New book delves into the history of soap operas, and why they are central to TV's popularity

Pictorial

University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee professor Elana Levine's Her Story: Daytime Soap Opera and U.S. Television History "traces the form from its transition from radio to television through its peak of power and influence in the 1980s to the current era of cash-strapped struggles—even as the serialized storytelling pioneered by soaps has taken over TV entirely," says Kelly Faircloth. "Her Stories is full of wonderful details, like the fact that one frequent advertiser around 1961 was an over-the-counter sedative that promised to 'soothe nerves,' and in 1981, at the height of soaps’ mainstream popularity, a Washington, D.C. bar began hosting Sunday catchup marathons of General Hospital. More importantly, Levine makes clear that despite the widespread dismissal of soap operas, they were far from marginal to the history of television, but rather absolutely central." Or as Levine puts it: “The soaps of the sixties, seventies, and eighties did not merely participate in the classic network era; their profitability was a foundation for the entire enterprise,” paving the way for primetime comedies like All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.