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Do you think the soaps are better now a days than when you first started watching? |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Feb 2012
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Do you think the soaps are better now a days than when you first started watching?
serious question , do you think the soaps now a days are better or worse than when you first started watching them or your first memorys of them?
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#2 |
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Join Date: Nov 2009
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I'd say worse but I think I started watching at a bit of a golden time (about 79) with the American super soaps like Dallas, dynasty, Knots Landing going, Brookside and EE and the Aussie soaps like Sons and Daughters, Neighbours, Home and Away about to start etc. Plus everything is better first time you see things as a child or teenager - after a couple of decades it's a bit 'seen that already' and anything 'new' risks being over the top or offensive.
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#3 |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: London
Posts: 16,810
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No I don't think they are any better, I wish we didn't have spoilers
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#4 |
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Join Date: Apr 2014
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EastEnders was better during the 2000's era (the only memories I have of watching, & there's not many) however these days it seems to be better than 2007-2013 EastEnders that I mostly remember watching.
Corrie is worse, nuff said really. Emmerdale is a different now than what it was in the later 2000's, there's no Kings anymore, apart from Jimmy. It seems that there is a different feel to the village now, like it's 'glammed up' or something. I don't know how to describe it. Hollyoaks, well I wouldn't really know, I only began watching it in June but I did catch glimps of BK's first era & it was epic then. |
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#5 |
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 3,932
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No, the 80's/early 90's were the heydey.
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#6 |
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 157
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Emmerdale is much better than it used to be. Corrie has always been fantastic in my opinion. Eastenders, despite all the new storylines, is worse. They have lost too many interesting characters and it just keeps failing to interest me although I have to say that when I heard they were giving Sharon a storyline, I started to watch regularly again. DTC seems to be doing a much better job than his predecessor.
None of the rest are worth watching. |
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#7 |
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Join Date: Oct 2012
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I agree EastEnders is better now than it was from 2006-2013. It'll never be as good as it was in it's heyday but I'm not looking for miracles. The 80's was the best era for soaps. EastEnders, Coronation Street and Brookside were great and we had great US soaps like Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing and so on.
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#8 |
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Join Date: Sep 2013
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Quote:
I agree EastEnders is better now than it was from 2006-2013. It'll never be as good as it was in it's heyday but I'm not looking for miracles. The 80's was the best era for soaps. EastEnders, Coronation Street and Brookside were great and we had great US soaps like Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing and so on.
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#9 |
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The Soaps weren't better in the 80's just different. The reason that they got such high ratings wasn't because they were amazing viewing, it's because there was nothing else on. Most people in the UK at that time only had 4 terrestrial channels because satellite was just being introduced and was hugely expensive. TV was dire, unless you had a video player - you were stuck with it. I remember Eastenders being in the paper all the time and all over the news because it was so depressing. Not much has changed really apart from the fact they are spending more money on sensationalising storylines nowadays. In the past, the actors carried the stories with fantastic acting and that's what made it compelling viewing. A lot of that is lost now I feel.
I don't get the significance of you bringing up the 4 terrestrial channels in the 80's. That has nothing to do with the quality of the soaps. If they were that bad everyone would look back and say "What a load of old shit that was" but instead they're looked back on fondly. I didn't sit there watching these shows because there was nothing else to look at. If that was the case I would have done something else rather than watch tv. |
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#10 |
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Join Date: Jan 2014
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Quote:
No, the 80's/early 90's were the heydey.
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#11 |
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Join Date: Sep 2013
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In the 80's and early 90's I think a lot of stuff was done for the first time and the writers had not become so disillusioned with the concept of soap. Now we all know what to expect when we watch because it has all been done countless times before. When comparing the 80's era of EastEnders to now I really don't think there's any comparison. The writing was so much better back then because it was character driven rather than plot driven.
I don't get the significance of you bringing up the 4 terrestrial channels in the 80's. That has nothing to do with the quality of the soaps. If they were that bad everyone would look back and say "What a load of old shit that was" but instead they're looked back on fondly. I didn't sit there watching these shows because there was nothing else to look at. If that was the case I would have done something else rather than watch tv. |
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#12 |
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I didn't say the number of terrestrial channels affected the quality, in my first sentence, I said soaps were just different. As you said, they were more character driven which is why. It's easy to say that you would have found something else to do if you only had the four channels but realistically most people stick the TV on when they are feeding the kids, ironing or just chilling for example. That's why audience numbers were so huge. It's not because people loved the programmes or they wouldn't have abandoned them in droves when more choice became available.
