Soap opera is daily serial melodrama that originated in the United States on radio and then became popular on daytime television in many countries. Soap operas received the name because soap manufacturers first sponsored them on radio. For many years, a number of critics considered soap operas, though popular, to be a low type of mass-market entertainment. However, many critics have re-evaluated soap operas, assessing them as one of the few original American art forms.
The first soap opera, “Painted Dreams,” premiered on radio in 1930. It failed because it included too much advertising to emotionally involve its audience. Other, better-crafted serials quickly followed, such as “The Guiding Light,” “Backstage Wife,” and “The Romance of Helen Trent” in the United States, and “The Archers” in the United Kingdom. The first major soap opera on television, “Search for Tomorrow,” appeared in 1951 in the United States. The United Kingdom’s first important TV soap opera, “Coronation Street,” began in 1960.
The early American soap operas emphasized situations in which women’s desires were central to the story, often focusing on themes of romance and family life. During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, such soap operas as “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” expanded their content to include social issues. Episodes dealt with abortion, war, domestic violence, and child abuse, usually from the viewpoint of female psychology.
By the mid-1980’s, a number of soap operas had gained a worldwide audience. Sometimes, as in Russia, soap operas captured more viewers than any other television show. Newer shows, including the British series “EastEnders” and the Australian series “Neighbours,” concentrated less on the psychology of female characters and more on sociology in their vivid portrayals of a community’s ethnic and class issues.
In the 1980’s, such American soap operas as “General Hospital” and “Days of Our Lives” began to challenge gender cliches. They portrayed troubled women seeking ways to combine strength, sexuality, and ability. In the 1990’s, however, TV soap operas began to turn back to earlier gender stereotypes. Some shows demoted the importance of female characters and focused on gangsters, thus glamorizing male domination and violence. Mature men and women virtually disappeared from some series, which featured teen-aged characters.
By the early 2000’s, soap operas had fallen into a state of uncertainty. Talk shows and other programs replaced many soap operas, and the form struggled to recapture the innovation of the late 1900’s.
See also Radio (The Golden Age of Broadcasting) .
