メロドラマ

ソープオペラ、昼ドラ、または略してソープは、典型的には長期にわたって放送されるラジオやテレビの 連続ドラマで、メロドラマ、アンサンブルキャスト、感傷的な要素が特徴である。^[1]「ソープオペラ」という用語は、もともと石鹸メーカーがスポンサーとなっていたラジオドラマに由来する。^[2]この用語の前には、低予算の西部劇に対する蔑称である「ホースオペラ」という言葉があった。 ^[3]

BBCラジオの『アーチャーズ』は1950年に初めて放送され、世界で最も長く続いているラジオメロドラマです。^[4]現存する最も長く続いているテレビメロドラマは、 1960年にITVで初めて放送された『コロネーション・ストリート』^{です。 [5] 1937年にラジオで始まり、1952年にテレビに移行し、2009年に終了した『}ガイディング・ライト』は、あらゆる種類のメロドラマの中で最も長く続いている記録を保持しています。

アルバート・モランによれば、テレビ番組をメロドラマたらしめる決定的な特徴の1つは、「連続した開かれた物語で機能するテレビ番組の形式である。各エピソードは、ストーリーラインが次のエピソードで続くという約束で終わる」ことである。^[6] 2012年、ロサンゼルス・タイムズのコラムニスト、ロバート・ロイドは、毎日放送されるドラマについて次のように書いている。

メロドラマ的な出来事が満載であるにもかかわらず、このようなメロドラマには、より自然主義的に見える贅沢な空間もあります。実際、この形式の経済性から長いシーンが求められ、1シーズン22話の週刊シリーズであれば6行程度のセリフで済ませられる会話が、この作品のように何ページにもわたって引き延ばされることがあります。脇役にも多くの時間を費やし、悪役らしき人物も悪役らしくなくなっていきます。^[7]

メロドラマのストーリーは同時進行し、交差し、さらなる展開へとつながります。メロドラマの個々のエピソードでは、通常、複数の同時進行する物語の筋が切り替わります。これらの筋は、相互に関連して影響し合うこともあれば、完全に独立して進むこともあります。エピソードでは番組のストーリーの一部が取り上げられることもありますが、必ずしもすべてではありません。特に、昼間の連続ドラマや平日毎日放送されるドラマでは、ストーリーと俳優の両方がローテーションするため、特定のストーリーや俳優は、1 週間分のエピソードの一部には登場しますが、通常はすべてには登場しません。メロドラマでは、すべてのストーリーが同時に終わることはめったにありません。1 つのストーリーが終了すると、さまざまな展開段階にある他のストーリーがいくつか存在します。メロドラマのエピソードは通常、ある種のクリフハンガーで終了し、シーズン フィナーレ(メロドラマがシーズン間に休憩を挟んでいる場合) も同様に終了し、番組が新しい年次放送の開始のために戻ったときに解決されます。

夕方のメロドラマや、週に 1 話ずつ放送されるドラマでは、各エピソードに全キャストが登場し、すべてのストーリーが展開される傾向があります。年間の一部のみ放送される夕方のメロドラマや連続ドラマでは、シーズンの終わりにドラマチックなクリフハンガーで終わる傾向があります。

1976年、タイム誌はアメリカの昼間のテレビを「テレビの最も裕福な市場」と表現し、メロドラマのファン層の忠誠心と、広告収入を最大化するためにいくつかの30分シリーズを1時間の放送に拡大したことに注目した。^[8]記事では、当時、多くのゴールデンタイムシリーズが赤字であったのに対し、昼間の連続ドラマは制作費の数倍の利益を上げていたと説明した。^[8]その号の表紙には、最初の昼間のメロドラマスターである『Days of Our Lives』のビル・ヘイズとスーザン・シーフォース・ヘイズが掲載されていた。 [ ^{9] [10]} 2人の夫婦のスクリーン上および実生活での恋愛は、メロドラマ雑誌と主流メディアの両方で広く報道された。^[11]

一般的に「ソープオペラ」または昼間の連続ドラマとみなされる最初の番組は、1930年10月20日にシカゴのWGNラジオで初放送されたPainted Dreams [12] [13]である。[ 13 ]この番組^は昼間の時間帯に定期的に放送され、ほとんどのリスナーは主婦であったため、この番組は主に女性視聴者を対象とし、視聴していた。^[2] Clara, Lu, 'n Emは、 1931年1月27日東部標準時午後10時30分にNBCブルーネットワークで放送され、このタイプのネットワークラジオ連続ドラマとしては初のものとなった。 ^[14] 1932年2月15日まで移行しなかったが、Clara, Lu 'n Emは平日の毎日の時間帯に移行した最初のネットワーク連続ドラマとなり、ネットワーク昼間の連続ドラマとしても初のものとなった。^[14]

メロドラマを定義する主な特徴は、「家族生活、個人的な関係、性的なドラマ、感情的および道徳的な葛藤に重点が置かれていること、時事問題をある程度取り上げていること、新しい場所に時折足を踏み入れるだけで、馴染みのある家庭内を舞台にしていること」である。^[15]これらの特徴に合うように、ほとんどのメロドラマは、特定の場所に住んでいるか働いている一群の登場人物の生活、または大家族に焦点を当てている。ストーリーは、これらの登場人物の日々の活動と個人的な関係を追う。「メロドラマの物語は、映画のメロドラマと同様に、スティーブ・ニールが「偶然の出来事、偶然の一致、会議の不履行、突然の転換、土壇場での救出と啓示、神の介入による結末」と表現したものによって特徴付けられる。」^{[16] [17]これらの要素は、}イーストエンダーズからダラスまで、メロドラマのあらゆる範囲に見られる。^[16]

多くのメロドラマ、特に米国の昼間の連続ドラマでは、登場人物は魅力的で、誘惑的で、華やかで、裕福であることが多い。英国とオーストラリアのメロドラマは、より日常的な人物や状況に焦点を当てる傾向があり、労働者階級の環境を舞台にしていることが多い。^[18]これら2か国で制作されたメロドラマの多くは、家族の不和、結婚の破綻、金銭問題など、社会的に現実的なストーリーを描いている。英国とオーストラリアのメロドラマはどちらもコメディ要素を特徴としており、ゴシップ好きや不機嫌な老人など、愛情あふれる喜劇的なステレオタイプが、周囲の感情的な混乱を喜劇的に引き立てるものとして描かれている。これは、そのようなコメディが稀な米国のメロドラマとは異なる。^[6]英国のメロドラマは、しばしば「現実」を提示していると主張したり、「現実的な」スタイルを主張したりする。^[19]英国のメロドラマはまた、地理的な場所を番組の重要な特徴として前面に押し出すことが多く、場所に関連するステレオタイプのエキゾチックな魅力を描写し、それを利用している。例えば、『イーストエンダーズ』はロンドンのイーストエンドの厳しく陰鬱な生活に焦点を当てており、『コロネーション・ストリート』とその登場人物は「北部の率直な話し方」という典型的な特徴を示している。^[20]

ロマンス、秘密の関係、不倫、そして本心からの憎しみは、多くのメロドラマのストーリーラインの基礎となってきた。米国の昼ドラでは、最も人気のあるメロドラマのキャラクターや最も人気のあるストーリーラインには、ペーパーバックのロマンス小説で描かれるようなロマンスが含まれることが多かった。メロドラマのストーリーラインは、複雑で入り組んだ、時には分かりにくい物語を織り成しており、登場人物が浮気をしたり、ミステリアスな見知らぬ人と出会って恋に落ちたり、不倫をしたりすることで、視聴者はストーリーの展開に引き込まれていく。誘拐、暴行（時には性的）、さらには殺人などの犯罪であっても、犯人が進行中のストーリーに登場し続ければ処罰されないことがある。

オーストラリアやイギリスのメロドラマにも、ロマンスのストーリーがかなりの割合で登場します。ロシアでは、最も人気のある連続ドラマのほとんどが、犯罪者や寡頭政治家の生活の「ロマンチックな性質」を探求しています。

メロドラマのストーリーでは、これまで知られていなかった登場人物の子供、兄弟、双子（邪悪な種類を含む）が登場し、シリーズで取り上げられている一連の人間関係を混乱させたり、活気づけたりすることがよくあります。予期せぬ災難が、結婚式、出産、その他の人生の大きな出来事を異常なほど頻繁に妨げます。

漫画本（ 20世紀に米国で開拓されたもう一つの人気のある直線的な物語形式）と同様に、登場人物の死は永久的なものではない。^[21] 『ザ・ボールド・アンド・ザ・ビューティフル』では、テイラー・ヘイズ（ハンター・タイロ）は心停止し、葬儀が行われることが示された。2005年にタイロが彼女のキャラクターを再演すると、後付け設定でテイラーは実際には昏睡状態に陥っていたと説明された。

スタントや複雑な身体的アクションは、特に昼間の連続ドラマではほとんど見られません。そのようなストーリー上の出来事は、画面外で起こることが多く、画面に映されるのではなく、セリフで言及されます。これは、スタントやアクションシーンは、複雑な動き、複数のテイク、ポストプロダクション編集なしでは適切に描写することが難しいためです。エピソードが生放送されていた頃は、ポストプロダクション作業は不可能でした。すべての連続ドラマは長い間録画に切り替えられてきましたが、大規模なポストプロダクション作業や複数のテイクは可能ではあるものの、厳しい録画スケジュールと低予算のため、現実的ではありません。

アメリカで最初の昼間のテレビメロドラマは1949 年の「These Are My Children」でしたが、それ以前にもメロドラマは週に 1 回夕方に放送されていました。メロドラマは 1950 年代初頭に急速にアメリカの昼間のテレビの定番となり、ゲーム ショー、シットコムの再放送、トーク ショーもこれに加わりました。

1988年、当時『ジェネラル・ホスピタル』の製作総指揮を務めていたH・ウェズリー・ケニーはニューヨーク・タイムズ紙に次のように語った。^[22]

人々は、登場人物に共感できるようなストーリーが続くのを好むのだと思います。登場人物たちは家族のようになり、視聴者は感情移入します。視聴者の態度には 2 つの種類があるようです。1 つは、ストーリーが実生活で起こったことと似ているという考え方、もう 1 つは、ありがたいことに、それは私ではないという考え方です。

