Funky Winkerbean was an American comic strip by Tom Batiuk . Distributed by North America Syndicate , a division of King Features Syndicate , it appeared in more than 400 newspapers worldwide.
119-539: While Batiuk was a 23-year-old middle school art teacher in Elyria, Ohio , he began drawing cartoons while supervising study hall. In 1970, his characters first appeared as a weekly panel, Rapping Around , on the teenage page of the Elyria Chronicle Telegram . In 1972, Batiuk reworked some of the characters into a daily strip , which he sold to Publishers-Hall Syndicate . Throughout its 50-year run,
238-443: A "soap opera", it doesn't need to be long-running. , but some authors define the word in a way that excludes short-running serial dramas from their definition of "soap opera". BBC Radio 's The Archers , first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera. The longest-running existing television soap is Coronation Street , which was first broadcast on ITV in 1960. According to Albert Moran, one of
357-448: A 2007 strip featuring Wally getting blown up by an I.E.D. (which turned out in the next strip to be him playing a computer game), included two papers that ran the strip receiving irate phone calls and letters to the editor, and led to Batiuk issuing an apology soon after the strip ran. Reactions to the most recent chapter of Lisa's Story led to further complaints over the comic's gloomy content, and Batiuk has mentioned in interviews about
476-611: A 40-year-plus run, were cancelled in 2011. All My Children aired its network finale in September 2011, with One Life to Live following suit in January 2012. Both All My Children and One Life to Live were briefly revived online in 2013, before being cancelled again that same year. In 2019, production of Days of Our Lives was put on "indefinite hiatus" and all of the cast's contracts were terminated, raising concerns within soap publications that cancellation would ensue, though
595-652: A 72-year run (including radio). As the World Turns aired its final episode on September 17, 2010, after a 54-year run. As the World Turns was the last of 20 soap operas produced by Procter & Gamble, the soap and consumer goods company from which the genre got its name. As the World Turns and Guiding Light were also among the last of the soaps that originated from New York City. All My Children , another New York–based soap, moved its production out to Los Angeles in an effort to reduce costs and raise sagging ratings; however, both it and One Life to Live , each with
714-404: A King Features press release, it was revealed that "Lisa will start chemo again, learn that her long-range prospects are poor, stop chemotherapy, deal with telling her daughter about her cancer situation, [and] testify before Congress about the need for cancer research and cope with friends and family." Batiuk was very open about the fact that Lisa's latest ordeal would end with her death and some of
833-446: A September 2009 storyline that many readers also interpreted as Batiuk's addressing of the strip's latter-day bleakness, a group of parents protested a school production of Wit because the themes of cancer and death offended them. In her defense of the play, the character of Susan Smith, a Westview High teacher and drama director, was viewed by critics as a mouthpiece for Batiuk's views on the importance of dramatic entertainment. Over
952-615: A black teacher at Westview High. Their relationship blossoms into love and in the fall of 2012, the two were married. Also that fall, Les's daughter, Summer, and Cayla's daughter, Keisha, begin attending college. In April 2013, a storyline began revolving around Darin Fairgood's biological father, Frankie, attempting to meet his biological son; this coincided with the release of Les's book Lisa's Story , detailing her life, battle with breast cancer and events since her death. Frankie eventually meets with Darin, attempting to blackmail him into doing
1071-537: A blog, Son of Stuck Funky , which provides a daily commentary. A Crankshaft strip from May 23, 2007, sarcastically addresses the more recent controversies from Batiuk's perspective, with a character remarking of newspaper comic strips that "everyone knows they're supposed to be funny". In the Funky Winkerbean strip published on September 30, 2007, Les essentially echoes the Crankshaft comment. In
1190-493: A call from his ex-wife, Cindy, informing him that Wally was alive and that she had conducted an interview that was to air on the news that evening. It is revealed that Wally has been held as a prisoner of war in Iraq for the past decade (possibly taken hostage around the time of Lisa's death), and—unaware that he was presumed dead and that Becky had remarried—said during that interview that what kept him sane during his time in captivity
1309-442: A college-age student in the former. In the January 27, 2015, installment of Funky Winkerbean , a throwback crossover shows Crankshaft as a bus driver, while Crankshaft also has a throwback crossover that shows Crankshaft as a bus driver on Funky Winkerbean . This time difference between the strips was gradually retconned away as Funky Winkerbean finished its run in 2022, with the characters crossing over more frequently through
SECTION 10
#17327795601891428-465: A couple gives her a "Starbuck Jones" comic book Holly presents them with a "Holy Grail" of Action Comics #243. During the summer of 2015, the present-day incarnations of the Westview gang meet up with their teen-aged selves during a class reunion; it is revealed in the storyline's finale that Les—who helped organize the event—had passed out during the reunion (for unexplained reasons) and was having
1547-412: A current (2012–13) storyline where Bull Bushka is Westview High School's Athletic Director, Girls Basketball Coach, and was named the school's head football coach. Montoni's Pizza is modeled after Luigi's, an Italian restaurant and pizzeria in downtown Akron, Ohio . There is a framed and signed Funky Winkerbean strip hung in the restaurant. The band box frequently shown in the interior of the shop above
1666-400: A dead body, but hey, even if you do, he or she can always come back to play the evil identical twin. Marlena Laird in 1992, during her time as a line producer and director for General Hospital . Romance , secret relationships, extramarital affairs, and genuine hate have been the basis for many soap opera storylines. In US daytime serials, the most popular soap opera characters, and
1785-601: A different strip, a little bit quieter." He also promised that despite Lisa's death, she will remain a presence in strip through flashbacks, remembrances, and a series of videos she recorded for daughter Summer just before she died. Montoni's will have opened several locations, including in New York City, Summer will have grown into a popular 15-year-old basketball star (in contrast to her geeky father), and Bull's adopted daughter Jinx, as well as Becky's adopted daughter Rana, are high-school aged. Batiuk explained that he wanted
