I was flipping through the a May issue of the New York Times’ Style section when I spotted this gem: A picture of the Summer House cast paired with a picture of Sarah Michelle Gellar on All My Children. It was like some sort of algorithm trick to have a guy I just photographed on the same page as Buffy the vampire slayer. Obviously it’s going to catch my attention.
The story is a break down of how soap operas might be all but eliminated from daytime TV in the U.S. but they were so influential in grounding reality TV’s sense of story building. I was fascinated by the explanation that we are invested in their inter-personal drama because these characters become like family. And maybe the more dramatic real life problems become, the more we are trying to escape with old fashioned soap operas.
My friend Laura’s parents were huge fans of the ABC soap operas. They recorded that block every day and watched it at night. When I spent the night at her house in middle school, I would stay the next day to keep playing. We would make lunch and watch All My Children. If they had been fans of NBC, I would have a history with those shows instead. If General Hospital aired at lunchtime, that would be the one I know better than All My Children. But, the way the cards played out, I am a fan of All My Children.
Looking to see if I missed Sarah Michelle Gellar’s run, I was thrown by seeing all the characters’ names again. She played Kendall Hart, which is a name I totally remember. But I started watching the show again in like 2009 when Alicia Minshew played the character. The name Bianca Montgomery jumped out at me, too, but I remember the last version of her. I don’t think I ever saw Lacey Chabert portray her. Michael B. Jordan and Michelle Trachtenberg’s storylines sounded like they played two characters I either wasn’t that invested in or simply wasn’t watching the show at the time. Meanwhile, I don’t know how I remember Hayley falling for Mateo so well if that happened when I was in high school. Am I just forgetting how much I watched All My Children every summer?
So many characters seem like they should have been there the whole time: Jackson, Ryan, Tad, Opal, Dixie, Greenlee, and, of course, Erica. With some reality shows going for 10 seasons, is this how people watch Summer House? Like you can skip a season or two and be okay. It’s all the same characters.
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