—  H.ウェスリー・ケニー

米国の長寿メロドラマの多くは、物語の舞台を特定の環境に設定している。『ザ・ドクターズ』と『ゼネラル・ホスピタル』は、当初は病院という限られた空間内でのストーリーがほとんどだった。『アズ・ザ・ワールド・ターンズ』は、クリス・ヒューズの弁護士業務と、1970年代に「忠実な主婦」でいることに疲れ、アメリカの連続ドラマで最初に社会人となった年配女性の1人となった妻ナンシーの苦労を重点的に扱った。 『ガイディング・ライト』は、バート・バウアー（チャリタ・バウアー）とアルコール依存症の夫ビル、そして彼らの果てしない夫婦関係の悩みを扱った。バートが思いやりのある母親と町の女家長に立場が変わったとき、彼女の子供たちの夫婦関係の悩みが取り上げられた。『明日をさがして』は、主にジョアン・ガードナー（メアリー・スチュアート）の目を通して物語が語られた。物語が他の登場人物を中心に展開されるときでも、ジョアンはしばしばストーリーラインの重要な登場人物だった。デイズ・オブ・アワ・ライブスは当初、トム・ホートン博士と彼の忠実な妻アリスに焦点を当てていました。番組は後に、5人の子供たちに焦点を当てるようになりました。エッジ・オブ・ナイトは、警察の刑事（後に弁護士）であるマイク・カーを主人公とし、主に組織犯罪を扱っていました。ザ・ヤング・アンド・ザ・レストレスは、最初は2つの家族に焦点を当てていました。裕福なブルックス一家で4人の娘がおり、労働者階級でシングルマザーと3人の子供がいるフォスター一家です。そのストーリーは、ガン、精神疾患、貧困、不倫などの現実的な問題を取り上げていました。

対照的に、『ダーク シャドウズ』（1966 年 - 1971 年）、『ポート チャールズ』（1997 年 - 2003 年）、『パッションズ』（1999 年 - 2008 年）では、超自然的なキャラクターが登場し、ファンタジーやホラーのストーリーを扱っています。キャラクターには、吸血鬼、魔女、幽霊、ゴブリン、天使などが含まれています。

アメリカのメロドラマ「ガイディング・ライト」 （ 1975年までは元々「The Guiding Light」というタイトルだった）は、1937年1月にラジオドラマとして始まり、その後1952年6月にテレビに移行した。1940年代後半の数年間、制作者のアーナ・フィリップスがプロクター・アンド・ギャンブルとの紛争に巻き込まれた時期を除いて、「ガイディング・ライト」は1937年から2009年までほぼ毎日平日に聞かれたり見られたりしており、放送媒体で語られた物語としては史上最長のものとなっている。

当初、連続ドラマは平日の昼間の時間帯に15分間ずつ放送されていた。1956年、プロクター・アンド・ギャンブル・プロダクションズ制作の『As the World Turns 』と『The Edge of Night 』がCBSテレビネットワーク初の30分メロドラマとしてデビューした。1960年代末までに、すべてのメロドラマは30分のエピソードを放送した。1970年代に人気が高まり、ほとんどのメロドラマは70年代末までに1時間に延長された（『アナザー・ワールド』は1979年から1980年にかけて短期間ながら90分に延長された）。1980年までに、連続ドラマの半数以上が1時間のエピソードに延長された。2012年現在、米国の連続ドラマ4本のうち3本は平日に1時間のエピソードを放送しており、『The Bold and the Beautiful』のみが30分のエピソードを放送している。

メロドラマはもともとスタジオから生放送されており、当時多くの人が舞台劇に似た雰囲気だと思っていた。当時のメロドラマのほとんどがニューヨーク市で制作されていたため、メロドラマの俳優の多くは熟練した舞台俳優でもあり、メロドラマの合間には生演劇を演じていた。1960年代から1970年代にかけては、『ジェネラル・ホスピタル』、『デイズ・オブ・アワ・ライブス』、『ザ・ヤング・アンド・ザ・レストレス』などの新しい連続ドラマがロサンゼルスで制作された。これらの成功により、西海岸は、上演コストが上昇しつつあったニューヨーク制作のメロドラマに代わる現実的な選択肢となった。1970年代初頭までに、ほぼすべてのメロドラマが録画に移行した。 1975年の『アズ・ザ・ワールド・ターンズ』と『ジ・エッジ・オブ・ナイト』が最後に録画に切り替えた作品である。

ポート・チャールズは、 13週間の「ストーリー・アーク」を放送する手法を採用した。この手法では、アークの主な出来事が13週間にわたって展開され、まとめられるが、一部のストーリーは複数のアークにまたがって続く。ソープ・オペラ・ダイジェストの2006年プレビュー号によると、 ABCの番組はすべてテレノベラ・アークを放送するかもしれないという議論が一時あったが、これは却下された。

米国の昼間のメロドラマは、一般的には各ネットワークで再放送されないが、時折、他の場所で再放送される。CBS と ABC はこれに例外を設け、特別イベントの番組が予定されていない主要な祝日や、ニュース速報のため予定されていたエピソードが土壇場で翌日に延期された場合には、古いエピソード (現在のシーズンの初めに放送されたものか、数年前に放送されたもの)を放送している。 （同様に、 COVID-19パンデミックによる一時的な制作停止により、CBSとABCは2020年の春と夏に『ザ・ヤング・アンド・ザ・レストレス』、『ザ・ボールド・アンド・ザ・ビューティフル』、『ジェネラル・ホスピタル』の古い再放送を放送し、初回放送のエピソードを節約し、最終的には番組の新しいエピソードが放送されなくなった後の放送時間を埋めることになった。初回放送の約8か月前にエピソードを制作している『デイズ・オブ・アワ・ライブス』は、初回放送のエピソードのバックログが多かったため、この期間中に古いエピソードを放送することはなかった。）『ダーク・シャドウズ』の初期のエピソードは、番組打ち切り後の1970年代初頭にPBS加盟局で再放送され、 1990年代には全シリーズ（欠落した1つのエピソードを除く）がSci-Fiチャンネルで再放送された。 1984年に『エッジ・オブ・ナイト』が打ち切られた後、 1985年から1989年にかけて、同番組の最後の5年間の再放送がUSAネットワークで深夜に放送された。2000年1月20日、同ジャンルに特化したデジタルケーブルおよび衛星ネットワークであるSoapnetが、もともとABC、 NBC 、CBSで放送されていたソープドラマの再放送を開始した。

1980年代後半以降、フォックスやケーブルテレビネットワークなどの新しい放送ネットワークは、昼間の番組スケジュールでメロドラマをほとんど避け、代わりにシンジケート番組や再放送を放送している。ケーブルテレビ局は独自の昼間の連続ドラマを制作していないが、ディレクTVのThe 101 Networkは既存の連続ドラマPassionsを引き継ぎ、1シーズン制作を継続した。一方、TBSとCBNケーブルネットワークは、1980年代にそれぞれ独自のメロドラマThe Catlins（ゴールデンタイムのメロドラマで、昼間の番組と同じ毎日エピソード形式を採用）とAnother Life（標準的な連続ドラマと宗教的な色合いを組み合わせたメロドラマ）を放送した。4番目の「主要ネットワーク」であるフォックスは、 1990年に短命の昼メロドラマ「トライブス」を放送した。しかし、これと数回のパイロット版を除いて、フォックスは昼メロドラマから遠ざかっており、 1994年に主要ネットワークに昇格して以来、昼メロドラマには挑戦していない（その後、2006年から2007年にかけて、新しく設立された姉妹ネットワークのMyNetworkTVで放映されたゴールデンタイムの連続メロドラマを試みたが、視聴率が期待外れで、この実験はほぼ失敗に終わった）。

シリーズごとに制作されるエピソードが膨大であるため、ソープオペラを DVD でリリースすることは非現実的であると考えられています (DVD は、最新および過去のテレビシリーズの配信によく使用されます)。時折の特別番組を除き、昼間のソープオペラは DVD リリース スケジュールに含まれていないことで有名です (例外は、超自然的なソープオペラであるDark Shadowsで、これは VHS と DVD の両方でほぼ完全にリリースされました。失われた唯一のエピソード #1219 は、放送外の音声録音、静止画像、および隣接するエピソードの要約資料によって再構成されています)。

最も長く出演しているメロドラマ俳優のリストを見る

米国のソープオペラ出演者は、通常、主役（雇用契約を結んでいるため「契約役」と呼ばれることもある、または主役）と脇役（繰り返し登場するキャラクターと呼ばれることもある）の 2 つのグループに分けられます。この 2 つのグループのキャラクターが、どのソープオペラにも登場する人物の大半を占めています。特定のストーリーラインによって短時間しか登場しないキャラクターや、ファーストネームしかなく、キャラクターの経歴も詳しくなく、セリフもほとんどないキャラクターもいます（各エピソードでセリフが 5 行未満であるため、「アンダー 5」と呼ばれることもあります）。

これらの番組は長く放送されているため、1 人のキャラクターを複数の俳優が演じることは珍しくありません。The Edge of Nightの主要キャラクターであるMike Karr は3 人の俳優によって演じられました。

逆に、何年も、あるいは何十年も同じ役を演じ続けている俳優もいる。ヘレン・ワグナーは、アメリカのソープオペラ「As the World Turns」でヒューズ家の家長ナンシー・ヒューズを演じ、1956年4月2日の初放送から2010年5月に亡くなるまで演じ続けた。彼女は、単一の役で最も長く中断なく出演した俳優としてギネスブック^[23]に掲載されている。20年以上役を演じ続けた俳優も数多くおり、複数の番組に出演することもあった。レイチェル・エイムズは1964年から2007年まで『ゼネラル・ホスピタル』と『ポート・チャールズ』でオードリー・ハーディ役を演じ、2009年に復帰した。スーザン・ルッチは『オール・マイ・チルドレン』でエリカ・ケイン役を演じ、1970年1月の番組初放送から2011年9月23日のABCでのネットワークテレビ放送終了まで務めた。エリカ・スレザックは1971年から『ワン・ライフ・トゥ・リヴ』でヴィクトリア・ロード3世役を演じ、2012年1月13日のABCでのネットワークテレビ放送終了まで務め、2013年4月29日の短期間のオンライン復活で再びこの役を演じた。^[24]

