Editors’ Take: Television ends its dramatic affair with soap operas

by Rose Graner, Audrey McKenzie and Duncan Gregory
Entertainment Editors

On April 14, ABC cancelled both “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” effectively ending the longstanding tradition of soap opera programming. This isn’t much of a shock, nor is it really a bad thing at all. It simply means that consumers have come to expect greater quality of and control over personal entertainment.

The end of the nearly 80 year reign of soap operas has certainly not come abruptly. Last year, CBS started the trend with their cancellation of the 72-yr-old soap, Guiding Light. Shortly after, CBS also decided to cancel As The World Turns, ending their final season on Sept. 17 of last year. These cancellations have left only four soaps left on the air, and even their fates are unknown.

Soap operas started as radio serials in the 1930s. They were dramatic readings sponsored by soap companies, eventually merging into television. Although lacking in writing and production quality, they sometimes served as the only form of reliable entertainment in a married woman’s life.

Two things obliterated this phenomenon: the women’s movement and new entertainment formats like the internet and DVR. More women free to choose their career paths means less unwilling housewives watching soap operas.

The women’s movement was not enough to totally kill off soap operas; there will always be bored people hanging around their houses in the middle of the afternoon. Most of those people have managed to escape the unfortunate malady that is soap opera addiction, though, with the help of the
internet and DVR.

Now, reports are constantly written on the evils of new entertainment technology. Animation will replace actors; advanced autotuning techniques will replace sound editing; Yelp will replace the Film Critics’ Association. Such a people-based industry is terrified of any big changes to the market that involve technology.

In the case of soap operas, more people have been helped than hurt. The soap opera business keeps a very small amount of the entertainment workforce employed. Alternate forms of entertainment, like DVR or Hulu, actually provide more jobs and allow for more varied creative efforts to be made within the industry.

Basically, we have to accept that occasionally there will be industry change. If only all of it were as benign as the death of the soap opera.