In a recent viral interview, Hollywood A-lister Ryan Gosling gave a loud-and-proud shout out to daytime dramas, acknowledging why soap operas are worth watching. Heralding them as both a cornerstone of his childhood and the force that shaped his appreciation for acting, Gosling praised the unsung heroes of daytime television on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. In particular, he singled out veteran actress Deirdre Hall of Days of Our Lives and her work in a landmark story in which her character — the stoic-yet-compassionate psychiatrist, Dr. Marlena Evans — gets possessed by the devil in the 1990s. (Yes. Really. And it was awesome. She also got re-possessed in 2021, with this incarnation of the storyline taking a much campier-but-equally-awesome swerve.)
Oddly enough, I was actually planning on writing this article before Gosling proclaimed his love for daytime dramas and accepted an invitation to the set of his favorite soap as a result of his podcast proclamation. I was actually in the middle of penning a post on how soap-dom’s greatest “villain” Stefano DiMera (also of Days of Our Lives fame) and Sesame Street’s Slimey the Worm instilled a profound sense of empathy in me at a young age. (Stay tuned! Coming soon!) However, I figured I should get off my ass and strike while the iron was hot to capitalize on this trending topic.
Soaps have traditionally been an unfairly maligned genre. Some folks kvetch that they’re overly melodramatic and rampant with tropes. But that’s part of the fun and completely overlooks the great performances and top tier storytelling that unfolds on a daily basis. Let’s take a closer look at why soap operas merit much more respect.
The Hardest Workers in Hollywood
Ryan Gosling was onto something. Soap opera actors — and writers — are among the hardest working creatives in Hollywood. In a day and age where most television and streaming shows have adopted a bullshit “prestige” format where they can barely fart out a dozen episodes every two years, soaps crank out at least 200 episodes of 30-60 minute television per year. These serials air every Monday through Friday, giving viewers a daily serving of story and serving as a constant in a sea of far more sporadic shows.
Gosling noted that soaps are more than just “Kenough.”
They [soap opera actors] do not get the love they deserve. The amount they have to memorize the night before… Like ten pages of dialogue. They get one take.
He’s not wrong. At one time, soap operas had gigantic budgets that allowed them to have massive sets, shoot on location, and even score regular guest appearances from such luminaries as Elizabeth Taylor (General Hospital), Phyllis Diller and Fabio (The Bold and the Beautiful), Carol Burnett (All My Children), and Dick Van Dyke (Days of Our Lives).
Today, soaps don’t command as big a budget as they used to, nor do they get the accolades they deserve. Many daytime players perform at the level of Broadway stage actors. Not only do they memorize pages of new dialogue (versus doing the same play night after night), but reduced budgets all-but demand One-Take Tessie status, requiring they deliver their lines expertly on the first try once cameras are rolling. And some of these actors (nodding to a time-honored daytime trope) even play dual roles — either as an “evil twin” or polar opposite character.
To cap it off, soap opera shooting schedules are relentless. Days of Our Lives, in particular, shoots at least nine months in advance with a rigorous schedule that ensures fans get their fix of the fictional goings-on in the town of Salem, Illinois. It was this intense filming slate that gave viewers a steady stream of uninterrupted episodes during the pandemic since the show shot well in advance.
And that’s just the actors. Soap opera writers are also faced with challenges that most other television scribes don’t deal with. They regularly juggle a pool of 30-50 characters, many of whom have decades of character development and “story bible” behind them. Writers not only need to understand their histories and relationships with other characters, but they also have to weave a massive cast into a tapestry of intersecting storylines while respecting continuity. It’s a delicate balance that gives everyone time to shine by rotating some characters to the front of the canvas and back burnering others. The result is what feels like a fully-realized town with a lore all its own.
The Soap Opera/Comic Book Connection
Soaps have a lot in common with another genre that was once relegated to fringe status before becoming a box office guarantee: comic books. Like superhero stories, soap operas have their own heroes and villains with decades of canon that must be respected lest they ruffle the feathers of rabid fans.
Both comics and soaps sometimes feature crossovers — either in the form of two soap opera worlds colliding or with actors hopping from one daytime drama to another in a new role. Presently, The Young and the Restless hosts characters from its CBS sister soap, The Bold and the Beautiful. And for a time, when ABC was airing three soap operas in its afternoon lineup, All My Children, General Hospital, and One Life to Live all had characters floating freely between the shows.
Perhaps the biggest area of common ground between soaps and comic books is that both have memorable rogues galleries that form the backbone of their respective storylines. Much like Magneto, Dr. Doom, and Harley Quinn, soap villains often have moments of redemption. (Fun fact: Comic book creator Paul Dini based the character of Harley Quinn on his friend, actress Arlene Sorkin, who later voiced the role in the animated Batman series. Sorkin was also a daytime staple in the ’80s, playing the role of eccentric fashion designer, Calliope Jones, on Days of Our Lives.) Much like their comic book counterparts, soap opera villains have a soft spot for family and loved ones, making them compelling, multi-dimensional characters you can’t help but root for on occasion. (Even when they bury their enemies alive.)
Soaps overlap with comic books in another key way: Major characters die and are routinely resurrected from the dead. Superman’s kicked the bucket and come back a few times. Ditto for his Justice League compatriots, Green Lantern and The Flash. Ra’s al Ghul hangs out in his own private Lazarus Pits. And, perhaps most famously, the X-Men’s Jean Grey has come back to life as “The Phoenix.”
