Which soap operas are going off the air

Should it encode progressive or retrograde ideologies for its viewers? Should it follow the minutiae of the small-town housewife or pursue more melodramatic, even supernatural, avenues?

And to speak for the network executive, is the soap opera a cash cow or a financial albatross? Television History Duke UP, and spoke candidly of writing a book not only for fellow historians of culture and media but for fans as well, knowing the latter camp would include her harshest, most detail-oriented, critics.

Happily, Levine is both a scholar and a fan, which comes out in the joy and color of this, her latest monograph. In Her Stories, as in her other work, Levine does not shy away from the high stakes of her history, forging an argument that proponents of prestige television are rarely compelled or able to make: that soap operas are the history of television, and television is the history of America, so, by extension, soap operas index the conflicts and character of American culture from mid-century to the present day.

While the television soap opera in many ways grew out of the successful narrative model of earlier radio soaps, it faced the unique challenge of establishing a visual language for American daytime drama.

Particularly the close-up. Soap viewers saw themselves in their favorite serials and sought guidance in these narratives of balancing work and family, moderating intergenerational conflicts, and pursuing egalitarian partnerships in their love lives. Given prominent place in the book is soap pioneer Irna Phillips, whose work on Guiding Light and Another World NBC, , among others, gave voice to the ideological fractures of postwar femininity.

CBS says it is planning several other themed events in coming weeks, as well as other stunts to hold on to viewers. Daytime industry experts, however, expect GH will also exhaust its supply sometime in May. Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription. Who shot JR? It employed the classic soap opera device - the cliffhanger - to maximum effect. About million people around the world tuned in to find out the answer - it was Kristin, JR's sister-in-law.

The reason for the growth of soap operas during the s was its continuous narrative format, which meant that these shows would run for decades, leaving viewers hung up at the end of each episode. Soaps dealt with controversial social issues in a more developed and thoughtful way than earlier forms of television, says Elana Levine, a professor in the department of journalism, advertising and media studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which included abortion, race relations, sexuality and generational conflicts.

C Lee Harrington, a professor of sociology at Miami University, says the OJ Simpson trial in was a major factor in the soap opera's decline. The trial was televised for months, taking daytime soaps off the air, and they never fully recovered, says Ms Harrington.

Added to that, she says, the trial gave viewers a glimpse of a world of entertainment that could more than match a soap - the real lives of the rich and famous. Today, there are few clearer examples of that than Keeping Up with The Kardashians, which has been going on for just over a decade.

What is ironic is that the lawyer in the OJ Simpson trial was a Kardashian family member. Ms Harrington says the Kardashians are a current example of an ongoing narrative that audiences are emotionally invested in. She says that people who follow the Kardashians tend to follow them as if they're a fictional family. Another reason that reality television took off in the s was that it was much cheaper to produce than a soap opera, says Ms Harrington.

Budget cuts had hit TV soaps hard, due to the significant amount of money that was spent on clothes, remote shooting and the set decoration. After the spending cuts, the quality of programmes declined, and directors and writers began to quit. Reality television became the new king, but there are soaps that have endured.