Make Your Way 5, Schulbuch mit Audio-CD und CD-ROM

Soap operas – a brief history Soap operas Soap operas – a brief history Soap opera consumption Talking about soap operas Becoming familiar with … Read the magazine article. Which paragraphs answer these questions? What happened to soap operas in the 1980s? • What was the first UK soap opera? • What kind of soap operas do British teenagers prefer? • What countries apart from Britain and the US have produced successful soaps? • What is a docu-soap? • When did real life events start appearing in soap operas? • Is there a Dublin-based soap opera? • How did soap operas get their name? • What were the early problems for TV soap operas? • How are UK and US soap operas different? • 1 Did you know? – A brief history of the soap opera 1 The soap opera was born in the 1930s, on American radio in the form of 15-minute dramatizations of daily life. Since it was mainly housewives who listened to these programmes, they were sponsored by cleaning product companies, which is how they got their name. 2 1950 saw the release of the first TV soap opera “The First Hundred Years”. Despite its name it only ran for 2 years. The early days of the TV soap opera were difficult as many people didn’t have the time to sit down and watch five hours of TV a week. By 1960, however, they had completely replaced radio soap operas in the US. 3 In the late 1960s real life events started to make appearances in soap operas. For example, in 1970 the popular soap “All My Children” had one of its main characters going to fight in the Vietnam war and never return. 138 2 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv