Soap Opera History

Why soap operas are called soap operas As a group we found that in the 1920's radio was going really well and broad casts wanted to get advertisements in to increase profits Radio stations got businesses who sold house hold goods to sponsor the radio shows. They were to appeal to female homemakers. All the networks had serials aimed at women and companies selling cleaning products wanted to sponsor the shows. In 1939 the press started to call the shows 'soap opera' as so many of them were sponsored by soap manufactures. What the longest running soap is We all went away and took a soap each and found out how long that soap had been running for or which was the longest running soap at any time and these were the results we found. Eastenders = 19th February 1985 = 26 years Emmerdale = 16th October 1972 = 39 years Coronation Street = 9th December 1960 - 51 years The Arches = 1st January 1951 = 60 years - The Arches is the longest running British soap opera. Key conventions found in British soap opera After doing a lot of research we found that the key conventions of a soap opera are setting, plot and narrative setting, characterisation, themes and issues and signs of the soap. Setting; characteristic of setting include the domestic, anti-romantic, empirical and secular contemporary world, frequently set in the middle, lower-middle and working class settings, urban or suburban and with an emphasis on leisure activities rather than work settings. Plot and narrative setting; generally episodic and shapeless, reflective of the contingent shape of life itself, but bound by rigid patterns of causality and psychological motivation. Individual episodes tend to be shaped to achieve a blend and variety moods and atmospheres. Reliance on juxtaposition scenes, frequently involving either comparisons or commentaries on events or affairs. Importance of the cliff hanger ending, but note the absence of closure and the provisional resolutions of problems or relationships. Characterisation; note and emphasis on psychological realism, and on the domestic, social and sexual aspects of life, and particularly the emotional life, with its patterns of desire/motivation and reaction. Importance of treatment of the private lives of individuals in relation to the public community. Themes and issues; social class and mobility; gender relationships; desire and transgression; practical morality and codes of action and behaviour are all themes that are dealt with in soaps. Most watched episodes according to BARB figures Again we all took a couple of soaps each and we found out how many people watched that soap in the week that we were given the task and these are the figures that we found on the BARB website. Eastenders = 8.98 million Coronation Street = 8.86 million Emmerdale = 7.01 million

Casualty = 5.64 million Holby City = 5.41 million Neighbours = 1.37 million Home and Away = 1.03 million Most popular characters and story lines We found that these were the most popular characters and storylines form the soaps we researched. Eastenders = Phil Mitchell Emmerdale = Aaron Livesy Hollyoaks = Brendan Brady Neighbours = Joe Mangel Home and Away = Alf Stewart The most popular and highly-rated storylines was Sharongate, where Grant discovers that his wife Sharon has been having an affair with his brother which reached its climax on the 24th of October 1994, attracting 25.3 million viewers. Any Other information BBC 1 gets a weekly reach of 47,817 000's = 83.3% ITV gets a weekly reach of 37,961 000's = 66.2% Channel 4 gets a weekly reach of 35,262 000's = 61.5% Channel 5 gets a weekly reach of 26,261 000's = 45.8%