No nook or cranny of America’s rich pop culture is too obscure to escape the enthusiastic attention of award-winning author Tom Lisanti, whose 11 books tempt fellow aficionados with titles like Dueling Harlows, Talking Sixties Drive-in Movies and Hollywood Beach and Surf Movies. Now comes Texas, an exhaustively researched and super detailed … [Read more...]
Tom Lisanti’s “Texas”: An Oral History of Daytime TV’s Answer to “Dallas”
March 23, 2025 by 4 Comments
In Memoriam: Felicia Minei Behr, Consummate Executive Producer
March 10, 2025 by 2 Comments
We’ve received the sad news that much beloved executive producer Felicia Minei Behr, who helmed All My Children and As the World Turns among other soaps, has passed away following a five-year battle with brain cancer. She was 83. She also produced Ryan’s Hope, and, as ABC’s vice president for Daytime from 2000 to 2004, oversaw General Hospital, … [Read more...]
Looking Back on a “Capitol” Idea That Did Not Survive
February 18, 2025 by 11 Comments
Marlena says: The eagerly awaited new CBS soap, Beyond the Gates, premiering Feb. 24, isn’t the first to be set in the world of Washington, D.C. political intrigue. Four decades ago, CBS offered Capitol, set in the fictitious suburb of Jeffersonia, home to three moneyed and sometimes feuding families. With a cast that included Constance Towers, … [Read more...]
A Day Without Soap Operas
January 24, 2025 by 3 Comments
I often write that I started watching soaps in the late ’1960s as a latchkey child. Both of my parents worked, and as an only child I was always alone in our Queens apartment in the afternoon after school. I found solace and great company on the network soap operas. I grew to love the characters as surrogate friends. Later on, soaps got me through … [Read more...]
The Killing Fields of “General Hospital”
January 16, 2025 by 7 Comments
In 1978, I worked for a fan magazine company called Sterling’s, which published titles like Daytime TV magazine. My office mate and friend (we shared a TV set) Anne-Marie Allocca insisted that I give up watching my then-favorite soap, Another World (which was 90 minutes in those days), and start watching her favorite, AW’s time-slot competitor … [Read more...]
Days of Our Lives’s Doug and Julie: The Look of Love
December 12, 2024 by 6 Comments
I first started watching soaps as a lonely teenager while I was waiting for my parents to come home from work, circa the late ’60s and early ’70s. Soap characters became my ersatz family. One of the first shows I fell in love with was “Days of Our Lives,” which was written by Bill Bell. (This was before he created “The Young and the Restless.”) … [Read more...]
Luke and Laura’s Wedding on “General Hospital”: The Day the Earth Stood Still
November 12, 2024 by 5 Comments
Where were you on November 16 and 17, 1981? If you were alive, chances are you were one of the record 30 million Americans who watched the wedding of Lucas Lorenzo Spencer (played by Anthony Geary) and Laura Webber Baldwin (played by Genie Francis) on ABC’s General Hospital. Featured on the covers of both People and Newsweek, the wedding marked the … [Read more...]
Welcome Home, “All My Children”
October 18, 2024 by 2 Comments
Not long ago, Lifetime announced that it would bring back “All My Children” in the form of two made-for-TV movies, one for a future holiday season. Both are in early stages of development. I’m ecstatic. Ever since I started watching “AMC” at its premiere in 1970, it was and continued to be my favorite soap until its cancelation in 2013 – an … [Read more...]
The Mother of Soaps In Her Own Words
September 30, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Marlena says: My colleague Michael Poirer is an ace researcher, a treasure in the world of soap opera journalism. Ever thorough and tireless, his contributions to these columns are deeply appreciated. Here he weighs in on our ongoing discussions of the state of soap opera with a collection of quotes from some of the many interviews granted to … [Read more...]
Memo to “The Bold and the Beautiful”: Try Harder
September 13, 2024 by Leave a Comment
I’ve been an avid (70 columns and counting) follower of “The Bold and the Beautiful” since it premiered in 1987. I’m still proud that I wrote the very first story on the show. The headline in Soap Opera Weekly correctly predicted the soap’s future: “B&B Is a Camp Classic.” Well, the ’80s were a long time ago. Today, being comfortably fun and … [Read more...]