他の俳優もさまざまな番組で複数のキャラクターを演じています。ミレット・アレキサンダー、バーナード・バロウ、ドリス・ベラック、デヴィッド・キャナリー、ジュディス・チャップマン、キース・チャールズ、ジョーダン・チャーニー、ジョーン・コープランド、ニコラス・コスター、ジャクリーン・コートニー、オーガスタ・ダブニー、ルイス・エドモンズ、ドン・ヘイスティングス、ラリー・ヘインズ、ヴィンセント・イリザリー、レノア・カスドルフ、テリ・キーン、ロイス・キビー、ジョン・ロプリエノ、ロリ・マーチ、メイヴ・マグワイア、ロバート・ミリ、ジェームズ・ミッチェル、リー・パターソン、クリストファー・ペノック、アントニー・ポンジーニ、ウィリアム・プリンス、ローズマリー・プリンツ、ルイーズ・シェイファー、メアリー・スチュアート、リチャード・トーマス、ダイアナ・ファン・デル・ヴリス、メアリー・K・ウェルズ、レスリー・ウッズ、マイケル・ザスローなど、多くの俳優が複数のソープ・オペラで役を演じてきました 。

数十年にわたって、昼間のメロドラマのほとんどは、家族や夫婦間の不和、法廷ドラマ、ロマンスに焦点を当てていました。舞台は内陸部に限られ、多くの番組は中西部の架空の中規模の町を舞台としていました。

ソープオペラが始まった頃は、ネットワークによる厳しい検閲があったため、社会問題を扱ったストーリーは一般的に禁止されていたが、脚本家でプロデューサーのアグネス・ニクソンがゆっくりと、しかし確実にこれらのストーリーを導入した。最初は1962年、 『ガイディング・ライト』の主人公バート・バウアーが子宮がんを発症した時であった^[25]（女優のチャリタ・バウアーも実生活で同じ病気と診断されていた）。このストーリーは多くの女性にパップスメア検査を受けるよう促し^[25]、ニューヨーク市のCBS郵便室にはバウアー（バートとチャリタの両方）の回復を祈る当時の記録的な数のファンレターが届いた。ニクソンは1960年代後半から1970年代にかけて、ソープオペラ『ワン・ライフ・トゥ・リヴ』や『オール・マイ・チルドレン』で社会的に意義のあるストーリーを数多く語ることになる。

屋外での撮影は、徐々に『The Edge of Night』や『Dark Shadows』といったシリーズに取り入れられてきました。架空の町を舞台にした初期の多くのシリーズとは異なり、『The Best of Everything』と『Ryan's Hope』は現実世界の場所、ニューヨーク市を舞台としていました。

最初のエキゾチックなロケ撮影は、 1978年に『オール マイ チルドレン』の撮影でセント クロイ島で行われました。 『オールマイチルドレン』の撮影が成功した後、他の多くのメロドラマが豪華なストーリーラインを計画しました。メロドラマ『アナザー ワールド』と『ガイディング ライト』はどちらも1980年にセント クロイ島で撮影されました。前者は人気キャラクターのマック、レイチェル、ジャニスの間の長期にわたるストーリーラインのクライマックスとなり、後者はアラン スポールディングとリタ バウアーの熱烈な情事のエキゾチックな舞台となりました。『明日をさがして』は1981年に香港で2週間収録されました。その年の後半、キャストとスタッフの一部はジャマイカに行き、ガースとキャシーのキャラクターの間の愛の成就のストーリーラインを収録しました。

1980 年代には、おそらく高視聴率を獲得しつつあった夜のドラマシリーズへの反応として、昼間の連続ドラマにアクションや冒険のストーリーライン、大企業の陰謀、若者の恋愛への重点が組み込まれるようになりました。

最も人気のあったカップルの 1 組は、ジェネラル ホスピタルのルーク スペンサーとローラ ウェバーです。ルークとローラは、男性と女性の両方のファンを魅了しました。女優のエリザベス テイラーもファンで、彼女自身の希望で、ルークとローラの結婚式のエピソードにゲスト出演しました。ルークとローラの人気により、他のソープ ドラマのプロデューサーも、自分たちでスーパーカップルを作ろうとすることで、この成功を再現しようと努力しました。

ますます奇抜なアクションストーリーが流行する中、ルークとローラは世界を凍りつくことから救い、左利きの少年の像の中にある黒い本を見つけてギャングを倒し、メキシコで王女がアステカの宝物を見つけるのを手伝いました。他のメロドラマも同様の冒険ストーリーを試み、多くの場合、異国情緒あふれる場所でロケ撮影された映像をフィーチャーしました。

1990年代、昼間のメロドラマの視聴率が全体的に低下していたため、ギャング、アクション、冒険物語はプロデューサーに不評だった。その結果として予算が削減され、メロドラマは1980年代のように海外で高額なロケ撮影を行うことがなくなった。その10年間、メロドラマはますます若い登場人物や社会問題に焦点を当てるようになった。例えば、『オール・マイ・チルドレン』のエリカ・ケインの薬物中毒、 『ワン・ライフ・トゥ・リヴ』のヴィッキー・ロードの解離性同一性障害の再出現、『オール・マイ・チルドレン』でスチュアート・チャンドラーがエイズで死にゆく妻シンディに対処する様子などである。その他の社会問題には、ガン、レイプ、中絶、人種差別などがあった。

1990年代から2000年代にかけてのいくつかの番組は、視聴率を上げるために、ストーリーに超自然的要素やSFの要素を取り入れた。初期のメロドラマ「ダーク・シャドウズ」の主要キャラクターの1人は吸血鬼のバーナバス・コリンズで、「ワン・ライフ・トゥ・リブ」には天使のヴァージルが登場した。どちらの番組も過去を旅するキャラクターが登場した。1995年の「デイズ・オブ・アワ・ライブス」では、ファンに人気のキャラクターであるマーレーナ・エバンスが悪魔に取り憑かれるストーリーが展開され、1998年の「ガイディング・ライト」では、伝説のキャラクターであるレヴァ・シェインが関与するクローンストーリーが展開された。

現代の米国の昼間のメロドラマは、おおむね元のメロドラマの形式に忠実である。米国の昼間の連続ドラマで採用されているストーリーの長さと形式、視覚的な文法は、他の国のメロドラマや夕方のメロドラマとは一線を画している。英国とオーストラリアのメロドラマは、通常夕方の早い時間帯に制作されており、スタイル的には米国の昼間のメロドラマと夕方のメロドラマの中間に位置する。米国の昼間のメロドラマと同様に、英国とオーストラリアの連続ドラマはビデオテープで撮影され、キャストとストーリーは週のエピソード間でローテーションされるため、各キャストはすべてのエピソードではなく一部のエピソードに登場します。英国とオーストラリアのメロドラマは、昼間の連続ドラマよりもストーリー展開が速いため、この点では米国の夕方のメロドラマに近い。

アメリカの昼ドラには、他の番組とは一線を画すスタイル上の要素があります。

• アメリカの昼ドラに特有の構造は、会話シーンが次々と切り替わり、それぞれの会話が終わった瞬間に再び会話に戻るという形式である。これはアメリカの昼ドラと他のアメリカのテレビドラマとの最も大きな違いである。他のテレビドラマでは、通常、描写されるシーンの間に、オフスクリーンで物語の時間が経過する。^[6]場合によっては、その幕の前のほうで会話に関わった登場人物が、同じ幕の後のほうで別の場面で登場することがある。
• 米国の昼ドラでは、シーンは意味深な休止と登場人物のクローズアップで終わることが多い。数秒間はセリフがなく、音楽が盛り上がってからコマーシャルや新しいシーンに切り替わる。業界ではこのようなつなぎは「タグ」と呼ばれている。
• 映画製作やテレビ番組制作で日常的に使用される伝統的な3 点照明セットアップは、昼間のメロドラマでも使用され、時には俳優を背景から浮かび上がらせるためにバックライトを強調します。これは、小さな室内セットでビデオテープに撮影されるメロドラマなどの番組で役立ちます。ロケ撮影や大規模なセットで撮影された映画作品では、バックライトはより控えめになることがよくあります。
• 家の内装は、染色された木製の壁パネルや家具、茶色の革張りの家具で装飾されることが多い。これは、登場人物の富を暗示する豪華で贅沢な外観を与えるためである。昼間の連続ドラマでは、セット装飾の他の豪華な要素が前面に出てくることが多く、「豪華な花飾り、きらめくクリスタルのデカンタ、または輝くアンティーク家具のフレームを通して見た登場人物のミッドショット」が提示される。^[15]
• 米国の昼ドラで、ロケや屋外撮影の映像を定期的に取り入れているものはほとんどありません (ガイディング ライトは最後の 2 シーズンで多くのシーンを屋外で撮影し始めました)。多くの場合、屋外の場所はスタジオで再現されます。オーストラリアと英国の昼ドラでは、毎回必ず一定量の屋外撮影の映像が使われます。これは通常、同じ場所で撮影され、多くの場合、特定のイベントのために新しい屋外の場所が特別に作られたセットで撮影されます。
• メロドラマの画質は、予算が低く制作期間が短いため、米国のゴールデンタイムのテレビドラマシリーズよりも劣るのが普通である。これはまた、ゴールデンタイムの作品が通常はフィルムで撮影され、シングルカメラ撮影スタイルを頻繁に使用するのとは異なり、メロドラマがマルチカメラセットアップを使用してビデオテープに録画されることも一因である。ビデオ画像の解像度が低いことと、メロドラマで描かれる感情的な状況のため、昼間の連続ドラマではクローズアップショットが多用される。米国の番組は、2011年9月に『ザ・ボールド・アンド・ザ・ビューティフル』がHD放送形式に変換した最後のメロドラマになるまで、HD放送への完全な移行は行われなかった。『ワン・ライフ・トゥ・リブ』は例外で、2012年1月にABCでの放送が終了するまで、アスペクト比16:9ではあるものの、標準画質で制作・放送され続けた。
• メロドラマには独特のブロッキング技法がある。よくあるシチュエーションとして、恋愛関係にあるカップルが顔を合わせて会話を始めるが、会話が続く間、一方の登場人物が180度向きを変えてもう一方の登場人物から顔を背けるというものがある。こうすることで、1つのショットに両方の登場人物が一緒に登場し、両方とも観客の方を向くことになる。これは現実には非現実的であり、米国の昼間の連続ドラマ以外では映画やテレビではあまり見られないが、メロドラマの慣習として受け入れられており、「ツーショット・ウェスト」と呼ばれることもある。^[26]
• 昼間のメロドラマは現実逃避的な雰囲気があり、また各番組に雇用されている出演者の数が多いため（通常、1時間のメロドラマでは合計で約30人から35人、30分のメロドラマでは15人から25人）、伝統的に契約出演者全員（およびレギュラー出演者とゲスト出演者）が、オープニングのタイトルシーケンスではなく、エンディングクレジット中にリストされる。1990年代まで、これらのシリーズでは、月曜日から木曜日に放送される特定のエピソードの最後に、主な俳優のうち数人のみが表示されていた。前述の理由から、ショーのキャスト全員のリストと彼らが演じるキャラクターを並べた拡張クレジットシーケンスが、少なくとも週に1回は放送されるのが一般的である（通常は金曜日の番組。ただし、2000年代以降、ほとんどのメロドラマでは、ジェネラル・ホスピタルを数少ない例外の1つとして、キャストリストが表示される日がランダムになっている）。 1999年、 『ザ・ヤング・アンド・ザ・レストレス』は、アメリカの昼ドラとしては初めて、契約俳優の名前をオープニングクレジットに載せた（ただし、一度に番組と契約している俳優の数が多かったため、タイトルシーケンスの異なるバージョンを使用し、2017年まで各バージョンに記載されていた7人から増加した約9人の俳優のランダムなリストを使用している）。『ザ・ボールド・アンド・ザ・ビューティフル』は2004年から2017年までメインキャスト全員（および定期的に登場する一部の俳優）をリストし、 2010年から2013年まで『ジェネラル・ホスピタル』がこれに続いた。（2021年現在、『ザ・ヤング・アンド・ザ・レストレス』は、オープニングタイトルと拡張されたエンディングクレジットの両方でメインキャストの名前をリストする唯一のアメリカの昼ドラである。）^[27][update]

