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Favourite lesser seen soap?
These forums are mostly used to discuss the "big 4" English soaps but what smaller scale, lesser publicised soaps do you like watching or have you watched in the past? Both long running or short lived. Like the regional ones in the UK or some of the foreign imports we've enjoyed in the past. My favourites are ITV's Night and Day which launched in a blaze of publicity before being buried in the late night schedule to die and similarly BBC's Aussie soaps Breakers and Out of the Blue. I loved both of them but they were shunted around the schedules a lot. Luckily TV3 in Ireland aired Breakers more or less uninterrupted during it's two year run. Below is a list of some of the soaps I'm talking about to jog people's memories.
River City
Pobl y Cwm
Rownd a Rownd
Shortland Street
Ros na Rún - Irish language soap aired on TG4
Take the High Road \ High Road
And a few for the slightly older forum members.
All Saints - Aussie medical soap from the 00's. BBC One ran it in a daytime slot and TV3 aired it in Ireland. I think Living aired it too. Ran for 12 years although I'm unsure if just how many episodes we got in the UK and Ireland.
London Bridge - ITV soap that ran from 1996-99. Rarely remembered as it was pretty ropey but it used to beat Hollyoaks in the ratings.
Canary Wharf - cable channel L!VE TV's soap about the staff of a cable channel. Made on a shoestring budget but featured various actors who later graduated to the likes of EE, ED, Casualty and Bad Girls.
Pacific Drive - Aussie soap that aired on Sky One in the 90's
E Street - another Aussie soap that aired for nearly five years in the 90's. It was so popular at one point, when Neighbours was rating poorly in the early 90's, Network Ten considered axing it and expanding E Street but plans never came to fruition.
Santa Barbara - US soap that ran for 12 years in the 80's\90's on both ITV and Sky One. Kind of like a forerunner to Sunset Beach.
River City
Pobl y Cwm
Rownd a Rownd
Shortland Street
Ros na Rún - Irish language soap aired on TG4
Take the High Road \ High Road
And a few for the slightly older forum members.
All Saints - Aussie medical soap from the 00's. BBC One ran it in a daytime slot and TV3 aired it in Ireland. I think Living aired it too. Ran for 12 years although I'm unsure if just how many episodes we got in the UK and Ireland.
London Bridge - ITV soap that ran from 1996-99. Rarely remembered as it was pretty ropey but it used to beat Hollyoaks in the ratings.
Canary Wharf - cable channel L!VE TV's soap about the staff of a cable channel. Made on a shoestring budget but featured various actors who later graduated to the likes of EE, ED, Casualty and Bad Girls.
Pacific Drive - Aussie soap that aired on Sky One in the 90's
E Street - another Aussie soap that aired for nearly five years in the 90's. It was so popular at one point, when Neighbours was rating poorly in the early 90's, Network Ten considered axing it and expanding E Street but plans never came to fruition.
Santa Barbara - US soap that ran for 12 years in the 80's\90's on both ITV and Sky One. Kind of like a forerunner to Sunset Beach.
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Comments
From the defunct "minority" soaps: I loved Sunset Beach, Family Affairs, Night and Day and, Out of the Blue.
While I don't class All Saints as a soap, but a medical drama (much in the same way that The Bill wasn't a soap, but a cop drama (even though it did try to be a soap at one point)), I loved what the BBC aired of the show, and was disappointed when it randomly disappeared. I don't know what numbers they were expecting to get at 2.15pm!
Used to quite like the now defunct-soap, Sunset Beach too, back in the day (it was very back in the day in fact, in the early 00's) :-)
I'm getting back into The Bold and The Beautiful too at the moment! I haven't watched it properly since the days when Amber was first introduced! Its just not the same without Stephanie (and Sally!), but the show seems to be pretty entertaining again!
Night and Day was awesome! Natalie and Duncan were hilarious!
- Axing veteran Sarah so TK can get his leg over more young women
- Rachel allowing Chris to father a child with Grace Kwan
- Dayna and Kane staying with the Coopers just to keep Murray and Wendy relevant.
- Douche, immature Vinnie and idiotic hypocrite Nicole making a baby.
- Ula being a moody bratty bitch still.
- Garrett and Harper. Just no.
- Too many teens without parents and no hospital affiliation
I think it's very entertaining right now, with a decent mix of characters. I think it helps that Deacon is a regular character, again, and "original" Rick is back in the role, as they bring with them some much needed familiarity; it's good seeing Taylor pop up for time-to-time (she needs to pop up more regularly, IMO, and share the odd scene with Brooke and nuRidge). Quinn is a great villain, in the Sheila mould, and I'm loving Maya right now, too. But the show is missing that larger-than-life character that Sally filled, and the voice of moral righteousness in Stephanie, which I think Taylor could easily fill.
Not many characters stand out from Night and Day, but I loved Natalie Harper - she was the best character on the show, IMO.
There were quite a few good characters- and decent actors as well. Night and Day had a good mix of decent actors who were able to play the dramatic moments, soap actors who acted as lighter entertainment/to carry lighter drama, promising young actors and models, whose inability to act worked in their favour because their blankness made them mysterious. The balance really worked.
General Hospital my guilty favourite watched since 07 on/off totally mental but love it, Elizabeth Webber is my favourite.
Sons and Daughters would probably be my all time favourite 'minority' soap.
The Harpers were the best, plus Alex & Roxanne, and the vicar. Della was a bit of drip and over exposed. Everyone else (bar Rachel) weren't super interesting, and were carried by their crazy, OTT storylines.
I remember one that started off partly set in Australia and partly here, but after a while the Australian bit was dropped.
I watched Albion Market and El Dorado too.
The weirdest one was called (I think) Days of Our Lives. It was shot slower than real time and sometimes went off into fantasy - strange European royalty and sword fights iirc. I think Millicent Martin might have been in it.
Days of our Lives was slow. They went through a weird phase for a while where they had Austin & Greta trapped in a virtual Garden of Eden, completing life threatening trials of virtue in order to win their freedom (and Greta the grown). I loved the whole Princess Gina/Hope story arc, and the Greta's epic Coronation Massacre.
That's quite a good description of the Night and Day cast dynamic.
The Aussie \ English soap was called Families. It's initial plotline was very similar to the initial plotline of Sons and Daughters. Some would argue that it was a direct ripoff. Kay Mellor of Band of Gold, Playing the Field, Fat Friends etc created the series. Another ITV daytime soap that I forgot to list is Gems, a London based soap set in a fashion house which ran for a few years in the late 80's.
Re: Days of Our Lives. The coronation massacre storyline featured during the Channel 5 era of the show. I never understood why Channel 5 didn't pick up Passions instead of Days when Sunset Beach ended its run. Passions was much closer in tone to SB with it's bonkers plotlines (a 300 year old witch, a talking doll and a chimp were among the main cast).
Great post
My fave not well know soap is Pobol Y Cwm. I watch Rownd a Rownd too, but I forget about it and miss episodes online. I still manage to keep up to date though.
I absolutely LOVE All Saints. I`m watching season 5 now, and it`s just brilliant. There have been many times when I`ve put All Saints ahead of even watching Corrie and Emmerdale.
The Sarah death was a very bad decision for the sake of THE big summer story line. The actress was axed for this and when you look at the replacements then you can only laugh.
There are way too many irritating characters on screen atm including Clementine, Bella, Ula, Garrett and Dayna. Lucy could be joining them soon.
I dread to think what the Christmas cliffhanger will be this year.