Wet Hot Summer Soaps REWIND! We will see you in August!

Enjoy this episode from last summer while we get our shit together and take some vacations! 

We take a nostalgic dive into the world of soap operas and their impact on Gen X women's lives, exploring both daytime dramas and primetime sensations that dominated television from the 1970s through the 1990s.

• Daytime soaps like General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, and Young and the Restless provided entertainment primarily for stay-at-home mothers
• Famous stars including Rick Springfield, John Stamos, Demi Moore, and Mark Hamill got their start on General Hospital
• The "Who Shot JR?" Dallas storyline in 1980 was such a cultural phenomenon that one mother asked if her daughter's hospitalization was "serious enough to miss Dallas"
• Primetime soap operas including Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing featured wealthy families, glamorous settings and high drama
• Soap operas evolved in the 90s to include supernatural elements with shows like Passions and Dark Shadows incorporating vampires, witches and paranormal adventures
• The shift from traditional melodrama to supernatural content parallels changing interests as Gen X women entered adulthood

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Transcript

Vacation Update & Replay Intro

Speaker 1 0:01

Hello everybody, megan Bennett here. Hey look, it has been a crazy busy summer. July has just been an absolute whirlwind. I've been on vacation. I know Leslie and Tim are trying to get all of their stuff together so they can go on vacation next week, and so we, to be completely frank and honest, just haven't had the capacity to be able to get together to record a pod. So we are going to offer you guys a replay of a previous pod. And here's the deal.

Speaker 1 0:39

I just went back to Disney World for a little bit more than a week with my friends and my family. It was fantastic. It was the ultimate type of escapism that was needed and we had an absolute blast. I came home, realized that if I acted quickly, I could upgrade my pass to an annual pass, and I ended up doing that, and I did that. I mean I love Disney. Don to an annual pass, and I ended up doing that, and I did that. I mean I love Disney. Don't get me wrong, but I did it for my mental health. If I'm going to watch the world burn, I decided I'm going to do it from the happiest place on earth and just occasionally pick up and go to Disney when I feel like I need to have a break from reality. So I guess what I'm saying here is do something amazing for yourself, be incredibly good to yourself, have an amazing rest of July and, leslie and I'll be back in August with whole new pods Love to talk to you. So please feel free to leave us messages and we will address those as soon as we get back. Have an amazing, fantastic vacation time. If you're off to do something with your friends and family, if you're just hanging around the house, hey, that's pretty awesome too. So be good to yourself and we will see you guys in, or at least hear you guys, I hope, in August.

Dramatic Soap Opera Introduction

Speaker 1 2:06

I'm Megan Bennett, I'm Leslie Meyer and this is Gen X. Women Are Sick of this Shit. Hi Hi Megan, hi, leslie. Why are we whispering? Because it's dramatic, for dramatic effect, dramatic effect. Hi, leslie, why are we whispering? Because it's dramatic. Oh, for dramatic effect, dramatic effect. It's very important to be dramatic and to do a lot of face acting at one another and, yes, deep, deep breaths. What? I can't believe it. How dare you? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. You did, though. I can't believe you. You're right, I did. I did mean to. I've always been jealous of you. I knew it.

Speaker 1 3:01

What could we possibly be talking about today? Well, I hope we're talking about one of my favorite and I'm not even feeling guilty about those favorite things. Happy meals no, not happy meals, it's like a television version of a happy meal. It is a television version of a happy meal. There are little snacks for your brain. Yeah, yeah, guilty pleasures, guilty pleasures, delicious, grease filled guilty pleasures.

Nighttime Soaps: Dallas to Falcon Crest

Speaker 1 3:33

I think we're talking about soap operas, specifically soap operas of our childhood. Oh yeah, the best kind of soap, the best kind of. Because I'm like are there are soap operas? I guess they're still a thing. I mean, they're still on. Well, the daytime stuff is, but like nighttime soaps are there like, is that like the um, the rescue, 911 and the that type stuff? Would that be a soap opera? I have not watched network television in so many years. I couldn't even begin to tell you what is on a channel at nighttime. I think maybe the Lost and things like that. The show Lost was sort of a soap opera. That was so long ago. Yeah, that was so long ago. Yeah, that was. And then there's some yeah, I don't know that they do the soap operas the way they used to do soap operas Like Dallas, oh, dallas, yes, no, I don't think there's anything.

