One Life to Live…a dead soap in a dying genre?

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     Tonight I came across a One Life to Live tribute magazine.  As I perused the pages memories of the show came flooding back to me.  The old black and white photos especially stirred my memory of the days that I began watching the show way back in the 70s.  As my mind raced with memories a stark contrast between the One Life to Live of the distant past and the present struck me with undeniable force.  So much more than times had changed.  Storytelling, depth, and indeed quality has changed and not necessarily for the better.  I remembered ground breaking stories that were rooted in family and grounded with socially relevant and at times ground breaking issues.  I also remembered outstanding performers, some of whom went on to become household names in film, television and on stage.  But more than anything I remembered a show that took itself and its subject matter seriously.  Perhaps maybe a bit too seriously at times, but I never remember turning off the set at the end of an episode with the feeling that I had wasted my time on a ridiculous flight of fantasy.   Quite  to the contrary I always felt that not only had I been thoroughly entertained, I learned something and somewhere underneath all the melodrama there was a socially relevant message.
Conversely when I think about the past decade to fifteen years I dont have that feeling.  I remember stories that more often than not insulted my intelligence, had me screaming at the set because of their blatant disregard for even the most rudimentary sense of reason, for dare I say plausibility.  I can remember one dimensional, outlandish villains portrayed by actors who’s performances were so over the top that when I dared to peek in on their stories I usually found myself laughing at the obsurdity of it all.  Yes even through those lean years there were a group of outstanding performers like Erika Slezak, Robert S Woods, Robin Strasser, Hillary B. Smith, Kassie DaPiva, John Loprino, Phill Carey, Clint Riche, Roger Howarth, Trevor St. John, Florenzia Toscano, etc.

But still when I think about this period I dont see a show that stuck to Agnes Nixon’s original vision.  Her vision was to use the intimacy of the daytime serial medium to entertain and to also educate.  Her original stories broke new ground and opened dialogue on once taboo issues bringing them front and center in the American conversation.  But unfortunately the One Life to Live that just left the air is not the same One Life to Live where Carla Grey , an African American character attempted to pass as a white woman.  It’s not the same One Life where Judith Light shook America with her brilliant portrayal of a sexually addicted suburban housewife prostitute.  It’s not the same One Life where Reverend Carpenter stood up against Religious Bigotry, self righteousness and intolerance when he counseled gay teen Billy Douglas ( brilliantly portrayed by then new comber Ryan Phillipe).  This story ended with Rev. Carpenter adding a panel to the AIDS Memorial Quilt to memorialize his dead brother.

Over the years I see that all daytime serials have at times strayed into a bizarre malaise of ridiculous story lines that require far too much suspension of disbelief., softcore porn love scenes that at times border indecency and perhaps worse of all apathy.  The networks, the executive and indeed the fans no longer care about creating a quality product.  After all “it’s just a soap opera!”  To me that is the biggest tragedy of all and its the ultimate insult to creators like Agnes Nixon and Irna Phillips who broke ground in their own lives by becoming strong, successful business women at a time when women were not respected and their creative input into entertainment was circumspect.  Today many of the remaining viewers see daytime serials as an escape to a world of lust, implausible plots and “fun.”  But what happened to Agnes vision?  The other day I heard her say that when creating stories her desire was to entertain and take viewers on an adventure but her foremost desire was to make her stories believable.

Unfortunately many of the convoluted tales that I watched during the last six months of One Life to Live were anything but believable.  I would hate to tell her how I cringed at the recent tale of Jessica’s ridiculous alters, the horrible over the top performances of gifted actors like Roscoe Born as he hammed his way through another incarnation of the cartoonish Mitch Williams, the forgettable drivel of Alison Perkins, the completely wasted talents of Jill Larson as psycho Ursella, the painfully horrible actress who portrayed Margret Cochran.  I could go on, but most of the devoted fans would just say, but that’s what a soap is and that’s the tragedy again.  All my life I have watched this genre and I dreamed of some day creating my own serial.  I have always had high hopes for the genre and like Agnes I saw it as an incredibly viable medium for compelling drama, social relevance and entertainment.

