What about love?

Magnet #1147 - Mills & Boon, Huntley proposes

Today's Mills & Boon magnet was from a good friend who also loves a good love story. I figured it should be used for today, because there are just some things you take for granted will always be around.

Paperback romance books are one. Soap operas are another.

Today, ABC Daytime sounded yet another death knell of soap operas by canceling two of their long-running shows, All My Children and One Life to Live in the coming months, planning on replacing them with ridiculous reality and lifestyle programming.

It's not a surprise to anyone who watches soaps, really. We've known they were dying for years, but we were still surprised when it finally happened.

After all, ABC has been throwing Hail Mary passes for years, trying to keep the shows afloat - moving productions across country, skimping on production values, overworking their talent and crew, reducing show orders, and myriad other tactics.

Ironically, instead of saving the shows, quality suffered immensely, viewers left in droves, leaving ABC to finally manage to drive the shows into the ground.

To be sure, the economic impact is going to be scary - hundreds of people will now be out of work, not to mention the trickle-down effect to other ancillary outlets (industry magazines, a steady stable of pretty talent to pull for other shows, marketing, production, etc.).

But more dramatically (and fittingly so), there's an emotional impact that canceling these two shows will have. It's been playing out all over Twitter and FB all day - stories of how folks watched it with their mothers and grandmothers, of how the families of Pine Valley and Llanview are like real families, of how these shows have helped shape generations of women and men since they started airing more than 40 years ago.

And, if you think about it, these TV families have been coming into people's homes for 40 years, it's no wonder that there's a real sense of loss and betrayal from the audience.

It's fairly sad-making, no matter how much we were prepared for it.

Anyway, too many other folks will write scathing and/or objective autopsies of what ABC did wrong over the last decade, and still other folks will write heartfelt good-byes to the shows, so I won't go on about it anymore.

But, I have to believe this: Romance is still the best-selling genre for a reason.

There will always be men. And there will always be women. And there will always be men and women falling in love with each other.

Which means that it doesn't matter what format it's in, there will always be great love stories to tell.

Now we just have to look harder find them.

"A source of joy and inspiration"

Magnet #950 - Our Vacation at WDW

I had a friend in high school who called Mickey Mouse the anti-Christ. While I've never agreed with him, I will say I can't believe how much of a killing Disney makes off of kids and their parents. (And those who aren't parents, but love visiting Disney, anyway.)

And based on another friend who is spending a week down there with her family, Disney makes it soooo very easy to spend money - staying on various properties, fun character events, meal plans, cruises, corporate and school packages, plus the theme parks. Amazing.

I mean, the three of us in this magnetpicture with Stitch totally dropped a bundle for a week at Disney, and that was just to see a bunch of ABC Soap Stars.

I often wonder when Walt Disney dedicated Disneyland in the 1950s, if he had an inkling of the reach his park would have many years later. I love seeing those old videos of him giving updates on the construction of Disneyland, and later introducing the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. He had to have known something, I'd bet.

He had intended his parks to be "a source of joy and inspiration," but I imagine that they're quite the source of income for the estate as well, and that has good old Mickey giggling all the way to the bank.

eta:
Oooh, hey, happy birthday, Jan! You're not in this picture, but you totally should have been!

Sing of bad things, not good

Magnet #556 - Sesame Place

Last night, The CW, a network that broadcasts no daytime soap operas, hosted the Daytime Emmy Awards. And, it was quite possibly one of the poorest-produced awards shows I've seen in all my years of watching awards shows.

I know, I know, I should be grateful the darn show is still being televised. But honestly, last night's production was total "amateur-hour" as one of my friends put it. And? She only watched the tail end of the show, where they didn't even have time to squeeze in poor "first time they've ever won in 22 years" Bold & the Beautiful's best drama acceptance speech.

She didn't get to see all the missed cues, silly and weird camera shots/angles, CUs that made no sense, no CUs when there should have been, a lack of dramatic pauses, uneven timing, inane segments that could have been cut for time (it's about the awards, not Vanessa's singing), and commercial breaks that seemed unplanned. Honestly, I was surprised they managed to catch the curse words in that one cute dude's award speech.

