Best prime time soaps of the 2000's?

Willie Oleson

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Oh well, why not?
I'm going to have to rack my brains to recall what I was watching back then (not a good sign, I guess).

p.s. Could a moderator move these threads to the Sundry Prime Time Soaps forum?
Thank you!:love8:
 
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Snarky Oracle!

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I thought DIRTY SEXY MONEY had potential, at least Season 1 -- but a shift to 'camp' in S2, and the '07/'08 writers' strike, doomed it. Not that it ever had the makings of a big hit, but I wanted it to work.

 
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Karin Schill

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p.s. Could a moderator move these threads to the Sundry Prime Time Soaps forum?
Thank you!:love8:

I've moved the threads to the requested forum for you. :)

Also the best soaps from the 2000s in my opinion are:

1. Buffy the vampire slayer (1997-2003)
I am not sure if this really classifies as a soap opera. But I loved this show and it had some soap elements.

2. Angel (1999-2004)
I'm not certain if this classifies as a soap opera either. It's the more grown up spin-off to Buffy.

3. Desperate Housewives (2004-2012)

I loved watching this show. It was something I looked forward to every week. Although I did think it sort of jumped the shark a bit when it suddenly skipped several years into the future from one season to the next.

4. McLeod's Daughters (2001-2009)
I love this Australian soap opera about two sisters living on a farm down under. It had some great couples to root for and other ingredients that makes a good soap opera.

5. Army Wives (2007-2013)
I love this show too. It had likable characters and couples. It also had some plot twists and devastating losses.

6. 90210 (2008-2013)
This reboot made me realize just how much I had missed the original 90210 without realizing it. I loved that Kelly, Donna, Brenda and even Jackie from the original show appeared from time to time in the first two seasons. It was all about the original Beverly Hills character Erin Silver and her friends.
 

Carrie Fairchild

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I loved Dirty Sexy Money to begin with but the wheels fell off in season two. The writer's strike didn't help matters but Peter Krause also said that ABC meddling damaged the show "We were making one show and they wanted a different one."

I also loved Pasadena when I eventually got around to watching it. It had a real edge to it, the writing was great and the cast were excellent.
 

Willie Oleson

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1. Westenwind (1999-2003)
Totally unexpected, out of the blue, there was a Dutch prime time soap and oh boy, was it prime and was it time.
Marketed as the Dutch Dallas it tells the story of two rival families/companies and...well, everything else. I think it was our last "TV event".

2. Footballer's Wives, I think this self-explanatory.

3. The Tudors
I'll say: this is a historical drama, not a soap. And then burst into laughter.
The time it took to divorce his first wife and marry that conniving Boleyn tramp felt like daytime soap.
Case in point (or is it "point in case"? It's so hot I can't think anymore, let alone in a foreign language):

4. Dirty Sexy Money
Excellent first season, a hip new Dynasty, like Central Park West was the hip new Dynasty of the 1990s.
Unfortunately it also ended the same way, cancelled after the mediocre second season. Such a shame.

5. Everwood
A heartwarming series that doesn't really qualify as soap, but there was plenty of romance, rivalry, tragedy - and I always had to know what would happen next.

6. Desperate Housewives
I'm not sure if it was designed as soap, to me it seems more like a crime/mystery/black humour thing.
But there was so much soapy drama going on, it would be crazy to say that it wasn't a soap.
Too bad they often took the "dark" out of the dark humour, but it certainly had plenty of wicked moments.
Brenda Strong's character (probably the best of the lot) dies in the first episode, just like she did two years earlier on Everwood.

7. The O.C.
I've watched almost three seasons because I liked the storylines for the adults, but the kids were the main characters and I found them un-watchable, especially after season 1.
Writing out Chris Carmack's character (sort of a blonde John Ross type) was a failure of epic proportions.

(Actually I don't know how it happened, maybe he wanted to go).
 

GillesDenver

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For me a soap is different from a drama. There was not a lot of true prime time soaps in that decade : "Desperate Housewives", "Pasadena" (I never watched it)", "Dirty Sexy Money", & the second series of "Melrose Place" are the only ones I can think of.

"The O.C." and "90210" might be considered as soaps but to me they are teen soaps, which I considered as a little it different.
 

