WHY ARE SOAP OPERAS IMPORTANT?

Soap operas began on radio with its first program, Painted Dreams, created by Irna Phillips in 1930.  These were made by companies such as Procter & Gamble-Palmolive, Colgate and Lever Brothers as their sponsors to tell their products.  When television began, soap operas were one of the first programming to make that transition.  

Soap operas began so successful and made the companies and networks so much money that at one time, financed primetime and sports programming for the networks.  

As cable television emerged, ratings went down and many were canceled, leaving four on American television today (General Hospital (1963 - present), Days of Our Lives (1965 - present), The Young and the Restless (1973 - present), The Bold and the Beautiful (1987 - present)). 

Retro TV has been airing the 1963-1982 NBC soap opera The Doctors with thanks from Colgate who preserved their tapes.  Procter & Gamble needs to do the same!

Procter & Gamble were the leader in soap operas with hits like Search For Tomorrow (1951 - 1986), Guiding Light (1937 - 2009), As The World Turns (1956 - 2010), Another World (1964 - 1999), Edge of Night (1956 - 1984)and others, like Texas (1980 - 1982), Our Private World (1965) and Somerset (1970 - 1976).  The practice of wiping was done in the early days where networks erased and reused tapes since soap operas were five times a week.  That practiced stopped in 1978 with Procter & Gamble meaning ALL tapes from 1978 - 2010 should still be around.  

Procter & Gamble have not disclosed the whereabouts or status of these tapes and rumors have suggested that they have destroyed them.  I am asking people to sign this petition to have Procter & Gamble account for the whereabouts and status of these iconic and classic shows. 

If they are still in possession of them, I request that they digitalize them and store them in a safe location for preservation as these are very important to the history of television.  

There is a large group online who enjoy watching old episodes and many would love to watch more.  There is still many options available for profit on these shows, from syndication to a network like Retro TV, to a pay website to uploading on YouTube, which current soap The Bold and the Beautiful does.  

Please help in demanding that Procter & Gamble make a statement on these shows and in hopes for them to preserve them.