Gather ’round, denizens, as Loba spins a yarn about how Star Trek: The Next Generation led to my addiction to probably the girliest, most soap-opera-y television series I’ve ever loved.
I make no secret of the fact that I have a very low tolerance for soap operas. Unending character drama is one of the quickest ways to lose me as a viewer, especially if it’s of a variety that makes you go “Seriously? When would that ever really happen to anyone?!”
I was subjected to several different daytime soaps during summers when I was little and spent time with the elderly woman across the street. Some of those story lines were the most absurd things I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life. If things like that happen to you or someone you love on a regular basis? You might want to look into going into witness protection. Or relocating to a cave.
Soap operas give me a horrible NO feeling.
“Nighttime dramas” are supposedly better. They’re a little less ridonculous, a little less over-the-top. At least that’s the theory. They’re still chock-full of inescapable…drama. Guess that’s to be expected, though, right? Meh.
But what does this have to do with Star Trek? Or me liking a soap opera? One Saturday evening during my misspent youth, I was home, clicking through the VHF and UHF dials on my little portable TV and trying to find something to watch (High Life, Party of One!). I happened to click over to the local NBC station just as whatever show was currently playing began to fade to black for a commercial break, and who should appear there on my screen? Ensign Robin Lefler!
Ensign Robin Lefler! On mah TV screen!!
It took a moment for my brain to process what I’d seen, and by the time I clicked back, there was a commercial playing, so I couldn’t verify that it was indeed Robin Lefler. Then, when the show did come back on, it came back to some story that included a bunch of people who were decidedly not Robin Lefler. However, the interactions between the characters and the story line they were discussing was interesting enough that I stuck around. And then another story arc popped up, and I found that one interesting as well…and then Robin Lefler reappeared! HUZZAH! I was right!!
Okay, it wasn’t Robin Lefler. Robin Lefler doesn’t really exist. It was, however, Ashley Judd. Seems that in addition to a briefly recurring role on TNG, Judd had a regular gig playing the character of Reed Halsey on the NBC nighttime drama Sisters.
As I’m sure you can deduce from the show’s title, it’s all about…sisters! The four Reed sisters, to be exact: Rich Girl Alexandra “Alex” Reed Halsey (Swoosie Kurtz); Bad Girl Theodora “Teddy” Reed (Sela Ward); Homemaker Georgiana “Georgie” Whitsig (Patricia Kalember); and Baby Sis Francesca “Frankie” Reed Margolis (Julianne Phillips). Here they are, in order from right to left:
I don’t know how it happened, denizens, but that one moment of thinking I saw a Trek actor on another show and waiting to prove it to myself got me hooked. After that, every week I’d either tune in or set the VCR to tape it (I did have some semblance of a life when I was in high school, thank you). I had to know what was going on with those crazy Reed sisters and their respective families.
For the most part, the stories were relatively realistic at first. Yeah, there was the arc where Teddy spray-painted “SLUT” on Frankie’s car because she was dating Teddy’s ex-husband. Then again, with how people behave toward each other now, is that really a stretch? Is discovering that there’s a fifth sister, born from the father’s extramarital dalliances and hidden from the family for years…is that a stretch either?
I guess not. I just don’t like
