dissertation.
Well, contact her university or sth.
Does it matter that her first name is Priscilla?
MarkH
After Kay failed, I searched more generally on the Alden
name...couldn't find it.
What university did she (and Jack Smith) attend?
Nymann
MarkH wrote:
> What university did she (and Jack Smith) attend?
University of Wisconsin-Madison, I believe.
DonnaB shallotpeel
GH. I'm changing that now, wish I had done so way back, ... because Kay
Alden has been hired by ABC daytime as a consultant for AMC. Some reports
now say that she is also consulting on OLTL but that's not confirmed as far
as I know, where AMC is definitely confirmed. (Jack Smith, also recently
ex-Y&R has been hired to consult on GH.) I would think many AMC fans would
be interested in much of the thread ... that they have already missed.
Sorry.
In rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs on 6 Jan 2007 14:30:16 -0800 in Msg.#
<1168122616.2...@42g2000cwt.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<lis...@cg.yu> wrote:
4th paragraph from the bottom
from ichampaign.com, via cache of ZoomInfo
"Y & R" Scripts On Display
By Brian Decker
February 28, 2000
CHAMPAIGN, IL - Showcases that typically display rare and priceless Bibles
now are featuring scriptures of another kind -- the scripture according to
daytime television.
Scripts, story lines, color photographs, bios, reference works and other
memorabilia that document the award-winning television series "The Young and
the Restless" are on display through March 20 in the University of Illinois
Rare Book and Special Collections Library. Instead of a catalog, visitors to
the exhibit in Room 346 Library can take home an actual script (duplicate
copy) from the show.
While not exactly rare -- the Library now has "thousands upon thousands of
them" -- the Y&R scripts "are considered modern manuscripts," said Nancy
Romero, the Rare Book and Special Collections librarian who put up the
display.
The scripts, which have been flowing into the library in bunches over the
past few years, are a gift from the show's head writer, Kay Alden, who lives
and works in Chicago, some 120 miles north of the UI campus. When she
learned the library was featuring the scripts in an exhibit, she sent along
several dozen glossies of past and current actors from the show. Alden
joined Y&R as a scriptwriter in 1974, and became head writer in 1998.
Many of the original writers' scripts contain editing marks and other
notations in Alden's hand. Other scripts are presented in their final studio
version, sometimes with a pink cover sheet, including production information
such as tape and air date; cast; sets; phone calls that figure into the
plot; and the day's schedule (dry rehearsal, 8-10:30 AM; camera blocking and
run-through, 10:45 AM-2 PM; lunch, 2-3 PM; notes, 3-4 PM; taping, 4-6:30
PM). Although written in Chicago, the program is taped at CBS Studios in Los
Angeles.
Alden, who with her team has won Emmys for outstanding writing in 1992 and
1997, began shipping the sometimes steamy, always dramatic scripts about the
roller-coaster lives of normal American families to the UI when she learned
that the Rare Book and Special Collections Library collected TV scripts.
When representatives from the University Library went to the Chicago
warehouse to pick up the first batch, they were surprised to find not one or
two, but 14 boxes.
It is an embarrassment of riches, Romero said, noting that the library's
scripts are used in both standard and unusual ways. Typically, scholars use
them when researching aspects of popular culture. However, at least one UI
professor of English as a second language used copies of the scripts in the
classroom. He had his students act out scenes from the show to help them
perfect their conversational English.
Another UI professor, Norman Denzin, a major authority on popular culture,
compares soap operas to Charles Dickens' 19th century serialized novels, in
the sense that "soap operas provide narrative continuity and meaning in
daily life. They place attractive people in situations that are glamorous,
fantasy-like and also realistic."
Denzin, a College of Communications Scholar in the Institute of
Communications Research, also argues that soaps allow viewers to
"vicariously live through real-life problems without confronting the
problems directly."
"These texts reproduce larger cultural myths concerning patriarchy, family,
male-female intimacy, friendship between women, women's sexuality and women
as objects of the male gaze. These texts are places to study how whiteness,
for example, is constructed and reproduced in everyday popular culture."
The most recent batch of scripts arrived a few days ago. The Rare Book and
Special Collections Library now has the majority of scripts written since
episode No. 44, which aired on May 24, 1973. The show's writers are closing
in on their 7,000th script, according to Terry Delgado, Alden's assistant.
"The Young and the Restless" premiered March 26, 1973. Series creator
William Bell was a young advertising executive in Chicago when in the 1950s
he was approached by Irna Phillips about the possibility of writing for her
daytime serial "The Guiding Light." Phillips, a 1923 U. of I. alumna, is
considered the mother of TV soap opera. Bell went on to write for "As the
World Turns" and co-created "Another World" with Phillips. He became head
writer for "Days of Our Lives" in 1966, and brought the show to national
prominence. While he originally planned to call "The Young and the Restless"
by another name, "The Innocent Years," his concept for the show from the
start was to put "a broad base of wholesome, identifiable people in
situations that reflected a segment of contemporary life," he said.
Before joining the Y&R team of writers, Alden was a doctoral candidate in
communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the late '60s,
Alden taught speech and debate at Central High School in Springfield, Mo.
Two of Alden's children have appeared in continuing roles on the program
their mother writes.
According to Romero, the modern TV soap opera traces its roots to Depression
Era Chicago, where the first radio soap opera took hold. Today, it is
estimated that some 50 million U.S. viewers watch one or more soap operas
every week. The genre was dubbed soap opera because of its early sponsors --
household laundry detergent companies.
Browsing through the exhibit, Caroline Szylowicz, a staff member in the UI
Kolb/Marcel Proust Archive and a native of France, observed that even in
Paris, American soap operas flood the television airwaves at midday.
"One of the most popular of these," Alden said, "is, indeed, 'The Young and
the Restless.' "
--
DonnaB : ^> shallotpeel <*> Yahoo Messenger: shallotpeel
Unintentionally hilarious news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-10DgWsSZNc
"I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true."- Katharine
Hepburn (1907-2003)
DonnaB shallotpeel
<ih90q25i20aq4cp40...@4ax.com>, DonnaB shallotpeel
<shall...@comcast.net> wrote:
> 4th paragraph from the bottom
>
> from ichampaign.com, via cache of ZoomInfo
>
> "Y & R" Scripts On Display
> By Brian Decker
> February 28, 2000
>
> CHAMPAIGN, IL - Showcases that typically display rare and priceless Bibles
> now are featuring scriptures of another kind -- the scripture according to
> daytime television.
[ ... ]
> Before joining the Y&R team of writers, Alden was a doctoral candidate in
> communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the late '60s,
> Alden taught speech and debate at Central High School in Springfield, Mo.
> Two of Alden's children have appeared in continuing roles on the program
> their mother writes.
Now if this reporter was accurate in this piece, we can be 99.99% sure that
Alden did not finish her doctorate, does not have that PhD in
Communications, and that the reason neither MarkH nor I can find any listing
of the dissertation we found so interesting in concept ... is that it's not
there.
Darn. But, that's reasonable, as I, too, thought I had recalled (as had
MarkH) that she had not finished & that Bill Bell had met her & snapped her
up & kept her. <G>
--
DonnaB : ^> shallotpeel <*> Yahoo Messenger: shallotpeel
Unintentionally hilarious news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-10DgWsSZNc
"I have spent a great deal of my life discovering that my ambitions and
fantasies - which I once thought were unique - turn out to be clichés." -
Nora Ephron, "Esquire Magazine", Oct 73, p58
MarkH
DonnaB shallotpeel wrote:
>
> Now if this reporter was accurate in this piece, we can be 99.99% sure that
> Alden did not finish her doctorate, does not have that PhD in
> Communications, and that the reason neither MarkH nor I can find any listing
> of the dissertation we found so interesting in concept ... is that it's not
> there.
