A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television
serial, frequently characterized by
melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...
,
ensemble cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17
Structure
In contrast to ...
s, and
sentimentality
Sentimentality originally indicated the reliance on feelings as a guide to truth, but in current usage the term commonly connotes a reliance on shallow, uncomplicated emotions at the expense of reason.
Sentimentalism in philosophy is a view in ...
. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers.
[Bowles, p. 118.] The term was preceded by "
horse opera
A horse opera, hoss opera, oat opera or oater is a Western movie or television series that is clichéd or formulaic, in the manner of a soap opera.
The term, which was originally coined by silent film-era Western star William S. Hart, is used v ...
", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns.
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
's ''
The Archers
''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...
'', first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera.
The longest-running current television soap is ''
Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'', which was first broadcast on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
in 1960,
with the record for the longest running soap opera in history being held by ''
Guiding Light
''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...
'', which began on radio in 1937, transitioned to television in 1952, and ended in 2009.
A crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Albert Moran, is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode".
[Bowles, p. 121.] In 2012, ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' columnist Robert Lloyd wrote of daily dramas:
Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments. An individual episode of a soap opera will generally switch between several concurrent
narrative thread
A narrative thread, or plot thread (or, more ambiguously, a storyline), refers to particular elements and techniques of writing to center the story in the action or experience of characters rather than to relate a matter in a dry "all-knowing" sor ...
s that may at times interconnect and affect one another or may run entirely independent to each other. Episodes may feature some of the show's current storylines, but not always all of them. Especially in daytime serials and those that are broadcast each weekday, there is some rotation of both storyline and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of a week's worth of episodes. Soap operas rarely conclude all the current storylines at the same time. When one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing stages of development. Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of
cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...
, and the season finale (if a soap incorporates a break between seasons) ends in the same way, only to be resolved when the show returns for the start of a new yearly broadcast.
Evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode, and to represent all current storylines in each episode. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger.
In 1976, ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine described
American daytime television as "TV's richest market", noting the loyalty of the soap opera fan base and the expansion of several half-hour series into hour-long broadcasts in order to maximize ad revenues.
The article explained that at that time, many
prime time
Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs.
The issue's cover notably featured its first daytime soap stars,
Bill Hayes and
Susan Seaforth Hayes
Susan Seaforth Hayes (born Susan Seabold; July 11, 1943) is an American dramatic actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Julie Williams on the NBC drama '' Days of Our Lives'', and her intermittent portrayal of Joanna Manning on the CB ...
of ''
Days of Our Lives
''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...
'',
a married couple whose onscreen and real-life romance was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press at large.
Origin and history of the genre
The first program generally considered to be a "soap opera" or daytime serial by scholars of the genre is ''
Painted Dreams
''Painted Dreams'' is an American radio soap opera that premiered on WGN (AM), WGN radio, Chicago, on October 20, 1930 and last aired in July 1943. It is widely considered by scholars of the genre to be the first daytime soap opera or drama-by-in ...
'',
which premiered on
WGN radio Chicago, on October 20, 1930.
It was regularly broadcast in a daytime time slot, where most listeners would be housewives; thus, the shows were aimed at – and consumed by – a predominantly female audience.
''
Clara, Lu, 'n Em
''Clara, Lu, 'n Em'' is a radio soap opera, which first aired on June 16, 1930, over WGN-AM Chicago, Illinois. The show was picked up by the NBC Blue radio network and premiered at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on January 27, 1931. Thus, it became the f ...
'' would become the first ''network'' radio serial of the type when it aired on the
NBC Blue Network
The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American Commercial broadcasting, radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945.
Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the N ...
at 10:30 p.m.
Eastern Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small port ...
on January 27, 1931.
Although it did not make the move until February 15, 1932, ''Clara, Lu 'n Em'' would become the first network serial of the type to move to a weekday daily timeslot, and so also became the first network daytime serial.
Plots and storylines
The main characteristics that define soap operas are "an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations".
[Bowles, p. 119.] Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place, or focus on a large extended family. The storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters. "Soap narratives, like those of film melodramas, are marked by what
Steve Neale has described as 'chance happenings, coincidences, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescues and revelations,
deus ex machina
''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...
endings.'"
These elements may be found across the gamut of soap operas, from ''
EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...
'' to ''
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
''.
[Geraghty, p. 30.]
In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, the characters are frequently attractive, seductive, glamorous and wealthy. Soap operas from the United Kingdom and Australia tend to focus on more everyday characters and situations, and are frequently set in working-class environments. Many of the soaps produced in those two countries explore
social realist
Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...
storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown or financial problems. Both UK and Australian soap operas feature comedic elements, often affectionate comic stereotypes such as the gossip or the grumpy old man, presented as a comic foil to the emotional turmoil that surrounds them. This diverges from US soap operas where such comedy is rare.
[ UK soap operas frequently make a claim to presenting "reality" or purport to have a "realistic" style. UK soap operas also frequently foreground their geographic location as a key defining feature of the show while depicting and capitalising on the exotic appeal of the stereotypes connected to the location. As examples, ''EastEnders'' focuses on the tough and grim life in the East End of London; ''Coronation Street'' and its characters exhibit the stereotypical characteristic of "northern straight talking".][Geraghty, p. 35.]
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
, secret relationships, extramarital affairs, and genuine hate have been the basis for many soap opera storylines. In US daytime serials, the most popular soap opera characters, and the most popular storylines, often involved a romance of the sort presented in paperback romance novel
A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...
s. Soap opera storylines weave intricate, convoluted and sometimes confusing tales of characters who have affairs, meet mysterious strangers and fall in love, and who commit adultery, all of which keeps audiences hooked on the unfolding story. Crimes such as kidnapping, rape, and even murder may go unpunished if the perpetrator is to be retained in the ongoing story.
Australian and UK soap operas also feature a significant proportion of romance storylines. In Russia, most popular serials explore the "romantic quality" of criminal and/or oligarch life.
In soap opera storylines, previously unknown children, siblings and twin
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...
s (including the evil variety) of established characters often emerge to upset and reinvigorate the set of relationships examined by the series. Unexpected calamities disrupt weddings, childbirths, and other major life events with unusual frequency.
As in comic books
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
– another popular form of linear storytelling
Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural pre ...
pioneered in the US during the 20th century – a character's death is not guaranteed to be permanent. On ''The Bold and the Beautiful
''The Bold and the Beautiful'' (often referred to as ''B&B'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. It premiered on March 23, 1987, as a sister show to the Bells' other soap opera ''The Yo ...
'', Taylor Hayes (Hunter Tylo
Hunter Tylo (born Deborah Jo Hunter; July 3, 1962) is an American actress, author and former model. She is best known for her role as Taylor Hayes (The Bold and the Beautiful), Taylor Hayes (1990–2002, 2004–14, 2018–19) on ''The Bold and t ...
) was shown to flatline
A flatline is an electrical time sequence measurement that shows no activity and therefore, when represented, shows a flat line instead of a moving one. It almost always refers to either a flatlined electrocardiogram, where the heart shows no el ...
and have a funeral. Once Tylo reprised her character in 2005, a retcon
Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...
explained that Taylor had actually gone into a coma.
Stunts and complex physical action are largely absent, especially from daytime serials. Such story events often take place off-screen and are referred to in dialogue instead of being shown. This is because stunts or action scenes are difficult to adequately depict without complex movements, multiple takes, and post-production editing. When episodes were broadcast live, post-production work was impossible. Though all serials have long switched to being taped, extensive post-production work and multiple takes, while possible, are not feasible due to the tight taping schedules and low budgets.
United States
Daytime serials on television
The first daytime TV
Daytime is a block of television programming taking place during the late-morning and afternoon on weekdays. Daytime programming is typically broadcast programming, scheduled to air between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., followin ...
soap opera in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
was ''These Are My Children
''These Are My Children'' is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from January 31 to March 4, 1949. The show was broadcast live from WNBQ in Chicago, Illinois, airing 15 minutes a day, five days a week, at 5 p.m. EST. It is wide ...
'' in 1949, though earlier melodramas had aired in the evenings as once-a-week programs. Soap operas quickly became a fixture of American daytime television in the early 1950s, joined by game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...
s, sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
rerun
A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. There are two types of reruns – those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated.
Variations
In the United Kingdom, the word ...
s and talk shows.
In 1988, H. Wesley Kenney, who at the time served as the executive producer
Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...
of ''General Hospital
''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the list of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running American soap opera in pro ...
'', said to ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'':
Many long-running US soap operas established particular environments for their stories. '' The Doctors'' and ''General Hospital'', in the beginning, told stories almost exclusively from inside the confines of a hospital. ''As the World Turns
''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other soa ...
'' dealt heavily with Chris Hughes' law practice and the travails of his wife Nancy who, tired of being "the loyal housewife" in the 1970s, became one of the first older women on the American serials to enter the workforce. ''Guiding Light
''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...
'' dealt with Bert Bauer (Charita Bauer
Charita Bauer (December 20, 1923 – February 28, 1985) was an American soap opera radio and television actress.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, on December 20, 1923, she began her career at the age of eight as a model for clothing ads. Her talent ...
) and her alcoholic husband Bill, and their endless marital troubles. When Bert's status shifted to caring mother and town matriarch, her children's marital troubles were showcased. ''Search for Tomorrow
''Search for Tomorrow'' is an American television soap opera. It began its run on CBS on September 3, 1951, and concluded on NBC, 35 years later, on December 26, 1986.
Set in the fictional town of Henderson in an unspecified state, the show focu ...
'' mostly told its story through the eyes of Joanne Gardner
Joanne "Jo" Gardner is a fictional character from the long-running soap opera ''Search for Tomorrow''. The role was played by actress Mary Stuart for the show's entire run (1951–86). Joanne was married four times, making her full legal name Jo ...
( Mary Stuart). Even when stories revolved around other characters, Joanne was frequently a key player in their storylines. ''Days of Our Lives
''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...
'' initially focused on Dr. Tom Horton and his steadfast wife Alice. The show later branched out to focus more on their five children. ''The Edge of Night
''The Edge of Night'' is an American television mystery crime drama series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions.
It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that networ ...
'' featured as its central character Mike Karr, a police detective (later an attorney), and largely dealt with organized crime. ''The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, Wi ...
'' first focused on two families, the prosperous Brooks family with four daughters, and the working class Foster family of a single working mother with three children. Its storylines explored realistic problems including cancer, mental illness, poverty, and infidelity.
In contrast, ''Dark Shadows
''Dark Shadows'' is an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport ...
'' (1966–1971), ''Port Charles
''Port Charles'' (commonly abbreviated as ''PC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from June 1, 1997, to October 3, 2003. It was a spin-off of the series ''General Hospital'', which has been running since 1963 and takes pl ...
'' (1997–2003) and ''Passions
''Passions'' is an American television soap opera that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1999, to September 7, 2007, and on DirecTV's The 101 Network from September 17, 2007, to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriter James E. Reilly and pro ...
'' (1999–2008) featured supernatural characters and dealt with fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
and horror storylines. Their characters included vampires, witches, ghosts, goblins, and angels.
The American soap opera ''Guiding Light'' (originally titled ''The Guiding Light'' until 1975) started as a radio drama in January 1937 and subsequently transferred to television in June 1952. With the exception of several years in the late 1940s, during which creator Irna Phillips
Irna Phillips (July 1, 1901 – December 23, 1973) was an American scriptwriter, screenwriter, casting agent and actress. She is best remembered for pioneering a format of the daytime soap opera in the United States geared specifically toward wo ...
was involved in a dispute with Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
, ''Guiding Light'' was heard or seen nearly every weekday from 1937 to 2009, making it the longest story ever told in a broadcast medium.
Originally serials were broadcast as 15-minute installments each weekday in daytime slots. In 1956, ''As the World Turns'' and ''The Edge of Night'', both produced by Procter & Gamble Productions
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
, debuted as the first half-hour soap operas on the CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
television network. All soap operas broadcast half-hour episodes by the end of the 1960s. With increased popularity in the 1970s, most soap operas had expanded to an hour in length by the end of the decade ('' Another World'' even expanded to 90 minutes for a short time from 1979 to 1980). More than half of the serials had expanded to one-hour episodes by 1980. As of 2012, three of the four U.S. serials air one-hour episodes each weekday; only ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' airs 30-minute episodes.
Soap operas were originally broadcast live from the studio, creating what many at the time regarded as a feeling similar to that of a stage play. As nearly all soap operas were originated at that time from New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, a number of soap actors were also accomplished stage actors who performed live theater during breaks from their soap roles. In the 1960s and 1970s, new serials such as ''General Hospital'', ''Days of our Lives'' and ''The Young and the Restless'' were produced in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. Their success made the West Coast a viable alternative to New York-produced soap operas, which were becoming more costly to perform. By the early 1970s, nearly all soap operas had transitioned to being taped. ''As the World Turns'' and ''The Edge of Night'' were the last to make the switch, in 1975.
''Port Charles'' used the practice of running 13-week "story arc
A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, vide ...
s," in which the main events of the arc are played out and wrapped up over the 13 weeks, although some storylines did continue over more than one arc. According to the 2006 Preview issue of ''Soap Opera Digest
''Soap Opera Digest'' is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional in ...
'', it was briefly discussed that all ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
shows might do telenovela
A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...
arcs, but this was rejected.
Though U.S. daytime soap operas are not generally rerun
A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. There are two types of reruns – those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated.
Variations
In the United Kingdom, the word ...
by their networks, occasionally they are rebroadcast elsewhere; CBS and ABC have made exceptions to this, airing older episodes (either those aired earlier in the current season or those aired years prior) on major holidays when special event programming is not scheduled or because of last-minute deferrals of scheduled episodes to the following day because of breaking news
Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
coverage. ( Temporary production stoppages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
similarly resulted in CBS and ABC airing older reruns of ''The Young and the Restless'', ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' and ''General Hospital'' during the Spring and Summer of 2020 in order to ration first-run episodes and, eventually, to fill airtime after the programs ran out of new episodes to broadcast; ''Days of Our Lives'', which produces its episodes roughly eight months ahead of their initial broadcast, did not resort to airing older episodes during this time as it had a larger first-run episode backlog.) Early episodes of ''Dark Shadows'' were rerun on PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
member stations in the early 1970s after the show's cancellation, and the entire series (except for a single missing episode) was rerun on the Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Launc ...
in the 1990s. After ''The Edge of Night'' 1984 cancellation, reruns of the show's final five years were shown late nights on USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
from 1985 to 1989. On January 20, 2000, a digital cable
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...
and satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
network dedicated to the genre, Soapnet, began re-airing soaps that originally aired on ABC, NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
and CBS.
