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Painted Dreams
''Painted Dreams'' is an American radio soap opera that premiered on WGN radio, Chicago, on October 20, 1930 and last aired in July 1943. It is widely considered by scholars of the genre to be the first daytime soap opera or drama-by-installment serial. The first to be broadcast in daytime over a radio network would be ''Clara, Lu 'n Em'', two years later. In 1930 radio station WGN asked Irna Phillips, who worked for them as an actress, to create a 15-minute daily show "about a family," to air during the day. ''Painted Dreams'' was the result. Phillips wrote and acted in the show until 1932 when she asked WGN to sell the show to a national broadcaster. When they refused, Phillips sued, claiming the show was her property. The dispute was finally settled in 1938, and the show was acquired by CBS. Meanwhile, Phillips had left WGN in 1932, creating ''Today's Children'' for rival station WMAQ with virtually the same plot premises and characters. Plot Phillips' storyline followe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soap Opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers.Bowles, p. 118. The term was preceded by "horse opera", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns. BBC Radio's ''The Archers'', first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera. The longest-running current television soap is '' Coronation Street'', which was first broadcast on ITV in 1960, with the record for the longest running soap opera in history being held by '' Guiding Light'', which began on radio in 1937, transitioned to television in 1952, and ended in 2009. A crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Alber ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
