Are people 'born into' soaps?
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What I mean by this is that I was raised on Neighbours from birth, one of my first memories is the 1994 season finale. And also Home and Away. I have strong memories of Tiffany's death when I was not even 10. My (immediate) family on and off watched these soaps when I was growing up. Admittedly my nanny watched Emmerdale (but I didn't sit there and watch it with her until I was over 10).
So my question is, are we influenced by the soaps our parents watched? Or are there many of you for example who never watched Neighbours but decided when you were 25 to watch it, and became addicted?
So my question is, are we influenced by the soaps our parents watched? Or are there many of you for example who never watched Neighbours but decided when you were 25 to watch it, and became addicted?
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But since then I've watched EE and ED just because I was interested, and I drop in and out to this day.
I have periods of watching EE and H&A on and off, but for some reason I never shake Neighbours no matter how crap it is. It's like my comfort zone I don't know from having it there right when I was a baby.
I really want to like ED, HO and Corrie but I can't do it
Neighbours
Home and Away
EastEnders
Dallas
Coronation Street
Brookside
Emmerdale
Sons and Daughters
Family Affairs
Shortland Street
A Country Practice
The Flying Doctors
Blue Heelers
Take The High Road
Doctors
Poor dad never got a look in.
The only soap I watch these days is EastEnders. But I do have a love for stories, always have done. Plus I'm a bit of a gossip. Did they influence me?
Probably.
It's funny though, both me and my sister who were introduced to soaps at an early age are both very grounded, stable people. My cousins who were never allowed to watch soaps became Delinquents.
I can relate to this, having a programme that's on at set times every week is in fact comforting, especially if you're going through a tough time.
You'd also have no time watching all 6 regularly!
Most of my soap viewing takes place on night shifts
That's very interesting to know. I definitely think 90s Neighbours gave me a moral compass
Yeah I was an avid viewer in the 90s, especially when the kennedys arrived. I stopped watching when I started working full time in the early 00s. Did get back into it a couple of years ago but soon fell behind.
Love this :D
Most underrated show of all time IMO
I have listened to the Archers arguably since before I was born and certainly my MUm used to put the radio in my pram when she took me for an afternoon walk. I still listen to this day.
My earliest memories of Corrie were probably the mid 90s with Curly and Reg etc. I can remember more clearly when the Battersby's arrived in '97.
I started watching Home and Away on my on accord in about 2000ish (when the Sutherlands arrived) at the age of 10/11, I watched it for about 15 years before giving up a year or so ago.
My older sister used to watch Eastenders but I wasn't really supposed to, so that made it kind of exciting when she'd babysit and I saw it. Don't remember that much before Sharon tapegate though.
The Archers has always been around as my mum listened to it - I remember Roy blinding Usha and then John dying.
One of my earliest memories of EE and the image that sticks most in my mind as a child was of Pauline Fowler walloping Arthur over the head with a frying pan . I remember playing with my toy cars and saying, "What the flippin' heck is wrong with that granny?! " and then carried on playing.
I didn't really become an avid viewer until the mid-late 90s (likely 1996), but I was addicted by the year 2000 - which IMO is the show's best year by far and I don't think any soap will surpass it. It hasn't come anywhere close to the heights of that great year unfortunately and I've lost hope that it ever will with the succession of terrible EPs, which is probably why I only watch one or two episodes a month now. I regard EE as my first love. But I have grown out of it sadly.
As for the other soaps, I started watching Neighbours regularly in 2000 when the Scullys and Kennedys were the two major families and the cast was more stable, it was a really solid soap back then. But it became piss poor and unrecognisable IMO around the late 2000s and onwards. I have started to enjoy the show again recently though because it feels like there's more of a stable cast of characters again who are being developed by the writers and all the actors aren't leaving after a few months.
I have faint memories as a child of Home & Away back in the 90s, I remember characters like Selina and Jessie, but I didn't start watching it regularly until it returned on Channel 5 around 2001 or 2002.. Same goes for Hollyoaks, started watching it in 2001, when every woman in the village seemed to be blonde . Thanks to Kirkwood, the show has become completely ludicrous now. Mind you, I still regard Kirkwood's first stint as the greatest era of the show, so he ain't all that bad!
You'll probably have noticed I've mentioned the year 2000 a lot... It's actually the year I started secondary school. I was still in that discovery stage in my life and trying to understand the world at large. Soaps were a form of escapism for me as I didn't enjoy school at all being as it was a volatile environment for me and I use to get into a lot of fights (not my fault, honest ), so I naturally veered towards these shows about people living everyday lives and seeing people struggle like me.
Anyway, I'm more of a Emmerdale viewer nowadays. I'm what you would call a Emmerdale convert. Which still surprises me to this day, because if my adult self told my teenage self that I would be a Emmerdale viewer in the year 2016, I would laugh at my adult self and tell him to do one. Admittedly I use to laugh at Emmerdale and dismiss it as a 'farm show' with cardboard acting. But I really do think Emmerdale has evolved into a very watchable, great soap now and established itself as the top soap. Now I am hooked on it, how things change .
IMO it's the most consistent soap and whilst it may resort to a lot of repetition like its rivals, when it's at its best - it's really good I think.