>
> Darn. But, that's reasonable, as I, too, thought I had recalled (as had
> MarkH) that she had not finished & that Bill Bell had met her & snapped her
> up & kept her. <G>
>
Now, Jack Smith was in the same program...it was Kay who called her
grad school friend over to Y&R.
Did _he_ finish _his_ dissertation? J. Smith is SUCH an awfully common
name to do a dissertation search on :-). I will check, and limit is to
U. Wisc
MarkH
DonnaB shallotpeel wrote:
> >
> > University of Wisconsin-Madison, I believe.
>
> 4th paragraph from the bottom
>
> from ichampaign.com, via cache of ZoomInfo
>
> "Y & R" Scripts On Display
> By Brian Decker
> February 28, 2000
>
Lemme also say that is a VERY impressive bit of search you did there,
DonnaB!
Digging down into a cache, using a non-standard search.
You rival Y&R's Professor Korbel!
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1168128754.3...@42g2000cwt.googlegroups.com>, "MarkH"
<slip...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Lemme also say that is a VERY impressive bit of search you did there,
> DonnaB!
>
> Digging down into a cache, using a non-standard search.
>
> You rival Y&R's Professor Korbel!
Thanks! I mean, it has really been tough to try to dig this stuff up. I
mean, the *idea* that she was working on a dissertation on daytime serials
as a vehicle for social change is like a lightning rod to me. <G> So, I was
a motivated moth. The Internet is both an amazingly fruitful resource as
well as a huge source of frustration - both!!
--
DonnaB : ^> shallotpeel <*> Yahoo Messenger: shallotpeel
Unintentionally hilarious news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-10DgWsSZNc
"I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people
who annoy me." - Noel Coward
Nymann
MarkH wrote:
>
> Lemme also say that is a VERY impressive bit of search you did there,
> DonnaB!
>
> Digging down into a cache, using a non-standard search.
>
> You rival Y&R's Professor Korbel!
Well, I wouldn't like tobe rude, but I use cache searches all the
time. Especially for soap related stuff, since these pages have a short
duration period.
Nymann
DonnaB shallotpeel wrote:
...the *idea* that she was working on a dissertation on daytime serials
> as a vehicle for social change is like a lightning rod to me.
Well, what you've just said is lightning rod to me. I thought you knew
everything about everyone in the business. ;-)
Anyway, Donna, for have long now have you been a regular soap viewer?
And what are the ones you follow regularly nowadays?
MarkH
Nymann wrote:
>
> Well, I wouldn't like tobe rude, but I use cache searches all the
> time. Especially for soap related stuff, since these pages have a short
> duration period.
Yes, of course, I'm sure most people have clicked cached links at some
point.
But Donna's digging in a rare search engine, and then further pursuing
its' cache, is unusual persistence, and deserved (in my view)
recognition.
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1168171686.3...@i15g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<lis...@cg.yu> wrote:
> DonnaB shallotpeel wrote:
> ...the *idea* that she was working on a dissertation on daytime serials
> > as a vehicle for social change is like a lightning rod to me.
>
> Well, what you've just said is lightning rod to me. I thought you knew
> everything about everyone in the business. ;-)
Oh, you make me blush. There's so much business to know about!!
> Anyway, Donna, for have long now have you been a regular soap viewer?
I began in the late '60s.
> And what are the ones you follow regularly nowadays?
Too many! GL, ATWT, DOOL, AMC, Y&R. I suspect that soon something has to
give. <G> I watched B&B again while Betty White was on. Last year I was only
watching GL & ATWT & AMC when Bianca came back. Of the shows that are on the
air now if I'm not now watching them, I was at one time except for PSSN and
B&B.
SamFord
happened upon this and wanted to join the conversation, if there's
anything you want to ask.
DonnaB shallotpeel
<rYqdnVwLaIrmD3fY...@giganews.com>,
sam...@mit-dot-edu.no-spam.invalid (SamFord) wrote:
I believe that there were some questions, or at least interest, left up in
the air & unknown when the discussion was ongoing. How about answering any
of them?
--
DonnaB
"When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be
celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special
magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton." - The
Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1954, 1st line
MarkH
wrote:
>
> samf...@mit-dot-edu.no-spam.invalid (SamFord) wrote:
> > Interesting questions about Kay's participation in my research. Just
> > happened upon this and wanted to join the conversation, if there's
> > anything you want to ask.
>
> I believe that there were some questions, or at least interest, left up in
> the air & unknown when the discussion was ongoing. How about answering any
> of them?
>
Curious...I searched for samford's note in this thread, and never saw
it.
Sam, are you reading? I have questions..peripherally about Kay
Alden's participation, but more centrally your program and this
research field in general.
Please reply in this thread, unless you'd prefer not to take "public"
questions...in which case you're welcome to e-mail.
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173103152.5...@j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com>, "MarkH"
<MarkH_s...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 4, 11:47 pm, DonnaB shallotpeel <shallotp...@comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
> > samf...@mit-dot-edu.no-spam.invalid (SamFord) wrote:
> > > Interesting questions about Kay's participation in my research. Just
> > > happened upon this and wanted to join the conversation, if there's
> > > anything you want to ask.
> >
> > I believe that there were some questions, or at least interest, left up in
> > the air & unknown when the discussion was ongoing. How about answering any
> > of them?
>
> Curious...I searched for samford's note in this thread, and never saw
> it.
He replied in RATSa only which is where I believe Nymann began the thread. I
took it back into Xpost territory where it eventually landed, way back.
> Sam, are you reading? I have questions..peripherally about Kay
> Alden's participation, but more centrally your program and this
> research field in general.
>
> Please reply in this thread, unless you'd prefer not to take "public"
> questions...in which case you're welcome to e-mail.
Uh, he posted in public, making the offer in public.
But, he has also replied in RATSc WRT ATWT writing.
--
DonnaB
SamFord
post and, lo and behold, saw myself. I would be glad to tell you
anything you'd like to know about my project. I write often about
soaps on the MIT C3 Web site, where I work as a media analyst until
my graduation here in June.
I wanted to focus on soaps and how soaps are or should be adapting to
the modern media environment, both looking at new ways for audiences
to engage, as we do through these boards, and new ways to tell the
story, such as with Web sites or books, etc.
I actually became connected with Kay Alden through a series of
acquaintances, and she took great interest in the project. She has
been in the process of flux as well, so talking about where the soap
industry is currently at is of interest to both of us.
Kay's not the only forward-thinking person interested in these
questions, but she has been more helpful than anyone else in the
industry in talking with me about these issues. My main project is
to get a thesis to be able to graduate from MIT in June, but I am
publishing different portions of my thoughts as I go along, as I also
want to see some shifts in the philosophy of these soaps so that the
industry will grow stronger and not continue on a gradual decline.
But I'd be glad to talk with you all about anything you were
wondering. If any of you are located in the Boston area, by the way,
Kay will be speaking at MIT on May 02.
DonnaB shallotpeel
Usenet and rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs where Y&R and other CBS soaps are discussed
on Usenet.]
In rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs on Sat, 06 Jan 2007 18:12:17 -0500 in Msg.#
<hua0q29omabv1ueg8...@4ax.com>, DonnaB shallotpeel
<shall...@comcast.net> wrote:
Sam, do you know if this is accurate & that Kay Alden did not finish her
dissertation?
The interest is both in knowing and in desiring to read it & or any
facsimile if it is available.
Thanks.
--
DonnaB
"What can't be cured must be endured." - Proverb
DonnaB shallotpeel
<mg8sp2d13iccofn06...@4ax.com>, Kolbard
<kol...@alternate.reality> wrote:
> On Thu, 04 Jan 2007 22:32:18 -0500, DonnaB shallotpeel
> <shall...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> >You really would enjoy reading some of the published materials, articles &
> >books from & by Sociologists with a primary interest in culture as well as
> >folk from similar fields. And, of course, there's also material from soap
> >scholars, specifically.
> >
> >Over-intellectualized? Really? Where?!! <G> Seems regular to me.