米国では2000年代以降、メロドラマの視聴率が大幅に低下している。2022年9月現在、昼間のメロドラマは『ジェネラル・ホスピタル』、『デイズ・オブ・アワ・ライブス』、『ザ・ヤング・アンド・ザ・レストレス』、『ザ・ボールド・アンド・ザ・ビューティフル』の4本のみが制作中であり、3本が2つの放送ネットワークで放送され、1本がストリーミングで放送されている。これは、1990～91年シーズンの合計12本と、最高だった1969～70年シーズンから減少している。放送テレビで放送されるメロドラマが4本のみとなったのは、1953年以来初めてのことである。^{[28] 1988年から現在までの最高視聴率の} メロドラマである『ザ・ヤング・アンド・ザ・レストレス』は、2012年2月時点で1日あたりの視聴者数が500万人を下回り、脚本のない番組の『ジャッジ・ジュディ』^{などがこの数字を上回った。 [29] [30]}主にメロドラマの再放送を放送していたソープネットは、2012年に段階的に廃止され始め、翌年には完全に運営を停止しました。^{[31]メロドラマやその他の昼間の番組を表彰する}デイタイムエミー賞は、2012年にゴールデンタイムのネットワークテレビから小規模なケーブルチャンネルに移行し、その後、2014年、2016年、2017年にはテレビでまったく放送されませんでした。^[32]

米国で最も定着していたソープオペラのいくつかは、2009年から2012年の間に終了しました。テレビとラジオの歴史上最も長く続いたドラマである『ガイディング ライト』は、2009年に1日あたりの視聴者数がかろうじて210万人に達し、その年の9月18日に72年間の放送（ラジオを含む）を経て終了しました。^[33] 『アズ・ザ・ワールド・ターンズ』は、2010年9月17日に54年間の放送を経て最終回を放送しました。 『アズ・ザ・ワールド・ターンズ』は、このジャンルの名前の由来となった石鹸と消費財の会社、プロクター・アンド・ギャンブルが制作した20のソープオペラの最後の作品でした。^{[34] 『アズ・} ザ・ワールド・ターンズ』と『ガイディング ライト』は、ニューヨーク市で生まれた最後のソープオペラの1つでもあります。ニューヨークを拠点とする別のソープオペラ『オール・マイ・チルドレン』は、コストを削減し、低迷する視聴率を上げるために、制作をロサンゼルスに移しました。しかし、40年以上続いた『デイズ・オブ・アワ・ライブ』と『ワン・ライフ・トゥ・ライブ』は、2011年に打ち切られた。『オール・マイ・チルドレン』は2011年9月にネットワーク最終回を放送し、 『ワン・ライフ・トゥ・ライブ』は2012年1月にそれに続いた。 ^{[35] 『オール}・マイ・チルドレン』と『ワン・ライフ・トゥ・ライブ』はどちらも2013年にオンラインで短期間復活したが、同年に再び打ち切られた。^[36] 2019年、 『デイズ・オブ・アワ・ライブス』の制作は「無期限休止」となり、出演者全員の契約が解除されたため、ソープ・オペラの出版物では打ち切りになるのではないかとの懸念が高まったが、^[37]その後、番組は2021年9月まで更新された。^[38] 2022年、NBCは『デイズ・オブ・アワ・ライブス』を自社のストリーミングサービスであるピーコックに独占移行すると発表し、NBCは3大ネットワークの中で初めて昼間のソープ・オペラを放送しない企業となった。^[39]

2024年3月、CBSスタジオ、NAACPベンチャーはP&Gスタジオと提携して、CBS向けの新しいメロドラマ「The Gates」を制作中であり、 「Generations」以来初めてアフリカ系アメリカ人のキャストが登場するメロドラマになると発表しました。^[40]

2024年4月12日、CBSは『ザ・トーク』を第15シーズンおよび最終シーズンとして更新し、番組は2024年12月に終了する。^[41] 3日後の4月15日、 CBSは『ザ・ゲイツ』（現在のタイトルは『ビヨンド・ザ・ゲイツ』）の制作を承認し、2025年1月に初放送する予定で、おそらく『ザ・トーク』の放送時間枠を占めることになる。つまり、 1999年の『パッションズ』以来、主要放送ネットワークで初放送される新しい昼間のメロドラマとなる。^[42]

女性が家の外で働くことが増えるにつれ、昼間のテレビ視聴は減少した。^[要出典]潜在的な新世代の視聴者は、母親と一緒にメロドラマを見て育っていないため、番組の長くて複雑なストーリーラインは若い視聴者には馴染みのないものである。視聴者が高齢化するにつれ、メロドラマの広告主が最も多く支払う人口統計グループである若年成人女性の視聴率は低下し続けている。^[43]ニールセンは自宅外でのテレビ視聴を追跡していないため、職場の休憩室で視聴する可能性のある人はカウントされていない。ケーブルテレビとインターネットの台頭も、日中の新しい娯楽源を提供している。^{[43]このジャンルの衰退は、}リアリティ番組がメロドラマの主流としてメロドラマに取って代わったことにも起因している。 ^[44]リアリティ番組の初期の用語は、ドキュメンタリー・ソープであった。^[45]リアリティ番組の先駆けとなった1994～95年にテレビ放映されたO・J・シンプソン殺人事件は、ソープオペラのシーズン全体を先取りし、競合したことで視聴習慣を変え、裁判終了後にはソープオペラの視聴者数が10パーセント減少した。^{[46] [47]}

昼間の番組の代替となるトークショー、ゲームショー、法廷ショーなどは、脚本付きドラマよりも制作費が最大50%も安いため^[48]、たとえ視聴率がソープオペラと同等かわずかに低くても、ネットワークにとってはこれらの形式の方が収益性が高く魅力的である。ネットワークは、サンセットビーチやポートチャールズの場合のように、視聴率が期待外れのソープオペラを放送し続けるよりも、地元局に時間枠を返還することを好む場合もある。2007年から2010年にかけて脚本付き番組への財政的圧力をさらに強めたのは、大不況による広告の減少で、番組は予算とキャストの規模を削減した。^[49]これらの外的要因に加えて、決まりきった筋書き、視聴者を狭める多様性の欠如、コアファミリーの排除など、ソープオペラファンは、このジャンルの衰退の一因として、数々の制作上の決定を挙げている。^[50]

Serials produced for prime time slots have also found success. The first prime time soap opera was Faraway Hill (1946), which aired on October 2, 1946, on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network.^[51] Faraway Hill ran for 12 episodes and was primarily broadcast live, interspersed with short pre-recorded film clips and still photos to remind the audience of the previous week's episode.

The first long-running prime time soap opera was Peyton Place (1964–1969) on ABC. It was based in part on the eponymous 1957 film (which, in turn, was based on the 1956 novel).

The popularity of Peyton Place prompted the CBS network to spin off popular As the World Turns character Lisa Miller into her own evening soap opera, Our Private World (originally titled "The Woman Lisa" in its planning stages). Our Private World was broadcast from May to September 1965. The character of Lisa (and her portrayer Eileen Fulton) returned to As The World Turns after the series ended.

The structure of Peyton Place, with its episodic plots and long-running story arcs, set the mold for the prime time serials of the 1980s, when the format reached its pinnacle.

The successful prime time serials of the 1980s included Dallas, its spin-off Knots Landing, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest. These shows frequently dealt with wealthy families, and their personal and big-business travails. Common characteristics were sumptuous sets and costumes, complex storylines examining business schemes and intrigue, and spectacular disaster cliffhanger situations. Each of these series featured a wealthy, domineering, promiscuous, and passionate antagonist as a key character in the storyline – respectively, J. R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), Abby Cunningham (Donna Mills), Alexis Colby (Joan Collins), and Angela Channing (Jane Wyman). These villainous schemers became immensely popular figures that audiences "loved to hate".

Unlike daytime serials, which are shot on video in a studio using the multi-camera setup, these evening series were shot on film using a single camera setup, and featured substantial location-shot footage, often in picturesque locales. Dallas, its spin-off Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest all initially featured episodes with self-contained stories and specific guest stars who appeared in just that episode. Each story was completely resolved by the end of the episode, and there were no end-of-episode cliffhangers. After the first couple of seasons, all three shows changed their story format to that of a pure soap opera, with interwoven ongoing narratives that ran over several episodes. Dynasty featured this format throughout its run.

