Mdthbs

Wikipedia's definition of soap opera is obviously flawed. If it was a perfect definition of soap opera you wouldn't have any questions about which shows are soap opera and which are not.

Of course, it's much easier to see that a definition is flawed than to to come up with a better definition and very hard to come up with a flawless definition (or to be able to tell whether a definition is flawed or flawless).

So let's start with Wikipedia's definition of soap opera and change it a little.

Wikipedia's definition of soap operas is:

A soap opera is an ongoing drama serial on television or radio, featuring the lives of many characters and their familial, platonic and intimate relationships. The term soap opera originated from radio dramas being sponsored by soap manufacturers.

So I might change the definition to something like this:

A soap opera is an ongoing drama serial on television or radio, primarily featuring the day to day lives of many characters, who are more or less ordinary people, and their familial, platonic and intimate relationships, in more or less ordinary situations, and created to be primarily an example of the soap opera genre. The term soap opera originated from radio dramas being sponsored by soap manufacturers.

I added primarily to show the main focus of a typical soap opera, and I emphasized that the characters and the situations they are in are more or less ordinary - in some soap operas more or less ordinary than in others.

In recent decades more and more dramatic programs in the USA have become more serialized and less episodic. Thus they come to resemble soap operas in some ways. But those shows are often primarily intended to be examples of the crime, fantasy, historical, horror, medical, police, suspense, spy, science fiction, western, etc. genres, and not primarily soap operas.

I added "created to be primarily an example of the soap opera genre." to help distinguish shows that could be considered "true" soap operas from other shows, shows that are like soap operas but are primarily examples of other genres like crime, fantasy, historical, horror, medical, police, suspense, spy, science fiction, western, etc.

For example, most Star Trek series are episodic, with each episode being a separate story. In fact, I favor the theory that most episodes of most Star Trek series happen in alternate universes of their own, separate from the alternate universes of other episodes within their series.

But a number of Star Trek series had continuing story arcs spread out over a few or sometimes many episodes and thus seemed much more serialized than the original Star Trek and more like soap operas than like pure episodic shows. But they differ from soap operas in being partially episodic and partially serialized instead of totally serialized, and by being primarily science fiction space opera shows where the characters are in situations which are certainly not ordinary for the viewers in the present and often get highly unusual even for the future society the future characters live in.

The main focus of even the most serialized Star Trek series is science fiction space opera type events, and the day to day daily activities of ordinary people, even the ordinary people of a future society, are not the prime focus, as they would be in a true science fiction soap opera.

Each season of 24 (2001-2010) was extremely serialized, telling of events in a 24 hour period in a series of hour long episodes. But 24 (2001-2010) was about political intrigue, action, counter terrorism, espionage, etc., and 24 (2001-2010) is described as "an American action drama television series" in Wikipedia,not as a soap opera.

One important method of telling a soap opera is its broadcast schedule. In the USA a prime time soap opera, like Dallas, would broadcast first run episodes once a week for about twenty odd weeks each year, and have reruns the other weeks of the year, with a schedule very similar to those of prime time shows that are not soap operas. But daytime soap operas tend to broadcast first run episodes five days a week, 52 weeks a year, with no reruns.

Some soap operas were broadcast live, and so viewers got to see every production blooper made in every episode, though that is not a characteristic of prime time soap operas.

And genres are not exclusive. It is perfectly possible for a series to be an example of two or more genres at once.

A famous example is Dark Shadows (1966-1971), mentioned by Raj in his comment, a daytime soap opera that can also be considered an example of the suspense genre, sometimes the crime genre (a lot of crimes were committed), sometimes fantasy (there was a lot of magic), horror (vampires and werewolves, etc.), science fiction (time travel and alternate universes, etc.), and historical (characters traveled to past centuries and stayed there for months at a time), etc.

Or some people might claim that Dark Shadows (1966-1971) was an example of the Dark Shadows genre, being a genre to itself.

Another soap opera example is Passions (1999-2008) which was a soap opera with strong supernatural elements. One of the main characters was a witch, Tabitha, who was so powerful that she brought a doll, Timmy, to life, & he become another character on the show.

(curiously, according to this site, Passions (1999-2008) is in the same fictional universe - imaginatively labeled as Group 10 - as a few other series, including all the Star Trek series.)

Another famous example is Get Smart (1965-1970), a situation comedy which was also a spy series. The protagonists were in deadly danger in almost every episode, and killed a lot of people, which is very unusual for a situation comedy.

So it is possible for a series to be both a soap opera and a horse opera, a soap opera and a space opera, a soap opera and a spy drama, a soap opera and a medical show, etc., etc., and some people may be able to suggest a number of examples of such hybrid, multi-genre series.

