The Big Debate - November (Too many soaps?)

[eithne]

(This is a new thing I'm trying, just in the spirit of trying out new things and bringing people who post on certain boards, but not others together. So each month I was thinking of having some kind of "debate" on an issue which involves all the soaps and can even involve non-soap fans! So here's the first one.)

With Corrie, Eastenders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks the 4 big soaps, followed by Doctors, All Saints, Home & Away and Neighbours as the smaller ones as well as The Bill, Holby and Casualty as the "continuing dramas" there sure are plenty of soaps on UKTV.

And that's without counting the American ones now showing on the digital channels. So are there too many soaps on UKTV?

Get replying people!

PS: If you've got an idea for next months debate/discussion please PM me.

[sallywebster]

I think its more that there are too many episodes of the soaps rather than too many soaps. A few years ago we had more soaps than we do now, as there was Brookside, Crossroads and Family Affairs as well as what we have currently.

I also dont really count All Saints as a soap.

[RitaLittlewood]

I think these days with them all drowning us it can still apply as being too many because it FEELS like there's more than there are.

Michael Grade, if you've got any nous, AXE 2 eps of Corrie and 3 of Emmerdale pronto!

Patsy

[sootycat]

I think we should draw a dividing line between dramas and soaps.

I think as Jez wrote, less episodes would help.

Some churn out 5 episodes a week. That will never change in the Aussie and US soaps, but curtailing British soaps to 3 episode per week maximum ( and the odd special ) would help.
But soaps are a cheapish filler, and I would prefer them as they are now to an alternative of more 'reality' shows in their place.

[RitaLittlewood]

Neighbours used to be 4 a week. I had a penpal in Brisbane in the mid-late 80s and she sent me some TV Week's (which I still have) and was surprised they had it one day less than us. Still I knew Madge and Harold married long before we had it as they were cover stars on one issue. ;D

If it's true Corrie costs £1 million per ep then I'd guess Emmerdale is roughly the same. Grade wants to cut costs. Think how much they'd save axing 5 eps of those which could be invested in drama and comedy.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

Sooty I agree - to me Holby, Casualty and The Bill are dramas and although they can be soapy at times I think if anything Casualty and The Bill have become more drama than soapy in the past year - The Bill especially.

Patsy I never realised Neighbours was 4 times a week at the start either. No wonder we caught up so quickly - we were about 18 months before when we first got it here I think.

[RitaLittlewood]

The Bill went to twice a week (half an hour) originally in 1988 to replace Crossroads. How they worked that out when they were on at different times I have no idea. It wasn't a soap though. It was still a drama with its stand-alone stories. IMO they ruined The Bill and Casualty by turning them into soaps. Even though, as you say, they've gone back to more drama, I can't see myself returning to either of them.

A lot of people don't. I assumed, because we had it 5 days, it was there too. I wish I could get to the mags. I'm sure H&A was 5 over there. Maybe Neighbours added one to compete.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

The Bill is definately more about police work now than the officers personal lives. Casualty can still focus a bit too much on the personal lives of the staff (but Holby City is far worse for that IMO).

Maybe Neighbours added 1 ep in Oz so the UK could carry on showing it 5 times a week.

[RitaLittlewood]

This focus on personal lives has no real permanant effect on the ratins so why bother? Geoff McQueen's rules were NO personal lives. He's have been spinning in his grave at what they did to his show.

They may have. I can't remember when it was added.

Patsy

[eithne]

I'm not a regular viewer or anything, but the bits I've seen of the Bill recently show that it has returned to its roots more than a few years ago where it was as much of a soap as Corrie and Eastenders.

Moving back to a more general discussion, Neighbours and Home & Away have nearly always been five a week (apart from the time Patsy mentioned when Neighbours was 4 a week). Do you think that they are better structured for five a week than the UK soaps as they have always been that way?

