An engaging, in-depth look at the myriad pleasures of the soap opera fan.

The soap opera, one of U.S. television's longest-running and most influential formats, is on the brink. Declining ratings have been attributed to an increasing number of women working outside the home and to an intensifying competition for viewers' attention from cable and the Internet. Yet, soaps' influence has expanded, with serial narratives becoming commonplace on most prime time TV programs. The Survival of Soap Opera investigates the causes of their dwindling popularity, describes their impact on TV and new media culture, and gleans lessons from their complex history for twenty-first-century media industries. The book contains contributions from established soap scholars such as Robert C. Allen, Louise Spence, Nancy Baym, and Horace Newcomb, along with essays and interviews by emerging scholars, fans and Web site moderators, and soap opera producers, writers, and actors from ABC's General Hospital, CBS's The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, and other shows. This diverse group of voices seeks to intervene in the discussion about the fate of soap operas at a critical juncture, and speaks to longtime soap viewers, television studies scholars, and media professionals alike.

Could your workplace become a TV soap opera? Do you dread going to work due to a coworkers behavior? Learn some of the characteristics of the workplace soap opera character and how you can deal with them.

Daytime Television Programming (1991) provides a practical understanding of daytime television formats, viewer demographics, and programming strategy. It compares daytime genres to their evening counterparts, discusses the effects of demographics on daytime programming, analyses investment yields, and highlights audience expectations. Discussions of specific daytime shows teach techniques necessary to overcome the enormous creative challenges in building a successful daytime lineup.

Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera Criticism examines serials. Broadcast first in 1926 on radio and since 1956 on television Monday through Friday 52 weeks a year, soap operas provide a clear promise to continue for as long as mass medicated entertainment exists. Over the last sixty years, billions have happily suffered along with the gallant men and women of the afternoon. A growing body of scholarly literature exists now to provide insights and suggest answers to the question of why so many continually return to the routine tragedies of daytime drama. Each of our chapters explores an aspect of soap opera which contributes to the endurance of the genre.

SEX ON SOAPS looks at love and lust on television daytime dramas. It's a must read for any soap fan, student of the genre, or anyone interested in the presentation of sexual content on television. SEX ON SOAPS is divided into four sections and includes an interactive table of contents so you can easily maneuver to desired section or subsection. SECTION 1 - SEX ON SOAPS Enjoying the dual role of soap fan and soap researcher, Matthew W. Grant earned his degree in Mass Communications after completing his thesis, Sex On Soaps which includes original soap opera viewer research and analysis looking at sex on daytime soap operas. This material examines how sex and its ramifications are presented on daytime television, how men and women perceive sex on soaps differently, and how they think this portrayal affects them. Text in this section of the book utilizes inline citations to the comprehensive soap opera bibliography which contains over 50 sources including soap opera books, media websites, communications journals, and episodes of network soap operas. An annotated version of the original Sex On Soaps Viewer Survey is included in its entirety. The original version was compiled in 1992. This revised edition includes additional material added in 2006 and 2011. SECTION 2 - SOAP OPERAS: SILLY SUDS OR SOCIAL CONSCIENCE? Does your GUIDING LIGHT come from your television screen? Do your friends think your PASSIONS for soap operas are overwhelming? This essay takes a look at soap opera morality, soap medical storylines, and the way daytime dramas tackle social issues. It concludes with the value of soap operas to society and illustrates why it's perfectly acceptable to fill your afternoons with some LOVING and let those wonderful soap operas take you away to ANOTHER WORLD. SECTION 3 - DAYTIME SOAPS TRIVIA Discover fun facts about your favorite daytime soaps, past and present. Find out the answers to questions such as: Which two soap operas premiered on the same day and went off the air on the same day? Which real life twins played the same role (of a character who wasn't a twin) on the same soap opera at different times? Which actor, actress, and soap opera won the first Daytime Emmy Awards? How many times was Susan Lucci of ALL MY CHILDREN nominated as Outstanding Lead Actress before she won her first Daytime Emmy? Which four NBC soap operas were cancelled on New Year's Eve? Who convinced Elizabeth Taylor to guest star at Luke & Laura's GENERAL HOSPITAL wedding? How? Which DAYS OF OUR LIVES actress's mother was once the headwriter of the show? Which actress from THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS had her real-life face-lift broadcast during the show? SECTION 4 - WELCOME TO SLATERS FALLS Find out who comes out on top when a dirty cop pulls over a take-no-prisoners bitch on a deserted country road in this bonus short story featuring a crossover storyline with characters from Matthew W. Grant's novels Secrets Of Slaters Falls and Welcome To Northbridge.

A comprehensive and sustained analysis of the development of storytelling for television Over the past two decades, new technologies, changing viewer practices, and the proliferation of genres and channels has transformed American television. One of the most notable impacts of these shifts is the emergence of highly complex and elaborate forms of serial narrative, resulting in a robust period of formal experimentation and risky programming rarely seen in a medium that is typically viewed as formulaic and convention bound. Complex TV offers a sustained analysis of the poetics of television narrative, focusing on how storytelling has changed in recent years and how viewers make sense of these innovations. Through close analyses of key programs, including The Wire, Lost, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Veronica Mars, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Mad Men the book traces the emergence of this narrative mode, focusing on issues such as viewer comprehension, transmedia storytelling, serial authorship, character change, and cultural evaluation. Developing a television-specific set of narrative theories, Complex TV argues that television is the most vital and important storytelling medium of our time.

To Be Continued... explores the world's most popular form of television drama; the soap opera. From Denver to Delhi, Moscow to Manchester, audiences eagerly await the next episode of As the World Turns, The Rich Also Weep or Eastenders. But the popularity of soap operas in Britain and the US pales in comparison to the role that they play in media cultures in other parts of the world. To Be Continued... investigates both the cultural specificity of television soap operas and their reception in other cultures, covering soap production and soap watching in the U.S., Asia, Europe, Australia and Latin America. The contributors consider the nature of soap as a media text, the history of the serial narrative as a form, and the role of the soap opera in the development of feminist media criticism. To Be Continued... presents the first scholarly examination of soap opera as global media phenomenon.