Soaps' name

[daniela]

Why are TV soaps so called?

[albionboy]

Good question - and I know the answer. Back in the late 50s and early 60s, the big American detergent companies - Proctor and Gamble, Lever Bros - needed to find someway to communicate with the daytime female television audience. They decided that they would create programmes that specifically appealed to women - and they then used it as a promotion/advertising vehicle. They needed a day by day show, and so they started afternoon programmes such as The Guiding Light, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless. Each episode has little mini dramas in it, but generally, you can tune in at any time and still have a pretty clear idea of what's going on. Because they were there to promote soap powders and other household goods, they became known as 'soap operas'. The name has now become a generic title for many of the episodic dramas that focus on day-to-day storylines of love, betrayal etc..