INDIANAPOLIS — When an injury sidelined Indiana-Purdue University at Indianapolis professor Louise Dauner, daytime television quickly became her guiding light.
“The more I watched them, the more fascinated I got with the sociological aspect and ethical aspect,” Dauner told WRTV reporter Barb Love in 1984. “So many of the characters, it seems to me, are guilty of every conceivable kind of evil.”
But was that evil embedded in the culture or just an escape from reality? Both were questions Dauner challenged students to answer in a class offered by IUPUI called, “Soap Opera: An American-Cultural Phenomenon.”
The class was part of the Learn and Shop program created by the university. College-credit courses were offered at Indianapolis-area shopping centers instead of a traditional classroom setting. The initiative began in 1979 as a way to boost enrollment.
The venue change proved to be another world for students to earn three credit hours. Students wrote papers and held discussions centered around their observations of the drama-filled shows.
“I noticed when they go to bed, when they’re in their evening clothes, what they wear to bed is better than what people I know wear to dinner,” one student said.
Another student narrowed in on the atypical plot lines.
“The inconsistencies, I don’t think are poor writing, I think it’s just maybe that average is boring,” the student said.
Regardless of the plot, the impact of soap operas ran deep. A third student even admitted to being addicted to the shows.
“Yes, I watch about four different ones, and I’ve watched them for seven or eight years.”
Dauner also admitted to being a Y&R regular.
“I do watch The Young and the Restless quite regularly, but that’s not part of my professional duty,” Dauner said.
More than a decade later, even WRTV’s Kevin Gregory got in on the soap opera action.
