Daytime Baby-Mama Drama

I grew up watching soap operas (a/k/a daytime dramas). I was a weird kid. In kindergarten I would come home from school and watch "Dark Shadows" with my mommy while hiding under the table whenever "Barnabas Collins" [pictured] came on. When other kids were running home to watch "Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck" in 3rd grade, I was running home to catch what was going on in Port Charles on “General Hospital”. When I got to college I would schedule my classes around “All My Children”. Just because Jenny and Greg were in college too. Needless to say, I had a very adult view of the world at young age.

When I finally got my very first professional acting job, as fate would have it, it was as an extra on the soap opera, “Search for Tomorrow”. I would go on and play a variety of roles in various capacities (extra a/k/a “background performer” or “U/5” a/k/a Under Five lines) on all of the New York based soap opera. Some of them are no longer on the air like “Search for Tomorrow”, “Loving”, “Ryan’s Hope” and my last semi-regular soap gig, “Another World”. I had never watched any of the shows I worked on except for “All My Children” and “One Life to Live”. Some of the story lines that I was involved in were considered “racy”. But that was over 10 years ago.

Now I’m home on from school because of the President’s Day holiday and I just happen to be channel surfing and now I realize that all those daytime dramas that I used to work on, were tame compared to the new daytime dramas: The Talk /Judge Reality Shows!. "Erica Kane" [pictured] never had to worry about discovering her man of three months was sleeping not only with her niece but "he" was biologically a woman. This is what I just saw on “The Jerry Spring Show” today. On the next channel a woman is suing her husband on “Judge Hatchett” for taking away her pick-up truck. Simple enough. Until you find out that the husband purchased the truck for her as a gift for Valentine’s Day even after she had cheated on him with his fishing buddy in the truck. [By "fishing buddy", I'm not talking about the "Brokeback Mountain" kind either.] By the way, this was the second time he had caught her. Needless to say, Judge Hatchett was not happy with the woman for wasting her time and dismissed the case.
My question is: Where do they find these people?

I have to admit, I have been a fan of Oprah Winfrey for many years. Just because I think she avoids going the exploitative route with the issues she discusses on her show. Her guess will always handle themselves with dignity and class no matter what horrible things they have been through. No chairs will go flying on her stage! Granted, I may not be interested in her shows about purchasing the “perfect bra” or what to do if you get a tampon stuck in your "hoo-hoo?" That is when I turn the channel or read a book. I have that choice. But you have to wonder why shows like “Jerry Springer” and “Maury” (or what should be called “Who Be Sholanda’s Baby Daddy Show?”). Perhaps as long as there will always be people looking for their 15 minutes of fame at the expense of sacrificing what little dignity they may have and people willing to watch these public humiliations, these shows will always have an audience.

However, it is a sad statement on American society when these shows are shown overseas and this is the “America” that foreign countries will view as what it means to live in America. It’s bad enough that foreigners think some of us are dumb asses’ for putting George W. Bush in the White House for a second term. All they have to do is watch an import of any of these shows and then they could understand how this happened. Every day Canada is starting to look better to me. At least there, gays are allowed to marry and receive the same benefits allowed married people nationally. Go Canada!!!