The soap opera's distinctive open plot structure and complex continuity was increasingly incorporated into American prime time television programs of the period. The first significant drama series to do this was Hill Street Blues. This series, produced by Steven Bochco, featured many elements borrowed from soap operas, such as an ensemble cast, multi-episode storylines, and extensive character development over the course of the series. It and the later Cagney & Lacey overlaid the police series formula with ongoing narratives exploring the personal lives and interpersonal relationships of the regular characters.^[52] The success of these series prompted other drama series, such as St. Elsewhere and situation comedy series, to incorporate serialized stories and story structure to varying degrees.

The prime time soap operas and drama series of the 1990s, such as Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Party of Five, The O.C., and Dawson's Creek, focused more on younger characters. In the 2000s, ABC began to revitalize the prime time soap opera format with shows such as Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters, Ugly Betty, Private Practice, and more recently Revenge, Nashville, Scandal, Mistresses, and formerly Ringer, which its sister production company ABC Studios co-produced with CBS Television Studios for The CW. While not soaps in the traditional sense, these shows managed to appeal to wide audiences with their high drama mixed with humor, and are soap operas by definition. These successes led to NBC's launching serials, including Heroes and Friday Night Lights.^{[citation needed]} The upstart MyNetworkTV, a sister network of Fox, launched a line of prime time telenovelas (a genre similar to soap operas in terms of content) upon its launch in September 2006, but discontinued its use of the format in August 2007 after disappointing ratings.^{[citation needed]}

On June 13, 2012, Dallas, a continuation of the 1978 original series premiered on the cable network, TNT. The revived series, which was canceled after three seasons in 2014, delivered solid ratings for the channel, only losing viewership after the show's most established star, Larry Hagman, died midway through the series. In 2012, Nick at Nite debuted a primetime soap opera, Hollywood Heights, which aired episodes five nights a week (on Monday through Fridays) in a manner similar to a daytime soap opera, instead of the once-a-week episode output common of other prime time soaps. The series, which was an adaptation of the Mexican telenovela Alcanzar una estrella, suffered from low ratings (generally receiving less than 1 million viewers) and was later moved to sister cable channel TeenNick halfway through its run to burn off the remaining episodes.

In 2015, Fox debuted Empire, a prime time musical serial centering on the power struggle between family members within the titular recording company. Created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong and led by Oscar nominees Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, the drama premiered to high ratings. The show is strongly influenced by other works such as William Shakespeare's King Lear, James Goldman's The Lion in Winter and the 1980s soap opera Dynasty. Also in 2015, E! introduced The Royals, a series following the life and drama of a fictional English Royal family, which was also inspired by Dynasty (even featuring Joan Collins as the Queen's mother). In addition, ABC debuted a prime time soap opera Blood & Oil, following a young couple looking to make money off the modern-day Williston oil boom, premiering on September 27, 2015.

The telenovela, a shorter-form format of serial melodrama, shares some thematic and especially stylistic similarity to the soap opera, enough that the colloquialism Spanish soap opera has arisen to describe the format. The chief difference between the two is length of series; while soap operas usually have indefinite runs, telenovelas typically have a central story arc with a prescribed ending within a year or two of the show's launch, requiring more concise storytelling.

Spanish-language networks, chiefly Univision and Telemundo, have found success airing telenovelas for the growing U.S. Hispanic market. Both originally produced and imported Latin American dramas (as well as imported Turkish dramas since the 2020s) are popular features of the networks' daytime and primetime lineups, sometimes beating English-language networks in the ratings.^[53][54]

Some web series are soap operas, such as Degrassi: In Session or Venice: The Series. In 2013, production company Prospect Park revived All My Children and One Life to Live for the web, retaining original creator Agnes Nixon as a consultant and keeping many of the same actors (Prospect Park purchased the rights to both series months after their cancellations by ABC in 2011, although it initially suspended plans to relaunch the soaps later that same year due to issues receiving approval from acting and production unions).^[55] Each show initially produced four half-hour episodes a week, but quickly cut back to two half-hour episodes each.^[56] In the midst of (though not directly related to) a lawsuit between Prospect Park and ABC, the experiment ended that same year, with both shows being canceled again.^[36]

As of 2017,^[update] Turkey is the second largest exporter of television soap operas. In 2016, Turkish TV exports earned $350 million, making it the second largest drama exporter in the world behind the United States.^[57][58] Turkish soap operas have a large following across Asia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.^[59][60]

Soap operas in the UK began on radio and consequently were associated with the BBC. It had resisted soaps as antithetical to its quality image, but began broadcasting Front Line Family in April 1941 on its North American shortwave service to encourage American intervention on Britain's behalf in World War II.^[61] The BBC continues to broadcast the world's longest-running radio soap, The Archers, which first aired in May 1950, and has been running nationally since 1951.^[4] It is currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and continues to attract over five million listeners, or roughly 25% of the radio listening population of the UK at that time of the evening.

In the UK, soap operas are one of the most popular genres, with most being broadcast during prime time. Most UK soap operas focus on everyday, working-class communities, influenced by the conventions of the kitchen sink drama.^[62] The most popular soap operas in the United Kingdom are Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, Doctors, and the Australian produced Neighbours and Home and Away. The first three of these are consistently among the highest-rated shows on British television.^[63] Such is the magnitude of the popularity of the soap genre in the UK that all television serials in the country are reputedly enjoyed by members of the British Royal Family. King Charles III himself made cameo appearances in two of the UK's biggest serials during his time as Prince of Wales: Coronation Street and EastEnders, the latter alongside his wife Queen Camilla (then Duchess of Cornwall), in 2000 and 2022 respectively. Major events in British culture are often mentioned in the storyline, such as the Home Nations' participation at the World Cup and the death of Princess Diana.^[64] Since 1999, The British Soap Awards has been televised on ITV.^[65]

The 1986 Christmas Day episode of EastEnders is often referred to as the highest-rated UK soap opera episode ever, with 30.15 million viewers (more than half the population at the time).^[63] The figure of 30.15 million was actually a combination of the original broadcast, which had just over 19 million viewers, and the Sunday omnibus edition with 10 million viewers. The combined 30.15 million audience figure makes the aforementioned Christmas Day 1986 episode of EastEnders the highest-rated single-channel broadcast in the history of UK television. Overall it ranks third behind the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final (32.3 million viewers) and Princess Diana's funeral in 1997 (32.1 million viewers) which were transmitted on both BBC One and ITV.^[63]

An early television serial was The Grove Family on the BBC, which produced 148 episodes from 1954 to 1957. The programme was broadcast live and only a handful of recordings were retained in the archives. The UK's first twice-weekly serial was ITV's Emergency - Ward 10, running from 1957 until 1967.

In the 1960s, Coronation Street revolutionised UK television and quickly became a British institution. On 17 September 2010, it became the world's longest-running television soap opera and was listed in Guinness World Records.^[5] The BBC also produced several serials: Compact was about the staff of a women's magazine; The Newcomers was about the upheaval caused by a large firm setting up a plant in a small town; United! contained 147 episodes and focused on a football team; 199 Park Lane (1965) was an upper class serial, which ran for only 18 episodes. None of these serials came close to making the same impact as Coronation Street. Indeed, most of the 1960s BBC serials were largely wiped.

During the 1960s, Coronation Street's main rival was Crossroads, a daily serial that began in 1964 and aired on ITV in the early evening. Crossroads was set in a Birmingham motel and, although the program was popular, its purported low technical standard and bad acting were much mocked. By the 1980s, its ratings had begun to decline. Several attempts to revamp the program through cast changes and, later, expanding the focus from the motel to the surrounding community were unsuccessful. Crossroads was cancelled in 1988 (a new version of Crossroads was later produced, running from 2001 until 2003).

A later rival to Coronation Street was ITV's Emmerdale Farm (later renamed Emmerdale), which began in 1972 in a daytime slot and was set in rural Yorkshire. Increased viewership resulted in Emmerdale being moved to a prime-time slot in the 1980s.

Pobol y Cwm (People of the Valley) is a Welsh language serial that has been produced by the BBC since October 1974, and is the longest-running television soap opera produced by the broadcaster. Pobol y Cwm was originally broadcast on BBC Wales television from 1974 to 1982; it was then moved to the Welsh-language television station S4C when it opened in November 1982. The program was occasionally shown on BBC1 in London during periods of regional optout in the mid- to late 1970s. Pobol y Cwm was briefly shown in the rest of the UK in 1994 on BBC2, with English subtitles; it is consistently the most watched programme each week on S4C.^[66]

Daytime soap operas were non-existent until the 1970s because there was virtually no daytime television in the UK. ITV introduced General Hospital, which later moved to a prime time slot. In 1980, Scottish Television debuted Take the High Road, which lasted for over twenty years. Later, daytime slots were filled with an influx of Australian soap operas such as The Sullivans (aired on ITV from 1977), The Young Doctors (from 1982), Sons and Daughters (from 1983), A Country Practice (from 1982), Richmond Hill (from 1988 to 1989) and eventually, Neighbours was acquired by the BBC in 1986, and Home and Away aired on ITV beginning in 1989. These achieved significant levels of popularity; Neighbours and Home and Away were moved to early-evening slots, helping begin the UK soap opera boom in the late 1980s.

The day Channel 4 began operations in 1982 it launched its own soap, the Liverpool-based Brookside, which would redefine soaps over the next decade. The focus of Brookside was different from earlier soap operas in the UK; it was set in a middle-class new-build cul-de-sac, unlike Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm, which were set in established working-class communities. The characters in Brookside were generally either people who had advanced themselves from inner-city council estates, or the upper middle-class who had fallen on hard times. Though Brookside was still broadcast in a pre-watershed slot (8.00 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. on weekdays, around 5.00 p.m. for the omnibus on Saturdays), it was more liberal than other soaps of the time: the dialogue regularly included expletives. This stemmed from the overall more liberal policy of the channel during that period. The soap was also heavily politicised. Bobby Grant (Ricky Tomlinson), a militant trade-unionist anti-hero, was the most overtly political character. Storylines were often more sensationalist than on other soaps (throughout the soap's history, there were two armed sieges on the street) and were staged with more violence (particularly, rape) often being featured.

