Three major studios own national networks and all the majors are involved in production and distribution for television, while filmmakers increasingly assume that most people will see their work only as video tapes. Television framed by Cinema American motion pictures have generally produced relatively hostile representations of television. My class last semester could not come up with a film which said television watching was a good thing. The series and serial format which governs American television builds on prior audience knowledge. Films are usually self-contained.
Soap opera is the paradigmatic television form.
Their serial form contrasts with cinema's linear, usually closed form. Soaps are immortal, whereas most cinema is structured around an itinery towards an ending. We are acclimated to gaps between and within shows. TV commercials are the only uninterrupted programming on US television. Storylines and structure are often predicated upon the existence of these gaps.