1904-527: A dream. In 2019, Bull dealt with the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy . The storyline included Bull's death. The continuity of the Crankshaft strip is as much as 20 years behind that of Funky Winkerbean ; strips in both comics in August and September 2011 show Cayla Williams, a high school teacher and secretary to Principal Nate Green and Les's fiancée, with Keisha her teenage daughter, to be
2023-610: A few of the mainstay elements—most notably, storylines revolving around the Westview High School band and now-retired director Harry Dinkle, and classroom spot gags—reappear in Act III on occasion, the focus once again is on dramatic storylines with continuing story arcs: Wally Winkerbean—who had returned to Iraq before the relaunch—is not in the core cast as shown on the Funky Winkerbean Web site, and it
2142-463: A fixture of American daytime television in the early 1950s, joined by game shows , sitcom reruns and talk shows. In 1988, H. Wesley Kenney , who at the time served as the executive producer of General Hospital , said to The New York Times : I think people like stories that continue so they can relate to these people. They become like a family, and the viewer becomes emotionally involved. There seem to be two attitudes by viewers. One, that
2261-511: A funeral. Once Tylo reprised her character in 2005, a retcon explained that Taylor had actually gone into a coma. Stunts and complex physical action are largely absent, especially from daytime serials. Such story events often take place off-screen and are referred to in dialogue instead of being shown. This is because stunts or action scenes are difficult to adequately depict without complex movements, multiple takes, and post-production editing. When episodes were broadcast live, post-production work
2380-512: A mainstay, the strip also examined subjects more traditionally associated with soap opera or serialized comics. Most notably, a teenage pregnancy storyline had Lisa becoming pregnant as a teenager; she placed the child for adoption . Her child, Darin, grew up with his adopted family and became a regular character. Other storylines dealt with suicide , teen dating violence , capital punishment , alcoholism (Funky himself struggled with alcoholism and recovery), and other grim subjects. Perhaps
2499-432: A married couple whose onscreen and real-life romance was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press at large. The first program generally considered to be a "soap opera" or daytime serial by scholars of the genre is Painted Dreams , which premiered on WGN radio Chicago, on October 20, 1930. It was regularly broadcast in a daytime time slot, where most listeners would be housewives; thus,
SECTION 20
#17327795601892618-448: A new generation at Westview, including Wally, Becky, Darin and Monroe. Overtly whimsical elements were now downplayed, and some of the series' running gags from the 1972–92 years were recast in a more serious light. For instance, Bull's hectoring of Les became the focus of a storyline on domestic violence and child abuse when it was revealed that Bull abused Les to cope with being abused by his own father. Though humorous storylines remained
2737-450: A newspaper vending machine with a headline saying "Soldiers Taken Hostage." Several strips made allusions to Wally's disappearance, including one featuring Becky Howard's car having a POW/MIA bumper sticker and her placing a U.S. flag on an unidentified grave. In the July 12, 2009, strip, it is finally shown that Wally is alive and in full military uniform; a backstory reveals that Funky got
2856-583: A number of soap actors were also accomplished stage actors who performed live theater during breaks from their soap roles. In the 1960s and 1970s, new serials such as General Hospital , Days of our Lives , and The Young and the Restless were produced in Los Angeles . Their success made the West Coast a viable alternative to New York-produced soap operas, which were becoming more costly to perform. By
2975-425: A particular place, or focus on a large extended family. The storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters. "Soap narratives, like those of film melodramas, are marked by what Steve Neale has described as 'chance happenings, coincidences, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescues and revelations, deus ex machina endings.'" These elements may be found across
3094-525: A radio drama in January 1937 and subsequently transferred to television in June 1952. With the exception of several years in the late 1940s, during which creator Irna Phillips was involved in a dispute with Procter & Gamble , Guiding Light was heard or seen nearly every weekday from 1937 to 2009, making it the longest story ever told in a broadcast medium. Originally serials were broadcast as 15-minute installments each weekday in daytime slots. In 1956, As
3213-404: A reality series about their reunion, but Les, Cayla and the rest of the gang—aware that the show's only objective was to tarnish Lisa's name and character—help Darin thwart Frankie's plans. In January 2013, Fred Fairgood—now retired as principal of Westview High—suffered a major stroke and was barely alive at the hospital; he is later shown to be recovering at home, although he is disabled. As Fred
3332-510: A series of daily prime time soaps from 2006 to 2007, which aired on newly created sister network MyNetworkTV , but the experiment was largely a failure after disappointing ratings). Due to the masses of episodes produced for a series, release of soap operas to DVD (a popular venue for distribution of current and vintage television series) is considered impractical. With the exception of occasional specials, daytime soap operas are notable by their absence from DVD release schedules (an exception being
3451-525: A short time from 1979 to 1980). More than half of the serials had expanded to one-hour episodes by 1980. As of 2012, three of the four U.S. serials air one-hour episodes each weekday; only The Bold and the Beautiful airs 30-minute episodes. Soap operas were originally broadcast live from the studio, creating what many at the time regarded as a feeling similar to that of a stage play. As nearly all soap operas were originated at that time from New York City ,
3570-484: A single missing episode) was rerun on the Sci-Fi Channel in the 1990s. After The Edge of Night 's 1984 cancellation, reruns of the show's final five years were shown late nights on USA Network from 1985 to 1989. On January 20, 2000, a digital cable and satellite network dedicated to the genre, Soapnet , began re-airing soaps that originally aired on ABC, NBC and CBS. Newer broadcast networks since
