Thursday, April 2, 2009

Viewership



So now They've canceled The Guiding Light

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/guiding-light-canceled-af_n_181863.html


Not that I was watching it at all, in 30 years....

My Grannie was a fan of As The World Turns,
&, since I was with her most of my preschool days,
so was I...
I remember when Lisa was a dewy-eyed adolescent.
I was always struck by the gravity & aplomb
despite unrelenting tragedies
of the pale heroine Ellen....
(silent waters run deep)

But I watched ATWT only once or twice in 20 years
just to see who was still around
& how many gray hairs & wrinkles around the eyes
they had sustained.

The last soap opera I tuned in was an accidental glimpse
of a show I can't even remember the name of...
but it had twin dwarves, one evil & one well-meaning
(unless it was only the Evil One working a ruse),
& a whole lot of wallowing around in bed.

I was shocked, truly, & to the core.

No, I've been way too busy for a very long time
to get hooked on a daytime soap
& yet I am sorry to hear that the empathy quotient
on the part of the stay-at-home demographic
has waned so low due to personified love-lorn mops & brooms,
tooth-whitening, ab-melting products,
& relentless medicine ads
(ask your doctor about it),
& any number of other key factors I'm blissfully unaware of
(perhaps the former audience members are all on the Internet blogging),
has resulted in the demise of a melodrama born in 1937,
an ironic birthdate,
such a watershed
despite being a globally wretched year, indeed.

Other 1937 classics will abide, & so might The Guiding Light,
in another venue. I hope they don't fill the spot with more Punditry.
Or another haughty, snippy Judge from who-knows-where
stating the obvious to the stupid & never missing a cheap shot.

I hope I'm too busy with other things to even find out what replaces it.
Something in the human heart thrives on vicarious suffering.
So, I expect it will have something to do with Suffering.
What, I ask you, does not?







Have Fun!

1 comment:

JBinford-Bell said...

Mother was a devoted watcher of As The World Turns and when I came home on vacation from college or later work I would bond with her by sitting down and watching episodes.

Mother would give me the "cliff notes" version of what had transpired since I last watched. Not all of those were necessary because pace was so slow (so it did not interrupt ironing or other household chores). Mother watched several soaps while doing housework but only ATWT did she sit down for with her afternoon Coke.

They were written to make you feel as if your problems were few in relationship to theirs.