Interview: Soap Hunks

Interview: Soap Hunks Webmaster and Founder

Danny, founder and webmaster of the Shrine to the Soap Hunks took some time out of his busy schedule to answer questions about the site, hunks, the history and the future of soap operas.

SoapHunks.net is celebrating 10 years online, what prompted you to set up the site in the first place?

Back in 1998, I was just surfing the Web looking for some pictures of my favorite daytime hunks, and found very few. I remember thinking it would be cool if someone were to create a site where you could find all of the different daytime hunks all in one place. One thing led to another and I decided that someone would be me. The original site was just one of those free Geocities sites and was woefully amateurish. I would have never guessed then that I would still be doing it ten years later, or how popular it would get, or how much it has grown.

Then and now, the site is just something I maintain from my home office, even though I get plenty of visitors who think the networks run it. I take that as a great compliment.

Top 100 Moments Feature

The top 100 moments in Soap History is a walk down memory lane. What makes these particular moments stand out for you?

The 100 Most Memorable Moments project was fun for me, because for once I got to show that I am a huge soap fan beyond just staring at the medium's eye candy. I've been watching soaps since childhood, and I wanted to share with people the moments that I always fondly--or not so fondly--recall when I think back. It's important to note that the list is "Most Memorable," not "Best." Some of the moments on the list are terrible/embarrassing...but they are memorable.

What moments in soap history do you feel were under-represented in the list?

There were of course tons of moments that got cut from the final list, but I just went with my gut and did the best I could. I hated that I didn't find a way to include any classic Angie/Jesse stuff from AMC, or any moments from Capitol or The Edge of Night. I'm sure there are others too.

Hunks on Daytime Dramas

Historically, eye candy is appreciated on daytime television every bit as much as it is on prime time. The future of soap operas will be found not only in the eye candy that decorates the screen, but the ongoing storylines that feature them.

Of the various hunks on daytime in the last 20 to 30 years, who do you think best represents the ideal soap hunk?

For me personally, it would be Don Diamont. Here's a guy that got pulses racing on DAYS in the mid-1980s as Carlo Forenza, but then moved to Y&R and put it into overdrive. Back then, Y&R truly treated him like primo eye candy...always barely dressed as the Abbott gardener or hanging out by the pool in just a Speedo. It was Diamont's perfect 10 looks that got me thinking about hunks on soap operas in the first place, and I can guarantee you without him, there would never have been the inspiration for me to ever create soaphunks.net.

Of course I have other favorites over time, including Michael T. Weiss, Drake Hogestyn, Edde Cibrian, James Scott, and Adrian Bellani. About 1,000 others too.

What qualifies a soap actor as an Adonis? What qualities do you think the Adonis winners have shared?

Every soap hunk is an Adonis to his fans. There is just something about these guys that obviously starts with the physical and goes beyond, just hooking soap fans with every move they make. All of the Adonis winners, of course. have bodies and looks beyond belief. They also have very large and devoted online fan bases who stick with them for four months during the summer. Adonis is a tremendously long contest, so fan devotion--or obsession--is required to do well in the polling.

The Future of Soap Hunks

As a soap fan and viewer, where do you see soaps in 10 years? What part will strong male leads play in that?

I do not worry about the demise of the genre the way some do. People talk about the receding ratings of daytime, but soap ratings really aren't dropping any worse than any other genre of television, daytime or prime-time. Budget cuts will invariably take place, and our beloved soaps may look different or suffer from cast reductions, but I expect there will always be a hunger for serialized dramatic storytelling, and for the gorgeous hunks that help tell them.

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Love To Know Soap Operas would like to thank Danny for sharing insight into his popular website dedicated to daytime television's most popular hunks!.