3689-462: A soap opera will generally switch between several concurrent narrative threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another or may run entirely independent to each other. Episodes may feature some of the show's storylines, but not always all of them. Especially in daytime serials and those that are broadcast each weekday, there is some rotation of both storyline and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of
Funky Winkerbean - Misplaced Pages Continue
3808-416: A storage space for his comics, probably since the basement shop has flooded in the past. During 2010, Funky became the central character in a storyline in which he has a flashback to his high school days 30 years earlier in Westview. The flashback ran concurrently with a storyline where Funky was seriously injured in a car accident, caused by a young woman whose car veers into the path of Funky's car while she
3927-401: A week's worth of episodes. Soap operas rarely conclude all their storylines at the same time. When one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing stages of development . Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of cliffhanger , and the season finale (if a soap incorporates a break between seasons) ends in the same way, only to be resolved when the show returns for
4046-570: A younger Les talking with Summer about death in general to help her understand that of Lisa's, before switching to the new-look Moores in the closing frames, and the first week of strips that followed, following the Moores participating in a Making Strides walk, have a banner saying "Act III: Ten Years Later" in the first frame (an "Act III" statement directing readers to the official website was discreetly included in fine print for some time afterward). The relaunched Funky , Batiuk said, "is going to be
4165-431: Is beginning his recovery, a woman identifying herself as Fred's daughter (from a previous relationship, before he married Ann) shows up at the hospital and proves that she is indeed his biological daughter. Ann Fairgood is forced to admit that her marriage to Fred was not the happy one they had made it out to be publicly and that they shielded Darin from their unhappiness, upsetting Darin to the point he estranges himself from
4284-533: Is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the actor with the longest uninterrupted performance in a single role. A number of performers played roles for 20 years or longer, occasionally on more than one show. Rachel Ames played Audrey Hardy on both General Hospital and Port Charles from 1964 until 2007, and returned in 2009. Susan Lucci played Erica Kane in All My Children from
4403-610: Is not scheduled or because of last-minute deferrals of scheduled episodes to the following day because of breaking news coverage. ( Temporary production stoppages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic similarly resulted in CBS and ABC airing older reruns of The Young and the Restless , The Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital during the Spring and Summer of 2020 in order to ration first-run episodes and, eventually, to fill airtime after
4522-473: Is not uncommon for a single character to be played by multiple actors. The key character of Mike Karr on The Edge of Night was played by three actors. Conversely, several actors have remained playing the same character for many years, or decades even. Helen Wagner played Hughes family matriarch Nancy Hughes on American soap As the World Turns from its April 2, 1956, debut through her death in May 2010. She
4641-411: Is typically a long-running radio or television serial , frequently characterized by melodrama , ensemble casts , and sentimentality . The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers. The term was preceded by " horse opera ", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns. According to some dictionaries, for something to be adequately described as
4760-555: The Stinger that killed his fellow troops. The couple returned to the US with an adopted daughter, Rana, who was left orphaned after her family was killed by a suicide bomber . Even more attention was focused on the ongoing suffering and eventual death of Lisa Crawford Moore. A recurring storyline for many years was Lisa Moore's battle with breast cancer. She first dealt with it when diagnosed in 1999. Soon after, she learned that Holly Budd
4879-480: The "Jumbler". Dick Tracy has a concurrent crossover with Funky Winkerbean concerning the comic book auction. Funky and the rest of the cast last appeared on the Christmas Day 2022 episode. The final week was set in the late 21st century. Summer's granddaughter (also named Lisa) found two books in a robot-staffed bookstore; Westview , written by Summer, and Lisa's Story: The Other Shoe , written by Les. It
Funky Winkerbean - Misplaced Pages Continue
4998-547: The 1970s, became one of the first older women on the American serials to enter the workforce. Guiding Light dealt with Bert Bauer ( Charita Bauer ) and her alcoholic husband Bill, and their endless marital troubles. When Bert's status shifted to caring mother and town matriarch, her children's marital troubles were showcased. Search for Tomorrow mostly told its story through the eyes of Joanne Gardner ( Mary Stuart ). Even when stories revolved around other characters, Joanne
5117-455: The 1990s and 2000s incorporated supernatural and science fiction elements into their storylines in an attempt to boost their ratings. One of the main characters on the earlier soap opera Dark Shadows was Barnabas Collins , a vampire, and One Life to Live featured an angel named Virgil. Both shows featured characters who traveled to and from the past. In 1995, Days of our Lives featured a storyline in which fan favorite character Marlena Evans
5236-399: The U.S. since the 2000s. As of September 2022, only four daytime soap operas – General Hospital , Days of Our Lives , The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful – are still in production with three airing on two broadcast networks and one on streaming, down from a total of 12 soaps broadcast during the 1990–91 season and a high of 19 in the 1969–70 season. This marks
5355-455: The World Turns and The Edge of Night , both produced by Procter & Gamble Productions , debuted as the first half-hour soap operas on the CBS television network. All soap operas broadcast half-hour episodes by the end of the 1960s. With increased popularity in the 1970s, most soap operas had expanded to an hour in length by the end of the decade ( Another World even expanded to 90 minutes for