TLDR: A "Soap" is a serialized show that's about ordinary people having interpersonal drama. There's not a high concept, story arc, external villains, or greater purpose.

Don't confuse "serialized" and "soap opera".

Not Serialized

What serialization isn't: From the 1960s to 1990s, in the vast majority of TV shows, every episode starts the same, and ends right there. Wesley has saved the day, Riker's latest fling has moved on, Sam Beckett has finished his work and "quantum leapt", Monk and Psych solve the case, etc. The show always reset back to starting conditions; no evolution ever happened, it's jokingly called "Groundhog Day". That's because real money was made in syndication, and small stations don't want to deal with airing sequence, and want a show anyone can start at any episode and enjoy. If you catch the show every Monday at the laundromat (even though it airs daily), that should work.

Serialized (not soap)

Some shows threw away the opportunities for syndication, to tell a deeper tale in a big story arc. The apocryphal example being Babylon-5. They became serialized - there are fewer (or no) "Groundhog Day" episodes, events cause irrevocable changes, and it's super confusing to join in the middle. If you catch the show every Monday at the laundromat, you'll be totally confused - why is Babylon-5 fighting Earth all of a sudden?

You're expected to watch from episode 1. This is a big difference between serials and soaps - you can't possibly watch a soap opera from episode 1; they're so hastily produced they didn't even keep the tapes.

Soap operas

The prototypical soap opera was a show like General Hospital. These aired for 30 minutes every weekday. They were cheap shows to begin with, and at that tempo, they pretty much had to be done live, or in a live (3-camera) format with very simple editing. They were so cheap they didn't bother filming or videotaping the as-aired episodes. Needless to say, they're not meant to start watching at episode 1; you're expected to join the fun today and then tune in tomorrow. They certainly didn't deal with "big head" stuff like intergalactic wars, because that's too hard to join in the middle.

But the writing makes them a "soap" - it was hasty, and was all about interpersonal relationships, because that's universally appealing and easy to film in simple sets. No high-concept stories, no epics, no big arcs, it's just people living daily lives bickering and making interpersonal drama (literally).

Some series may have higher production values (Dallas being an apocryphal example) but what makes them a soap is

• Serialized


• About interpersonal drama, without an epic, high-concept story.

Soap: Gossip Girl, What/If, Pretty Little Liars, Revenge

Non-Soap: Orphan Black, Man in the High Castle, Humans, Halt and Catch Fire

I asked a similar question myself a few years ago because it didn't make sense to me. One of my favorite old shows was simply called "Soap", and as a young kid, I didn't get the joke.

The term "soap" comes from the fact that many shows in the golden age of television were, in fact, sponsored by soap and detergent manufacturers. Many of the original shows aired during the daytime and featured the serialized goings-on within a household or extended family with a recurring cast. These shows attracted a lot of stay-at-home female viewers who were the target demographic for these types of commercial placements.

As time went on into the 70's, more risqué and controversial subject matters entered the storylines, as did more diversity. They also played around with airing them at different times of day. Nonetheless, the soaps continued their tradition of concurrent, drawn-out story arcs with defined beginnings and endings.

So, if you are watching a show with storylines that span numerous episodes or even seasons, like Game of Thrones, it tends to fall in the category of a soap.

In the UK the term "soap" is usually used to refer to TV fictional dramas that broadcast new episodes regularly, without a break, featuring recurring characters and on-going plots. Broadcasts are usually made more than once a week, often daily. Less than once a week would probably not be considered a soap.

Any show that has series or significant gaps in its broadcast schedule, or which has different stories and characters each week, is not considered to be a soap.

Soaps are often associated with poor writing and acting, as well as a low budget since episodes are usually only shown once or twice and are produced at a rate of up to 5 a week.

I disagree with the other answers here. Shows like Game of Thrones are obviously not soap operas, so the definition being used can't be accurate.

A soap opera is defined, in my opinion, by its serialization scheme. A soap opera airs at least once a week (usually more) with no gaps between seasons. This is on top of requiring an ongoing storyline. By this definition, you only get actual soaps like Coronation Street .

Just to add to the conversation of answers here,

I think in very contemporary context, what a lot of modern Television takes from the original and often day-time AMERICAN TELEVISION soap operas, is not just this idea of interpersonal relationships, but also characters and the reactions to plots that tend to be VERY "melodramatic".

The following link is a article of a paper I found on the posisble correlation between Soap Operas and the Melodramatic, as the earliest forms coming from British Radio Soaps were often based in [British social] realism and make no mention of melodrama, when that argument is then counteracted when referring to American Prime Time Television with the likes of Dallas. In other words, I think the definition changed over time and through cultural (British to American) and medium (Radio to Television) differences and we now have both the original Soap Opera Realism & The Soap Opera Melodrama.

