Had a few ideas for today, but once word came down that Guiding Light, a show that is so old it began as a 15-minute radio serial, is shutting down, the answer was easy.
Obviously, the main market for soap operas, the "housewife," is becoming as cliché as the form itself. Originally called soap operas because, you guessed it, they were sponsored by soap companies (Palmolive, Lever Brothers--now Unilever--etc.) whose main customer was likely stuck at home all day with some kind of early robotic washboard in what was the beginning of our unnatural obsession for cleanliness. Procter & Gamble, the megahuge multinational manufacturer, is, even still, the one who actually makes Guiding Light.
This is a form of entertainment so dated and cliche that a parody ran on network TV 30 years ago. It's hard to believe they've survived this long after the turn of the millennium.
Guiding Light was hard-up enough to introduce a budding lesbian relationship, which apparently didn't have enough heat. The one and only time I would watch this drivel was when I was at home sick from elementary school and even then it didn't make sense. I didn't have much choice--there were only 4 channels I could watch.
We won't miss soap operas because we never watched them in the first place. This is an entire realm that TWWM is based on. Phenomena that blew up with Baby Boomers and will perish with them.
Stay tuned.
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