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#13 |
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Join Date: Sep 2013
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That's not true. I loved them and I'd still watch most of the ones I mentioned if they were still on. Indeed I have re-watched some of them when they were repeated years later. The only thing that has changed, quality aside, is that the soaps no longer have the monopoly on what people watch as there's more choice these days. I'd still rather watch a scripted drama like a soap than rubbish reality tv but I accept satellite tv has a big selection of homegrown and US shows for people to watch which wasn't available years ago.
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#14 |
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Join Date: May 2008
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Enjoyment is of course subjective, but the days of soaps being relevant and compelling through characters and situations that felt real are long gone. They're more about escapism now, which is fair enough but it isn't what they were about originally.
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#15 |
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That's not true. I loved them and I'd still watch most of the ones I mentioned if they were still on. Indeed I have re-watched some of them when they were repeated years later. The only thing that has changed, quality aside, is that the soaps no longer have the monopoly on what people watch as there's more choice these days. I'd still rather watch a scripted drama like a soap than rubbish reality tv but I accept satellite tv has a big selection of homegrown and US shows for people to watch which wasn't available years ago.
I think the soaps are stuck in a rut a bit. Both Corrie and Eastenders should take a leaf out of Emmerdales book. the script writers there are on fire and have been far from lazy whereas the Corrie and Eastenders writers have become complacent. Maybe it's because Emmerdale has always been playing catch up that the standards just keep improving, They should definitely take home lots of awards soon. Eastenders script writers are trying too hard. Corries could use a kick up the ass to get them going again. |
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#16 |
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Join Date: Nov 2009
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Quote:
The Soaps weren't better in the 80's just different. The reason that they got such high ratings wasn't because they were amazing viewing, it's because there was nothing else on. Most people in the UK at that time only had 4 terrestrial channels because satellite was just being introduced and was hugely expensive. TV was dire, unless you had a video player - you were stuck with it. I remember Eastenders being in the paper all the time and all over the news because it was so depressing. Not much has changed really apart from the fact they are spending more money on sensationalising storylines nowadays. In the past, the actors carried the stories with fantastic acting and that's what made it compelling viewing. A lot of that is lost now I feel.
Yes i'd agree with all that although i'm not just judging it on the viewing figures. Having watched most soaps consistently since I was about 8 in 79 so all through the 80s in my teens and now into middle age, they were 'better' in the 80s but that might be because I prefer character led drama to plot led drama - even if it means it is slower in pace. But I accept that is a subjective thing and perhaps just my personal taste. So, in the 80s, I loved shows like Dynasty, Knots Landing, Sons and Daughters and Santa Barbara for the more outlandish viewing - pure entertainment if you will (and still love watching my videos of them now) but also loved the gritty, depressing drama of EastEnders and especially Brookside and cosiness of Corrie and Emmerdale, I also still enjoy rewatching them and have to say that generally I do tend to get more caught up in it (even mundane episodes that I just happen across by chance - perhaps on the end of another tape) than I do what has been on screen in the last 15 years or so. It did also seem like the British soaps at least we're pushing boundaries with the subjects they tackled (SIDS, Unemployment and it's devastating emotional as well as financial consequences on family life, domestic abuse, rape actually being shown and called rape etc) and perhaps because so much was done back then, there are few boundaries left to push now - to make it new they have to goo Ott (like combining SIDS with a baby swap) and make it melodrama rather than just drama - and very often tacky melodrama which is in rather poor taste. |
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#17 |
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More choice is certainly part of it but isn't the main problem for soaps that there are very few new stories left to tell.
I was v young when EE started and can recall it being a force of nature that stood head and shoulders above everything else on TV. I think part of this was that it was so daring: Michelle's teen pregnancy, Colin and Barry's kiss, the Saeeds and Osmans, racial abuse on screen, Mark's HIV, Donna/Kathy and of course the amazing Den and Angie. Social mores have changed dramatically and none of these stories would raise an eyebrow these days. I would say the last time EE did a story with that impact was Kat/Zoe and Trev/Mo in 2001. They have had some more highs like Den's return and demise and Ronnie/Danielle but these haven't been rooted in truth like the older stories. And of course all the soaps have constantly upped the ante and churned out more episodes which will be to their long term detriment. Edit: Just seen KK's great post above : ditto!
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#18 |
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Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 124
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Quote:
It did also seem like the British soaps at least we're pushing boundaries with the subjects they tackled (SIDS, Unemployment and it's devastating emotional as well as financial consequences on family life, domestic abuse, rape actually being shown and called rape etc) and perhaps because so much was done back then, there are few boundaries left to push now - to make it new they have to goo Ott (like combining SIDS with a baby swap) and make it melodrama rather than just drama - and very often tacky melodrama which is in rather poor taste.
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#19 |
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Join Date: Jul 2005
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The only soaps I remember watching when I was in my teens were Peyton Place, Dr Kildare and Coronation street. The latter I only watched because my mum loved it so I had no choice.
