raster, sexier
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soaps
Poor Jenny Gardner! Blackmailed by
Una the slut and haunted by the return of
her rapist father, she has just returned to
Pine Valley after a successful modeling
job in New York City to be with her
boyfriend, Greg But her return is marred
by Liza's latest jealous plot to end her
relationship with Greg. That's a lot for a
high school girl of 17 to go through
People will eagerly watch Jenny
stumble from one crisis to another, year
after year They are deeply concerned
about what happens in Pine Valley, the
home of ABC's soap opera All My
Children ''
A large number of University students
follow afternoon soap operas with a
religious passion They are part of a
growing number of young adults who
memorize the characters and intricate
plots with an accountant's precision for
detail.
Look out Luke! It was easy for him to
save Port Charles from being turned into
a giant ice cube, and just as easy to leave
Laura, the girl he raped and later
married. But can he get back the money
that locals invested with him and lost
because he was fooled by an oil-drilling
scam?
Campus soap fans are a new
generation, different from the stereo
typical housewives of the 60 s who cried
in front of their television sets from mor
ning to mid-afternoon Campus soap
aficionados are mostly female, but more
men are watching afternoon drama.
“Yeah, there are a lot of football
players watching soap operas," says
Keith, an "All My Children" fan. One
football player at University Inn says he
prefers "The Young and the Restless"
over others “I think it’s more realistic,"
he says "The others are just too
bizarre."
Ray Gardner would be a nasty guy,
even if he wasn't a convicted rapist.
Once married to Opal Gardner, Jenny’s
mother and Pine Valley's sewer dweller
on the social ladder, he was believed to
be dead for many years while actually in
jail serving a sentence for the rape of
Ruth Gordon, long-time Pine Valley bu
sybody Now back in town, Ray is being
used by Liza in her latest plot to get
revenge against Greg, her former
sweetheart. Ruth, paranoid as usual, has
bought a gun in case Ray comes back
again.
Most campus soap fans can only
watch the shows two or three times a
week because of conflicts with classes.
Last year some die-hard fans from
Carson Hall dormitory got around that
problem by using a videotape recorder to
see the shows they missed during the
day, according to Brenda, a sophomore
Many students watch the soaps in the
television room of the Fishbowl in the
EMU. Usually there're a few empty seats,
but sophomore Jenny Lusk says "When
Luke and Laura got married (last year on
"General Hospital "), you couldn't even
get in there”
Brenda says that her roommate last
year was so hooked she would leave her
half-eaten lunch in the cafeteria to go
watch "All My Children."
“I'll skip class sometimes if the
action's really good,” says Greta, a
freshman. She and three friends in
Hamilton complex have been “All My
Children” fans since eighth grade
Sophomore Michelle Olford says she
didn’t watch soap operas very much in
high school. Since she scheduled her
classes around the soaps this year, she’s
become an expert on "All My Children"
and “The Young and the Restless.”
“You develop an obsession once you
start following the shows,” says Jenny
Lusk. Her “General Hospital" souvenir
glass is a relic from the days when she
used to watch the show religiously. "I
feel guilty whenever I watch one. I know
there's something else I should be
doing."
Sammy Davis Jr. is being killed bv
television. Portraying a washed-up,
dying entertainer, Davis has a heart
attack in the middle of a benefit concert
for the Port Charles sports center for
disadvantaged youths, who are curiously
never seen. Will any of the dozen or so
General Hospital doctors in the audience
save his life?
Many students begin watching soaps
out of sheer boredom. “I just have a free
hour, that's all," says Dave Bass. He
started watching "General Hospital" at
the Fishbowl in late October.
It was the summer before sixth grade
when Brenda got hooked on the soaps.
The shows appealed to her, she says,
because “here was the first image I saw
of the real adult world and I was able to
find out what grown-ups were like to
each other. I guess, looking back now,
that it’s really not the best impression for
a kid to get."
Many girls started watching the soaps
during junior high school. Robin, a
freshman, says "My friends were always
talking about "All My Children" at
school. I wanted to know what they were
talking about and be part of the
conversation.” She's been following the
Pine Valley gossip since the eighth
grade.
A whole industry has grown up around
soap operas, including no less than a
dozen soap opera magazines, with
features like the baseball game between
soap opera all-stars and Rochester, N.Y.,
media all-stars, the "startling predictions
about your soap opera fave’s for next
year” and the latest women Tony Geary
(Luke of "General Hospital”) has been
seen with. Advertisements urge you to
buy “the exclusive wedding album from
Luke and Laura's wedding."
"Life is a soap opera,” Jenny Lusk
explains "They exaggerate human
reactions and emotions, but they are
really a reflection of society."
Most soap opera plots run between
three and six months at a time, according
to an interview with "The Edge of Night"
headwriter Henry Slesar in "Afternoon
TV,” a soap opera magazine.
"It would be boring to watch the shows
if the characters weren't so emotional.
That’s part of the fun,” explains Hannah
Walker. She and her boyfriend watched
"All My Children” last summer.
Slesar explains in the interview that
"ABC picked it up first — more action,
less introspection, fewer older people’s
marital problems and more externalism,
faster moving, more violence, definitely
more sex, but that came with the
permissiveness of the era.”
Brenda echoes some of Slesar’s
comments. "My women's studies class
took a look at how the soaps handle
some topics,” she says. "On “All My
Children,” Erica and Mark were already
in bed before they found out they were
actually half-brother and half-sister
There's also some violence, as when Ann
was blown up by a car-bomb meant for
someone else.
"Rape and abortion on General Ho
spital’ are handled pretty well, but the
way Laura had to fall in love with her
rapist was really unbelievable,” Brenda
says. “We examined one study about
why there are so many lawyers and doc
tors on soap operas. The study conclud
ed that those people had more intere
sting and dramatic events in life that lent
themselves to TV drama. I don't see why
a plumber or a carpenter can’t have an
interesting life on TV.”
So the Pine Valley watchers will
eagerly await the next week of drama in
the sordid saga of "All My Children."
Perhaps one day Jenny and Greg will
find true happiness, Ray will finally
reform himself and Opal will learn the
meaning of the word “fashion."
Story by Tom Gronke
Photos by Mark Pynes