In 1985, the BBC's EastEnders debuted and became a near instant success with viewers and critics alike, with the first episode attracting over 17 million viewers. The Christmas Day 1986 episode was watched by 30.15 million viewers and contained a scene in which divorce papers were served to Angie Watts (Anita Dobson) by her husband, Queen Vic landlord Den (Leslie Grantham).

A notable success in pioneering late-night broadcasting, in October 1984, Yorkshire Television began airing the cult Australian soap opera Prisoner, which originally ran from 1979 to 1986. It was eventually broadcast on all regions of the UK in differing slots, usually around 23:00 (but never before 22:30 in any region), under the title Prisoner: Cell Block H. It was probably most popular in the Midlands where Central Television consistently broadcast the serial three times a week from 1987 to 1991. Its airing in the UK was staggered, so different regions of the country saw it at a different pace. The program was immensely successful, regularly achieving 10 million viewers when all regions' ratings per episode were added together. Central bowed to fan pressure to repeat the soap, of which the first 95 episodes aired. Then, rival station Channel 5 also acquired rights to repeat the entire rerun of the program, starting in 1997. All 692 episodes have since been released on DVD in the UK.

In 1992, the BBC made Eldorado to daily alternate with EastEnders. The programme was heavily criticised and only lasted one year. Nevertheless, soap operas gained increasing prominence on UK television schedules. In 1995, Channel 4 premiered Hollyoaks, a soap with a youth focus which initially aired only once weekly, but became week-daily in November 2003. When Channel 5 launched in March 1997, it debuted the soap opera Family Affairs, which was formatted as a week-daily soap, airing Monday through Fridays.

Brookside's premise evolved during the 1990s, phasing out the politicised stories of the 1980s and shifting the emphasis to controversial and sensationalist stories such as child rape, sibling incest, religious cults and drug addiction, including the infamous 'body under the patio' storyline that ran from 1993 to 1995, and gave the serial its highest ratings ever with 9 million viewers.

Coronation Street and Brookside began releasing straight-to-video features. The Coronation Street releases generally kept the pace and style of conventional programs episodes with the action set in foreign locations. The Brookside releases were set in the usual locations, but featured stories with adult content not allowed on television pre-watershed, with these releases given '18' certificates.

Emmerdale Farm was renamed Emmerdale in 1989. The series was revamped in 1993 with many changes executed via the crash of a passenger jet that partially destroyed the village and killed several characters. This attracted criticism as it was broadcast near the fifth anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing. The storyline drew the soap its highest ever audience of 18 million viewers. The revamp was a success and Emmerdale grew in popularity.

Throughout the 1990s, Brookside, Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale continued to flourish. Each increased the number of episodes that aired on a weekly basis by at least one, further defining soap operas as the leading genre in British television.

Since 2000, new soap operas have continued to be developed. Daytime serial Doctors began in March 2000, preceding Neighbours on BBC One and had since become the BBC's flagship daytime series.^[67] The series was cancelled in October 2023, with the final episode set to be screened in December 2024.^[68] In 2002, as ratings for the Scottish serial High Road (formerly Take The High Road) continued to decline, BBC Scotland launched River City, which proved popular and effectively replaced High Road when it was cancelled in 2003. The long-running serial Brookside ended in November 2003 after 21 years on the air, leaving Hollyoaks as Channel 4's flagship serial. In 2023, it was announced that Hollyoaks had been removed from Channel 4's early evening schedule, but would remain on E4 and Channel 4's on demand service and would upload episodes to YouTube.

A new version of Crossroads featuring a mostly new cast was produced by Carlton Television for ITV in 2001. It did not achieve high ratings and was cancelled in 2003. In 2001, ITV also launched a new early-evening serial entitled Night and Day. This program too attracted low viewership and, after being shifted to a late night time slot, was cancelled in 2003.

Family Affairs, which was broadcast opposite the racier Hollyoaks, never achieved significantly high ratings leading to several dramatic casting revamps and marked changes in style and even location over its run. By 2004, Family Affairs had a larger fan base and won its first awards, but was cancelled in late 2005. In 2005, former Hollyoaks producer Sean O'Connor moved to Family Affairs, and planned a revamp including a new name and a younger, more glamorous cast, although these plans did not come to fruition due to the show's axing.

In 2008, ITV premiered The Royal Today, a daily spin-off of popular 1960s-based drama The Royal (itself a spin-off of Heartbeat), which had been running in a primetime slot since 2003. Just days later, soap opera parody programme Echo Beach premiered alongside its sister show, the comedy Moving Wallpaper. Both Echo Beach and The Royal Today ended after just one series due to low ratings. Radio soap opera Silver Street debuted on the BBC Asian Network in 2004. Poor ratings and criticism of the programme led to its cancellation in 2010.^[69]

UK soap operas for many years usually only aired two nights a week. The exception was the original Crossroads, which began as a week-daily soap opera in the 1960s, but later had its number of weekly broadcasts reduced.

In 1989, Coronation Street began airing three times a week. In 1996, it expanded to four episodes a week.

Brookside premiered in 1982 with two episodes a week. In 1990 it expanded to three episodes a week.

EastEnders increased its number of episodes a week in 1994 and Emmerdale did so in 1997.

Family Affairs debuted as a weekdaily soap in 1997, producing five episodes a week its entire run.

In 2004, Emmerdale began airing six episodes a week.

In a January 2008 overhaul of the ITV network, the Sunday episodes of Coronation Street and Emmerdale were moved out of their slots. Coronation Street added a second episode on Friday evenings at 8:30 p.m. Emmerdale's Tuesday edition was extended to an hour, putting it in direct competition with EastEnders. In July 2009, the schedules of these serials were changed again. On 23 July 2009, Coronation Street moved from the Wednesday slot it held for 49 years, to Thursday evenings. Emmerdale reverted to running just one 30-minute episode on Tuesday evenings and the other 30-minute installment was moved to Thursday evenings.^[70] Coronation Street later returned to a Wednesday slot, to air Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 19:30 and 20:30. Emmerdale airs at 19:00 every weeknight, and 20:00 on Thursdays.

Later, Coronation Street (which began airing two episodes on Monday nights in 2002) produced five episodes a week.

It was announced in June 2016 that starting late 2017, Coronation Street would air six episodes a week.^[71]

Doctors aired five episodes a week until 2022, and four episodes from 2022 onwards, and is the only soap without a weekend omnibus repeat screening. Hollyoaks produces five episodes a week. The imported Neighbours screens as five new episodes a week. As of 2019, EastEnders produces four episodes a week.

UK soap operas are shot on videotape in the studio using a multi-camera setup. In their early years, Coronation Street and Emmerdale used 16 mm film for footage shot on location. Since the 1980s, UK soap opera have routinely featured scenes shot outdoors in each episode. This footage is shot on videotape on a purpose-built outdoor set that represents the community that the soap focuses on.

Hollyoaks and Family Affairs were taped on high-definition video, and used the filmizing process.

See List of longest-serving soap opera actors

Australia has had quite a number of well-known soap operas, some of which have gained cult followings in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and other countries. The majority of Australian television soap operas are produced for early evening or evening timeslots. They usually produce two or two and a half hours of new material each week, either arranged as four or five half-hour episodes a week, or as two one-hour episodes.

Stylistically, these series most closely resemble UK soap operas in that they are nearly always shot on videotape, are mainly recorded in a studio and use a multi-camera setup. The original Australian serials were shot entirely in studio. During the 1970s occasional filmed inserts were used to incorporate sequences shot outdoors. Outdoor shooting later became commonplace and starting in the late 1970s, it became standard practice for some on-location footage to be featured in each episode of any Australian soap opera, often to capitalise on the attractiveness and exotic nature of these locations for international audiences.^[72] Most Australian soap operas focus on a mixed age range of middle-class characters and will regularly feature a range of locations where the various, disparate characters can meet and interact, such as the café, the surf club, the wine bar or the school.^[72]

The genre began in Australia on radio, as it had in the United States and the United Kingdom. One such radio serial, Big Sister, featured actress Thelma Scott in the cast and aired nationally for five years beginning in 1942. Probably the best known Australian radio serial was the long-running soap opera Blue Hills, which was created by Gwen Meredith and ran from 1949 to 1976. With the advent of Australian television in 1956, daytime television serials followed. The first Australian television soap opera was Autumn Affair (1958) featuring radio personality and Blue Hills star Queenie Ashton making the transition to television. Each episode of this serial ran for 15 minutes and aired each weekday on the Seven Network. Autumn Affair failed to secure a sponsor and ended in 1959 after 156 episodes. It was followed by The Story of Peter Grey (1961), another Seven Network weekday series aired in a daytime slot in 15-minute installments. The Story of Peter Grey ran for 164 episodes.

The first successful wave of Australian evening television soap operas started in 1967 with Bellbird, produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. This rural-based serial screened in an early evening slot in 15-minute installments as a lead-in to the evening news. Bellbird was a moderate success but built up a consistent and loyal viewer base, especially in rural areas, and enjoyed a ten-year run. Motel (1968) was Australia's first half-hour soap opera; the daytime soap had a short run of 132 episodes.

The first major soap opera hit in Australia was the sex-melodrama Number 96, a nighttime series produced by Cash Harmon Television for Network 10, which debuted March 1972. The program dealt with such topics as homosexuality, adultery, drug use, rape within marriage and racism, which had rarely been explored on Australian television programs before. The series became famous for its sex scenes and nudity and for its comedic characters, many of whom became cult heroes in Australia. By 1973, Number 96 had become Australia's highest-rated show. In 1974, the sexed-up antics of Number 96 prompted the creation of The Box, which rivaled it in terms of nudity and sexual situations and was scheduled in a nighttime slot. Produced by Crawford Productions, many critics considered The Box to be a more slickly produced and better written show than Number 96. The Box also aired on the Ten Network, programmed to run right after Number 96. For 1974 Number 96 was again the highest rating show on Australian television, and that year The Box occupied the number two spot.

