Film: 
DVD: 
Directed by: David Seeger
Hosted by: Susan Lucci, Erika Slezak, Jackie Zeman & Brad Maule
Features:
- Featurette: “Backstage with the Stars”
Released by: Walt Disney Video
Region: 1
Rating: NR
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.
My Advice: Rent it if you like soaps.
At their core, soap operas are about love and all its triumphs and tragedies. So it’s fitting that the wedding, the celebration of love with the gathering of friends and family, reciting sacred vows, and spending great gobs of money, is a major features of the shows. Daytime’s Greatest Weddings gives you a collection of nuptials that range from the ridiculously romantic to simply ridiculous. See your favorite stars from All My Children, One Life To Live and General Hospital exchange vows, sometimes while dealing with exes coming back from the dead, exploding wedding cakes, and the bride escaping on skis in her wedding dress. No, I am not making this up.
[ad#longpost]A long time star from each series covered hosts the corresponding segment. They fill you in on the back-story surrounding the weddings, which helps if you don’t watch the soap. You get to see all the marriages of Erika Kane, played by the many nominated Susan Lucci and the famous wedding of Luke and Laura. Seeing them all at once, you wonder how the writers come up with different twists on the ceremony. Even the wordings of the ceremony itself are slightly different from service to service. The writers must carry a pocket thesaurus at all times. You also see the similarities: for example, the brief pause when “If anyone knows why this couple should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace” is said. And even though you get the basic plot surrounding the marriage ceremony, without being immersed in the show, many of them seem silly. They are part of a whole and lose their power when removed from that whole.
The only feature is a brief featurette of some of the stars from these shows talking about what it’s like acting in one of these affairs from getting fitted for your “wedding” dress to having reading material to have behind the pew. It’s somewhat interesting, but unless you’re a soap fan you’re not going to get much out of it.
In fact, Daytime’s Greatest Weddings is really for the soap opera fan. Those who aren’t already enthralled with this TV genre won’t be swayed by the disc in the least. Fans enjoy, but the rest of us shouldn’t bother.
