Editing Soap opera (section)

{{Short description|Radio or TV serial}}
{{other uses}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2023}}
A '''soap opera''' (also called a '''daytime drama''' or '''soap''') is a genre of a long-running [[radio]] or [[television]] [[Serial (radio and television)|serial]], frequently characterized by [[melodrama]], [[ensemble cast]]s, and [[sentimentality]].<ref name="OUP">{{cite encyclopedia | title=soap opera | url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100514820 | encyclopedia=Oxford Reference | edition=online | publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> The term ''soap opera'' originated from [[radio drama]]s originally being sponsored by [[soap]] manufacturers.<ref name="Bowles-118">Bowles, p. 118.</ref> The term was preceded by ''[[horse opera]]'', a derogatory term for low-budget [[Western (genre)|Westerns]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Calvert | first=Ben | last2=Casey | first2=Neil | last3=Casey | first3=Bernadette | last4=French | first4=Liam | last5=Lewis | first5=Justin | title=Television Studies: The Key Concepts | publisher=Routledge | date=2007-08-07 | isbn=978-1-134-19576-3 | page=261 |  url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNYDD-PHoEEC&pg=PA261 | access-date=2024-07-21}}</ref>

According to some dictionaries, for something to be adequately described as a soap opera, it need not be long-running;<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-02 |title=Definition of SOAP OPERA |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soap%20opera#:~:text=:%20a%20serial%20drama%20performed%20originally,characteristic%20of%20a%20soap%20opera |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=soap opera |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/soap-opera |access-date=2 November 2024 |website=Collins Dictionary}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=soap opera |url=https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/soap-opera |access-date=2 November 2024 |website=Oxford Learner's Dictionary}}</ref> but some authors define the word in a way that excludes short-running serial dramas from their definition.<ref>{{Cite web |title=soap opera |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/soap-opera |access-date=2 November 2024 |website=Cambridge}}</ref><ref name="OUP" />

[[BBC Radio]]'s ''[[The Archers]]'', first [[Broadcasting|broadcast]] in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera.<ref name="Archers">{{cite news|title=May 1950 - The Archers - the world's longest running soap opera|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0168wd7|agency=BBC|date=March 24, 2018}}</ref> The longest-running existing television soap is ''[[Coronation Street]]'', which was first broadcast on [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] in 1960.<ref name="Corrie">{{cite news|title=Coronation Street recognised as longest running soap|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-11410873/coronation-street-recognised-as-longest-running-soap|agency=BBC|date=March 24, 2018}}</ref>

According to Albert Moran, one of the defining features that make a television program a soap opera is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each [[episode]] ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode".<ref name="Bowles-121">Bowles, p. 121.</ref> In 2012, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' columnist Robert Lloyd wrote of daily dramas: {{cquote|Although melodramatically eventful, soap operas such as this also have a luxury of space that makes them seem more naturalistic; indeed, the economics of the form demand long scenes, and conversations that a 22-episodes-per-season weekly series might dispense with in half a dozen lines of dialogue may be drawn out, as here, for pages. You spend more time even with the minor characters; the apparent villains grow less apparently villainous.<ref name="LA Times 2012">{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-xpm-2012-jun-18-la-et-hollywood-heights-20120618-story.html|title=Television review: Stars in their eyes in ''Hollywood Heights''|last=Lloyd|first=Robert|date=June 18, 2012|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=December 11, 2013}}</ref>}}

Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments. An individual episode of a soap opera will generally switch between several concurrent [[narrative thread]]s that may at times interconnect and affect one another or may run entirely independent to each other. Episodes may feature some of the show's storylines, but not always all of them. Especially in daytime serials and those that are broadcast each weekday, there is some rotation of both storyline 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 conclude all their storylines at the same time. When one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing [[Character arc|stages of development]]. Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of [[cliffhanger]], and the [[season finale]] (if a soap incorporates a break between seasons) ends in the same way, only to be resolved when the show returns for the start of a new yearly broadcast.

Evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode and present all storylines. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger.

In 1976, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine described [[daytime television in the United States|American daytime television]] as "TV's richest market", noting the loyalty of the soap opera fan base and the expansion of several half-hour series into hour-long broadcasts in order to maximise advertising revenues.<ref name="Time 1976">{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/archive/6847593/television-sex-and-suffering-in-the-afternoon/ |title=Sex and Suffering in the Afternoon|date=January 12, 1976 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=May 20, 2009}}</ref> The article explained that at that time, many [[prime time]] series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs.<ref name="Time 1976" /> The issue's cover notably featured its first daytime soap stars, [[Bill Hayes (actor)|Bill Hayes]] and [[Susan Seaforth Hayes]] of ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'',<ref name="SOD stats Seaforth">{{cite web|url=http://www.soapoperadigest.com/soapstarstats/susanseaforthhayesbio/|title=Soap star stats: Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie, ''DAYS'')|publisher=SoapOperaDigest.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123212146/http://www.soapoperadigest.com/soapstarstats/susanseaforthhayesbio/ |archive-date=January 23, 2010|url-status=dead|access-date=May 20, 2009}}</ref><ref name="1985 Encyc">{{cite book|title=The Soap Opera Encyclopedia|last=Schemering|first=Christopher|date=September 1985|isbn=0-345-32459-5|pages=66–73|author-link=Christopher Schemering|title-link=The Soap Opera Encyclopedia (Schemering book)|publisher=Ballantine Books }}</ref> a married couple whose onscreen and real-life romance was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press at large.<ref name="1997 Encyc">{{cite book|title=The Soap Opera Encyclopedia|last=Waggett|first=Gerard J.|date=November 1997|publisher=Harper Paperbacks|isbn=0-06-101157-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/soapoperaencyclo00wagg/page/91 91]|chapter=''One Life to Live''|title-link=The Soap Opera Encyclopedia (Waggett book)}}</ref>