Pat Falken Smith: The Drama and the Lawsuits By: Michael Poirier “If ever I knew a litigious person, it was Pat, who went to court as often as some people go out for a frozen yogurt,” said Ann Marcus, former headwriter of Days of Our Lives and other soaps, about her hard-charging contemporary Pat Falken Smith.1 Falken Smith’s colorful … [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...]
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...]
Looking Back: The AIDS Quilt Comes to OLTL in 1992
August 20, 2024 by Leave a Comment
It has been my privilege over the last 40 years to cover the daytime drama industry. For many of those years, soap creators and head writers used the medium not just to entertain but to deal with important social issues—in other words to encourage viewers to think. In the late ’80s, the AIDS epidemic hit the soap scene hard. Many members of the … [Read more...]
The Joys of Summer Redux
August 7, 2024 by 6 Comments
In 1989 when the real world was still paying attention to soaps, TV Guide asked me to do a cover story called “The Joys of Summer.” My mother, who had kept every issue of the magazine since its debut — just as George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander) did on Seinfeld — kept a copy of that particular issue on top of her TV for the rest of her … [Read more...]
Happy 60th Anniversary, Another World
May 8, 2024 by 4 Comments
I’d like to dedicate this column to my hard-working friend Karen McKenny, who spent the past few months organizing a 60th birthday party for our beloved NBC soap Another World, so sadly missed since it went off the air in 1999. The anniversary tribute took place in Tarrytown, N.Y., and was attended by many of the soap’s stars. I’m so sorry I wasn’t … [Read more...]
The Bad Old Days of the O.J. Trial
April 16, 2024 by 3 Comments
The news of O.J. Simpson’s passing last week at age 76 brought back a flood of memories for long time soap fans. We remember vividly how his sensational murder trial pre-empted our soaps almost every day from November 1994 to October 1995. There were 10 soaps on the big three networks in those days. Would the OJ trial help knock them off the air? … [Read more...]
A Soap Miracle At Last!
March 24, 2024 by 2 Comments
After decades of watching and writing about daytime soap operas, even this most fervent advocate must confess to a bit of ennui lately. But all is not lost. Now comes the best soap opera news in more years than I care to remember! Just when it looked as if the television networks were losing interest in soaps, CBS, with the support of the NAACP, … [Read more...]
Looking Back at “Another World”
November 12, 2023 by 8 Comments
When I was a lonely teenager, soaps filled my after-school hours with surrogate friends and family. Another World became my favorite when young vixen Rachel Davis, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, played by a very young and poignant Robin Strasser, seduced chiseled businessman Steve Frame (George Reinholt), breaking up his romance with … [Read more...]
Tom Lisanti’s Amazing New Book on Ryan’s Hope Is a Gift to Soap Fans Everywhere
October 16, 2023 by 2 Comments
Tom Lisanti’s many followers know him as Mr. Sixties Cinema, based on his wonderfully collectible series of 10 books on that era’s pop culture. In such richly evocative studies of the period as Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies, Drive-In Dream Girls, and Film Fatales, as well as biographies of Carol Lynley and Pamela Tiffin, he tackles his subjects … [Read more...]
