TRAILER: Stories Without End
6 March - 2 minsSoap operas are the foundation of American television storytelling.
From early radio days in the 1930s to the invention of TV to streaming, soaps have endured by telling intergenerational family stories.
Daytime dramas are an important part of American television history and popular culture. It’s been said that television is socially ahead of movies. Soap operas take that social consciousness a step further. Rape, abortion, AIDS, LGBTQ+ storylines – before primetime or even mainstream America was ready.
But soaps have been written off as low-brow drivel for women. For decades, soaps routinely pushed serious social issues the general public didn’t even know about because the...
Series Episodes
Meet Irna Phillips: The Queen of Daytime
Meet the Chicago woman who birthed the soap opera, first for radio in the 1930s and then TV in the 1950s.
21 mins
8 April Finished
