OnTheGround: Soaking Up the Soaps

First published June 10, 2003

By C. W. Oberleitner

Even though he claims to be too busy to be a fan of daytime drama, C.W. "Chuck" Oberleitner spent a day at Disney's California Adventure covering week two of Super Soap Weekends. Join us as we see if he was able to get the casts of ABC soaps "General Hospital" and "Port Charles" to come clean.

Space the final frontier. . . Now if those four words are familiar to you, you will understand why when I say that I probably would have been a better choice to cover a sci-fi convention than a weekend at Disney's California Adventure theme park dedicated to the fans of ABC TV's daytime dramas. Although, given what I learned about vampires invading the placid environs of Port Charles I'm not at all sure that the two genres aren't in someway merging.

This was year two for Super Soap Weekends at DCA and judging by the number of fans waiting in line to get in it's a big hit with the fans of ABC's daytime dramas. Crowds filled the park's central plaza and spilled out on to the Esplanade between DCA and Disneyland.

For those of you who like me may be more familiar with fan events that include Klingons in full battle gear parading around exhibit halls. Let me describe the differences to be found at either the Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World versions of Super Soap Weekends. To begin with there is no trading floor full of vendors hawking all manner of alien collectables. There were some clothing items from the various shows available for sale in The Greetings From California shop located in DCA's Sunshine Plaza. In as much as these were clothes for daytime TV stars there were no jumbo petite fashions so I quickly moved on.

There were plenty of opportunities for fans to see their favorite stars up close and to ask questions. Coffee Talk with Linda Dano was a big hit with fans. It featured rotating panels of stars from both General Hospital and Port Charles.

A crowd favorite, Coffee Talk continually filled the amphitheatre across from Golden Dreams in DCA's San Francisco district.

It wasn't all fun and games with the theme park guests. We members of the working press were expected to, well, work. There was a press interview area set up on part of the Golden Vine Winery. The part that doesn't sell wine I might add. It was here that we could get up close and personal with the stars.

The Disney folks were very good to us. There was plenty of shade and fans, although on this particular day it didn't get nearly as warm as it did the weekend before. As you can see in the photo below they even went out of their way to make sure DCA guests could readily spot us.

During one of the afternoon press conferences we discovered that actor Lane Davies, who has only been appearing on General Hospital for eight months, has a close association with Disney theme parks. He is the voice of civil war photographer Matthew Brady in Disneyland's new 3d audio Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. He also played a producer in the open ceremonies of Tokyo's DisneySeas.

It takes a great deal of hard work to bring the fans of daytime television together with their favorite stars. As usual the cast members of the Disneyland Resort came through with flying colors, if not a few sore feet and aching backs.

One of the most fun things to do during the Super Soap Weekends was to take part in the Perfect Mate casting sessions that took place in the Golden Dreams theatre. Walt Willey of All My Children hosted this event over the course of both Super Soap Weekends.

The basic premise was simple. Three women from the audience were each given a chance to audition for a part in a daytime drama. Willey was their audition partner. After all three scenes had been played out the audience would choose which of the women got the chance to go on to the final audition with a handsome young soap star.

The premise may have been simple. The execution, however, was hysterical. Okay I'm not a big fan of daytime TV so I really didn't know who some of these guys were. Granted they were all quite good looking. But some of these women acted like they'd never seen a man before in their lives. Let's just say we can't actually show you some of the wilder things they did here on a family website.

That was my first Super Soap Weekend. I'm really looking forward to the next one. And, if you just can't wait till next year to get up close and personal with some of your favorite TV stars you might want to circle September 6 and 7 of this year on your calendar. That's the weekend of ABC's Primetime Weekend at Disney's California Adventure.

C'ya real soon!