Soap operas, or melodramas with massive ensemble casts, have been a staple in popular culture for nearly a century. Though long-running soaps like “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “General Hospital” have dominated day-time television for decades,

CBS' new daytime drama about a well-to-do Black family in Maryland is pure, glorious soap opera. The last time a broadcast network debuted a new daytime drama, a good portion of America believed the President was a criminal,

The first thing viewers of “Beyond the Gates” see is a black Mercedes gliding past manicured lawns and stately estates.

If one of the newest products from consumer-goods giant Procter & Gamble reminds you of something the company made in the 1960s, 70s or 80s, well, there's good reason. When "Beyond the Gates" debuts Monday afternoon on CBS,

Tunie, whom fans will recognize from her years on “Law & Order: SVU,” has returned to her soap opera roots in CBS’s “Beyond the Gates,” the first daytime serial centered on a Black family in the history of U.S. broadcast television. Premiering Monday, it chronicles the dramas of the Dupree family, the de facto rulers of a tony gated community.

The first soap opera to premiere in more that 25 years will feature a primarily Black cast, a historic breakthrough for a genre that is a throwback to an earlier time.

For the first time in more than 25 years, a new daytime soap opera is coming to network TV. "Beyond the Gates" is the first one-hour daytime drama to feature a primarily Black and multicultural cast.

In 1968, Ellen Holly became the first Black lead on a soap ("One Life to Live") while the true breakthrough roles had to wait until the '80s with Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan on "All My Children," then the '90s, with Kristoff St. John on "The Young and the Restless."