I remember my mom watching the soaps back in the 60’s and 70’s when I was a kid. Her favorites were “The Secret Storm” and “The Edge of Night”, if IRC, The Edge of Night was sort of mix between a traditional soap and a mystery or detective show. Does anyone remember them? I think she also watched “The Guiding Light”.
I also remember my dad would jokingly give my mom a hard time about watching her “afternoon” shows which was of course after all the housework was done and before starting dinner.
But my dad worked construction and sometimes he’d get laid off when work slowed down or because weather delayed outside work and onetime he was out of work for several months because of a very serious on the job injury. So when my dad went back to work, he’d come home and ask my mom what happed on the soaps today and she’d get him up to speed on the various plots. He’d pretend otherwise but I seriously think he got into watching them.
FWIW, many of the old soaps migrated from radio to TV.
When I was in HS in the late 70’s, General Hospital was all the rage and very popular among teenagers, mostly girls I guess, the whole Luke and Laura story line but I never got into it.
But back in the late 60’s there was Dark Shadows. I wasn’t allowed to watch it at home because my Catholic mother thought it too occult and too, well too dark”, so after school, I think it was 2nd and 3rd grade, I’d go to my friend Janet’s house to watch it. ; )
“Dark Shadows” was a little before my time but, when I was in Kindergarten, the local PBS affiliate would air the reruns every afternoon.
Every day, after I got home from Kindergarten, I couldn’t wait to watch “Dark Shadows”. My mother hated the show but I loved it.
All I remember about “The Edge of Night” is show’s opening, with that deep male voice saying “The Edge of Night”. It kind of gave me the creeps, lol. Which is strange, because “Dark Shadows” didn’t creep me out at all.
My Mother and older sister watched “Search For Tomorrow”, “Young and The Restless”, “As the World Turns” and “ Guiding Light”.