Which Country Shows The Greatest Soap Operas

[Kendall]

Saw a few UK soaps and sorry, they are boring..U.S. is the best

[whyamcwhy]

Out of curiosity, I would like to watch on of these foreign soaps. Does Eastender air on the BBC channel or PBS? I wonder if I need satellite to catch some of these soaps. Anyone know?

Thanks.

[AMCGio83]

There's no need to be sarcastic. One is entitled to one's opinion. Also, targeting men AND women was done by Edge of Night in the 50s and GH in th 80s, again, not something English soaps did first. Period. Mainstream consciousness? Ever heard of Erica Kane? Eden Riegel--GLAAD's pick of OUT image of the year 2004? Luke and Laura's famous Newsweek cover? Also, ratings and target audiences don't necessairily reflect quality or innovation. Santa Barbara was low-rated, critially acclaimed in the US and VERY FAMOUS all over Europe. And if an argument CAN be made for high ratings as successful practices then nobody can touch Luke and Laura's wedding and finally, the WORLD's most popular shows include CSI, Desperate Housewives AND The Bold and the Beautiful (All American).

Also, to speak to "hus 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," some of TV'd best writer have written for soaps and finally, bigger than DALLAS and Dynasty? Sorry, but TV history says otherwise. Joan Collins visited Footballers Wives, I don't really any reverse case with a famous Brit-soap Diva (yes I know Jone is English, but most famous for Dynasty) visiting American soaps with much hoopla.

[Andrew]

Well im not shore how you can be able to watch Eastenders, sorry.

Eastenders is the english show im not really into, i have never really watched more than clips, even if i am updated what`s going on there, for you who wrote about Wendy Richard, i thought she left because she wanted to leave, if she wanted to leave i see no wrong in them killing her character Pauline.

As for Veterans, Emmerdale and Coronation is best on that acount!!!!!!!!!

[Mike H]

The realism is jarring in the UK soaps, at least from an aesthetic perspective. An actress like Anne Kirkbride would not last five minutes on US soaps, mainly because of her looks. Likewise, an actress like Lauren Koslow would look FAR too young for her age in any kind of role on a UK show. And these two actresses are about the same age. I believe LK was born in 1953 and AK was born in 1954.

[Andrew]

That`s so right. I still think that Anne Kirkbride is a really greater actress than Lauren Koslow, but then again, Anne is not as attractive, but a better actress and that i think is a far better and important thing. Another thing i like about AK is that she talks a lot about herself being a smoker, instead of acting like she wasnt.........

[Huntress]

Wrong. Germany's soaps are very close to the Australian ones - it's the same production company, Grundy.

You can watch "Alles was zählt" (which debuted in September 2006) online for free here http://rtl-now.rtl.de/alles_was_zaehlt.php You just have to click on "Ansehen" next to the episode numbers and airdates.

RTL's other daily soaps "GZSZ" (1992-present) and "Unter uns" (1994-present) are pay-per-view.

[heatherwebber]

Currently Eastenders airs only on Dish Network pay per view (current episodes, about 5 weeks behind.) But a few stray PBS channels air the show from a few years ago. I've never lived near any PBS channels that run it including some with lots of money that said they'd never pay as much as BBC Worldwide charged.

BBC America just picked up Hollyoaks.

Neighbours might pop up on dvd but it might turn out to just be that anniversary set of a limited number of episodes.

Coronation Street doesn't air at all anymore. It used to show up on satellite on a Canadian station which is now scrambled outside of Canada.

[Mitchapalooza]

United States!

UK soaps for the most part are WAY to boring (of course this is outside of CORONATION STREET, which is one of the all-time greats).

[juniorz1]

Cambodia has the best soaps. BY FAR!

[scuba]

I can only compare American soaps to the telenovelas I grew up watching, which is difficult to do since novelas only last a few months. Personally, I'd say American soaps are better overall than telenovelas. Novelas are way too repetitive - how many "poor illiterate girl falls in love with rich guy who's family hates her and tries to ruin her life in every possible way" stories can you watch? Now, the telenovelas that are actually good, are excellent and in many ways better than American soaps, and those telenovelas are mostly from Colombia and Brazil.