Marika

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I think most drama series involving families or small town settings would classify as "semi" soaps because they feature the same storylines as classic primetime soaps. There are so many recurring elements on all these shows: The tormented couple (that the audience should root for), a teen scene, a business man/woman, sibling rivalry, parents that get divorced, mistresses, relatives that nobody knew of, illnesses, shocking deaths etc.

These shows also fall in this category:
  • Brothers & Sisters
  • Gilmore Girls (especially the later seasons were very soapy)
  • Dawson's Creek (both 90s/00s)
  • Gossip Girl
  • North Shore
  • Private Practice
  • Ugly Betty
 

Carrie Fairchild

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If we're going international then Footballers Wives is THE soap of the 00's for me. It was deliciously bonkers and stayed on the right side of camp for most of it's run. What other show would end an episode with the cliffhanger where a wife (Amber) discovers that her husband's mistress (Tanya) had scratched her initials into his arse cheek?
 

Toni

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My choices:

1- "Desperate Housewives" (2004-12)
2- "Smallville" (2001-11)
3- "The Good Wife" (2009-16)
4- "The Tudors" (2007-10)
5- "Dirty Sexy Money" (2007-09)
6- "Brothers & Sisters" (2006-11)
7- "Glee" (2009-15)
8- "Reunion" (2005-06)
9- "24" (2001-10)
10- "Lost" (2004-10)
11- "Miss Piggy´s Guide to Life" (unaired pilot)



"...And, guess who starred in the last one? Moi!"​
 

Mel O'Drama

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For me a soap is different from a drama. There was not a lot of true prime time soaps in that decade

The 2000s were also bogged down by the dramedy category. Series like Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty had a heap of soapy elements and appealed to me on that level. But they were also very sitcom-heavy. Many soaps have funny moments, but the comedy in Noughties dramedies - complete with the cartoony "this is where you're supposed to laugh" music - was far too overt for me to consider them soaps.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the comedy as well as the drama but to me Desperate Housewives shares more genes with The Golden Girls than it does Knots Landing. All that's missing is the canned laughter.


"The O.C." and "90210" might be considered as soaps but to me they are teen soaps, which I considered as a little it different.

I've never seen either of the shows you mention, but I do know that One Tree Hill - another that in its early years could be considered a "teen soap" - appealed to me in the same way as the Eighties soaps and ticked many of the same boxes. And it was played straight.
 
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Karin Schill

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In what way is it more "grown up"? (I've never watched Buffy so I don't know what kind of show it is).

Buffy was about High School and college to start with. Angel was about a bunch of young adults living their own lives and working at a detective agency of sorts. Both shows used methaphors. But Angel dealt with more serious topics and I think their demo was 18-30 whereas Buffy's demo was 14-24. However there were people in the audience who were older than both those demos too.
 
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ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989

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For me the best soap of the 00s (and early 10s) is the one and only
One Tree Hill.

Sure it was often billed as a teen soap along the lines of Dawsons Creek, but it was much more than a teen drama.

It had the classic feuding family: The Scotts, it had the classic villain in form of Dan Scott and in later years Victoria Davis, love triangles galore, crazy storylines, and heart warming moments.

It defined the America of the 00s, under the shadow of 9/11 yet still far off from the America of 2018, it also showed Millennials in a more positive light than today.

Desperate Housewives was also pretty good, but it was more Dynasty than Knots Landing, One Tree Hill is the child of Knots, and grandchild of Peyton Place, while serving as the cool older sibling to Riverdale.
 

ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989

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Wow. What a fantastic analogy.

And since I love the first three shows you mentioned, I now have to check out Riverdale sometime.

You must! I'll post this on the 2010s soap thread but RIVERDALE really is the best of the 10s, ill say two words: Betty Cooper
 

Soaplover

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Ugly Betty was a soap... over the top fashions, two families (the haves and the have nots), business intrigue, the Alexis Carrington phototype (Willomina)... and even the fight of the 1st wife vs potential new wife (Claire Meade vs. Willomina). The only thing that set Ugly Better apart from the primetime soaps of the 80s/90s was that it was centered on one character (Betty).

One tree Hill was like Knots Landing circa season 1 through 4.. when the drama was more middle class and not so over the type wealthy. The show even proved it could go on without the original focus (lucas)

Skin was a primetime soap I wish had been given more a chance... a soap about the adult movie business, two warring families.. a Romeo and Juliet romance, also a few potential characters breaking into the business, and even showing that a political head looking to shut down the adult movie business wasn't so innocent and perfect (he was having an affair with his campaign manager).
 
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