The Survival of Soap Opera

The Survival of Soap Opera PDF Author: Sam Ford
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781604737172
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
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.

The Survival of Soap Opera

The Survival of Soap Opera PDF Author: Sam Ford
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781604737172
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book

Book Description
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.

Her Stories

Her Stories PDF Author: Elana Levine
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
ISBN: 9781478008019
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Since the debut of These Are My Children in 1949, the daytime television soap opera has been foundational to the history of the medium as an economic, creative, technological, social, and cultural institution. In Her Stories, Elana Levine draws on archival research and her experience as a longtime soap fan to provide an in-depth history of the daytime television soap opera as a uniquely gendered cultural form and a central force in the economic and social influence of network television. Closely observing the production, promotion, reception, and narrative strategies of the soaps, Levine examines two intersecting developments: the role soap operas have played in shaping cultural understandings of gender and the rise and fall of broadcast network television as a culture industry. In so doing, she foregrounds how soap operas have revealed changing conceptions of gender and femininity as imagined by and reflected on the television screen.

Worlds Without End

Worlds Without End PDF Author: Museum of Television and Radio (New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: ABRAMS
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
As a special feature for this book, The Museum of Television & Radio conducted interviews with leading writers, producers, actors, and directors of soap operas. Dozens of revealing quotes from these interviews appear throughout the book - personal and professional comments by men and women who make their living in the field.

Soap Opera History

Soap Opera History PDF Author: Mary Ann Copeland
Publisher: Bdd Promotional Book Company
ISBN: 9780792454519
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
An introduction to the slow-moving world of soap operas includes reviews of major storylines, histories of how each show began, cast lists, and other information on both daytime and evening serials

Soap Opera

Soap Opera PDF Author: Dorothy Hobson
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 9780745626543
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The soap opera is a major form of media art and popular culture. Revered and reviled by fans and critics, its history spans and reflects social change and plays a vital role in the development of broadcasting. This book traces the genre from its beginnings on American radio in the 1930s to the international television genre it has become today. While concentrating on British soap operas, it also discusses the influence of their American and Australian counterparts. This is the first book to consider the soap opera within the economy of broadcasting; it includes a chapter based on interviews with leading broadcasting executives who give their analysis of the importance of the soap opera to their industry. The perspective of television producers as well as the views of audiences are also taken into account. Accessibly written, Soap Opera links the genre to both its media and its literary heritage, and argues that soap operas cross international boundaries through the universal appeal of their characters and their stories. It will be of particular interest to students of media and cultural studies, literary studies, sociology and television production courses, as well as to professionals in the television industry.

Speaking of Soap Operas

Speaking of Soap Operas PDF Author: Robert Clyde Allen
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 9780807841297
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
From "Ma Perkins" and "One Man's Family" in the 1930s to "All My Children" in the 1980s, the soap opera has capture the imagination of millions of American men and women of all ages. In Speaking of Soap Operas, Robert Allen undertakes a reexaminati

Soap Opera

Soap Opera PDF Author: Alecia Swasy
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307824225
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
As the maker of Ivory soap, Tide detergent, and Crest toothpaste, Procter & Gamble is a household name. It is America’s thirteenth largest company, lauded by business schools as a model for success. But behind P&G’s wholesome image is a control-obsessed company so paranoid that Wall Street analysts, employees, and the chairman himself refer to it as “the Kremlin.” The company demands conformity and unquestioning loyalty from its employees, who work in a strict and oppressive environment. P&G’s wealth and power ensures it gets what it wants, from tax breaks to the eager services of Washington lobbyists. In this explosive exposé, Wall Street Journal reporter Alecia Swasy—who covered P&G for three years—tells the full chilling story of life within the P&G behemoth. Drawn from interviews with over 300 former and current P&G employees (including CEO Ed Artzt), visits to P&G operations in five countries, and thousands of court and company documents, Soap Opera reveals the dirty tricks and draconian mind-set of the company with the “99 44/100% pure” façade. Included here is the real story behind P&G’s Rely brand tampons and their link to women’s deaths from toxic shock syndrome—and how P&G tried to suppress that evidence. Swasy takes us to Taylor County, Florida, where residents drink bottled water because P&G’s influence allowed the company to flood the local river with dioxin-laden toxic waste from its paper mill. Among these and dozens of other examples of the company’s cutthroat nature is Swasy’s own story of P&G’s unethical seizure of Cincinnati phone records in an effort to track down her sources. Wonderfully readable and impeccably researched, Soap Opera is a sobering look at the price of success in America.

Soap Opera Confidential

Soap Opera Confidential PDF Author: Elizabeth Searle
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476665281
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Soap operas have captured loyal, often lifelong viewers since the first American daytime serial debuted in 1949. In this collection of 29 new and five classic essays and recollections, authors and soap opera insiders delve into the passion for television melodrama that compels viewers to "tune in tomorrow." The contributors include iconic soap star Thorsten Kaye, journalist Leigh Montville, authors Elinor Lipman and Ann Hood, and editors of Soaps in Depth magazine. They explore the soap phenomenon from a range of perspectives and consider the appeal of a venerable genre in which, as novelist Jacquelyn Mitchard observes, "everyone's life was more depressing than mine."

Women and Soap Opera

Women and Soap Opera PDF Author: Christine Geraghty
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
ISBN: 9780745605685
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
This is the first major study of the roles of women in prime time soap operas. In a comparative analysis of British and North American television soaps, Christine Geraghty examines the relationship between the narratives on the screen and the women viewers who make up the traditional soap audience. Within the structure of many of the most popular soaps, such as Dallas, Dynasty, Coronation Street and EastEnders, the split between public and personal life, reason and emotion, work and leisure is turned into a lynchpin of the plot. The author argues that these themes are also linked to broader social divisions between men and women, divisions which soap operas both question and develop as a source of pleasure. Geraghty analyses the critical role of women characters in the families and communities of soaps and suggests that the utopian possibilities of soaps can be used not just to maintain the status quo, but to promote change and influence attitudes and prejudices. She examines the way in which soaps have been transformed in the last decade, looking at how issues of class, race, sexual orientation and feminism have been handled in the programmes. She argues that in pursuing new audiences more recent soaps such as Brookside may have put at risk the pleasures they have traditionally offered their women viewers. Women and Soap Opera is a detailed, thoughtful and wide-ranging analysis which will become a central work in women’s studies and media and cultural studies courses.

Samantha

Samantha PDF Author: Meryl Robin Becker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Using a soap opera storyline approach, this text contains reading passages that hold the adult learner's interest and provide ESL learners with vocabulary and idiom practice. The stimulating and intriguing storyline offers continuing topics for discussion on social, moral, and cross-cultural issues such as love, marriage, dating customs, and gender roles in all societies. Chapters contain prereading and comprehension questions, as well as exercises that reinforce the vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. The book's chapters have been sealed but perforated to prevent students from reading ahead.