Soap Opera

ALL MY CHILDREN
$24.95
I've been watching AMC ten years this July. So I thought if I got the BIO of AMC it would catch me up on the early years. Well I was wrong, this was pretty much just a day behind the scenes at AMC and was pretty much a big o' waste of time.

Soap Opera : The Inside Story of Procter & Gamble
$25.95
The following statement, from the preface to C. S. Lewis's "The Screw Tape Letters" could serve as a trenchant summary of all that Ms. Swasy has to say about Procter & Gamble:"The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern."

Soap Opera Digest
$207.48
I am unable to review this magazine I have never received an issue.

Needless to say, I am not happy about this.

Lynda Epler

The Soap Opera Encyclopedia
$7.50
For lovers of one of the most cherished TV institutions of all-time, "The Soap Opera Encyclopedia" is a must-have for those who adore serials. Before the advent of the internet soap opera researchers only had this excellent book to study upon written by Gerard Waggett, a soap critic and follower widely known as being one of the biggest authorities on television soap operas. This book was obviously based on the original "Soap Opera Encyclopedia" written by Christopher Schemering back in 1985. Sadly, Mr. Schemering died in the early '90s, but luckily for us all Waggett continues what Chris did which was to document the events of soaps, review particular plots, detail the comings and goings of soap stars, and go behind the scenes. The book contains a wonderful Nielsen ratings index and lists the top rated shows for every TV season in its entirity from the early '50's to the late '90's. There is an Emmy Award section with Emmy winners and Emmy nominees, but the best chapter is called "The Soap Opera 100" in which Gerard writes on a who's who in soap opera from the genre's best writers like Agnes Nixon and Bill Bell to the format's most well-known actors like Jacqueline Courtney, Judith Light, Douglas Watson, Genie Francis, and Beverlee McKinsey. It has been 12 years since another edition of "The Soap Opera Encyclopedia" has been released so I am hoping Mr. Waggett will write another since so much in the soap opera industry has changed from dramatic ratings slides on every serial to the cancellation of "Another World" and "Guiding Light".