Also in 1974, the Reg Grundy Organisation created its first soap opera, and significantly Australia's first teen soap opera, Class of '74. With its attempts to hint at the sex and sin shown more openly on Number 96 and The Box, its high school setting and early evening timeslot, Class of '74 came under intense scrutiny from the Broadcasting Control Board, who vetted scripts and altered entire storylines.

By 1975, both Number 96 and The Box, perhaps as a reaction to declining ratings for both shows, de-emphasised the sex and nudity shifting more towards comedic plots. Class of '74 was renamed Class of '75 and also added more slapstick comedy for its second year, but the revamped show's ratings declined, resulting in its cancellation in mid-1975. That year Cash Harmon's newly launched second soap The Unisexers failed in its early evening slot and was cancelled after three weeks; the Reg Grundy Organisation's second soap Until Tomorrow ran in a daytime slot for 180 episodes.

A feature film version of Bellbird entitled Country Town was produced in 1971 by two of the show's stars, Gary Gray and Terry McDermott, without production involvement by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Number 96 and The Box also released feature film versions, both of which had the same title as the series, released in 1974 and 1975 respectively. As Australian television had broadcast in black and white until 1975, these theatrical releases all had the novelty of being in colour. The film versions of Number 96 and The Box also allowed more explicit nudity than could be shown on television at that time.

In November 1976 The Young Doctors debuted on the Nine Network. This Grundy Organization series eschewed the adult drama of Number 96 and The Box, focusing more on relationship drama and romance. It became a popular success but received few critical accolades. A week later The Sullivans, a carefully produced period serial chronicling the effects of World War II on a Melbourne family, also debuted on Nine. Produced by Crawford Productions, The Sullivans became a ratings success, attracted many positive reviews, and won television awards. During this period Number 96 re-introduced nudity into its episodes, with several much-publicised full-frontal nude scenes, a cast revamp and a new range of shock storylines designed to boost the show's declining ratings. Bellbird experienced changes to its broadcast pattern with episodes screening in 60 minute blocks, and later in 30 minute installments.

Bellbird, Number 96 and The Box, which had been experiencing declining ratings, were cancelled in 1977. Various attempts to revamp each of the shows with cast reshuffles or spectacular disaster storylines had proved only temporarily successful. The Young Doctors and The Sullivans continued to be popular. November 1977 saw the launch of successful soap opera/police procedural series Cop Shop (1977–1984) produced by Crawford Productions for Channel Seven. In early December 1977 Channel Ten debuted the Reg Grundy Organisation produced The Restless Years (1977–1981), a more standard soap drama focusing on several young school leavers.

The Seven Network, achieving success with Cop Shop produced by Crawford Productions, had Crawfords produce Skyways, a series with a similar format but set in an airport, to compete with the Nine Network's popular talk show The Don Lane Show. Skyways, which debuted in July 1979, emphasised adult situations including homosexuality, marriage problems, adultery, prostitution, drug use and smuggling, crime, suicide, political intrigue, and murder, and featured some nudity. Despite this, the program achieved only moderate ratings and was cancelled in mid-1981.

The Reg Grundy Organisation found major success with the women's-prison drama Prisoner (1979–1986) on Network Ten, and melodramatic family saga Sons and Daughters (1982–1987) on the Seven Network. Both shows achieved high ratings in their original runs, and unusually, found success in repeats after the programs ended.

Grundy soap The Young Doctors and Crawford Productions' The Sullivans continued on the Nine Network until late 1982. Thereafter Nine attempted many new replacement soap operas produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation: Taurus Rising (1982), Waterloo Station (1983), Starting Out (1983) and Possession (1985), along with Prime Time (1986) produced by Crawford Productions. None of these programs were successful and most were cancelled after only a few months. The Reg Grundy Organisation also created Neighbours, a suburban-based daily serial devised as a gentle family drama with some comedic and lightweight situations, for the Seven Network in 1985.

Produced in Melbourne at the studios of HSV-7, Neighbours achieved high ratings in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, but not in Sydney, where it aired at 5.30 p.m. placing it against the hit dating game show Perfect Match on Channel 10. The Seven Network's Sydney station ATN-7 quickly lost interest in Neighbours as a result of the low ratings in Sydney. HSV-7 in Melbourne lobbied heavily to keep Neighbours on the air, but ATN-7 managed to convince the rest of the network to cancel the show and instead keep ATN-7's own Sydney-based dramas A Country Practice and Sons and Daughters.

After the network cancelled Neighbours, it was immediately picked up by Channel Ten, which revamped the cast and scripts slightly and aired the series in the 7.00 p.m. slot starting 20 January 1986. It initially attracted low audiences; however, after a concerted publicity drive, Ten managed to transform the series into a major success, turning several of its actors into major international stars. The show's popularity eventually declined and it was moved to the 6.30 p.m. slot in 1992. In January 2011 it moved to Eleven and ended after 8,903 episodes on 28 July 2022. In November 2022, Amazon Freevee revived the show with an order of 400 episodes to begin airing in 2023. It is Australia's longest-running soap opera.

The success of Neighbours in the 1980s prompted the creation of somewhat similar suburban and family or teen-oriented soap operas such as Home and Away (1988–present) on Channel Seven and Richmond Hill (1988) on Channel Ten. Both proved popular, however Richmond Hill emerged as only a moderate success and was cancelled after one year to be replaced on Ten by E Street (1989–1993).

Nine continued trying to establish a successful new soap opera, without success. After the failure of family drama Family and Friends in 1990, it launched the raunchier and more extreme Chances in 1991, which resurrected the sex and melodrama of Number 96 and The Box in an attempt to attract attention. Chances achieved only moderate ratings, and was moved to a late-night timeslot. It underwent several revamps that removed much of the original cast, and refocused the storylines to incorporate science-fiction and fantasy elements. The series continued in a late night slot until 1992, when it was cancelled due to low ratings despite the much-discussed fantasy storylines.

Several Australian soap operas have also found significant international success. In the UK, starting in the mid-1980s, daytime broadcasts of The Young Doctors, The Sullivans, Sons and Daughters and Neighbours (which itself was subsequently moved to an early-evening slot) achieved significant success. Grundy's Prisoner began airing in the United States in 1979 and achieved high ratings in many regions there, however, the show ended its run in that country three years into its run. Prisoner also aired in late-night timeslots in the UK beginning in the late 1980s, achieving enduring cult success there. The show became so popular in that country that it prompted the creation of two stage plays and a stage musical based on the show, all of which toured the UK, among many other spin-offs. In the late 1990s, Channel 5 repeated Prisoner in the UK. Between 1998 and 2005, Channel 5 ran late-night repeats of Sons and Daughters. During the 1980s, the Australian attempts to emulate big-budget U.S. soap operas such as Dallas and Dynasty had resulted in the debuts of Taurus Rising and Return to Eden, two slick soap opera dramas with big budgets that were shot entirely on film. Though their middling Australian ratings resulted in the shows running only for a single season, both programs were successfully sold internationally.

Other shows to achieve varying levels of international success include Richmond Hill, E Street, Paradise Beach (1993–1994), and Pacific Drive (1995–1997). Indeed, these last two series were designed specifically for international distribution. Channel Seven's Home and Away, a teen soap developed as a rival to Neighbours, has also achieved significant and enduring success on UK television.

Something in the Air, a serial examining a range of characters in a small country town ran on the ABC from 2000 to 2002.

Attempts to replicate the success of daily teen-oriented serials Neighbours and Home and Away saw the creation of Echo Point (1995) and Breakers (1999) on Network Ten. These programs foregrounded youthful attractive casts and appealing locations but the programs were not long-running successes and Neighbours and Home and Away remained the most visible and consistently successful Australian soap operas in production. In their home country, they both attracted respectable although not spectacular ratings in the early 2000s. By 2004, Neighbours was regularly attracting just under a million viewers per episode^[73] – considered at that time a low figure for Australian prime time television. By March 2007, the Australian audience for Neighbours had fallen to fewer than 700,000 a night. This prompted a revamp of the show's cast, its visual presentation, and a move away from the recently added action-oriented emphasis to refocus the show on the domestic storylines it is traditionally known for.^[74] During this period Neighbours and Home and Away continued to achieve significant ratings in the UK. This and other lucrative overseas markets, along with Australian broadcasting laws that enforce a minimum amount of domestic drama production on commercial television networks, help ensure that both programs remain in production. Both shows get higher total ratings in the UK than in Australia (the UK has three times the total population of Australia) and the UK channels make a major contribution to the production costs.

It has been suggested that with their emphasis on the younger, attractive and charismatic characters, Neighbours and Home and Away have found success in the middle ground between glamorous, fantastic U.S. soaps with their wealthy but tragic heroes^[15] and the more grim, naturalistic UK soap operas populated by older, unglamorous characters.^[72] The casts of Neighbours and Home and Away are predominantly younger and more attractive than the casts of UK soaps, and without excessive wealth and glamour of the U.S. daytime serial,^[15] a middle-ground in which they have found their lucrative niche.

Neighbours was carried in the United States on the Oxygen cable channel in March 2004; however it attracted few viewers, perhaps in part due to its scheduling opposite well-established and highly popular U.S. soap operas such as All My Children and The Young and the Restless, and was dropped by the network shortly afterwards due to low ratings.

headLand made its debut on Channel Seven in November 2005, the series arose out of a proposed spinoff of Home and Away that was to have been produced in conjunction with Home and Away's UK broadcaster, Channel 5. The idea for the spin-off was scuttled after Five pulled out of the deal, which meant that the show could potentially air on a rival channel in the UK; as such, Five requested that the new show be developed as a standalone series and not be spun off from a series that it owned a stake in. The series premiered in Australia on November 15, 2005, but was not a ratings success and was cancelled two months later on January 23, 2006. The series broadcast on E4 and Channel 4 in the UK. Nickelodeon's H₂O: Just Add Water appeared in July 2006 on Network Ten. Since Connie considered this mention as a torrid soap opera, this was mentioned in the Steven Universe episode "Love Letters".

