THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504280059
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VALERIE CARINO, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
IT'S TUESDAY AFTERNOON and Old Dominion University students are screaming. The reason: They've just witnessed a woman walking in on her housekeeper passionately kissing the woman's comatose husband.
It's just another day in Webb Center, jam-packed with the usual emotional highs and lows.
According to the Nielsen television ratings, only a small percentage of people ages 12 to 24 watch soap operas, but the two soap opera rooms at ODU are always packed. One TV is tuned to CBS all day, the other to ABC.
The tattered blue couches in the CBS room are usually full. About 30 students come to watch ``The Young and the Restless'' and the ``The Bold and the Beautiful'' each day. Like it was their own living room, students munch their lunches in front of the big-screen TV and rearrange the furniture for the best view. On some days, students fight for space on the floor. And when a character does something especially agitating or conniving, no one is embarrassed to yell at the screen.
Meanwhile, over in the ABC room, things are kind of quiet. The TV is small, and the volume is kept low, sometimes so low that it's impossible to hear. But students take advantage of the low volume to stretch out on the couch for naps.
Students in this room are less passionate, less willing to admit that they watch soaps, although the same ones come day after day.
``Basically here at ODU, that's all they have for you to watch,'' said freshman Misti Goodson, 18. ``But don't get me wrong, some of the story lines are interesting. They just get spicier and spicier.''
ODU alumni say soaps have been popular at Webb Center for at least 10 years. But the daytime dramas made their way into mainstream America via radio in the 1930s, said Nancy Liebowitz, a publicist for ``As the World Turns.''
Soaps (named for the sponsors) were a hit because ``the characters and the stories continued day after day, like the lives of the listeners,'' Liebowitz said.
Today, ODU students say soaps break the monotony of everyday life and can even be therapeutic.
``If you're depressed, they take up your time,'' said senior Susan Bland, 21. ``It's a way to forget other things.''
``If I feel bad about myself, it feels good to see someone else feel bad,'' said junior Joy LaRue Porter, 20.
Soap operas have always been more popular with women. Nielsen said that 5,000 of the 6,000 12- to 24-year-olds in the area who watch ``As the World Turns'' are women. But the guys are watching, too. Overall, 5,000 males in this area watch ``The Young and the Restless,'' and 3,000 watch ``General Hospital'' every day.
ODU senior Geof Thompson, 21, has been a fan of soaps since elementary school. Thompson even schedules his classes around ``The Young and the Restless'' and ``The Bold and the Beautiful.'' He said his professors don't seem to mind his tardiness when he can't miss the cliffhanger endings.
ODU students say soaps seem to be reaching for a more culturally diverse audience. Freshman Tony Bethea, 18, noted this on his favorite, ``The Young and the Restless.''
``The racial boundary is starting to expand,'' Bethea said. ``More blacks and Vietnamese are being included in the storylines, which is a good thing.''
ODU soap junkies are split about what makes a good soap a good soap.
They should address real life issues, such as date rape or homosexuality, Porter said. She'd like more of this.
``We don't want to accept real life, that people will die, AIDS will happen, that there are homosexuals in the world,'' she said. ``Whether we accept it or not, it's real.''
But reality is just what some students want to avoid. Many are irritated by the frequent interruptions from the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
``I feel for the brother and everything, but not while my soap is on,'' said senior Damon Wade, 23. Wade wants O.J. news bites left to the evening news.
While soaps are known for their steamy sex scenes, many students said that too much sex sends a bad message. Prime-time soaps like ``Melrose Place'' and ``Beverly Hills 90210,'' whose characters seem to swap sexual partners every episode, encourage teens to be irresponsible, they said.
``You never see them pull out a condom on TV,'' Goodson said.
``The overall message is it's OK to have sex with everyone you know,'' said freshman Gladdys Acebedo, 18.
But as long as soaps stay interesting and not too far-fetched, students will come to Webb to watch.
``A soap is just a soap,'' said freshman Christina Virata, 18. ``It's just something to laugh at, an outlet.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Valerie Carino is a sophomore at ODU.
JIM WALKER/Staff
Students gather at Old Dominion University's Webb Center to watch
soap operas.
by CNB