Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Soap Opera |
Soap OperaNoun1. A serialized program usually dealing with sentimentalized family matters that is broadcast on radio or television (frequently sponsored by a company advertising soap products). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Fine Arts | A serialized drama, usually dealing with domestic themes and characterised by sentimentality, broadcast on radio or television. Source: European Union. (references) |
| Soap operas (so-called because these daytime serials were once a favourite with soap company sponsors). Source: European Union. (references) | |
| The programs range all the way from -- (so-called because these daytime serials were once a favourite with soap company sponsors. . . ). Source: European Union. (references) | |
| A radio or television serial drama. . . chiefly caracterized by stock domestic situations and often melodramatic or sentimental treatment. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A soap opera or daytime serial is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television or radio. What differentiates a soap from other television drama programs is their open-ended nature. Plots run concurrently, and lead into further developments: there is rarely a need to "wrap things up", although soaps that run in series for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic cliffhanger. The soap opera form first developed on broadcast radio in the 1920s, and expanded into television starting in the 1940s.
The USA soap opera Port Charles has begun the practice of running 13-week "arcs", in which the main events of the arc are played out and wrapped up over the 13 weeks, although some storylines do continue over more than one arc.
Most soaps follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place.
The term "soap opera" originated from the fact that when these serial dramas were aired on daytime radio, the commercials aired during the shows were largely aimed at housewives (this was during the first half of the 20th century, when married women were expected to stay home and raise the children). Many of the products sold during these commercials were laundry and cleaning items. This specific type of radio drama came to be associated with these particular commercials, and this gave rise to the term "soap opera"—a melodramatic story that aired commercials for soap products.
Prime time serials were especially popular during the 1980s. The most successful included: Dallas; Dynasty; Knots Landing; and, from the 1990s, Beverly Hills 90210. The first real prime time soap opera was Peyton Place (1964-1969).
A few soap opera spoofs have been made. Two of the most famous U.S. spoofs were Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Soap. On British television, comedian Victoria Wood a long-running spoof soap entitled Acorn Antiques features on her sketch show (loosely based on ITV's Crossroads). In the United States, Carol Burnett frequently ran a soap opera spoof on her show, called \As the Stomach Turns.
The soap opera's distinctive open plot structure and complex continuity was eventually adopted in major American prime time television programs. The first significant one was Hill Street Blues produced by Steven Bochco which featured many elements borrowed by soap operas such as an ensemble cast, multi-episode storylines and extensive character development over the course of the series. The success of this series soon gave rise to a variety of other serious drama and science fiction series which took much the same elements to structure their own storylines.
The BBC continues to broadcast one of the earlier radio "soap opera" programmes in Britain, the ever popular "Archers", on Radio 4. It has been running since 1951 nationally. It continues to attract over five million listeners, or roughly 25% of the radio listening population of the UK at that time of the evening.
The American soap opera The Guiding Light started as a radio drama in January 1937. With the exception of several years in the late 1940s when Irna Phillips was in dispute with Procter and Gamble, The Guiding Light has been heard or seen every weekday since, making it the longest story ever told.
See also: history of radio, literature, drama, radio theater, theater, list of soap operas, telenovela
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Soap opera."
