Soap opera writer William Bell created The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. Now his three children are together worth around $2 billion.

ALT: Brad Pitt Tips Hat with a Smile

Published in Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies (Ahead of Print, 2026)

It’s a classic example of dumb decisions potentially accelerating the decline of an industry. In this case, at exactly the wrong time.

My So-Called Life is full of Angela Chase’s voice. As the protagonist, the young teen’s thoughts — unfiltered, emotional, hilarious, self-involved — are threaded in voice-over throughout the series. T...

Soaps once brought in 75% of a TV network’s revenue, says author Elana Levine. “Soaps were a legitimate kind of pop culture sensation.”

The launch of the first new show in the genre in the US in 25 years shows the endurance of steamy melodrama

Soaps have featured Black actors for decades, but Black writers and actors say they’ve had to push their stories to the foreground.

Soap operas air five days a week. That frequency allows for — and demands — pioneering storytelling, especially when it comes to gender.

Meet the Chicago woman who birthed the soap opera, first for radio in the 1930s and then TV in the 1950s.

WBEZ's Making podcast delves into daytime soaps in an all-new season.

Procter & Gamble returns to the business of soap operas with CBS' 'Beyond the Gates' after many years of not producing the genre

Once a centerpiece of daytime TV, soaps have mostly disappeared. “Beyond the Gates” will try to revive the genre, and will be the first ever focused primarily on a Black family.