Newer broadcast networks since the late 1980s, such as Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
and cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
networks, have largely eschewed soap operas in their daytime schedules, instead running syndicated programming
Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
and reruns. No cable television outlet has produced its own daytime serial, although DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
's The 101 Network
Audience Network (also known as Audience from 2016 until 2020) was an American pay television channel that was owned by AT&T. It featured a mix of original and acquired series, specials, and feature films. The network operated as a commercial-fre ...
took over existing serial ''Passions
''Passions'' is an American television soap opera that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1999, to September 7, 2007, and on DirecTV's The 101 Network from September 17, 2007, to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriter James E. Reilly and pro ...
'', continuing production for one season; while TBS and CBN Cable Network
The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its hi ...
respectively aired their own soap operas, ''The Catlins
The Catlins (sometimes referred to as The Catlins Coast) comprises an area in the southeastern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. The area lies between Balclutha and Invercargill, straddling the boundary between the Otago and Southlan ...
'' (a primetime soap that utilized the daily episode format of its daytime counterparts) and '' Another Life'' (a soap that combined standard serial drama with religious overtones), during the 1980s. Fox, the fourth "major network", carried a short lived daytime soap ''Tribes
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
'' in 1990. Yet other than this and a couple of pilot attempts, Fox mainly stayed away from daytime soaps, and has not attempted them since their ascension to major-network status in 1994 (it did later attempt a series of daily prime time soaps, which aired on newly created sister network MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
, but the experiment was largely a failure).
Due to the masses of episodes produced for a series, release of soap operas to DVD (a popular venue for distribution of current and vintage television series) is considered impractical. With the exception of occasional specials, daytime soap operas are notable by their absence from DVD release schedules (an exception being the supernatural soap opera, ''Dark Shadows'', which did receive an essentially complete release on both VHS and DVD; the single lost episode #1219 is reconstructed by means of an off-the-air audio recording, still images, and recap material from adjacent episodes).
Performers
:''See List of longest-serving soap opera actors
Soap operas, a serialised drama produced for radio, television and internet streaming, are specifically and uniquely known for their ensemble casts and long-running characters. Many of these characters have stayed in their respective series for d ...
''
Soap opera performers in the United States are typically divided into two main groups: primary characters (sometimes referred to as "contract players" – as their portrayers signed contracts of employment – or leading characters) and secondary characters (sometimes referred to as recurring
Recurring means occurring repeatedly and can refer to several different things:
Mathematics and finance
*Recurring expense, an ongoing (continual) expenditure
*Repeating decimal, or recurring decimal, a real number in the decimal numeral syste ...
characters). These two groups of characters make up the vast majority of the people who appear on any given soap. There are also characters who appear only for a short time as dictated by a specific storyline, and even characters who may only get a first name and no fleshed-out character history with little dialogue (these are sometimes referred to as "under-5s" since they receive under five lines of dialogue in each episode).
Due to the longevity of these shows, it is not uncommon for a single character to be played by multiple actors. The key character of Mike Karr
Mike Karr is a fictional character on the long-running Daytime television, daytime soap opera, ''The Edge of Night''.
A tireless crime-fighter, Karr was introduced as a cop finishing law school. This character evolved from the earlier Perry Mason ...
on ''The Edge of Night'' was played by three actors.
Conversely, several actors have remained playing the same character for many years, or decades even. Helen Wagner
Helen Losee Wagner (September 3, 1918 – May 1, 2010) was an Emmy award winning American actress.HEVESI, DENNIS (May 3, 2010). "Helen Wagner, Longtime Actress on 'As the World Turns,' Dies at 91". ''New York Times''. Retrieved August 13, 2 ...
played Hughes family matriarch Nancy Hughes
Nancy may refer to:
Places France
* Nancy, France, a city in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle and formerly the capital of the duchy of Lorraine
** Arrondissement of Nancy, surrounding and including the city of Nancy
...
on American soap ''As the World Turns'' from its April 2, 1956, debut through her death in May 2010. She is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
as the actor with the longest uninterrupted performance in a single role. A number of performers played roles for 20 years or longer, occasionally on more than one show. Rachel Ames
Rachel Kay Foulger (born November 2, 1929), known professionally as Rachel Ames, is an American film and television actress.
The daughter of actors Byron Foulger and Dorothy Adams, she was raised in Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles, California ...
played Audrey Hardy
Audrey Hardy is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera, ''General Hospital''. She has been portrayed by Rachel Ames on a contract basis from 1964 to 2002, and on a recurring basis from 2002 to 2007, making guest appearances in 2009, 2013, an ...
on both ''General Hospital'' and ''Port Charles'' from 1964 until 2007, and returned in 2009. Susan Lucci
Susan Victoria Lucci (born December 23, 1946) is an American actress, television host, author and entrepreneur, best known for portraying Erica Kane on the ABC daytime drama ''All My Children'' during that show's entire network run from 1970 ...
played Erica Kane
Erica Kane is a fictional character from the American ABC Daytime soap opera ''All My Children''. The character was portrayed by actress Susan Lucci from her debut on January 16, 1970, until the last broadcast television episode on September 23, 2 ...
in ''All My Children
''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 20 ...
'' from the show's debut in January 1970 until it ended its network television run on ABC on September 23, 2011. Erika Slezak
Erika Alma Hermina Slezak (; born August 5, 1946) is an American actress, best known for her role as Victoria "Viki" Lord on the American daytime soap opera ''One Life to Live'' from 1971 through the television finale in 2012 and again in the ...
played Victoria Lord
Victoria Lord is a fictional character and matriarch of the Lord family on the American soap opera ''One Life to Live'', played for over 41 years by six-time Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress Erika Slezak.
The character was created as one of the ...
#3 on ''One Life to Live
''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...
'' from 1971 until the show ended its network television run on ABC on January 13, 2012, and resumed the role in its short-lived online revival on April 29, 2013.
Other actors have played several characters on different shows. Millette Alexander
Millette Alexander (born August 11, 1933 in New York City) is an American actress and concert pianist, best known for having played Dr. Sara McIntyre Gantry Werner Blackford Thorpe on ''The Guiding Light'' from January 1969 to January 1983. She ...
, Bernard Barrow, Doris Belack
Doris Belack (February 26, 1926 – October 4, 2011) was an American character actress of stage, film and television.
Life and career
Belack was born in 1926 in New York City, the younger daughter of Isaac and Bertha Belack, Jewish immigrants ...
, David Canary
David Hoyt Canary (August 25, 1938 – November 16, 2015) was an American actor. Canary is best known for his role as ranch foreman Candy Canaday in the NBC Western drama ''Bonanza'', and as Adam Chandler in the television soap opera ''All My Ch ...
, Judith Chapman
Judith Chapman (born Judith Shepard on November 15, 1951) is an American actress, best known for soap opera roles, particularly as Natalie Bannon Hughes in ''As the World Turns'' (1975–1978), Charlotte Greer on ''Ryan's Hope'' (1983), Ginny Bla ...
, Jordan Charney
Jordan Charney (born April 1, 1937) is an American character actor.
Many of his earliest roles were on daytime television, with appearances in numerous soaps. Jordan created the role of creepy Julian Dark in the early to mid-1960s on the CBS so ...
, Joan Copeland
Joan Maxine Kupchik ( Miller; June 1, 1922 – January 4, 2022), known professionally as Joan Copeland, was an American actress. She was the younger sister of playwright Arthur Miller. She began her career during the mid-1940s, appearing in thea ...
, Nicolas Coster
Nicolas Dwynn Coster (born December 3, 1933) is a British-American actor, most known for his work in daytime drama and as a character actor on nighttime television series, such as ''Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the A ...
, Jacqueline Courtney
Jacqueline Courtney (born Sharon Courtney; September 24, 1946 – December 20, 2010) was an American actress best known for her work on daytime soap operas.
Courtney's initial appearance on television came in 1951 when she performed on WAAT in ...
, Louis Edmonds
Louis Stirling Edmonds (September 24, 1923 – March 3, 2001) was an American actor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was best known for his roles in ''Dark Shadows'' and ''All My Children''.
Edmonds appeared in the musical ''Ernest in Love'' in ...
, Don Hastings
Donald Francis Michael Hastings (born April 1, 1934) is a longtime American actor, singer, and writer best known for his 50-year role as Dr. Robert "Bob" Hughes on the CBS soap opera ''As the World Turns''. Hastings was the third actor to portra ...
, Vincent Irizarry
Vincent Michael Irizarry (born November 12, 1959) is an American actor. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1985 and 2002, and won in 2009.
Early life and education
Irizarry grew up on Long Island, NY and is one of six children. He mov ...
, Lenore Kasdorf
Lenore Kasdorf (born July 23, 1948) is an American actress. She is known for her role as the alluring and promiscuous nurse Rita Stapleton Bauer, whom she played from 1975 to 1981 in the soap opera ''Guiding Light'', and for her performance as ...
, Teri Keane
Teri Louisa Keane (born October 24, 1925) is an American actress known for her work in the era of old-time radio. She was reported to have "appeared in more than 100 dramatic roles in radio and television." For a twelve-year period, from Oct 196 ...
, Lois Kibbee
Lois Kibbee (July 13, 1922 – October 18, 1993) was an American actress.
Kibbee was born in Wheeling, West Virginia. The daughter of actor Milton Kibbee and the niece of actor Guy Kibbee, Kibbee played in a number of television and film roles.
...
, John Loprieno
John A. Loprieno (born October 7, 1960) is an American actor and writer. He has appeared on the soap operas ''Search for Tomorrow'' and ''As the World Turns'', but is perhaps best known for his role as Cord Roberts on the ABC soap opera '' One L ...
, Maeve McGuire
Maeve McGuire (born July 24, 1937) is an American actress, known for her role as "Nicole Travis Drake" on the soap opera ''The Edge of Night'', which she played from 1968 to 1974 and from 1975 to 1977. Nicole originally started off as a schemer b ...
, James Mitchell, Christopher Pennock
Christopher Pennock (June 7, 1943 – February 12, 2021) was an American actor.
He began acting on stage after graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Pennock had been active for over 40 years starring on and off-Broadway theat ...
, Antony Ponzini
Antony Ponzini (June 1, 1933 – December 30, 2002) was an American actor. Some of Ponzini's credits include roles on soap operas ''The Edge of Night'', '' Another World'', and being a member of the original cast of ''One Life to Live'' as Vince ...
, William Prince, Louise Shaffer
Louise Shaffer (born July 5, 1942) is an American actress, script writer, and author.
Biography
Shaffer was born in Woodbridge, Connecticut, where she showed an interest in acting early on in her life. After finishing high school, she attended ...
, and Diana van der Vlis
Diana Van der Vlis (June 9, 1935 - October 22, 2001) was a Canadian-American stage, screen and television actress best known for her characters Nell Beaulac, Dr. Nell Beaulac (1975–76) on the ABC soap opera ''Ryan's Hope'' and Kate Hathaway P ...
, among many others, have all played multiple soap roles.
Evolution of the daytime serial
For several decades, most daytime soap operas concentrated on family and marital discord, legal drama and romance. The action rarely left interior settings, and many shows were set in fictional, medium-sized Midwestern
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
towns.
Social issue storylines were typically verboten when soaps were starting, due to heavy network-imposed censorship at that time, but writer and producer Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon ( Eckhardt; December 10, 1922 – September 28, 2016) was an American television writer and producer, and the creator of the ABC soap operas ''One Life to Live'', ''All My Children'', as well as ''Loving'' and its spin-off '' The Ci ...
introduced these storylines slowly but surely, first in 1962 when the matriarch of ''The Guiding Light'', Bert Bauer, developed uterine cancer
Uterine cancer, also known as womb cancer, includes two types of cancer that develop from the tissues of the uterus. Endometrial cancer forms from the lining of the uterus, and uterine sarcoma forms from the muscles or support tissue of the uteru ...
(as the actress, Charita Bauer
Charita Bauer (December 20, 1923 – February 28, 1985) was an American soap opera radio and television actress.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, on December 20, 1923, she began her career at the age of eight as a model for clothing ads. Her talent ...
, had been diagnosed with the same illness in real life). The storyline encouraged many women to get pap smears and the CBS mailroom in New York City received a then-record amount of fan mail wishing Bauer (both Bert and Charita) well. Nixon would go on to tell many socially-relevant storylines on her soaps ''One Life to Live
''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...
'' and ''All My Children
''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 20 ...
'' in the late 1960s and into the 1970s.
Exterior shots were slowly incorporated into the series ''The Edge of Night'' and ''Dark Shadows''. Unlike many earlier serials that were set in fictional towns, ''The Best of Everything (TV series), The Best of Everything'' and ''Ryan's Hope'' were set in a real-world location, New York City.
The first exotic location shoot was made by ''All My Children'', to St. Croix in 1978. Many other soap operas planned lavish storylines after the success of the ''All My Children'' shoot. Soap operas ''Another World'' and ''Guiding Light'' both went to St. Croix in 1980, the former show culminating a long-running storyline between popular characters Mac, Rachel and Janice, and the latter to serve as an exotic setting for Alan Spaulding and Rita Stapleton, Rita Bauer's torrid affair. ''Search for Tomorrow'' taped for two weeks in Hong Kong in 1981. Later that year, some of the cast and crew ventured to Jamaica to tape a love consummation storyline between the characters of Garth and Kathy.
During the 1980s, perhaps as a reaction to the evening drama series that were gaining high ratings, daytime serials began to incorporate action and adventure storylines, more big-business intrigue, and an increased emphasis on youthful romance.
One of the most popular couples was Luke Spencer and Laura Webber on ''General Hospital
''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the list of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running American soap opera in pro ...
''. Luke and Laura helped to attract both male and female fans. Even actress Elizabeth Taylor was a fan and at her own request was given a guest role in Luke and Laura's wedding episode. Luke and Laura's popularity led to other soap producers striving to reproduce this success by attempting to create supercouples of their own.
