Tattler of America’s daytime television. 4TW
Dana Block knows soaps – she’s been a fan for more than 30 years – and in her weekly syndicated set of columns, Daytime Dial (Summaries, Q&A and Gossip columns), you can rely on her for all the latest casting news, future story lines and answers to your puzzling questions.
The Daytime Dial Interview column by Cindy Elavsky highlights present and past daytime and nighttime soap-opera stars in a 600- to 750-word interview column.
Dana Block grew up in Orange Park, Fla., with stars in her eyes. While watching soap operas at her mother’s knee after school each day, she dreamed of being a soap-opera star. After college, her dreams shifted to working behind the scenes in television and movies, and she hopped on a plane and headed to Los Angeles. Fortunately, she had a bachelor’s degree in journalism, because she soon found that life in Hollywood wasn’t for her and moved back to Florida to make use of her college education.
A few years later, she began working for King Features, where she was able to apply her soap-opera expertise as the editor of Seli Groves’ Daytime Dialcolumns. When her husband’s career took her to North Carolina, Dana started a new job outside of journalism but made sure to tune in to her favorite soaps each weekday afternoon.
After Seli’s sudden passing in 2006, Dana was asked to take over writing the columns, which included summarizing the week’s major plot points for each soap in the Summaries column, answering readers’ questions in the Q&A, and delivering the latest news about the soap world in the Gossip column. Cindy Elavsky, who also grew up watching soaps, took over the weekly Interview column.
Dana understands the changes that have taken place in the soap world during the past three decades, from the lavish golden age of daytime in the 1980s to the era of budget cuts in the 2000s. She also knows that the one constant through all these changes is the audience. In no other medium will you find a more loyal and devoted group of viewers, fans who – like Dana herself – grew up watching daytime dramas with several generations of their families and who will continue to pass down their love of soaps to their children and beyond.
Cindy Elavsky was born in Massillon, Ohio. She and her family moved to Orlando, Fla., in the summer of 1987. She graduated with honors from Oviedo High School in 1990. She later received her bachelor’s degree in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing, from the University of Central Florida in 1996. She was an active member of the Sigma Tau Delta honors society. She also obtained a bachelor’s degree in Theater, with a concentration in performance, from UCF in 2001, where she was an active member of the Alpha Psi Omega honors society. She began working for Reed Brennan Media Associates in Orlando, Fla., (a subsidiary of Hearst Corporation, also linked to King Features/North America Syndicate) in 2001, working her way up from Proofreader to Assistant Managing Editor to Syndicate Editor.