soap opera meaning?

Question

why are those shows called soap operas? there's no soap or operas involved.. i dont understand..

Answer 1

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 2

Back in the days of radio, the "daytime drama" shows were usually sponsored and produced by companies like Proctor and Gamble. The origingal radion networks (CBS, NBC Red, and NBC Blue) did not produce their programming. They sold the air time to corporations or ad agencies, and they provided the programming for that time slot. Since the overwhelming majority of the audience for those "daytime dramas" was made up of housewives who listened while doing their housework, most of the commercials advertised products like soap, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, bleach, etc. Hence the name. Incidentally, most shows were named after whoever was sponsoring it. Example--What we refer to the classic "Jack Benny Show" on radio was known for many years on radio as "The Lucky Strike Show, starring Jack Benny." Likewise, George Burns and Gracie Allen starred in "The Maxwell House Coffee Show." But that's where the term "soap opera." I guess the "opera" part came from the fact that those shows were "over the top" dramatic.

Answer 3

A drama, typically performed as a serial on daytime television or radio, characterized by stock characters and situations, sentimentality, and melodrama.
A series of experiences characterized by dramatic displays of emotion.
Serialized melodramatic presentations on broadcast television of true-to-life circumstances centering around romance and family life and its problems and tragedies. Begun as 15-minute segments on radio in the 1930s, the presentations were affectionately named "soaps" (which later became "soap operas"), because they were sponsored by soap manufacturers, particularly Procter & Gamble. The creator of the format was a woman named Irna Phillips, who began the genre in Chicago in 1930 with "Painted Dreams," the story of an Irish widow and her family. The longest-running soap opera (actually the longest-running drama in broadcast history) is "Guiding Light," which began on radio in 1937 and continues today as a full-color one-hour drama on the CBS Network. Many famous actors and entertainers have made their way to stardom through the ranks of soap operas.

Today these dramas appear on daytime television on all networks, as well as some local stations, in at least three different languages, and are primarily sponsored by soap manufacturers and companies specializing in home-care products. Additionally, the soap opera format has been adapted for prime-time programming in shows such as Felicity and Melrose Place

Answer 4

I don't understand the opera part but when they first aired they were sponsored by soap products.

Answer 5

a radio or television series depicting the interconnected lives of many characters often in a sentimental, melodramatic way.


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[Origin: 1935–40, Americanism; so called because soap manufacturers were among the original sponsors of such programs]