Speaker 1 4:35

Well, there are no more captive audiences quite like that. I don't think so. I think there was a resurgence, like there was a new Dallas not too terribly long ago that I don't think really took off. Okay, and maybe a Dynasty 2. Okay, electric Boogaloo I don't. Is there a streaming equivalent for a soap opera man? I don't know. I'm sure there are Anything. Well, okay, what if it's really more reality TV? Yeah, I think there's a lot of reality TV, like some of the real Desperate Housewives has sort of replaced, like the scripted not scripted, the Bachelorette, the Bachelor, the Love Island and all of that. Yeah, probably, that's probably sort of taken the place. I think so.

Speaker 1 5:21

My mom was a huge. I've got so many stories sort of taken the place. I think so. My mom was a huge. I've got so many stories. She was a huge fan of Dallas, and my grandmother too, when she was alive, and I think, yeah, that that there's nothing really out there. That's like that.

Speaker 1 5:39

Now, people will tell us if we're wrong. Oh, I hope they do. They will, so we don't have to worry about it too much. Right, they won't tell us when we're right, but they will definitely tell us when we're wrong. I sure wish they'd tell us when we're right too. You guys, you nailed it, girls, girls. So we are today on this particular podcast.

Speaker 1 5:58

We decided we were going to do a short version, a deep dive into one topic. Yes, right, and so these are our after school special yeah shows. Yes, so all nostalgia, um, just deep, deep dive into a bunch of gooey nostalgia, yep, bite-sized little snacks of history that you may or may not remember, yeah, and in your case, it sounds like you were not tuned into the soap opera world, did you not do any nighttime soaps as a kid? So, the nighttime soaps, I do remember watching dallas. I remember being on and the whole who shot jr situation. And I do remember falcon crest, okay, because I remember there was a big front door, oh yeah, inside somebody's house, like a big double, like it was a very luxurious entree into their home. Oh, yeah, it was the northern california, yeah, state, that was impressive. I remember that. Um, that's about it. And for daytime soaps, yep, there we go. Look at those pictures. There's falcon crest, yeah, yes, I do remember watching that because I think that kind of started, I mean, like I probably got to watch that sort of like from beginning to end.

Speaker 1 7:29

I don't know what the run years were for Falcon Crest, but it just sort of sticks in my mind. Oh, look at that. So producer Tim pulled up some photos from the interwebs of Falcon Crest, the worldwide web. I remember that my grandma and my grandmother loved Falcon Crest, the World Wide Web. My grandma and my grandmother loved Falcon Crest and I think she saw herself in like the lead matron character. So yeah, that was Northern California, like orchard right or vineyard was the setting, I think, of Falcon Crest. Okay, so very dramatic, you know very a little. There she is, lifestyles of the rich and famous. Actually she looks a little bit like my daughter. It also looks like a Downton Abbey. At the layout, the character, layout and placement of that it could also be Downton Abbey.

Speaker 1 8:22

Now, you mentioned when we first talked about this idea of talking about soap operas. When we said falcon crest, you were like, yep, that's who I remember. Oh, there he is. Look at his hair, look at that. That's quite magnificent. He was the hottie. I could see that. He was the marketable still kind of a hottie. I mean I don't haven't seen him in. No, I have no idea what he's gone to do, but something, uh. And then there were also, of course, daytime, the original daytime soap operas. Oh, yeah, love them, and we didn't watch a ton of those. My, uh, I'm sorry, a picture of the show of Lorenzo Lamas, shirtless with a bandana around his neck, very hairy chested with some feathered hottie hairdo. These are magnificent. We will have to share that with the world.

