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Yesterday, I talked about soap operas and how they are cutting back in order to save money.  One of the obvious signs of this are the lack of sets for the homes of various characters.  “As The World Turns” is an excellent example of this.

First of all, it is ridiculous as to how many people live in the Lakeview Hotel.  I mean, if these characters can afford to live in a fancy hotel, can’t they afford to at least rent an apartment.  Here’s a list of all that I know of who live at the Lakeview:

• Henry & Vienna – A while ago, V was pregnant, but lost the baby.  Were they planning to raise the kid in a single hotel room?  Even with no kids, you’d think that there might be an apartment behind or abive Al’s Diner (which they own) where they could live?
• Craig & Johnny – Again, this guy is loaded, but he lives with his young son in a hotel room?  Where IS Johnny these days, anyway?  Craig went to all this trouble to get custody of the kid, you’d think he’d buy them a normal house to live in, and that he’d actually spend time with him.  That poor kid is going to develop all sorts of problems, perhaps even public speaking anxiety. And that would be the LEAST of his problems!  But Craig has been spending most of his time lately hanging out at Carly’s house, Johnny nowhere to be seen.
• Dusty – He actually was going to buy a home, back when he *married* Meg to try and get custody of the aforementioned Johnny.  But when that fell through, as far as I know, he still resides at the Lakeview.
• Damian – He’s fairly new back to town, but as far as I know, he’s a long-term guest at the Lakeview, too.
• Lisa – She owns the place!
• Barbara – At least she has a penthouse apartment there, and is not living in a single room!

But what’s even more disturbing is the fact that at one point, there were at least 20 people living at Emma Snyder’s farm.  How big is that house, anyway?  And consider the fact that Emma has a hard & fast rule about there being no sex allowed under her roof between unmarried couples.  Yet, she did have a few unmarried couples living there for a time (Jack & Janet, Luke & Noah), who all had to have separate rooms.

In addition to this, they had all of Jack’s kids living there, as well as Lily, Holden, and all their kids.

So who’s living on the farm now?

• Emma – Well, she owns the place!
• Meg & Eliza – They’ve moved back and forth between the farm and Fairwinds, home of ex-husband Paul.  Now it appears that Meg and her baby are on the farm for good, unless they decide to move into the Lakeview with Damian.
• Jack & Janet – They’re married now, so I guess they are now allowed to share a bed and have sex.  But still…Jack is a police detective, Janet waits tables at Al’s Diner. (but will soon be co-hosting local talk show “Oakdale Live”).  You’d think that they could afford their own place by now.
• Parker, Sage & JJ – Jack’s kids, who usually reside at their mom, Carly’s house, but get taken to live at the farm whenever Jack gets his panties in a twist about something Carly has done.  As of now, JJ is at boarding school.

So that is WAY fewer people than usual.  But guess what?  There ARE a few characters who have their own homes, which we actually see on camera:

• Lily, Holden, Faith, Natalie & Ethan – The Snyder family had a house set a long time ago.  Then it went away and they all ended up living at the farm.  FINALLY, this family has its own house again.
• Tom, Margo, Daniel, Casey & Adam/Riley -  As far as I know, that’s all who lives there.  I’m pretty sure Nancy Hughes lives with her son Bob and daughter-in-law, Kim, but I could be wrong.  Daniel, Tom’s sone with Emily Hughes, is currently in boarding school, but stays with Dad & step-om over vacations.
• Brad, Katie & Liberty – Liberty is Brad’s teenaged daughter with Janet.  I’m pretty sure she lives there and not at the farm with her mom and step-dad.  Katie is also pregnant with hers and Brad’s baby.  At least they have a place to put a baby!