With increasingly bizarre action storylines coming into vogue, Luke and Laura saved the world from being frozen, brought a mobster down by finding his black book in a left-handed boy statue, and helped a princess find her Aztec treasure in Mexico. Other soap operas attempted similar adventure storylines, often featuring footage shot on location – frequently in exotic locales.
During the 1990s, the mob, action and adventure stories fell out of favor with producers, due to generally declining ratings for daytime soap operas at the time. With the resultant budget cuts, soap operas were no longer able to go on expensive location shoots overseas as they were able to do in the 1980s. During that decade, soap operas increasingly focused on younger characters and social issues, such as Erica Kane
Erica Kane is a fictional character from the American ABC Daytime soap opera ''All My Children''. The character was portrayed by actress Susan Lucci from her debut on January 16, 1970, until the last broadcast television episode on September 23, 2 ...
's drug addiction on ''All My Children'', the re-emergence of Viki Lord's dissociative identity disorder on ''One Life to Live'', and Stuart Chandler dealing with his wife Cindy dying of AIDS on ''All My Children''. Other social issues included cancer, rape, abortion and racism.
Several shows during the 1990s and 2000s incorporated supernatural and science fiction elements into their storylines in an attempt to boost their ratings. One of the main characters on the earlier soap opera ''Dark Shadows'' was Barnabas Collins, a vampire, and ''One Life to Live'' featured an angel named Virgil. Both shows featured characters who traveled to and from the past. In 1995, ''Days of our Lives'' featured a storyline in which fan favorite character Marlena Evans was possessed by the devil, and in 1998, ''Guiding Light'' featured a cloning storyline involving legacy character Reva Shayne.
Traditional grammar of daytime serials
Modern U.S. daytime soap operas largely stay true to the original soap opera format. The duration and format of storylines and the visual grammar employed by U.S. daytime serials set them apart from soap operas in other countries and from evening soap operas. Stylistically, UK and Australian soap operas, which are usually produced for early evening timeslots, fall somewhere in between U.S. daytime and evening soap operas. Similar to U.S. daytime soap operas, UK and Australian serials are shot on videotape, and the cast and storylines are rotated across the week's episodes so that each cast member will appear in some but not all episodes. UK and Australian soap operas move through storylines at a faster rate than daytime serials, making them closer to U.S. evening soap operas in this regard.
American daytime soap operas feature stylistic elements that set them apart from other shows:
* A construct unique to U.S. daytime serials is the format where the action will cut between various conversations, returning to each at the precise moment it was left. This is the most significant distinction between U.S. daytime soap operas and other forms of U.S. television drama, which generally allow for narrative time to pass, off-screen, between the scenes depicted.[ On occasion, a character or characters involved a conversation earlier in that act may appear in a different setting later in the same act.
* In U.S. daytime soap operas, scenes often end with a pregnant pause and a close-up on the character. There will be no dialogue for several seconds, while the music builds before cutting to a commercial or a new scene. This kind of segue is referred to in the industry as a "tag".
* The traditional three-point lighting set-up routinely used in filmmaking and television production is also used on daytime soap operas, sometimes with accentuated back lighting to lift actors out of the background. This is useful in programs like soap operas, which are shot on videotape in small interior sets. The backlight is frequently more subtle on filmed productions shot on location and in larger sets.
* Domestic interiors are often furnished with stained wood wall panels and furniture, and items of brown leather furniture. This is to give a sumptuous and luxurious look suggesting the wealth of the characters. Daytime serials often foreground other sumptuous elements of set decoration; presenting a "mid-shot of characters viewed through a frame of lavish floral displays, glittering crystal decanters or gleaming antique furniture".][
* Few U.S. daytime soap operas routinely feature location or exterior-shot footage (''Guiding Light'' began shooting many of its scenes outdoors in its final two seasons). Often an outdoor locale is recreated in the studio. Australian and U.K. daily soap operas invariably feature a certain amount of exterior shot footage in every episode. This is usually shot in the same location and often on a purpose-built set, with new exterior locations for particular events.
* The visual quality of a soap opera is usually lower than prime time U.S. television drama series due to the lower budgets and quicker production times. This is also because soap operas are recorded on videotape using a multi-camera setup, unlike prime time productions that are usually shot on film and frequently use the Single-camera setup, single camera shooting style. Because of the lower resolution of video images, and also because of the emotional situations portrayed in soap operas, daytime serials make heavy use of close-up shots. Programs in the United States did not make the full conversion to high-definition television, high definition broadcasting until September 2011, when ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' became the last soap to convert to the format; ''One Life to Live'' was an exception to this, as it continued to be produced and broadcast in Standard-definition television, standard definition – albeit in the 16:9 Aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio – until the end of its run on ABC in January 2012.
* Soap operas have idiosyncratic Blocking (stage), blocking techniques. In one common situation, a romantically involved couple starts a conversation face-to-face, then one character will turn 180° and face away from the other character while the conversation continues. This allows both characters to appear together in a single shot, and with both of them facing the audience. This is unrealistic in real life and is not frequently seen in film or on television outside U.S. daytime serials, but it is an accepted soap opera convention, sometimes referred to as a "two shot West".]
* Because of the escapist tone of the genre and due to the large number of cast members employed by each program (usually totaling around 30 to 35 actors for hour-long soaps, and 15 to 25 for those lasting a half-hour), daytime soap operas have traditionally listed all contract cast members (as well as recurring and guest actors) during the closing credits, instead of the Opening credits, opening title sequence. Until the 1990s, these series listed only a few of the principal actors at the end of the episode in certain episodes airing on Monday through Thursdays. Because of the aforementioned reasons, an extended credit sequence featuring a complete list of the show's cast members – listed alongside the characters they portray – typically airs at least once per week (usually on the Friday show; although since the 2000s, most soap operas – with ''General Hospital'' as one of the few exceptions – have randomized the day the cast list is shown). ''The Young and the Restless'' became the first American daytime soap to include the names of its contract actors in the opening credits in 1999 (although due to the large number of actors on contract with the show at one time, it utilizes different versions of the title sequence with a randomized list of about nine actors, increased from the seven listed in each version until 2017); ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' listed its entire main cast (as well as some actors appearing on a recurring basis) from 2004 to 2017, with ''General Hospital'' following suit from 2010 to 2013. ( ''The Young and the Restless'' is the only American daytime soap opera that lists the names of its main cast during both its opening titles ''and'' extended closing credit sequence.)
Decline
=Statistics and trends
=
List of US daytime soap opera ratings, Soap opera ratings have significantly fallen in the U.S. since the 2000s. No new major daytime soap opera has been created since ''Passions
''Passions'' is an American television soap opera that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1999, to September 7, 2007, and on DirecTV's The 101 Network from September 17, 2007, to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriter James E. Reilly and pro ...
'' in 1999, while many have been cancelled. As of September 2022, only four daytime soap operas – ''General Hospital
''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the list of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running American soap opera in pro ...
'', ''Days of Our Lives
''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...
'', ''The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, Wi ...
'' and ''The Bold and the Beautiful
''The Bold and the Beautiful'' (often referred to as ''B&B'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. It premiered on March 23, 1987, as a sister show to the Bells' other soap opera ''The Yo ...
'' – are airing on two broadcast networks, down from a total of 12 soaps broadcast during the 1990–91 season and a high of 19 in the 1969–70 season. This marks the first time since 1953 that there have been only four soap operas airing on Terrestrial television, broadcast television.[Waggett (1997). "Soap Opera Nielsen Ratings". ''Soap Opera Encyclopedia'', pp. 626-628.] ''The Young and the Restless'', the highest-rated soap opera from 1988 to the present, had fewer than 5 million daily viewers as of February 2012, a number exceeded by several non-scripted programs such as ''Judge Judy''. Circulations of soap opera magazines have decreased and some have even ceased publication. Soapnet, which largely aired soap opera reruns, began to be phased out in 2012 and fully ceased operations the following year.[Villarreal, Yvonne. "''Show Tracker: What You're Watching'']
Disney Junior 24/7 channel launches Friday
" ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
Blog'', 22 March 2012. Web. 19 April 2012. The Daytime Emmy Awards, which honor soap operas and other daytime shows, moved from prime time network television to smaller cable channels in 2012, then failed to get any TV broadcast at all in 2014, 2016, and 2017.
Several of the U.S.'s most established soaps ended between 2009 and 2012. The longest-running drama in television and radio history, ''Guiding Light
''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...
'', barely reached 2.1 million daily viewers in 2009 and ended on September 18 of that year, after a 72-year run (including radio). ''As the World Turns
''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other soa ...
'' aired its final episode on September 17, 2010, after a 54-year run. ''As the World Turns'' was the last of 20 soap operas produced by Procter & Gamble, the soap and consumer goods company from which the genre got its name. ''As the World Turns'' and ''Guiding Light'' were also among the last of the soaps that originated from New York City. ''All My Children'', another New York-based soap, moved its production out to Los Angeles in an effort to reduce costs and raise sagging ratings; however, both it and ''One Life to Live'', each with a 40-year-plus run, were cancelled in 2011. ''All My Children
''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 20 ...
'' aired its network finale in September 2011, with ''One Life to Live'' following suit in January 2012. Both ''All My Children'' and ''One Life to Live
''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...
'' were briefly revived online in 2013, before being cancelled again that same year. In 2019, production of ''Days of Our Lives'' was put on "indefinite hiatus" and all of the cast's contracts were terminated, raising concerns within soap publications that cancellation would ensue, though the show was later renewed through September 2021. In 2022, NBC announced that ''Days of Our Lives'' would be moved to its streaming service, Peacock (streaming service), Peacock.
=Causes
=
As women increasingly worked outside of the home, daytime television viewing declined. New generations of potential viewers were not raised watching soap operas with their mothers, leaving the shows' long and complex storylines foreign to younger audiences. As viewers age, ratings continue to drop among young adult women, the demographic group for which soap opera advertisers pay the most. Those who might watch in workplace breakrooms are not counted, as Nielsen ratings, Nielsen does not track television viewing outside the home. The rise of cable and the Internet has also provided new sources of entertainment during the day. The genre's decline has additionally been attributed to reality television displacing soap operas as TV's dominant form of melodrama. An early term for the reality TV genre was ''docu-soap''. A precursor to reality TV, the televised 1994–95 O. J. Simpson murder case, both preempted and competed with an entire season of soaps, transforming viewing habits and leaving soap operas with 10 percent fewer viewers after the trial ended.
Daytime programming alternatives such as talk shows, game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...
s, and court shows cost up to 50% less to produce than scripted dramas, making those formats more profitable and attractive to networks, even if they receive the same or slightly lower ratings than soap operas. A network may even prefer to return a time slot to its local stations to keeping a soap opera with disappointing ratings on the air, as was the case with ''Sunset Beach (TV series), Sunset Beach'' and ''Port Charles''. Compounding the financial pressure on scripted programming in the 2007–2010 period was a decline in advertising during the Great Recession, which led shows to reduce their budgets and cast sizes. In addition to these external factors, a litany of production decisions has been cited by soap opera fans as contributing to the genre's decline, such as clichéd plots, a lack of diversity that narrowed audience appeal, and the elimination of core families.
Current
Former
The primetime serial
Serials produced for prime time slots have also found success. The first prime time soap opera was ''Faraway Hill'' (1946), which aired on October 2, 1946, on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network. ''Faraway Hill'' ran for 12 episodes and was primarily broadcast live, interspersed with short pre-recorded film clips and still photos to remind the audience of the previous week's episode.
The first long-running prime time soap opera was ''Peyton Place (TV series), Peyton Place'' (1964–1969) on ABC. It was based in part on the Peyton Place (film), eponymous 1957 film (which, in turn, was based on the 1956 Peyton Place (novel), novel).
The popularity of ''Peyton Place'' prompted the CBS network to spin-off popular ''As the World Turns'' character Lisa Miller Grimaldi, Lisa Miller into her own evening soap opera, ''Our Private World'' (originally titled "The Woman Lisa" in its planning stages). ''Our Private World'' was broadcast from May to September 1965. The character of Lisa (and her portrayer Eileen Fulton) returned to ''As The World Turns'' after the series ended.
The structure of ''Peyton Place'', with its episodic plots and long-running story arcs, set the mold for the prime time serials of the 1980s, when the format reached its pinnacle.
The successful prime time serials of the 1980s included ''Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
'', its spin-off ''Knots Landing'', ''Dynasty (1981 TV series), Dynasty'', and ''Falcon Crest''. These shows frequently dealt with wealthy families, and their personal and big-business travails. Common characteristics were sumptuous sets and costumes, complex storylines examining business schemes and intrigue, and spectacular disaster cliffhanger situations. Each of these series featured a wealthy, domineering, promiscuous, and passionate antagonist as a key character in the storyline – respectively, J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), Abby Cunningham (Donna Mills), Alexis Colby (Joan Collins), and Angela Channing (Jane Wyman). These villainous schemers became immensely popular figures that audiences "loved to hate".
Unlike daytime serials, which are shot on video in a studio using the multi-camera setup, these evening series were shot on film using a single camera setup, and featured substantial location-shot footage, often in picturesque locales. ''Dallas'', its spin-off ''Knots Landing'', and ''Falcon Crest'' all initially featured episodes with self-contained stories and specific guest stars who appeared in just that episode. Each story was completely resolved by the end of the episode, and there were no end-of-episode cliffhangers. After the first couple of seasons, all three shows changed their story format to that of a pure soap opera, with interwoven ongoing narratives that ran over several episodes. ''Dynasty'' featured this format throughout its run.
The soap opera's distinctive open plot structure and complex continuity was increasingly incorporated into American prime time television programs of the period. The first significant drama series to do this was ''Hill Street Blues''. This series, produced by Steven Bochco, featured many elements borrowed from soap operas, such as an ensemble cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17
Structure
In contrast to ...
, multi-episode storylines, and extensive character development over the course of the series. It and the later ''Cagney & Lacey'' overlaid the police series formula with ongoing narratives exploring the personal lives and interpersonal relationships of the regular characters. The success of these series prompted other drama series, such as ''St. Elsewhere'' and situation comedy series, to incorporate serialized stories and story structure to varying degrees.
