Published: June 22, 2012
Words: 99,228 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781476407203

Short description

On Thursday, April 14, 2011, ABC/Disney Television unleashed a nationwide firestorm in concurrently announcing that it was cancelling two of Daytime television’s longstanding prized soap operas created by the legendary writer, Agnes Nixon, “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.” Nationwide, fans immediately began protesting against these cancellations.

Extended description

On Thursday, April 14, 2011, ABC/Disney Television unleashed a nationwide firestorm in concurrently announcing that it was cancelling two of Daytime television’s longstanding prized soap operas created by the legendary writer, Agnes Nixon, “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.” Nationwide, fans immediately began protesting against these cancellations and emphatically made it clear that they did not want, and would not support by watching, the ABC/Disney network’s two proposed replacement reality television shows that focused on food and lifestyle/weight reduction, named “The Revolution” and “The Chew.” ABC/Disney’s decision in cancelling these two soap opera thus became a catalyst in spawning a nationwide “Save Our Soaps” movement as hundreds of thousands of fans began flocking to the social media, creating hundreds of Facebook pages, online communities nationwide, actively protesting these decisions by ABC/Disney, with the responsible senior executives .. (Read more) On Thursday, April 14, 2011, ABC/Disney Television unleashed a nationwide firestorm in concurrently announcing that it was cancelling two of Daytime television’s longstanding prized soap operas created by the legendary writer, Agnes Nixon, “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.” Nationwide, fans immediately began protesting against these cancellations and emphatically made it clear that they did not want, and would not support by watching, the ABC/Disney network’s two proposed replacement reality television shows that focused on food and lifestyle/weight reduction, named “The Revolution” and “The Chew.” ABC/Disney’s decision in cancelling these two soap opera thus became a catalyst in spawning a nationwide “Save Our Soaps” movement as hundreds of thousands of fans began flocking to the social media, creating hundreds of Facebook pages, online communities nationwide, actively protesting these decisions by ABC/Disney, with the responsible senior executives of these companies directly, with corporate sponsors, and with local ABC television affiliate stations nationwide.
And all along in the process, these soap opera fans were raising serious issues, including among other things, the television networks overall devaluing of scripted programming in favor of cheaper, reality television shows; ageism – given that these soap operas largely tended to attract viewers with median ages emanating from the so-called Baby Boomer generation; people began discussing on Facebook month after succeeding month, issues of sexism - given the national television networks obsessive focus on youthful female demographics, to the exclusion of so many other equally if not more so valuable television viewers; and moreover, the many shortcomings of an antiquated and reactionary Nielsen ratings system that admittedly fails in capturing the total viewing audiences of these shows, as the counting methodologies had been eclipsed by the dynamic sophistication of the viewing technologies that had evolved using the time-delayed multiple platforms of DVRs and TiVo, etc. along with people watching their television programs on the Internet, or on the former SOAPNet channel. This story has many colorful characters, too, ranging from “All My Children’s” Susan Lucci to “One Life to Live’s” Erika Slezak, Robin Strasser, and Ilene Kristen, to the women of “The View”, celebrity chef and talk show co-host Mario Batali and celebrity cook and talk show host Rachael Ray, Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, and many others.
In the end, this is author Dr. Donald Boudreau’s crie de coeur as a twenty year fan of “One Life to Live” as he memorializes many of the voices belonging to the seemingly voiceless deserving of being heard and listened to, many millions upon millions of fans of these shows nationwide, some of whom are homebound and gravely ill depending daily for entertainment and sustenance on “their stories”, and who are all steadfastly refusing to be silenced by The Disney Company and the American Broadcasting Company in this very much modern David and Goliath story. It is also a contemporary American protest story, involving major American businesses and their loyal, longtime customers, that resonates to the present date, as fans remain committed to seeing “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” soon restored by ABC/Disney, or another network or cable channel with a view to their continuing on - for new generations -- with this much beloved and internationally renowned, classical American storytelling tradition.
(Less)

Tags

abc, soaps, one life to live, cancellation, all my chidlren, sopa opera, canceled

Available ebook reading formats

Single purchase gains access to all formats. How to download ebooks to e-reading devices and apps.

Format	Full Book	Sample First 20%
Online Reading (HTML, good for sampling in web browser)	Buy	View sample
Kindle (.mobi for Kindle devices and Kindle apps)	Buy	Download sample
Epub (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others)	Buy	Download sample
PDF (good for reading on PC, or for home printing)	Buy	No sample available
RTF (readable on most word processors)	Buy	No sample available
LRF (Use only for older model Sony Readers that don't support .epub)	Buy	Download sample
Palm Doc (PDB) (for Palm reading devices)	Buy	Download sample
Plain Text (download) (flexible, but lacks much formatting)	Buy	No sample available
Plain Text (view) (viewable as web page)	Buy	No sample available

Videos

Katie Couric Chasing Viewers Who Don't Want To Watch Her
Let's Talk About soaps interview with Dr. Donald G. Boudreau author of "American Business and Daytime Dramas" expresses his outrage at how the folks at Disney (Anne Sweeney and Bob Iger) and ABC have completely disregarded the wishes of soap fans.

