Painted Dreams was a radio soap opera, generally recognized as the first soap opera program in the United States. The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television...

In 1930 radio station WGN asked Irna Phillips, who worked for them as voice-over artist and actress, to create a fifteen minute daily show 'about a family', to air during the day. Painted Dreams was the result. The show premiered on 20 October 1930. Phillips continued to write and act in the show until 1932. In 1932 she asked WGN to sell the show to a national broadcaster. They refused, and Phillips then sued them claiming that the show was her property. The dispute was finally settled in 1938, and the show was then bought by CBS. Meanwhile Phillips had left WGN in 1932 and gone on to create the show Today's Children, for rival station WMAQ, using virtually the same characters and premises. 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... WGN-AM is a radio station on 720 kHz in Chicago, co-owned with WGN-TV. WGN-AMs transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. ... Irna Phillips (July 1, 1901 - December 22, 1973) wrote and created many of the first American soap operas. ... A voice-over is a narration that is played on top of a video segment, usually with the audio for that segment muted or lowered. ... October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 72 days remaining. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... For other uses, see CBS (disambiguation). ... Todays Children was the first nationally syndicated radio soap opera created and written by Irna Phillips. ... WMAQ (NBC 5) is the NBC owned & operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. ...

The show was based on the relationship of an Irish-American widow, Mother Moynihan, and her unmarried daughter. It was broadcast during the day, primarily to an audience of housewives.