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SOAP OPERA

SOAP OPERA :



Our daily lives are closely associated with the media. It has took part in a in shaping the society by influencing the people regarding how they think and act. Media has played the role of the window through which society can learn and can build communication to the people across the globe. In these media like radio and television, the Soap Opera is being an integral part for years after years. The soap opera is episodic, ongoing fictional works which are broadcasted through the television or radio. Soap Opera programs are widely recognized as the entertainment-based programs and broadly known as the “Soap”. It can be stated that the soap operas are a practical depiction of our everyday life and its circumstances. The eagerness amongst the audience for the episodes and seasons of soap operas are the prior factors which helped them to stay as they are, for many years. 

HISTORY BEHIND THE IDEA

The soap manufacturing companies like Proctor and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Lever Brothers were some sponsors of these daily shows and that is why these programs were widely known as Soap Opera, later Daily Soaps. These soap operas were produced to serve the female audience in the household with the intention to sell their products to those traditional homemakers full stop from that advertising business oriented approach to these daily soaps of present time soap Opera have witnessed a long way. The concept soap operas started to entertain people by reducing their loneliness. Mostly the women homemakers of that era used to watch the programs or listen to them. Mostly those programs were broadcasted in daytime, so, they are mostly known as “Daytime soaps”; and for the regularity of broadcasting these are called “daily soaps”.  

THE STORY OF THE BEGINNING

The soap operas were originally a part of American radio programs during the 1930s. The immense success of the the regular soap operas resulted mass popularity in the fifties. The first ever program considered as a soap Opera was painter dreams broadcasted from Chicago on WGN radio. ‘Painted Dreams’ was repaired on 20th October, 1913. This program was broadcasted regularly in a daytime time slots and mostly listen by the housewife. Therefore the creators of soap Opera started predominant Lee for the female audience and most of the houses became the target audience in the eyes of The Scholars of this genre. “Clara, Lu, 'n Em” would become the first network radio serial of the type. It was aired on the NBC Blue Network at 10:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) on January 27, 1931.  Although it did not make the move until February 15, 1932, “Clara, Lu 'n Em” would become the first network serial of this type to move to a regular weekday timeslot, and also became the first ever ‘network daytime serial’. In 1937, the American radio drama Guiding Light was started and was transferred to the television subsequently. This has been seen or heard every weekday and was the longest story ever. There are so many soap operas which have been telecasted for thirty years or more. These were  General Hospital, World Turns, Days of our Lives,  All My Children, One Life to Live and The Young and the Restless. In the 1940s, there were more than 25 radio soap operas which were filled the airways. Most of these shows were sponsored by different cleaning products like Oxydol.  All of these dramas were only 15 minutes longer in duration. The telecasting of soap operas in the radio was ended by the end of 1960s. Ma Perkins was the last soap opera telecasted in the radio platform on 25th November, 1960, which lasted for 27 years. 

INDIAN CONTEXT

The Indian soap operas are popularly known as the “serials” amongst common people. India’s first ever soap opera was Hum Log which was first aired on 1984 and ended with 154 episodes. Hum Log (Hindi) had an audience of approximately 60 million and the episodes duration was 25 minutes - last episode was 5 minutes long. The first Indian daily soap with 1000+ episodes was the famous Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (Hindi) and concluded with 1833 episodes. The first Indian soap opera with 3000+ episodes was Char Divas Sasuche (Marathi) which had entered in the Limca Book of Records. It was ended with 3200 episodes. Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah is the longest running comedy genre soap opera India with 3050+ episodes till now. In India, the concept of adapting the stories of different soap operas of different is regions are very common. The soap operas of India are commonly made in the Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Odia, Kannada, Telugu, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and Punjabi. The soap operas affect the Indian society with regards to identity, national integration, social issues and globalization, women and ethics. Soap operas helped to edutain the people throughout India about various serious issues. In rural India the number of regular audience is significantly high as these continued to embed pro-development messages in the society. In a study of 2007 it has shown that with the increasing rate of cable connection in Indian society, the rate of violence on women and son preference has decreased significantly. The school enrollment rate has also increased.  

SOAP OPERA AND US

In our daily lives the role of soap operas can be effective as they are enjoyable, entertaining and realistic in so many aspects of life. Most of the soap operas have the stories regarding romance, families, personal experience, practical life living and presents several point of views towards life. Some of the soap operas meant for different age groups only like children’s shows or adults shows. According to different people’s point of views the preference about the soap operas differs from one another. There are some positive and negative effects of soap operas on the society. Soap operas help us to spend the time in a good way, being entertained by seeing different interesting stories and they are true-to-life. Soap operas can wake our feelings and represent a humanitarian approach towards life and society. One can find some close relatable situations in the episodes of soap operas, which will help to find out the way to get of that kind of problem in practical life. Soap operas can also can “edutain” the audience by presenting an educating as well as entertaining programs. 

On the other hand, there are various negative effects of soap operas in people’s lives. These soap operas mostly considered as an unrealistic and useless presentation of life. The addiction of soap operas are harmful for everyone as people start forgetting their friends, families, plans and their selves. The loneliness sometimes causes this addiction of soap operas which may not always react positively. It can become a cause of psychological disorders and depression.  Sometimes people stop watching the shows but cannot be able to get over them, they think about the next season or episodes throughout the day. Therefore forget so many important things of the regular life living. The most irritating thing about the soap operas is the MELODRAMA, used as the main spice while writing the script. This has some prior negative effects in the audiences’ lives. Sometimes an audience adapts a character’s features within him/her and start being that person, which will definitely affect the person’s mental well-being. 

CONCLUSION

From 1930s till today – opera has come a long way. It has evolved day-to-day. People around the globe got more connected to these programs gradually. The perceptions over the soap opera are different among the audience. But its contribution throughout this whole journey undoubtedly created a significant cultural space. We can state that till now soap operas are RUNNING SUCCESSFULLY…

           
 


                                    
                                     - Shruti Nag

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