The Soaps

Do you recognize these television program titles: "Guiding Light," "As the World Turns," "General Hospital," "Days of our Lives," "One Life to Live," "All My Children," and "The Young and the Restless"? If you don't, you obviously have never turned on the television set between noon and four o'clock. These are the "soaps."

This isn't a complete list of the soaps by any means, but all of the titles on the above list have been on television every weekday afternoon with very few exceptions for the last 30 years — and they are STILL being aired.

"Guiding Light" began as a "soap opera" on radio in 1937. That's a very long time before any of us were even born. It is still aired every afternoon on television, and millions of people tune in. The networks know that soaps are profitable, and merchants know that advertising on soaps is profitable. That's a marriage made in commerce heaven.

The soap opera, or "soap," is an ongoing story. The story lines always revolve around personal relationships and/or family life with a good dose of sexual interaction and innuendo between characters. Some soaps have used several months of story line to determine who the "real father" is. Loss of memory is common. Extramarital affairs, long-lost siblings, and heretofore-unknown twins are all common story lines in the soaps.

Stunt men don't make any money from soap filming. Car wrecks, falls down mountain sides, plane crashes, murder, and mayhem are all part of the plots of the soaps, but rather than the events being shown on television screens, they are discussed in the dialogue.

The direction of the story line determines whether characters will be punished for crimes like murder and rape or go free. Reality has little to do with the soap storylines, but that doesn't keep millions and millions of women glued to their television sets every weekday afternoon all around the world.