What's the difference between dramas and soap operas? I'm mainly refering to the primetime soap operas.

Well, primetime soaps were big in the 1980s and there were a new breed of them in the 1990s. A primetime soap would have an episode, and instead of resolving everything in the episode, they would leave a cliffhanger, to ensure that the audience would tune in next week to see the solution to the problem. Sometimes, however, storylines would be spread out across the whole season. So basically, primetime soaps are serialized melodramas in primetime. Regular dramas are well.....regular dramas....each episode is self-contained, unless it's "TO BE CONTINUED."