Editing Soap opera (section)

==Parodies==
In film, the 1982 comedy ''[[Tootsie]]'' has the lead character impersonating a woman in order to gain acting work on a long-running television soap opera. Several scenes parody the production of soaps, their outrageous storylines and idiosyncratic stylistic elements.

The 1991 comedy ''[[Soapdish]]'' stars [[Sally Field]] as an aging soap opera actress on the fictional series ''The Sun Also Sets'' who pines over her own neuroses and misfortunes, such as her live-in [[boyfriend]], who leaves her to go back to his wife, and the incidents of backstabbing and scheming behind the scenes, some of which are more interesting than the stories on the programme.

Another 1991 comedy, ''[[Delirious (1991 film)|Delirious]]'', stars [[John Candy]] as a soap opera writer who, after a head injury, has a dream experience of being in his own creation. The dream experience is an increasingly outrageous exaggeration of soap opera plot elements.

On television, several soap opera [[Parody|parodies]] have been produced:
* ''[[The Carol Burnett Show]]'' (1967–1978) featured a recurring skit, "[[As the Stomach Turns]]", that spoofed the American soap opera ''As the World Turns''.
* The first season of the children's television series ''[[The Electric Company]]'' featured a recurring sketch, "[[Love of Chair]]", spoofing classic soap operas. The title was based on the long-running soap opera ''[[Love of Life]]'', and its announcer [[Ken Roberts (announcer)|Ken Roberts]] was also the announcer on ''Love of Life''.
* Two of the most famous American parodies were the series ''[[Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman]]'' (1976–1977) and ''[[Soap (TV series)|Soap]]'' (1977–1981), the latter of which was a weekly sitcom/soap opera parody.
* The cult Australian prison soap opera ''[[Prisoner (TV series)|Prisoner]]'' (1979–1986) included a spoof television soap that the inmates were occasionally seen watching called "''Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow''". In one episode, specially recorded audio can be heard in which two characters from the fictional soap opera play out a ludicrous script, which clearly pokes fun at the heightened melodrama of daytime soap operas.
* British soap opera ''[[Brookside (television programme)|Brookside]]'' (1982–2003) included an in-universe soap opera parody of itself called "''Meadowcroft Park''"  which ''Brookside'' characters referenced and were occasionally seen watching. The soap was set on a newly built housing estate in Chester and real scenes, even a "Part two" caption, were produced for airing on the character's houses TV's. Notably, ''Meadowcroft'' was also the original [[working title]] of ''Brookside''. 
* ''[[Fresno (TV miniseries)|Fresno]]'' was a 1986 American [[miniseries]] spoof of the prime time serials of the period.
* The recurring "[[Acorn Antiques]]" skit on the UK's ''[[Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV]]'' (1985–1987) was modeled on ''[[Crossroads (soap opera)|Crossroads]]'' and other British soap operas of the 1970s. In 1992, Wood included a new soap parody for the one-off programme ''[[Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast]]'' called ''The Mall'', which was set in a shopping centre. Wood played Connie, who was a send up of [[Polly Perkins]]' character Trish Valentine in the failed BBC soap ''[[Eldorado (TV series)|Eldorado]]'', which was still airing at the time.
* ''[[Let the Blood Run Free]]'' (1990–1994) was an Australian parody of medical drama series.
* The 1990–1991 ABC drama ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' was a prime time series that poked fun at the genre. Episodes during the series' first season also included a fictional soap within the stories, titled ''Invitation to Love''.
* ''Shark Bay'' (1996) was an Australian parody of glamorous beachside soap operas. It featured many actors who had appeared in Australian soap operas ''Sons and Daughters'', ''Prisoner'', ''Home and Away'' and ''Neighbours''.{{citation needed|date=April 2013}}
* The 2000–2001 [[The WB|WB]] sitcom ''[[Grosse Pointe (TV series)|Grosse Pointe]]'' was a self-parody of creator [[Darren Star]]'s behind-the-scenes experiences producing nighttime soaps, in particular ''Beverly Hills, 90210''.
* South African comedian [[Casper de Vries]] produced the soap opera parody ''[[Casper de Vries#Television|Haak en Steek]]'' (which ran from 2003 to 2004), based on South African soaps like ''[[Egoli: Place of Gold]]''.
* The now-cancelled ABC soap opera ''One Life to Live'' would often poke fun at the genre as well, even featuring a soap within the soap called ''Fraternity Row'', which many of ''One Life to Live''{{'s}} characters had either worked on or watched. Months after ABC announced in April 2011 that it would cancel ''One Life to Live'', the series featured a storyline in which ''Fraternity Row'' itself was cancelled, leading the character of [[Roxy Balsom]] ([[Ilene Kristen]]) to desperately try and save the series, to no avail. A special episode that aired on December 19, 2011, featured the cast of ''One Life to Live'' acting out an episode of ''Fraternity Row'' in a dream of Roxy's; the episode poked fun at both ''One Life to Live'' and the entire genre itself, featuring many soap opera stereotypes such as overacting, outrageous story lines, bad casting and incestuous relationships; it also parodied some storylines featured on the real-world soap. The second-to-last episode of ''One Life to Live'' showed characters watching the final episode of ''Fraternity Row'' and exposing the show's last big secret: the series' main heroine and protagonist, Lorraine King Vonvaldenburg Baxter Beumont, was really a man.
* ''[[Second City Television|Second City TV]]'' featured ''The Days of the Week'': "Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. Saturday. Sunday. These are...The Days of the Week."
* The ABC comedy drama ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' (which ran from 2004 to 2012) was a semi-satirical nighttime series that took many elements from the genre.
* The Fox broadcast show ''[[Futurama]]'' has a recurring spoof of ''All My Children'' called ''All My Circuits''.
* The [[Adult Swim]] animated series ''[[Tender Touches]]'', which premiered in 2017, is a parody of soap operas.