We are, once again, about to bid adieu to a daytime drama.  After 54 years, As the World Turns will stop spinning this September. 
 
While few have lasted as long as ATWT, I do remember a time when every moment from noon to 4:30pm was filled with our “stories” on NBC, ABC, and CBS.
 
They covered such potent subjects as love, murder, adultery, kidnapping, and babies.  They also dove into magic, alternate universes, demonic possession, mind control, and while I’m not positive, there might have been an alien abduction – depending on who you believe.
 
There were spies, millionaires, evil twins and split personalities.  And for good measure, we occasionally had a decent discussion on faith, alcoholism, AIDS, cancer and various other diseases. 
 
But over the years, interest – and viewership – has dwindled.  In its place, reality TV has become the newest soap opera.  And it’s taken viewers to new heights – and lows. 
 
We’ve visited The Hills and Jersey Shores; two shows guaranteed to instil confidence in one’s own moral compass.  We’re hanging out with MC Hammer and his family, Kate and her eight, and Gene Simmons’ family jewels. 
 
People are losing weight, building homes, fixing their finances and going to rehab. 
 
Of course, the newest generation of “stories” is lacking a few key details.  Nobody lies like they do on the soaps.  They lie if they’re pregnant.  They lie if they’re not.  They lie about who the father is.  They lie about who their father is.  They lie about the past.  And they lie about the present. 
 
Today’s un-reality TV can’t keep up.  Between background checks and the posts, Tweets, and blogs, there’s neither a skeleton nor a closet in which to hide the dang thing. 
 
Current shows also haven’t found that mysterious Swiss boarding school yet.  You know, the one where all the soap opera kids go for six months only to return a decade older.  I always wondered what that place served in its cafeteria.  That’s some powerful rice pudding. 
 
However, one skill reality TV has learned rather well from the soaps is the art of the pregnant pause.  A question is posed or a statement uttered, and instead of a response, we get … silence.  And … a look.  Then … a commercial.
 
It builds drama and tension in many of reality TV’s otherwise uninteresting developments. 
 
Soaps were the engineers of this dramatic tool.  But The Young and the Restless writers are the masters.  So skilled are they that characters could take a week to eat a ham sandwich. 
 
We need our daytime drama.  However, that term no longer applies solely to our beloved soaps.  TV is changing.  The World will soon no longer turn.  And one day, even Victor Newman will be too old to marry again.