Well, this answers the question:
Worth Watching: A History of SoapsThe Story of Soaps (9/8c, ABC): This brisk history of the too-easily-derided genre of romantic melodrama has a long reach, from the pre-TV era of radio serials to newfangled podcasts, echoing the ever-evolving nature of the storytelling medium itself. Celebs including Bryan Cranston (who got his start on
Loving and
One Life to Live in the 1980s) and Alec Baldwin — whose unforgettable run on
Knots Landing he insists he enjoyed (we surely did) — weigh in to give the soaps the respect they deserve, and superstars of daytime including Susan Lucci, Erika Slezak and Genie Francis also take center stage. Women pioneers Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon get their due, ditto the era of prime-time soap blockbusters (
Dallas,
Dynasty). The O.J. Simpson trial, MTV's The Real World and Bravo's
Real Housewives franchise get credit for upstaging the daytime-drama world with "reality" that's stranger than fiction, helping prompt a decline as the landscape dwindles to a mere four soaps currently airing in daytime. (After Thursday,
General Hospital joins CBS's soaps by going into rerun mode during the outbreak.) This two-hour special ends with by smartly pointing out that just about every successful drama in prime time today is in effect a soap opera in disguise. (But why almost nothing on
Dark Shadows?)
Matt Roush is a DS fan so it doesn't surprise me that he asks that question...