Irna Phillips created the cliff-hanger in broadcast storytelling and perfected the serial drama, first in radio, then on television. She mentored the creators of All My Children, One Life to Live, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. The latter two remain on television today. Phillips also created the television vixen, an archetype first seen on soap operas that still endures.

Agnes Nixon and married couple William and Lee Phillip Bell worked for Phillips in Chicago. Nixon was head writer of The Guiding Light. In 1962, she wanted to do a cancer storyline, about how uterine cancer is curable if caught in time. Doctors said women proactively asked for Pap smears after watching the character Bert Bauer struggle with her health. The Bells also ushered the sexual revolution into soaps in the 1970s, with glitz and glamor and pushing the envelope on sexuality.

Soap operas created complex and groundbreaking women-centered storylines. In 1964, Another World ran an abortion storyline. In 1971, All My Children’s biggest vixen, Erica Kane, was a married pregnant model who didn’t want to be a mother. That abortion storyline was disruptive because the character was not seen as the “right” woman to tell an abortion story. Rape storylines on soaps have played out for decades because the form allows real-time nuance with storytelling. Nothing is ever wrapped up in one “Very Special Episode.” The uniqueness of soaps, airing five days a week, allows for pioneering storytelling.

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You can listen to this podcast episode by following “Making: Stories Without End” wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes drop every Tuesday for six weeks starting April 8.

In the world of soaps, women’s issues take front-burner status