I happened to come across the below book excerpt the other day, and I think it connects to this thread and the idea of missed opportunities in terms of what this genre could have been and could be now. I’m excited to read the full book; not sure if it’s come up in other threads on the forum.

Literary Hub

How Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman Redefined Daytime Television

It was a breakdown unlike any the soaps had seen. A housewife named Mary Hartman had accepted an invitation to appear on The David Susskind Show, a decision that she likely did not anticipate would…

My intro to soaps was via Y&R circa '95, but I haven’t watched in years, and from what I can tell, it’s been reduced to a pitiable state. GL was the show I really fell in love with, until it broke my heart under the enshittification wrought by MADD, Rauch, Conboy, Weston, and Wheeler. (The Millee Taggart era was such a painful tease).

Of what remains, GH could really spark a renaissance, in a world that wasn’t so horrible — I would reinvest in Elizabeth as the show’s heroine, immediately, and bring back her boys and use her a mirror for the world we live in and actually have something to say about it, contra the flaccid slop that passes for “story” today.

Edited Saturday at 03:37 PM4 days by bzz
added context

On 6/20/2026 at 4:47 PM, EricMontreal22 said:

Unfortunately serial scoop (the site it was at) seems to be gone.

On 6/21/2026 at 2:53 AM, little_blue_eli said:

The interview is available on the Internet Archive:
SOAP OPERA HISTORY: Bill Bell & Claire Labine on Writing Daytime Serials

It's also on the current new location of the serialscoop site
https://serialscoop.blogspot.com/2014/07/bill-bell-claire-labine-on-writing.html

Edited Sunday at 02:39 PM3 days by janea4old

On 6/20/2026 at 9:30 PM, EricMontreal22 said:

I think the secret ingredient was HW Peggy O'Shea. From

I tend to agree. She’s one of those unsung soap writers that just doesn’t get the wider attention she deserves for being great. Sam Hall too tbh. Maybe part of that is they didn’t hop to other shows and create magic multiple times like Marland, or create fully from the ground up like Nixon and Bell, etc. For a long time Nancy Curlee was in this category too, and I honestly think SON was a huge part in her being as well respected as she is now, especially online.

On 6/20/2026 at 9:37 PM, kalbir said:

We saw in the ratings threads that One Life to Live tanked from when they lost 3rd to Y&R in 1984 until Andrea Evans returned in 1985, and they tanked again in the aftermath of Andrea Evans departure in 1990.

I certainly think her 1990 exit had a lot to do with her. When she came back she walked into a story already going where Tina had become less of an ingenue, and she really ran with it. You can tell she made choices to play scenes with some humor, and gave Tina a rooting factor even when she was scheming. She sometimes played dumb for the other characters, but also showed the audience she was fully engaged. And I even liked Witter’s recast, but Evans was singular.

On 6/20/2026 at 9:55 PM, DRW50 said:

but it's good to read opinions on the show that aren't from people who are either delusional, cheery stans, or people who just talk about how they have hated it for decades.

My feelings about Lorne’s eventual exit are strictly practical. Much like Bill Bell was the only one still standing as a singular creative force with actual power when he retired, Lorne is the only one left in all of broadcasting with the kind of clout and old school investment in pure creativity from every department that he has. Sometimes a team of people put on prosthetics in minutes between sketches. That kind of skill and thriving in the pressure is singular to his SNL. We watched Y&R be dismantled by internal power struggles, production/network interference, and it simply would not have happened the same way before Bell retired.

On 6/21/2026 at 12:37 AM, Khan said:

O'Shea, Sam Hall and Gordon Russell

Yes, add Gordon Russell to my earlier comment about Hall and Peggy.

On 6/21/2026 at 4:53 AM, little_blue_eli said:

The interview is available on the Internet Archive:
SOAP OPERA HISTORY: Bill Bell & Claire Labine on Writing Daytime Serials

Thank you for the link!!

While watching all the coverage of Deidre Hall’s DAYS anniversary, there have been a lot of clips of her big moments. Something I think she doesn’t get enough credit for is she is really great at the smaller stuff. I believe her in every relationship, from Don to both Romans. She’s fun and flirty and has sparkling chemistry with all her major leading men. She does with John too, but some of that fun of the characters just talking left because the show goes so hard on the tortured part of their romance for a long time.

That’s also part of that feeling that is missing now. The characters rarely seem at ease, because they don’t write that way or let the actors be as playful because of the constraints of time and money. Humor is usually at the expense of a character like Lucy or clownish like Scotty, annoying like Leo, or snarky like Britt. Rarely it’s just people that enjoy each other, and that used to be pretty normal on soaps

On 6/27/2026 at 10:32 AM, bzz said:

I happened to come across the below book excerpt the other day, and I think it connects to this thread and the idea of missed opportunities in terms of what this genre could have been and could be now. I’m excited to read the full book; not sure if it’s come up in other threads on the forum.

Literary Hub

How Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman Redefined Daytime Television

It was a breakdown unlike any the soaps had seen. A housewife named Mary Hartman had accepted an invitation to appear on The David Susskind Show, a decision that she likely did not anticipate would…

My intro to soaps was via Y&R circa '95, but I haven’t watched in years, and from what I can tell, it’s been reduced to a pitiable state. GL was the show I really fell in love with, until it broke my heart under the enshittification wrought by MADD, Rauch, Conboy, Weston, and Wheeler. (The Millee Taggart era was such a painful tease).

Of what remains, GH could really spark a renaissance, in a world that wasn’t so horrible — I would reinvest in Elizabeth as the show’s heroine, immediately, and bring back her boys and use her a mirror for the world we live in and actually have something to say about it, contra the flaccid slop that passes for “story” today.

There’s a Mary Hartman book? I HAVE to read it. I love MHMH, it’s one of my all-time favorite shows. It’s as addictive as a “real” soap but also I’ve never laughed harder in my life. It’s a tragedy that the show isn’t available on streaming because I think it could be a minor hit in these current times.

On 6/21/2026 at 4:53 AM, little_blue_eli said:

The interview is available on the Internet Archive:
SOAP OPERA HISTORY: Bill Bell & Claire Labine on Writing Daytime Serials

This is such a great article! I could read Bill Bell interviews all day. He’s one of my heroes and his shows shaped my teenage years.

On 6/27/2026 at 10:32 AM, bzz said:

I happened to come across the below book excerpt the other day, and I think it connects to this thread and the idea of missed opportunities in terms of what this genre could have been and could be now. I’m excited to read the full book; not sure if it’s come up in other threads on the forum.

Literary Hub

How Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman Redefined Daytime Television

It was a breakdown unlike any the soaps had seen. A housewife named Mary Hartman had accepted an invitation to appear on The David Susskind Show, a decision that she likely did not anticipate would…

My intro to soaps was via Y&R circa '95, but I haven’t watched in years, and from what I can tell, it’s been reduced to a pitiable state. GL was the show I really fell in love with, until it broke my heart under the enshittification wrought by MADD, Rauch, Conboy, Weston, and Wheeler. (The Millee Taggart era was such a painful tease).

Of what remains, GH could really spark a renaissance, in a world that wasn’t so horrible — I would reinvest in Elizabeth as the show’s heroine, immediately, and bring back her boys and use her a mirror for the world we live in and actually have something to say about it, contra the flaccid slop that passes for “story” today.

Oh wait, I guess it’s not a Mary Hartman book. It’s from Love in the Afternoon (which I still want to read anyway). I highly recommend the book “Her Stories” by Elana Levine. It’s an amazing, comprehensive look at soap operas from te very first days of the genre until current times.