5474-401: The cast and crew ventured to Jamaica to tape a love consummation storyline between the characters of Garth and Kathy. During the 1980s, perhaps as a reaction to the evening drama series that were gaining high ratings, daytime serials began to incorporate action and adventure storylines, more big-business intrigue, and an increased emphasis on youthful romance. One of the most popular couples
5593-433: The cast and storylines are rotated across the week's episodes so that each cast member will appear in some but not all episodes. UK and Australian soap operas move through storylines at a faster rate than daytime serials, making them closer to U.S. evening soap operas in this regard. American daytime soap operas feature stylistic elements that set them apart from other shows: Soap opera ratings have significantly fallen in
5712-460: The cast of characters accordingly; those that were children are now high school age, and the original cast are in their mid-forties. Readers got a preview of the new-look feature starting with the October 5 strip in which a middle-aged widower Les talks to an unseen psychologist about events that immediately followed Lisa's passing, which are then depicted in flashback form. The October 21 strip shows
5831-508: The character of Harry L. Dinkle. Elyria, Ohio Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 219322260 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:39:20 GMT Soap opera A soap opera , daytime drama , or soap for short,
5950-541: The characters aged in real time and underwent significant life changes. Funky married Cindy in 1998; they later divorced. Les and Lisa married in a Halloween -themed 1996 story that saw them dressed as Batman and Robin. Funky now co-owned the local pizza parlor with Tony Montoni, Les taught English at Westview, Crazy Harry was the local mailman, Bull the Scapegoats' coach, and Cindy a national-level television newscaster. The strip followed their stories as well as those of
6069-416: The collection complete; she soon has issues #7; #123; #54; #104; #36 (on eBay ); #216; and in July 2014 during a week-long cliffhanger searches for the rare and elusive #115. First missing it at a comic book convention and then losing it when her credit card would not work, she finally finds #115, along with an equally rare "Ashcan" version (a penciled version of a comic strip before the final printing). When
SECTION 50
#17327795601896188-410: The comic to move so far ahead in order to prevent it from being an extended grieving process, to ensure that the next generation of students he followed were related to the original cast of characters, and to bring his original characters' ages closer to his target audience's. After the flash forward, all the strip's prominent adult male characters—Funky, Les, Bull and Crazy Harry—are 46 years old. While
6307-487: The couple from attending prom by forming a protest outside the school. When a group of students led by Summer Moore supporting LBGT couples attending the prom plan a counter-protest, principal Nate Green defuses the situation by calling a school assembly and announces that gay couples will be allowed to attend the prom, and that he will not have intolerance at Westview High School be a policy issue during his tenure. Some time after Lisa's death, Les begins dating Cayla Williams,
6426-454: The daily episode format of its daytime counterparts) and Another Life (a soap that combined standard serial drama with religious overtones), during the 1980s. Fox, the fourth "major network" , carried a short-lived daytime soap Tribes in 1990. Yet, other than this and a couple of pilot attempts, Fox mainly stayed away from daytime soaps, and has not attempted them since their ascension to major-network status in 1994 (it did later attempt
6545-450: The defining features that make a television program a soap opera is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode". In 2012, Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Lloyd wrote of daily dramas: Although melodramatically eventful, soap operas such as this also have a luxury of space that makes them seem more naturalistic; indeed,
6664-508: The demographic group for which soap opera advertisers pay the most. Those who might watch in workplace breakrooms are not counted, as Nielsen does not track television viewing outside the home. The rise of cable and the Internet has also provided new sources of entertainment during the day. The genre's decline has additionally been attributed to reality television displacing soap operas as TV's dominant form of melodrama. An early term for
6783-492: The director of The Ohio State University Marching Band . Professor Dinkle is based on a composite of past directors Dr. Paul Droste and Dr. Jon Woods. In addition, a 2006 article from the Cleveland Free Times asserts that Harry L. Dinkle is based on Harry Pfingsten, a retired band director from Avon Lake, Ohio , who was the band director of the junior high school that Tom Batiuk attended. In 1989, Harry L. Dinkle
6902-442: The early 1970s, nearly all soap operas had transitioned to being taped. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night were the last to make the switch, in 1975. Port Charles used the practice of running 13-week " story arcs ," in which the main events of the arc are played out and wrapped up over the 13 weeks, although some storylines did continue over more than one arc. According to the 2006 Preview issue of Soap Opera Digest , it
7021-419: The economics of the form demand long scenes, and conversations that a 22-episodes-per-season weekly series might dispense with in half a dozen lines of dialogue may be drawn out, as here, for pages. You spend more time even with the minor characters; the apparent villains grow less apparently villainous. Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments. An individual episode of
7140-518: The entrance is an actual fixture in the restaurant. After the second time skip, Batiuk designed the comic book store around the shop he frequents, Ground Zero Comics and Cards in Strongsville, Ohio . Captain America's shield that is frequently shown in the background is on the mantel in the shop. The character Harry L. Dinkle, the self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Band Director," is based on
7259-438: The events that would happen as a result. The series polarized the comics community, with Batiuk being both praised for dealing with the topic and criticized for his graphic depiction of Lisa's slow deterioration and ultimate death. The entire storyline, which culminated with Lisa's death in the October 4, 2007, strip (excerpt at right), was collected and published in a book, Lisa's Story: The Other Shoe . This book, which includes
SECTION 60