And like I said there have been so many moments that have made me proud.  But unfortunately in the push for ratings there have been far too many stories of which as a viewer and devote of the genre I am not proud.  Those stories would include Eterna The underground city, Time traveling back to 1968, The Stacy/Gigi Doppelganger, The shirtless Chip N Fords, Lindsey Vs Nora and the mind erasing drug, Unfortunately over the pas 40 yrs serials have degenerated and lost their way.  And fans have been so used to sub standard prurient fare that they dont know any better.  And in my opinion this has been a major contributing factor to the demise of soap opera.  Fans are content with mind numbing drivel.  They want to escape.  They want to sit down in front of “the idiot box” ( my elementary school teacher used to call TV that and for some its an apt description unfortunately) and veg out.  They no longer want to be challenged with new ideas, or for God sake to learn.  The want to be ‘entertained.”  But since when did being entertained and being educated, informed and enlightened all become mutually exclusive.

I remember ground breaking shows Like All In The Family that challenged viewers perceptions every week while still being side-splittingly funny and entertaining every day.  But in today’s culture we’ve been so conditioned to like junk food that we’ve forgotten the pleasure of a well balanced meal.  As I ponder the death of One Life to Live I find myself realizing another fact.  At this point because of the decline in quality so many of the former audience for serial programming have disappeared.  I think like me many have become weary of  shows that marginalize their veteran actors for younger half naked sexier ones, recycle the most cliche’d mind numbing plots and insult the audience intelligence repeatedly.  The terrible ratings numbers show that.  And I don’t think it’s just because people are busy in the afternoon.  I believe the decline in quality has driven the audience away and they no longer see many of these shows as worth the time and investment anymore.

That is the ultimate tragedy because the genre is still a viable medium to tell relevant, entertaining and thought provoking stories.  But the creativity, the vision and the drive to break new ground is lacking among the producers and network executives today.  The focus of the broadcast entertainment industry today is to cut cost, to make money by any means necessary.  The view that scripted television is an art and a science is all but gone today.
As a lifelong creative writer who plans on going to school for television writing within the next year I see that as a shame.  Despite the many ways that both her shows fell off track over their lifetimes I still admire, respect and love the talented, insightful and immensely creative Agnes Nixon.  I also hope that in the future she can regain the rights to both her works and possibly rebroadcast them and restore them to her original vision once again.  But until that day I will end this post with an inspiring quote from one of Agnes’s talented acting discoveries, the incomparable Erika Slezak.  I think the entire entertainment industry should adhere to this philosophy.

“Try to make it art, everyday!”

Trapped Between Genders

All of the publicity over the latest celebrity to become a victim of gender confusion, Chastidy Bono inspired this blog.  I wont call Chastidy “Chaz” because try as she might to change her gender, Chastidy is in reality still a female.  Chastidy’s “transformation” marks an alarming trend in this nation.  A trend of not only intense gender identify confusion, but a trend of placing oneself into suspended gender animation.  Suspended gender animation is a self/surgically imposed existence of a dual gender state of being.  In suspended gender animation one lives, works and masquerades as the one gender that reflects his subconscious self image.  But in reality one is actually (i.e. physically, the state of having certain genitals ) another gender.

This tragic phenomenon has long been pervasive in our society, but in the rampant atmosphere of political correctness fueled by the gay rights lobby, it has now come bursting out of the closet with guns blazing.   Today the term Transgendered has become a bloodstained martyr’s banner that shrouds a world of confusion, misinformation and political posturing.  Using the English root words, the term Trans-gender would mean one who transitions gender.  But even the politically correct would be misusing the word today.  The word has been used as a blanket term that covers everyone from those who wish to change their gender to those who just impersonate the other gender for entertainment or sexual fetish purposes.

Due to our politically correct climate, the word Trans-gendered would be used to describe Chastidy Bono.  But that use couldnt be more incorrect.  Chastidy has not transitioned gender.  Unfortunately she has made herself a spiritual, gender archetype of Moses.  Moses lead the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage but never actually was allowed to enter the promised land himself.  Chastidy is technically still wondering in the gender wilderness.  She has had her breasts removed, but she has no penis.  How can she call herself a man without the proper equipment?  This is proof positive that she is not a true Transexual.  If she were truly a man trapped in a woman’s body she would want a full transformation to become completely male.