[RitaLittlewood]

They're like Crossroads used to be and they managed with a cast about as small as Corrie. One of the main irritations I find with our soaps (not so much EE) is that, like Neighbours (and I can't speak for H&A) they start a storyline then don't refer to it again for weeks. It's one of the reasons I got fed up with Emmerdale. There's no fluid story telling unless it's their flavour of the year and drags on in every ep forever.

Patsy

[eileengrimshaw]

Definitely too many episodes of soap:-

Corrie - 5
Emmerdale - 6
Eastenders 4
Hollyoaks - 5
Home & Away - 5
Neighbours - 5

That's 30 episodes a week if you watch all of them. When Neighbours moves onto Channel 5 this may well go up if the BBC decide to put another soap into that slot.

They definitely need to cut down the number of episodes (at least for the UK ones). Concentrate on quality rather than quantity.

[sallywebster]

I agree. However word is the BBC might replace Neighbours with The Weakest Link rather than commission yet another soap. This would mean just moving it from BBC2 to 1.

[Nick]

I can only agree with the sentiments of too many episodes per soap...they should all have no more than 3 a week..in the old days epsidoes of Corrie only had about 15-18 characters in aand Crossroads sometimes only had 10 or 12

TV companies should stop relying on them as their flagship shows (and with the commercial channels using them for guaranteed income with ever increasing advert breaks)

Good idea to move the Weakest link...we don't need kids TV on the main channels now..they have thier own channels they can watch in their rooms

[sallywebster]

I think CBBC will still be on but it will end at 5.15pm if they decided to move TWL to BBC1 as that is 45 mins.

[RitaLittlewood]

Funnily enough we were talking about this with Geoffrey Hughes yesterday in the long discussion regarding the state of TV today. Now ignore for the moment he said Crossroad's crap (you can go off people you know! LOL!) the point I was making was the IBA's warning about quality suffering has come true and he agreed. He also thinks there's far too many episodes.

Patsy

[eithne]

blanche said:

I can only agree with the sentiments of too many episodes per soap...they should all have no more than 3 a week..in the old days epsidoes of Corrie only had about 15-18 characters in aand Crossroads sometimes only had 10 or 12

Its funny isn't it how the UK soaps need massive casts, where as the Oz saps have smaller casts despite being on just as much. There are around 26 in Neighbours compared to 45 in Eastenders.

[RitaLittlewood]

Interesting point, Eithne. Crossroads also had a smaller cast originally than our soaps have now. They always say they need more cast but do they? Too many characters are underused.

Patsy

[Nick]

When Crossroads was on 4 times a week (in the 70's) usually the whole cast for the week was on average about 18 to about 24 people

mind you they tended to do things differently..having characters in every week for a few months..then they would dissapear for a few months...mainly because the cast worked on a weeks contract rather than 6 monthly or yearly like Corrie

in my crossroads book Tony Adams said he went to collect his script one week in 1982 and the secretary said 'sorry Tony there isn't one this week'..and that was it for a whole year ..till he got a call saying he had another script

[CG Wendy]

Didn`t he get paid for a whole year Nick?

[eithne]

I guess a lot of the characters (especially the older ones!) in Eastenders/Corrie/Emmerdale don't get many big storylines (look at Charlie/Mo in EE, Betty in Corrie, Edna in Emmerdale)

There are probably a lot more supporting characters in the UK ones than in the Oz ones I suppose.

Emmerdale probably has more than 50 cast members, with its 6 episodes a week, and probably about 10 of them are supporting characters, who are in the background a lot of the time.

[RitaLittlewood]

Although EE had an hour for the wedding, it is nice this week they've dropped an ep. I wish everyone would do it more often. Look at when the World Cup was on. It got ridiculous having so many of Corrie in a week. They also could have dropped some and Emmerdale during the rugby.

Patsy

[eithne]

I still miss the episode of Eastenders tonight.

[RitaLittlewood]

I did but the DW special made up for it. ;D

Patsy

[Nick]

corriegirl said:

Didn`t he get paid for a whole year Nick?

Not from crossroads