Soap Opera Spotlight: Daytime Stars Celebrated 50 Years Of Soaps!

In 1994, CBS aired a television special that was a real treat for longtime soap fans! The program, 50 Years Of Soaps, was a two-hour prime-time special that looked back at five decades of soap operas!

It wasn’t just the four CBS serials that were on the air at the time — The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, As the World Turns, and Guiding Light — that were featured. Soaps past and present from all three networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) appeared on the special.

The show had a series of rotating hosts throughout the evening. Kicking off the show were Robin Strasser (ex-Dorian, One Life to Live), Peter Bergman (Jack, Y&R), and Kristian Alfonso (Hope, Days of Our Lives).

The trio started off giving a little history of serials and how they were called at one point “washboard weepers” among other nicknames. Strasser noted that soaps have evolved and grew to have a worldwide audience of over 100 million viewers!

The first segment highlighted soap opera supercouples including All My Children’s Phil (Richard Hatch) and Tara (Karen Lynn Gorney), Y&R’s Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott), and General Hospital’s Luke (Anthony Geary) and Laura (Genie Francis)!