The Age of Melodramatic Miniseries

<p> Glamour power champagne breakfasts in satin sheets--welcome to television's most dazzling and overlooked genre: women-centric melodrama miniseries of the 1980s and 1990s. Decades before <I>Real Housewives</I> rags-to-riches fantasies depicting strong women overcoming tragedy to take charge of their destinies were a big hit with TV audiences.</p><p> Reflecting the greed is good ethos of the day and encoded with feminist messaging these glitzy often camp stories depicted statuesque superwomen facing off with square-jawed men in boardrooms and bedrooms. This book explores the shows that epitomized the prime-time soap era and gave us such memorable scenes as Stefanie Powers trading lovers with her twin sister Joan Collins fighting Nazis in <I>haute couture</I> and Phoebe Cates demanding Which one of you bitches is my mother?</p>