What does a soap opera have to do with soap or operas, anyway?
@Felthry if I recall correctly, they used to be sponsored by soap companies.
@Vyzie @Felthry That's the common etymology, and some of the earliest were (The Goldbergs by Duz; Ma Perkins by Oxydol). But there were plenty of exceptions (Myrt and Marge by Wrigley gum; Judy and Jane by Folgers coffee; Pepper Young's Family, Beech-nut Gum; Vic and Sade, unsponsored for years).
My suspicion is that the name was a sneering stereotype of the intended audience, women keeping house.
@Austin_Dern @Vyzie still curious what they have to do with opera
@Austin_Dern @Vyzie Never heard that before. What do those have to do with opera?
@Felthry @Vyzie Huh. Apparently 'horse opera' was coined by William S Hart, who starred in like every western from 1915 to 1930. Possibly he was being droll about the genre.
Also apparently there were at least some 19th-century people who used 'horse opera' as a fanciful term for a circus performance. That doesn't seem like too great a reach for me.
@Austin_Dern @Vyzie I wonder if the term space opera came from that?
@Felthry @Vyzie Likely an influence, yeah.
Hart seems to mean by 'horse opera' the sort of cliche Western with stock plots and routine characters and, mm. There is a lot of great space opera out there but there is also a lot of Plucky Young Man, With Daring Girl And Her Scientist Father, blowing up the aliens who're blowing up the universe, out there.