Dr. Elana Levine, Professor of Media, Cinema & Digital Studies, was recently interviewed on WNYC’s All Of It With Alison Stewart about the enduring power of the soap opera. Professor Levine detailed the soap opera’s transition from a radio vehicle for selling household goods in the 1930s to an economic backbone for network television in the 1970s & 1980s, offering women unique opportunities in TV production and tackling controversial subjects along the way.
Professor Levine is the author of Her Stories: Daytime Soap Operas & US Television History (Duke University Press, 2020).