>
> I read Sociologists as "Scientologists" and spent nearly forever
> trying to figure out your post. :>
Yeah, you'd never get to Bielby & Bielby or Bielby & Harriman from
Scientologists!!
--
DonnaB
"We're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job." - Star Trek: Voyager
DonnaB shallotpeel
<mpadnXzaPbjpjm3Y...@giganews.com>,
sam...@mit-dot-edu.no-spam.invalid (SamFord) wrote:
> I am mainly active in ATWT message boards, but I happened upon this
> post and, lo and behold, saw myself. ...
[snip]
> My main project is
> to get a thesis to be able to graduate from MIT in June, but I am
> publishing different portions of my thoughts as I go along, as I also
> want to see some shifts in the philosophy of these soaps so that the
> industry will grow stronger and not continue on a gradual decline.
Hey, it's March! How far away are you from a firm topic?
> But I'd be glad to talk with you all about anything you were
> wondering. ...
I don't suppose you know if Kay Alden will be the new HW at AMC, do you?
I've re-read the prior thread & am looking at the two entries offered up in
links here by Nymann, in beginning the thread. And, I will be back.
And, no matter what, whether it's with regard to this thread or about ATWT,
welcome to RATS!
--
DonnaB
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." - Anais Nin
1903-1977
SamFord
Hey, it's March! How far away are you from a firm topic?
I have a very firm topic and am in the process of putting it together
right now. The thesis, entitled "As the World
Turns in a Convergence Culture," looks at the
business realities of how the media industry has changed and how
soaps are/should be positioning themselves in this new media
environment. The thesis starts by looking at how the genre has
changed, how the audience demographics and numbers have changed,
etc., and goes on to look at fan communities in particular as a
major change in how people engage with the shows and the popularity
of forums and message boards like this one. Then, building on some
of my observations from fan boards, I am looking at how soaps
position themselves in relation to transmedia storytelling, such as
character blogs and books related to the show and Web sites like
[i:3a43654213]Springfield Burns[/i:3a43654213] and the
[i:3a43654213]Passions[/i:3a43654213] tabloid, for instance; another
chapter about product placement in particular and how that opens up
new models for revenue, but also how to position product placement
without damaging the integrity of the show and/or angering fans; and
a chapter as well about how to best mine the archive of content these
shows have and how to better use and package the history of these
shows.
At the heart of all of this is storytelling, and how good storytelling
and characters remains the basic staple of soap operas.
As for Kay's dissertation, she did not finish it before going to work
for Bill Bell. And I don't know if Kay will end up as the new head
writer for [i:3a43654213]All My Children[/i:3a43654213].
If you go over to the Convergence Culture Consortium Web site and
search for soaps, you can see a lot of pieces I've written that will
be incorporated into the thesis project when it reaches its final
written version.
And thanks for the welcome. Excited to engage with a lot of ardent
soap fans here!
sam...@mit.edu
right now. The thesis, entitled "As the World Turns in a Convergence
Culture," looks at the business realities of how the media industry
has changed and how soaps are/should be positioning themselves in this
new media environment. The thesis starts by looking at how the genre
has changed, how the audience demographics and numbers have changed,
etc., and goes on to look at fan communities in particular as a major
change in how people engage with the shows and the popularity of
forums and message boards like this one. Then, building on some of my
observations from fan boards, I am looking at how soaps position
themselves in relation to transmedia storytelling, such as character
Burns and the Passions tabloid, for instance; another chapter about
product placement in particular and how that opens up new models for
revenue, but also how to position product placement without damaging
the integrity of the show and/or angering fans; and a chapter as well
about how to best mine the archive of content these shows have and how
to better use and package the history of these shows.
At the heart of all of this is storytelling, and how good storytelling
and characters remains the basic staple of soap operas.
As for Kay's dissertation, she did not finish it before going to work
for Bill Bell. And I don't know if Kay will end up as the new head
writer for All My Children.
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173457783....@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com>, sam...@mit.edu
wrote:
> I have a very firm topic and am in the process of putting it together
> right now. The thesis, entitled "As the World Turns in a Convergence
> Culture," looks at the business realities of how the media industry
> has changed and how soaps are/should be positioning themselves in this
> new media environment.
I have a weakness for traditional US daytime soap opera and for the PGP
soaps. And, I've been a fan since the late 1960s. However, I've only really
been 'politicized' to the soap behind the soap (the biz) since the mid-90s
when the first or second wave of us really began to work against what we saw
as the destruction of AW so it could be cancelled with ratings as the
excuse.
> The thesis starts by looking at how the genre
> has changed, how the audience demographics and numbers have changed,
> etc., and goes on to look at fan communities in particular as a major
> change in how people engage with the shows and the popularity of
> forums and message boards like this one.
Well, this is a Usenet newsgroup, which has a somewhat different culture
inherently than web communities and which pre-dates web communities.
Although there were soap fan communities pre-web in membership online
entities like pre-web Delphi, GEnie, [Classic] AOL, [Classic] Prodigy, NVN,
etc.
There's been some really good work done that involved Usenet newsgroups, as
well as other online soap communities. There's even a book about this
sub-hierarchy itself, RATS. And, a long time AMC fan who used to be a
regular on RATSc & still shows up sometimes, wrote a great book RE Disney.
RATS AW & GL were the source of some good work on older women with younger
men.
> Then, building on some of my
> observations from fan boards, I am looking at how soaps position
> themselves in relation to transmedia storytelling, such as character
> blogs and books related to the show and Web sites like Springfield
> Burns and the Passions tabloid, for instance; another chapter about
> product placement in particular and how that opens up new models for
> revenue, but also how to position product placement without damaging
> the integrity of the show and/or angering fans; and a chapter as well
> about how to best mine the archive of content these shows have and how
> to better use and package the history of these shows.
Well, as you may know, some (just some) PTB have even considered the history
an impediment to doing what they wanted with the text. Horrifying, but since
soaps have had such a long long life & so many PTB, it is no wonder that
there is contention over the text.
> As for Kay's dissertation, she did not finish it before going to work
> for Bill Bell.
Yes, as I feared. Well, thanks, at least now we know.
> And I don't know if Kay will end up as the new head
> writer for All My Children.
I can hope that she will be. Or that anyone will be who will be given the
chance to fix the show.
--
DonnaB
"... anything that draws attention to the work that is being done in daytime
is laudable. There are veterans in this industry whose brilliance has
elevated the genre & newcomers who keep soaps young. Not enough people
outside this business understand that ..." - Lynn Leahey, Editor-in-Chief,
SOD
Nymann
DonnaB shallotpeel је написао
> There's been some really good work done that involved Usenet newsgroups, as
> well as other online soap communities. There's even a book about this
> sub-hierarchy itself, RATS. And, a long time AMC fan who used to be a
> regular on RATSc & still shows up sometimes, wrote a great book RE Disney.
> RATS AW & GL were the source of some good work on older women with younger
> men.
OK, again me and my (in)famous questions.
First, I can't find those other Sam F. posts, and what is the exact
name of that ATWT thread he replied to?
Could you please tell me what are those books you were talking about?
Thank you. ;)
Nymann
comment on Sam Ford's blog. You said something "I'm not finished,
belive me" or something like that.
I used to check the updates regularly hoping to read some of your -
and MarH's - thoughts on Sam Ford's musings.
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173572682.9...@j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<fifty....@yahoo.it> wrote:
> Could you please tell me what are those books you were talking about?
I will split this into a few short replies, rather than one long.
From the long-term AMC fan, ... Miss him around RATSaAMC!
Title: Thinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the
Inside Out
Author: Sean Griffin
Publication Date: February 2000
Publisher: New York University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: illustrated
Pages: 292
Price: $22.00(USD) Retail (Publisher)
Audience: Scholarly & Professional
Bowker Subjects: HOMOSEXUALITY IN MOTION PICTURES
WALT DISNEY COMPANY
General Subjects (BISAC): PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / General
Dewey #: 384/.8/06579794
Synopsis/Annotation: The Walt Disney company is the brand name of
conservative American family values, but also has a long and complex history
with the gay and lesbian community. This text examines that relationsuhip
from the 1930s up to the 1990s.
