![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The term “soap operas” was coined because the programs were often sponsored by soap manufacturers like Procter & Gamble. That’s been the case since the first American soap opera, “Painted Dreams,” debuted on Chicago radio station WGN in 1930, followed the next year by the first nationally broadcast radio soap opera, “Clara, Lu, and Em,” on the NBC Blue Network.Īiring five days a week, as they had on radio, with one episode leading into the next to create continuous stories of melodrama, romance, break ups, make ups, and more, soaps – including “Love of Life,” “Guiding Light,” “Search for Tomorrow,” and “The Edge of Night” – became fixtures on network television beginning in the 1950s. ![]() “The cliffhanger nature of soap operas, however, leaves you looking forward to what’s going to happen the next day.” Waggett by telephone recently from his home in Dorchester. “One of the biggest problems right now is that one day can drift aimlessly into the next,” explained pop culture writer Gerard J. So it’s reassuring, when our lives are anything but routine, that the soaps are still there to entertain us and provide a much-needed diversion from the pressures of these uncertain times. Daytime dramas, better known as soap operas, have been providing American audiences with an escape from the routine of their lives for 90 years. ![]()
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