Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification. In the 1990s, shows like The X-Files and The Sopranos began to use a more serial structure, and now there are a much wider range of shows in serial form.
Starting in the mid-1970s, series with soap opera-like stories began to be aired in prime time (e.g. Television mini-series also commonly come in a serial form. In the United States, daytime soap operas have long had a serial structure. The term has been used for a radio or television production with a continuously evolving, unified plot and set of characters, spread over multiple episodes. More generally, "serial" is applied in library and information science to materials "in any medium issued under the same title in a succession of discrete parts, usually numbered (or dated) and appearing at regular or irregular intervals with no predetermined conclusion."
In literature, the term is used as a noun to refer to a format (within a genre) by which a story is told in contiguous (typically chronological) installments in sequential issues of a single periodical publication. The term "serial" refers to the intrinsic property of a series – namely its order.
Serials rely on keeping the full nature of the story hidden and revealing elements episode by episode, to encourage spectators to tune in to every episode to follow the plot. In the UK the serial began as a direct adaptations of well known literary works, usually consisting of a small number of episodes. Worldwide, the soap opera is the most prominent form of serial dramatic programming. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the complete run of the series, and sometimes spinoffs, which distinguishes them from episodic television that relies on more stand-alone episodes. In television and radio programming, a serial is a show that has a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode fashion. ( June 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate.
The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.