From Soap Opera Digest November 01, 1988
A cover line of the 8/23 issue read
"Why Teens Get Hooked on
Soaps," and even though I'm a
teen and I know why I watch them,
I decided to humor myself and
read the highlighted article. Your
so-called "incisive" piece painted a
very disturbing picture of young
soap viewers. Since when is the
word "incisive" synonymous with
the word "superficial"? Apparently
you presumed that no teenager
would be perceptive enough to
notice that you disparaged an
entire generation. According to the
report, a group of college students
spent an entire semester
interviewing teens only to
conclude that teens watch soaps
because they're "really neat," or
because their friends watch them.
The researchers must have been
monumentally disappointed. They
could have simply picked up
almost any magazine to find out
that DAYS OF OUR LIVES's
Stephen Nicholas (Patch) and
Billy Warlock (Francis) and
SANTA BARBARA's A Martinez
(Cruz) are popular with teens. Personally, I watch soaps for one reason, Lane Davies
(Mason). I don't like him because magazines are full of pin-ups displaying his half-naked
body (they're not), or because my friends like him (they generally don't know who he is). I
watch DAYS and ANOTHER WORLD, but only to make fun of the hapless, boring and
pathetic characters. Maybe most teens don't appreciate Mason's flawless looks, caustic
wit, apt references to Shakespeare, admirable vocabulary, disarming charm, or his fiery,
contemptuous relationship with Julia (Nancy Grahn). But to me and many other women,
he is the paragon of what a sexy leading man should be, and he's living proof that the
tight jeans, bad grammar and bare chests found on many popular characters can't take
the place of Mason's extraordinary raw talent and appeal. One teen said she "just cried
when Roman and Diana got together," justifying her tear by squealing, "They're so neat."
I'll bet my sixty SB tapes that I'm not the only teen who didn't shed a tear at the formation
of yet another dull, pedestrian soap couple. If you let a small handful of teen viewers
speak for the rest of us, you may be allowing a real talent like Lane Davies to slip into
obscurity. Soap Opera Digest is too good for that.