Speaker 1 9:18

But my great grandmother would watch soap operas, the daytime soaps, the daytime soaps. So did she watch them while she was, uh, cleaning, just doing the you know regular great grandmother life? She just had a chair, no, it was a sit. We sat down and watched these together. I was probably nine, I was probably should not have been watching some of these soap operas, um, but she would. Her little tv room was like it was like the kitchen, the tv room, and then you could go into the rest of the house where, like, the living room was and all that stuff, and uh, she would sit in there and watch, um, the young and the restless, oh, okay. And so I could kind of like sit on a stool next to her while she watched her stories. I remember my great aunt and her twin sister were big fans of Days of Our Lives. So it was like these are the days of our lives, so the sands through the hourglass, yes, like sands through the hourglass, there we go. Yep, that's right, I remember that. Yep, they were. I remember visiting and going over and, boy, if that was you, just you just had to just sit there and be quiet for a little while while the stories were on.

Daytime Soap Operas & Famous Stars

Speaker 1 10:27

So daytime soaps were essentially entertainment for stay-at-home mothers. Yeah, women, yeah, I think that's right, it was women who did not work, yep, well, who did not work outside of the house. Work outside of the house, I think that, yeah, where they couldn't have that on in the background, right, everything was. All the advertisements that were on TV were there specifically for, you know, the women of the house. The laundry detergent, absolutely, the palm olive you're soaking in it. All of those commercials were always there. Oh, days of their lives did that? Is that the one that had that guy with the eye patch?

Speaker 1 11:12

The first, oh, yeah, daytime soap opera ever was 1949, in the us, I be clear, and it was called these Are my Children. There were other melodramas that aired in the evening as like weeklies, but soap operas became a fixture of American daytime television in the early 50s. These are my children, these are my children. That is a terrible name, I mean, it is direct. These are my children. I guess it depends on how you say it Was the spinoff then. All my Children, these are my children, these are my children, these are my children, these are my children. This is what we have.

Speaker 1 12:02

But for many people these are serious things. Oh, still so. How Guilty, oh wait, okay, so do tell. What is the story here? What are your early memories of soaps? What is your personal emotional connection to's? It's sick.

Speaker 1 12:26

Well, so my mom, my mom and grandmother, huge, huge fans of dallas, huge fans of knots landing, falcon cross, knots landing was the evening one that took place. That was all around a um, like a court, like a like in a neighborhood that was the neighborhood of knots landing and everybody lived on the you know the, the same courtyard, yeah, the courtyard area, the kind of cul-de-sac, cul-de-sac, that's right. There we go Thank you for finding the word Uh-huh, anytime. So yeah, so you had Dallas that started in 1978, knott's Landing in 79, falcon Crest in 81, dynasty in 81, and then the spinoff of the Colby's. So lots of lots of nighttime shows happening, and I think that that little apple didn't fall far from the tree. My mom, my mom, watched General Hospital, okay, when I was very little, um, and I never stopped. So I think this like idea of these whole like soap operas, daytime, nighttime, whatever time uh, yeah, so I've been a gh fan for for my whole life. Gh, is that what you all call yourselves? Hell, yeah, we're ghers. Well, I don't do t-shirts, somebody probably does, god, no, but now I want one. We should make you a t-shirt for General Hospital.

Speaker 1 13:46

There have been some pretty famous people on General Hospital. Yes, ma'am, rick Springfield, okay, he was Dr Noah Drake. Yes, of course he was and was a big deal. And then he was on there for a number of seasons. Oh look, he's so dreamy, he's super dreamy. Dr Noah Drake, I think I remember girls talking about him in middle school. That would track. Okay, yeah, for sure. Rick Springfield, okay, okay, that makes sense, all right.

Speaker 1 14:21

And John Stamos was, uh, the young blackie, and I can't remember his last name on the show, but, um, he was a, he was a young, tough that, oh, blackie. Was he also a doctor or no? No, no, he was. He was kind of a little hot-headed kid that caused trouble. Yeah, didn't really have a family, was sort of Just wandering on the streets like an urchin. Well, I think the people tried to bring him underneath their wing, they tried to save him. Did he have a love interest? I'm sure he did. I don't know that he was on that long to be. Okay, troublemakers always have a love interest. Oh, yeah, he was the quintessential bad boy, okay. So, yeah, who else came out there? He was on there.

