beccabear67
Well-Known Member
If no, why? If yes, which ones and why?
I do like meoldrama if it's done with some subtlety, but I never cared for U.S. soap operas... with the exception of (much later than when they originally aired) Dark Shadows. It was different hough, a Dan Curtis production, and I never met one of those I didn't at least like, and Kolchak The Night Stalker I was pretty avid for 'back in the day'.
Also, for a little while with a schedule I had in the '80s I found myself following one lone U.S. soap, from it's start. It was titled Santa Barbera, but before long the characters, not helped by actor changes, no longer seemed in the least worth knowing, and subplots were too long in paying off. So I dropped it. It's barely worth mentioing but it is the one straight American soap I ever gave a try, for something around a full year I think.
I have had a couple decades long on again off again relationship with the venerable English staple Coronation Street. When it's good with some character based humour it can be very good, but it has been pretty awful sometimes too. It's one I've even gone backwards on, watching the first weeks of it from late 1960. Talk about a long story! There's even one character who (last time I looked in) is still on it who appeared in the first episode. Set in a fictional district of Manchester with a mix of mostly working class locals.
A more suburban soap set near Liverpool started in the '80s (on Channel Four); named after the cul-de-sac location of Brookside, it was another I went a bit deep on, but only for awhile. It started out with more foul language and explicit stories than had been seen and then toned down
UK soaps can be every bit as formulaic as anywhere's are, but Emmerdale, originally Emmerdale Farm, had the advantage ala Thomas Hardy of a landscape that was as much a character as the people living in the Yorkshire dales. It's a poor shadow of what it was in the early days, and unlike ITV stablemate Coronation Street, they haven't kept characters from the earliest days of the 1970s. There are two from the mid '80s, but a much later addition of a sprawling family named Dingle has practically taken the place/show over. I've skipped multiple years but have started DVRing it for the last half year, so it's there when I'm wanting something other than Corrie. I used to prefer it to the older soap at one time but not for quite awhile and have two series of DVDs (one from Finland).
There was also a semi-soap also set in Yorkshire in the '70s centered on a farm for unwanted horses, Follyfoot. It ran for a few series but a rival ITV series on Black Beauty seemed to have nudged it into early retirement, but I would have kept watching that however long it would've gone. Arthur English, later on Ghosts Of Motley hall and Are You Being Served had a regular role on it.
Those are my two long standing soap poisons. I did follow the Australian Home And Away avidly back whenever it was new ('80s?), and even got hooked on a Venezuelan series titled Our Lady of The Rose focused on a woman named Gabrielle who was wrongfully imprisoned (had to keep watching until she got justice finally, a real solid soap hook when handled well). Some people look down a the form as pure trash but there are elements of soap melodrama and personality centered sub-plots in most long form series... from Upstairs Downstairs, Foyle's War, George Gently or Downton Abbey to the various Star Treks, Babylon Five, Firefly, Buffy.
Overall though, just the five shows I've bold faced are the ones I can vouch for, and for whatever they may say about me as a viewer: Dark Shadows, Coronation Street, Brookside, Emmerdale, and Follyfoot. I've gotten books on them (but never magazines), and I think that must mean I really liked/like them and at least some of the characters/actors quite a lot.
I do like meoldrama if it's done with some subtlety, but I never cared for U.S. soap operas... with the exception of (much later than when they originally aired) Dark Shadows. It was different hough, a Dan Curtis production, and I never met one of those I didn't at least like, and Kolchak The Night Stalker I was pretty avid for 'back in the day'.
Also, for a little while with a schedule I had in the '80s I found myself following one lone U.S. soap, from it's start. It was titled Santa Barbera, but before long the characters, not helped by actor changes, no longer seemed in the least worth knowing, and subplots were too long in paying off. So I dropped it. It's barely worth mentioing but it is the one straight American soap I ever gave a try, for something around a full year I think.
I have had a couple decades long on again off again relationship with the venerable English staple Coronation Street. When it's good with some character based humour it can be very good, but it has been pretty awful sometimes too. It's one I've even gone backwards on, watching the first weeks of it from late 1960. Talk about a long story! There's even one character who (last time I looked in) is still on it who appeared in the first episode. Set in a fictional district of Manchester with a mix of mostly working class locals.
A more suburban soap set near Liverpool started in the '80s (on Channel Four); named after the cul-de-sac location of Brookside, it was another I went a bit deep on, but only for awhile. It started out with more foul language and explicit stories than had been seen and then toned down
UK soaps can be every bit as formulaic as anywhere's are, but Emmerdale, originally Emmerdale Farm, had the advantage ala Thomas Hardy of a landscape that was as much a character as the people living in the Yorkshire dales. It's a poor shadow of what it was in the early days, and unlike ITV stablemate Coronation Street, they haven't kept characters from the earliest days of the 1970s. There are two from the mid '80s, but a much later addition of a sprawling family named Dingle has practically taken the place/show over. I've skipped multiple years but have started DVRing it for the last half year, so it's there when I'm wanting something other than Corrie. I used to prefer it to the older soap at one time but not for quite awhile and have two series of DVDs (one from Finland).
There was also a semi-soap also set in Yorkshire in the '70s centered on a farm for unwanted horses, Follyfoot. It ran for a few series but a rival ITV series on Black Beauty seemed to have nudged it into early retirement, but I would have kept watching that however long it would've gone. Arthur English, later on Ghosts Of Motley hall and Are You Being Served had a regular role on it.
Those are my two long standing soap poisons. I did follow the Australian Home And Away avidly back whenever it was new ('80s?), and even got hooked on a Venezuelan series titled Our Lady of The Rose focused on a woman named Gabrielle who was wrongfully imprisoned (had to keep watching until she got justice finally, a real solid soap hook when handled well). Some people look down a the form as pure trash but there are elements of soap melodrama and personality centered sub-plots in most long form series... from Upstairs Downstairs, Foyle's War, George Gently or Downton Abbey to the various Star Treks, Babylon Five, Firefly, Buffy.
Overall though, just the five shows I've bold faced are the ones I can vouch for, and for whatever they may say about me as a viewer: Dark Shadows, Coronation Street, Brookside, Emmerdale, and Follyfoot. I've gotten books on them (but never magazines), and I think that must mean I really liked/like them and at least some of the characters/actors quite a lot.
