LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, AND EVENING

Shared perspectives on the heyday of the daytime and primetime soap opera.

Cultural critics Druckman and Sen are adoring longtime soap opera fans who infuse their enthusiasm and analysis into a dozen “episode” essays examining the ascent and fanatical obsession of these serials as well as their incremental replacement by modern “reality” versions. In a delightful introductory piece, the authors quiz each other about how their fascination with soaps began (Druckman in the mid-1970s, Sen in the late 1990s) and is currently sustained through media streaming platforms and wildly opinionated fan-frenzied online message boards. They examine how drama teacher and actress Irna Phillips created the first scripted, serialized daytime soap opera, Painted Dreams, in the 1930s and why the show would evolve into the progenitor of a parade of soon-to-become wildly popular daytime television serials. The authors spotlight the feminist perspective of pivotal soap opera plots like Erica Kane’s abortion on All My Children, combined with more convoluted riffs on paternity, twins, AIDS, race, queer characters, split personalities, and more. Druckman and Sen credit provocative prime-time dramas like Dynasty, Dallas, and Falcon Crest with beefing up the soap playing field through controversial storylines, commanding performances, dazzling costume design, and outrageous cliffhangers. Though the plotlines are frequently repetitive and consistently ludicrous, production staff would weave in human interest issues to balance the preposterous with the socially responsible, like Guiding Light scriptwriter Agnes Nixon, who introduced a uterine cancer storyline to inform viewers about the importance of triennial Pap smear testing. Chatty and personable, the authors’ volleying discussion is informative and entertaining, and includes updated profiles of long-term soap actors as well as a forecast of the future of the genre, and informed opinions on the advent of the soap series reboot. From the “shoulder-padded brio” of Dynasty to more recent productions like CBS’s culturally significant Beyond the Gates, these essays appreciate the soap opera as an artform that’s “eternal and eternally changing.”

Long overdue celebratory applause to the uniquely flamboyant artistry of the scripted television drama.