Crosswords: Soap Opera |
| Non-English Usage: "Soap Opera" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Italian (soap opera). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Great soap opera acting tonight everybody, class dismissed. (Friends; writing credit: Jörn O. Jensen; Birger Larsen) Can you believe that? A soap opera told me I need acting lessons. (Spider-Man; writing credit: Stan Lee; Steve Ditko) You're as mindlessly sentimental as an Australian soap opera. (Maid Marian and Her Merry Men; writing credit: Tony Robinson) | |
Lyrics | So the soap opera is told and unfolds (Lose Yourself; performing artist: EMINEM) Soap opera says you've got one life to live (What Have You Done For Me Lately; performing artist: Janet Jackson) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Saddle Soap Opera (1974) The Vampyr: A Soap Opera (1992) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | Soap opera; dramatic; foreboding; anxiety; apprehension; apprehensiveness; augury; bad omen; bad vibes; chill; dread; fear; foreshadowing; foretoken; forewarning; funny feeling; good vibes; portent; prediction; premonition; prenotion; presage; presentimen. | | Soap opera; dramatic; foreboding; anxiety; apprehension; apprehensiveness; augury; bad omen; bad vibes; chill; dread; fear; foreshadowing; foretoken; forewarning; funny feeling; good vibes; portent; prediction; premonition; prenotion; presage; presentimen. |
| Soap opera; dramatic; foreboding; anxiety; apprehension; apprehensiveness; augury; bad omen; bad vibes; chill; dread; fear; foreshadowing; foretoken; forewarning; funny feeling; good vibes; portent; prediction; premonition; prenotion; presage; presentimen. | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "soap opera"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | серийна мелодрама (soap). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | sentimentální seriál, televizní seriál. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | tv-serie (broadcast on radio or television, usually dealing with domestic themes and characterised by sentimentality), tv-føljeton (broadcast on radio or television, usually dealing with domestic themes and characterised by sentimentality). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | soap opera (broadcast on radio or television, usually dealing with domestic themes and characterised by sentimentality), zeepopera (broadcast on radio or television, usually dealing with domestic themes and characterised by sentimentality). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | soap opera, téléroman, roman-savon, radioroman, mélodrame publicitaire. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Seifenoper (soap). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | σαπουνόπερα. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | soap opera, sceneggiato a puntate (a serialized drama, broadcast on radio or television, serial, usually dealing with domestic themes and characterised by sentimentality), teleromanzo (a serialized drama, broadcast on radio or television, usually dealing with domestic themes and characterised by sentimentality), telenovella. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | ラフィア椰子 (lab, label, labeling, laboratory, love, love affair, love chair, love child, love game, love hotel, love hunt, love juice, love letter, love play, love romance, love seat, love song, love story, love-in, Rachmaninoff, raffia palm, raft, RAPCON, rhapsody, romantic comedy, rough play, rough sketch, rupture disk, the forest), ホーミング魚雷 (family doctor, family physician, get home, goal reached, HA, hall, Hands up!, HI, hold, Hold up!, holding, hole, hole in one, hole out, Holmes, home, home automation, home banking, home bar, home comedy, home cooking, home drama, home economics, home electronics, home freezing, home game, home ground, home helper, home improvement, home page, home plate, home reservation, home run, home run derby, home security system, home shopping, home team, home terminal, home trade, home-directory, homemade, homemaker, homeroom, homesick, homespun, homestay, homestretch, homework, homing torpedo, horn, house dress, party, plain dress for everyday wear, platform, service that goes to clients' homes to give beauty treatments, stealing home in baseball, wheel, wheel cap, whip, whipped cream, whistle), メル友 (a friend with whom one corresponds by e-mail, a motion, being falling down drunk, maintenance, Mauser, melodious, melodrama, melody, melon, member, member name, members, member's card, membership, Memphis, Mendel, mendelevium, menses, mensheviki, menswear, mental, mental health, mental test, mentalistic, mentality, menthol, meringue, mince, mince cutlet, mortgage). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ラブストーリー (love story), ホー ドラマ (home drama), メロドラマ (melodrama). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | oapsay operaay novela (novel, novelette, romance, short story, story). (various references) мыльная опера. (various references) serial (serial). (various references) tvålopera. (various references) เรื่องน้ำเน่า. (various references) dizi film (cliffhanger), beyaz dizi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Soap Opera" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: soap operah. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-e-o-o-p-p-r-s" | |
-2 letters: appears, apposer, apropos, opposer, papoose, propose. | |
-3 letters: appear, appose, operas, oppose, papers, pareos, porose, sapper, sarape, soaper. | |
-4 letters: apers, apres, areas, arose, asper, opera, papas, paper, parae, paras, pareo, pares, parse, paseo, pears, pepos, perps, poops, popes, pores, poser, praos, prase, preps, presa, proas, props, prose, proso, psoae, rapes, reaps, repos, repps, roose. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-e-o-o-p-p-r-s" | |
+2 letters: laparoscope. | |
+3 letters: laparoscopes, paratroopers. | |
+4 letters: laparoscopies. | |
+5 letters: pharmacopoeias, polarographies, spatiotemporal. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)53 6F 61 70 4F 70 65 72 61 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010011 01101111 01100001 01110000 00100000 01001111 01110000 01100101 01110010 01100001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)S o a p   O p e r a |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0053 006F 0061 0070 004F 0070 0065 0072 0061 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5381678224982718467 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Sounds 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Anagrams 10. Orthography 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