"In this sprightly analysis of classical and contemporary Disney fare, queer
theorist Griffin breaks new ground in media and cultural studies while
outdoing right-wing politicians and fundamentalists who see homosexuality
everywhere. . . Griffin is careful in building his argument that Disney
images have been enormously influenced by gay culture and in showing how gay
culture has, in turn, claimed and appropriated those images." -Publishers
Weekly "Presents Disney culture-so often thought of as a bastion of
mainstream, heterosexual family values-in a fascinating and illuminating new
light. Tinker Belles and Evil Queens is sharp and rigorously researched
work. A veritable alternative history of Disney." --Dana Polan, University
of Southern California From its Magic Kingdom theme parks to its udderless
cows, the Walt Disney Company has successfully maintained itself as the
brand name of conservative American family values. But the Walt Disney
Company has also had a long and complex relationship to the gay and lesbian
community that is only now becoming visible. In Tinker Belles and Evil
Queens, Sean Griffin traces the evolution of this interaction between the
company and gay communities, from the 1930s use of Mickey Mouse as a code
phrase for gay to the 1990s "Gay Nights" at the Magic Kingdom. Armed with
first-person accounts from Disney audiences, Griffin demonstrates how Disney
animation, live-action films, television series, theme parks, and
merchandise provide varied motifs and characteristics that readily lend
themselves to use by gay culture. But Griffin delves further to explore the
role of gays and lesbians within the company, through an examination of the
background of early studio personnel, an account of sexual activism within
the firm, and the story of the company's own concrete efforts to give
recognition to gay voices and desires. The first book to address the history
of the gay community and Disney, Tinker Belles and Evil Queens broadly
examines the ambiguous legacy of how modern consumerism and advertising have
affected the ways lesbians and gay men have expressed their sexuality.
Disney itself is shown as sensitive to gay and lesbian audiences, while
exploiting those same audiences as a niche market with strong buying power.
Finally, Griffin demonstrates how queer audiences have co-opted Disney
products for themselves-and in turn how Disney's corporate strategies have
influenced our very definitions of sexuality.
--
DonnaB
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173572682.9...@j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<fifty....@yahoo.it> wrote:
> Could you please tell me what are those books you were talking about?
> Thank you. ;)
The person who was involved in RATS for her research for a period of time:
Title: Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community
Author: Nancy K. Baym
Publication Date: October 1999
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
Country of Publication: United States
Series Title: Technology Ser.
Audience: Scholarly & Professional
Bowker Subjects: SOAP OPERAS
General Subjects (BISAC): PERFORMING ARTS / Television / General
Synopsis/Annotation: The work provides an introduction to on-line and
audience issues through the study of an Internet soap opera fan group
composed largely of women. The author shows that women can build good
on-line communities, whilst welcoming male participation.
Tune In, Log Out is an ethnographic study of an Internet soap opera fan
group. Bridging the fields of computer-mediated communication and audience
studies, the book shows how verbal and non verbal communicative practices
create collaborative interpretations and criticism, group humor,
interpersonal relationships, group norms and individual identity. While much
has been written about problems and inequities women have encountered
online, Nancy K Baym's analysis of a female-dominated group in which female
communication styles prevail demonstrates that women can build successful
online communities while still welcoming male participation. In addition, a
longitudinal look at the development of fan group allows an examination of
the endurance of the groups social structure in the face of the Internets
tremendous growth. Lively and engaging, Tune In, Log Out provides an
entertaining introduction to issues of online and audience community.
Baym (communications, U. of Kansas) offers an ethnographic study of an
Internet soap opera fan group. She explores how verbal and nonverbal
communication practices create collaborative interpretations and criticism,
group humor, interpersonal relationships, group norms, and individual
identity. She also shows how the group, dominated by women, has established
female styles of communication, thus demonstrating that women can build
successful online communities while welcoming male participants. Annotation
c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Nancy K. Baym's Tune In, Log On is an ethnographic study of an Internet soap
opera fan group. Bridging the fields of computer-mediated communication and
audience studies, the book show how verbal and nonverbal communicative
practices create collaborative interpretations and criticism, group humor,
interpersonal relationships, group norms, and individual identity. While
much has been written about problems and inequities women have encountered
online, Baym's analysis of a female-dominated group in which female
communication styles prevail demonstrates that women can build successful
online communities while still welcoming male participants. In addition, a
longitudinal look at the development of the fan group allows an examination
of the endurance of the group's social structure in the face of the
Internet's tremendous growth. Lively and engaging, Tune In, Log On provides
an entertaining introduction to issues of online and audience community.
Nancy K. Baymżs Tune In, Log On is an ethnographic study of an Internet soap
opera fan group. Bridging the fields of computer-mediated communication and
audience studies, the book show how verbal and nonverbal communicative
practices create collaborative interpretations and criticism, group humor,
interpersonal relationships, group norms, and individual identity. While
much has been written about problems and inequities women have encountered
online, Baymżs analysis of a female-dominated group in which female
communication styles prevail demonstrates that women can build successful
online communities while still welcoming male participants. In addition, a
longitudinal look at the development of the fan group allows an examination
of the endurance of the groupżs social structure in the face of the
Internetżs tremendous growth. Lively and engaging, Tune In, Log On provides
an entertaining introduction to issues of online and audience community.
--
DonnaB
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173572682.9...@j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<fifty....@yahoo.it> wrote:
> Could you please tell me what are those books you were talking about?
> Thank you. ;)
And, a third one I didn't refer to:
Title: Consuming Pleasures: Active Audiences and Serial Fictions from
Dickens to Soap Opera
Author: Jennifer P. Hayward
Publication Date: November 1997
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Edition: illustrated
Pages: 232
Audience: General Adult
Bowker Subjects: TELEVISION PROGRAMS
General Subjects (BISAC): PERFORMING ARTS / Television / General
Dewey #: 791.45/6
Synopsis/Annotation: "To be continued...". Whether these words fall at
the end of The Empire Strikes Back or a TV commercial flirtation between
coffee-loving neighbors, true fans find them impossible to resist. Ever
since the 1830s, when Charles Dickens's Pickwick Papers enticed a mass
market for fiction, the serial has been a popular means of snaring avid
audiences.
In Consuming Pleasures Jennifer Hayward establishes serial fiction as a
distinct genre -- one defined by the activities of its audience rather than
by the formal qualities of the text. Ranging from installment novels,
mysteries, and detective fiction of the 1800s to the television and movie
series, comics, and advertisements of the twentieth century, serials are
loosely linked by what may be called, after Wittgenstein, "family
resemblances". These traits include intertwined subplots, diverse casts of
characters, dramatic plot reversals, suspense, and such narrative devices as
long-lost family members and evil twins.
Hayward chooses four texts -- Dicken's novel Our Mutual Friend (1864-65),
Milton Caniff's comic strip Terry and the Pirates (1934-46), and the soap
operas All My Children (1970-) and One Life to Live (1968) -- to represent
the evolution of serial fiction as a genre, and to analyze the peculiar draw
serials have upon their audiences.
Although the serial has enjoyed great marketplace success, traditional
literary and social critics have denounced its ties to mass culture,
claiming it preys upon passive fans. But Hayward argues that active serial
audiences have developed identifiable strategies of consumption, such as
collaborative reading and attempts to shape the production process.