Speaker 1 15:17

I realized in looking back at old episodes in preparation for talking about this that also Demi Moore was on General Hospital as well, and it was funny because I was watching it on YouTube and heard her voice and then I was like, oh my God, wait, that's Demi Moore. So I had forgotten that she was on there as well. That her hair oh, there's a whole lot of hair. Wait, is that Luke? That's Luke. Were they having a tryst Demi Moore's character or were they just airplane buddies? Well, I think so. Luke and Laura obviously the big couple, okay, but Luke was kind of a. He was a dirty dog on the show. Oh, good, like he was not.

Speaker 1 16:07

There's a lot of if you look back at General Hospital in our eyes today, you would go oh, you can't do some of the things that they do. I hear it. Okay, blackie Parrish. Oh, blackie Parrish, I just found Parrish, that's right, thank you.

Speaker 1 16:24

And then I learned that Mark Hamill was also on General Hospital at one point or another. Okay, I believe it. Yeah, I believe it. So there we go. Well, then you also had Jack Wagner, and Jack Wagner was Frisco Jones on General Hospital, who then later, after you know spending time on general hospital, uh, landed somehow magically as a doctor on melrose place, as the character dr peter burns. Oh, which is the funniest fucking name of a person ever, like dr peter peter burns. You really need to have that looked at. I'm sorry, peter Buddy. Wait, is that Mark Hamill? Have that looked at. That is Mark Hamill. Check him out. He was a child, he was very young. That had to be before Star Wars. I honestly don't remember him being on John Lasko why would we? That's cool, fantastic, okay, yeah, so Felicia, his wife, frisco's wife, fake wife, not real wife, I understand, yes, on the television, the lines blur Well, it's real, it's real, it's real to me. So she's still on. She's still a regular character on General Hospital now. So these are the things that blow me away.

Who Shot JR & Mom Missing Dallas

Speaker 1 17:50

These shows have been on for decades, some of them, and the storylines are the same. It's the same families. It's the same. In a lot of cases. It's the same families. There will be new families that pop up here and there and new characters that pop up. Same families, it's the same. In a lot of cases. It's the same families. There will be new families that pop up here and there and new characters that pop up. And, of course, you know, somebody who's been dead for 15 years can always show back up through the magic of television Because they're not really dead. Right, right, yeah, how can you trust dead people anymore? You can't. They don't stay dead, they just come back time and time again. I understand. I mean, why not? You can do anything you want. It's television and the filming schedules are relentless. Yes, I mean, these guys are working pretty much every day and I know COVID did all kinds of weird things to the schedule, to the schedule.

Speaker 1 18:42

It was also pretty interesting during COVID when you saw the episodes that were recorded during COVID. Making out on a soap opera is a big deal. There's a lot of that and there was none of that Way less making out. Yeah, you would see like they would cut in places where you thought they were going to have. Like, oh, these two are going at it Uh-huh. No, no, they were just making eyes. We have to use our imagination because we couldn't Behind the veil, then it's all going to go to blackout. That's right. They suddenly got a thousand times cleaner and safer for small children to watch. No open mouth kissing during COVID.

Speaker 1 19:20

So what do you think makes a soap opera so engaging? Like, what are the qualities that keep you coming back? Megan bennett, oh god, help me. Well, at this point it's probably a sick, sick habit, okay, I mean, I don't know, I don't know. Uh, I think there's this escapism, okay, and that's true with most television. Absolutely right, like you're, like I'm died, my life is pretty boring, but you know, sunny corinthos has got like a pretty wild. You know wildlife and I'm gonna watch what's going on, okay, and then you just get invested, I think, in the characters. You gotta know what happens next. Yep, I understand, I remember.