And as others have mentioned, it's these melodramatic elements are what allow many RECENT shows (Supergirl, Lucifer, Gilmore Girls) that are often sited to be primarily set in other drama genres (fantasy/superhero, crime/family, family) to still have "soapy" elements (interpersonal relationships and heavy romance) within the series and they often then also have a hybrid serialized and episodic structuring, which may also then go back to the original definition.

Some more recant contemporary examples of mixed genre shows with "Soapy" elements are

The Good Wife - Often toted as an "American legal & political Drama", is really a legal, political, family Dramedy & melodramatic romance. It's also a serialized-hybrid having both ongoing overarching arcs and 'case of the week' episodic elements within the bigger narrative(s). Click Here to see a decent breakdown of just how complex a single episode the Kings' series can be and how it is seamlessly able to mix that romantic melodrama into it's legal and political plots and physical scapes.

When the CBS legal drama/political soap opera hybrid debuted in 2009,
it was easy to identify the glaring similarities between the show and
the still-fresh details of the Spitzer prostitution scandal that was
unveiled the previous spring. The series launched with an
all-too-familiar scene: Alicia Florrick (played with elegant ferocity
by Julianna Margulies) stands stunned and stonefaced next to her
politico husband (Chris Noth)—who had just been caught cheating on her
with a hooker—at his press conference announcing his resignation. It
was as if Margulies had taken care to recreate, second-by-second, the
expression worn by Silda Wall Spitzer as she stood by her husband in
the press conference that served as inspiration for the series.

Grey's Anatomy - Much truer to American day-time saops, Shanda Rhimes "medical drama" is much closer to soaps like General Hospital, as interpersonal relationships, especially romantic are always on display being the series' corner stone and like those often long-running television soaps of the 80's, Grey's is going on season 16! However, even though a lot of what's portrayed on the series, is medically inaccurate, two doctors are executive producers and the cases themselves are often taken seriously, which is most likley why, along with the heavy serialization,
Grey's is considered more of a "drama", despite those interpersonal romantic/family elements.

By any standards, Grey's Anatomy has been successful television,
ranking highly in the ratings for nine seasons and entering the
cultural lexicon via phrases as cloying yet catchy as 'McDreamy', the
show has had its periods of being intensely irritating, and it has had
its periods when it seems as if Shonda Rhimes has taken leave of her
faculties, but it's also got an amazingly high batting average,
particularly with every solid season that passes along in this second
act of its run." The site lauded the show saying, "On average, it's
been very good TV, filled with interesting, driven characters who run
the gamut of professions within the show's hospital setting. It's
been, by turns, a good soap, a good romantic comedy, a good medical
drama, and a good interpersonal show about an unexpected workplace
family. --Samantha Highfill, Entertainment Weekly

Downton Abbey - Mostly seen as a British Historical Period Drama, really has a lot of melodrama coming from both it's upstairs/downstairs approach, along with racial and class divides providing for some juicy melodramatic romances such as Sybil & Tom, Mary & Matthew, or Rose & Jack, especially since all three tragically come to an end.

Downton Abbey has been a commercial success and received general
acclaim from critics, although some criticize it as superficial,
melodramatic or unrealistic. Others defend these qualities as the
reason for the show's appeal. David Kamp of Vanity Fair wrote,
"Melodrama is an uncool thing to trade in these days, but then, that's
precisely why Downton Abbey is so pleasurable. In its clear
delineation between the goodies and the baddies, in its regulated
dosages of highs and lows, the show is welcome counter-programming to
the slow-burning despair and moral ambiguity of most quality drama on
television right now."

Downton Abbey is a jointly produced UK-US period soap opera drama
that ran from 2010-2015 on ITV in the UK, and as a series on the long
running United States anthology series, Masterpiece, on PBS. It was
produced by Carnival Films/Masterpiece Productions.

So my own conclusion is that what Soap Operas originally were have been discarded or have evolved into varied categories either through a false perception given to the name/definition of American day-time television melodramatic shows that were "set-up" structurally like British soaps, and often visually contrasted the higher brow visuals of Hollywood (not unlike "Reality TV", I might add), which in itself also changed when someone tried to take the melodrama and interpersonal relationships aspects of those day-time soaps and apply them to a "drama" creating something like Dallas or it's spin off, Knotts Landing allowing them to have "soap operas" on prime time television and then these elements (structure, day in the life, melodrama) have now worked their way into other genres as well...