#17327795601897378-470: The exotic appeal of the stereotypes connected to the location. As examples, EastEnders focuses on the tough and grim life in the East End of London; Coronation Street and its characters exhibit the stereotypical characteristic of "northern straight talking". If we want to blend an actor back into a show, there's always a way. You can generally find a way to twist and manipulate something. You rarely see
7497-467: The family. In 2011, before Fred Fairgood fell ill, another longtime Westview staff member—Jock Strapp, the former football coach and physical education teacher—had died of prostate cancer, although this was acknowledged only briefly. In 2013 Funky's wife Holly—whose son Cory is in Afghanistan—finds that he has an old "Starbuck Jones" comic book collection and begins collecting missing issues to make
7616-428: The first network daytime serial. The main characteristics that define soap operas are "an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations". Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in
7735-429: The first new daytime soap opera to premiere on a major broadcast network since Passions in 1999. As women increasingly worked outside of the home, daytime television viewing declined. New generations of potential viewers were not raised watching soap operas with their mothers, leaving the shows' long and complex storylines foreign to younger audiences. As viewers age, ratings continue to drop among young adult women,
7854-520: The first soap opera since Generations to feature an African American cast. On April 12, 2024, CBS renewed The Talk for a 15th and final season, with the show concluding in December 2024. Three days later, on April 15, The Gates (now titled " Beyond the Gates ") was greenlit by CBS and is slated to premiere on February 24, 2025, likely to take the time slot of The Talk , meaning it will be
7973-530: The first time since 1953 that there have been only four soap operas airing on broadcast television . The Young and the Restless , the highest-rated soap opera from 1988 to the present, had fewer than 5 million daily viewers as of February 2012, a number exceeded by several non-scripted programs such as Judge Judy . Circulations of soap opera magazines have decreased and some have even ceased publication. Soapnet, which largely aired soap opera reruns, began to be phased out in 2012 and fully ceased operations
8092-495: The following year. The Daytime Emmy Awards , which honor soap operas and other daytime shows, moved from prime time network television to smaller cable channels in 2012, then failed to get any TV broadcast at all in 2014, 2016, and 2017. Several of the U.S.'s most established soaps ended between 2009 and 2012. The longest-running drama in television and radio history, Guiding Light , barely reached 2.1 million daily viewers in 2009 and ended on September 18 of that year, after
8211-686: The gamut of soap operas, from EastEnders to Dallas . In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, the characters are frequently attractive, seductive, glamorous and wealthy. Soap operas from the United Kingdom and Australia tend to focus on more everyday characters and situations, and are frequently set in working-class environments. Many of the soaps produced in those two countries explore social realist storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown or financial problems. Both UK and Australian soap operas feature comedic elements, often affectionate comic stereotypes such as
8330-413: The gossip or the grumpy old man, presented as a comic foil to the emotional turmoil that surrounds them. This diverges from US soap operas where such comedy is rare. UK soap operas frequently make a claim to presenting "reality" or purport to have a "realistic" style. UK soap operas also frequently foreground their geographic location as a key defining feature of the show while depicting and capitalising on
8449-512: The hospital. A storyline that began in April 2012 featured a same-sex couple wanting to go to Westview High School's prom together and purchasing tickets from Jinx Bushka, a member of the Senior Prom committee. The story explored the reaction from Westview residents, most notably anti- LBGT activist and head of the Senior Prom parent volunteers Roberta Blackburn, who launches an effort to stop
8568-435: The late 1960s and into the 1970s. Exterior shots were slowly incorporated into the series The Edge of Night and Dark Shadows . Unlike many earlier serials that were set in fictional towns, The Best of Everything and Ryan's Hope were set in a real-world location, New York City. The first exotic location shoot was made by All My Children , to St. Croix in 1978. Many other soap operas planned lavish storylines after
8687-484: The late 1980s, such as Fox and cable television networks, have largely eschewed soap operas in their daytime schedules, instead running syndicated programming and reruns. No cable television outlet has produced its own daytime serial, although DirecTV 's The 101 Network took over existing serial Passions , continuing production for one season; while TBS and CBN Cable Network respectively aired their own soap operas, The Catlins (a primetime soap that utilized
8806-449: The loyalty of the soap opera fan base and the expansion of several half-hour series into hour-long broadcasts in order to maximise advertising revenues. The article explained that at that time, many prime time series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs. The issue's cover notably featured its first daytime soap stars, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives ,
8925-469: The matriarch of The Guiding Light , Bert Bauer, developed uterine cancer (as the actress, Charita Bauer , had been diagnosed with the same illness in real life). The storyline encouraged many women to get pap smears and the CBS mailroom in New York City received a then-record amount of fan mail wishing Bauer (both Bert and Charita) well. Nixon would go on to tell many socially relevant storylines on her soaps One Life to Live and All My Children in
9044-439: The most popular storylines, often involved a romance of the sort presented in paperback romance novels . Soap opera storylines weave intricate, convoluted and sometimes confusing tales of characters who have affairs, meet mysterious strangers and fall in love, and who commit adultery, all of which keeps audiences hooked on the unfolding story. Crimes such as kidnapping, assault (sometimes sexual), and even murder may go unpunished if
9163-478: The most widely discussed storylines involved characters who went through catastrophic suffering. In 2005, Batiuk sent newlyweds Wally Winkerbean and Becky to Afghanistan as a part of an anti-landmine effort by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation; Wally nearly died after stepping on a mine. He was saved when his Afghan companion Kahn managed to knock the mine away, only to be punched out for selling
