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 loved every minute of it. It lived up to the hype. I can’t wait for August . Please please renew!!!
I liked it a lot. I didn’t believe that Pamela was going to do something we wouldn’t be able to see coming and had never been done before. Boy, was I wrong. In a good way!
I thought it was a great episode with a lot of cliffhangers and questions to be answered.For example who really set the fire at Southfork?Plus if Pamela recovers will she remember everything?Plus will Sue Ellen,Bobby and Christopher survive the fire unscathed?I can’t wait till the Summer when the new episodes air?
Not surprise on how powerful the cliff hanger was considering it was Dallas who invented the season ending cliffhanger with the famous Who Shot JR episode. Since that time, most prime time dramas have ended their season and their mid seasons with a cliff hanger I thought the threesome was a very bold move– and unexpected— was Pam trying to kill herself or just taking pills to work up the nerve for the threesome? She just told Sue Ellen she wasn’t like her, weak, so taking pills to kill herself doesn’t seem plausible. Perhaps she took just enough to make… Read more »
In the original Dallas a season ended with Southfork on fire and SueEllen drunk upstairs so last night really was nothing new. Big disappointment. This reboot is just no fun.
I lost interest in it…
It was probably the BEST hour of television I’ve watched in a really long time. However, when I saw that return date, I started breaking out in hives. What am I gonna do until August 18th?! Yeah, I mean, these other TV shows are ok, but NOBODY can do it like Dallas these days.
I’m really enjoying DALLAS, including the mid-season finale, and can’t wait till August. Hope the show is renewed past the last half of this season in August.
Great finale!! Judith Light is just amazingly creepy!!
Love me some Judith Light…when did she become such a ranging evil bitch ..perfect and sexy hot too
Ava…YES INDEED!!!!! AGREED!!!!! And…the character of J.R. Ewing would be BOTH proud and envious at the same time…LOL!!!!!!
In my opinion, Dallas went from genius to silly.
I loved it, and I’m old school Dallas. Who’d thought our sweet Karen Wolek was so darn creepy! Whoa Pamela I didn’t see that one coming. I didn’t know hubby was watching in the bedroom (I thought he left me to go watch baseball). I heard a big ole HOLY S#$%! coming from the bedroom. It’s too long to wait til August. Please make this a spring and summer show so it doesn’t compete with some other cable shows.
I’m hoping the 3some is a dream. It didn’t make any sense. Linda Gray is doing an amazing job. She deserves an Emmy … best drunk on TV ever!
If you really want to do something that would cause a stir on Dallas. Get Victoria Principal to reprise her role as Pamela Ewing. They never killed her off they just said that she went off somewhere in the Midwest.