Table of Contents Acknowledgments vi Introduction (Suzanne Strempek Shea) 1 Episode 1: Days of Our Lives--Soaps as Part of Growing Up Quentin, We're Trapped! (Rita Ciresi) 6 Latchkey Lunch with Love of Life (Leigh Montville) 10 Sunny, Seductive Summer Bay (Nuala Ní Chonchúir) 14 Lesbians, Jews and Patriarchal Oppression: Or, How I Learned to Love Beverly Hills, 90210 (Emily Franklin) 17 "Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller": The Literary, ­Music-Loving, Geek Girls of Gilmore (Lisa Borders) 22 Dynasty II: The Colbys (Aaron Hamburger) 27 Episode 2: All My Children--Soaps as Family Affair Dr. Steve at Bat (Tommy Shea) 32 The Doctors and William Beaumont General ­Hospi-tale (Brenda Sparks Prescott) 36 My Years of Tonsillitis (Ann Hood) 39 A Boxer's Secret (Jose Antonio Rivera) 44 A Soapy Life (Caitlin McCarthy) 46 My Mother's Stories (Lesléa Newman) 49 Their Show (Shara McCallum) 50 The Kind That Lasts Forever (Marianne Leone) 55 Episode 3: Another World--Soaps as Cultural Commentary Thoughts on the Rooftop (Allan G. Hunter) 60 Dark Shadows: Look Homeward, Vampire (Nancy Holder) 65 Accepting an Invitation to Love (Ted Deppe) 68 Learning to Watch (Kyoko Mori) 72 Bringing Hope (Marie ­Hannan-Mandel) 83 Episode 4: Dynasty--Soaps as Insider Game Waterbed (Thorsten Kaye) 88 Three Months on the Inside: Life as a Guiding Light Intern (Erin Roberts) 89 Everything I Ever Wanted to Know About Sex (But Was Afraid Mike Douglas Would Ask Zsa Zsa Gabor) (Charlie Mason) 92 For the Love of Adam (Tigh M. Rickman) 96 I Thickened the Plot--and Other Confessions of a ­Soap-Opera Writer (David Hiltbrand) 100 Charm!ed (Sebastian Stuart) 105 An Unexpected Stage (Louise Shaffer) 107 How Luke and Laura Killed the Modern Soap Opera (Richard M. Simms) 109 Episode 5: As the World Turns--Soaps as ­Life-Long Passion As My World Turned: A Timeline (Elinor Lipman) 114 Sister Soaps: Young and Restless and Bold and Beautiful (Elizabeth Searle) 117 A Guiding Light Extinguished (Suzanne Strempek Shea) 126 A Fan's Perspective (Robert Reid ) 129 Undying Vampire Love (Susan Lilley) 132 Soaps: How Did I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways (Blake Wandesforde) 134 Thirty Years in Pine Valley (Marie Lathers) 145 Sleepless in the Land of Soaps (Jamie Cat Callan) 152 About the Contributors 159 Index 163.