9282-451: The penultimate strip after a real-life financial dispute with the strip's syndicator. In Funky Winkerbean , Les Moore wrote a book about Darling's murder and solved the case in a 1997 storyline. Batiuk's neighbor, comic book writer Tony Isabella , occasionally appears in the strip as himself. Another comic book creator, superhero artist John Byrne , drew ten weeks of the strip while Batiuk was recovering from foot surgery and has appeared in
9401-421: The perpetrator is to be retained in the ongoing story. Australian and UK soap operas also feature a significant proportion of romance storylines. In Russia, most popular serials explore the "romantic quality" of criminal and/or oligarch life. In soap opera storylines, previously unknown children, siblings and twins (including the evil variety ) of established characters often emerge to upset and reinvigorate
9520-478: The point where Pastis pulled it from publication as he believed, although he never mentioned the disease by name, anyone who read his strip could infer that he was making light of cancer patients and Pastis did not wish to have Pearls drawn into the controversy. Two minor characters have been spun off into their own strips: the bus driver Crankshaft in 1987 and the talk show host John Darling in 1979. The latter ended in 1990 when Batiuk had Darling murdered in
9639-411: The programs ran out of new episodes to broadcast; Days of Our Lives , which produces its episodes roughly eight months ahead of their initial broadcast, did not resort to airing older episodes during this time as it had a larger first-run episode backlog.) Early episodes of Dark Shadows were rerun on PBS member stations in the early 1970s after the show's cancellation, and the entire series (except for
9758-601: The prosperous Brooks family with four daughters, and the working-class Foster family of a single working mother with three children. Its storylines explored realistic problems including cancer, mental illness, poverty, and infidelity. In contrast, Dark Shadows (1966–1971), Port Charles (1997–2003) and Passions (1999–2008) featured supernatural characters and dealt with fantasy and horror storylines. Their characters included vampires, witches, ghosts, goblins, and angels. The American soap opera Guiding Light (originally titled The Guiding Light until 1975) started as
9877-480: The school's computer having become sentient and subjecting the students to its obsession with Star Trek ; student "Crazy" Harry's ability to play pizzas like records; the school's winless football team; and band director Harry L. Dinkle's attempts to win each year's "Battle of the Bands," despite the contest always coinciding with a natural disaster (usually heavy rain). Although the titular everyman Funky Winkerbean
9996-412: The school), football coach John "Jack" Stropp and Dinkle. The name "Funky Winkerbean" was a composite from suggestions from some of Batiuk's art students. In 1992, Batiuk changed the strip's format. It was established that Funky, Les, Cindy and all the rest of the previous cast had graduated from Westview in 1988; their college years were skipped, and the story continued in their adulthood. Subsequently,
10115-509: The senior prom, and interracial marriage . On November 17, 2022, Batiuk announced that he would be retiring the strip at the end of the year. Funky Winkerbean ended on December 31, 2022, but many of the strip's characters—including Funky himself—then began to be seen regularly in Batiuk's long-running spin-off strip Crankshaft . Centered at Westview High School, influenced by Batiuk's alma mater of Midview High School near Grafton, Ohio ,
10234-620: The series began progressing in real time . In 2007, a second "time warp" occurred, this time taking the strip ten years into the future, ostensibly to 2017, although the events of the strip still reflected a then-contemporary setting. Following the 1992 reboot and especially after the 2007 time jump, the strip was recast as a serialized drama, though most strips still featured some humor, often based on wordplay. The more drama-oriented Funky Winkerbean featured story arcs revolving around such topics as terminal cancer, adoption, prisoners of war, drug abuse, post-traumatic stress, same-sex couples attending
10353-403: The series. A year earlier, as part of a long series featuring multiple storylines, Pastis remarked to Pig that serial strips handle long stories better and featured Funky, Holly, Lisa, and Les in a parody referencing, among other things, Lisa's breast cancer. Pastis was given Batiuk's blessing to run the strip, but just before it was scheduled to run the controversy over the cancer storyline grew to
10472-426: The set of relationships examined by the series. Unexpected calamities disrupt weddings, childbirths, and other major life events with unusual frequency. As in comic books – another popular form of linear storytelling pioneered in the US during the 20th century – a character's death is not guaranteed to be permanent . On The Bold and the Beautiful , Taylor Hayes ( Hunter Tylo ) was shown to flatline and have
10591-425: The show was later renewed through September 2021. In 2022, NBC announced that Days of Our Lives would be moved exclusively to its streaming service, Peacock , making NBC the first of the big three networks not to air any daytime soap operas. In March 2024, CBS Studios , NAACP Venture , in partnership with P&G Studios announced that a new soap opera for CBS titled The Gates is in development and will be
10710-1535: The show's debut in January 1970 until it ended its network television run on ABC on September 23, 2011. Erika Slezak played Victoria Lord #3 on One Life to Live from 1971 until the show ended its network television run on ABC on January 13, 2012, and resumed the role in its short-lived online revival on April 29, 2013. Other actors have played several characters on different shows. Millette Alexander , Bernard Barrow , Doris Belack , David Canary , Judith Chapman , Keith Charles , Jordan Charney , Joan Copeland , Nicolas Coster , Jacqueline Courtney , Augusta Dabney , Louis Edmonds , Don Hastings , Larry Haines , Vincent Irizarry , Lenore Kasdorf , Teri Keane , Lois Kibbee , John Loprieno , Lori March , Maeve McGuire , Robert Mili , James Mitchell , Lee Patterson , Christopher Pennock , Antony Ponzini , William Prince , Rosemary Prinz , Louise Shaffer , Mary Stuart , Richard Thomas , Diana van der Vlis , Mary K. Wells , Lesley Woods and Michael Zaslow , among many others, have all played multiple soap roles. For several decades, most daytime soap operas concentrated on family and marital discord, legal drama and romance. The action rarely left interior settings, and many shows were set in fictional, medium-sized Midwestern towns. Social issue storylines were typically verboten when soaps were starting, due to heavy network-imposed censorship at that time, but writer and producer Agnes Nixon introduced these storylines slowly but surely, first in 1962 when