I love these awards. Otherwise, I wouldn't have shelled out the bucks to go to them while they were here in town. I love seeing the winners, even when I'm not watching their shows. I love watching the pretty dresses and pretty boys running around. And, I have a sense of how much hard work goes into these productions by hundreds of people, which is why it's upsetting that the result wasn't so hot. But at this rate, they would have been better off saving money and airtime and just putting on a chicken/fish luncheon over at one of the Renaissance ballrooms.

Moving on, today's the last day of August, which I just heard was "What will your legacy be?" month.

Two legacies shared the spotlight last night: Guiding Light goes off the air in September, after 72 years. They put together a pretty good tribute montage, followed by the shortest standing ovation ever for the entire cast on-stage. It was truly sob-worthy - whether or not you watch the show.

And, second, this magnet my friend brought back for me from Sesame Place shows one of the few bright spots of the show - the 40th anniversary spotlight for Sesame Street. They wove them into the show as best they could, with Big Bird and Elmo doing a red carpet interview with Lara what's her name from the pre-show, and then a running gag where ultracute Oscar the Grouch dressed in an old-school ticket-taker uniform, not letting poor Gordon and Elmo into the fabulous Orpheum.

Christina Oh introduced the montage and the cast for their achievement award (not sure why, but who cares, because she had the best cookie wand ever). The montage totally took me down memory lane, of us watching it in class. Watching the medley was superfun, and brought back more recent memories of seeing them here in NY for some other DEmmys.

Fun. Well, up until I saw strings on Big Bird's arm, and then when they were accepting the award, some guy had his arm up Cookie Monster, and moving his lips while Cookie was talking!

I dunno what that's about. We know they're all real, for cookie's sake. I dunno what all those other folks were doing on stage. Heh. (Though, I really do wonder what the parental protocol was for any young children watching. Because that wasn't traumatic - at all!)

I will say my favorite part was Cookie Monster eating the award. That was freakin' awesome. I wonder what flavor an Emmy is. Hee.

Hmmm. Me want cookies now.

eta:
Full list of awards winners here.

"If you want a happy ending..."

Magnet #340 - Cinderella's Fairy Tales

"... that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”

- Orson Welles

It's no secret that I love a good happy ending.

It's why I read books like And the Desert Blooms over and over again.

And watch One Fine Day whenever it's on tv, even though it's sitting right there on my dvd shelf.

And watched, in its entirety, the 235th presentation of the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie (Loving Leah).

For Pete's sake, it's why I wanted to be a romance editor when I was in seventh grade, and how I ended up with that dream job by the time I was 23.

And before you think this a stupid girly-girl post (which it is, but you're still reading, so there), I would be remiss if I didn't readily admit that the cynic in me always fights back and hears P.T. Barnum's "There's a sucker born every minute." in my head. (which apparently, he never said, see this random page about it)

But, this past weekend, I told that cynic to STFU, while I watched, also in its entirety (and in the background while working, which made weekend work a thousand times more bearable), a hundred videos of General Hospital's Aztec Princess storyline on YouTube. It first aired more than 25 years ago, and marked the beginning of the Frisco & Felicia storyline - one of my most-beloved soap couples - ever.

Frisco was a really hot teen pop idol with a few number 1 hits in real life (Hello, remember Lady of my Heart and All I Need? And don't make fun, because you totally know that I have all [yes, there was more than one] his albums). And Felicia was the beautiful, but spoiled, Aztec princess with gorgeous long hair, and a missing treasure.

How can you resist a pairing like that? And what made it all the more magical, was knowing that Jack Wagner and Kristina Malandro ended up married and with kids in real life, too.

And so what if they eventually character-assassinated both Frisco and Felicia, and they didn't stay together on the show?

So what if Jack and Kristina didn't stay together in real life?

So what, I ask.

On YouTube, they'll be together forever, and I get my damned happy ending every time.


eta:
Today I read this post over at Neatorama...apparently, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (who passed away in 1991) and his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry (who passed away last month) will be blasting off into space together. So, there's a happy ending, I suppose.

Terminator Tough*

Magnet #238 - SoapNet Soap

Soap operas got their name because they were dramas that were sponsored by companies who made soap. So there's a time-honored tradition of advertisers sponsoring whole television series.