The prime time soap operas and drama series of the 1990s, such as ''Beverly Hills, 90210'', ''Melrose Place'', ''Party of Five'', ''The OC'', and ''Dawson's Creek'', focused more on younger characters. In the 2000s, ABC began to revitalize the prime time soap opera format with shows such as ''Desperate Housewives'', ''Grey's Anatomy'', ''Brothers & Sisters (2006 TV series), Brothers & Sisters'', ''Ugly Betty'', ''Private Practice (TV series), Private Practice'', and more recently ''Revenge (TV series), Revenge'', ''Nashville (2012 TV series), Nashville'', ''Scandal (TV series), Scandal'', ''Mistresses (American TV series), Mistresses'', and formerly ''Ringer (TV series), Ringer'', which its sister production company ABC Signature, ABC Studios co-produced with CBS Studios, CBS Television Studios for The CW. While not soaps in the traditional sense, these shows managed to appeal to wide audiences with their high drama mixed with humor, and are soap operas by definition. These successes led to NBC's launching serials, including ''Heroes (American TV series), Heroes'' and ''Friday Night Lights (TV series), Friday Night Lights''. The upstart MyNetworkTV, a sister network of Fox, launched a line of prime time telenovelas (a genre similar to soap operas in terms of content) upon its launch in September 2006, but discontinued its use of the format in 2007 after disappointing ratings.
On June 13, 2012, ''Dallas (2012 TV series), Dallas'', a continuation of the Dallas (1978 TV series), 1978 original series premiered on the cable network, TNT (American TV network), TNT. The revived series, which was canceled after three seasons in 2014, delivered solid ratings for the channel, only losing viewership after the show's most established star, Larry Hagman, died midway through the series. In 2012, Nick at Nite debuted a primetime soap opera, ''Hollywood Heights (TV series), Hollywood Heights'', which aired episodes five nights a week (on Monday through Fridays) in a manner similar to a daytime soap opera, instead of the once-a-week episode output common of other prime time soaps. The series, which was an adaptation of the Mexican telenovela ''Alcanzar una estrella'', suffered from low ratings (generally receiving less than 1 million viewers) and was later moved to sister cable channel TeenNick halfway through its run to Burning off, burn off the remaining episodes.
In 2015, Fox debuted ''Empire (2015 TV series), Empire'', a prime time musical serial centering on the power struggle between family members within the titular recording company. Created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong and led by Academy Awards, Oscar nominees Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, the drama premiered to high ratings. The show is strongly influenced by other works such as William Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', James Goldman's ''The Lion in Winter'' and the 1980s soap opera ''Dynasty (1981 TV series), Dynasty''. Also in 2015, E! introduced ''The Royals (TV series), The Royals'', a series following the life and drama of a fictional English Royal family, which was also inspired by ''Dynasty'' (even featuring Joan Collins as the Queen's mother). In addition, ABC debuted a prime time soap opera ''Blood & Oil'', following a young couple looking to make money off the modern-day Williston, North Dakota, Williston oil boom, premiering on September 27, 2015.
List of primetime serials
Telenovelas
The telenovela
A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...
, a shorter-form format of serial melodrama, shares some thematic and especially stylistic similarity to the soap opera, enough that the colloquialism ''Spanish soap opera'' has arisen to describe the format. The chief difference between the two is length of series; while soap operas usually have indefinite runs, telenovelas typically have a central story arc
A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, vide ...
with a prescribed ending within a year or two of the show's launch, requiring more concise storytelling.
Spanish-language networks, chiefly Univision and Telemundo, have found success airing telenovelas for the growing U.S. Hispanic market. Both originally produced and imported Latin American dramas (as well as imported Turkish dramas since the 2020s) are popular features of the networks' daytime and primetime lineups, sometimes beating English-language networks in the ratings.
Online serials
Some web series are soap operas, such as ''Degrassi: In Session'' or ''Venice: The Series''. In 2013, production company Prospect Park (production company), Prospect Park revived ''All My Children'' and ''One Life to Live'' for the web, retaining original creator Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon ( Eckhardt; December 10, 1922 – September 28, 2016) was an American television writer and producer, and the creator of the ABC soap operas ''One Life to Live'', ''All My Children'', as well as ''Loving'' and its spin-off '' The Ci ...
as a consultant and keeping many of the same actors (Prospect Park purchased the rights to both series months after their cancellations by ABC in 2011, although it initially suspended plans to relaunch the soaps later that same year due to issues receiving approval from acting and production unions). Each show initially produced four half-hour episodes a week, but quickly cut back to two half-hour episodes each. In the midst of (though not directly related to) a lawsuit between Prospect Park and ABC, the experiment ended that same year, with both shows being canceled again.[
]
Turkey
Turkey is the second largest exporter of television soap operas. In 2016, Turkish TV exports earned $350 million, making it the second largest drama exporter in the world behind the United States. Turkish soap operas have a large following across Asia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
United Kingdom
Soap operas in the UK began on radio and consequently were associated with the BBC. It had resisted soaps as antithetical to its quality image, but began broadcasting ''Front Line Family'' in April 1941 on its BBC World Service, North American shortwave service to encourage American intervention on Britain's behalf in World War II. The BBC continues to broadcast the world's longest-running radio soap, ''The Archers
''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...
'', which first aired in May 1950, and has been running nationally since 1951. It is currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and continues to attract over five million listeners, or roughly 25% of the radio listening population of the UK at that time of the evening.
In the UK, soap operas are one of the most popular genres, with most being broadcast during prime time. Most UK soap operas focus on everyday, working-class communities, influenced by the conventions of the kitchen sink drama. The most popular soap operas in the United Kingdom are ''Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'', ''EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...
'', ''Emmerdale'', ''Hollyoaks'', ''Doctors (2000 TV series), Doctors'', and the Australian produced ''Neighbours'' and ''Home and Away''. The first three of these are consistently among the highest-rated shows on British television.["Tracking 30 years of TV's most watched programmes"](_blank)
BBC. Retrieved 20 January 2015 Such is the magnitude of the popularity of the soap genre in the UK that all television serials in the country are reputedly enjoyed by members of the British Royal Family, including Queen Elizabeth II herself. Major events in British culture are often mentioned in the storyline, such as England's participation at the FIFA World Cup, World Cup, and the death of Princess Diana. Since 1999, The British Soap Awards has been televised on ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
.
The 1986 Christmas, Christmas Day episode of ''EastEnders'' is often referred to as the highest-rated UK soap opera episode ever, with 30.15 million viewers (more than half the population at the time). The figure of 30.15 million was actually a combination of the original broadcast, which had just over 19 million viewers, and the Sunday omnibus edition with 10 million viewers. The combined 30.15 million audience figure makes the aforementioned Christmas Day 1986 episode of ''EastEnders'' the highest-rated single-channel broadcast in the history of UK television. Overall it ranks third behind the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final (32.3 million viewers) and Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, Princess Diana's funeral in 1997 (32.1 million viewers) which were transmitted on both BBC One and ITV (TV network), ITV.
Television
An early television serial was ''The Grove Family'' on the BBC, which produced 148 episodes from 1954 to 1957. The programme was broadcast live and only a handful of recordings were retained in the archives. The UK's first twice-weekly serial was ITV's ''Emergency - Ward 10'', running from 1957 until 1967.
In the 1960s, ''Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'' revolutionised UK television and quickly became a British institution. On 17 September 2010, it became the world's longest-running television soap opera and was listed in ''Guinness World Records''. The BBC also produced several serials: ''Compact (soap opera), Compact'' was about the staff of a women's magazine; ''The Newcomers (TV series), The Newcomers'' was about the upheaval caused by a large firm setting up a plant in a small town; ''United!'' contained 147 episodes and focused on a football team; ''199 Park Lane'' (1965) was an upper class serial, which ran for only 18 episodes. None of these serials came close to making the same impact as ''Coronation Street''. Indeed, most of the 1960s BBC serials were largely wiped.
During the 1960s, ''Coronation Street'' main rival was ''Crossroads (soap opera), Crossroads'', a daily serial that began in 1964 and aired on ITV in the early evening. ''Crossroads'' was set in a Birmingham motel and, although the program was popular, its purported low technical standard and bad acting were much mocked. By the 1980s, its ratings had begun to decline. Several attempts to revamp the program through cast changes and, later, expanding the focus from the motel to the surrounding community were unsuccessful. ''Crossroads'' was cancelled in 1988 (a new version of ''Crossroads'' was later produced, running from 2001 until 2003).
A later rival to ''Coronation Street'' was ITV's ''Emmerdale Farm'' (later renamed ''Emmerdale''), which began in 1972 in a daytime slot and was set in rural Yorkshire. Increased viewership resulted in ''Emmerdale'' being moved to a prime-time slot in the 1980s.
''Pobol y Cwm'' (''People of the Valley'') is a Welsh language serial that has been produced by the BBC since October 1974, and is the longest-running television soap opera produced by the broadcaster. ''Pobol y Cwm'' was originally broadcast on BBC Wales television from 1974 to 1982; it was then moved to the Welsh-language television station S4C when it opened in November 1982. The program was occasionally shown on BBC One, BBC1 in London during periods of regional optout in the mid- to late 1970s. ''Pobol y Cwm'' was briefly shown in the rest of the UK in 1994 on BBC Two, BBC2, with English subtitling, subtitles; it is consistently the most watched programme each week on S4C.
1980s
Daytime soap operas were non-existent until the 1970s because there was virtually no daytime television in the UK. ITV introduced ''General Hospital (British TV series), General Hospital'', which later moved to a prime time slot. In 1980, Scottish Television debuted ''Take the High Road'', which lasted for over twenty years. Later, daytime slots were filled with an influx of Australian soap operas such as ''The Sullivans'' (aired on ITV from 1977), ''The Young Doctors'' (from 1982), ''Sons and Daughters (Australian TV series), Sons and Daughters'' (from 1983), ''A Country Practice'' (from 1982), ''Richmond Hill (TV series), Richmond Hill'' (from 1988 to 1989) and eventually, ''Neighbours'' was acquired by the BBC in 1986, and ''Home and Away'' aired on ITV beginning in 1989. These achieved significant levels of popularity; ''Neighbours'' and ''Home and Away'' were moved to early-evening slots, helping begin the UK soap opera boom in the late 1980s.
The day Channel 4 began operations in 1982 it launched its own soap, the Liverpool-based ''Brookside (television programme), Brookside'', which would redefine soaps over the next decade. The focus of ''Brookside'' was different from earlier soap operas in the UK; it was set in a middle-class new-build cul-de-sac, unlike ''Coronation Street'' and ''Emmerdale Farm'', which were set in established working-class communities. The characters in ''Brookside'' were generally either people who had advanced themselves from inner-city council estates, or the upper middle-class who had fallen on hard times. Though ''Brookside'' was still broadcast in a pre-watershed (television), watershed slot (8.00 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. on weekdays, around 5.00 p.m. for the omnibus on Saturdays), it was more liberal than other soaps of the time: the dialogue regularly included expletives. This stemmed from the overall more liberal policy of the channel during that period. The soap was also heavily politicised. Bobby Grant (Brookside), Bobby Grant (Ricky Tomlinson), a militant trade-unionist anti-hero, was the most overtly political character. Storylines were often more sensationalist than on other soaps (throughout the soap's history, there were two armed sieges on the street) and were staged with more violence (particularly, rape) often being featured.
In 1985, the BBC's ''EastEnders'' debuted and became a near instant success with viewers and critics alike, with the first episode attracting over 17 million viewers. The Christmas Day 1986 episode was watched by 30.15 million viewers and contained a scene in which divorce, divorce papers were served to Angie Watts (Anita Dobson) by her husband, The Queen Victoria, Queen Vic landlord Den Watts, Den (Leslie Grantham).
A notable success in pioneering late-night broadcasting, in October 1984, Yorkshire Television began airing the cult Australian soap opera ''Prisoner (TV series), Prisoner'', which originally ran from 1979 to 1986. It was eventually broadcast on all regions of the UK in differing slots, usually around 23:00 (but never before 22:30 in any region), under the title ''Prisoner: Cell Block H''. It was probably most popular in the Midlands where ITV Central, Central Television consistently broadcast the serial three times a week from 1987 to 1991. Its airing in the UK was staggered, so different regions of the country saw it at a different pace. The program was immensely successful, regularly achieving 10 million viewers when all regions' ratings per episode were added together. Central bowed to fan pressure to repeat the soap, of which the first 95 episodes aired. Then, rival station Channel 5 (British TV channel), Channel 5 also acquired rights to repeat the entire rerun of the program, starting in 1997. All 692 episodes have since been released on DVD in the UK.
1990s
In 1992, the BBC made ''Eldorado (soap opera), Eldorado'' to daily alternate with ''EastEnders''. The programme was heavily criticised and only lasted one year. Nevertheless, soap operas gained increasing prominence on UK television schedules. In 1995, Channel 4 premiered ''Hollyoaks'', a soap with a youth focus. When Channel 5 launched in March 1997, it debuted the soap opera ''Family Affairs'', which was formatted as a week-daily soap, airing Monday through Fridays.
''Brookside'' premise evolved during the 1990s, phasing out the politicised stories of the 1980s and shifting the emphasis to controversial and sensationalist stories such as child rape, incest, sibling incest, religious cults and drug addiction, including the infamous 'body under the patio' storyline that ran from 1993 to 1995, and gave the serial its highest ratings ever with 9 million viewers.
''Coronation Street'' and ''Brookside'' began releasing straight-to-video features. The ''Coronation Street'' releases generally kept the pace and style of conventional programs episodes with the action set in foreign locations. The ''Brookside'' releases were set in the usual locations, but featured stories with adult content not allowed on television pre-watershed, with these releases given '18' certificates.
''Emmerdale Farm'' was renamed ''Emmerdale'' in 1989. The series was revamped in 1993 with many changes executed via the crash of a passenger jet that partially destroyed the village and killed several characters. This attracted criticism as it was broadcast near the fifth anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing. The storyline drew the soap its highest ever audience of 18 million viewers. The revamp was a success and ''Emmerdale'' grew in popularity.
Throughout the 1990s, ''Brookside'', ''Coronation Street'', ''EastEnders'' and ''Emmerdale'' continued to flourish. Each increased the number of episodes that aired on a weekly basis by at least one, further defining soap operas as the leading genre in British television.
