SOAP OPERAS FROM RADIO TO TELEVISION

The Rise of the Soap Opera

Gilbert Seldes writes that "the daytime serial was the great invention of radio." Three "women's serial dramas" — daily radio programs intended for an audience of women, featuring a stable cast and a melodramatic, domestic story which advanced slowly- — premiered in 1931. The three were "Clara, Lu and Em"; "The Goldbergs"; and "Myrt and Marge." The shows, in the beginning only fifteen minutes long, soon became a staple on radio. By 1939 the number of shows had grown to sixty-one. In 1950 the four television networks — NBC, CBS, ABC, and Du Mont — devoted seventy-five hours per week to daytime ...