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.

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 on the beginnings of the genre. It told the tale of Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon but left out William Bell and his impact on the daytime industry. What about Douglas Marland? ABC is self serving in touting the Luke and Laura storyline. It was an important period for General Hospital but did they mention how they are basically leaving General Hospital to die? In the ideal world here’s what should have been done in two hours of television. Part 1 – History of the genre, from the beginnings to the successful period during the 80s and 90’s and towards the future for the remaining shows. Part 2 – feature the storylines that changed generations from Erica’s abortion, to Holly’s rape, to women in business with Alexandra Spaulding, to mental illness and gay rights. Show powerful performances from these stories. Part 3 – Speak with performers on these shows. Not just Genie Francis or Susan Lucci. Let’s face it, there are huge stars in the daytime world. Focus on the super couples. Focus on some of the greatest villains. They showed the scene where Valentine threw Ava off the turret but there was no explanation to why that scene even was placed there. Talk with the directors and producers – minus Jill Farren Phelps who singlehandedly did everything in her power to destroy the storylines of every soap she had a hand in. Did they ask her why ratings went down on every show she worked with? Did they mention she was fired from every show she worked on? Her and Andy Cohen must be laughing in a bar somewhere (a thought, i know most parts of the country are shut down) Part 4 – where are the remaining shows going now? What is their future? How can we protect them from ending just to replace it with another show with some wanna be starlet hosting a talk show about women who eat toe nails while really wanting caviar. They could have made an impact on the industry but instead decided to attempt to put another nail in the coffin. As for Andy Cohen’s comments regarding his housewives franchise, they are not real life drama. They are stories of made up in some think room. They do not cover socially relevant issues. They do not tell stories. They are instant pieces of gratification which is what is wrong with most reality TV shows today. Andy Cohen is not knowledgeable on daytime television. He is not qualified to make any comments on the genre because he has never done any research, watched a drama for years on end. He was the person who said, “oh that Erica is crazy” after watching an episode in a college dorm. He read about Luke and Laura in a magazine, but let’s ask him about some of the storylines from As The World Turns, Another World, Guiding Light, Santa Barbara and which four shows remain. I bet he can’t name two out of four. I am disappointed in ABC for taking a beloved genre that has made mega dollars for television industry people for years and basically giving it the finger. My thought as I watched the show was why can’t we get a network together like a Netflix or Prime or AppleTV and start a soap opera resurrection line up? Imagine each current show plus a few of the canceled shows back and running again. Some of the daytime stars have done some acting in digital limited run dramas on the streaming networks, let’s look into that avenue. The story of soaps is not coming to a close. The beginning is just a heartbeat away. Let’s let creative force intervene and see what we can create. I’d offer any services I could to help that happen. I currently watch 3 out of the four remaining shows. I have for years. I still cry when I look for As The World Turns and all I see is The Talk interviewing a Kardashian about her latest lipstick. Let’s fight people!

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 left geared the special more to showcasing their shows, ( maybe not fear, but smart) and or balance, but I wouldn’t spend time advertising the other existing shows, but thats just me. Oh and to my local station who had the bad timing to interrupt for a weather update during the Luke and Laura piece, Your Fucking morons. thank you not.

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

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 it was not enjoyable at all. I should have just watched yesterday’s GH again!

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 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.

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.