History of soaps

Gokul.B

History of Soap Operas

In this essay I will be talking about the history of soap operas.

Soap operas have been one of the most popular forms of television everywhere in the world.

The original soap opera weren’t television programs as they are now and they were called serials then and stories continued day to day. They first began in the US in the 1920’s - 1930’s, when the main form of entertainment was the radio. This was because televisions were not as common in those times. These radio shows used to be sponcored by soap and powder companies and this is why the word soap is used to describe the shows. This was because radio stations relied mainly on income from there sponsors, and as female audiences were the target audience and the advertisers marketed towards them.

After getting the attentions and demands in US, the UK followed the same route and started doing these shows in a simlar way on radios here and they got popular and consequently were associated with the BBC radio.

In UK Mrs Dale's Diary was the first serial drama. It was first broadcast on the on , and was then transferred to the newly-formed in , where it ran until .

These shows were based on war because it was just after the battles and some during them, it was to distract the soldiers from the violence and to make them ...

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In UK Mrs Dale's Diary was the first serial drama. It was first broadcast on the on , and was then transferred to the newly-formed in , where it ran until .

These shows were based on war because it was just after the battles and some during them, it was to distract the soldiers from the violence and to make them forget about the misery they were going through.

When the televisions got more and more common everywhere these soap operas started to be created for T.Vs in more daily bases and it was accepted by everyone.

Emergency Ward 10 was a series shown on between and , it was made by Tessa Diamond. It was one of the first major soap operas in those times.

In the 1960s Coronation Street was brought to the UK television and quickly became quite successful, It was created by and was launched on the ITV channel in Dec 1960 and its still shown on TVs.

199 Park Lane is a produced by the in 1965. It faced many problems duringor after the broadcasting for e.g. the actors got their lines wrong or they forgot it, they had no second chance as in those days the shows would sometimes be live.

During the 1960s Corronation St’s main rival was , a daily serial that began in 1964 and was broadcast by ITV in the early evening. While the series got popular the bad acting was mocked. By the 1980s its ratings had begun to decline or fall, there were still several attempts to improve the series through cast changes and later expanding the focus from the motel to the surrounding community but it was still unsuccessful, and Crossroads was cancelled in 1988.

A later rival to the Corronation street was ITV's (later renamed Emmerdale). It began in 1972 as a daytime drama.

In 1985, the 's London based soap opera had started and was quickly recognised by everyone. It was made by script writer and producer . The show had a big competition with Emmerdale but it’s now ranked as one of the most watched saops.

Brookside was another programme introduced in on a new British television network . This show was created by .

Neighbours aired in March 1985 it was produced by Reg Watson. Although it’s origin was Australia, it was liked by many in the UK too and it was shown on the BBC channel but changed to channel Five.

Home and Away - another Australian programme shown in Britain which also quite successful amungst the audience. This serial was shown by Alan Bateman in January 1988.

Hollyoaks was released by in October 1995, its shown on channel four and E4.

Many soaps out of these are still being continued for the viewers as they were on demand but others had been aborted by the producers as they were unsuccessful or other reasons.

There have been many changes in the soaps for e.g. the quality of the programmes have improved as the technology improved and because of this many soaps have been appriciated by the viewers.

There are more and more soap operas being made as they have been quite successful in history.