History of the Soap Opera Genre: Creators

By: Laura Onofrio

 

Three people are essentially responsible for the creation of daytime dramas. The Hummerts, Frank and Anne, and Irna Phillips were major contributors to the soap opera genre as they are accountable for designing a form of entertainment that was suited to the housewife audience of daytime broadcasting. Both the Hummerts and Phillips can be credited for creating the genre's form and content as even today, several decades since the first radio soap opera was created, the original formula and basic content persists in modern daytime television dramas.

The Hummert's greatest contribution to the genre was to its form as they provided the prototype for the organization of production for daytime dramas. The Hummerts followed a simple story formula and focused primarily on plotline development. "They combined fantasies of exotic romance, pathos and suspense with the familiar environment of everyday life in a small town or rural setting and used heroes and heroines that were easily identifiable for their audience (Matelski: 1988:2)." While each soap had different characters and settings the underlying premise in the Hummert's daytime dramas, that people everywhere shared common needs, values and problems, remained constant throughout. They created the first soap opera broadcast on radio, Betty and Bob, and produced more than forty other soaps throughout the years, such as Ma Perkins and Just Plain Bill (Cox: 1999:302). Overall they contributed more to the structure of daytime dramas than to their content.

Irna Phillips was another important contributor to the early soap opera formula. Unlike the Hummerts who focused more on plotline fantasy, Phillips concentrated on characterization within the genre. She developed and wrote both radio and TV soap operas and was responsible for the creation of Guiding Light, the longest running soap opera in the history of the genre. She was also the creator of nine radio serials and nine television soaps (Cox: 1999:302). Phillips was one of the most renowned in the soap opera industry as her writing continued until she died and has been an inspiration for many modern day writers. Her major contribution to the soap opera genre was to the content of the soaps and not to the form (Cantor: 183:40).