The History of Soap Operas

hey welcome to watchmojo.com i’m your
host Maurice and today I’m going to
introduce you to the world of soaps now
I know what you’re thinking soaps are
only for women who stay home all day and
that’s kind of true that’s how they
start but there’s a little bit more to
them than that you see in the 1920s the
medium of radio was booming in order to
increase station profits broadcasters
decided to get advertisers in on the act
so radio stations convince businesses
selling consumer goods to sponsor their
shows now in order to appeal to the
proper consumers of these goods the
female homemakers the radio stations
created the daytime serial drama soon
all networks are carrying these serials
even dozens at a time and they were all
directed towards women and by 1939 the
media started calling them soap operas
simply because so many of them were
sponsored by soap manufacturers soaps
eventually made the move to television
and the longest-running soap also
happens to be the longest running drama
in broadcast history the guiding light
maist radio debut in 1937 and 1952 it
may is television debut now many soaps
have come and gone since then and today
there are nine soaps on air so while the
daytime serial drama may have started
out as a pure form of entertainment for
housewives has clearly become a favorite
of many and who can blame them so now if
you’ll excuse me I’m gonna get back to
my soap
[Music]