Why we love Susan Lucci, LTAS int clip with Donald Boudreau
Let's Talk About Soap interview clip with author of American Business and Daytime Dramas, Dr. Donald G. Boudreau,on Why we love Susan Lucci. You can download Dr Boudreau's E-book: THIS link takes people straight to the book! American Business and Daytime Dramas, an Ebook by Donald G Boudreau http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/174793

Dr. Boudreau exposes ABC/Disney re Daytime TV
You can download Dr Boudreau E-book: THIS link takes people straight to the book!. American Business and Daytime Dramas, an Ebook by Donald G Boudreau http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/174793 Category: Entertainment Tags: Dr Donald Boudreau all my children AMC All My Children (TV Program) One Life to live oLTL ABC Let's talk about soaps Stella Winston Cheneise Carey Alura Tessa Kendall McKenzie

Actress Catherine Hickland Receives The Book
The noted "One Life to Live" actress, Catherine Hickland, also known as Lindsay Rappaport, receives a copy of the book, American Business and Daytime Dramas, at the Delaware State Fair in July 2012.

Reviews

Log-in to write a Review   Log-in to add a Video Review

Review by: Lori Jackson on Sep. 07, 2012 :
I really enjoyed this book a lot and it was very well researched. Too bad All My Children and One Life to Live are not being put back on the air. It seems like General Hospital is saved for now and ABC is changing around the times on everything. It seems like General Hospital is mentioning more and more ONe Life to Live charachters. I hope that someday we will have closure about the travesty that ABC/ Disney caused to happen to my favorite soaps.
I appreciate this author writing this book when he did.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: Kata L on July 31, 2012 :
This is a very well written book. It is a must read, if you are a soap fan get this book!!! I couldn't put it down!
(reviewed the day of purchase)

Review by: Luci Steffensen on July 16, 2012 :
This is was very well documented and researched. Being a die hard soap fan who felt the rug had been pulled out from under me the day Abc canceled it's two shows on the same day, it made me realize we are not alone and some one out there can hear us. Let's just hope that the people running the show over at ABC take heed and turn things around...and quickly because we are watching a train wreck here.
I will purchase more from this author.
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Review by: Chew Hater on July 10, 2012 :
Great book! Must read for all soap lovers! This book tells the real story!
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Review by: Dee Levy on July 05, 2012 :
When I first read the title, American Business and Daytime Dramas, I immediately questioned how are these two unrelated subjects tied together? Then, I started to read Dr. Donald Boudreau’s phenomenal well researched and documented story. This fascinating scholar and seasoned government expert is a visionary, who significantly researched how major daytime dramas are impacted by businesses and advertisers! This book is a good read and will appeal to the business community, mainstream America, soap opera fans, and persons interested in ageism, sexism, and anti-Baby Boomer generation trends in contemporary American media, and identifies what citizens can do with a view to reversing it, before it advances yet further.

Boudreau brilliantly displays how ageism is directly responsible for the inappropriate way the media is disregarding, as well as disrespecting, the largest group of senior citizens that have ever resided in the US. They are foolishly ignoring us-the baby boomers. According to the AARP-we are all now senior citizens. However, unfortunately many of us had no idea why the major studios were not paying attention to us. Hopefully, the masses will get the message, about what Dr. Boudreau has clearly established in his book: Ageism is alive and well throughout the American media.

Even though I am not a major fan of the soaps-I know many people who are, and therefore have entered into the grassroots organizations that are trying to bring back their favorite soaps. I pray the good guys win…As a relatively new senior citizen (baby boomer) I am extremely offended by the costs of ageism throughout the US media. I hail Dr. Boudreau for having such insight to expose the under pinnings of what really happened with American business as it relates to daytime dramas.

Ageism is something you won’t recognize, until you become a senior citizen- or have read this brilliant book, American Business and Daytime Dramas!

Best to the movement for bringing back the soaps and simultaneously respecting the opinions of valuable senior citizens. BRAVO!

*****

Dee A. Levy, MA
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Review by: Sue K on July 05, 2012 :
Dr. Boudreau has done an amazing job in organizing, presenting and analyzing the complexities at play. A great read for everybody, not just those hooked on soaps for the past 40+ years.
(reviewed the day of purchase)

Review by: Robert McDowall on July 01, 2012 :
Think Soap Operas are not an interesting form of entertainment? Oh, you are mistaken-- They have been a form of popular entertainment since the 1930's on the radio and then on television for many millions of people. Moreover, the programs of today are highly relevent to current life in our society. They deal with all the aspects of our lives -- like marriage & divorce, rich and poor, health and disease, crime and punishment, happiness and unhappiness. What's more, the cast members are highly professional actors and actressesnwho will amaze you with their acting abilities and true believability in the characters they portray. The story lines of these programs are interesting -- clever, realistic and exciting-- and will keep you truly interested from week to week. You will come to know all the characters, their names, their personalities, their relationships with each other (much the way we know our familiy and friends). You will love many of these characters-- and desperately want to smack a few!
Robert T McDowall, Federal Law Enforcement Officer (Ret)
(reviewed the day of purchase)

Reason for report:
— Select a reason — Book is or contains spam Book infringes copyright Same content is published elsewhere with different author (for ex., by private-label rights) Duplicate Incomplete work (such as sample or serial) Should be marked adults-only Category is inappropriate Poorly formatted Nudity or other inappropriate content on cover Nudity or other inappropriate visual content in book Inappropriate erotica content Cover image is improper Content is inappropriate Other violation of Terms of Service Other reason not shown above.

Additional details: