The concept of time in soaps is crucial as producers have to keep up with issues circulating in society in order to engage with the audience.
There are various other reasons to why time is an important concept to soaps:
- By keeping up with society, you are attracting various generations in which a particular storyline may appeal to that niche market.
For example; bullying in schools. A recent storyline in Eastenders was prostitution which was linked to the children in need charity.
- Time is used to expand an open narrative episode which is continued from a cliffhanger which is shown from the previous episode.
- Time reflects exactly to real life; we miss a weekend, so do they, their lives have not changed between each of these episodes.
- Heightened tenses are created because of seasonal time; for example, at Christmas there is a huge story which has been lead up to a big climax which means more viewers.
- Characters are constantly progressing; characters such as Ben Mitchell in Eastenders, as an audience we have seen them since they were born.
- A sense of realism is created when characters pasts are introduced. For example, Eddie in Eastenders past is slowly revealed as him and Michael eventually come together as father and son.
- Characters who have been there for ages can become predictable to viewers (Ian Beale), therefore as time progresses, so does the soap as new characters are introduced such as Fatboy who is current, fresh and most of all relates younger audiences.
- With time, both open and closed narratives are shown. Everything that happens is continuous and is the future (open narrative). The only closed narrative is death. An example of this is David Wicks when he comes back to the soap after a number of years when his mother is dying. Therefore, even former characters return with a new storyline or even stick with the same one but with a darker secret.
Here we can see in order for the soap to progress with its storyline, characters etc, time is one of the main aspects which are used to help them do this.
There are various aspects in which every Soap Opera has which follow the conventions of a traditional Soap.
Below are some of the key characteristics you will find:
- Cliffhangers
- Lots of different story lines going on at one time although there is one main plot.
- Various Generations
- Both sad and happy occasions (Death/ Marriage)
- Stereotypical good and bad characters.
- Twists
- Social Realism
- Escapism for viewers
- Heavy dialogue
- Dramatic
- Chronological
- Mysterious Past lives
- Sense of Community
- A build up to a main event
- Everyone knowing every one's business
- Dramatic Irony
- Beginning and end theme tune is the same (this is to identify the brand and brings viewers into the world of that soap)
- Recognisable setting
- Ordinary people
- Story lines are constantly switching.
A Soap Opera, also known as a 'soap' for short is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction which is presented in a serial format on television or radio. The name 'soap opera' originally comes from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble and Lever Brothers as sponsors and producers. The early series on the radio started in weekday daytime slots. This is the time when most women would be housewives, therefore the shows were aimed at and consumed by a predominately female audience.
A crucial element which defines Soap Opera's is the open ended nature of the narrative, with stories continuously running for several episodes. The most defining feature that makes a program a soap opera according to Albert Moran is that they "form a television that works with a continuous open narrative and each episode ends with a promise that the storyline will be continued in another episode".
An individual episode of a soap will generally switch between a number of different concurrent story lines which at times will interlink and affect another or it may just run independently. Each of the episodes may feature some of the shows current story lines but this may not always happen. They rarely bring all the current story lines to a conclusion at the same time; when one storyline ends, there are several other ones differing stages of development. Typically, Soap's end on a cliffhanger.
