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Discussion in another thread led me to ask this question, especially to those who still actively watch/follow the remaining network daytime soaps. Days Of Our Lives is likely an exception but, as for the other remaining soaps are there truly matriarchs and patriarchs on the canvas of these soaps? Over the last decade some of us have talked about (okay complained, really) about the apparent desire to make characters younger than they are by giving them storylines more suitable for a younger generation of characters, as in The Young and the Restless. And in fact, I have a very difficult time seeing Victor and Nikki Newman as being patriarchs of the show, given what I imagine a matriarchal figure on a soap, in terms of the history of soaps. Then again, Y&R never really illustrated the idea of a matriarch, especially with the mother figures always running away (Brooks, Abbotts) and other motherly figures being somewhat marginalized (Foster, Williams, Barbers). John Abbott was probably the only character that I would think of resembling a patriarch on Y&R. It's been even longer since I watched The Bold and the Beautiful but with Stephanie Forrester gone, I can't imagine Brooke taking on any role resembling a matriarch. And Eric (is he even still on this show?) always seemed to be in a state of perpetual mid-life crisis, with the younger model wives and girlfriends. Am I wrong? Does the idea of having a matriarch and patriarch still hold relevance on today's soaps? What about the other daytime shows? What are your thoughts?

A somewhat bittersweet milestone. This day in 1949 marked the beginning of the network television soap opera as Irna Phillips' daytime drama These Are My Children debuted on Chicago's NBC station. We know that Chicago would become a hotbed for the cultivation of some great soap opera creating/writing talent. Thoughts?