2000s
Since 2000, new soap operas have continued to be developed. Daytime serial ''Doctors (2000 TV series), Doctors'' began in March 2000, preceding ''Neighbours'' on BBC One and has since become the BBC's flagship daytime series. In 2002, as ratings for the Scottish serial ''High Road'' (formerly ''Take The High Road'') continued to decline, BBC Scotland launched ''River City'', which proved popular and effectively replaced ''High Road'' when it was cancelled in 2003. The long-running serial ''Brookside'' ended in November 2003 after 21 years on the air, leaving ''Hollyoaks'' as Channel 4's flagship serial.
A new version of ''Crossroads'' featuring a mostly new cast was produced by Carlton Television for ITV in 2001. It did not achieve high ratings and was cancelled in 2003. In 2001, ITV also launched a new early-evening serial entitled ''Night and Day (TV series), Night and Day''. This program too attracted low viewership and, after being shifted to a late night time slot, was cancelled in 2003. ''Family Affairs'', which was broadcast opposite the racier ''Hollyoaks'', never achieved significantly high ratings leading to several dramatic casting revamps and marked changes in style and even location over its run. By 2004, ''Family Affairs'' had a larger fan base and won its first awards, but was cancelled in late 2005.
In 2008, ITV premiered ''The Royal Today'', a daily spin-off of popular 1960s-based drama ''The Royal'', which had been running in a primetime slot since 2002. Just days later, soap opera parody programs ''Echo Beach (soap), Echo Beach'' premiered alongside its sister show, the comedy ''Moving Wallpaper''. Both ''Echo Beach'' and ''The Royal Today'' ended after just one series due to low ratings. Radio soap opera ''Silver Street'' debuted on the BBC Asian Network in 2004. Poor ratings and criticism of the program led to its cancellation in 2010.
Format
UK soap operas for many years usually only aired two nights a week. The exception was the original ''Crossroads'', which began as a week-daily soap opera in the 1960s, but later had its number of weekly broadcasts reduced.
In 1989, ''Coronation Street'' began airing three times a week. In 1996, it expanded to four episodes a week.
''Brookside'' premiered in 1982 with two episodes a week. In 1990 it expanded to three episodes a week.
''EastEnders'' increased its number of episodes a week in 1994 and ''Emmerdale'' did so in 1997.
''Family Affairs'' debuted as a weekdaily soap in 1997, producing five episodes a week its entire run.
In 2004, ''Emmerdale'' began airing six episodes a week.
In a January 2008 overhaul of the ITV network, the Sunday episodes of ''Coronation Street'' and ''Emmerdale'' were moved out of their slots. ''Coronation Street'' added a second episode on Friday evenings at 8:30 p.m. ''Emmerdale'' Tuesday edition was extended to an hour, putting it in direct competition with ''EastEnders''. In July 2009, the schedules of these serials were changed again. On 23 July 2009, ''Coronation Street'' moved from the Wednesday slot it held for 49 years, to Thursday evenings. ''Emmerdale'' reverted to running just one 30-minute episode on Tuesday evenings and the other 30-minute installment was moved to Thursday evenings. ''Coronation Street'' later returned to a Wednesday slot, to air Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 19:30 and 20:30. ''Emmerdale'' airs at 19:00 every weeknight, and 20:00 on Thursdays.
Later, ''Coronation Street'' (which began airing two episodes on Monday nights in 2002) produced five episodes a week.
It was announced in June 2016 that starting late 2017, ''Coronation Street'' would air six episodes a week.
''Doctors'' airs five episodes a week, and is the only soap without a weekend omnibus repeat screening. ''Hollyoaks'' produces five episodes a week. The imported ''Neighbours'' screens as five new episodes a week. As of 2019, ''EastEnders'' produces four episodes a week.
UK soap operas are shot on videotape in the studio using a multi-camera setup. In their early years, ''Coronation Street'' and ''Emmerdale'' used 16 mm film for footage shot on location. Since the 1980s, UK soap opera have routinely featured scenes shot outdoors in each episode. This footage is shot on videotape on a purpose-built outdoor set that represents the community that the soap focuses on.
''Hollyoaks'' and ''Family Affairs'' were taped on high-definition video, and used the film look, filmizing process.
Australia
:''See List of longest-serving soap opera actors
Soap operas, a serialised drama produced for radio, television and internet streaming, are specifically and uniquely known for their ensemble casts and long-running characters. Many of these characters have stayed in their respective series for d ...
''
Australia has had quite a number of well-known soap operas, some of which have gained cult followings in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and other countries. The majority of Australian television soap operas are produced for early evening or evening timeslots. They usually produce two or two-and-a-half hours of new material each week, either arranged as four or five half-hour episodes a week, or as two one-hour episodes.
Stylistically, these series most closely resemble UK soap operas in that they are nearly always shot on videotape, are mainly recorded in a studio and use a multi-camera setup. The original Australian serials were shot entirely in-studio. During the 1970s occasional filmed inserts were used to incorporate sequences shot outdoors. Outdoor shooting later became commonplace and starting in the late 1970s, it became standard practice for some on-location footage to be featured in each episode of any Australian soap opera, often to capitalise on the attractiveness and exotic nature of these locations for international audiences.[Bowles, p. 120.] Most Australian soap operas focus on a mixed age range of middle-class characters and will regularly feature a range of locations where the various, disparate characters can meet and interact, such as the café, the surf club, the wine bar or the school.[
]
Early serials
The genre began in Australia on radio, as it had in the United States and the United Kingdom. One such radio serial, ''Big Sister'', featured actress Thelma Scott in the cast and aired nationally for five years beginning in 1942. Probably the best known Australian radio serial was the long-running soap opera ''Blue Hills (radio serial), Blue Hills'', which was created by Gwen Meredith and ran from 1949 to 1976. With the advent of Australian television in 1956, daytime television serials followed. The first Australian television soap opera was ''Autumn Affair'' (1958) featuring radio personality and ''Blue Hills'' star Queenie Ashton making the transition to television. Each episode of this serial ran for 15 minutes and aired each weekday on the Seven Network. ''Autumn Affair'' failed to secure a sponsor and ended in 1959 after 156 episodes. It was followed by ''The Story of Peter Grey'' (1961), another Seven Network weekday series aired in a daytime slot in 15-minute installments. ''The Story of Peter Grey'' ran for 164 episodes.
The first successful wave of Australian evening television soap operas started in 1967 with ''Bellbird (soap opera), Bellbird'', produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. This rural-based serial screened in an early evening slot in 15-minute installments as a lead-in to the evening news. ''Bellbird'' was a moderate success but built-up a consistent and loyal viewer base, especially in rural areas, and enjoyed a ten-year run. ''Motel (TV series), Motel'' (1968) was Australia's first half-hour soap opera; the daytime soap had a short run of 132 episodes.
The 1970s
The first major soap opera hit in Australia was the sex-melodrama ''Number 96 (TV series), Number 96'', a nighttime series produced by Cash Harmon Television for Network 10, which debuted March 1972. The program dealt with such topics as homosexuality, adultery, drug use, rape-within-marriage and racism, which had rarely been explored on Australian television programs before. The series became famous for its sex scenes and nudity and for its comedic characters, many of whom became cult heroes in Australia. By 1973, ''Number 96'' had become Australia's highest-rated show. In 1974, the sexed-up antics of ''Number 96'' prompted the creation of ''The Box (soap opera), The Box'', which rivaled it in terms of nudity and sexual situations and was scheduled in a nighttime slot. Produced by Crawford Productions, many critics considered ''The Box'' to be a more slickly produced and better written show than ''Number 96''. ''The Box'' also aired on the Ten Network, programmed to run right after ''Number 96''. For 1974 ''Number 96'' was again the highest rating show on Australian television, and that year ''The Box'' occupied the number two spot.
Also in 1974, the Reg Grundy Organisation created its first soap opera, and significantly Australia's first ''teen'' soap opera, ''Class of '74''. With its attempts to hint at the sex and sin shown more openly on ''Number 96'' and ''The Box'', its high school setting and early evening timeslot, ''Class of '74'' came under intense scrutiny from the Broadcasting Control Board, who vetted scripts and altered entire storylines.
By 1975, both ''Number 96'' and ''The Box'', perhaps as a reaction to declining ratings for both shows, de-emphasised the sex and nudity shifting more towards comedic plots. ''Class of '74'' was renamed ''Class of '75'' and also added more slapstick comedy for its second year, but the revamped show's ratings declined, resulting in its cancellation in mid-1975. That year Cash Harmon's newly launched second soap ''The Unisexers'' failed in its early evening slot and was cancelled after three weeks; the Reg Grundy Organisation's second soap ''Until Tomorrow'' ran in a daytime slot for 180 episodes.
A feature film version of ''Bellbird'' entitled ''Country Town'' was produced in 1971 by two of the show's stars, Gary Gray and Terry McDermott, without production involvement by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ''Number 96'' and ''The Box'' also released feature film versions, both of which had the same title as the series, released in 1974 and 1975 respectively. As Australian television had broadcast in black and white until 1975, these theatrical releases all had the novelty of being in colour. The film versions of ''Number 96'' and ''The Box'' also allowed more explicit nudity than could be shown on television at that time.
In November 1976 ''The Young Doctors'' debuted on the Nine Network. This Grundy Organization series eschewed the adult drama of ''Number 96'' and ''The Box'', focusing more on relationship drama and romance. It became a popular success but received few critical accolades. A week later ''The Sullivans'', a carefully produced period serial chronicling the effects of World War II on a Melbourne family, also debuted on Nine. Produced by Crawford Productions, ''The Sullivans'' became a ratings success, attracted many positive reviews, and won television awards. During this period ''Number 96'' re-introduced nudity into its episodes, with several much-publicised full-frontal nude scenes, a cast revamp and a new range of shock storylines designed to boost the show's declining ratings. ''Bellbird'' experienced changes to its broadcast pattern with episodes screening in 60 minute blocks, and later in 30 minute installments.
''Bellbird'', ''Number 96'' and ''The Box'', which had been experiencing declining ratings, were cancelled in 1977. Various attempts to revamp each of the shows with cast reshuffles or spectacular disaster storylines had proved only temporarily successful. ''The Young Doctors'' and ''The Sullivans'' continued to be popular. November 1977 saw the launch of successful soap opera/police procedural series ''Cop Shop'' (1977–1984) produced by Crawford Productions for Seven Network, Channel Seven. In early December 1977 Network 10, Channel Ten debuted the Reg Grundy Organisation produced ''The Restless Years'' (1977–1981), a more standard soap drama focusing on several young school leavers.
The Seven Network, achieving success with ''Cop Shop'' produced by Crawford Productions, had Crawfords produce ''Skyways (TV series), Skyways'', a series with a similar format but set in an airport, to compete with the Nine Network's popular talk show ''The Don Lane Show''. ''Skyways'', which debuted in July 1979, emphasised adult situations including homosexuality, marriage problems, adultery, prostitution, drug use and smuggling, crime, suicide, political intrigue, and murder, and featured some nudity. Despite this, the program achieved only moderate ratings and was cancelled in mid-1981.
The 1980s
The Reg Grundy Organisation found major success with the women's-prison drama ''Prisoner (TV series), Prisoner'' (1979–1986) on Network Ten, and melodramatic family saga ''Sons and Daughters'' (1982–1987) on the Seven Network. Both shows achieved high ratings in their original runs, and unusually, found success in repeats after the programs ended.
Grundy soap ''The Young Doctors'' and Crawford Productions' ''The Sullivans'' continued on the Nine Network until late 1982. Thereafter Nine attempted many new replacement soap operas produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation: ''Taurus Rising'' (1982), ''Waterloo Station (TV series), Waterloo Station'' (1983), ''Starting Out'' (1983) and ''Possession (TV series), Possession'' (1985), along with ''Prime Time (Australian TV series), Prime Time'' (1986) produced by Crawford Productions. None of these programs were successful and most were cancelled after only a few months. The Reg Grundy Organisation also created ''Neighbours'', a suburban-based daily serial devised as a sedate family drama with some comedic and lightweight situations, for the Seven Network in 1985.
Produced in Melbourne at the studios of HSV-7, ''Neighbours'' achieved high ratings in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, but not in Sydney, where it aired at 5.30 p.m. placing it against the hit dating game show ''Perfect Match (Australian game show), Perfect Match'' on Channel 10. The Seven Network's Sydney station ATN-7 quickly lost interest in ''Neighbours'' as a result of the low ratings in Sydney. HSV-7 in Melbourne lobbied heavily to keep ''Neighbours'' on the air, but ATN-7 managed to convince the rest of the network to cancel the show and instead keep ATN-7's own Sydney-based dramas ''A Country Practice'' and ''Sons and Daughters''.
After the network cancelled ''Neighbours'', it was immediately picked up by Channel Ten, which revamped the cast and scripts slightly and aired the series in the 7.00 p.m. slot starting 20 January 1986. It initially attracted low audiences; however, after a concerted publicity drive, Ten managed to transform the series into a major success, turning several of its actors into major international stars. The show's popularity eventually declined and it was moved to the 6.30 p.m. slot in 1992. In January 2011 it moved to Eleven (TV channel), Eleven and ended after 8,903 episodes on 28th July 2022. In November 2022, Amazon Freevee revived the show with an order of 400 episodes to begin airing in 2023. It is Australia's longest-running soap opera.
The success of ''Neighbours'' in the 1980s prompted the creation of somewhat similar suburban and family or teen-oriented soap operas such as ''Home and Away'' (1988–present) on Channel Seven and ''Richmond Hill'' (1988) on Channel Ten. Both proved popular, however ''Richmond Hill'' emerged as only a moderate success and was cancelled after one year to be replaced on Ten by ''E Street (TV series), E Street'' (1989–1993).
Nine continued trying to establish a successful new soap opera, without success. After the failure of family drama ''Family and Friends'' in 1990, it launched the raunchier and more extreme ''Chances (TV series), Chances'' in 1991, which resurrected the sex and melodrama of ''Number 96'' and ''The Box'' in an attempt to attract attention. ''Chances'' achieved only moderate ratings, and was moved to a late-night timeslot. It underwent several revamps that removed much of the original cast, and refocused the storylines to incorporate science-fiction and fantasy elements. The series continued in a late night slot until 1992, when it was cancelled due to low ratings despite the much-discussed fantasy storylines.
Australian soaps internationally
Several Australian soap operas have also found significant international success. In the UK, starting in the mid-1980s, daytime broadcasts of ''The Young Doctors'', ''The Sullivans'', ''Sons and Daughters'' and ''Neighbours'' (which itself was subsequently moved to an early-evening slot) achieved significant success. Grundy's ''Prisoner'' began airing in the United States in 1979 and achieved high ratings in many regions there, however, the show ended its run in that country three years into its run. ''Prisoner'' also aired in late-night timeslots in the UK beginning in the late 1980s, achieving enduring cult success there. The show became so popular in that country that it prompted the creation of two stage plays and a stage musical based on the show, all of which toured the UK, among many other spin-offs. In the late 1990s, Channel 5 repeated ''Prisoner'' in the UK. Between 1998 and 2005, Channel 5 ran late-night repeats of ''Sons and Daughters''. During the 1980s, the Australian attempts to emulate big-budget U.S. soap operas such as ''Dallas'' and ''Dynasty'' had resulted in the debuts of ''Taurus Rising'' and ''Return to Eden'', two slick soap opera dramas with big budgets that were shot entirely on film. Though their middling Australian ratings resulted in the shows running only for a single season, both programs were successfully sold internationally.
Other shows to achieve varying levels of international success include ''Richmond Hill'', ''E Street'', ''Paradise Beach'' (1993–1994), and ''Pacific Drive'' (1995–1997). Indeed, these last two series were designed specifically for international distribution. Channel Seven's ''Home and Away'', a teen soap developed as a rival to ''Neighbours'', has also achieved significant and enduring success on UK television.
The 1990s and beyond
''Something in the Air (TV series), Something in the Air'', a serial examining a range of characters in a small country town ran on the ABC from 2000 to 2002.
Attempts to replicate the success of daily teen-oriented serials ''Neighbours'' and ''Home and Away'' saw the creation of ''Echo Point (TV series), Echo Point'' (1995) and ''Breakers (TV series), Breakers'' (1999) on Network Ten. These programs foregrounded youthful attractive casts and appealing locations but the programs were not long-running successes and ''Neighbours'' and ''Home and Away'' remained the most visible and consistently successful Australian soap operas in production. In their home country, they both attracted respectable although not spectacular ratings in the early 2000s. By 2004, ''Neighbours'' was regularly attracting just under a million viewers per episode – considered at that time a low figure for Australian prime time television. By March 2007, the Australian audience for ''Neighbours'' had fallen to fewer than 700,000 a night. This prompted a revamp of the show's cast, its visual presentation, and a move away from the recently added action-oriented emphasis to refocus the show on the domestic storylines it is traditionally known for. During this period ''Neighbours'' and ''Home and Away'' continued to achieve significant ratings in the UK. This and other lucrative overseas markets, along with Australian broadcasting laws that enforce a minimum amount of domestic drama production on commercial television networks, help ensure that both programs remain in production. Both shows get higher total ratings in the UK than in Australia (the UK has three times the total population of Australia) and the UK channels make a major contribution to the production costs.
It has been suggested that with their emphasis on the younger, attractive and charismatic characters, ''Neighbours'' and ''Home and Away'' have found success in the middle ground between glamorous, fantastic U.S. soaps with their wealthy but tragic heroes[ and the more grim, naturalistic UK soap operas populated by older, unglamorous characters.][ The casts of ''Neighbours'' and ''Home and Away'' are predominantly younger and more attractive than the casts of UK soaps, and without excessive wealth and glamour of the U.S. daytime serial,][ a middle-ground in which they have found their lucrative niche.
''Neighbours'' was carried in the United States on the Oxygen (TV network), Oxygen cable channel in March 2004; however it attracted few viewers, perhaps in part due to its scheduling opposite well-established and highly popular U.S. soap operas such as ''All My Children'' and ''The Young and the Restless'', and was dropped by the network shortly afterwards due to low ratings.
''headLand'' made its debut on Channel Seven in November 2005, the series arose out of a proposed spinoff of ''Home and Away'' that was to have been produced in conjunction with ''Home and Away'' UK broadcaster, Channel 5 (British TV channel), Channel 5. The idea for the spin-off was scuttled after Five pulled out of the deal, which meant that the show could potentially air on a rival channel in the UK; as such, Five requested that the new show be developed as a standalone series and not be spun off from a series that it owned a stake in. The series premiered in Australia on November 15, 2005, but was not a ratings success and was cancelled two months later on January 23, 2006. The series broadcast on E4 (TV channel), E4 and Channel 4 in the UK. Nickelodeon's ''H2O: Just Add Water, H2O: Just Add Water'' appeared in July 2006 on Network Ten. Since Connie considered this mention as a torrid soap opera, this was mentioned in the Steven Universe episode "Love Letters".
After losing the UK television rights to ''Neighbours'' to Five, the BBC commissioned a replacement serial ''Out of the Blue (2008 TV series), Out of the Blue'', which was produced in Australia. It debuted as part of BBC One's weekday afternoon schedule on 28 April 2008 but low ratings prompted its move to BBC Two on 19 May 2008. The series was cancelled after its first season.
''Neighbours'' continued low ratings in Australia resulted in it being moved to Ten's new digital channel, Eleven (TV channel), Eleven on January 11, 2011.] However, it continues to achieve reasonable ratings on Channel 5 (UK), Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, and as of March 2013 still reportedly achieved significant international sales.
''Neighbours'' was cancelled due to Channel 5, the UK broadcaster of the show, deciding to drop the programme - the money they were paying for the rights was providing the majority of its funding. It ended on 29 July 2022.
New Zealand
Television
Pioneering series ''Pukemanu'' aired over two years (1971–72) and was the NZBC's first continuing drama. It followed the goings-on of a North Island timber town.
''Close to Home (1975 TV series), Close to Home'' is a New Zealand television soap opera that ran on TVNZ 1 from 1975 to 1983. At its peak in 1977 nearly one million viewers tuned in twice weekly to watch the series co-created by Michael Noonan and Tony Isaac (who had initially only agreed to make the show on the condition they would get to make ''The Governor (New Zealand TV series), The Governor''). ''Gloss (TV series), Gloss'' is a television drama series that screened from 1987 to 1990. The series is about a fictional publishing empire run by the Redfern family. Gloss was NZ's answer to US soap ''Dynasty'', with the Carrington oil scions replaced by the wealthy Redferns and their Auckland magazine empire. It was a starting point for many actors who went on to many productions in New Zealand, Australia and around the world including Temuera Morrison, Miranda Harcourt, Peter Elliott, Lisa Chappell, Danielle Cormack and Kevin Smith. Many of them would go on to star in ''Shortland Street'', which has been New Zealand's most popular soap since its debut in 1992. It airs on TV 2 (New Zealand), TVNZ 2.
Radio
Radio New Zealand began airing its first radio soap ''You Me Now'' in September 2010. It is available for podcast on its website.
Canada
Relatively few daily soap operas have been produced on English Canadian television, with most Canadian stations and networks that carry soap operas airing those imported from the United States or the United Kingdom. Notable daily soaps that did exist included ''Family Passions'', ''Scarlett Hill'', ''Strange Paradise'', ''Metropia (TV series), Metropia'', ''Train 48'' and the international co-production ''Foreign Affairs''. ''Family Passions'' was an hour-long program, as is typical of American daytime soaps; all of the others ran half-hour episodes. Unlike American or British soap operas, the most influential of which have run for years or even decades, even daily Canadian soap operas have run for a few seasons at most. Short-run soaps, including ''49th & Main'' and ''North/South'', have also aired. Many of these were produced in an effort to comply with Canadian content regulations, which require a percentage of programming on Canadian television to originate from Canada.
Notable prime time soap operas in Canada have included ''Riverdale (1997 TV series), Riverdale'', ''House of Pride'', ''Paradise Falls'', ''Lance et Compte'' ("He Shoots, He Scores"), ''Heartland (Canadian TV series), Heartland'' ''Loving Friends and Perfect Couples'' and ''The City (1999 TV series), The City''. The Degrassi (franchise), ''Degrassi'' franchise of youth dramas also incorporated some elements of the soap opera format.
On French-language television in Quebec, the ''téléroman'' has been a popular mainstay of network programming since the 1950s. Notable téléromans have included ''Rue des Pignons'', ''Les Belles Histoires des pays d'en haut'', ''Diva (Canadian TV series), Diva'', ''La famille Plouffe'', and the soap opera parody ''Le Cœur a ses raisons''.
India
Unlike the season based production in most countries, most of Indian television fiction tends to be regular-broadcasting soap opera. These started in the 1980s, as more and more people began to purchase television sets. At the beginning of the 21st century, soap operas became an integral part of Indian culture. Indian soap operas mostly concentrate on the conflict between love and arranged marriages occurring in India, and many includes family melodrama. Indian soap operas have multilingual production.
Many soap operas produced in India are also broadcast overseas in the UK, Canada, the United States, and some parts of Europe, South Africa, Australia and South East Asia. They are often mass-produced under large production banners, with companies like Balaji Telefilms running different language versions of the same serial on different television networks or channels.
Europe
Remakes of Australian serials
The Australian serial ''The Restless Years'' was remade in the Netherlands as ''Goede tijden, slechte tijden'' (which debuted in 1990) and in Germany as ''Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten'' (which has aired since 1992): both titles translate to "good times, bad times". These remakes are still airing, but have long since diverged from the original Australian Plot (narrative), storylines. The two shows are the highest-rated soap operas in their respective countries.
A later Australian serial, ''Sons and Daughters'', has inspired five remakes produced under license from the original producers and based, initially, on original story and character outlines. These are ''Verbotene Liebe'' (Germany, 1995–2015); ''Skilda världar'' (Sweden, 1996–2002); ''Apagorevmeni agapi'' (Greece, 1998); ''Cuori Rubati'' (Italy, 2002–2003) and ''Zabranjena ljubav'' (Croatia, 2004–2008). Both ''The Restless Years'' and ''Sons and Daughters'' were created and produced in Australia by the Reg Grundy Organisation.
Another Australian soap opera reformatted for a European audience was ''E Street (TV series), E Street'' which ran on Network 10 in Australia from 1989 to 1993. Germany produced 37 episodes of ''Westerdeich'' ("Westside") in 1995 using scripts from 1989 episodes of ''E Street''. It was also remade in Belgium as ''Wittekerke'' ("Whitechurch") and ran from 1993 to 2008.
Norway
The Norway, Norwegian soap opera ''Hotel Cæsar'' aired on TV 2 (Norway), TV 2 from 1998 to 2017, and is the longest-running television drama in Scandinavia. Popular foreign soaps in the country include ''Days of Our Lives'' (broadcast on TV6 (Norway), ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' (TNT (Norway) and ''Home and Away'' (TV 2 Norway, TV 2), all of which are subtitled.
Netherlands
Serials have included ''Goede tijden, slechte tijden'' (1990–present), ''Onderweg naar Morgen'' (1994–2010) and ''Goudkust'' (1996–2001). In 2016 ''Goede tijden, slechte tijden'' spin-off ''Nieuwe Tijden'' started airing, but was ultimately cancelled by broadcaster RTL in 2018. Linear viewership for ''Goede tijden, slechte tijden'', the country's most prominent soap opera, has decreased in recent years. However, due to a rising viewership on streaming platforms, RTL has decided to continue producing the show throughout the 2022/2023 television season. U.S. daytime serials ''As The World Turns'' and ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' have aired in the Netherlands; ''As the World Turns'' began airing in the country in 1990, with Dutch language, Dutch subtitles.
Germany
In the 1980s, West German networks successfully added American daytime and primetime soap operas to their schedule before Das Erste introduced its first self-produced weekly soap with ''Lindenstraße'', which was seen as a German counterpart to ''Coronation Street''. Like in other countries, the soap opera met with negative reviews, but eventually proved critics wrong with nearly 13 million viewers tuning in each week. Even though the format proved successful, it was not until 1992 before ''Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten'' became the first German daily soap opera. Early ratings were bad as were the reviews, but the RTL Television, RTL network was willing to give its first soap opera a chance; ratings would improve, climbing to 7 million viewers by 2002. Not long after ''Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten'', Das Erste introduced ''Marienhof (TV series), Marienhof'', which aired twice a week.
After successfully creating the first German daily soap, production company Grundy Ufa wanted to produce another soap for RTL. Like ''GZSZ'', the format was based on an Australian soap opera from Reg Watson. But RTL did not like the plot idea about separated twins who meet each other for the first time after 20 years and fall in love without knowing that they are related. The project was then taken to Das Erste, which commissioned the program, titled ''Verbotene Liebe'', which premiered on January 2, 1995. With the premiere of ''Verbotene Liebe'', the network turned ''Marienhof'' into a daily soap as well. In the meanwhile, RTL debuted the Grundy Ufa-produced ''Unter uns'' in late 1994.
ZDF started a business venture with Canada and co-produced the short-lived series ''Family Passions'', starring actors such as Gordon Thomson (actor), Gordon Thomson, Roscoe Born, Dietmar Schönherr and a young Hayden Christensen. The daytime serial premiered on December 5, 1994, lasting 130 episodes. After its cancellation, the network debuted ''Jede Menge Leben''. Even after a crossover with three soaps, ''Freunde fürs Leben'', ''Forsthaus Falkenau'' and ''Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht'', the soap was canceled after 313 episodes. Sat.1 tried to get into the soap business as well, after successfully airing the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours'', which was dropped in 1995 due to the talk show phenomenon that took over most of the daytime schedules of German networks. The network first tried to tell a family saga with ''So ist das Leben! Die Wagenfelds'', before failing with ''Geliebte Schwestern''. RTL II made its own short-lived attempt with ''Alle zusammen – jeder für sich''.
The teen soap opera ''Schloss Einstein'' debuted on September 4, 1998, focusing on the life of a group of teenagers at the fictional titular boarding school near Berlin. As of July 2014, the series has produced over 815 episodes during the course of 17 seasons, a milestone in German television programming, and was renewed for an 18th season to debut in 2015.
In 1999, after the lasting success of ''Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten'', ''Marienhof'', ''Unter uns'' and ''Verbotene Liebe'', ProSieben aired ''Mallorca – Suche nach dem Paradies'', set on Mallorca, the Spanish island with the same name. After nine months, the network canceled the program due to low viewership and high production costs. Even though ratings had improved, the show ended its run in a morning timeslot. The soap opera became something of a cult classic, as its 200-episode run was repeated several times on free-to-air and multichannel video programming distributor, pay television.
