Why are soap operas called soap operas?

I think the name should be changed myself since the shows have nothing to do with soap or singing. Perhaps call them all Dramas or Drama Queens but then that might affend someone. I don't watch the shows for I find them too stupid to watch.

The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Pepsodent as the show's sponsors. These early radio serials were broadcast in weekday daytime slots when mostly housewives would be available to listen, thus the shows were aimed at and consumed by a predominantly female audience.

Yeah, I do too. I saw this question and I really did want to know why they're called soap operas.. It's weird, isn't it?

Oh well. 2 points!

You know that is a good question!!! Maybe because the shows are dramatic, sort-of like an opera. And soap cause soap cleans things, so it could clean out the singing. So the name soap opera comes out. I have NO clue really, that just was the first thing that came to mind. = ]

A long time ago the adds used to sell mainly soap. Hence the name.

Mrs. Watts is right. Many soap products were advertised in the early days of the shows and the "opera like" story lines....turned into the slang "soap opera".

Easy...when they first came out, Soap Operas catered to the women that stayed at home, so their sponsors were almost all Soap manufacturers....like Proctor & Gamble. You can still see that at the end of many shows, they say a "Proctor & Gamble Production"

Yep, that's right! The commercial breaks on the radio were mainly Soap Related, geared toward the women who did the laundry while listening to their fav. opera.

Some Soaps are educational. There are episodes that have parenting advice, do's and don'ts, as well as being able to foresee a consequence before making an action. Like, all the trouble you can get into by doing something you might think is completely harmless. Its like watching someone act out a scenario before you do it.

Yeah, sometimes I read too much into these things. But, when I was 16 I did, get a great idea on how to sneak out right in front of my parents faces. It worked, because on the soap, the kids got caught and I had the chance to adjust the plan so I wouldn't.LOL

well, soap operas are a drama. but they are fun to watch. i laugh and cry over some of the scenes. it's just a fictional show that could almost seem real. and some of the scenes are taped for a long periods of time, like the wedding scenes. some of the actresses have to wear the wedding gowns for like three days straight. It's amazing that even after three days they still look good.

A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television or radio. Programs described as soap operas have existed as an entertainment long enough for audiences to recognize them simply by the term soap. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Pepsodent as the show's sponsors. [1] These early radio serials were broadcast in weekday daytime slots when mostly housewives would be available to listen, thus the shows were aimed at and consumed by a predominantly female audience. [1]

The term soap opera has at times been generally applied to any romantic serial,[1] but is also used to describe the more naturalistic, unglamorous evening, prime-time drama serials of the UK such as Coronation Street.[2] What differentiates a soap from other television drama programs is the open-ended nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. The defining feature that makes a program a soap opera is that it, according to Albert Moran, 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".[3] Soap opera stories run concurrently, intersect, and lead into further developments. An individual episode of a soap opera will generally switch between several different concurrent story threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another, or may run entirely independent of each other. Each episode may feature some of the show's current storylines but not always all of them. There is some rotation of both storylines 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 "wrap things up" storywise, and generally avoid bringing all the current storylines to a conclusion at the same time. When one storyline ends there are always several other story threads at differing stages of development. Soap opera episodes invariably end on some sort of cliffhanger.

Evening soap operas sometimes differ from this general format and are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode, and to represent all current storylines in each episode. Additionally, evening soap operas and other serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end of season cliffhanger.