Television melodrama, like grand opera, is constructed to formula. Character interactions are highly charged and plot dominates, initiating excitement, suspense, and raising questions around timeless and universal themes. Despite--or because of--their extreme nature, the soaps remain one of the longest-standing television genres, with the loyal masses impatiently awaiting each new episode. A well-known North American television series, created for the purpose of teaching Spanish, is Destinos, inspired its producers say, by the audience popularity of Que Pasa, USA? (Destinos is an instructional television series designed to motivate Spanish Language Learners by providing them comprehensible input from various Spanish speaking locations around the world.) Entertainment-education programs such as these integrate the visual, verbal, logical, musical, and audio learning by presenting a story that introduces language in the context of a melodrama. All these aspects of Destinos provide students the opportunity to venture beyond the physical walls of the classroom into cultures, histories, geographies, stereotypes, family values, and traditions from around the world as they are presented in this soap opera. Destinos offers the perfect opportunity to both teach and entertain.