Survivalist soap

[DRW50]

Watching some of the early episodes of Survivors, I was thinking about how the premise of that show could easily be put into a soap format. Some sort of disaster or worldwide catastrophe, followed by showing the social classes destroyed and focusing on people trying to get through day to day and trying to find out if anyone else still exists. Strong female characters, presumed death of loved ones and attempting to find them, coping with the loss of many friends and family and trying to take over what they once helped you get through, gender conflicts, a disease which could take hold over a number of episodes, trekking from one location to another, relationships which develop over a long period of time -- this could take up 4-5 days of episodes for many months.

With all the paranoia out there now, over 2012, and over the messages from people like Glenn Beck, and the general unease over the economy and over what might happen tomorrow, the show would probably have a strong potential audience, as long as they didn't get too political or get too caught up in their own hype, or in some big mystery (when you focus too much on a mystery the answer is never going to satisfy a lot of viewers -- if the show even bothers to try to explain the mystery).

So do you think this idea would possibly work as a soap?

[Mr. Vixen]

Yes Carl! That's a fantastic idea.

I really like it a lot. It could definitely be a soap to appeal to many audiences. Very good idea. It would provide a lot of depth for the characters too. Especially having all classes of characters stuck in this one setting. The attitudes of the rich still flare, but they arre brought crashing down to reality when they realize that they are trapped in a place where they have equally as little as the poor. Enemies would obviously be trapped together, and rivals would form. The fight for survival would tear some couples apart, and put forbidden ones together.

Great idea.

[Vee]

The original (and only decent version of) Survivors is very soapy at times.

[DRW50]

Yeah, I've heard the second season (which I haven't watched yet) is sometimes described as "Emmerdale Farm" and that the third season has a lot of starcrossed love material The early episodes have some of the best of the serial format, they build, and they slowly introduce characters and we watch them adapt. That's what soaps should be about. Seeing people who are very well defined and we can care about them and watch how they grow. Abby Grant is such a classic character, she could be a match for a lot of the strong females on soaps. Then you have her romance with Jimmy Garland, two charismatic, gorgeous, complicated, scarred people who are just a little larger than life -- that's good soap.

The idea of so many different people coming together to form some type of a family is also what I like about soaps, and of course,

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