Eastenders is the only one I watch now but it's impossible for them to keep it fresh, there are only so many things that you can do or have happen to you in a lifetime. I don't think it has slowly deteriorated over the years, it's more that it has highs and lows...I remember it going through a slump as early as the late 1980s. it's in a pretty good place right now, although IMO it would be in a much better place if we hadn't lost the likes of Pat, Zainab, Janine and David. |
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#20 |
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Join Date: Nov 2009
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The Soaps weren't better in the 80's just different. The reason that they got such high ratings wasn't because they were amazing viewing, it's because there was nothing else on. Most people in the UK at that time only had 4 terrestrial channels because satellite was just being introduced and was hugely expensive. TV was dire, unless you had a video player - you were stuck with it. I remember Eastenders being in the paper all the time and all over the news because it was so depressing. Not much has changed really apart from the fact they are spending more money on sensationalising storylines nowadays. In the past, the actors carried the stories with fantastic acting and that's what made it compelling viewing. A lot of that is lost now I feel.
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#21 |
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Join Date: Sep 2013
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I'm not sure I'd say that tv other than Soaps was dire in the 80s. There were some very good shorter dramas made like Edge of Darkness, Jewel in the Crown, Brideshead Revisted, Bird of Prey and also plenty of perfectly serviceable 13 episode a year shows like Bergerac, Tenko and lots of Sunday evening costume dramas. Also some of the best sitcoms come from that time, Just Good Friends, Only Fools and Horses, Yes Minister, Comic Strip Presents, Young Ones. Also there were some great documentaries, travel programmes (like Whickers world) and chat shows. Also Ch4 showed a lot of great repeats from 60s and 70s like The Prisoner, The Avengers, Upstairs, Downstairs, Budgie etc. There wasn't as much tv back then, only 4 channels as you say and they didn't transmit for as long (little or nothing in the mornings and switch off at 11pm most nights) but there was usually something fairly decent on one of them during the evening.
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#22 |
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I didn't say the number of terrestrial channels affected the quality, in my first sentence, I said soaps were just different. As you said, they were more character driven which is why. It's easy to say that you would have found something else to do if you only had the four channels but realistically most people stick the TV on when they are feeding the kids, ironing or just chilling for example. That's why audience numbers were so huge. It's not because people loved the programmes or they wouldn't have abandoned them in droves when more choice became available.
It is also true that there wasn't as much external entertainment - cinemas only showed one film at a time and if it was a blockbuster it stayed on for weeks so people didn't go to the Cinema as much. Obviously there was no internet or games consoles and home computers were rare and very slow. There only tended to be one phone in a house with no call waiting so you couldn't chat to your mates all evening easily. In the Summer you could go out but in the winter really it was tv, listening to records or tapes, reading a book or a board game or god forbid, talking to your family! |
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#23 |
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Join Date: Apr 2013
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I started watching EE in 2008 and preferred it then, I just think it was a stronger cast
HO I started watching it 2011 and it was 100000x better |
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#24 |
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Join Date: Nov 2009
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Sorry, didn't mean TV was dire, was referring to the choice available but didn't put it across very well. There was a lot of good TV the dire thing was that you only had the four choices and if there was nothing on to suit, then that would probably be the case for the rest of that season until we were eventually given more choice. I still watch some of the old classics even with all that choice. Especially Only Fools and Horses and have recently got back into Prisoner Cell Block H
![]() So although you're right, there were times when there was nothing on, if you have fairly eclectic tastes (ie interested in documentaries, comedy, scifi, current affairs and drama) you could usually find something half decent to watch. More so than I often can now anyway, even with the 100+ channels. ETA: I loved Prisoner Cell Block H for the first few years. That was a great Autumn (1986) - suddenly they invested in daytime viewing getting Neighbours, Knots Landing, repeats like Poldark and ITV started staying on till 3am a couple of days a week showing the wonderful Prisoner! Bliss for a drama and soap mad 15 year old like me! Especially as I was signed off school for several months that year with Glandular Fever - it made it bearable! |
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#25 |
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Join Date: Nov 2009
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The only soaps I remember watching when I was in my teens were Peyton Place, Dr Kildare and Coronation street. The latter I only watched because my mum loved it so I had no choice.
Eastenders is the only one I watch now but it's impossible for them to keep it fresh, there are only so many things that you can do or have happen to you in a lifetime. I don't think it has slowly deteriorated over the years, it's more that it has highs and lows...I remember it going through a slump as early as the late 1980s. it's in a pretty good place right now, although IMO it would be in a much better place if we hadn't lost the likes of Pat, Zainab, Janine and David. Shows will always have ups and downs - that is inevitable but the way Soaps are written has changed a lot now. |
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