Soaps show the high lights in people’s lives like marriage and births. They also show the crises in peoples lives like the current crises in the lives of Gary, Lynn and Laura after Gary has got Laura pregnant. Will he be able to get Lynn back or will this event finish Gary and Lynn’s rocky relationship.
Soaps are aired at a good evening time when most people will be settling down after the day to watch the TV. This time is often called `prime time’ and it is between 7 and 8 o’clock. Eastenders is aired at 7:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 8:00 on Mondays and Fridays to attract the attention of more viewers who don’t normally watch the soap and also for a convenient time for people who normally view the soap. They are also aired on ordinary TV (BBC 1,2, ITV, CH4 and CH5) so that anyone with television has a chance of seeing a soap. Soaps are also on most days of the week, four days for Eastenders with an extra omnibus on Sundays. Soaps are on the TV more or less all year round. Some Christmas events knock the schedules back and episodes are fitted in wherever possible. Plus the more episodes of the soap that can be fitted in, the more issues are raised during the course of the week so the more viewers will be interested in the soap. The length of issues in the soaps are realistic ie. Court cases and funerals so that it seems more like a diary of peoples lives rather than a TV documentary. This makes the issues last longer which keeps viewers interested.
Soaps include a range of characters like `settled down’ families like Nat and Barry, Billy and Moe from Eastenders. They also include `adolescent’ characters such as Sonia, Zoe, Robbie, and Janine. They include `villains’ like Phil Mitchel and not so long ago Steve Owen. Finally they include `older people’, single and married like, Peggy Mitchel, Pat and Roy Evans, Dot and Jim Branning and Pauline Fowler.
One last criterion of a soap is the devious use of cliffhangers at the end of an episode. A cliffhanger is when the episode finishes and leaves you in a great suspense after a dramatic twist in the episode like an old character returning or a tragic accident or someone standing in the street after they have been thrown out of their home. Some recent twists include Phil returning with baby Lou and Jamie being knocked over by Martin, at that time you didn’t know if he would live or not. These cliffhangers get the viewer `hooked’ into the soap and make them become very interested in the contents of the next episode causing them to watch it. Even if viewers say they aren’t going to watch the next episode they still watch it because natural nosey instincts and cravings from the mind make the viewer watch the soap again and again. Soon these viewers become a regular audience to the soap and even if the soap has a baron patch of storylines and events the viewer still watches the soap because it’s now a part of their lives. This is one of the reasons why soaps are so popular.
Soaps are so popular because they revolve around ordinary life. Depending on where they are set, some soaps have different events in them, Emmerdale is set on a farm village and it shows what goes on in this particular area. Eastenders is set in London and is based around the busy capital life of the south of the country. Giving views on others peoples lives can give the audience good information about the other parts of the country and people like this because they can relate to this in accordance with their own lives.
Being able to relate to a soap storyline or an idol character in the soap means that the viewer can understand the feelings and emotions with certain points in a soap. This relationship between the viewer and soap shows a bigger involvement in the soap for the viewer, viewers feel that they know the characters and ultimately feel for them more. For instance when Lynn from Eastenders didn’t want anything to do with Gary after he got Laura pregnant. Audience members can feel for Lynn and sympathize with her after the shock. Audience members also might feel the thoughts of Gary as he knew he had done wrong and all he wanted to do was get back to normal with Lynn. This emotion that a viewer feels for the soap or a certain characters in one means that they keep getting even more involved with it and then become that character. If a character is happy, the audience member is happy, if a character is sad, the viewer is sad. This means that soaps have a big influence on people’s lives and this is also what makes them so popular.
Soaps are also popular because they often remind people of their own lives, happiness and sadness. Marriages, deaths, births or divorces often occur in soaps and a viewer can re-live their own experiences. Then the cliffhangers ensure that the viewer keeps watching even if the events of the time make them sad. This is also another form of the audience getting emotionally involved in the soap and it’s characters.
Cliffhangers are a major part of soaps but they are also one of the main reasons why they are so popular. Emotional involvement with the soap from a viewer and nosey instincts ensure that viewers continue to view the soap. This makes the soap grow ever more popular.
I do watch soaps (Eastenders only) because it is very entertaining watching all of the confrontations that occur on the soap and also it’s aired a good time in the evening when I want to sit down and relax in front of the TV. It also make you feel like you have more friends because you feel that you know the characters as your own close friends as you see what they do most of the time. I started watching Eastenders just after Phil got shot as there was a lot of people talking about it and I thought it must be quite good since there was so many people around me interested in it. It took me a long time to work out who was who and what had happened before Phil got shot. Now I know who all of the characters are and their relationships with others. I now find it easier to follow now that I have some knowledge of past storylines, rivalries and affairs etc. Sometimes you think you know what is going to happen but most of the time you are wrong and that is a lot of the excitement of watching Eastenders. Because of my interest in the soap and enthusiasm to learn what happened when I first started watching it, plus the cliffhangers I soon became a regular viewer and now I never miss an episode.