Jacket Description: "Jennifer Hayward establishes serial fiction as a
distinct genre - one defined by the activities of its audience rather than
by the formal qualities of the text. Ranging from installment novels,
mysteries, and detective fiction of the 1800s to the television and movie
series, comics, and advertisements of the twentieth century, serials are
loosely linked by what may be called "family resemblances." These traits
include intertwined subplots, diverse casts of characters, dramatic plot
reversals, suspense, and such narrative devices as long-lost family members
and evil twins." "Although the serial has enjoyed great marketplace success,
traditional literary and social critics have denounced its ties to mass
culture, claiming it preys upon passive fans. But Hayward argues that serial
audiences have developed active strategies of consumption, such as
collaborative reading and attempts to shape the production process. In this
way fans have forced serial producers to acknowledge the power of the
audience."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North
America, Inc. All Rights Reserved (Blackwell)
--
DonnaB
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173572682.9...@j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<fifty....@yahoo.it> wrote:
> OK, again me and my (in)famous questions.
>
> First, I can't find those other Sam F. posts, and what is the exact
> name of that ATWT thread he replied to?
Now he has replied in more than one ATWT thread. See if these will help:
Message-ID: <YMadncC6cqDFB23Y...@giganews.com>
Message-ID: <1173457783....@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com>
Message-ID: <mpadnXzaPbjpjm3Y...@giganews.com>
Message-ID: <Y5CdnQeQAacfD3fY...@giganews.com>
Message-ID: <1173543302.3...@v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>
From: samford@mi ...
or
From: samford@mi ... (SamFord)
--
DonnaB
"A bride that didn't get married isn't any tougher than Laura Spencer not
dead." - Felicia GH 9/97
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173573452....@t69g2000cwt.googlegroups.com>, "Nymann"
<fifty....@yahoo.it> wrote:
I'm sorry. I thought you were coming back here, also. LOL I've thought
about replying to Sam Ford's blogs, but I am simply not a blogger, so it is
out of my comfort zone. I prefer dialogue, discussion, and a more
collaborative process!
And, my interest is greater than my time! Argh. I hate that.
--
DonnaB
"A day without regret is like a day without air for me." - Kendall, to
Greenlee, AMC, 4-8-04
MarkH
wrote:
> In rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs on 10 Mar 2007 16:24:43 -0800 in Msg.#
> DonnaB
I was on this newsgroup (I think it was still r.a.t.s) when Nancy Baym
was a part! Cool!
sam...@mit.edu
haven't seen a lot of the early stuff, but I was fascinated by ATWT
for as long as I could remember and have watched for years and also
done all I could to learn about the histories of the primary
characters, etc., for which Julie Poll's book was an excellent
resource. I've watched some other soaps from time-to-time for
comparison but have just never gotten as deeply involved in them. And
I'm also with you, in that I didn't know much about the inner workings
or that sort of thing until much later, in my case within this
decade. I've always thought it disadvantageous to the soaps industry
that there is no journalist seriously covering soaps. I also study and
avidly watch pro wrestling, which is a whole other can of worms, but
there is a professional journalist who quit his job to cover the pro
wrestling industry full-time, and it's made a big difference as far as
the accurate information available about the political and business
side of the shows.
Also, I know Nancy Baym, and her book Tune In, Log On, was a major
inspiration for my work. In a way, she discovered so much that now no
longer has to be said because some of the basic truths she unearths is
true of forums that brings fans together of any sort. As you point
out, various types of communities have much different cultures. I
post sometimes on PGP Soapbox, on Soap Central, at Media-Domain, and
now here some as well, and each of these places are certainly unique,
both in the type of people they draw and in the nature of the posts.
Nancy has an online blog now here, and I've really enjoyed conversing
with her throughout this project:
I agree that thinking of history as the enemy is horrifying, DonnaB,
but I'm also not surprised. The problem is that knowing the show does
not seem to be a prerequisite for hiring a creative talent, and
instead they just bring in someone who has written for three or four
other soaps and who often don't worry too much about the learning
curve of understanding the show. Frustrating when the fans care more
about the fictional world than the supposed gatekeepers of that
world...and I think that helps to explain why so many people have not
been addicted enough to these shows to have a problem disengaging.
You can only take so much frustration, I guess.
But I'm sure you would agree that there are enough good about these
shows, the sometimes brilliantly written scenes and stories and the
fabulous cast, that makes them worth hanging around
for.
While I don't watch AMC, I agree that I hope someone can get in and
straighten it out, as I've heard nothing good from fans for a while
about the direction that show was headed. Seems like a lot more
people are lively about GH, both good and bad. I'm interested in the
Night Shift show and also the recent 24-style storyline they did.
Neither were inherently bad ideas, but I wondered about the
execution. Since I don't follow GH closely, either, I'm not sure how
either has been/will be received.
I agree as well that my interest far outweighs my time, DonnaB. :) As
for posting on the blog, feel free to do so, as I agree that the
comments section should be like a dialogue, and at its best, the
comments area becomes more like a message board short term than a
blog...
sam...@mit.edu
all of the academic/analytic books and essays I could find on soaps,
along with a little paragraph describing each. It's not edited and
all nice and neat or anything, but anyone interested in seeing some of
the studies similar to the ones listed by DonnaB can feel free to e-
mail me at sam...@mit.edu.
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173726227.4...@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com>, sam...@mit.edu
wrote:
Don't worry about editing, tidiness! I changed the subject line & included
all these RATS NGs. I'm sure many people would be interested. Why not just
copy/paste them in here, even if it's a bit at a time, as you have or can
make time. It's a great resource!
I started doing some of it awhile ago. It's typing it up that keeps me from
making the time to do more!! LOL I have my eye on some collector software
that might make that easier.
--
DonnaB
"Bay City needs you, Bella, ... now more than ever." - Carl Hutchins to
Donna Love 8-20-97
sam...@mit.edu
helpful to include it on this thread or to create a new one for that
in particular?
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173709637.0...@8g2000cwh.googlegroups.com>, "MarkH"
<MarkH_s...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Title: Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community
> > Author: Nancy K. Baym
> > Publication Date: October 1999
> > Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
> > Country of Publication: United States
>
> I was on this newsgroup (I think it was still r.a.t.s) when Nancy Baym
> was a part! Cool!
Yes, I believe it was RATS pre-split.
--
DonnaB
"Did I miss a headline that hell froze over?!" - Rosanna, to Jordan, about
Babs hiring Carly to work for BRO, 4-8-04
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1173748838.7...@n33g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, sam...@mit.edu
wrote:
> DonnaB, I will try to to do that sometime soon. Would it be most
> helpful to include it on this thread or to create a new one for that
> in particular?
You're right. Beginning a new, clean thread would be the best.
--
DonnaB
"Didn't you have a career? Whatever happened to that?" - Kristen to Marlena,
DOOL, 1-2-97
DonnaB shallotpeel
<huEJh.14908$Wc....@bignews3.bellsouth.net>, "Jimmy Murphy"
<ogee...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I'm not sure if it was mentioned yet in the previous thread, but there is a
> book called _Serial Monogamy: Soap Opera, Lifespan, and the Gendered
> Politics of Fantasy_ by Chris Scodari. She used several people's input
> (including myself) on several plotlines playing out on soaps, most notably
> the Donna Love/Matthew Cory love story (and subsequent destruction of said
> story) and how it was affected by outside influences like focus groups.
> It's obviously been years since I contributed and I think the actual book
> didn't get published until 2004 (?), but it gives a really good view of how
> the Donna/Matt story was plowed under in spite of positive viewer response.
I was referring to Chris (Christine) Scodari & the work she did that
involved fans on RATS especially concerning GL's Vanessa & Matt and AW's
Matt & Donna, younger man/older woman storylines here somewhere, but I
didn't name her. I have some of her scholarship as it was presented in
published form, but not in book form per se. I'm delighted to hear that it
finally made it into a solo book of its own!
I emailed with her here about it numerous times, as well as being involved
in the posting.
And, yes, I'm still mad at the way they broke up Matt & Donna. <g> No,
really, I am.
