Amusing that you refute night-time dramas as "soaps" and yet first name Dallas and Falcon Crest on your list, co-mingled with daytime dramas.
The term "soap opera" developed from daytime radio programming initiated in the 1930's with shows like Backstage Wife, Stella Dallas, Just Plain Bill which were continued melodramas sponsored mostly by soap manufacturers. The serials were 15 minute episodes airing Monday through Friday.
With the advent of television several attempts were made to move radio soaps to TV, but early efforts like One Man's Family, Valiant Lady and The Road of Life failed to capture viewers. Then when CBS scheduled Love of Life at 12:15, Search for Tomorrow at 12:30 and (directly from radio, using the same scripts and actors) The Guiding Light at 12:45; The Guiding Light proved that radio soap operas could be successful on TV. CBS started airing The Brighter Day (originally conceived for radio) at 4:00 pm and (the dynamically compelling) The Secret Storm at 4:15 pm.
Irna Phillips, a successful radio soap writer from the 1930's onwards (who'd created The Road of Life, The Right to Happiness, and The Guiding Light, among others) suggested CBS could produce a 30-minute soap less expensively than two different 15-minute soaps - in 1956 CBS launched As The World Turns at 1:30 pm and The Edge of Night at 4:30 pm. (Edge of Night was originally supposed to be a continuation of the CBS radio Perry Mason soap, but when Earl Stanley Gardner withheld the rights, CBS snatched up writer Irving Vendig from the radio Perry Mason serial along with radio's Perry Mason, John Larkin, as cop Mike Karr who wanted to be a lawyer ... and found itself with an unmitigated success.
Except for the daytime soaps on CBS, all TV programming featured game shows and was fairly boring. Then NBC seeing the success of 30-minute soaps created Today Is Ours at 3pm on June 30, 1958, which was a ratings failure and in December 1958 became the successful ratings winner Young Doctor Malone (borrowing characters from the long-running radio serial, but placing them in an updated situation) but the real June 1958 NBC winner was the 3:30 pm From These Roots, a brilliantly conceived family drama filled with P&G's favorite soap actors and actresses and introducing Ann Flood to TV audiences.
In the 1950's and 1960's soaps aired "live", they originated in CBS and NBC NYC studios and were able to snap up talented Broadway hopefuls. In truth in retrospect, even with covering forgotten lines and photographic mishaps, the "live" soaps were much more entertaining than what has now become the Hollywood dromedary ... today's 4 surviving soaps are incredibly dull. The story lines are so dragged out, in truth back in the heady days of CBS and NBC soap opera, they'd have been total ratings failures. JMHO
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