Serial (radio and television)
In television and radio programming, a serial has a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from traditional episodic television that relies on more stand-alone episodes. Worldwide, the soap opera is the most prominent form of serial dramatic programming.
Drama
The use of "drama" in a more narrow sense to designate a specific "type" of play dates from the modern era. "Drama" in this sense refers to a play that is "neither" a comedy nor a tragedy—for example, Zola's "Thérèse Raquin" (1873) or Chekhov's "Ivanov" (1887). It is this narrower sense that the film and television industries, along with film studies, adopted to describe "drama" as a genre within their respective media. "Radio drama" has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio.