My mom was concerned by what she considered an obsession in the way I devoured the TV Guide fall preview issue (This was before TV Guide was an entertainment magazine). Now if I went through the TV Guide with a highlighter, that would be obsessive. But I did my best to see all the new shows every fall and see if they were worth watching. I was firm but fair in my evaluation. I knew better than to judge a show by it's pilot. Even though there were only three networks, this was not an easy thing to do since there were no VCRs. If you were not home when your program was on you missed it. We couldn't go online to find out what happened or pay $1.99 to have the episode downloaded on our iPod. Just like if the phone rang and no one was home, the call went unanswered. Archaic! Mom saw my relationship with TV as an addiction, but did she help me? Did she find a 12-step program? The Betty Ruble Center? No, she exploited what she saw as my addiction.
It’s the summer of 1983, I was home from school but Mom was doing some volunteer work in the afternoons, meaning she would be missing Days of our Lives. So she asked me to watch the show for her, then tell her what happened. Remember there were no VCRs. It seemed simple enough. She’d come home and I’d say, " The guy with the beard has the hots for that girl with the big boobs. Everyone is wondering if this guy I think his name is "Cirano?" is really dead even though he was cremated. Soon it became, "Bo (Peter Reckell) expressed his feelings to Hope (Kristian Alfonso) and Stefano (Joseph Mascolo) faked his death by having some John Doe in the morgue cremated in his place". By the time summer was over and Mom was done with her volunteer work, I was hooked on Days of our Lives.
I never felt insecure in my manhood being a Soap Opera fan because Los Angeles Dodger's manager Tommy Lasorta confessed that he hated away games because it caused him to miss Days of our Lives.
In college I bought my first VCR before I bought my first textbook so I wouldn’t miss the show. While working as a Universal Studios Tour guide I met a coworker who had a recurring part on the show as a nurse. I used the show as an icebreaker. Long story short, I married her. It's a mixed marriage, she's an All My Children fan. Every Wednesday I attend a story telling group in Los Angeles called STORY SALON. One of the storytellers there is an actress named Marsha Clark, who also plays the no nonsense judge, Karen Fitzpatrick on DAYS. I started to talk to her about the show's serial killer story line where half the town was murdered by Dr. Marlena Evens (Deidre Hall). She must have thought this guy is nuts, don’t make eye contact.
It’s 22 years later, Bo still loves Hope and everyone is sure that Stefano is really dead this time. I know better.
When all else fails, blame Mom.
To quote Macdonald Carey (Dr. Tom Horton), "Like sands through the hourglass... so are the Days of our Lives".
Happy 40th, have you had work done?
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
3 comments:
I haven't seriously watched a soap opera since they cancelled The Edge Of Night.
That was great Tony. I started the same way, except I used to come to my parents' house when my mom retired and she had to watch it to tell my dad what happened, because he started working days instead of evenings. By the end of summer I was hooked. That was 1980. When I did work all day for a few years, I put a timer on a radio that you could hear TV stations on, then hooked a tape recorder with 90 minute audio tapes to another timer, and listened to the show on the way to work and on the way home. That got ridiculous though when Chris Kaseched (excuse spelling) came back as Roman, and they changed Jacks twice. But I lost my job anyway and was back to normal, I try to see it at least three times a week or more, and on Fridays with my mother. My husband thinks I am crazy, but it's a great show.
By the way, I used to have to watch Edge of Night for my mom when she worked, back when Larry Hagman was on it.
Somewhere around 1965 my mother, a huge Edge of NIght Fan, told me about this NEW soap opera. I was in high school and she was so excited about the characters in Days of Our Lives. I would watch it on breaks or in the summer and pretty soon I was hooked. I remember loving Marie and the story of her fiance turning out to actually be here amnesiac brother. Amnesia is a biggy for Days, I guess. My memories fade now, as I am older than the soap is, but I remember some of my favorite coples. I always loved Doug and Julie and when he married her mother and they had Hope it KILLED me. I hated it when Isabella died because I loved her. I loved Kayla and Patch, Carrie and Austin, Shane and Kim, Marlena and Roman, Marlena and John, Justin and Adrienne, Jack and Jennifer, Sami and Lucas and etc. I could go on and on. I am not ashamed of being a Days fan and neither should you. 40 years in broadcasting!! That is an institution!!
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