--
DonnaB
"Yes, Juan: we know the libertine's philosophy. Always ignore the
consequences to the woman." - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) MAN AND
SUPERMAN [1903], Act III
sam...@mit.edu
Adams, Alina. "Death in the Afternoon: Soap Operas Turn to Crime."
Mystery Scene 88 (Winter 2005), 44-47.
Although written for the popular press, particularly a murder mystery
magazine, this essay provides an interesting study of a developing
story arc becoming increasingly common in soaps: the murder mystery,
and particularly the serial killer. Alina Adams, the author of a
series of murder mystery novels, talks with the writers of several
soaps to understand further why these trends have become popular in
the genre. Soap writers find that viewers are excited by the mystery
involved and the ability to tell the story in a day-to-day format, as
well as anxieties in American culture post-9/11 about mortality. A
writer with As the World Turns says, "You use the serial killer as an
archetype, but you're really talking about the fragility of your own
life, the fragility of your world." The piece provides some insight
as to how some of these common story elements that exist across soaps
come into being and are accepted by fans.
Allen, Robert C, Ed. Channels of Discourse: Television and
Contemporary Criticism. Chapel Hill, NC: U of North Carolina P, 1987.
Channels of Discourse is a collection of essays by various authors
designed to demonstrate the various academic approaches to studying
television. Since the book is edited by Robert C. Allen, it probably
comes as no surprise that soap opera ends up being an example used in
various chapters of the book. For instance, in Allen's own essay
regarding reception studies of criticism on television, he takes great
joy in using soap opera as one of his major examples of this type of
television scholarship, examining the ways that soap narratives are
structured by generic conventions that audiences expect-particularly,
the feeling of immortality of the show that leads to an open-
endedness. Allen correctly observes that "a final resolution to a
soap opera's narrative seems so unlikely in part because we follow the
activities of an entire community of characters rather than the fate
of a few protagonists." Allen also finds that redundancy is not used
for catching up new viewers, as would be supposed from most readings
of the texts, but that reading it from the point-of-view of the
dedicated audience, you find that redundancy of the information is
important because "who tells whom is just as important as what is
being told." In Jane Feuer's chapter on genre criticism, she writes
that British "soaps," nighttime "soaps," and American daytime drama
cannot be all included in one category because of the great
differences in the three (although her conclusions are all quite
negative toward American daytime soaps). In Sandy Flitterman-Lewis'
essay on psychoanalysis, she concludes with a lengthy analysis of an
episode of General Hospital to examine the vast differences between
film and television because, while classical Hollywood film unites,
daytime television fragments the viewer's attention in myriad ways
with a constantly moving camera, a vast landscape of characters and
storylines, and an insurmountable wealth of back story. Finally, in
E. Ann Kaplan's chapter on feminist study of television, Kaplan
synthesizes much of the previous feminist scholarship on soap operas
to provide an example of the development of feminist writing in
television studies.
Allen, Robert C. "Conversations with Scholars of American Popular
Culture." Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture 3.1
(Spring 2004), http://www. americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/
spring_2004/allen.htm.
This online journal identifies Speaking of Soap Operas as one of the
most important texts of media research and publish accounts that
credit the book with establishing a blow to empiricist accounts of
mass media. The piece provides an in-depth interview with Allen and
where he feels the study of soap opera has gone since he first began
writing on it in the early 1980s. Allen discusses what led he and his
Iowa colleagues to move toward putting their energy into researching
television. He also says he encountered no real barriers in writing
and researching about soap opera but that he worked at institutions
that would be more prone to welcome these types of studies anyway.
Allen also addresses the question of how much of the archives of soaps
still exist. He says the biggest challenges to soaps today are the
budgetary and audience concerns, as soaps are more expensive than talk
shows, and hardly any new soaps have been attempted in recent years on
American daytime television because there are fewer soap viewers and
soaps require a substantial investment on the part of viewers.
Allen, Robert C. "The Guiding Light: Soap Opera as Economic Product
and Cultural
Document." Television: The Critical View, Fourth Ed. Ed. Horace
Newcomb. New
York: Oxford UP, 1987, 141-163. Originally published in American
History/American
Television. Ed. John O'Connor. Frederick Ungar, 1983.
This, the first essay of several on soap opera from one of the most
established American scholars of the genre, is a bold statement that
the soap genre is worthy of scholarly focus, more than just one broad
overview. Allen approaches the soap opera from the perspective of a
historian, taking the oldest soap opera still broadcast-Guiding Light-
and attempting to establish both an understanding of the soap opera's
historical role in American commercial television and how a study of
soap opera as cultural phenomenon might be established. Further,
Allen demonstrates a possible way that textual analysis may be of
benefit, examining how meaning is created in a soap through examining
one particular episode of Guiding Light. Allen finds that soaps have
fairly consistent audiences in a given time, fairly consistent and
predictable costs, thus making them an interesting point of study not
only for scholars but also for nighttime commercial producers. Allen
provides a lively account of the success of soaps, establishes reasons
why the genre should be a serious part of television studies, and
provides many observations worthy of further research by subsequent
scholars.
Allen, Robert C. Speaking of Soap Operas. Chapel Hill, NC: U of
North Carolina P, 1985.
Robert C. Allen's first book on soap opera is one of the most often-
cited pieces on American soaps. Stemming from his earlier essay on
Guiding Light and the importance of understanding the cultural and
historical role of soap operas, Allen's book ties together some of the
various approaches to examining soaps. Here he more fully realizes
his earlier desire to encourage a body of scholarship on soap opera to
continue growing and tries to direct all of these strands of research
toward forming a body of scholarship on the history of soaps and, in
particular, a history of soap opera reception. Building off trends of
Marxist research in soaps and in reception studies of soaps, Allen
establishes the societal interpretation of the soap opera genre. As
he has mentioned in previous works, Allen is also interested in non-
traditional soap viewers, like himself, both college students as soap
viewers and male viewers of soap opera. Allen examines some of soap
operas' "historical, economic, aesthetic, and cultural features." He
establishes in the first two chapters the ways in which the body of
social science approaches to soap opera have not and cannot fully
understand the genre, as he finds much more meaning in the connotation
and in the margins than in quantifiable study of the show. This leads
to a study of "the soap opera as commodity" and "an institutional
history of soap operas" juxtaposed and interweaved with chapters on "a
reader-oriented poetics of the soap opera" and a concluding movement
toward a history of soap opera reception.
Allen, Robert C, Ed. To Be Continued...Soap Operas Around the World.
London: Routledge, 1995.
Robert Allen provides yet another important work in the body of
scholarship on soap opera with the 1995 release of To Be Continued...
This book provides an international view of soap opera examining both
the points of similarity and of difference amongst soaps from
different cultures. Taking into account the strong history of
scholarship in Britain and America but also soaps in regions usually
ignored in soap opera studies, such as Latin America and China.
Focusing principally on books about American soaps, the collection
includes several of the scholars who play an important role in writing
about soaps in the decade to come-Louise Spence, Laura Stempel
Mumford, Roger Hagedorn, Joy Fuqua, and Daniel Miller join Ellen
Seiter and Gabriele Kreutzner, Jeremy Butler, Ian Ang, and Charlotte
Brunsdon in writing about the soap opera. Again, many of these essays
I have yet to be able to examine in detail, and many of them will be
worth focusing on in and of themselves. The work contains a broad
variety of topics, however-looking at fantasy and pleasure in viewing
soaps, the importance of actors and characters in soap opera in a
particularly interesting essay by Jeremy Butler; the treatment of
paternity on soaps; the treatment of homophobia and AIDS on One Life
to Live, the consumption of The Young and the Restless in Trinidad,
and an essay by Charlotte Brunsdon entitled "the role of soap opera in
the development of feminist television scholarship," an important
history that is captured well in Brunsdon's work.
Ang, Ien. Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic
Imagination. Trans. Della Couling. London: Methuen, 1985.
