Every week we at Soap Cities (SC) profile a soap fan and SC reader from around the world in our Reader Profile. We soap fans are each an integral part of a vibrant, dynamic, eternal community. And here is one example of that!
Name: Susan I. Tenentes
Hometown: Plainview, which is in Long Island, NY.
How long she’s been watching soaps: I started watching soap operas in 1971. My mother used to watch General Hospital, and was crazy about Alan Quartemaine (ex-Stuart Damon). She saw him in a movie, playing a prince, and she called him, “Prince Quartemaine.” She told me I had to see this gorgeous guy. I started watching with her then, and I was hooked on soap operas. My mother also loved Jeff Webber (ex-Richard Dean Anderson).
Favorite soap: My favorite soap opera was General Hospital for many years. I watched Edge of Night, Ryan’s Hope, General Hospital, Port Charles, One Life to Live, All My Children, Loving, The City, and when I came to Florida in 1998, I started watching Guiding Light.
Favorite soap character: My favorite soap character was Luke (Anthony Geary) from General Hospital. I had many favorite characters from the other soaps, but Luke was my favorite on General Hospital. It’s sad to say, I only had one favorite character, so for honorable mentions I will mention are Vicky (Erika Slezak) on One Life to Live, Todd (Roger Howarth) on One Life to Live. Adam/Stewart (David Canary) on All My Children, Erica (Susan Lucci) from All My Children, and David Hayward (Vincent Irizarry) from All My Children. I had to put them in there, because they were amazing.
All-time favorite soap storyline: My all time favorite storyline was definitely Luke and Laura’s wedding on General Hospital. I was working at a beauty salon at that time, and we locked up for that one hour, went to the back of the salon, watched it, brought in food, champagne, and had a wedding cake for them. I will never forget that wedding, until the day I die. Our mock wedding for them was simply amazing. When it was over, we opened the door and went back to work.
On the Future of the Soap Genre: I want the soap genre to last forever, as I now watch General Hospital with my son, who is 25 years old. He started watching it with me, when he was in junior high school too. His school would let out at 2:00 p.m., and I taped All My Children for him. We would watch it after General Hospital, because he did not want me watching without him. We also got Hulu when All My Children, and One Life To Live, was cancelled on ABC. We watched it together online. We pray and hope that ABC will bring those two soaps back, even if they’re a half an hour each, because we have been boycotting everything ABC, daytime and nighttime too. We only watch one hour of General Hospital, then turn the TV off.
Fun fact: A fun fact about me, is that when I was young, I was a state, regional, and national champion in baton twirling. I use to twirl fire too. We traveled all over the world for nationals. I started at five years old and stopped competing at 17 years old. Then started teaching it for the police athletic league. I was in the Macy’s Day parade on TV, we twirled for then president Nixon at the White House and got a plaque thanking us. We twirled half time for Pele [the Brazilian soccer player]. We twirled for Bruce Jenner when he won the olympics. I was in Newsday [a local Long Island and NYC newspaper]for winning the nationals, and I had 300 trophies and 200 medals.
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