History of Soap Operas

From LoveToKnow Soap-Operas

The history of soap operas begins with the serialized radio dramas of the 1930s. These shows were commercially sponsored by household cleaning products such as laundry soap, dish soap and other ‘cleaning soaps’ and so they were coined ‘soap operas.’ The radio dramas were usually aired in 15 minute segments each day and provided ideal "background noise" for housewives to clean house to whether they were sweeping, washing, cooking or mending.

Daytime Serials: History of Soap Operas

Soap operas are a narrative form of television that is aired in serial format. An individual or group of individuals provides the window for viewers to experience the storylines. The distinction of serialized storytelling is that the stories are about the people and their conflicts with others, the environment and themselves.

Radio Serials

Radio serials nursed the first relationship with listeners in 15 minute segments that aired each day. Each segment ended with a dangling thread that would be picked up in the next day’s episode. Each episode required a certain amount of knowledge of the previous one in order to continue the storyline. These snippets of lives allowed wives and stay-at-home moms (far more the social norm in American in the late 30s) a form of escapism because the dramatic problems of their radio counterparts would often overshadow their own day to day problems.

Daytime Dramas

The transition from radio to television came about slowly, and only two daytime radio dramas successfully made the transition successfully. The problem with going from radio format to television required that all the visual effects be in place and actors were required to act and not just read their lines. Networks were initially wary of viewer investment. The radio shows could be listened to while their audience performed any number of tasks, but a visual format would require that they sit down in front of the television to ‘watch’ what was happening.

See some of your favorite soap opera stars in this LTK slideshow!

Storytelling changed with the advent of television. Viewers expected more, wanted more and soap operas needed to provide that something ‘more’ in order to get viewers to sit down and watch. Initial storylines for soap operas on air continued to focus on families and heroines like Nancy Hughes, the devoted housewife who wanted more and Meta Bauer, the family matriarch who was always seeking love.

ABC, NBC and CBS all launched their own soap operas over the next twenty years, several of which are still on the air today. Each show appealed to a different type of soap opera fan from those who loved the doctors (General Hospital) to those that loved the middle-class and down to earth families (As the World Turns, One Life to Live) to those that craved the drama and glamour (Young and the Restless and Bold and the Beautiful).

Primetime Shows

Peyton Place demonstrated that soap operas could play well in the evening hours as well as on daytime. But it would be the late 70s and early 80s before primetime would add significantly to the history of soap operas. Evening dramas such as Dallas which gave rise to the cliffhanger (‘Who Shot J.R.?’) and Dynasty which gave rise to the super bitch (Alexis Carrington Colby played deliciously by Joan Collins). These programs mingled women’s romantic fiction and soap opera in a devilish combination.

The shows aired weekly so they tended to focus on broader strokes (but still maintained a central family to root for: the Ewings, the Carringtons and more). The shows had a conclusive season opening and season finale, thus the storytelling would come more in bigger chapters than in ongoing byplay that could come to a head at anytime. Thanks to the Who Shot J.R.? mystery that concluded the 1981 spring season of Dallas and launched the 1981 fall season, the cliffhanger quickly became a plot device in many primetime television shows and was not limited to the genre.

Some great primetime soap cliffhangers included: