The term soap opera is used to describe the more naturalistic, UK drama serials such as Coronation Street. A crucial element that defines soap opera is the open-ended nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes.
this is the very first episode ever aired of Coronation Street.
The defining feature that makes a 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".
In 1976, Time magazine described American daytime television as "TV's richest market," noting the loyalty of the soap opera fan base. The article explained that at that time, many prime time 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 Seathworth of "Days of our Lives” a couple whose onscreen and real-life romance was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press.
In England soap operas began on radio and consequently were associated with the BBC. The BBC continues to broadcast the world's longest-running radio soap, The Archers, which has been running nationally since 1951. It is currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and continues to attract over five million listeners.
An early television serial was The Grove Family on the BBC. 148 episodes were produced between 1954 to 1957. The series was broadcast live and only a handful of recordings were retained in the archives.
In the 1960s Coronation Street revolutionised UK television and quickly became a British institution. Other soap operas of the 1960s included Emergency Ward 10, on ITV. The BBC also produced several serials. Compact, The Newcomers, United!, 199 Park Lane. None of these serials came close to making the same impact as Coronation Street.
During the 1960s Coronation Street's main rival was Crossroads, a daily serial that began in 1964 and was broadcast by ITV in the early evening. Crossroads was set in a Birmingham motel and while the series was popular. By the 1980s its ratings had begun to decline and several attempts to revamp the were unsuccessful, and Crossroads was cancelled in 1988.
A later rival to Coronation Street was ITV's Emmerdale Farm (later renamed Emmerdale) which began in 1972 in a daytime slot and had a rural Yorkshire setting. Increased viewing figures saw Emmerdale being moved to a prime-time slot in the
this the first part of the first ever Emmerdale farm from 1972
In 1995 Channel 4 introduced Hollyoaks, a soap with a youth focus. When Five began in March 1997 it came with its own soap opera, Family Affairs, which debuted as a five-days-a-week soap.
Brookside began to change its premise in the 1990s, moving away from the heavily politicised plots of the 1980s, instead taking on more controversial and sensationalist stories such as child rape, sibling incest, religious cults and drug addiction.
Throughout the 1990s the soap operas Brookside, Coronation Street, Eastenders and Emmerdale continued to flourish. Each increased the number of weekly episodes transmitted by at least one, further defining soap opera as the leading genre in British television.
A scene from EastEnders on Christmas Day 1986, watched by 30.15 million viewers. The story, where Den Watts served his wife Angie with divorce papers, was the highest-rated soap episode in British history, and the highest-rated programme in the UK during the 1980s
refereces; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera
No comments:
Post a Comment