Why is telenovela format problematic in US?

[Jane1978]

This is interesting debate, but I´m not really sure what you mean. Telenovela with no defined end is a soap. I´m not a big expert on the genre but all telenovelas I ever saw ended with a marriage of the main couple. Like in a fairytale. When you go over it you go into a soap theritory with all the problems US soaps are fighting with, ie. how to write for a married couple, how to keep them interesting and together at the same time, how to explain to viewers that up to the wedding they were perfect and destined for each other and now suddenly they have troubles and fights and their happily ever after is not really so happy.

I think 80´s supercouples stories were very close to the telenovelas and its pace. All had a limited run, all were leading stars of the show and all ended with a big wedding climax followed with an inevitable letdown.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Maybe because general American audiences see them as laughable and the ones that have been presented in the US, like the MyNetwork experiment, just well, sucked.

[Sylph]

I said format, not story content. I also mentioned the cleansing, the purging... So my question wasn't "Why aren't telenovela remakes working in the US?" because those will never work and should've never been attempted in the first place.

I was talking about something else.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I didn't read your first post.

All I did was look at the topic and respond.

[Sylph]

LMAO! Well, the best part is... And now I realise it... That first one wasn't really all that clear...

I'm developing my ideas as we speak!

[P.J.]

Do you mean 5x a week?

Otherwise, I think it's habit. Americans have become herds massed into a 1 night-a-week, Sept through May new content (hopefully anyway) "television season". I think the cable networks are slowly chipping away at it with shows that run in arcs like Burn Notice and The Closer.

[applcin]

I have several questions and also several opinions.

What is the difference between a telenovela vs. a miniseries? The Thorn Birds, for example, is called a miniseries but it has all the soapy, melodramatic, romantic elements that are also staples of daytime and telenovelas, right? Is telenovela just a foreign word for miniseries or is there something inherently different about one that sets it apart from beng called a miniseries? I mean, if/when they show Roots or Shogun or Rich Man, Poor Man in Spanish-speaking countries, what are they called?

For me, my own "problems" with the format have to do with both context and content. When Port Charles adopted the style, I didn't have so much a problem with the fantastic story elements (I rather liked "Time In A Bottle", for instance). I can take some fantastic and sci-fi elements in my soaps if they entertain me (I happened to love OLTL's Old West story with Clint time travelling). The problem for me with Port Charles happened when each arc was treated almost as if what happened prior was meaningless or didn't happen. It was hard to invest in characters whose personalities kept changing, couples who were broken up to create new couples, only to have those couples break up also. In that sense, for me, the way Port Charles did the telenovela style did not work for the very reasons that those characters and that "soap universe" existed before and beyond the telenovela so I felt the characters were continually altered purely for plot.

With Night Shift, I watched the beginning of the first season for a number of episodes. At that time, I was watching GH sort of on a part-time temporary returnee basis. I found myself unable to really get into Night Shift because of what was going on GH. Seeing the same characters living 2 different lives at the same time didn't do it for me (who was sick on one show but healthy on the other, who's in jail one on show but not on the other, etc.). I just couldn't buy into it. I might have been able to if NS had been what Port Charles was...set in the same town yet with an independent cast of characters.

Now, what about what we tend to call "story arcs" in U.S. soaps, which are basically what soaps are made of? The same characters that are on for years experience a series of mini-stories with beginnings and endings. Usually, if done well enough, the character's personality isn't altered to fit the plot or, if it does change, it does so with some measure of believability or reason. So, for instance, on OLTL, there was a story arc of Viki living in Paris, Texas, interacting with brand new characters. But then that story ended when she returned to Llanview. Yet, elements of it continued into the next story arc--for example, her relationship with Charlie...only now there were new problems in the context of Llanview (Charlie lying, Dorian's machinations, etc.).

So...does the term "telenovela" refer more to duration or content? Is it the "telenovela" itself that is problematic or is it so when it's attempted within a continuing drama...and then is it really even considered a telenovela anymore?

[Dan]

I just don't see how the format has failed in the US. From what I can see, there have really been only 2 examples of a telenovella on US television: Port Charles and MyNetworkTV. Port Charles may have had arcs, but it was hardly a true telenovella. It still had the same cast of characters and the same consistent storytelling from arc to arc. And the MyNetworkTV soaps were a failure from the start, simply for being on a network that didn't even air in all parts of the country. I don't think there's a reason why the shorter telenovella couldn't be inserted into daytime alongside the rest of the longer "soap operas."