Why are they called soap operas?

Question

I have never understood why they call dramatic daytime television series, "soap operas"? Can someone explain this please?

Answer 1

Because years ago the shows were predominately sponsored by soap companies (ie: "Ivory Soap presents AS THE WORLD TURNS"). Since they were on during the day when the viewing audience was predominately housewives the demographic was perfect for companies to promote household cleaning products.

Answer 2

Because when they were first introduced they were mostly sponsored by soap companies, like Ivory and Palmolive. This was mainly because housewives were the target audience, and cleaning was a big part of their daily routine. Therefore, soap products were considered a good bet as something they were likely to buy and by a lot of. Sponsoring a daytime serial (soap opera) seemed like a good investment of advertising dollars to these soap companies. The opera part comes from them being dramatic, drawn out and complex, the way an opera is. In this way they were "operatic". Hope nobody minds that I added more information to my response after giving you the short answer. Thought you might like to not only tell your dad why they were called soap operas but also be able to explain some of it to him. Soap operas were hardly squeaky clean in their content. They were in fact considered somewhat risque at times for the era in which they were introduced.

Answer 3

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While soaps themselves have complicated stories involving romance, betrayal, and dark family secrets, the story behind the term "soap opera" is simple and squeaky clean. In the 1920s, radio was booming, and broadcasters wanted to get advertisers in on the act to increase their station's profits. So radio stations convinced businesses that sold household goods to sponsor radio shows. To appeal to the main consumers of these items -- female homemakers -- the radio stations created the daytime serial drama format. The first radio soap opera ran in Chicago and was sponsored by a margarine company. Soon, all the networks had serials aimed at women, and companies selling cleaners and food products rushed to sponsor the shows. For example, Proctor & Gamble's Oxydol soap powder sponsored a popular serial drama in 1933. By 1939 the press started calling the shows "soap operas" because so many were sponsored by soap manufacturers. "Opera" had already been used in a non-musical sense in the '20s with "horse opera," which described Western movies. Soaps moved from radio to TV along with most entertainment forms in the 1950s. Despite the intervention of evil twins, presumed-dead spouses, vengeful lovers, and the occasional vampire, soap operas have been going strong ever since.

Answer 4

They were call soap operas because they were long running serial where mostly soap companies showed their adds. That's how the name stuck. The Dallas serial is an example

Answer 5

Because when they first started the shows on radio, the major advertisers were soap companies aimed at the housewife who was the majority audience. Advertisement during these shows changed over the years as the stories were transferred to television but the name "soap opera" stuck with the style of program. With the introduction of the show "Dallas", the dramatic continuous drama shows were introduced to the family viewers in the evenings capturing a whole new audience.

Answer 6

Because they were (and are) sponsored by bath soap, laundry soap, dish soap, etc. and because they were (and are) overly dramatic, like many people perceive true opera to be.

Answer 7

I know I don't understand it either. There is nothing CLEAN about soap operas. So much infidelity.

Answer 8

While soaps themselves have complicated stories involving romance, betrayal, and dark family secrets, the story behind the term "soap opera" is simple and squeaky clean.
In the 1920s, radio was booming, and broadcasters wanted to get advertisers in on the act to increase their station's profits. So radio stations convinced businesses that sold household goods to sponsor radio shows. To appeal to the main consumers of these items -- female homemakers -- the radio stations created the daytime serial drama format. The first radio soap opera ran in Chicago and was sponsored by a margarine company.

Soon, all the networks had serials aimed at women, and companies selling cleaners and food products rushed to sponsor the shows. For example, Proctor & Gamble's Oxydol soap powder sponsored a popular serial drama in 1933. By 1939 the press started calling the shows "soap operas" because so many were sponsored by soap manufacturers. "Opera" had already been used in a non-musical sense in the '20s with "horse opera," which described Western movies.

Soaps moved from radio to TV along with most entertainment forms in the 1950s. Despite the intervention of evil twins, presumed-dead spouses, vengeful lovers, and the occasional vampire, soap operas have been going strong ever since.

A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television or radio. This genre of TV and radio entertainment has existed long enough for audiences to recognize them simply by the term soap. What differentiates a soap from other television drama programs is their open-ended nature. Plots run concurrently, intersect, and lead into further developments. An individual episode of a soap opera will generally switch between several different concurrent story threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another, or may run entirely independent of each other. Each episode may feature some of the show's current storylines but not always all of them. There is some rotation of both storylines and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of a week's worth of episodes. Soap operas rarely "wrap things up" storywise, and generally avoid bringing all the current storylines to a conclusion at the same time. When one storyline ends there are always several other story threads at differing stages of development. Soap opera episodes invariably end on some sort of cliffhanger.

Evening soap operas sometimes differ from this general format and are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode, and to represent all current storylines in each episode. Additionally evening soaps and other serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end of season cliffhanger. Some of the larger, disaster cliffhangers that affect a large proportion of the cast sometimes serve to bring all current storylines together.

Answer 9

Because when they started, they were sponsored by soap or detergent companies.

Answer 10

they used to be sponsored by dish and clothes detergents or washing powders, hence, "soap" operas.

Answer 11

Because back in the olden days, um, I think like in the 50's when soaps first became popular they were sponsored by Laundry Detergents. I think back then there weren't so many commercials and so they would have one sponsor for the entire show.