By Connie Passalacqua Hayman
Happy 20th anniversary, Soap Opera Weekly! Congratulations to the generations of writers, editors, production, art and business people who have worked on the magazine over the years. I was lucky to be one of them, from its launch on November 21, 1989 through the magazine’s first eleven years. Each 
week, under the pen name Marlena De Lacroix, I wrote Critical Condition, the magazine’s ultra popular, original critical/humor column — 543 of them!
Some say SOW was an instant success because soaps were so much better then or because there were so many more millions of soap viewers in 1989. Both are true. But I think SOW‘s success can be attributed primarily to the fact that it was a timely, excellent, fair-minded, professionally done magazine. It became a legend because in its first 11 years, it demonstrated courage and integrity in being absolutely honest about the soap opera world.
Jon-Michael Reed‘s break-though Daytime TV Serials Magazine in the 70s pioneered the serious view of soap opera and a few other soap magazines had periodically done the same in the 80s. But it was [Read more...]
By Marlena De Lacroix
puppy I’ve named Nigel. As in Mr. Bartholomew Smythe, the One Life to Live character, played so capably by Peter Bartlett, who has given me so much laughter and joy over the years. I also watched a lot of soaps this summer, but uncharacteristically (the first time in 30 years) I didn’t feel like writing about them.