If a year ago someone bet me that a modern-day soap opera would not only put their African-American characters in a front burner storyline that was deeply entrenched in social issues, which had nothing to do with the color of one’s skin, race or ethnicity, I’d owe that person plenty of money right about now.
In life you set goals for yourself, or at least you try to. You even have expectations for yourself that you hope will eventually get fulfilled. In my case, over the years I had set a specific list of goals that included certain expectations as they related to one another. Earlier this year, I officially crossed one of the major things off that list. It wasn’t easy as it had plagued me for nearly a decade. A stepping stone you might call it. I took up something many years ago that eventually became impossible to maintain on a full-time basis. I decided to do it part-time. I went from part-time to being very part-time. Later you could say I dropped it completely in order to concentrate on the things that either gave me personal joy and fulfillment (this site) or put several well earned dollars in my pocket. I imagine I’m not the only one out there who’s ever had pull some sort of double duty in their lifetime. Right?
Late last month we released a new layout of our website that was to allow us to present our content in manner we’ve been working towards for some time. Unfortunately, the design came with some issues that needed to be cleaned up. That cleanup left the site virtually silent news and interview wise. That’s now over.
If things look a little bit different around here it’s because things are different. As promised on our social networks, we have been working very hard behind the scenes leading up to this Thanksgiving holiday weekend to bring you the best user experience at Soap Opera Network, which not only includes the most up-to-date soap opera related content, but also a more visually appealing layout with page speed in mind. As a result of our new design, there will be plenty of new features we’ll be able to play around with that’ll provide our readers with the best presentation of our content, including this puppy.
Nearly two months after filming completed, singer Roxanna has released the full music video for her single, “Here with Me,” the highly anticipated prequel to 2012’s “Unforgotten.” Both music videos feature former “Days of our Lives” star James Scott (ex-EJ DiMera), who described his character as being “…a little bit more refined, more of a James Cagney type character.” He noted, “there is a real elegance and beauty to this story. It has a much more romantic sensibility, much more fantasy… It is less intense in terms of the overt physical dynamic between the two characters, but I think that the underplay of the relationship between the two is actually much, much more intense.”
Using beats from Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” and 50 Cents’ “In Da Club,” “Days of our Lives” stars Jen Lilley (Theresa) and Meredith Scott Lynn (Anne) released a hilarious rap video earlier today for those needing a recap of all the things happening in Salem USA. The video includes cameo appearances by several cast members (including James Scott and Alison Sweeney), crew and even the shows’ publicity team.
From re-runs of soap classics “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Another World,” “Port Charles,” and “Falcon Crest,” to the launches of original series “SoapCenter,” “Soap Talk” and “General Hospital: Night Shift,” SOAPnet was defined as the “new way to watch soaps” for much of its near 14-year run. With just 2 days left before SOAPnet is no more, we thought it would be a great opportunity to look back at the inaugural year of a network that gave diehard soap fans their own platform to shout with glee through the death of a network that outlived its purpose.
With the impending debut of Ryan Paevey on Monday, December 30 in the contract role of Detective Nathan West on ABC’s “General Hospital,” many have noted that they’ve seen “that guy” before and if you’re one of the millions of users that watched Christina Aguilera’s “Your Body” music video on YouTube last year, you’re definitely on the right track. In the video, which shows Aguilera taking control against a male dominated society, Paevey is spotted flirting with the singer while they play a game of pool before heading to the bathroom for a little fun, but instead turns into something blue!
Celebrating its 12th year online, Soap Opera Network is currently experiencing its biggest year on record in terms of page views and unique visitors. This year we’ve been able to provide exclusive insight into the world of soaps while bringing readers inside the minds of some of their favorite characters and actors featured on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of our Lives,” “General Hospital” and “The Young and the Restless.” As we come off of the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we’re gearing up for even more features in the coming weeks and the new year including the return of the SON Awards along with the annual Airhog Awards, while introducing new features such as our first annual best and worst of the year report and our new best of soaps weekly poll highlighting the best actors, best soaps, and best storylines of the week for both daytime and primetime soap opera related programming. To better present all this content we’ve made significant alterations to our website design that gets rid of clutter and inactive coding that previously prevented the site from being presented in the best way possible. The new design codenamed “refresh” was launched today.
It’s not uncommon for soap opera stars to appear in music videos (we’ve even done features about it in the past), but “General Hospital’s” Sean Kanan (A.J. Quartermaine; ex-Deacon Sharpe, “The Bold and the Beautiful”/“The Young and the Restless”) and his wife, Michele Kanan, have turned the tables: The duo actually made their own music video specifically about the genre!
On Tuesday, February 26, just one day after resuming production on “All My Children” after more than a year a half since ending its ABC run, the cast of the soap got together on set to perform “The Harlem Shake” for the TOLN Extras YouTube channel, where fans can get up close and personal with their favorite TOLN stars. Earlier today TOLN released the performance of “Harlem Shake,” while also announcing that soap fans will soon learn THIS WEEK when “AMC” will premiere on Hulu, Hulu Plus, and iTunes. Previously, the network only noted that “AMC” and sister soap “One Life to Live” would premiere this spring.
Sunday, August 19 is United Nations World Humanitarian Day, and in anticipation of the world wide initiative, Beyoncé Knowles has released her new music video “I Was Here,” which was filmed on Friday, August 10 at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
Last summer I was lucky enough to be included as an interviewee in the new soap opera themed documentary appropriately titled “Soap Life,” which follows the life, and possible death, of daytime soap operas. I can’t believe I forgot all about it and didn’t realize it until this morning!
Ten years is a longtime for a website to remain in operation. It is thanks to all of you that we’ve been able to provide you with the most up-to-date, current and timely information relating to the genre of soap operas between our SON Community and our reporting team. Unfortunately, in the past month there hasn’t been much of any up-to-date, current or timely information relating to the genre of soap operas posted on Soap Opera Network by its reporting team.
“All My Children’s” replacement show “The Chew” debuts today, just three days after “AMC” aired its final episode on ABC, and I can’t help myself in wishing it would just go away. No, it isn’t the show or what it is all about. In a perfect world I’d care to watch it from time to time, after all we all have to cook good and healthy meals don’t we? But it is the way the network went about handling “The Chew” which included non-stop advertising during “AMC’s” final weeks on television along with non-stop advertising on soap opera centered websites including Soap Opera Network that I find myself saying “what a way to spit on your audience.”
What started out as a typical week that began on July 25 ended up being one of the worst in Soap Opera Network history, but you wouldn’t have known it from a behind the scenes perspective.
(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — The last time I wrote an edition of the Editor's Notebook was August 12, 2008. A lot has…
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 5:00 AM EST | By Errol Lewis Dear Readers, When we came up with the Bringing.Drama.Closer…