In 2006, ''Alles was zählt'' became the last successful daily soap to make its debut, airing as a lead-in to ''Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten'' and also produced by Grundy Ufa. Since Germany started to produce its own telenovela
A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...
s, all soap operas faced declines in ratings. ''Unter uns'' was in danger of cancellation in 2009, but escaped such a fate due to budget cuts imposed by the show's producers and the firing of original cast member Holger Franke, whose firing and the death of his character outraged fans, resulting in a ratings spike in early 2010. After ''Unter uns'' was saved, Das Erste planned to make changes to its soap lineup. ''Marienhof'' had to deal with multiple issues in its storytelling, as well as in producing a successful half-hour show. Several changes were made within months, however ''Marienhof'' was canceled in June 2011. ''Verbotene Liebe'' was in danger of being cancelled as well, but convinced the network to renew it with changes that it made in both 2010 and 2011; the soap was later expanded to 45 minutes after ''Marienhof'' was canceled, and the network tried to decide on whether to revamp its lineup.
While ''Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten'', ''Unter uns'' and ''Alles was zählt'' are currently the only daily soaps on the air after ''Verbotene Liebe'' has been cancelled and aired its last episode in June, 2015 due to low ratings, the telenovelas ''Sturm der Liebe'' and ''Rote Rosen'' are considered soaps by the press as well, thanks to the changing protagonists every season.
Belgium
In Belgium, the two major soap operas are ''Thuis'' ("Home") and ''Familie'' ("Family"), both prime time soap operas. Soap operas have been very popular in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. ''Familie'' debuted in late 1991, and with more han 6,700 half-hour episodes, it has the highest episode total of any soap in Europe outside of the United Kingdom. The highest-rated soap opera is ''Thuis'', which has aired on "één" since late 1995. ''Thuis'' is often one of the five most-watched Belgian shows and regularly garners over one million viewers (with 6.6 million Flemings in total).
During the 1990s, foreign soap operas such as ''Neighbours'' and ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' were extremely popular, the latter having achieved a cult status in Belgium and airing in the middle of the decade during prime time. Both soaps still air today, along with other foreign soaps such as ''Days of Our Lives'', Australia's ''Home and Away'' and Germany's "Sturm der Liebe". Vitaya unsuccessful attempted to air the Dutch soap opera "Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden" in 2010. Other foreign soaps that previously aired on Belgian television include ''The Young and the Restless'', ''EastEnders'' (both on VTM), "Port Charles" (at één, then known as TV1) and "Coronation Street" (on Vitaya). "Santa Barbara (TV series), Santa Barbara" aired during the 1990s on VTM for its entire run.
In early 2000s, the only teen soap opera on Belgian television was ''Spring (television soap), Spring'' ("Jump" in English), which aired on the youth-oriented Ketnet and produced over 600 15-minute episodes from late 2002 until 2009, when it was cancelled after a steady decline in ratings following the departures of many of its original characters.
Italy
The most successful soap opera in Italy is the evening series ''Un posto al sole'' ("A Place Under the Sun"), which had aired on Rai 3 since 1996 (whose format is based on the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours''). Several other Italian soaps have been produced such as ''Ricominciare'' ("Starting Over"), ''Cuori rubati'' ("Stolen Hearts"), ''Vivere'' ("Living"), ''Sottocasa'' ("Downstairs"), ''Agrodolce'' ("Bittersweet") and ''Centovetrine'' ("Hundred Shop Windows").
The most popular Italian prime-time soap opera, ''Incantesimo'' ("Enchantment"), which ran from 1998 to 2008, became a daytime soap opera for the final two years of its run, airing five days a week on Rai 1. The same happened with ''Il paradiso delle signore'' (''Woman's Paradise''), a period drama, which ran from 2015 to 2017 in prime-time, and became a daytime period soap opera from 2018.
Ireland
Television
In the early years of RTÉ, the network produced several dramas but had not come close to launching a long-running serial. RTÉ's first television soap was ''Tolka Row'', which was set in urban Dublin. For several years, both ''Tolka Row'' and ''The Riordans'' were produced by RTÉ; however, the urban soap was soon dropped in favor of the more popular rural soap opera ''The Riordans'', which premiered in 1965. Executives from Yorkshire Television visited during on-location shoots for ''The Riordans'' in the early 1970s and in 1972, debuted ''Emmerdale Farm'' (now ''Emmerdale''), based on the successful format of the Irish soap opera. In the late 1970s, ''The Riordans'' was controversially dropped. The creator of that series would then go on to produce the second of his "Agri-soap" trilogy ''Bracken (TV series), Bracken'', starring Gabriel Byrne, whose character had appeared in the last few seasons of ''The Riordans''. Bracken (TV series), Bracken was soon replaced by the third "Agri-soap" ''Glenroe'', which ran until 2001. As RTÉ wanted a drama series for its Sunday night lineup rather than a soap opera, ''On Home Ground'' (2001–2002), ''The Clinic (TV series), The Clinic'' (2002–2009) and ''Raw (TV series), RAW'' (2010–2013) replaced the agri-soaps of the previous decades.
In 1989, RTÉ decided to produce its first Dublin-based soap opera since the 1960s. ''Fair City'', which is set in the fictional city of Carrickstown, initially aired one night a week during the 1989–90 season, and similar to its rural soaps, much of the footage was filmed on location – in a suburb of Dublin City. In 1992, RTÉ made a major investment into the series by copying the houses used in the on-location shoots for an on-site set in RTÉ's Headquarters in Dublin 4. By the early 1990s, it was airing two nights a week for 35 weeks a year. With competition from the UK soap operas, RTÉ expanded ''Fair City'' to three nights a week for most of the year and one night a week during the summer in 1996, later expanding to four nights a week and two nights during the summer. Until the early 2000s, the series produced four episodes a week, airing all 52 weeks of the year. ''Fair City'' airs Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8.00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on RTÉ One; however, after rival network TV3 moved ''Coronation Street'' to Thursday night, the Wednesday night episode of ''Fair City'' began airing at 7:30 p.m. each week.
TG4 produce the Irish language soap ''Ros na Rún'' ("Headland of the Secrets" or "Headland of the Sweethearts"); set in the fictional village of ''Ros Na Rún'', located outside Galway and near Spiddal, it centres on the domestic and professional lives of the town's residents. It is modeled on an average village in the West of Ireland, but with its own distinct personality – with a diverse population that share secrets, romances and friendships among other things. While the core community has remained the same, the look and feel of ''Ros Na Rún'' has changed and evolved over the years to incorporate the changing face of rural Ireland. It has an established a place not only in the hearts and minds of the Irish speaking public, but also the wider Irish audience. The program has dealt with many topics, including domestic violence, infidelity, theft, arson, abortion, homosexuality, adoption, murder, rape, drugs, teen pregnancy and paedophilia. It runs twice a week for 35 weeks of the year, currently airing Tuesday and Thursday nights. ''Ros na Rún'' is the single largest independent production commissioned in the history of Irish broadcasting. Prior to TG4's launch, it originally aired on RTÉ One in the early 1990s.
Although Ireland has access to international soaps (such as ''Coronation Street'', ''Emmerdale'', ''EastEnders'', ''Home and Away'', ''Hollyoaks'' and ''Neighbours''), ''Fair City'' continues to outperform them all, and is Ireland's most popular soap opera, with the show peaking at over 700,000 viewers.
January 2015 ''Red Rock (TV series), Red Rock'' has broadcast on TV3. Red Rock airs twice a week on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The series is base in a fishing village in Dublin. The soaps centres around the local Garda station but also includes stories from the village.
Radio
RTÉ Radio produced its first radio soap, ''Kennedys of Castleross'', which ran from April 13, 1955, to 1975. In 1979 RTÉ long running TV soap The Riordans moved to Radio until December 24, 1985. In the mid-1980s, RTÉ debuted a new radio soap, ''Harbour Hotel'', which ran until the mid-1990s. The network later ran two short-lived radio soaps, ''Konvenience Korner'' and ''Riverrun'', which were followed in 2004 by ''Driftwood''. RTÉ does not run any radio soaps, however RTÉ Radio 1 continues to air radio dramas as part of its nighttime schedule.
France
* ''Rue Carnot'' (1984-1987) : Aired on Canal+.
* ''Sous le soleil'' (1996-2008) : Aired on TF1.
* ''Les vacances de l'amour'' (1996-2007) : Aired on TF1. Third series and first soap opera in the ''Hélène et les Garçons'' franchise.
* ''Plus belle la vie'' (2004-2022) : Shown on France 3 on Monday to Friday evenings.
* ''Cœur Océan'' (2006-2011) : Aired on France 2.
* ''Baie des flamboyants'' (2007-2008) : Aired on France Ô.
* ''Foudre'' (2007-2011) : Aired on France 2.
* ''Seconde Chance'' (2008-2009) : Aired on TF1.
* ''Cinq Sœurs'' (2008) : Aired on France 2.
* ''Paris 16e'' (2009) : Aired on M6 (TV channel), M6.
* ''Les Mystères de l'amour'' (since 2011) : Broadcast by TMC (TV channel), TMC. Fourth series and second soap opera in the ''Hélène et les Garçons'' franchise.
* ''Les Flamboyants'' : (2011-2012) : A spin-off of ''Baie des flamboyants'', aired on France Ô.
* ''Sous le soleil de Saint-Tropez'' (2013-2014) : A spin-off of ''Sous le soleil'', aired on TMC (TV channel), TMC.
* ''Cut !'' (2013-2019) : Aired on France Ô.
* ''Tomorrow Is Ours, Demain Nous Appartient'' (since 2017) : Shown on TF1 on Monday to Friday evenings.
* ''Un si grand soleil'' (since 2018) : Broadcast by France 2.
* ''OPJ, Pacifique Sud'' (since 2019) : Broadcast by France Ô.
* ''Ici Tout Commence'' (since 2020) : Shown on TF1 on Monday to Friday evenings.
Greece
In Greece, there have been several soap operas.
ANT1
An early serial was ''Sti skia tou hrimatos'' ("Money Shadows"), which ran from 1990 to 1991. September 1991 saw the debut of ''Lampsi'' ("the Shining"), from creator Nicos Foskolos. The series would become Greece's longest-running soap opera. After the success of ''Lampsi'' came the short lived ''To galazio diamandi'' ("Blue Diamond") and ''Simphonia siopis'' ("Omertà"). ''Lampsi'' was canceled in June 2005 due to declining ratings. It was replaced by ''Erotas'' ("Love"), a soap that ran from 2005 to 2008. After that series ended, ANT1 abandoned the soap opera genre and focused on comedy series and weekly dramas.
Greece's second longest-running soap is ''Kalimera Zoi'' ("Goodmorning Life"), which ran from September 1993 until its cancellation in June 2006 due to low ratings.
MEGA
Mega Channel began producing soap operas in 1990 with the prime time serial ''I Dipsa'' ("The Thirst"), which ran for 102 episodes. Other daytime soaps have included ''Paralliloi dromoi'' (1992–1994) and its successor ''Haravgi'' ("Daylight", 1994–1995), both of which were cancelled due to low viewership; as well as the serials ''Apagorevmeni Agapi'' ("Forbidden Love"), which ran from 1998 to 2006; ''Gia mia thesi ston Ilio'' ("A Spot Under the Sun"), which ran from 1998 to 2002; ''Filodoxies'' ("Expectations"), which ran from 2002 to 2006; and ''Vera Sto Deksi'' ("Ring on the Right Hand"), which ran from 2004 to 2006 and proved to be a successful competitor to ''Lampsi'', causing that show's ratings to decline.
''Ta Mistika Tis Edem'' ("Edem Secrets"), which was created by the producers of ''Vera Sto Deksi'', debuted in 2008 and has eclipsed that show's success. Its ratings place it consistently among the three highest-rated daytime programs.
ERT
YENED (which was renamed ERT2 in 1982) was responsible for the first Greek soap operas ''I Kravgi Ton Likon'' and ''Megistanes''. ERT also produced the long-running soap ''O Simvoleografos''. Since 2000 and with the introduction of private television, ERT produced additional daily soap operas, which included ''Pathos'' ("Passion"), ''Erotika tis Edem'' ("Loving in Eden") and ''Ta ftera tou erota'' ("The Wings of Love"). These failed to achieve high ratings and were canceled shortly after their premiere.
ALPHA
Alpha produced ''Kato apo tin Acropoli'' ("Under the Acropolis"), which ran for 2½ years.
In 2022, Alpha produce a new soap opera ''Paradeisos'' based on the italian soap ''Il Paradiso Delle Signore''.
Cyprus
Weekday shows
The first daytime soap opera produced by a Cyprus channel was LOGOs TV's ''Odos Den Ksehno'' ("'Don't Forget' Street"), which ran from January to December 1996. It was followed by ''To Serial'', which also ran for one year from September 1997 to June 1998. CyBC created the third weekdaily soap, ''Anemi Tou Pathous'' ("Passion Winds"), running from January 2000 to June 2004, which was replaced by ''I Platia'' ("The Square") from September 2004 to July 2006. ''Epikindini Zoni'' ran from 2009 to 2010, and was cancelled after 120 episodes. ''Vimata Stin Ammo'' made its debut in September 2010.
Sigma TV first commissioned the weekdaily comedic soap ''Sto Para Pente'', which aired from September 1998 to June 2004, and was the longest weekday show in Cyprus television history, before it was surpassed by ''Se Fonto Kokkino'', which ran from September 2008 to July 2012. Other Sigma TV weekday shows include ''Akti Oniron'' (which ran from 1999 to 2001), ''Vourate Geitonoi'' (which ran from 2001 to 2005, and was the most successful weekdaily series, achieving ratings shares of up to 70% of all television households in the country), ''Oi Takkoi'' (which ran from 2002 to 2005), ''S' Agapo'' (which ran from 2001 to 2002), ''Vasiliki'' (which ran from 2005 to 2006), ''Vendetta'' (which ran from September 2005 to December 2006), ''30 kai Kati'' (which ran from 2006 to 2007) and ''Mila Mou'' (which ran from September 2007 to January 2009).