Speaker 1 20:04

So I have to confess I do not remember the last episode of dallas, or who shot jr? Was there a conclusion? Was it his wife? Was it his brother, it was his, uh, his, secretary. It was the blonde girl. Oh God, if my mom were here she'd be able to, she would know. Well, first of all she'd smack me in the head and go how did you not know this Well? So when did that episode actually air? This is a random transition. It was 1980, I think, was the whole who Shot JR drama, I think. And then, yeah, the whole world was wondering okay, did you pull up? The whodunit episode aired november 21st 1980.

Speaker 1 20:50

The person who pulled the trigger was revealed to be kristin shepherd, and shepherd played by mary crosby. Yep, so she's the short little blonde standing next to Bobby right there. Oh, it was the child. Oh, she's not a child, she's an adult, she's just very short. She's very short and she was JR's scheming sister-in-law. There you go and mistress. Well, that's what you get. I mean, you get shot, apparently For having a mistress. Yeah, it was a big deal. That's crazy, okay, so then, was that the last episode of that series? Oh heck, no, no, because dallas went on until 1991. Oh, so that was just like probably the big, that was the biggest storyline that we, that people remember. But oh, no, it lasted way, way longer After that I have no memory of it existing anymore, but I was, however old I was, I was seven when that came out, so I guess it would make sense that I don't really remember.

Speaker 1 22:00

Well, I know that it lasted longer because when I went to college here's my funny story my mom I'm sorry, mom, I have to tell on you I was going out on a Friday night with some friends and we were in a car and I was in the middle of the back seat of the car and the gal who was driving actually turned left on red and we got sideswiped, we got like t-boned by a truck and I ended up in the hospital and I lived only like 45 minutes or so away from my school, was really only 45 minutes away from home, and a guy that was in the car with me actually called my mom to let her know. You know, hey, megan's in the hospital, of course and my mom says to him is it serious enough that I should miss Dallas? What is the scale? I don't know the scale. I did have a broken pelvic bone, but apparently she did come up. She did miss Dallas, she came up.

Speaker 1 23:13

Okay, so broken pelvis, everything's fine, was important enough to miss Dallas for. But could there be something more Gen X when your mom is like you know? Is it bad enough to miss Dallas? Is it bad enough to miss dallas for? But could you? Could there be something more gen x when your mom is like you know, is it? Is it bad enough to miss? Is it bad enough to miss dallas is? Does she just have a minor concussion or like a scrape right like you know, toe, what we're talking about. Is it just like her little finger right? Is it? Is on the miss dallas scale, right? Are we so? Well, pelvis was definitely on, but we don't really know the true threshold. We don't like pelvis and a butt like I feel like, if you have a, I don't know what would have taken, mom, if your brains were coming out your ears.

Speaker 1 23:56

Yeah, I just think it's so funny because that, like, can you imagine making that phone call to call somebody's parents and then saying that that's the thing they push back? Megan, your mom just asked if she should miss Dallas to go and see you. Do you have a good relationship with your mom? Did I get the wrong phone number? She likes you, right? She knows you're here in college, right? Mm-hmm, yep, that is epic. I mean telling you soap opera is a big damn deal.

Speaker 1 24:29

So I remember I didn't I confess, did not watch a ton, other than with my great-grandmother when I would visit, like I would be there for like a week in the summer or Christmas time or whatever, and they were always on. That wasn't enough to get you sucked in 11 o'clock. But it just didn't translate because at home, unless it was summertime, I would have been in school so would not have watched, and then in the summer we were mostly like outside. I mean I think my mom was like go out there and be out there, just get out of the house. Yeah, so not a lot of daytime TV watching. Like my after school TV would have been like 321, contact and Star Trek, oh yeah, so that was sort of like the 3, 230, 3, 330. Right, and then the evening, the TV. I don't know if this I think it's nighttime drama, but I don't know, it was just sort TV. I don't know if this I think it's nighttime drama, but I don't know, it was just sort of I don't know what it would qualify as.

