#Soap opera wekly tv#

Refreshingly, the new SOW didn’t kiss the asses of the networks, the shows or the stars. Not just about the personal lives of the stars, but how soap operas as network television productions really worked. We treated all in the soap world professionally and with respect, whether or not we liked their work.

But we weren’t bitchy or nasty in our coverage in our hearts we had real love for soaps. Readers knew that we at a soap magazine were watching the same shows they were, and having the very same reactions. The industry respected us, read us, responded to us. Through well-written articles, readers learned

But it was Soap Opera Weekly that widely popularized the smart approach.

#Soap opera wekly tv#

Jon-Michael Reed‘s break-though Daytime TV Serials Magazine in the 70s pioneered the serious view of soap opera and a few other soap magazines had periodically done the same in the 80s. It became a legend because in its first 11 years, it demonstrated courage and integrity in being absolutely honest about the soap opera world. But I think SOW‘s success can be attributed primarily to the fact that it was a timely, excellent, fair-minded, professionally done magazine. Some say SOW was an instant success because soaps were so much better then or because there were so many more millions of soap viewers in 1989. Each week, under the pen name Marlena De Lacroix, I wrote Critical Condition, the magazine’s ultra popular, original critical/humor column - 543 of them! I was lucky to be one of them, from its launch on November 21, 1989 through the magazine’s first eleven years. Happy 20th anniversary, Soap Opera Weekly! Congratulations to the generations of writers, editors, production, art and business people who have worked on the magazine over the years.