The Soap Opera Machine
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2021
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to a brand new season of Decoder Ring! On this episode, we investigate the wild world of soap operas through the lens of one legendary, decades-long, ripped-from-the-headlines storyline. The rape of Marty Seabrook dared to combine the melodrama of soaps with a serious examination of sexual assault, and over time morphed from an award-winning story about believing victims into a redemption arc for the rapist at its heart. This is the story of those who made it happen: the producers, actors, writers, and the soap opera machine itself: the perpetually moving, forever-churning, complex system that create the miracle that is the daily soap opera. If you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you can binge the whole season of Decoder Ring right now, plus ad free podcasts, bonus episodes, and much more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we begin, this episode contains references to sexual assault. |
| 0:11.3 | On a dark, foggy night in 1994, on the soap opera, One Life to Live, a police car |
| 0:17.4 | blows a tire on a deserted two-lane highway. |
| 0:26.0 | It swerves across the median and sends an oncoming sedan plunging off the road. |
| 0:27.5 | Are you in the wrong lane? |
| 0:28.4 | No! |
| 0:38.0 | After bashing its way down a steep hillside, the sedan skids to a precariously balanced, teetering halt. |
| 0:40.2 | Don't move, okay? Don't move. |
| 0:46.5 | Inside the car are two children and the young woman you just heard, who's named Marty Saybrook. Marty's legs are bruised and bleeding. And any time the younger child moves, the car |
| 0:52.9 | jerks violently forward. |
| 0:56.1 | They're helpless and stuck, moments away from plummeting to a fiery end. |
| 1:02.4 | And then Marty spots help. |
| 1:04.6 | There's a policeman. He's coming down the hill. |
| 1:07.1 | Officer over here. |
| 1:08.4 | Got a child in the back. |
| 1:09.9 | She's hurt. |
| 1:10.4 | She's unconscious and I can't move. But when the cop appears, there's a child in the back. She's hurt. She's unconscious, and I can't move. |
| 1:12.9 | But when the cop peers into the driver's side window, Marty recoils. |
| 1:18.5 | Oh, no. |
| 1:19.8 | No. |
| 1:20.9 | No. |
| 1:22.1 | Marty knows this man. |
... |
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