In television, what is the difference between a Soap Opera and a Drama?
I've been having a discussion with my flatmates on how to class Norman's favourite addiction, ER. I've always thought of it as a soap, because it's focusing on internal story lines between the characters, but Norman says it isn't, because it's not full of people wailing about having just married their brother by accident. Also, there was some discussion of overarching story lines.
What is the actual distinction? Was Babylon 5 a soap?
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The lines have blurred in the last couple of decades. It used to be that you could make clear distinctions between shows that had ongoing storylines and those where an episode was entirely self contained. These days you have to accept that there is a continuum. Where a show is placed depends on how much of an episode's story is ongoing and how much is within the single timeslot. Also how much of the story is focussed on interpersonal relationships.
ER and B5 both have soap opera like elements. IMHO ER has waaaay more and is much closer to the soap opera end but then I haven't watched it for a long time so I may be misremembering.
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