Soap Opera History

As we are going to make a trailer for a soap opera I decided to take the time to do some research on the history of soap operas, I wanted to extend my knowledge for different statistics of a soap and knew Most Popular, least watched and how long they run for would be helpful to my final production.

Definition of a Soap Opera taken from www.thefreedictionary.com 

'' soap opera

n.

1. A drama, typically performed as a serial on daytime television or radio, characterized by stock characters and situations, sentimentality, and melodrama.

2. A series of experiences characterized by dramatic displays of emotion ''

Starting with a soap from 1931 named Clara, Lu and Em that advertised household washing soap. The soap was light heart and was based on the three girls daily life. The soap always ended on a cliffhanger, very much like the soaps of today. This is where the name soap opera comes from, the first soap advertisement sponsored by 'Proctor' and 'Gamble's were played on the radio, they included these short stories with cliffhangers and this enticed to listeners to tune in again the next day.

The longest running soap opera as of now is Coronation street which started in sixties, there were a few other soap operas released at the time but they did not succeed like Coronation street has. 

The next most established soap opera was 'Emmerdale Farm' which began in 1971. During the 70s and 80s a wide range of soaps were released including newer soaps for teens. E.g Brookside and Crossroads.

The most recent and most successful soap opera would be Doctors which started in 2000 and is still running. I have also found two newer soap operas that aren't played at conventional times, instead played much later and often on a different connecting channel. For example E17  and Hollyoaks Later the spin off of Eastenders and Hollyoaks.

I wanted to look further into what has been and what is popular now. I found that Eastenders has a lot more viewing figures than most soaps but found that the most iconic is Coronation Street, this is most likely because its been around for longer and appeals to a wider range of people. I found that the least watched is Doctors as it is played at a strange time of the day and not many people are able to watch it, this shows its not very popular. It also has no reruns or omnibus programs which supports the fact it is the least watched. 

60s

70s

80s

90s

2000

I looked into which characters were most popular in soap operas. To do this I simply picked four different soaps and researched into who was the longest running character. I found most of my results on the Home Page of each soap.

Eastenders (Soap started in 1985)

Ian Beale

Dot Branning, dot left for a few years therfore has spent less time on the soap

Coronation Street (Soap started in 1960)

Ken Barlow

Emmerdale (Soap started in 1972)

Seth Armstrong- no longer in the soap as the actor died in 2005

Home and Away (Soap started in 1988)

Alf Stewart

References:
www.myoldradio.com
www.homeandaway.com
www.bbc/.com/eastenders
www.itv/.com/emmerdale
www.itv.com/corinationstreet
www.slideshare.com/bobusmaximus