"They were hard shoes to fill but that was partly since she had helped pour the concrete into them."

Sounds less like "Iolanthe" and more "Coriolanus" or one of those other upbeat plays where virtually the whole cast perishes before the final curtain.

But it certainly does, as Kevin notes, eliminate the need for any other soap opera--this one must be far more fascinatlng.

Is it possible to govern in a soap opera?

The version of "I Will Survive" was great--though I'm sure I missed most of the symbolism.
For instance, what was the faucet about?