Ien Ang's study would seemingly fall outside of the boundaries I have
set for my study-the book is on the Dutch reception of a nighttime
serial drama, and one that I feel is as different from daytime serials
as it is similar, Dallas. However, Ang's book is important to my
study for two reasons-the work is often cited in subsequent research
on American soap opera, and Ang takes the study of soap opera fans
together by directly taking individual accounts from audience member
as the basis for a study of Dallas. Ang's goal is to gain greater
understanding of the pleasures of watching Dallas to contribute to an
understanding of why an international audience would become as
involved with an American show as it has. Ang's study is most
interesting to me because of its method-straightforwardly asking
viewers to send accounts of why they enjoy watching Dallas to her for
a college thesis project. By giving the audience an active voice,
Ang's work is a precursor to a later drive toward understanding soap
opera viewers as a fan community.
Anger, Dorothy. Other Worlds: Society Seen Through Soap Opera.
Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 1999.
Dorothy Anger joins the discussion of soaps by examining first the
genre and its history and then the history of (principally feminist)
scholarship on soap opera. She finds it important to distinguish
daytime soaps from nighttime dramas often lumped with them but
discusses British and American soaps interchangeably. Anger develops
the following four criteria for distinguishing a soap opera-multiple
storylines that continue on each episode, for which an end is never
reached, which is aired more than once a week, and which derives its
content primarily from emotion and personal issues. Anger provides a
strong overview of the soap opera industry in her chapter entitled
"The Art of the Soaps I: The Production Machine," followed by an
examination of the soap as fans see it in "The Art of the Soaps II:
Actors, Characters, and Stories." She then searches for messages
within the soaps and concludes with a discussion of "who watches, why,
and what soaps tell us about ourselves."
marika
sam...@mit.edu wrote in message
<1174226475.0...@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>...
>I will start with the As:
>
>Adams, Alina. "Death in the Afternoon: Soap Operas Turn to Crime."
>Mystery Scene 88 (Winter 2005), 44-47.
>Although written for the popular press, particularly a murder mystery
>magazine, this essay provides an interesting study of a developing
>story arc becoming increasingly common in soaps: the murder mystery,
>and particularly the serial killer. Alina Adams, the author of a
>series of murder mystery novels, talks with the writers of several
>soaps to understand further why these trends have become popular in
>the genre. Soap writers find that viewers are excited by the mystery
>involved and the ability to tell the story in a day-to-day format, as
>well as anxieties in American culture post-9/11 about mortality. A
>writer with As the World Turns says, "You use the serial killer as an
>archetype, but you're really talking about the fragility of your own
>life, the fragility of your world."
one day when I had time off, I watched this show
>The piece provides some insight
>as to how some of these common story elements that exist across soaps
>come into being and are accepted by fans.
it was fascinating to watch
and then I read the following, and was reminded that not everything makes
sense
"Why would a rich guy be taking classes at a community college in
the deep South? If he's rich, why does he need to learn a trade?
If it's for the education, why isn't he at some expensive preppy
private college in the Northeast?"--virgo cluster
DonnaB shallotpeel
<1SERh.135148$_73.6...@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net>, "marika"
<mce...@mindspring.com> wrote:
What rich guy? What community college? Where? What trade? Etc.? Without some
more info, this seems to be something that does not make sense, LOL.
--
DonnaB
"We are born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we
are fit to participate in society." - Judith Martin (Miss Manners)
sam...@mit.edu
> more info, this seems to be something that does not make sense, LOL.
Yeah, I'm perplexed on this one as well. Did anyone ever go to
community college on <i>Dallas</i>? Here are the "B" entries from my
annotated bibliography:
Baym, Nancy K. "Talking About Soaps: Communicative Practices in a
Computer-Mediated Fan
Culture." Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture and Identity. Ed.
Cheryl Harris and
Alison Alexander. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton, 1998.
Nancy Baym develops the recent trend in fan community research by
looking directly and the Internet fan community in this precursor to
her later book Tune In, Log On. Basing her work on Brown's research
and taking a similar approach to Hayward in working with the Usenet's
rec.arts.tv.soaps group, Baym provides a brief analysis of the roles
that this online community plays, structuring her work by examining
the different communicative practices prevalent in r.a.t.s.:
informing, speculating, criticizing, and reworking the text through
discussions. Baym identifies discussion as an important part of the
soap experience that enhances the texts and provides various meanings
as mediated through "soap talk." Of all the work currently published
in the field, Baym's work is the most directly relevant to my thesis
plans, and this essay provides an overview of her later book.
Previous work by Baym has been published in 1993 and 1995 on computer-
mediated fan culture that I have yet to hunt down.
Baym, Nancy K. Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community.
London: Sage,
2000. Chapter "'I Think of Them as Friends': Interpersonal
Relationships in the Online
Community" published in Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-
Reader, Second Edition. Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humes. Thousand
Oaks: Sage, 2003, 488-496
Nancy K. Baym's book provides the most articulate explanation of her
position and research on Internet fan communities of soap opera. Baym
begins with explaining her personal stake in soap operas and her role
as an active member of the Internet community she is writing about.
She follows this up with a detailed reaction to and dismissal of the
stereotypes against both soap operas and soap opera fans. She then
spends much of the book interpreting and understanding the soap opera
audience and identifying the behaviors most prevalent in the
communication of these audiences-interpretive practices, informative
practices, and social functions. This is followed by an examination
of soap criticism in these communities, including the "watching
despite the faults" line of posts and humorous performance involved in
criticizing soaps, as well as the community-building function of
criticism. She continues on to examine, in detail, the friendships
that develop on the board and both the freedoms and limitations
involved in friendships in this social setting. Finally, Baym looks
at the development of identity in these collective online communities
and how this intersects with offline identities before concluding with
looking at further developments in understanding online communities.
This book is key to my research in looking at the functions of these
online communities and the interaction between these communities and
the soap production companies.
Blumenthal, Dannielle. Women and Soap Opera: A Cultural Feminist
Perspective. Westport,
CT: Praeger, 1997.
Dannielle Blumenthal enters the scholarly conversation on soap opera
with this short book that clearly establishes both its academic-ness
and its positioning within the feminist criticism of soaps in its very
title. Blumenthal examines the development of feminist theory in a
sociological domain, taking into account the changes brought about by
studying cultural artifacts from the perspective of effects, from
gratifications, and from audience response, leading to feminist
perspectives on meaning construction. Blumenthal enters the
discussion about a feminist aesthetic in relation to soap opera and
concludes her study with a look at the social devaluation of watching
soaps and two ways in which soaps enrich the lives of viewers-soaps as
self-nurturance, setting aside time away from caring for others; and
soaps as communal "womanspace," in her attempt to view soaps as
praxis, an empowering force for women.
Brown, Mary Ellen. Soap Opera and Women's Talk: The Pleasure of
Resistance. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994.
After her previous anthology on female viewers and their relationship
to television in 1990, Mary Ellen Brown follows up with a book solely
authored by her focusing completely on the role of women's talk and
gossip in framing the enjoyment of soap opera. Brown found her
understanding of soap operas to be severely limited when studying them
until she actively became a part of the fan culture and took part in
discussing soap operas, both "her" soap and others, with other members
of fan communities. Brown foregrounds her own existence within the
fan community she is doing an ethnography of and sees it as a strength
of her work instead of a flaw. The book first develops a history of
feminism in relation to television watching and the history of oral
traditions and gossip that she focused on previously in her essay in
the 1990 book. Then, Brown examines the history of soaps and then
looks into research on soap opera viewers and audience analysis in
general. The rest of the book examines these fan communities in
general and the way they operate in ways very useful for my study.
Brown, Mary Ellen. Television and Women's Culture: The Politics of
the Popular. London:
Sage, 1990.