Speaker 1 25:28

What captured my imagination was watching the Love Boat A, because water is awesome, and, oh my gosh Fantasy Island Producer Tim. He just pulled up a fantastic one that we need to mention and that is the show Forever Night man. I love that show. I freaking loved that show too. It's the bittersweet. It was probably one of the most depressing summers of my life. When I watched the show. I was staying at my grandmother's house. She was out of the country for a while for like three weeks, maybe four weeks and I was staying at her house like cat sitting or something. I think I was fully in college. When did this show come out, forever Night? This is like a different decade, because there was Forever Night but then wasn't there. Oh, that's in the 90s. Okay, yeah, 92.

Speaker 1 26:24

What was the one with the um crap? She was in, uh, one of the soap operas and she was like married to the guy with the eye patch anyway, um, she went on to be in another like a nighttime soap with a guy who looked like Beast from Beauty and the Beast or he looked like a lion. Yes, what the hell show is that? Exactly what you're talking about. I loved that show. Producer Tim is looking at me like I've grown a second head, but he looked like a lion, right? Yes, yes, and it was evening, I can see her.

90s Shift: Supernatural Soap Operas

Speaker 1 27:01

Her, she had very long brown hair. It would kind of go back and forth between the past and it was not beauty and the beast modern day. That's it. It is beauty and the beast. Yep, long brown hair. There she is. What is her name? She's super famous. Yeah, because she was ron perlman played the beast in that show, really. And who is the actress? Where is her name? I think you just went past it. Yep, wow, there's ron perlman. Linda hamilton, holy jesus. Yes, there we go. That's right. Loved her.

Speaker 1 27:41

Yeah, she was in one of the soaps with, uh, with the guy with the eye patch, and then, you know, before she saved the world from terminator. Absolutely, hell, yeah. And then also beauty and the beast, okay, and so that lion guy when did that come out? Was this also in 90s? The beauty and the beast Beast thing? Is that 87? Late 80s? Yeah, okay, so late 80s. So I think there's a distinct change between like 70s and 80s and then tipping over into the 90s, because 90s would have been like Forever Night, melrose Place, 90210. Like TV just got different. It did get different In the 90s. Yeah, so these are two different knots.

Speaker 1 28:24

Landy goes off the air in 93 and then you get beautiful stuff, like you know, beauty of the beast, and so I wonder what changed, why we were, why audiences were sort of like tired of the I don't, I don't know family, like the serial drama thing. Yeah, I don't know, that's interesting and like why. Why now did we add this air of mysticism and like vampires and I mean so I guess those were probably geared towards us. We were the late old teens, early 20s, right? Yeah, I guess I feel like this was totally geared towards me. Had to be. I remember watching this. And then, of course, buffy the vampire slayer came up right and there was always I think not always, but in the daytime tv drama.

Speaker 1 29:14

There were a couple of of other soap operas that were a little more out there, that were a little, not not true? Yeah, like passions was. Yeah, you were reminding me of that. I don't remember we watched a little clip of it. Yeah, metaphysical weirdness happened, like, yes, they had fairies and I think you know angels floating around, spirits coming. Look at that. I mean I wonder how long that one was on. I never watched passions. I wonder if there are any diehard passions fans in the group. Oh, my god, I hope so. If anybody has a diehard passions fan, I want to know about it. But I I think, um, I mean, clearly they were around. It was around for a while, so I suspect that they had a pretty large wow. It was on for a minute.

Speaker 1 30:03

1999 to 2008. Yeah, oh, so it's. It's definitely that older, yeah, window of soap operas. Check that out. Which which tracks? Now, right, if you have your regular daytime dramas and then a little bit later you've got things like beauty and the Beast and you've got things like, you know, forever Night, and then you've got Passions. Now you've tried to merge all of that.

Speaker 1 30:29

Whatever happened in the 90s? How are we going to get these young kids sucked into soap operas? We're going to add fairies and witches, because they do not care about Luke and Laura. They just don't. No, because those were our parents. They were into that stuff. Hook these young kids on stuff we less cared about romance, less cared about it. We less cared about it. That's magnificent, magnificent, I can say that. Well, and I wonder too if there was just like a transition, if there were more people working outside of the home as we moved into the 80s, late 80s, early 90s, you could dvd these now, like at that point, so if you missed your passions you could rent them, you, yeah, you, you could just like dvr it later.

