05.13+Mina+What is soap opera

Soap opera, broadcast dramatic serial programs, so called in the United States because most of its major sponsors for many years were manufacturers of soap and detergents. The soap opera is characterized by a permanent cast of actors, a continuing story, an emphasis on dialogue instead of action, a slower-than-life pace, and a consistently sentimental or melodramatic treatment.

The soap opera began in the early 1930s with 15-minute daytime radio episodes and was inherited by television in the early 1950s and expanded to 30 minutes. By the mid-1950s soap operas dominated late morning and early afternoon weekday television programming as they had dominated a similar time frame in radio programming during the previous decade.