Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

Soap Operas

von Andrea Rieger

Table of Contents .

1. What is a soap? 2

2. A historical overview 2

3. What makes a soap a soap? 3

4. British soaps 4

5. The audience 6

6. Fieldwork 10

7. Under Observation 11

8. Bibliography 13

What is a soap? - Different definitions in short .

A soap opera is a serialized drama which runs for 52 weeks of the year with continuous storylines dealing with domestic themes, personal or family relationships and a limited running characters. Soap operas or serials are open-ended ... Soap operas are one of the few genres where weddings, for instance, are not a happy ending but the beginning of a marriage that may be troubled or even doomed to failure.¹

A dramatic program usually presented daily, with continuing characters and multiple plots. The action, which deals with contemporary problems and their solutions, continues from episode to episode called soap opera because many of the original sponsors were soap manufacturers. Also called daytime drama, soap, and soaper.²

Television soap operas are long-running serials concerned with everyday life. The serial is not to be confused with the series, in which the main characters and format remain the same from program to program but each episode is a self-contained plot. In a serial at least one storyline is carried over from one episode to the next. A series is advertised as having a specific number of episodes, but serials are potentially endless.³

These definitions can be seen as a sort of introduction to the whole field of soap operas. In the following chapters I will deal with this topic in detail.

A historical overview .

The term ,,soap opera" was first used in the 1930s to describe radio serials which were sponsored by the soap powder industry such as Procter and Gamble. These 15-minute ,,commercials" were about women and concentrated on emotional situations. By sponsoring radio programmes about women, their families and their everyday life, the sponsors hoped that they would reach a big audience of housewives who then would add their certain soap powder to their shopping lists.
These `never-ending´ stories became very popular and so these programmes switched to television programmes in the 1950s. Their length expanded from 15-minute productions to 25 minute long ones and later they even lasted 60 minutes.

Soap opera is an international phenomenon because almost every country has its own soap. The German-speaking area has its Lindenstraße or newer versions like Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten or Marienhof and Verbotene Liebe. Britain´s soap opera fans are watching Coronation Street or Eastenders; in Australia the soap Neighbours enjoys great popularity. Locally produced soap operas are almost more popular than even the most successful imports. However, the USA is very successful at exporting its soaps.

The soap imports have an important effect on the development of the local soaps, e.g the great popularity of the Australian soap Neighbours with young actors (school ages) led British producers to bring younger characters into their serials. As a result, a new generation of viewers was attracted, who can also be seen as a new group of buyers (especially for the advertisers). Today not only soap powder is sold with soaps; the range of products grew and also the range of buyers, men and women, young and old, people of various status.

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1 David McQueen: Television - A Media Student´s Guide (London, Arnold 1998), 32f

2 R. Terry Ellmore: NTC´s Massmedia Dictionary (Lincolnwood, National Textbook Company 1995)

3 http://cct.georgetown.edu/curriculum/505-98/students/
joanna/104picts/presnewest/soappres.html