And then there are people who KNOW have their own homes, but haven’t seen in a while, or NEVER have seen:

• Bob, Kim & Nancy -  There used to be a set for the elder Hughes’ house, but I haven’t seen it in ages.  I assume that Bob’s mother Nancy lives with them, because when Tom & Margo threw a party for Casey, the three of them arrived together, and left together.
• Susan, Emily & Allison – There used to be a set for their house, too.  I assume that Em still lives with her mom and younger sis, even though she’s over 40 and certainly has the money for her own place.
• Lucinda – Haven’t seen her place in ages.  Was staying with daughter Lily and her family for a time.
• Luke & Noah – This is the most maddening of them all.  The boys (who are a gay couple) just moved into an apartment together, but no one has ever seen it.  The boys seem to interact with each other mostly at Java, or at Luke’s mom Lily’s living room.  Neither is a place where couples can get romantic, if you know what I mean.  I guess the sponsors are afraid they will offend viewers by showing a couple of guys making out on a couch in their own place.

That’s all I can think of for the moment.  Maybe ratings would go up if they spent a little more time and money for new sets, which is something that many fans want to see!

I’m really starting to think so.  You probably heard that CBS has cancelled “Guiding Light”.  Now, it looks like “As The World Turns” is next on the chopping block.  Here’s an article about this.

Basically, CBS plans to replace “Guiding Light” with an updated version of the classic game show, “Let’s Make A Deal”.  Now, I’m old enough to remember the original with Monty Hall, I loved it as a kid.  But, as often happens when someone tries to update a classic, it’ll likely be very lame.  And so will whatever game show they come up with to replace ATWT, should that soap be cancelled.

Over at ABC, it’s just been announced that “All My Children” is moving from New York to Los Angeles, as a cost-cutting move.  “One Life To Live will be staying in New York, but moving to the studio that AMC will be vacating.  Article here.

The problem with AMC’s move is that it’s possible that many of the long-established actors may not want to make the move.  For example, Susan Lucci, who has played Erica Kane since the show began back, has a long-established residence in New York, and she may not want to move to L.A.  But maybe that is part of the cost-cutting…if these highly paid soap veterans get dropped to recurring status or simply decide to leave completely, that eliminates their salaries.  Then  they can create new characters and hire young unknowns to play them, people that are willing to work cheaper.

But this could really backfire, because people will stop watchng the show if their favorite characters leave because of this move.  Then ABC will have a great excuse to cancel it completely, no doubt putting another lame talk or game show in its place.

NBC may soon be soap-free.  All they have now is “Days of Our Lives”.  The cancellation of “Passions”, a show I never watched, but I know a lot of people liked it, resulted in NBS showing yet another hour of “The Today Show” in its time slot in many markets.  But how long before Days tanks, now that many of their big-name stars have left, mostly due to budget cuts.

I find all of this very sad.  People like me like to watch soaps as a form of escapism.  I hate the new trend of these cheaply-produced talk and game shows, as well as reality shows.  I’ll take well-written fictinal stories any day.  Talk shows, especially have gotten ridiculous and often depressing.  Even long-established shows, such as Dr. Phool, have gotten too tabliody.  He sunk to a new low this past season with all of that crap about Octo-Mom.

If soaps go away completely, a lot of us may not even bother to turn our televisions on during the day. I do know that I will NOT be watching the new “Let’s Make A Deal”, and I certainly will not watch anything that replaces “As The World Turns”…which is actually my favorite soap right now.

Such a crying shame.

click on image for larger, printable recipe

Welcome to another installment of the ongoing Shaw’s “Get Inspired” recipe series.  It’s been a while, hasn’t it?  But no, I didn’t die from malignant Mesothelioma or anything.  I’ve just been busy!

This is an excellent recipe to make in the summer, as that’s when tomatoes are at their best.  My one piece of advice here is to taste one of your cherry tomatoes first, before preparing the sauce.  If they are more on the tart side, you may want to add more sugar.  The tomatoes I had weren’t very sweet, and the resulting sauce came out a little too tart, especially since it also contains lemon juice and zest.  I think it would have been more balanced if I’d used twice the amount of sugar called for.

So, the next time I make this, I’ll taste first! Enjoy!