Speaker 1 31:18

So passions had its own sort of like cult following. No pun intended, I mean, it was all about. It was the cult thing, probably a little cult, the occult, the occult and romance, which sure, why not Put those two together? I mean, then you got something. Then you do have something. Well, indeed, you do have something. Well, indeed, okay. So passions, you've got what they've got, like witches and dwarves and fairies and angels and, yes, like possessions, demons, and there was a crossover with guiding light, I think. Is that true? But that threw people for a loop, was a crossover where somebody I was looking, I'm lost now some gradient, somebody's gradient, oh, no, days of our lives, oh, oh, even wackier, dr marlena evans was possessed by satan. Nice, and did the people from passions show up to I d? I think maybe she was over on passions, like there was a crossover of her character into passion.

Speaker 1 32:26

Clearly, if you went to that town you were in trouble. Yep, you should not probably visit that town. Yes, I think it did. It take place in salem. Uh, that's a great question. Maybe I'm making that up. Well, I think that that makes you an expert, not an expert. I'll take it. I think it sounds really smart, even if it is not actually factual.

Speaker 1 32:53

It was in Harmony, new England. Well so, new England, so probably right down the street. Right down the street. Maybe they got rid of kind of trouble from the Chamber of Commerce for Salem if they said it there. They couldn't do that. It follows the lives, loves and various romantic and paranormal adventures of the residents of Harmony. That was so like. I look at the picture list, I really need many more paranormal adventures in my own day to day lived experience, paranormal adventures in my own day-to-day lived experience.

Speaker 1 33:27

I feel like now, if I watch this show, like me where I am now in my life would probably have really really appreciated this show. It's so amazing. I'm sure the camp has got to be just massive. Check her out, it's so fantastic. Massive check her out. It's so fantastic. I I wish, I truly wish I would have watched this, because I get it now, you know, at 50 years old.

Speaker 1 33:48

Yes, I think this is something. Well, so maybe what we're saying is not way off, because there is this whole genre of literature now, like romanticy uh-huh, which crosses over into kind of like Gen X women's romance literature. Not all of it is like romantasy fantasy, but it is high drama. I don't know if the women were the center stage in this show or not, because I did not watch it, so I cannot speak to that, but women are kind of the heroes of of these current books. There's lots of romance and hot sex and empowerment, and so I'm just you know, maybe this is like contemporary passions, I don't know dipping our toes in this hole. We just get bored. We're. There's got to be way more.

Speaker 1 34:41

Wait, what is it Paranormal? There must be more paranormal adventure in my life. Yeah, if I can't get it in real life, I'm going to get it in my paranormal life. My fantasy of demonic possession? Yes, hot demons, hot demons. Right, they have to be sexy Ugly demon. No, that would be terrible.

Speaker 1 35:05

Okay, so we also had. So you've got passions Indeed. Then you had. If you wanted to get even darker, yes, you had dark shadows.

Speaker 1 35:14

Yes, I never watched this. Tell me about this. I didn't watch it either. I feel like this is another instance where I missed out as a kid and maybe I didn't miss out, but maybe just being a touch too young for understanding Barnabas and the whole, you know dark shadowiness of everything, but there was a movie that was made not too terribly long ago, I think. Johnny, john, uh, yes, I believe you and I lost my words again. That's okay. There was a film reboot directed by Tim Burton in 2012. There we go. Wikipedia is our official resource of research, research resource. We don't go deeper than the wiki right now when we're on the fly. 100% factual Original Dark Shadows was an American Gothic soap opera, right, it aired from 1966 to 1971.

Speaker 1 36:04

So, of course, this was two years before my existence on this planet, right, and I didn't get it. I know there was in college. There were people who were watching like old reruns of Dark Shadows. That's amazing Because you get a little gothy. You know you gotta get a gothy. Get a little gothy and enjoy your dark vampire melodrama.