10829-501: The shows were aimed at – and consumed by – a predominantly female audience. Clara, Lu, 'n Em would become the first network radio serial of the type when it aired on the NBC Blue Network at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on January 27, 1931. Although it did not make the move until February 15, 1932, Clara, Lu 'n Em would become the first network serial of the type to move to a weekday daily timeslot, and so also became
10948-429: The start of a new yearly broadcast. Evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode and present all storylines. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger. In 1976, Time magazine described American daytime television as "TV's richest market", noting
11067-471: The stories are similar to what happened to them in real life, or two, thank goodness that isn't me. Many long-running US soap operas established particular environments for their stories. The Doctors and General Hospital , in the beginning, told stories almost exclusively from inside the confines of a hospital. As the World Turns dealt heavily with Chris Hughes' law practice and the travails of his wife Nancy who, tired of being "the loyal housewife" in
11186-488: The storyline that he has received complaints about the current direction of the storyline. Web comic Shortpacked produced a satirical strip in which most of the words of Funky Winkerbean characters' dialogue are replaced by the word "cancer." The Comics Curmudgeon also makes frequent reference to the seemingly unremitting gloom of the strip, calling it "a black hole of bleakness and depression and cancer from which no joy or laughter can escape." The strip has also inspired
11305-465: The strip himself as a character. Batiuk also occasionally parodies covers of classic Silver Age comics to comment on storyline elements in the strip itself. This is usually done in the Sunday comic and features a cover and a current storyline being highlighted. The most recent example featured Superboy Volume 1, #57. This cover showed the title character playing many positions in baseball and highlighting
11424-445: The strip initially focused on several students: Funky Winkerbean, Crazy Harry Klinghorn, Barry Balderman, "Bull" Bushka, Cindy Summers, Junebug, Roland, Livinia, Leslie P. "Les" Moore, majorette Holly Budd (daughter of Melinda Budd, original majorette for Westview High), and Lisa Crawford. From 1972 to 1992, the strip was highly gag-oriented, with humor coming from physical and prop comedy and surreal situations: running gags included
11543-443: The strip throughout the 1990s and 2000s, had also been unseen since the 2007 relaunch, but has recently reappeared in the strip helping his old high school buddy Pete Roberts move back into town. Pete is the latest resident of the apartment above Montoni's. Les and Lisa lived there before buying their home. Becky and Wally took it over, and then apparently during the time jump John and Becky lived there together before John turned it into
11662-420: The strip went through several format changes. For the first 20 years of its run, the characters did not age, and the strip was nominally episodic as opposed to a serial , with humor derived from visual gags and the eccentricity of the characters. In 1992, Batiuk rebooted the strip, establishing that the characters had graduated from high school in 1988 (although later strips showed them graduating in 1972), and
11781-449: The strips from Lisa's initial battle with cancer (which had itself been collected in book form in 2004), was published before the series had finished running in syndication. In 2007, Batiuk discussed his reasoning for pursuing the plotline, saying that he was inspired by his own battle against prostate cancer. On October 21, 2007, Funky Winkerbean underwent its second "time warp," this time jumping 10 years ahead from Lisa's death and aging
11900-538: The success of the All My Children shoot. Soap operas Another World and Guiding Light both went to St. Croix in 1980, the former show culminating a long-running storyline between popular characters Mac, Rachel and Janice, and the latter to serve as an exotic setting for Alan Spaulding and Rita Bauer 's torrid affair. Search for Tomorrow taped for two weeks in Hong Kong in 1981. Later that year, some of
12019-685: The supernatural soap opera, Dark Shadows , which did receive an essentially complete release on both VHS and DVD; the single lost episode #1219 is reconstructed by means of an off-the-air audio recording, still images, and recap material from adjacent episodes). Soap opera performers in the United States are typically divided into two main groups: primary characters (sometimes referred to as "contract players" – as their portrayers signed contracts of employment – or leading characters) and secondary characters (sometimes referred to as recurring characters). These two groups of characters make up
12138-584: The time. With the resultant budget cuts, soap operas were no longer able to go on expensive location shoots overseas as they were able to do in the 1980s. During that decade, soap operas increasingly focused on younger characters and social issues , such as Erica Kane 's drug addiction on All My Children , the re-emergence of Viki Lord 's dissociative identity disorder on One Life to Live , and Stuart Chandler dealing with his wife Cindy dying of AIDS on All My Children . Other social issues included cancer , rape , abortion and racism . Several shows during
12257-420: The vast majority of the people who appear on any given soap. There are also characters who appear only for a short time as dictated by a specific storyline, and even characters who may only get a first name and no fleshed-out character history with little dialogue (these are sometimes referred to as "under-5s" since they receive under five lines of dialogue in each episode). Due to the longevity of these shows, it
12376-476: The week of July 7, 2008, Pearls Before Swine parodied the tendency of Funky Winkerbean towards killing off main characters when it killed off Rat and the strip's own author, Stephan Pastis (the two would later be returned to the strip via the intervention of the head of United Feature Syndicate ), with Tom Batiuk even allowing Pastis to use his representation of the Angel of Death in the second to last strip in
