Which Country Shows The Greatest Soap Operas

[Shawn]

I so <3 you right now.

[DevotedToAMC]

Since I only know soaps from America, I will pick American soaps

[jfung79]

I'm from the US, but I would pick

UK soaps no contest!!

So All my Shadows, I'm afraid you are mistaken, people are not always going to pick the country they're from.

The longest soap I have watched continuously, from any country, is EastEnders, since Eddie Royle's death in 1991 or 1992. The relatability of the characters and their yearning, the humorous moments and characters and the sad ones, the family connections, are gripping. Never have I seriously considered quitting. We are only up to 2002 episodes on my local PBS station right now though. When we got it, I also enjoyed watching Emmerdale (then Emmerdale Farm).

[Drew]

How about we not try to tell posters what they can or can't talk about instead?

[Drew]

As far as the original question of this thread goes, which is very valid as we do have international visitors and local viewers who watch international soaps (as evident by our Foreign Soaps thread) and a topic we havent discussed for a while, it's difficult to pick.

The UK soaps are amazing for their production values, casting, and intelligent writing. The Australian soaps are great for their outdoor locations - especially Home and Away's beach, casting, production, and they tend to tell more escapist stories that are still grounded in reality. The US soaps ..... um, cheap production, six pack casting, and plot driven writing that hasn't been done right for atleast a decade.

The UK soaps are a little too grounded in reality for my taste. I like some escapism and excitment in my soaps.

The US soaps are currently a laughing stock in comparison. Too much meddling by people who don't understand and don't care about the genre, only what cross promotional possibilities there are. They've lost the social relevance that made them once so great. And the outlandish stories they've been doing for the last 20 years is feeling repetitive.

The Australian soaps are more the right mix of UK and US soap. They have the character based drama, with the excellent production values and casting, while at the same time telling stories that aren't grounded in grim reality and that would probably never happen to anyone in real life. Only downside to theirs is their timeslot means they can only have a certain # of PG rated episodes per year. But even when they are on a G rated day, the only thing really effected is some of the dialogue become a bit simple.

I definitely like the Australian ones best.

[AMCGio83]

There would be no British soaps if a little woman named Irna Phillips wouldn't have started the genre. Soaps are a uniquely American artform and I don't think British soaps have ever really done anything to improve upon them. Sorr, it's all about American soaps where we like our women big-haired and bitchy, our heroines crying and our couples smoking hot.

[Drew]

I'm pretty sure what you just described is nothing like what Irna Phillips created. The soaps the US currently has owe more to Larry Jacobs and Aaron Spelling and the glamourious camp they created in primetime that daytime stole, morethan they do to Irna Phillips - sadly.

[AMCGio83]

Of course, the latter part was in jest. I know what Irna phillips created and that forumla will always be best in my book but there is no denying that part of the appleal, legacy and magic of the genre is th glamour (think Santa Barbara, Conboy's Y&R, Monty's GH, B&. The difference now is that soaps don't have the budget and they certainly don't have the compelling stories of yesteryear. But even today, they can sometimes surprise. Point is: Great writing is great, I wish Agnes Nixon was writing AMC now, but theres a some magic in the glamor of the American soaps that simply isn't present in the soap operas of other countries.

[WTGH]

Telenovelas are the best!

[All My Shadows]

Please. I was not trying to tell him what he can and can't talk about. I'm not so stupid that I think I have control over what someone says. I was being completely rhetorical with my first sentence because I knew where the thread would end up. Someone would imply that all US soaps are filled to the brim with models who don't have any acting skills. Yes, it's true to an extent, but it's a little hyperbolic to act as if there's no legitimate talent in daytime.

