Modern Love

Soap Opera Digest
February 17,2004

Modern Love-Have Soaps Given Romance the Kiss-off?
by Elaine G. Flores

Once upon a time, romance was so intrinsic to soap operas that ABC ran promotions promising viewers, "Love in the afternoon." Currently, the shows are as likely to be dominated by murder and mayhem as romance. AS THE WORLD TURNS, DAYS OF OUR LIVES and ONE LIFE TO LIVE have all featured tales centered around homicides, which leads fans to wonder if love is being bumped off.

"As far as I can tell, romance across the board on all the shows is in a very bad place at this point," says Martha P. Nochimson, who wrote Screen Couple Chemistry: The Power of 2.

Nochimson contends that daytime has unwisely shifted from tales based on emotion to plot-driven storytelling. "They imitated movies and primetime television, which they hold as the standard of good pop culture. What do movies and nighttime television do? They work on the basis of event: This happens, that happens and then boom, we have this wonderful end. But if you do that on a soap, you get yourself into a place that is completely inane, you get this fabulous moment, and then you have to backtrack from it, [because the soap] has to go on the next day."

 Perhaps another reason for the blunted romance is that audience tastes fluctuate. GUIDING LIGHT's Laura Wright (Cassie) notes, "What's so funny is that when I saw the trailer for Cold Mountain, I was just, '[gasps] Oh, my God, when was the last time we had a movie of, "I would die for you?"

 There's plenty of amour on soaps, argues Sheraton Kalouna, NBC's senior vice president of daytime programming. "I think daytime is unapologetically romantic," says the exec, who acknowledges that "sometimes the romance becomes less apparent." Kalouria asserts, "Is it romantic to have a serial killer killing the citizens of Salem? No. But is it romantic to witness Mickey at Maggie's bedside, pleading for her to live and remembering all the great love that they've shared and really to illustrate how ultimately fulfilling a long-term commitment can be? In the event that a character or half of a couple dies, we get to grieve and all of that, but also root for [the survivor] to find love again."

While soap buffs may lament that there are not enough hearts and flowers these days, Wright points out that daytime's most legendary romance took place amidst an action-packed storyline. "Look at [GENERAL HOSPITAL's] Luke and Laura, that was adventure. On the run. that to me is one of the most exciting romances to watch because there's always a hint of danger ... there's always the hint that someone could die."

Still, Wright agrees that soaps aren't as romantic as they once were. However, the decline has less to do with blood and bullets than with pacing. "I think that they lack just letting it happen." she muses. "If you don't let the couple fall in love, you race to the ending, then who cares? When I first worked with Bradley [Cole, Jeffrey/ex-Richard] and they put Cassie and Richard together, we started working together at the end of September or October and they didn't even have Cassie and Richard admit their feelings for six months."

 For many daytime fans, it's the timing of the breakups that is a problem. Kelly Monaco (Sam, GH) shares, "I was just having this conversation about Sam and Jax. They just got together, and now they're breaking up. I think that you have to have some substance behind a relationship before you can break it up and put the players with someone else. There has to be some consistency. Hopefully, for Sam's sake, there will be some consistency with these characters."

Wright adds, "I always hate when soaps try to break up a couple by bringing on another character. They tried doing that with Cassie and Richard, when they brought on Alonzo. I was like, 'Cassie would never look at another man.'"

 Of course, all that breaking up does lead to making up, which gives soaps the chance to show off some PDA (Public Displays of Affection). Kalouria observes. "It's sort of funny that you have to write this article, because it would presuppose to me that maybe we're not seeing enough [romance] in the genre today.... We know that the audience thinks the show is more romantic when the guy has his shirt off, the candle is lit, he's feeding his woman strawberries and cream and there are two glasses of champagne on the bedside table.... We can't put a show on every day of love scenes; nobody would be interested in that. Valentine's Day week on both [DAYS and PASSIONS] is our valentine to our fans.... Those moments of complete connection, intimate connection are our little individual chocolates, little morsels that we give out every once in awhile, but nobody wants to make their whole diet out of chocolate."

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