The end of an era

There was a routine in the summers. Ryan's Hope, Loving, followed by All My Children, One Life to Live, General Hospital, and Edge of Night were watched like clockwork. Lunch would be made and served either during All My Children or One Life to Live. After Edge went off, the kitchen was cleaned and Uno or Spades was played either at the kitchen table or outside in the backyard on a blanket. This was my summer routine with Mona, Monday through Friday.

And to hear last week that AMC and OLTL were going off the air hurt me. I no longer watched the shows, but I was familiar with the main characters still, got updates from time to time. Soap operas, called that because soap companies advertised during the shows, were something I grew up with and still watched as an adult. My first theme song I remembered hearing as a child was the haunting chords of The Young and the Restless. I knew the words to OLTL's theme song when they had one. I watched when they did live episodes. I probably know the Martins' or Buchannans' family history better than my own.

An era of television is dying. Shows that have existed for over thirty years on television, some shows that started in radio, made the jump to television, went from fifteen minutes to thirty minutes to an hour, from black and white to color, are leaving the airways. Why aren't more people outraged? Yes, it is true all of primetime is a soap opera. Most shows aren't bottled episodes. Yes, you can jump into The Good Wife at anytime, but the show will have more meaning if you know the back history of the characters and have been watching from day one.

I hope soaps return in some form one day. But for now, I'll just be sad that an era that was passed down from one generation to another is slowing and painfully going away and I might not be able to pass it down to my kids as it was passed down to me.