Streaming Soap: The Bay

[Jason73]

I watched the first few seasons quite a while ago, but then it just got really hard to find all the seasons. I didn't realize Peacock had the first six or seven seasons. I'm on season 4 now and having a lot of fun with it. It's fast paced and I love the shorter episodes. It's really nice to see some of the former daytime greats who are no longer with us, like Nicholas Coaster and Jackie Zeman. Also whenever I watch it reminds that Mary Beth Evans is really a solid actress. Days hasn't given her anything to showcase her talent in decades.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

When I saw The Bay pop up among the nominations at this year’s Daytime Emmys, I was wondering if there were any fans on here. I don’t think it’s streaming anywhere here and when I look for it, the results are usually for a recent English drama series of the same name, so I’ll need to do a bit of digging. I’ve never gotten into any of the US web soaps but this, Venice and Beacon Hill have grabbed my attention. A good few episodes of Venice are on YouTube, so I’ll dip into it first I think.

 

[tommie]

When I saw The Bay pop up among the nominations at this year’s Daytime Emmys, I was wondering if there were any fans on here.

I've heard about The Bay for years, yet I've never heard anyone talking about it online or seen any fans. So it's interesting to see it picking up?

I'm supercurious about their financial model for some reason. They've kept going.

 

[Jason73]

I'm loving The Bay. I'm up to season 5 now and it gets better and better. And I'm constantly amazed at how much better the acting from some of these soap vets. Brandon Beemer, who has always been adequate on Days and always great to look at, has been another standout on The Bay. A Martinez is doing some of the best work I've seen from him in years in a very supporting role.

Venice

I've always been curious about that one too but have never been able to find more than the first couple of seasons. I haven't looked in a while though. If you do start it, start a thread and let us know what you think if you can.

I'm supercurious about their financial model for some reason.

I wonder that every time I watch on episode. Decent production values and lots of location filming. It seems like they have even filmed overseas.

 

[Jason73]

And Mike Manning just turned up. I enjoyed him as a pyscho villain on Days. I'm excited to see him on The Bay.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I've never been all that interested in online soaps for some reason. I even lost interest in the online version of One Life to Live after 3-4 episodes. All I ever hear about The Bay (and the others mentioned here) is casting news (basically, "Soap Star X has been cast on The Bay in a new role.") Without the network mandates (requirements for # of episodes in X amount of time) I guess they can exercise a lot more freedom in their production schedule, but I've never thought to look them up to see just how long the individual episodes are, or how many episodes they put out yearly. I know it's been around for a long time.

I imagined it as a passion project for someone who enticed these stars not with money or fame (they already had both) but with the chance to play a juicy role alongside other soap stars they knew but had probably never worked with. Since the rules of union wages don't really apply to these smaller productions, the actors are likely working for scale or less just for the fun of it more than a need for work.

 

[Jason73]

I'm really enjoying it and seeing all these daytime stars getting good, meaty material has been fun. I've never been a fan of Ron Moss, but he has slowly won me over, over the course of five seasons. Still really loving all the location filming--in the next two episodes a bunch of the cast are traveling to Turks and Caicos as a big evil twin storyline comes to a head. It's all just shades of the 80's soaps in their hey days which I'm really enjoying.

Without the network mandates (requirements for # of episodes in X amount of time) I guess they can exercise a lot more freedom in their production schedule, but I've never thought to look them up to see just how long the individual episodes are, or how many episodes they put out yearly. I know it's been around for a long time.

Episodes run around 25-30 minutes each (that's counting the recap, next time on and the interminably long and repetitive opening theme) and feel like they fly by. Seasons started off with 14 episodes each and have settled into ten episodes each after season 3. I haven't been able to get a handle on the number of seasons and when they are released. Peacock has 6 seasons. Amazon has a season 7 and one episode labeled season 9, that is called a Valentine special. I get the impression season 8 is coming out this fall? But I'm not entirely sure about that. It's very confusing, but I'll cross that bridge when I finish season 7.

I was scrolling through their Instagram trying to figure out what's going on with season 8 and came across this post that I really appreciated. (And I think @Daniel Avery will appreciate too.)

 

[rlr718]

The bay is good. I was able to watch it up to a point but then it wasn’t easily available again. I think where I left off was the end of the season before they went on location in the Caribbean.
It seems to suffer from jumping around as they renegotiate deals to stream/air.
I don’t even know where it is now.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I seem to recall reading a few weeks ago that the whole series had been sold to Tubi or some other mainstream streaming service. It would make sense for it to end up on a more mainstream platform since they ought to have a decent stockpile of episodes by now.

 

[rlr718]

I seem to recall reading a few weeks ago that the whole series had been sold to Tubi or some other mainstream streaming service. It would make sense for it to end up on a more mainstream platform since they ought to have a decent stockpile of episodes by now.

Interesting. I would rewatch it anyway as it’s been quite a few years.

 

[rlr718]

Actually I looked it up and found this on a web search