Tuesday’s night airing of ABC and PEOPLE’s two-hour special The Story of Soaps featured many notable daytime and primetime soap stars, past and present, clips from backstage to classic memorable moments, and some participants who were providing commentary on the erosion of the daytime soaps in our culture. Still others, maintained and realized that everything today is serialized from the news we watch, to some of Netflix’s most binge-watchable series, and of course, the birth of reality-programming.
Throughout the airing of the special, The Story of Soaps was trending on Twitter and social media either at the #2, #3 or #4 spots for the entire duration of the broadcast presentation, and the cancelled and beloved All My Children was also at one point trending.
However, known soap writers, journalists, ardent fans, and actors of the genre, were all on Twitter last night live-tweeting their thoughts as the special went down, and there was definitely mixed reactions and reviews, when all was said and done.
What the special did not shy away from, but tackled, was Luke’s rape of Laura at the campus disco on General Hospital. and how that moment now, as Genie Francis (Laura), so eloquently put, would be considered as ‘date rape’ in our culture. The series even included a pivotal moment where Laura addresses Luke (Tony Geary) about the rape years later, after helping Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) through her rape ordeal.
John Stamos (Ex-Blackie Parrish, GH) got a bevy of “Right On’s!” for his comment that the soaps do not get the credit that they deserve and clearly came through as one of the soaps greatest supporters, as did former The Doctors and Knots Landing star, Alec Baldwin.
However, throughout the two-hours, Andy Cohen’s commentary was thread throughout; mostly citing soap’s demise and the creation of reality-programming and his “Real Housewives” franchise, that the special touted as the new soap operas. It continued on the narrative that people preferred to see real-life drama then made-up drama on a fictional soap. And while, that has been a trend in American culture for decades, the commentary came off as often out of place in a celebration of the soaps; and bringing in a lot of negativity to the special that soap fans were tired of hearing.
In a lighting rod moment, Cohen stated: “I know Susan Lucci doesn’t agree with me, but I think that the Housewives have replaced soap operas because truth is stranger than fiction. Soaps became kind of unnecessary because you could do it with real people, and they’re writing the drama themselves.”
The special did also address the cancellations of All My Children and One Life to Live, (which many were not sure they were going to do – given this special was airing on ABC), where One Life’s leading lady and six-time Daytime Emmy winner, Erika Slezak (Ex-Viki) said what we all wanted to sa ywhen the ax fell on the towns of Llanview and Pine Valley, “People were horrified”.
Clearly, OJ Simpson and his murder trial and reality-programming were also given a chunk of time to show where the once mighty landscape of daytime soaps which once had 13 shows on the air, dwindled town to 4. But, it would have been nice to see more time spent on how in this day and age, the people in this current landscape of the genre work so hard to get episodes done at an unbelievable pace, and how in that climate the performers still deliver gut-wrenching performances.

Photo: ABC
Former Loving, OLTL and Breaking Bad star, Bryan Cranston, did point out how the once powerful soaps, just don’t have the dollars they used to, and need to, to help with production costs and their taping schedule.
Viewers were reminded of soaps’ socially relevant storylines including hankie-inducing moments from: Robin (Kimberly McCullough) and Stone’s (Michael Sutton) HIV/AIDS storyline on General Hospital, to Billy Douglas being a gay teen coming out on One Life to Live, played by a young Ryan Phillippe.
There also did not seem time spent on the contributions of William J. Bell; one of the most prominent writers of the soap genre of all-time.
For many commenting on social media last night, there seemed to be a feeling of some glaring omissions of participants who could speak on this genre, who have been in the trenches as soap producers, soap writers, pundits, actors, and more, who were not included in the special.
So, what was your review of The Story of Soaps? How would you grade it? Do you feel it accurately reflected the history of the genre? Were you happily surprised, or when it came to the end where you over it, or somewhere in between? Sound off in the comment section below. Below are some tweets from notables who have worked as an actor, a writer, and a journalist in the soaps.
I believe in miracles!
I believe in miracles to, But I don’t want her breaking up Anne and Bobby.
I hope it is the original Pam. Victoria Principle 🙂 I love this show! Revenge is another great great show!
I made guesses b4 from a possible Kristen return to finishing him off to J.R. staging his own death(he was secretly dieing?) to just frame one of his enemies but i really dont want to know at this point. I like the suspense of not knowing, and waiting for seaon 3!
But i still hope for a Pam return no matter who plays her!
I just love this show….Would love to Pamela come back.
Come on Metcalfe, don’t go teasing us die-hard fans with promises you can’t keep. You weren’t even alive when “Dallas” premiered in 1978 so it’s unlikely you know the gravity and importance of Pamela’s presence even if you watched the DVD’s a million times over. As for Victoria Principal herself, she recently stated that she would never return to this version of “Dallas” and that her May, 1987 car crash put an exclamation mark on the end of Pamela Barnes Ewing. If Pam comes back, it will be a re-cast and sadly it will probably be an actress in her… Read more »
Joshua I agree VP was Pam and if you can’t convince her to come out of retirement then leave it alone. Here is a thought send FV/GH/EP to ask her he has a way of pulling them out of mothballs.
As Chandler would say “Can this show be any better”??? Loving Dallas!!!
Great show! Hope she comes back, but I wamt Amne with Bobby
Loving the new DALLAS and can’t wait for tonight’s season finale. Has it been officially announced that DALLAS has been renewed for season three???
Victoria Princpal has said on numerous occasions that she will not reprise her role as Pam Ewing. So unless she has a change of heart (and they change the story line that *******************SPOILERS***************************************************
Pam didn’t die many years ago from cancer. She’s not going to show up.
Would absolutely love to see Pam (VP) come back! It would serve extremely well with an Anne/Bobby twist as well as another twist with the Barnes & Ewing fued. VP was great in that role and would be difficult to see anyone else in it! Come on Victoria please come back! Though I do like Anne and Bobby together! Can you imagine Cliff turning to Pam to help him gain back control of Barnes Global…..oh the things that can be done with this story line and her return.