The Survival of Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era
The Survival of Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era
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Abstract
The soap opera, one of U.S. television’s longest-running and most influential formats, is on the brink. Declining ratings have been attributed to an increasing number of women working outside the home and to an intensifying competition for viewers’ attention from cable and the Internet. Yet, soaps’ influence has expanded, with serial narratives becoming commonplace on most primetime TV programs. This book investigates the causes of their dwindling popularity, describes their impact on TV and new media culture, and gleans lessons from their complex history for twenty-first-century media industries. It contains contributions from established soap scholars, along with essays and interviews by emerging scholars, fans and Web site moderators, and soap opera producers, writers, and actors from ABC’s General Hospital, CBS’s The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, and other shows. This diverse group of voices seeks to intervene in the discussion about the fate of soap operas at a critical juncture, and speaks to long-time soap viewers, television studies scholars, and media professionals alike.
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Front Matter
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Section One Challenges to the Future of Soaps
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Introduction: The Crisis of Daytime Drama and What It Means for the Future of Television
Sam Ford and others
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Perspective: Scholars Barbara Irwin and Mary Cassata on the State of U.S. Soap Operas
C. Lee Harrington
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Perspective: Historian William J. Reynolds on Memories of The Edge of Night
Sam Ford
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Perspective: Writer Patrick Mulcahey on Changes in Soap Opera Writing Contracts
Giada Da Ros
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Perspective: Actor Tristan Rogers on Changes in Soaps’ Industry, Audiences, and Texts
Abigail De Kosnik
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Daytime Budget Cuts
Sara A. Bibel
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Agnes Nixon and Soap Opera “Chemistry Tests”
Carol Traynor Williams
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Giving Soaps a Good Scrub: ABC’s Ugly Betty and the Ethnicity of Television Formats
Jaime J. Nasser
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The Way We Were: The Institutional Logics of Professionals and Fans in the Soap Opera Industry
Melissa C. Scardaville
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Introduction: The Crisis of Daytime Drama and What It Means for the Future of Television
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Section Two Capitalizing on History
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Perspective: Scholar Horace Newcomb on the Pleasures and Influence of Soaps
Sam Ford
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Perspective: Scholar Robert C. Allen on Studying Soap Operas
C. Lee Harrington
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Growing Old Together: Following As The World Turns’ Tom Hughes Through the Years
Sam Ford
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Perspective: Writer Kay Alden on What Makes Soaps Unique
Sam Ford
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Perspective: Scholar Nancy Baym on Soaps After the O. J. Simpson Trial
Abigail De Kosnik
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Of Soap Operas, Space Operas, and Television’s Rocky Romance with the Feminine Form
Christine Scodari
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The Ironic and Convoluted Relationship Between Daytime and Primetime Soap Operas
Lynn Liccardo
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Perspective: Scholar Louise Spence on Comparing the Soap Opera to Other Forms
Abigail De Kosnik
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Perspective: Scholar Jason Mittell on the Ties Between Daytime and Primetime Serials
Sam Ford
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Preserving Soap History: What Will It Mean for the Future of Soaps?
Mary Jeanne Wilson
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Did the 2007 Writers Strike Save Daytime’s Highest-Rated Drama?
J. A. Metzler
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Perspective: Scholar Horace Newcomb on the Pleasures and Influence of Soaps
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Section Three Experimenting with Production and Distribution
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“The Rhetoric of the Camera in Television Soap Opera” Revisited: The Case of General Hospital
Bernard M. Timberg andErnest M. Alba
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It’s Not All Talk: Editing and Storytelling in As the World Turns
Deborah L. Jaramillo
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Guiding Light: Relevance and Renewal in a Changing Genre
Patrick Erwin
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The Evolution of the Production Process of Soap Operas Today
Erick Yates Green
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From Daytime to Night Shift: Examining the ABC Daytime/Soapnet Primetime Spin-Off Experiment
Racquel Gonzales
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“What the Hell Does TIIC Mean?”: Online Content and the Struggle to Save the Soaps
Elana Levine
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The Evolution of the Fan Video and the Influence of YouTube on the Creative Decision-Making Process for Fans
Emma F. Webb
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“The Rhetoric of the Camera in Television Soap Opera” Revisited: The Case of General Hospital
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Section Four Learning from Diverse Audiences
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Soaps for Tomorrow: Media Fans Making Online Drama from Celebrity Gossip
Abigail De Kosnik
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Soap Opera Critics and Criticism: Industry and Audience in an Era of Transformation
Denise D. Bielby
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Hanging on by a Common Thread
Julie Porter
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Perspective: Fan Site Moderator Queeneve on fan Activity Around and Against Soaps
Abigail de Kosnik
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The Role of “The Audience” in the Writing Process
Casiello Tom
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The “Missing Years”: How Local Programming Ruptured Days of Our Lives in Australia
O’Meara Radha
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As the World Turns’ Luke and Noah and Fan Activism
Roger Newcomb
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Constructing the Older Audience: Age and Aging in Soaps
C. Lee Harrington andDenise Brothers
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Soaps for Tomorrow: Media Fans Making Online Drama from Celebrity Gossip
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End Matter
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