sets. The “supercouple” phenomenon—which had
its origin in the 1970’s—was fully developed, and
“love in the afternoon”—originally a network adver-
tising catchphrase—became a generic term. Celeb-
rity fans of daytime soaps began making cameos on
their favorite serials. Prime-time soaps lured many
former movie stars to play key roles and made effec-
tive use of big-budget cliffhangers. Both daytime
and nighttime soap operas featured males and fe-
males equally, but the characters remained predom-
inantly white. As the decade closed, daytime serials
responded to criticisms of their overt sexual content
and made attempts to address contemporary social
issues, such as AIDS, lesbianism, cocaine addiction,
and interracial marriage.
Daytime Soap Operas General Hospital’s Luke and
Laura story line began in 1979, and by 1980 the cou-
ple was extremely popular. During the summer of
1980, the two were on the run from the mob; the plot
presented contemporary twists on old film staples,
including a waltz in Wyndham’s department store
reminiscent of 1930’s musicals and an adapted “Walls
of Jericho” scene fromIt Happened One Night(1934).
The couple’s popularity increased until Luke and
Laura’s wedding photo appeared on the cover of
Newsweekin 1981, as their plotlines generated more
mainstream press coverage forGeneral Hospitalthan
any daytime soap had previously received. The wed-
ding of Luke and Laura was also daytime television’s
single highest-rated event.
Other soap operas also thrived in the shadow of
General Hospital’s success, as ratings for the genre as a
whole climbed. Advertising rates were strong, and
production costs (even with the location shoots)
were reasonable, resulting in major profits for the
networks. For example, theSoap Opera Encyclopedia
notes that during the Luke and Laura heyday and
for a few years afterward,General Hospital“alone ac-
counted for one-quarter of ABC’s profits.”
The star-crossed romance plot was nothing new,
but it received renewed emphasis during the 1980’s.
In addition to Luke and Laura onGeneral Hospital,
similar story lines involved Greg and Jenny onAll My
Children, Tom and Margo onAs the World Turns, and
Bo and Hope and Steve and Kayla onDays of Our
Lives. A number of stars noted that they were fans of
the soap opera genre and appeared on their favorite
shows; examples include Carol Burnett onAll My
Childrenand Elizabeth Taylor onGeneral Hospital.
Daytime soaps also began to feature millionaire fam-
ilies at the center of their narratives. Moguls had al-
ready been present in 1970’s narratives, and a wider
spectrum of economic classes was represented in
1980’s daytime soaps than in prime-time narratives,
but nonetheless, increasing numbers of corporate
capitalists became major soap opera characters, in-
cluding James Stenbeck and Lucinda Walsh onAs the
World Turns, Victor Kiriakis onDays of Our Lives, and
Adam Chandler onAll My Children.Prime-Time Soap Operas In an effort to rival the
success of the 1978 Columbia Broadcasting System
(CBS) hitDallas, the American Broadcasting Com-
pany (ABC) presentedDynastyin 1981. LikeDallas,
the latter series dealt with a feuding family living to-
gether in one giant mansion and a working-class out-
sider who had joined the family through marriage.
Dynasty, however, was more elegant, especially after
it removed many of its more working-class support-
ing characters after the first season and brought in
Joan Collins to portray the devious Alexis Carring-
ton. In addition to these two shows, other popular
prime-time soaps includedKnots Landing(a spinoff
ofDallas) andFalcon Crest. In the early to mid-1980’s,
these four shows were near the top of the ratings.
With bigger budgets than their daytime counter-
parts, nighttime soaps had casts that included for-
mer movie stars (such as Jane Wyman inFalcon Crest
and John Forsythe inDynasty), expensive costumes,
and cliffhangers with action-film violence and special
effects: BothDallasandDynastyhad scenes in which
oil rigs exploded, and oneDynastyseason-ending
cliffhanger featured a scene in which Moldavian
rebels attacked a wedding party with automatic weap-
ons. Some of these gimmicks were more successful
than others. The “Who shot J. R.?” cliffhanger on
Dallasin the summer of 1980, using no special ef-
fects and minimum violence, was a publicity phe-
nomenon. Many critics felt in retrospect that the
Moldavian massacre onDynastyin 1985 signaled the
beginning of the end for that series.
Nighttime soaps did not broach contemporary
social topics as often as did their daytime counter-
parts.Dynastydid feature a major gay character, Ste-
ven Carrington, but even though Steven had scenes
with male lovers, they were fairly chaste in compari-
son to the several sex scenes that he had with female
partners. Major characters on bothDallasandKnots
Landingstruggled with alcoholism, but nighttime886 Soap operas The Eighties in America