In 1930, Magnus Hirschfeld supervised the first genital reassignment surgery to be reported in detail in a peer-reviewed journal on Lili Elbe of Denmark. The German term “Transsexualismus” was introduced by Hirschfeld in 1923.^[9] The neo-Latin term “psychopathia transexualis” and English “transexual” (sic) were introduced by D. O. Cauldwell in 1949,^[10] who subsequently also used the term “trans-sexual” in 1950.^[11] Cauldwell appears to be the first to use the term in direct reference to those who desired a change of physiological sex.^[12] (In 1969, Benjamin claimed to have been the first to use the term “transsexual” in a public lecture, which he gave in December 1953.^[13]) This term continues to be used by the public and medical profession alike.^[14] It was included for the first time in the DSM-III in 1980 and again in the DSM-III-R in 1987, where it was located under Disorders Usually First Evident in Infancy, Childhood or Adolescence.

Christine Jorgensen created an international sensation when in 1952 she was the first widely known person to have sex reassignment surgery—in this case,male to female.

The word transsexual was used by Harry Benjamin in his seminal 1966 book The Transsexual Phenomenon to describe transsexuals on a scale (later called the “Benjamin scale“) that recognizes three levels of intensity of transsexualism: “Transsexual (nonsurgical)”, “Transsexual (moderate intensity)”, and “Transsexual (high intensity)”.^[15][16][17] in The Transsexual Phenomenon, Benjamin described “true” transsexualism in this way: “True transsexuals feel that they belong to the other sex, they want to be and function as members of the opposite sex, not only to appear as such. For them, their sex organs, the primary (testes) as well as the secondary (penis and others) are disgusting deformities that must be changed by the surgeon’s knife.”^[18] Benjamin suggested that moderate intensity male to female transsexuals may benefit from estrogen medication as a “substitute for or preliminary to operation.”^[15]Some people have had SRS but do not meet the common definition of a transsexual (e.g., Gregory Hemingway).

Chastidy Bono is not a victim of hormones or genetics.  She was  obviously a little girl who identified with her father and failed to properly bond and identify with her primary female role model-her mother Cher.  Her Lesbian relationship is further proof of her confusion.  Transgenderism is not a matter of sexual orientation, but a matter of gender identity.   Her struggle with weight is also evidence of her disturbed emotional state.  In today’s excessively politically correct world the Gay Rights Lobby is putting intense pressure on society to accept obvious perversions on every level.  This is such an instance.  My heart goes out to the millions of men and women who suffer from gender identity disorders.  One of my best friends suffered from this disorder as a child and as a teen felt as though a sex change operation would be the answer for him.  But through psychotherapy, prayer, love and acceptance from his family he has overcome that mental deception and is living today as a healthy male.  In our desire to live and let live we can’t shut our eyes to the obvious confusion that gripping our society.
Even in our modern society America is still a country driven by hypermasculine values and strict enforcement of gender roles.  Gay men are beaten and abused as sport.  Women are raped, abused and suffer discrimination on every societal level because our culture is still dominated by men.
Despite the lipservice our culture gives to progressiveness, any social phenomenon that threatens the masculine image of the American male is in danger of a violent backlash today.  That’s why the Gay Right’s lobby is scrambling to put gender confusion under their protected class umbrella.  Today the Gay Rights Lobby wields enormous political and financial power over the media, commerce and popular culture.  They have used the  sword of their political power to cut asunder any dissenting voices regarding homosexuality, gay marriage, transexualism, etc.   Their agenda for transexualism is to create an inter-sexed third gender.

We can’t allow our desire to embrace and accept all individuals cloud common sense and nature.  We arent doing people like Chastidy Bono any good by encouraging them down a path of confusion and dependence upon hormones.  Their confused existence in Gender Suspended Animation will no doubt lead to the destruction of their own lives.  And on a grander scale, the acceptance of this confusion will only lead to erosion of gender in our society.  And that erosion of gender identities and roles will surely lead to the further erosion of the family and the core fabric of our society.

Our desire should not be to judge, punish or harm these individuals, but to challenge the gay right’s lobby’s agenda to normalize this psychological malady and to destroy natural order by trapping hapless individuals in the confused Gender Wilderness where hapless souls like Chastidy Bono now reside.

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