Yeah, I got addictions, does that surprise you?

So I heard some rather strange and disturbing news from a guy I do business with yesterday... he's the guy in Hollywood who makes the copies for all the TV variety and specials in town. He's pretty much the only guy who does it, so he's got that niche carved out. It's a thankless job, but in relation to mine, it's a godsend. (I sure as hell ain't fighting with the crap copier at 4:30am when ESU is at 7, F. that.) Irregardless, one of his only steady gigs is for Days of Our Lives (or DOOL to the initiated) and he mentioned sadly that there was a rumor going around that NBC and CBS were going to stop production on soap operas entirely. My heart dropped. In the interest of full disclosure, I have been a closet Guiding Light fan since I was 12. I easily blame my grandmother who has been watching CBS soaps since before television existed. That's right, GL is the longest running media program in history, beginning on radio in 1937 and the moving to TV in 1952 where it has remained ever since. That's SIXTY-NINE YEARS. And that's probably why I latched onto it out of the choices that CBS had to offer (I like the staying power of the underdog). Sure I tried General Hospital for a few years, and I think I spent a summer watching Days, I even interned at Young & Restless but through it all, for the last 20 years, I have taped and then watched Guiding Light. Oh sure it's been a quiet secret and I don't often tell people about it, but in the privacy of my own home, I love it. Characters frustrate me, storylines leave me shaking my head, but 20 years with these characters, they truly are a part of my life. Through the chaotic cross country trekking, different jobs, different friends, this show is a touchstone—a constant in the chaos. But now it all might go away. Granted daytime television is a vast wasteland that the viewers are slowly dying off and not being replaced with new younger viewers with buying power. The nature of the entire tv business has changed with the advent of Tivo. Now there is no second chance. I can't imagine what the broadcast networks would do with the hours between 12:30 and 4 now, more Maury? Dr. Phil marathons? Dialing for Dollars Movies? And I'm hoping that all the closet soap fans will come out of hiding if and when the axe is dropped. Sigh.