I conducted some research on soap opera history so that I have a very clear understanding of soap operas in general so that I can apply what I know to my own soap opera which my group will create.
I created certain questions that I wanted to find out answers for, the questions I wanted to know were;
Why soap opera's are called soap opera's?
What is the longest running soap opera?
Key conventions found in British soap operas
Most popular characters and storylines
The answers I got for these questions were;
Why are soap operas called soap opera's?
Because back in the days before television they were mainly dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers as sponsors and producers.
What is the longst running soap opera?
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting". With over 16,500 episodes, it is both the world's longest running radio soap and, since the axing of the American soap opera Guiding Light in September 2009, the world's longest running soap opera in any format.
Key conventions found in British soap operas
A British soap opera almost always features the following conventions:
It is a serialised drama that usually runs week-in, week-out, all year round.
It features continuous storylines (or 'narratives') dealing with domestic themes and personal or family relationships.
It generally has a well-known theme tune and intro sequence which has changed little over the years1.
Though the casts for soap operas tend to be bigger than for drama series, there is a limit to the number of characters available at any one time. This allows the soap to focus on a smaller number of characters, thus allowing more time to be spent on each, so that the audience knows them better and the storylines can be more detailed and involved, as well as being more numerous over time.
The plots are open-ended and usually many storylines are featured or even interlinked in an episode. Often they follow the same issue, with, for example, two characters dealing with the break-up of a relationship. The storylines in these cases run parallel.
They are often set around a small, central area such as a square (as in EastEnders) or a cul-de-sac (such as Brookside). Sometimes, there is something else connecting the characters. For example, most of the characters in El Dorado were ex-pats who all lived in a same British-dominated ghetto of Spain.
Soaps often have special episodes for events in the real world such as Christmas or the Millennium. Some special episodes focus on long-departed characters, or current characters who travel to a location outside of their usual surroundings (such as Brookside's 'South', which saw Tracy Corkhill and her boyfriend run away to London). Such episodes are often referred to as 'soap bubbles' as they are often self-contained and have little impact on the on-going stories of the regular show.
British soaps most often feature common, ordinary, working class characters, in stark contrast to American soaps, which tend to deal with richer, flashier, more fantasy-inspired characters, reflecting the preferences of their respective target audiences.
As a rule, British soaps are realistic or, at least, aim for realism2.
Soap episodes often begin with a 'hook' in which one or more of the narratives from a previous episode are continued. The episode will undoubtedly end with a 'cliff-hanger', which is a tense and suspenseful, unconcluded piece of dialogue or action when, for example, a character finds out that their fiancée has just died - cue zoom-in on their traumatised face.
Three, four or even five storylines will be in progress during any one episode, with the action switching between them. As one narrative is resolved, another completely different one with different characters will already be underway. The characters go from quiet, harmonic (but uninteresting) periods to chaotic, confusing (but interesting) dilemmas.
Most popular characters and storylines
Erica Kane is a long-running fictional character from the American daytime drama All My Children. The character has been portrayed by actress Susan Lucci since the show's tenth episode first aired in January 1970. Erica is considered to be the most popular character in soap opera history.
To understand exactly what a soap opera is I put in research into the history of 'The Soap Opera'.
I researched a little more about soap operas for some more information on its history:
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episode work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Lever Brothers as sponsors and producers. These early radio series were broadcast in weekday daytime slots when most listeners would be housewives, the shows were aimed at and consumed by mainly female audiences.
The term soap opera has at times been generally applied to any romantic serial, but it is also used to describe the more naturalistic, unglamorous UK primetime 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. The defining feature that makes a television 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".
