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1986: Bobby was alive and well on Dallas; his death was a dream.

1994: All My Children's Erica visited her mother's grave.

1995: Another World's Grant shot his brother, Ryan, in the back.

1997: Days of our Lives recast the role of Jack...in a shower."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1938: Radio soap opera Houseboat Hannah premiered on the NBC Red Network. Hard working Dan O'Leary, who lost an arm in a factory accident, moved his financially strapped family aboard a house boat in Shanty Fish Row on San Francisco Bay.

1986: Bobby was alive and well on Dallas; his death was a dream.

1994: All My Children's Erica visited her mother's grave.

1995: Another World's Grant shot his brother, Ryan, in the back.

1997: Days of our Lives recast the role of Jack...in a shower."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1938: Radio soap opera Houseboat Hannah premiered on the NBC Red Network. Hard working Dan O'Leary, who lost an arm in a factory accident, moved his financially strapped family aboard a house boat in Shanty Fish Row on San Francisco Bay. Resourceful and resolute Hannah O'Leary became...

Like many folk, I knew nothing of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren until James Wan’s theatrical release The Conjuring (2013). So as I scoured the TV graveyard to unearth another relic from yesteryear, I came across 1991’s The Haunted – an account of the terrifying (and long) haunting that beset the Smurl family from the mid 70s to the late 80s, and one in which the Warrens helped out. And while it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Wan’s modern classic, it is nevertheless a satisfying addition to the Warren legacy, and a great showcase for Sally Kirkland as the besieged Smurl matriarch.

Originally broadcast on the Fox network on Monday, May the 6th, 1991, The Haunted had tough competition: ABC had MacGyver/ABC Monday Night Movie, CBS aired Evening Shade/Major Dad/Murphy Brown/Designing Women, and NBC had Fresh Prince/Blossom/NBC Monday Night at the Movies.

by Nick Schager

What's new is always old, and in this recurring column, I'll be taking a look at the classic genre movies that have influenced today's new releases. In honor of Sean Durkin's Cannes and New York Film Festival-heralded cult-life drama, Martha Marcy May Marlene, this week it's Ralph L. Thomas' 1981 drama Ticket to Heaven.

Indoctrination, entanglement, and escape prove the three steps of religious cult experience addressed by Ticket to Heaven, Ralph L. Thomas' 1981 Canadian indie about a man recruited into a bonkers spiritual outfit. Adapted from Josh Freed's novel Moonwebs, Thomas' film opens with a credit sequence in which the camera tracks a white van crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and traversing San Francisco's streets, gradually increasing proximity until it enters the vehicle, where a group of young people are chanting and cheering for "Father." That celebration is interrupted when David (Nick Mancuso...