Very mixed feelings. Like others have said it felt like a death knell – with too much Andy Cohen spouting self-serving rhetoric of how his shows are the new soaps blah blah blah and nobody countering it with other perspectives. Way too much ABC and not enough CBS and NBC soaps. Clips roared past way too quickly. A 10 part series on PBS with no network bias would be great. The importance of As the World Turns was almost completely absent (not to mention Another World and almost every other soap). The clips brought back happy memories, I would have… Read more »

I have to question some of the people chosen to tell us “the story of soaps”. For every legitimate choice like Lorraine Broderick, there was a fraud like former ABC daytime chief Angela Shapiro, whose ridiculous and failed plan to emphasize marketing over story helped lead to the decline of the genre. Her reign was thankfully short, but the destruction she engineered was long lasting.

This did nothing for the soaps..it was all about Cohen promoting his Brava network and his reality shows…those housewives series is so fake-nothing real about them..soaps were always new five days a week so you really cant compare…while other shows were in repeats we still could depend on soaps to bring us something new…too many cable channels hurt…costs hurt-as did the hour format…the hour did work for awhile but it eventually hurt with addition of more characters and filler moments…30 minutes meant fewer characters and easier to include all in few stories plus back then it was character driven…in the… Read more »

Only one thing I have to say…Andy Cohen is a horse’s ass.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Yes it focused too much on GH/ABC but I appreciated the mention of Loving and Generations, two great shows that never got much attention.

The main problem with the whole documentary is that it was poorly planned and vetted. The special was called “The Story Of Soaps”. Not the story of celebrating reality TV. What do Andy Cohen, The Kardashians and Bravo TV shows have to do with the story of soaps? The reality TV franchise is a force to be reckoned with but it has NOTHING to do with drama. The parallels to shows like Dynasty and Dallas, Knot’s Landing, and Falcon Crest had their place. Those shows would not have succeeded without daytime television. The first hour of the special was informative… Read more »

Haven’t watched yet, but Real Housewives is not real. It’s contrived. They’re not all housewives, not friends before being cast. Trips and scenarios are set-up so don’t call it real.

I had mixed feelings about the special too and to Andy Cohen, its not only Susan Lucci who disagrees with you about the RH franchises, wish I do enjoy, but sorry buddy they have not replaced the soaps. The landscape for all of TV has changed so to suggest that the soap genre is dead is wrong. Money is a big factor, so I believe soaps cut budget has hurt them significantly, still, as was pointed throughout the special almost all of tv is serialized a format clearly stlolen from soaps. Oh, and yes, clearly ABC wish only has GH… Read more »

It was great to have Bryan Cranston as a host discussing the importance of soaps and their impact on serialized TV series, such as Breaking Bad. However, there was far too much time spent on reality TV and not nearly enough coverage of the soaps themselves. I was very disappointed that my favorite soap, Port Charles, was not featured.

I still miss All My Children. I made a vow to never watch ABC at noon the time AMC aired and I have not watched AMC at that time of day since.

Bring back All My Children and One Life to Live! Really Andy Cohen? Your dumb, fake Housewive shows are NOT preferrable to the soaps! Get real dude!

No one wants reality TV.
Where did you get that idea?
It’s cleary a joke and has no story and no purpose.
I personally will not watch those shows they stink

What a bore. Not one thing new was shared. And what’s up with Andy Cohen dissing the genre in favor of his Housewives franchise? Real people behaving badly.

I really really really wanted to enjoy this and have a nice two hour break from our “pause,” but what a disappointment. If the focus was not only going to be on soaps then choose another title for the show. It was incredibly disjointed and didn’t know what to focus on. This should have been a celebration and booster for the soap genre Given the amazing talented performances over the years, but instead just came off praising reality tv and almost being proud of its power over the soaps, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth and… Read more »

Hi, “DiDi Bannister” of EDGE OF NIGHT here! The show did a disservice to the contribution of the black actors to the genre. Here’s a link to my Facebook post that addresses It. It struck a chord with a lot of people and has over 30 shares, so I’m obviously not the only one who felt that way.

https://www.facebook.com/mariann.aalda/posts/10219268276192574

I was very disappointed. It was supposed to be a homage to soaps not a place for Andy Cohen to spout off that reality tv is better than soaps. I don’t watch reality shows such as the Kardashians or the Real Housewives. It’s a waste of time. I was a big AMC fan and watched it from 1974 until it ended. I watched AMC when it was online and hoped it would continue. I haven’t watched another soap since. I would watch AMC if it was brought back

I LOVED IT! I got goosebumps watching the old scenes. Loved the Sonny & Brenda scenes. Loved the old footage. (I did not love Cohen. He didn’t need to be interviewed). UGH!

I too thought towards the middle of the show, what the h$$$ is this? I didn’t tune in to watch the self-serving promotion of reality shows or listen to how much trouble the daytime soaps are in. IMO , none of this belonged on the show, which I thought was supposed to be a celebration of the genre. I do not watch reality shows at all.
Of the soaps that remain on the air, I only watch GH and look forward to it returning, especially with the last episode ending in a cliffhanger.

I’ve never seen one minute of a “Real Housewives” show or anything to do with the Kartrashians. And I have no idea who Andy Cohen is but it sounds like he ruined this special so I will delete my recording-no need to watch. Get our soaps we have left back in production ASAP!

Too fast to really remember or enjoy anything. As the host, Andy Cohen was right at home as he is in his real life Soaps, that he calls reality. I have watched those shows over the years and if he thinks they are better than script written, he is as nutty and unrealistic as most of the characters he is so crazy about.

I thought it was sad. So many clips of long-cancelled shows and actors no longer working in the business. It was a vivid reminder of how far the entire genre has declined in the past 15 years and how little of what was good about it remains.

I’m so glad to learn I was not the only one annoyed by the attempt to convince the viewers that soaps are no longer necessary because, “Oh my, we have reality tv!” I despise reality tv. Please skip the housewives, the bachelors and bachelorettes, etc. There is nothing REAL about them. And the O.J. trial? I was so glad when that ordeal was over and my soaps were back. I can get news on the evening news. Reality tv is just a means for the networks (are you reading this ABC?) to save money. I watch tv to get a… Read more »

I would love to see All My Children come back, if not to ABC, but to Hallmark. AMC never jumped the shark with crazy storylines at the level DOOL has done for the past few years. I would LOVE to see Bianca, Kendall, Erica, Jesse, Angie, Jackson, Opal, Brooke, JR, Krystal, Tad and Dixie on my screen again. I miss their faces and would love to see a new generation of young actors.

I want all of the soaps back. We never really got a final ending on the soaps that have ended. They really need to continue! It is sad for us that loved our soaps no longer have them. Reality TV is definitely not as good as some seem to think! Bring back AMC,OLTL & GH, B&B. & GH! I miss my soaps & so do so many others! Please & Thank You.

I thought it was good. I really appreciated how much Bryan Cranston respected the daytime process. I was surprise Eric Braeden wasnt on much. Its an ABC show but Melody was on quite a bit. I wish they would have had longer interviews with all the current daytime stars and some from the past. Where was Ricky Martin and Jack Wagner? What about Kin Shriner? You can always count on soaps when a cooking show fails or a world pandemic hits!

LoL, I just watched it on YouTube. Didn’t notice much, except the same old ABC stories, justifying the cancellations, if you say it enough “they’ll believe it” sort of thing…
ABC,is what I’d call a ‘SLAG’,
at least ABC isn’t feeding the public ‘The Story of Oprah’!
just sayin’