It finally happened—the viewing habits of some twenty or thirty million. Americans are being given a cover of respectability. The soap opera, that homely, enduring American entertainment, is today’s media Cinderella. Cloaked in “relevance,” the soap beckons her fans out of the closet, with an ever-growing pile of books and articles attesting to her new “take me seriously” status.
Of course, soap fans of celebrity and recognized achievement, people like Judy Garland, P. G. Wodehouse, Van Cliburn, and Renata Tebaldi, probably never felt the need to apologize for their leisure-time viewing. But for some of the other millions of work-at-homes, or people with unconventional job hours, the “relevance” tag could be a welcome, if somewhat misleading, apologia for a pleasurable, but nonuplifting, habit.
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