Daytime has its own Phoenix — aka Stefano DiMera, Days of Our Lives’ premier villain who returned from the dead no less than ten times in almost 40 years thanks to a mystical pinky ring bearing the effigy of the mythical bird who rises from the ashes. As “the seventh son of a seventh son,” Stefano made the lives of Salem residents a living hell through his manipulations and machinations — all while listening to opera, playing chess, and being oh-so-continental. Although actor who brought “The Phoenix” to life, Joseph Mascolo sadly passed in 2016, the character of Stefano DiMera still looms large over Days of Our Lives, despite the fact that his role has respectfully never been recast.
Like comics, soap operas are no stranger to the occult, either. Characters like Ghost Rider, sorcerer supreme Doctor Strange, the half-vampire hunter Blade, and the half-demon Teen Titans’ Raven are just a few comic book heroes that have a mystical slant. Meanwhile, Dark Shadows pioneered the supernatural daytime soap opera format in the late 1960s, centering on tragic vampire Barnabas Collins and his upper crust New England family. Passions picked up the baton in the late 1990s and early aughts, leafing in plots featuring centuries-0ld witches (with magical doll familiars that came to life) alongside more grounded tales of middle class families warring against old money villains. And every so often, Days of Our Lives would interrupt their regularly-scheduled tales of romance, cop drama, and corporate takeovers with periodic storylines about alien twins, villains with magical rings and nine lives, and (of course) demonic possession.
Soap Operas Break Boundaries
Prime time television in the ’70s and ’80s had their share of “very special episodes” that tackled current issues of the day. However, many of these episodes were one-and-done, with no follow-up or lasting ramifications.
While the “I fell in love with my rapist” soap trope has aged poorly (here’s looking at you, General Hospital’s Luke and Laura), One Life to Live served up a heart-wrenching sexual assault story in 1993 that that played out over the course of three years, including a court trial rampant with victim blaming.
In 1995, General Hospital took a sensitive approach to another hot topic when the character of Stone Cates died of AIDS and his girlfriend, legacy character Robin Scorpio, contracted HIV. While Cates wasn’t a on the show for a particularly long period of time, Scorpio was the daughter of one of the show’s “supercouples” and the first major daytime character to be struck by the virus. The character of Robin is still on the show today and lives with HIV, making hers one of the longest-running storylines that shows the lasting effects of a life-changing event for daytime characters.
Beyond plot points, some soap operas themselves break new ground. In 1989, NBC launched Generations, which prominently featured a Black family among its anchor characters from the start. Generations had a cast of well-known actors and soap vets alike, including Richard Roundtree and Kristoff St. John. It also introduced Vivica A. Fox to the world in her first major role.
Generations wrapped after only two short-but-memorable years. However, in 2025, CBS created its first new soap opera in decades — Beyond the Gates, which features a predominantly Black cast. It’s currently in its second season and is poised to be renewed for a third.
In the 1990s, All My Children saw the arrival of a Latino family in Pineview, including the character of Matteo Santos (played by Marc Consuelos, who met his wife Kelly Ripa on the show). And while it was known for its previously mentioned supernatural zaniness, Passions centered on the Latino-Irish Lopez-Fitzgerald family throughout its nine-year run. After the show folded, actor Galen Gerring (who portrayed Luis Lopez) made the leap to Days of Our Lives in the role of detective Rafe Hernandez. Today, Gerring’s character is still a major part of the show and the expanded Hernandez family have found a home in Salem.
Soap operas have historically made strides to be inclusive and ensure characters reflect their viewers. LGBTQ characters have long been a part of the fabric of daytime television, with All My Children, One Life to Live, As the World Turns, and (the long-gone) Santa Barbara welcoming them into viewers homes. In 2009, All My Children featured the first lesbian wedding, with major characters Bianca Montgomery and Reese Williams saying “I do.” And in 2012, Days of Our Lives’ Will Horton and Sonny Kiriakis became daytime’s first gay supercouple, involved in front-burner storylines before eventually marrying in 2014.
Familiar Faces That Feel Like Family Through the Decades
Soap operas are far more than meets the eye. While it’s easy to dismiss them as frothy entertainment for bored housewives, these serials are far deeper than what they’re often given credit for. Yes, soaps often embrace their campy side. But they also have heart.
From tackling sometimes-controversial topics to ongoing storytelling told by writers and actors who care about their craft, soaps deliver the goods on a Monday-through-Friday basis — sometimes over the course of decades. For regular viewers who have tuned in through the years, these fictional towns can feel like home. Many of the characters age along with their viewers, making them feel like people you know yourself.
In his Happy Sad Confused appearance, Gosling mentioned having watched the original Days of Our Lives possession storyline, then found himself stumbling on the redux. This mirrored my own experience. I grew up watching Days of Our Lives with my mother as a kid and watched it on-and-off until graduating college. I tuned in less frequently once I’d joined the 9-to-5 office space crowd.
However, when the pandemic hit, I picked the habit back up again and felt like I’d never left the good folks of Salem behind for so long. It was oddly comforting. As a kid, it was a treat to watch soap operas when you were home sick from school. So, during a period when human contact was at a premium and a good chunk of the world was sick and under lockdown, becoming a regular Days of Our Lives viewer again felt like a welcome jolt of familiarity in strange times.
Unlike other forms of movies and television, soap operas offer a rare opportunity to follow characters (and the actors who continue to portray them) over the course of decades. Sometimes you grow with them. Sometimes you swing between booing or cheering them. And sometimes their terrible life choices make you feel better about yourself.
Even at their most outlandish (and it doesn’t get more outlandish than demonic possession), soap operas make their loyal devotees feel like they’ve come home to a town full of people you know and love. Whether you’re just passing through or sticking around for the long haul, there’s genuine comfort in that.
Header image credits:
- Photo of Deirdre Hall courtesy of Gabi Hernandez via Wikimedia Commons.
- Photo of Ryan Gosling courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons. (Photo altered/cropped to fit in header image.)
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