Aw @ soapcentral.com

I was so excited when Procter and Gamble began airing episodes of Another World at AOL.  The episodes began in 1980.  I was born in 79 and know that I was in the room when these eps originally aired and though I know it's silly I was hoping for some flash of memory from my earliest days of life.  No luck yet.  And it's become more difficult because after months of enjoying the episodes they stopped working shortly before xmas.   I'm not sure of what the problem is but is seems to have to do with AOL's new player or format or something.  For the last few months I've been trying regularly to view the eps assuming that they would eventually fix the problem.  The comment section of the videos is full of people who have had the same problem, as are various message boards across the web, including the mighty SOC.  Conveniently enough the new format/player works just fine for the ads but would only play the first few minutes of an ep if anything at all then go back to the ad or leave you with a never ending "loading..." screen. 
Happily after months of looking AWfanagain (from the SOC boards) directed me to a solution.  There is a poster Chuck who has generously taken the time to post links to the eps that work since the people who are actually paid to do these things at P&G and AOL can't seem to manage it. 
At the Yuku message boards he is Chuck89.  I believe he has links to all episodes that are posted on AOL so far (though some of the vids are now missing from the original site  so linking won't help).  HERE IS a link to Chuck89's list of wonderful links.  Thank you Chuck!  Some people have had trouble getting these to work.  I'm sure that if you scan through these messages you will find a solution or post a message there and Chuck89 or another poster will likely be able to help you out better than I can. 

And because I hold out hope that AOL will eventually solve the problem (hopefully before Rachel has her twins)   HERE'S a link to the actual AOL P&G Classic soaps channel..

I love you Another World.  I'm so glad we are back together.

ETA:  Hmmm, I tried to make my links stand out by changing the colour of the font and it worked in the window while I was typing but doesn't show up in my blog, same for the type of text.  Anyone know why?  That's why it's in all caps.  I wasn't yelling at anyone.  Though these false accusations are making me want to scream at you right now.  How about giving me the benefit of the doubt the next time huh?

Is it just me or is the phrase "love of my life" being tossed around too lightly these days on soaps? We hear it all the time and yet the supercouple breaks up and someone moves onto the next one and that oh-so-special someone is never mentioned again. Or only mentioned if they're returning to cause havoc.

My favorite soap couple of all time is still Cass & Frankie on "Another World". They're what drew me into soaps. And yet they didn't come without emotional baggage. When SoapNet started its reruns, they opened at one of the most traumatic moments in Cass' life -- the loss of his beloved Kathleen. Everyone afterwards had to compete with her memory. She would always be his great love. I was <i>always</i> aware of this, no matter who he was involved with, from Nicole to Caroline to Cecile to Frankie. Then Kathleen came back and she wasn't just a ghost or a name, she was actually there. I wanted to like Kathleen. I had liked her when she appeared briefly in Cass' vision -- she was quite fun. But the one who actually rose from the dead seemed written from a different book, annoyed that Cass had moved on and someone else was living her life, like it was always Kathleen's right. Several years had passed and you had expected him not to move on? Unfortunately, SoapNet chose to leave us in the middle of the Cass/Kathleen/Frankie triangle, so we never saw the resolution. (I know they are clips available, but it's different than sitting down and having the show every day.)

The thing was the more I saw Kathleen, the more I didn't understand why she was Cass' better half, why they worked together. This is frequently a problem with bringing back characters from the dead. There's always some tortured reason they couldn't be together and if time has passed, it's hard to recapture that magic. When Dixie Martin returned from the dead on "All My Children", I needed until nearly the end of Cady's latest run to see that magical spark between Dixie and Tad. For all Erica's many marriages, I've gotten the idea that Jack was supposed to be her big love, ups and downs aside.

I'm having different issues watching the dreaded return of Greenlee on AMC. I watched the entire Greenlee/Ryan romance from his proposal through to her leaving town. Throughout their marriage, I heard comparisons to their previous loves. They'd both found "true love" once before. How could anything else possibly compare? Even if I never saw the Gillian or Leo storylines, I understood that they were important parts of their backstories. While the issue of Ryan's previous marriages and romances was briefly touched on with Annie, it seemed ignored with the new Greenlee. She burst back into town, determined to win back "love of her life", the sainted White Knight Ryan Lavery.   

I know it's a tightrope to walk with new and old fans. You always want to move the story forward. But you can't really ignore what happened before. Everyone has their favorite couples. And obviously some writers are better than others at walking that line. It just feels like the Greenlee revisited storyline is out of step.

So I've started yet another blog, this one focused on soap operas. Who knows how often I will actually update this.

I've watched them off and on since college. I started watching simply because that was what everyone else watched during the lunch hour. They watched the NBC soaps, so I wound up getting hooked on "Another World". I watched it until Jake's shooting and then lost interest. Then Soap Net brought it back, starting several years before I had started. At first, I was impatient to get to the Cass and Frankie interactions I remembered. But I wound up enjoying the older storylines. The McKinnons were mostly gone by the time I was watching, so Vince and Mary were a nice surprise. I was so happy when they remarried. I still loved John and Sharlene's romance and cheered when Frankie came on the scene. Alas it was not to last. The last SoapNet episode aired last Friday, cast aside for a younger audience. The sad part is I am still part of that vaunted 18-49 demographic, but I still feel like they don't care.

I blame Soap Net for luring me initially into Pine Valley. I really hadn't followed the ABC soaps at all. Soap Net ran the AMC promos all the time, so I was curious about the show. Thorsten Kaye kept me there. Zach Slater was mysterious and intriguing, even if he was introduced through the awful Erica does Vegas storyline. They've managed to keep the character surprising.  I've never cheered so hard as when Zach and Kendall finally admitted they  loved each other. Hopefully I'll get to keep one of my favorite couples. Soaps have never been kind to me on that front.

Thanks Guru Dan!  This is a fabulous idea!   As the Queen of the Off Topic Post, I'm delighted to be able to natter on about anything I want! 

 

This is a picture of Mahdi, my late dearly-loved feline companion.  I'll tell you more than you ever hoped to know about him later. 

 

I'm actually Carol.  I'm a widow and I work in vocational rehabilitation.  IOW I help people with mental and physical disabilities achieve employment of choice.  I want to talk about that because every state, by federal law, has an agency to provide this service, but too many people who need it are not aware it's available and how much we can do to help them.  This is not charity.  You pay the government back with your tax dollars when you return to work.

 

My all-time favorite soap is Another World.  I say "is" instead of "was" because I'm still enjoying the P&G Classic Soap reruns at AOL.  That's another subject I'd like to elaborate on. 

 

I'm a moderator for the Days board, and formerly the ATWT board.  I started watching Days pretty soon after it began, but quit for several years, JER years, of course.   I'm delighted to be enjoying Days again with Hogan Sheffer as the head writer. 

 

I'm looking forward to checking out everyone's blog and learning more about all of you!