Speaker 1 36:29

Dark Shadows developed a large teenage audience and a dedicated cult following. By 1969, it had become ABC's highest rated daytime series Pretty cool. So it was not even geared towards ghosts, all about vampires, which is epic and awesome. So you've got, you know this, of course, with the vampires then pre and well, kind of on the same timeline as ann rice doing her vampire, oh yeah, so absolutely kind of the birth of vampires. Well, this is at least we're tipping toes into probably what can be a whole, what will be a whole other podcast going to talk vampires, about vampires, vampire literature, vampire games. It's just fun that this is a soap opera that is all kind of walks that line. Yep, that's awesome and it and it's the predecessor to things like things we do in the shadows and stuff like that which is amazing and funny.

Closing & Where To Find Us

Speaker 1 37:23

So, thinking about all of these soap operas you know we were talking, just briefly too, about this idea that the reason that people watch them in a lot of cases were these you know, women who were living, you know, out of working out of their house, maybe, as you know, the the mom raising the kids, cooking the meals, doing the laundry, all the things, right, and this was their escapism, yeah, as they were folding, you know, little timmy's clothes um towel before he got home 475, right, mind numbing, repetitive domestic chores, right, right. And then I think, like in order to think about things like mr mom, the movie and how, you know, michael keaton gets totally sucked in on all of the soap operas and you get to see it from the man's perspective, right, and he gets how important it all is, right. I mean, these are like major sources of conversation and investment. Yep, because when you are folding towel 5 599, yep. And trying to get the whoopee out of the the you know the vacuum cleaner, then you gotta sit down and watch mr mom, so crossover that you never knew that you needed the little boy and mr mom, okay, talus and jaffee. I love that. It is, uh, the star of one of our favorite live play, role-playing games. Really, on critical role, he is a fantastic human being. He's a beautiful role player. Um, and he was the little boy with the whoopee. It's all connected, everything's connected, it is, it's true. So, and somehow we'll always get back to gaming. Uh, we will always get back to gaming, the whole other other conversation where we will talk about women in gaming and games of the 60s, 70s and 80s and all that stuff. This is great. So there's a little bit of bubble gum, love it. Yeah, bubble gum for your ears, and you are a GH person, you know. I would love to chit-chat with you about all of the new things happening in the beloved town of Port Charles, new York.

Speaker 1 39:49

You have been listening to Gen X. Women Are Sick of this Shit. Hey Megan, hey Leslie. What do people do if they want to find us? Well, we have a website that people can find us on, and that is genxwomenpodcom. We also have a Facebook page. We have an Instagram account as well. We have a YouTube account where we put YouTube shorts and other little tidbits up there. We have a TikTok account.

Speaker 1 40:19

I don't talk the dick or tick the tock. You don't tick the tock, I barely talk the tick. But I did put a TikTok account. I don't talk the dick or tick the tock. You don't tick the tock, I do not. I barely talk the tick. But I did put a TikTok up. We're explaining the internet to people again. That's okay, though. It's great. We need to know how the internet works. Can people buy merch? They absolutely can. We have a merch store on the website itself, and we also have an Etsy store too, so they're just pretty easy to find you.

Speaker 1 40:43

It's just Gen X women, and if you are listening to this podcast, presumably you found it somewhere. And while you're there, give us a review. Yeah, let us know what you think. Throw some stars at us. That'd be great. We'll take one, two, three, four or five and Ooh, five, maybe ten, and also make sure that you are hitting subscribe so that you're notified whenever a new episode drops. Most important, we also have a five minutes of fame that I think we should tell people about too. Hell. Yes, we want to know your stories, your five minutes of fame stories. You can send those stories in on the website or you can call 1-888-GEN-X-POD and leave your story for us and we will play it live in our next episode. Yep, we'll listen to it on a little red phone, just like Batman. That'd be cool. Let's get a bat phone, a bat phone. I think that's it. I think you're right.