<sod>Sexuality also played a major role in the stories.<ref name="Worlds Without End"/><ref name="Worlds Without End, p. 36."/><ref name="It's Time for My Story"/> Formerly, soap operas did not delve into the sexual side of their romances. Bell changed that, first during his time as head writer of ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' and again on ''The Young and the Restless''.<ref name="Worlds Without End, p. 36."/> [[William Gray Espy]]'s Snapper Foster is considered the "first to discover sex on a soap opera."<ref name="It's Time for My Story"/> During the story, the character is engaged to Chris Brooks ([[Trish Stewart]]) and having a sexual relationship with Sally McGuire (Lee Crawford).<ref name="It's Time for My Story"/> Other plots reflected sexual themes as well. For the first time in the genre, the dialogue and the story situations included explicit sexual themes such as premarital intercourse, sodomy, oral sex, impotence, incest, and rape.<ref name="Worlds Without End"/> The series also explored social issues. Jennifer Brooks underwent the first mastectomy on a soap opera.<ref name="The Soap Opera Book"/> Other social issue storylines included bulimia, alcoholism, and cancer.<ref name="Williams, p. 98">Williams, p. 98</ref> Lesbianism was also touched on with [[Katherine Chancellor]], who flirts with Jill while drunk in 1974 and has a brief relationship with Joann Curtis (Kay Heberle) in 1977.<ref name="Williams, p. 98"/><eod>
<sod>Sexuality also played a major role in the stories.<ref name="Worlds Without End"/><ref name="Worlds Without End, p. 36."/><ref name="It's Time for My Story"/> Formerly, soap operas did not delve into the sexual side of their romances. Bell changed that, first during his time as head writer of ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' and again on ''The Young and the Restless''.<ref name="Worlds Without End, p. 36."/> [[William Gray Espy]]'s Snapper Foster is considered the "first to discover sex on a soap opera."<ref name="It's Time for My Story"/> During the story, the character is engaged to Chris Brooks ([[Trish Stewart]]) and having a sexual relationship with Sally McGuire (Lee Crawford).<ref name="It's Time for My Story"/> Other plots reflected sexual themes as well. For the first time in the genre, the dialogue and the story situations included explicit sexual themes such as premarital intercourse, impotence, incest, and rape.<ref name="Worlds Without End"/> The series also explored social issues. Jennifer Brooks underwent the first mastectomy on a soap opera.<ref name="The Soap Opera Book"/> Other social issue storylines included bulimia, alcoholism, and cancer.<ref name="Williams, p. 98">Williams, p. 98</ref> Lesbianism was also touched on with [[Katherine Chancellor]], who flirts with Jill while drunk in 1974 and has a brief relationship with Joann Curtis (Kay Heberle) in 1977.<ref name="Williams, p. 98"/><eod>