General Soap Operas

Through The Looking Glass: THIS Soap Is Missed The Most

Published by

Diane Brounstein

7 years ago

Let’s face it — losing a favorite soap is traumatic! But there’s always that one soap whose loss hurts the most.

The relationship between a viewer and a soap can be intense. After all, you dedicate an hour (sometimes only a half hour but still…) a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year to this bond. Soap Hub asked which soap’s loss was the hardest and you certainly made your feelings known!

All My Children
After over 13,500 votes were tallied, 23% chose AMC, which aired from 1970 until 2011. You miss the adventures of Erica (Susan Lucci) as well as so many others in Pine Valley you grew to adore over the show’s 41-year-run.

One Life to Live
Not to be outdone, AMC’s sister show, OLTL had 21% of responders choosing it as the show they miss the most. The soap that was based in Llanview ran from 1968 until 2013, and focused on Viki (Erika Slezak), her family, and the rest of the town’s denizens.

Guiding Light
Long live the Light say 21%, tying OLTL. The longest-running soap, which ran from 1937 until 2009 showed the trials and tribulations of those who lived in Springfield.

While the Bauer family was the focus for a good deal of the show’s run, Reva’s (Kim Zimmer) love stories captured viewers’ hearts.

As the World Turns
A still healthy 19% chose ATWT as the show they miss the most, which ran from 1956 until 2010. Oakdale felt like Anytown, USA and characters like the Snyders felt like family. But be sure you never crossed Lisa (Eileen Fulton), Carly (Maura West), or Lucinda (Elizabeth Hubbard)!

Another World
A supportive 14% miss NBC’s AW, which ran from 1964 until 1999, and still miss Rachel Cory (Victoria Wyndham), as well as the others who lived in Bay City. Paulina (Judi Evans) was a fighter you had to root for, along with families like the Frames, Loves, Matthews, Harrisons, and the rest of the Cory clan.

Gone But Not Forgotten
Still, 2% decided to write in their own answers. The highest vote-getters were two supernatural soaps — Passions and Dark Shadows, along with Santa Barbara, in which Nancy Lee Grahn’s (ex-Julia, now Alexis on General Hospital) pairing with Mason (successful with all three actors) won fans’ hearts.

Ryan’s Hope, about an Irish family in New York City, as well as Port Charles also scored high. Mystery soap Edge of Night, as well as AW spinoff, Texas, are also very missed. Funny, some listed soaps still on the air — could that mean they feel they are no longer the soaps they loved in the past?