Writer and creator Irna Phillips is credited with creating this radio/television genre.
Reality broadcasting
Soap opera
Variety show
Game show
Soap opera, originally called daytime serials. Before Phillips created her first soap opera, Painted Dreams, which premiered on WGN radio Oct. 20, 1930, WGN in Chicago was running a soap called Clara, Lu, and Em, which began as a sorority sketch. Phillips, however, can be said to be the mother of the genre, as she was responsible for 11 soap operas for radio and 8 for television including The Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and Days of our Lives.