12495-502: The world from being frozen, brought a mobster down by finding his black book in a left-handed boy statue, and helped a princess find her Aztec treasure in Mexico . Other soap operas attempted similar adventure storylines, often featuring footage shot on location – frequently in exotic locales. During the 1990s, the mob, action and adventure stories fell out of favor with producers, due to generally declining ratings for daytime soap operas at
12614-517: The year in the same timeframe, culminating in the week leading up to Christmas showing characters traveling to and meeting up at a church choir concert in Crankshaft's Centerville. On January 19, 2015, Funky Winkerbean began a crossover with Dick Tracy when two of the Winkerbean characters decided to attend a police auction of stolen comic books recovered from the Dick Tracy criminal
12733-524: Was Luke Spencer and Laura Webber on General Hospital . Luke and Laura helped to attract both male and female fans. Even actress Elizabeth Taylor was a fan and at her own request was given a guest role in Luke and Laura's wedding episode. Luke and Laura's popularity led to other soap producers striving to reproduce this success by attempting to create supercouples of their own. With increasingly bizarre action storylines coming into vogue, Luke and Laura saved
12852-445: Was talking on a cellphone while driving . During several flashback scenes, Funky had seen (and in some cases, visited with) teen-aged versions of himself, Crazy Harry and Holly Budd (Funky's wife-to-be), and a younger Mr. Dinkle—all as they appeared in Funky Winkerbean strips in the early 1980s. Although the recovery aspect of the accident storyline continued into the fall, the flashback scenes ended when Funky regained consciousness at
12971-448: Was also a breast cancer survivor. After going through chemotherapy and a mastectomy , Lisa's cancer went into remission. In March 2006, Lisa's cancer returned in a more serious form. Following another round of chemotherapy, her cancer appeared to go into remission again in early 2007, but on May 9, 2007, her doctor revealed that her medical charts had gotten mixed up and her disease was not only progressing, but had become inoperable. In
13090-609: Was also revealed that Becky had remarried (John Howard, owner of the Comics Emporium) sometime in the 10 years after Lisa's death. For nearly two years after the relaunch, Wally's fate remained unknown, although early on, Batiuk wrote on his blog that what happened to Wally "may not be what you think happened." Batiuk also revealed that a "clue" to Wally's fate could be found in the October 11 strip, which features Les getting mugged in New York after Lisa's death after walking past
13209-408: Was briefly discussed that all ABC shows might do telenovela arcs, but this was rejected. Though U.S. daytime soap operas are not generally rerun by their networks, occasionally they are rebroadcast elsewhere; CBS and ABC have made exceptions to this, airing older episodes (either those aired earlier in the current season or those aired years prior) on major holidays when special event programming
13328-432: Was explained that a mass book burning had taken place in the past, but somehow these books survived, and Summer was famous due to the success of Westview . The last episode saw Lisa's mother telling her to retire for the night, and the final panel had both books on Lisa's bed. John Byrne did the art for the final week. The more dramatic turns of the storyline have led to mixed responses from readers. Negative reaction to
13447-411: Was frequently a key player in their storylines. Days of Our Lives initially focused on Dr. Tom Horton and his steadfast wife Alice. The show later branched out to focus more on their five children. The Edge of Night featured as its central character Mike Karr, a police detective (later an attorney), and largely dealt with organized crime. The Young and the Restless first focused on two families,
13566-468: Was impossible. Though all serials have long switched to being taped, extensive post-production work and multiple takes, while possible, are not feasible due to the tight taping schedules and low budgets. The first daytime TV soap opera in the United States was These Are My Children in 1949, though earlier melodramas had aired in the evenings as once-a-week programs. Soap operas quickly became
13685-458: Was performed by at least one high school drama group, beginning in 1988. Despite the title, Funky is actually a fairly minor character in the play; the focal character of Funky Winkerbean's Homecoming is Les Moore. The musical was co-written by Andy Clark, who much later appeared as himself in the comic strip in December 2006. Clark is a publisher of the C. L. Barnhouse Company , and has published several Funky Winkerbean collections dedicated to
13804-645: Was possessed by the devil, and in 1998, Guiding Light featured a cloning storyline involving legacy character Reva Shayne . Modern U.S. daytime soap operas largely stay true to the original soap opera format. The duration and format of storylines and the visual grammar employed by U.S. daytime serials set them apart from soap operas in other countries and from evening soap operas. Stylistically, UK and Australian soap operas, which are usually produced for early evening timeslots, fall somewhere in between U.S. daytime and evening soap operas. Similar to U.S. daytime soap operas, UK and Australian serials are shot on videotape, and
13923-466: Was the first comic strip character ever to "march" the Tournament of Roses parade . Dinkles , a brand of shoe designed for marching bands, is named after the character and claims to have been endorsed by Dinkle since 1986. Batiuk assisted in the writing of a stage musical adaptation of the strip, entitled Funky Winkerbean's Homecoming , set in the era while Funky was a Westview High student. It
14042-565: Was the ostensible main character, nerds Les Moore and Lisa Crawford became breakout characters and the strip's primary focus. Supporting characters included obsessive majorette Holly (who never removed her uniform), "Crazy" Harry (who lived in his locker), Jerome T. "Bull" Bushka (the school's star athlete and Les's tormentor), and popular girl Cindy. Rounding out the cast was the Westview High staff, including Principal Burch, counselor Fred Fairgood, secretary Betty Reynolds (who actually ran
14161-525: Was thinking about his wife and family. Funky visits the Howards to reveal that Wally is alive and in good health. In the August 9, 2009, strip, it is revealed that the grave Becky had visited all these years was that of Wally's assumed remains. Wally has made occasional appearances since his return to Westview, and his first appearance as a central character in a storyline that began on February 1, 2010. Darin Fairgood, another prominent character who appeared in
#188811