Wednesday, December 23, 2009

NEWS: AFTRA, Sweeney, Hunt, Soap Opera Sociology

AFTRA Members Making Opportunities in Changing Media
"With the recent cancellations of AS THE WORLD TURNS and GUIDING LIGHT, there are few soap operas left to employ AFTRA members," says union President Roberta Reardon. The audience for soap operas is decreasing as more women join the workforce and are not at home during the day, she says.

The cancellations also affect the union, Reardon adds: "Daytime television is really an engine for us. It employs significant numbers of performers from background all the way up to the stars, and that’s hard to replace."

INTERVIEW: DAYS star Alison Sweeney (Sami)
"Mostly our traditions are centered around family at the holidays. Dave and I are so excited to be introducing our children to the thrill of the holiday traditions we each grew up with. I'll never forget the look on Ben's face last Christmas when he saw that Santa had finished off the glass of milk and eaten the cookie he'd carefully left. It was so sweet."

TV Guide Canada: The Worthy and the Worthless
TV Guide Canada names the best and worst soaps of 2009 along with over 170 additional categories (that must be a record). WeLoveSoaps.net was named "Most Improved Website".

OLTL's Crystal Hunt on THE DOCTORS today
The topic is: "The health, maintenance and well-being of the breast." This is a repeat of an earlier episode.

Soap Opera Sociology
Should there be a greater push for education themes to be written into the plots of American soap operas? Should Kathleen Sebelius get on this? Do enough Americans watch soap operas for it to be effective? What if there were a government sponsored soap opera?

EASTENDERS Muslim wedding preview
The eagerly awaited New Year's Day episode of EASTENDERS will focus on the planned wedding of Amira and Syed - but will Syed's affair with Christian put a spanner in the works? The ongoing storyline around Muslim character Syed Masood and openly gay Christian Clarke reaches its climax later this month.

1 comment:

  1. Where was AFTRA in trying to protect union jobs when it came time to try to get city or state subsidies for soaps when primetime shows and movies got them?

    With 3 soaps leaving NYC, between 500 to 600 jobs are lost and not returning. Couldn't the unions have done something to protect their members?

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