Me and My Stories

So, it's not really news because I saw it announced somewhere else a couple of months ago, but Entertainment Weekly just did a story on the fact that Days of Our Lives just let John and Marlena go, and frankly I am still shocked. Days used to MY show. Granted, John and Marlena were never my favorites, but still, they were an institution.

Days wasn't actually the first soap I ever watched. The very, very first would have to have been Guiding Light, which was guaranteed to be on every day at my Grandma's house (along with The Price is Right, of course). But I was young then and the stories really did nothing for me.

The first soap that really hooked me was General Hospital. I started watching it at my after school sitter's house. Keep in mind that this is the same sitter who wouldn't let us watch Three's Company because it was too raunchy, but didn't seem to mind if we sat and watched GH with her. I came in after the days of Noah Webster (or Rick Springfield to the uninitiated), but I watched Blackie (aka John Stamos) accidentally kill his girlfriend and go to prison for it. His bandmates discovered a new talent, Frisco (Jack Wagner) who fell in love -- over and over again -- with Felicia. I loved Frisco and Felicia. And Tony and Tanya. And Holly and Scorpio. And Scorpio and Anna (or Anner, as he called her).

Frankly, I'm not sure how I got hooked on Days since it came on while I was at school. But I remember getting hooked on the romance between good girl Hope and motorcyle riding, long-hair wearing Bo. In fact, I even skipped school the day they got married -- the first time. Because I never took advantage, occasionally my mom would let me have a "day off" from school and there was NO WAY I was missing that wedding. How could I have missed this?

My obsession with Bo and Hope was eventually overshadowed by my infatuation with Days other good girl/bad guy combo -- Kayla and Patch. And then of course Jack and Jen. I guess I quit watching sometime around middle school, but occasionally I'd check in. It usually wasn't too hard to catch up with the storyline since there were always Hortons and always Bradys. Heck, most of the characters I was watching were children of the characters my mom used to watch, so occasionally I'd catch her up on what was happening in Salem.

I couldn't even tell you the last time I turned on Days. There were a few characters I recognized, but most of them were new to me. And I couldn't really catch up. And now that John and Marlena are gone, well, that's just two more reasons for me not to tune in.

Did you have a favorite soap? Did you ever do anything crazy (like skipping school!) for one of yours? And OMG, you WOULD NOT BELIEVE the family trees, storyline recaps, and wiki entries for soaps that I found out there. It made me feel a lot better about my soap addiction!