They're going through a renaissance of sorts in recent years. Some of the cable netlets make their money by selling advertisers whole evenings of programming. But, it's probably easier and cheaper for advertisers to buy sponsorships for whole episodes instead - it makes for shorter, less likely to be FF'd commercial breaks and some product integration as well.

My favorite of late was last week's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (click here for GoldenGait's review of the actual show), provided with limited commercial breaks sponsored by the All-New Dodge Ram. There were four commercial breaks, all of them were Ram Challenge trailers, brought to you by the All-New Dodge Ram Challenge and Tony freakin' Scott. And, then within the show, somehow, John Connor's protective detail are suddenly driving a veritable fleet of Dodge vehicles.

Even with the requisite in-your-face, seconds-long close-up of the truck logo, they actually did a pretty good job with integrating product into the program. They had John and hot uncle Derek (BAG, my word, have you come a long way from 90210) leaving for the military academy and they were packing a million supplies into the flatbed of the truck. Nice product demo, that. The covered back of the truck, sliding in the giant boxes into the back, stuffing guns into the side storage space, and then, the cuteboys climbing into it. And then of course, the beauty shots of it rolling into the parking lot, or during the car chases, etc.

But for this episode, there were the trailers for the actual Ram Challenge web series, which directed you to the superfun to play on ramchallenge.com website.

Who went to that site? I certainly did. Who is gonna watch when it launches on October 19? I certainly am.

It's eight Ram Tough guys on four Ram Tough teams - the Cowboys, the Firefighters, the Contractors and the Military. They have to put the Ram Tough Dodge Ram through four big Ram Tough race challenges. The boys are kinda hot with their cowboy hats and tight jeans, and adorable, with their regional accents and their "love" for Dodge. Plus seriously? It's Tony freakin' Scott, you know the footage is gonna rock hard.

Now. Am I the target demo? No. Am I gonna buy a Dodge Ram when I live in NYC and have no need for one? Obviously not.

Nevertheless, I am the biggest sucker for marketing. Well. Marketing...and pretty boys.

So what did this Connor Chronicles sponsorship get Dodge? Well, according to Advertising Age, they were 10th on the Most-Recalled In-Program Product Placement list for that week. We could talk about this list til the cows come home - how great was that pretty boy interaction when Dean ripped out Sam's damnable iPod from his classic car on Supernatural, or what the hell was Boeing thinking, letting the The Unit (pretty boys again - I said I was a sucker) use their name in a plane hijacking story. But I digress.

And from me, well, I must have spent a good half-hour on the Ram Challenge site, I raved about it to everyone on my FB status and on a messageboard, and now I'm telling ya'll.

I'm like a Word-of-Mouth T-800. Well done, Dodge, well done.

*Mind you, I don't think Dodge Ram's using the Ram Tough external marketing tagline anymore, but somewhere on internal strategy documents, they have to be using it as a brand personality trait. Don't you think?

Always. Only you.

Magnet #120 - Zen

Today's magnet is in honor of last night's Daytime Emmys, which I have on DVR, and may get around to watching, at some point...but probably not.

Oh, how the times have changed. Not so long ago, I was stalking Radio City for when the tix went on sale in town. Now, I can't even be bothered to watch. How sad.

An online friend of mine gave me this magnet - apparently, the Zach and Kendall (Zendall) fanbase did some sort of campaign to lobby ABC Daytime not to break up our favorite little soap couple on All My Children.

As with all of my obsessions, my little Zen candle burned hot and bright - through fake marriages and real affairs, and real divorces and fake affairs; through blackouts and serial killers, crazy parents and crazier best friends; through secrets and lies; through divorce island and lobster slaying, and balloon New Year's and belly button balloons; through gardenias and pencil doodles; through many pregnancies and a voiced-over coma; through myriad "Always. Only you. / Always. Only us." declarations followed up by "where's the trust" conversations; through stab-stabbings and kidnappings, plus Shelters of Suck and Mardi Gras igloos.

But alas, The Powers That Be finally managed to turn me off of the show after three years of shipping the good ship Zendall. And, there's no real explanation for it.

However, I will say that had it not been for Zach and Kendall, I wouldn't have met a really great crew of online folks - folks that have become friends in real life as well. So, it looks like the soapy angst was worth it in the end.

And look! I got a magnet out of the deal, too!