Personally speaking, there are a lotta things in the UK soaps that I would love for our soaps to have. No SORASing would be great, but it's much too late to make a no-SORAS policy. It's been going on since 1940s, so making people their right ages now would throw things even more out of whack than they already are. Of course I'd love more balance and for the older cast members to get stories that are truly their own. I'd love it if each soap had their own outdoor set, but I think it'd be harder to do that here than it is in the UK. With the UK soaps, most of them are set around a relatively close area, so it's not hard to know what to build a set for. You figure..."Coronation Street," the outdoor set would be...Coronation Street. And for "EastEnders," they would use a set of Albert Square. But for AMC, what would be the logical choice? An exterior of the Valley Inn? Or the park? Or the boathouse?

But there are some things I just wouldn't want to see in the US soaps. Like, for instance, in December, Wendy Richard, an original cast member of EE, left the show. So they killed her character, Pauline Fowler, off on Christmas Day. And I think about that...and it'd be like killing Stephanie Forrester off on Christmas or killing Dorian Lord off on Christmas. It just seems like such a mood-killer. And then there's the fact that both UK and Aussie soaps seem to have a constantly revolving door of characters and cast members. You can check out the "Neighbours" cast list right now and there are only 7 people who were on the show pre-2000. I've been researching "Home and Away" a lot lately and I still can't get over the fact that out of 18 cast members, half of them joined the show in either 2005 or 2006. I know that those soaps are targeted more to a younger audience and that the UK soaps have a lot more veterans, but I still can't get over it. I really liked the "Neighbours" episodes I saw on Oxygen from 1999, but most of the people who were on the show then are gone now, so if I were to watch a 2007 episode, I'd recognize no one.

Eh, I could go for either one of those three countries' soaps. They're the only three countries of soaps that I really know anything about at all, so I can't put any others into the mix. I'd love it if there was a cable channel here in the US that aired the UK and Aussie soaps regularly, current and classic episodes. I'd love to see the campy goodness that was "Crossroads."

[jcar03]

I don't know a single person in America that has access to watching soaps from other country's. So most of us can't make a fair assestment.

Am I the only one getting sick of all these "Whose the best...." Vote for this and that stuff that is littering the board. Honestly, people jumped all over another poster for these exact same constant posts but no one seems to care here.

[All My Shadows]

Well...to be completely honest, some people are able to catch some of the UK soaps on their PBS stations, and Canada, I think, gets all of the UK soaps. And you can easily just download episodes from the Internet or whatever. But I mean...when you think about it, how can there really be a truly fair comparison. My thoughts come strictly from what I've read and the few clips I've seen online.

The funny thing is, I remember when GH was airing on ABC's station in the UK and I went to a UK soap board and they all just *loved* it.

[jfung79]

There would be no country called the United States of America if some British people hadn't created a colony here. The United States is a uniquely British creation, and I don't think the US has ever really done anything to improve upon its British roots.

(Do I really mean this? No. But to say that origins mean no comparisons can be made today is really pushing it!!)

Anyway, I think British soaps today are truer to what Irna Phillips created than are American soaps today. That's why Eileen Fulton loves EastEnders, and why she said it's like how ATWT was when she started there.

Also, I would say that British soaps have made major improvements to the artform. For one thing, British soaps have successfully targeted themselves to both men and women by telling the right mix of stories with the right mix of characters to achieve that -- expanding beyond what is still perceived to be a female audience for soaps in the US -- thus pushing soaps into the mainstream consciousness and drawing top writing talent and high levels of network attention to soaps in the UK to an extent only dreamed of in the US, dwarfing even the success of, say, primetime soaps "Dallas" or "Dynasty" here.

By the way, I forgot to say, I need to admit to having a very limited knowledge of soaps around the world in posting on this thread. I've really only had exposure to US and UK soaps, and even then I haven't watched all of them. It's quite possible that the best soaps could be, say, Korean or Indian -- for instance the Indian TV serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (Because the Mother-In-Law Was Once a Daughter-In-Law Too).

[MatinèeGirl]

Living in The Netherlands I can see soaps from a lot of countries.I never attached them to a country I simply like them or not.

[jfung79]

That's a great attitude to have, MatineeGirl! But, it seems there are differences in style across countries that make country comparisons legitimate.