Following the release of Remote Control, Mary Ellen Brown joined in
this publication trend on the female television viewer the next year
with a collection of essays. In particular, Brown was joined by Ien
Ang, Caren J. Deming, and Andrea L. Press in writing about issues
related to soap opera. Deming demonstrates a scholarly distance from
the soap opera that writers such as Brunsdon and Allen do not seem to
agree with and questions soaps on grounds of taste to a degree, but
she finds that the form of open-ended storytelling without need for
complete narrative closure may be the strongest draw for female
viewers. Ien Ang continues studying Dallas by looking at the ways in
which Dallas is and is not a soap opera, supposing that Dallas
features more traditionally masculine storylines than nighttime soaps
but finding that both treat the personal life as the core and that
both have excessive plot structure before focusing on a study of the
Sue Ellen character from Dallas in particular. Press studies female
viewer responses to Dynasty, while Brown ties together a study of the
narrative of soap opera and the gossip surrounding soap viewing with
Bakhtin's analysis of the carnival, incorporating ethnographic work of
soap viewers. Again, as with Remote Control, the book presents four
essays that will be worth further study and contemplation in terms of
their impact on the study of soap operas.
Brunsdon, Charlotte. "Crossroads: Notes on Soap Opera." Screen
Tastes: Soap Opera to
Satellite Dishes. London: Routledge, 1997, 13-18. Originally
published in Screen 22.4
(1981).
Although focused on British soaps, Charlotte Brunsdon's look at
Crossroads is an influential piece on soap opera. Brunsdon examines
television material to find that the female is the intended audience
of the show and then sets out to establish some of the common
tendencies of the form of these shows. She examines the treatment of
time within episodes and from episode to episode and the treatment of
space related to budget constraints for sets. Ultimately, she finds
that both time and space are necessarily fragmented by the nature of
the show, and the emphasis must thus be on the drama of the dialogue.
This short examination of soap form leads to a similar study of
audience reception in which Brunsdon argues that soaps have three
types of "cultural competency" that they require from the viewer-
knowledge of the genre, knowledge of the series in particular, and
"cultural knowledge of the socially acceptable codes and conventions
for the conduct of personal life."
Brunsdon, Charlotte. "Feminism and Soap Opera." Screen Tastes: Soap
Opera to
Satellite Dishes. London: Routledge, 1997, 26-28. Originally
published in Out of Focus.
Ed. Kath Davies, Julienne Dickey, and Teresa Stratford. London: The
Women's P, 1987.
Charlotte Brunsdon continues the positive developments in looking at
soap operas from a feminist perspective by examining why soaps were
ignored or even hated during the beginning stages of feminist
scholarship. Brunsdon highlights the personal reactions she received
from fellow feminist scholars for watching soaps and also the (lack
of) earlier scholarship on soaps but instead the hostility that
scholars-many of whom had hardly ever actually watched the genre-felt
against soap operas as being anti-feminist and a hegemonic device
directed toward housewives. Instead, in this brief piece, Brunsdon
identifies the more recent trends of treating soaps in a more nuanced
way, which she believes is popularized by the development of more high-
budget soaps in Britain and nighttime soaps in America. Brunsdon
attempts to provide a more balanced understanding of the female
characters in soap operas to contribute further to the by-now fully
development feminist strain of soap opera criticism.
Brunsdon, Charlotte. The Feminist, The Housewife, and The Soap
Opera. London: Oxford UP,
2000.
By 2000, Charlotte Brunsdon is shocked that the genre she started
writing about in the late 1970s which was so looked down upon was now
being taught on college campuses as a legitimate form of television
studies. In order to understand this development, she uses this book
not to study the soap opera but to study the development of the study
of soap opera, particularly as it happened from the mid-1970s until
the mid-1980s. She examines some of the key pieces and scholars who
worked to get soap opera accepted as a legitimate form of study. This
book focuses particularly on the feminist television studies movement
of which Brunsdon, Hobson, Seiter, and many others were a part of,
including interviews with several of the key scholars in legitimizing
the study of soap opera. Brunsdon seems to feel that, in many ways,
writing about feminist television criticism has been a greater
accomplishment than her participation in actually writing the
criticism. The book is important for understanding this, the most
vibrant and popular area of soap opera studies.
Brunsdon, Charlotte. "Introduction: The Defence of Soap Opera."
Screen Tastes: Soap Opera to
Satellite Dishes. London: Routledge, 1997, 9-12.
In this brief piece, Charlotte Brunsdon assesses the development of
the field of research on soap opera in general, noting many of the
important contributions between her essays before reprinting several
of her most widely cited works. Brunsdon points to the development of
work in the 1990s toward developing a stronger body of scholarship on
American soap operas in particular, whereas British soap opera and
European responses to American nighttime dramas had received far more
scholarship in the 1980s. The piece provides little in terms of new
ideas but is a good synthesis for understanding where Brunsdon sees
her work fitting in and where she sees the development of soap opera
studies headed.
Brunsdon, Charlotte. "Writing About Soap Opera." Television
Mythologies: Stars, Shows, and
Signs. Ed. Len Masterman. London: Comedia, 1984, 82-87. Reprinted
in Screen Tastes:
Soap Opera to Satellite Dishes. London: Routledge, 1997, 19-25.
Charlotte Brusndon again writes about soap opera and its place in
British society, partially as a reaction to Dorothy Hobson's book
specifically examining British soap opera Crossroads (at this point, I
have considered Hobson's view out of the direct purview of my study
because of its singular focus on Crossroads.) Brunsdon's work is
again applicable to American soaps because she writes about some of
the general feelings of connection viewers feel with characters and
also because Brunsdon has been used so often by later American
scholars. Brunsdon examines ways in which external sources have a
direct effect on viewing soaps, similar to film studies approaches of
looking at press materials and their impact on understanding films and
film stars. Brunsdon finds that behind-the-scenes stories from cast
members and newspaper accounts and letters from the editor on soaps
that appear from time-to-time effect the way these shows are looked at
but also, because the characters on soaps are often made to feel like
they exist in our world, everyday events can always be related
directly back to the soap opera. For instance, how will the soap
characters be spending the holidays or reacting to the latest news, a
viewer could wonder.
Buckman, Peter. All for Love: A Study in Soap Opera. London: Secker
& Warburg, 1984.
While I have actively chosen to restrict using much of the scholarship
on British soaps in my project at this point, Buckman's book is of
particular interest to me both in the structure of his study and in
its importance of understanding the connections and departures of
British soaps with American soaps. Buckman studies the soaps in both
cultures through his work, and a theme throughout the book is a
comparison of the genre in both countries and the way that the
programming is similar and different. Buckman decides to take a
rather broad definition of soaps, including nighttime dramas that air
once-a-week like Dallas and various shows that attempt to resist the
stereotype of being a soap opera while using many of the genre's
conventions. Buckman's approach is also very useful, as each chapter
examines a particular aspect in the soap opera industry: the
conventions, the characters, the plots, the writers, the actors, the
directors and producers, the critics, and the audience. This more
Marxist structuring of understanding soaps helps establish the way
television functions in society and the various influences each of
these aspects of soap opera production have on the finished product.
Butler, Jeremy. "Notes on the Soap Opera Apparatus: Televisual Style
and As the World Turns."
Cinema Journal 25.3 (Spring 1986), 53-70.
Jeremy Butler sets himself apart from what he sees were the current
trends of studying soap opera-narrative criticism of soaps,
sociological studies of media effects, studies of reception and
audience demographics, and feminist criticism. However, Butler
identifies a lack of work of understanding the visual style of soaps
and endeavors to examine the televisual style based on As the World
Turns, similar to Bernard Timborg's approach to studying the camera in
soaps and sees his essay as a movement toward a history of televisual
style in the soap opera genre, by chronicling the style used on this
show in 1984. Butler studies the style in terms of space, time
through editing, and sound (through dialogue, music and noise).
Butler writes extensively about the limitations that this brings to
the cultural producer-soaps generally only air one time, so the texts
of soaps of yesteryear are much more transient. In regard to time,
Butler writes extensively about how time on soaps may not be
manipulated within a scene but only between scenes and between
episodes.