Word: soaping
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Over at General Hospital, once TV's top-rated soap and currently a slightly faded No. 3, writers seem to be aiming for morbid, publicity-conscious social relevance. Last week ABC held a press conference to announce the launch of a new G.H. plot line revolving around dyslexic heartthrob Stone Cates (Michael Sutton). Stone, a former street kid who dates likable Port Charles teen Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough), has just discovered that he is HIV positive. His illness will progress in what network press material describes as "real time" and will "not be rushed for the sake of accommodation...
Whether outre plots or gimmicky marketing will succeed in reviving the soaps remains to be seen. Traditionalists think that the tactics are unlikely to help. "We are not just competing with other forms of media and murder trials but with faster-paced, more sophisticated life-styles," notes veteran soap-opera writer Tom Citrano, formerly of General Hospital and currently with Loving. "It's not about coming up with spectacular plots, or comic-book stories, or public-service announcements but with stories that mirror contemporary life...
Hoping to woo back former fans and keep the ones they have, the soaps are also aggressively promoting themselves with such memorabilia as trading cards, coffee mugs, T shirts and books, as well as prime-time specials. Some are cleverly marketing videos that feature best-loved scenes and character histories. Available in video stores and supermarkets and through mail order, the tapes recycle old footage and thus cost little to produce. "It's a great example of using what you have and making money twice on it," says Michael Kape, managing editor of the weekly newsletter Soap Opera...
...conjunction with Reva Shayne Lewis' (Kim Zimmer) recent resurrection from the dead on Guiding Light, the soap is selling Reva: The Scarlet Years. ABC is pushing Daytime's Greatest Weddings, a three-part collection featuring memorable nuptials from three of the network's soaps: All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. "We knew people wanted to see Luke and Laura's wedding again," says abc Daytime president Pat Fili-Krushel of the 1981 G.H. episode that garnered through-the-roof ratings. "People remember where they were and what they were doing when these events happened." Finally, there...
...will air another prime-time soap special on June 21, which will plug summer story lines for all its daytime dramas. The summer season is an important one for soaps because it offers the prospect of an expanded audience of teenagers home from school. CBS Daytime is launching a high-visibility summer campaign that includes radio, print and prime-time advertising in cities where viewer decline has been particularly precipitous, such as Atlanta, Detroit, Seattle and Washington...