ANT1 Cyprus aired the soap ''I Goitia Tis Amartias'' in 2002, which was soon canceled. ''Dikse Mou To Filo Sou'' followed from 2006 to 2009, along with ''Gia Tin Agapi Sou'', which ran from 2008 to 2009 and itself was followed by ''Panselinos'', which has aired 2009 to 2011.
Weekly shows
The longest-running weekly show on Cyprus television is ''Istories Tou Horkou'' ("Villages Stories", which premiered on CyBC in March 1996 and ran until its cancellation in June 2006; it was revived in September 2010 but was cancelled again in March 2011 due to very low ratings), followed by ''Manolis Ke Katina'' ("Manolis and Katina", which ran from 1995 to 2004). The most controversial of these series was ''To Kafenio'' ("The Coffee Shop"), which premiered on CyBC on 1993 as a weekly series, before moving to MEGA Channel Cyprus six years later in 1999 as a weekdaily show and then moved to ANT1 Cyprus on 2000, which canceled the show one year later. There were plans to move the show back to CyBC as a weekly series in 2001, with the original cast, however, this plan was never realised. The most successful weekly shows in Cyprus currently are ANT1's ''Eleni I Porni'' ("Eleni, The Whore"), which premiered in October 2010 and CyBC's ''Stin Akri Tu Paradisou'' ("At The Heaven's Edge"), which premiered in 2007. The most successful weekdaily soap was ''Aigia Fuxia'', which aired on ANT1 Cyprus from 2008 to 2010.
Finland
The only daily Finnish soap opera so far is ''Salatut elämät'' (''Secret Lives''), which has achieved popularity in Finland since its 1999 debut on MTV3. It focuses on the lives of people along the imaginary Pihlajakatu street in Helsinki. The show has also spawned several Internet spin-off series and a film based on the show that was released in 2012.
Other soap-like shows in Finland are YLE shows ''Uusi päivä'' (which has aired from 2010 to 2018) and ''Kotikatu'' (which ran from 1995 to 2012), however these programs did not adhere to a five-episode-a-week schedule.
Middle East
Egypt
In February 2022, MBC launched the first egyptian daily soap opera, ''Downtown West El Balad''. In Cairo, two brothers became enemies after the death of their father because the eldest son was excluded from the inheritance. 190 episodes have already been produced.
Latin America
In Latin America, for many years, primetime (as well as part of daytime) programming, for the most part, has been traditionally composed of telenovelas. However, throughout the years, there have been cases where a number of television programs tended to "mix" the concepts of television series and telenovela, such as, for example, a telenovela that lasted several seasons to end. With this "overlap", many people consider that these shows could be more accurately described as "soap operas". With this being said, the two most notable Latin American examples of TV programs that could fit on the definition of a "soap opera" are ''Chiquititas'' (in both Argentina and Brazil) and ''Malhação'' (only in Brazil).
''Chiquititas'' was first broadcast in Argentina by Telefe in 1995 and soon became a national hit, especially among children. In regards to the audience, all eight seasons (the final season ended in 2006) of ''Chiquititas'' guaranteed the first place in the Argentine TV ratings for Telefe. Throughout the years, ''Chiquititas'' had a number of spin-offs not only in Argentina, but also in Brazil, Mexico and Portugal. In 1997, Silvio Santos, founder and owner of the Brazilian television network Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão, SBT, seeing the good ratings of ''Chiquititas'' in Argentina, decided to make a partnership with Telefe, and thus, SBT started to broadcast ''Chiquititas (1997 Brazilian TV series), Chiquititas'' in Brazil, but in the format of "remake", with the use of the Portuguese language instead of Spanish language, Spanish, with the use of dubbing when singing the soundtrack songs (unlike the Argentine version, on which the actors themselves sung the songs), with a Brazilian cast and with slight modifications in regards to its plot (the Brazilian version was set in the city of São Paulo instead of Buenos Aires, although many scenes of the Brazilian adaptation were actually filmed at the same Telefe studios in Buenos Aires where the Argentine version was also recorded, due to the afore-mentioned partnership between Telefe and SBT). The Brazilian version of ''Chiquititas'', which lasted five seasons and ended in 2001, was successful in the ratings as well, in a slightly smaller scale compared to the Argentine version, and despite the success of ''Malhação'' (see below), the soap opera was one of the most known TV programs of the late 1990s in Brazil, enough to put ''Chiquititas'' also in the imaginary of many Brazilian children (a proof of this is that the casting process for the third season of ''Chiquititas'' in 1999 reunited about 15,000 children in the city of São Paulo alone, a record number not seen even in any Brazilian telenovela). In 2013, SBT decided to make a second adaptation of ''Chiquititas (2013 Brazilian TV series), Chiquititas'', which lasted two seasons (the final season ended in 2015), but unlike the first version, which resembled more like its Argentine counterpart, the second version, produced only by SBT, is different not only because the soundtrack is entirely sung by the actors themselves (as well as on the Argentine version, on which the actors did not dub the songs, but unlike the first Brazilian adaptation), and is also more "modernized", with themes like social media and bullying being present. Despite the fact that the ratings of the 2013 version of ''Chiquititas'' were smaller, the soap opera was not considered a failure by the critics. SBT executives evaluated the ratings as being "satisfactory", and some fans consider the 2013 version to be a small "revival" of the 1997 version of ''Chiquititas''.
''Malhação'' has been transmitted by Rede Globo on almost every week since 1995 and has become the most successful Brazilian soap opera in the ratings. On each one of the 27 seasons shown as of 2021, the soap opera stayed in the first place on the ratings (like the Argentine version of ''Chiquititas''). Moreover, ''Malhação'' also had a number of spin-offs being produced in Brazil. However, unlike ''Chiquititas'', ''Malhação'' is more focused on teenagers, with more mature issues like teenage pregnancy, sexual relationships and the use of illicit drugs being discussed on its plot. Another interesting topic is that ''Malhação'' is considered by some fans as being the "entrance door" to many rookie actors who obtain the first opportunity of working on Rede Globo, because history has shown that a good acting in ''Malhação'' increases the possibility of being "promoted" to the primetime telenovelas (also broadcast by Rede Globo). In fact, estimates indicate that hundreds of actors participate in the casting process of ''Malhação'' each year, proving that many aspiring actors want to appear in this soap opera to further progress their careers.
Internet and mobile soap opera
With the advent of internet television and mobile phones, several soap operas have also been produced specifically for these platforms, including ''EastEnders: E20'', a spin-off of the established ''EastEnders''. For those produced only for the mobile phone, episodes may generally consist of about six or seven pictures and accompanying text.
On September 13, 2011, TG4 launched a new 10-part online series titled, ''Ros na Rún, Na Rúin'' (an Internet spin-off of ''Ros na Rún''). The miniseries took on the theme of a Mystery film, mystery; the viewer had to read Rachel and Lorcán's blogs as well as watch video diaries detailing each character's thoughts to solve the mystery of missing teenage character Ciara.
Home video release
Due to the massive number of episodes typically produced for a long-running soap opera (into the tens of thousands for some) and the fact many episodes are lost over time, home video release (in VHS, DVD or Blu-ray) of daily soap operas is generally considered impractical and impossible beyond occasional retrospective releases or highlights. A notable exception is the 1966-1971 series ''Dark Shadows
''Dark Shadows'' is an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport ...
'', which has had its entire run of 1,225 episodes (with an audio recreation of its sole missing episode) released to home video. In the case of American "primetime soap operas" this generally does not apply as typically such series produce far fewer episodes (generally on par with that of other genres), allowing home video release.
Parodies
In motion pictures, the 1982 comedy ''Tootsie'' has the lead character impersonating a woman in order to gain acting work on a long running television soap opera. Several scenes parody the production of soaps, their outrageous storylines and idiosyncratic stylistic elements.
The 1991 comedy ''Soapdish'' stars Sally Field as an aging soap opera actress on the fictional series ''The Sun Also Sets'' who pines over her own neuroses and misfortunes, such as her live-in boyfriend who leaves her to go back to his wife, and the incidents of backstabbing and scheming behind the scenes, some of which are more interesting than the stories on the program.
Another 1991 comedy, ''Delirious (1991 film), Delirious'', stars John Candy as a soap opera writer who, after a head injury, has a dream experience of being in his own creation. The dream experience is an increasingly outrageous exaggeration of soap opera plot elements.
On television, several soap opera Parody, parodies have been produced:
* ''The Carol Burnett Show'' (1967–78) featured a recurring skit, "As the Stomach Turns", that spoofed the American soap opera ''As the World Turns''.
* The first season of the children's television series ''The Electric Company'' featured a recurring sketch, "Love of Chair", spoofing classic soap operas. The title was based on the long-running soap opera ''Love of Life'', and its announcer Ken Roberts (announcer), Ken Roberts was also the announcer on ''Love of Life''.
* Two of the most famous U.S. parodies were the series ''Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'' (1976–77) and ''Soap (TV series), Soap'' (1977–81), the latter of which was a weekly sitcom/soap opera parody.
* The cult Australian prison soap opera ''Prisoner (TV series), Prisoner'' (1979–86) included a spoof television soap that the inmates were occasionally seen watching called "''Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow''". In one episode, specially recorded audio can be heard in which two characters from the fictional soap opera play out a ludicrous script which clearly pokes fun at the heightened melodrama of daytime soap operas.
* British soap opera ''Brookside (television programme), Brookside'' (1982-2003) included an in-universe soap opera parody of itself called "''Meadowcroft Park''" which ''Brookside'' characters referenced and were occasionally seen watching. The soap was set on a newly built housing estate in Chester and real scenes, even a "Part two" caption, were produced for airing on the character's houses TV's. Notably, ''Meadowcroft'' was also the original working title of ''Brookside''.
* ''Fresno (TV miniseries), Fresno'' was a 1986 American miniseries spoof of the prime time serials of the period.
* The recurring "Acorn Antiques" skit on the UK's ''Victoria Wood As Seen On TV'' (1985–87) was modeled on ''Crossroads (soap opera), Crossroads'' and other British soap operas of the 1970s. In 1992, Wood included a new soap parody for the one-off programme ''Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast'' called ''The Mall'' which was set in a shopping centre. Wood played Connie who was a send up of Polly Perkins character Trish Valentine in failed BBC soap ''Eldorado (TV series), Eldorado'' which was still airing at the time.
* ''Let The Blood Run Free'' (1990–94) was an Australian parody of medical drama series.
* The 1990–91 ABC drama ''Twin Peaks'' was a prime time series that poked fun at the genre. Episodes during the series' first season also included a fictional soap within the stories, titled ''Invitation to Love''.
* ''Shark Bay'' (1996) was an Australian parody of glamorous beachside soap operas. It featured many actors who had appeared in Australian soap operas ''Sons and Daughters'', ''Prisoner'', ''Home and Away'' and ''Neighbours''.
* The 2000–2001 The WB, WB sitcom ''Grosse Pointe (TV series), Grosse Pointe'' was a self-parody of creator Darren Star's behind-the-scenes experiences producing nighttime soaps, in particular ''Beverly Hills, 90210''.
* South African comedian Casper de Vries produced the soap opera parody ''Casper de Vries#Television, Haak en Steek'' (which ran from 2003 to 2004), based on South African soaps like ''Egoli: Place of Gold''.
* The now-cancelled ABC soap opera ''One Life to Live'' would often poke fun at the genre as well, even featuring a soap within the soap called ''Fraternity Row'', which many of ''One Life to Live'' characters had either worked on or watched. Months after ABC announced in April 2011 that it would cancel ''One Life to Live'', the series featured a storyline in which ''Fraternity Row'' itself was cancelled, leading the character of Roxy Balsom (Ilene Kristen) to desperately try and save the series, to no avail. A special episode that aired on December 19, 2011, featured the cast of ''One Life to Live'' acting out an episode of ''Fraternity Row'' in a dream of Roxy's; the episode poked fun at both ''One Life to Live'' and the entire genre itself, featuring many soap opera stereotypes such as overacting, outrageous story lines, bad casting and incestuous relationships; it also parodied some storylines featured on the real-world soap. The second-to-last episode of ''One Life to Live'' showed characters watching the final episode of ''Fraternity Row'' and exposing the show's last big secret: the series' main heroine and protagonist, Lorraine King Vonvaldenburg Baxter Beumont, was really a man.
* ''Second City Television, Second City TV'' featured ''The Days of the Week'': "Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. Saturday. Sunday. These are...The Days of the Week."
* The ABC comedy drama ''Desperate Housewives'' (which ran from 2004 to 2012) was a semi-satirical nighttime series that took many elements from the genre.
* The Fox broadcast show ''Futurama'' has a recurring spoof of ''All My Children'' called ''All My Circuits''.
* The Adult Swim animated series ''Tender Touches'', which premiered in 2017, is a parody of soap operas.
See also
* Asadora
* British Soap Awards
* Indian soap opera
* List of radio soap operas
* List of soap operas
* List of American daytime soap opera ratings
* "Love in the Afternoon (advertising campaign), Love in the Afternoon"
* Mobile soap opera
* Philippine drama
* Radio drama
* Radio theater
* ''Soap Opera Update''
* ''Soap Opera Weekly''
* ''Soaps in Depth''
* ''Soaplife''
* Soap opera rapid aging syndrome
* Supercouple
* Thai television soap opera
* Armenian soap operas
References
Bibliography
* Ang, Ien. ''Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination'', Methuen, 1985.
* Bowles, Kate. ''Soap opera: 'No end of story, ever' '' in ''The Australian TV Book'', (Eds. Graeme Turner and Stuart Cunningham), Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 2000.
Google Books link
* Geraghty, Christine. ''The Aesthetic Experience'' in Women and Soap Opera: A Study of Prime Time Soaps, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1991.
* Mercado, Andrew. ''Super Aussie Soaps,'' Pluto Press Australia, 2004.
Timeline of daytime soaps
External links
SoapHub.com – Portal for US soap operas
SoapCentral.com – Portal for US soap operas
Soapdom.com – Portal for US soap operas
SoapOperaDigest.com – Portal for US soap operas
Soaps.com – Portal for US soap operas
Soaps of the Past page on MySpace
(US soap operas)
What's on TV – Portal for UK soap operas
The Soap Show
Interviews and news on UK and Australian soaps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soap Opera
Television genres
Soap operas,
Television terminology