The author states that today.........

The term soap opera refers to specialised domestic dramas that were so named because, during the 1930s, when they were first broadcast on radio, their principal sponsors were soap companies. The plots, which often take years to unravel, usually focus on the romantic difficulties of stereotyped middle-class characters. During the 1960s, soap operas virtually disappeared from radio, but the format proved so successful on television that much of daytime programming is now given over to them. The soap-opera public, once restricted to housewives, has broadened to include every part of the national audience.