One of my sets of Grandparents always watch Emmerdale because they like the country setting and the storylines, events and consequences because of the setting of the soap. They also like the acting, they like the characters, relationships and the roles that they play. They find it easy to follow and the actors seem to them like they actually perform they soap position in real life, this makes the soap very entertaining.
My other set of Grandparents don’t watch TV at all because of soaps and films on it. They think that the actors and storylines are tacky and false and that they don’t resemble real life at all. They fault everything they see and criticize all programs on TV. Even the news gets complained at, they think that all that is said is bad and gloomy and they don’t want to be always thinking about others people’s problems.
I watch Eastenders, this is because it shows me what goes on in other people’s lives in other parts of the country. I watch every week day episode and the Sunday omnibus to remind me of the past weeks events.
I don’t like Coronation Street because whenever I watch it, the only people on it are some old people struggling out of their tiny old terraced houses, or some lonely kid kicking a football against a wall in a small backyard. To me it is very boring.
I don’t like Emmerdale either because although seeing the country life that some people have there isn’t very much else to it. They characters are hillbillies who just sit there talking about all they do is milk cows or round up sheep. Then the only socializing that they do is tell the same story to a stranger in a pub with a pint of bitter in their hand. It would be much better if it showed you someone being crushed by a tractor or a barn blowing over. It’s so lifeless.
There are a lot of other soaps on TV but I don’t normally watch them, or even have time for them. Some of them are foreign and some just don’t have any good or exciting characters or storylines. Some of the other soaps include Crossroads, Family Affairs and Neighbors.
The only other programme on TV that I watch is The Bill. I don’t know why I watch it but I was first interested in it when I was watching TV and I saw the start of it. I was quite young then and I thought it was great with all of the police cars. My dad then said I couldn’t watch it and I wondered why, then I started watching it, I never miss an episode now.
Storylines are the base of a soap. Without them a soap wouldn’t be worth producing as there would be nothing to see. Sometimes they can be really exciting but other times there might not be much activity in a soap. This doesn’t matter as most viewers are hooked on the soap and the producers can lay off the good storylines for a while. However you do need good storylines running through the soap all of the time, an old one coming to an end, the main one with all the drama and a new one just brewing to create more activity.
Currently in Eastenders Gary is trying to persuade Lynn to stay with him after he has got Laura pregnant and Ian has thrown her out. Laura has now run off to her mother for help as she has no money. Will she come back? Gary had already given Laura his and Lynn’s holiday money for her to rent somewhere. Now Lynn has said that a holiday for her and Gary may just bring them back together again. Thankfully Phil gave Gary the money as he had managed to shut up Ian, a fierce business rival of Phil’s.
After Zoe persuaded Kat to see Anthony even though she wanted him herself, Kat has dumped him because she couldn’t keep up to his high doctor style life and didn’t get on with any of his friends.
Nat is having an affair with Rickie behind Barry’s back even though she knows that it’s wrong and deep down she doesn’t want to. Rickie was her first love and she still can’t get over him. Barry is beginning to think something is wrong and is trying everything to make her happy, with him and baby Jack.
Alfi the imposter is in deep trouble as someone from his past is threatening to tell Peggy all about him. Alfi is paying him money to not tell anyone as this is a great chance for him to build a home for his brother Spencer and their Nan.
This week the main storyline is all about the affair between Nat and Rickie as it has been brewing up for some time now and all the TV guides say that they get caught together. This may lead to Barry finding out, or Nat may keep the person who sees them together quiet and to stop the relationship with Rickie. If Barry does find out it will break his heart and Nat would then probably want to get back together with him. There is also Jack to think about. This will create a lot of twists and excitement.
Soaps play a major part in people’s lives and can provide good, true entertainment. The can provide help to people in their own lives by giving them good ways and solutions to sort out any of their own problems. They are entertaining as they provide something to watch on TV at prime time which isn’t some sci-fi drama series or games show when people win loads of things seeming very easily which is boring seeing other people winning things that you could use more. Soaps have a bad side to them also, the more a soap is watched by a viewer the bigger impact it has on their lives and soon people can get very emotionally involved with the soap or an idol character in one. This means that people’s lives are sometimes ruled by certain events in the soaps. Also the cliffhangers force them to continue watching the soap. One the whole if a viewer controls their emotions and tries to get on with their lives instead of continually thinking about the soap then they are good as they can help you to relax and forget about the world around you. This is of course unless events in the soap don’t remind you of events in your life. The less involved you get with them the better they seem and you get more enjoyment out of watching them all together.
English Soap Work Brian Moss 9LW