There was once a time when flipping through the channels on your television during the day meant inevitably coming across soap operas. At one point, nearly 20 different daytime soaps were on the air. They were ubiquitous. Even if you weren’t a fan, it was impossible to miss them. Today, only four are left on the main broadcast networks, but the impact the programs have had on our culture is profound.
On this edition of UWM Today, we welcome Elana Levine, who has just written a book that traces the history of TV soap operas. It’s called Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and U.S. Television History. Elana is a professor of English and media, cinema and digital studies at UWM.