This is a post I did not want to write. I was really hoping against hope that Soap Opera Digest would not let me (and the entire soap opera community) down and give GUIDING LIGHT the cover for their final week. For anyone who isn't aware, GUIDING LIGHT is the longest running drama in broadcast history. It's an institution. There will never, ever be another show that runs this long or produces this many episodes. The fact that it is going off the air is tragic - a fact that everyone seems to know except the people who produce the leading soap opera print publication. "Baby Switch Exposed!" is this week's big headline. Really Digest? Really? You can not be serious. As much as I am looking foward to that story on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, it isn't even a blip on the radar of soap opera history and never will be. Why is a baby in the center of this cover instead of Reva Shayne? Bert Bauer? Roger Thorpe? Anyone from GL? In the upper right side of the cover, we get a "Our Fond Farewell to GUIDING LIGHT" tease. I don't think a 50-page tribute inside the magazine, which there isn't by the way, would come close to making up for this royal snub. And to look at the cover, the GL farewell is no more important than "Co-Star Crushes Revealed!" Seriously?
Those who know me know I don't just rant about anything. And I have a high tolerance for bad writing, shakey cams and unfortunate acting choices. But I just can't tolerate disrespect and that is what this is.
None of us should be surprised. The soap print press is struggling and Digest in particular falsely believes that there is a set of 10 to 20 actors who must be on the cover or else no one will buy. I just can't buy that out of all the millions of fans of GUIDING LIGHT who have watched over the past seven decades who will be strolling through their local checkout lines next week, enough wouldn't buy a special edition GUIDING LIGHT cover to make a profit.
I have yet to get my subscriber cover in the mail and perhaps GUIDING LIGHT will appear there. I will be grateful if that is the case, but it will not make up for this complete lack of acknowledgement at next Friday's historical finale.
UPDATED:
Lynn Leahey, Editorial Director for both Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly, offered an explanation to We Love Soaps "That was a really tough call, and I understand your frustration. We don’t put the same show on both Digest and Weekly because we just can’t split sales between the two magazines. I had to decide which cover it would go on, and since Weekly has room for more images, I gave it to Weekly."
Look for Leahey on an upcoming "We Love Soaps Radio" episode in the near future.
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