This section charts the up's and downs of fifty years of soap suds. As everyone now surely knows the soaps were given their name thanks to being sponsored by the likes of Proctor ands Gamble (at that stage sponsoring serials on the radio).

The first soaps to hit the screen appeared all the way back in 1951 with CBS airing Love of Life, Search For Tomorrow and Guiding Light. It was the late sixties and early seventies that became the golden age of soap with shows like All My Children, Dark Shadows and Days of Our Lives appearing. In fact in 1970 there were 19 US daytime soaps on the air.

Now well into the new millennium the soaps are still going strong with one or two clocking up more than forty years on the air in the process.

Work your way through the section by clicking on the links below.