After losing the UK television rights to Neighbours to Five, the BBC commissioned a replacement serial Out of the Blue, which was produced in Australia. It debuted as part of BBC One's weekday afternoon schedule on 28 April 2008^[75] but low ratings prompted its move to BBC Two on 19 May 2008.^[76][77] The series was cancelled after its first season.^[78]

Neighbours' continued low ratings in Australia resulted in it being moved to Ten's new digital channel, Eleven on January 11, 2011.^[79] However, it continues to achieve reasonable ratings on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, and as of March 2013 still reportedly achieved significant international sales.^[80]

Neighbours was cancelled due to Channel 5, the UK broadcaster of the show, deciding to drop the programme – the money they were paying for the rights was providing the majority of its funding. It ended on 29 July 2022. Months after its series finale, Fremantle Australia, the programme's production company, announced on 17 November 2022, that production on the programme will restart in 2023 after the company agreed on a deal with Amazon Freevee. Amazon Freevee will air the programme for free in the UK and the US while Network 10 will retain the rights to the programme.^[81]

Pioneering series Pukemanu^[82] aired over two years (1971–72) and was the NZBC's first continuing drama. It followed the goings-on of a North Island timber town.^[83] Close to Home is a New Zealand television soap opera that ran on TVNZ 1 from 1975 to 1983. At its peak in 1977 nearly one million viewers tuned in twice weekly to watch the series co-created by Michael Noonan and Tony Isaac (who had initially only agreed to make the show on the condition they would get to make The Governor).^[84] Gloss is a television drama series that screened from 1987 to 1990. The series is about a fictional publishing empire run by the Redfern family. Gloss was NZ's answer to US soap Dynasty, with the Carrington oil scions replaced by the wealthy Redferns and their Auckland magazine empire. It was a starting point for many actors who went on to many productions in New Zealand, Australia and around the world including Temuera Morrison, Miranda Harcourt, Peter Elliott, Lisa Chappell, Danielle Cormack and Kevin Smith. Many of them would go on to star in Shortland Street, which has been New Zealand's most popular soap since its debut in 1992. It airs on TVNZ 2.

Radio New Zealand began airing its first radio soap You Me Now in September 2010. It is available for podcast on its website.

Relatively few daily soap operas have been produced on English Canadian television, with most Canadian stations and networks that carry soap operas airing those imported from the United States or the United Kingdom. Notable daily soaps that did exist included Family Passions, Scarlett Hill, Strange Paradise, Metropia, Train 48 and the international co-production Foreign Affairs. Family Passions was an hour-long program, as is typical of American daytime soaps; all of the others ran half-hour episodes. Unlike American or British soap operas, the most influential of which have run for years or even decades, even daily Canadian soap operas have run for a few seasons at most. Short-run soaps, including 49th & Main and North/South, have also aired. Many of these were produced in an effort to comply with Canadian content regulations, which require a percentage of programming on Canadian television to originate from Canada.

Notable prime time soap operas in Canada have included Riverdale, House of Pride, Paradise Falls, Lance et Compte ("He Shoots, He Scores"), Heartland, Loving Friends and Perfect Couples, and The City. The Degrassi franchise of youth dramas also incorporated some elements of the soap opera format.

On French-language television in Quebec, the téléroman has been a popular mainstay of network programming since the 1950s. Notable téléromans have included Rue des Pignons, Les Belles Histoires des pays d'en haut, Diva, La famille Plouffe, and the soap opera parody Le Cœur a ses raisons.

Unlike the season-based production in most countries, most of Indian television fiction tends to be regular-broadcasting soap opera. These started in the 1980s, as more and more people began to purchase television sets. At the beginning of the 21st century, soap operas became an integral part of Indian culture. Indian soap operas mostly concentrate on the conflict between love and arranged marriages occurring in India, and many includes family melodrama. Indian soap operas have multilingual production.^[85]

Many soap operas produced in India are also broadcast overseas in the UK, Canada, the United States, and some parts of Europe, South Africa, Australia and South East Asia. They are often mass-produced under large production banners, with companies like Balaji Telefilms running different language versions of the same serial on different television networks or channels.^[86]

The Australian serial The Restless Years was remade in the Netherlands as Goede tijden, slechte tijden (which debuted in 1990) and in Germany as Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten (which has aired since 1992): both titles translate to "good times, bad times". These remakes are still airing, but have long since diverged from the original Australian storylines. The two shows are the highest-rated soap operas in their respective countries.

A later Australian serial, Sons and Daughters, has inspired five remakes produced under license from the original producers and based, initially, on original story and character outlines. These are Verbotene Liebe (Germany, 1995–2015); Skilda världar (Sweden, 1996–2002); Apagorevmeni agapi (Greece, 1998); Cuori Rubati (Italy, 2002–2003) and Zabranjena ljubav (Croatia, 2004–2008). Both The Restless Years and Sons and Daughters were created and produced in Australia by the Reg Grundy Organisation.

Another Australian soap opera reformatted for a European audience was E Street which ran on Network 10 in Australia from 1989 to 1993. Germany produced 37 episodes of Westerdeich ("Westside") in 1995 using scripts from 1989 episodes of E Street. It was also remade in Belgium as Wittekerke ("Whitechurch") and ran from 1993 to 2008.

The Norwegian soap opera Hotel Cæsar aired on TV 2 from 1998 to 2017, and is the longest-running television drama in Scandinavia. Popular foreign soaps in the country include Days of Our Lives (broadcast on TV6 (Norway), The Bold and the Beautiful (TNT (Norway) and Home and Away (TV 2), all of which are subtitled.

Serials have included Goede tijden, slechte tijden (1990–present), Onderweg naar Morgen (1994–2010) and Goudkust (1996–2001). In 2016 Goede tijden, slechte tijden spin-off Nieuwe Tijden started airing, but was ultimately cancelled by broadcaster RTL in 2018.^[87] Linear viewership for Goede tijden, slechte tijden, the country's most prominent soap opera, has decreased in recent years. However, due to a rising viewership on streaming platforms, RTL has decided to continue producing the show throughout the 2022/2023 television season.^[88] U.S. daytime serials As The World Turns and The Bold and the Beautiful have aired in the Netherlands; As the World Turns began airing in the country in 1990, with Dutch subtitles.

In the 1980s, West German networks successfully added American daytime and primetime soap operas to their schedule before Das Erste introduced its first self-produced weekly soap with Lindenstraße, which was seen as a German counterpart to Coronation Street. Like in other countries, the soap opera met with negative reviews, but eventually proved critics wrong with nearly 13 million viewers tuning in each week. Even though the format proved successful, it was not until 1992 before Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten became the first German daily soap opera. Early ratings were bad as were the reviews, but the RTL network was willing to give its first soap opera a chance; ratings would improve, climbing to 7 million viewers by 2002. Not long after Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten, Das Erste introduced Marienhof, which aired twice a week.

After successfully creating the first German daily soap, production company Grundy Ufa wanted to produce another soap for RTL. Like GZSZ, the format was based on an Australian soap opera from Reg Watson. But RTL did not like the plot idea about separated twins who meet each other for the first time after 20 years and fall in love without knowing that they are related. The project was then taken to Das Erste, which commissioned the program, titled Verbotene Liebe, which premiered on January 2, 1995. With the premiere of Verbotene Liebe, the network turned Marienhof into a daily soap as well. In the meanwhile, RTL debuted the Grundy Ufa–produced Unter uns in late 1994.

ZDF started a business venture with Canada and co-produced the short-lived series Family Passions, starring actors such as Gordon Thomson, Roscoe Born, Dietmar Schönherr and a young Hayden Christensen. The daytime serial premiered on December 5, 1994, lasting 130 episodes. After its cancellation, the network debuted Jede Menge Leben. Even after a crossover with three soaps, Freunde fürs Leben, Forsthaus Falkenau and Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht, the soap was canceled after 313 episodes. Sat.1 tried to get into the soap business as well, after successfully airing the Australian soap opera Neighbours, which was dropped in 1995 due to the talk show phenomenon that took over most of the daytime schedules of German networks. The network first tried to tell a family saga with So ist das Leben! Die Wagenfelds, before failing with Geliebte Schwestern. RTL II made its own short-lived attempt with Alle zusammen – jeder für sich.

The teen soap opera Schloss Einstein debuted on September 4, 1998, focusing on the life of a group of teenagers at the fictional titular boarding school near Berlin. As of July 2014, the series has produced over 815 episodes during the course of 17 seasons, a milestone in German television programming, and was renewed for an 18th season to debut in 2015.

In 1999, after the lasting success of Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten, Marienhof, Unter uns and Verbotene Liebe, ProSieben aired Mallorca – Suche nach dem Paradies, set on the Spanish island with the same name. After nine months, the network canceled the program due to low viewership and high production costs. Even though ratings had improved, the show ended its run in a morning timeslot. The soap opera became something of a cult classic, as its 200-episode run was repeated several times on free-to-air and pay television.

In 2006, Alles was zählt became the last successful daily soap to make its debut, airing as a lead-in to Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten and also produced by Grundy Ufa. Since Germany started to produce its own telenovelas, all soap operas faced declines in ratings. Unter uns was in danger of cancellation in 2009, but escaped such a fate due to budget cuts imposed by the show's producers and the firing of original cast member Holger Franke, whose firing and the death of his character outraged fans, resulting in a ratings spike in early 2010. After Unter uns was saved, Das Erste planned to make changes to its soap lineup. Marienhof had to deal with multiple issues in its storytelling, as well as in producing a successful half-hour show. Several changes were made within months, however Marienhof was canceled in June 2011. Verbotene Liebe was in danger of being cancelled as well, but convinced the network to renew it with changes that it made in both 2010 and 2011; the soap was later expanded to 45 minutes after Marienhof was canceled, and the network tried to decide on whether to revamp its lineup.

While Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten, Unter uns and Alles was zählt are currently the only daily soaps on the air after Verbotene Liebe has been cancelled and aired its last episode in June, 2015 due to low ratings, the telenovelas Sturm der Liebe and Rote Rosen are considered soaps by the press as well, thanks to the changing protagonists every season.

In Belgium, the two major soap operas are Thuis ("Home") and Familie ("Family"), both prime time soap operas. Soap operas have been very popular in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Familie debuted in late 1991, and with more han 6,700 half-hour episodes, it has the highest episode total of any soap in Europe outside of the United Kingdom. The highest-rated soap opera is Thuis, which has aired on "één" since late 1995. Thuis is often one of the five most-watched Belgian shows and regularly garners over one million viewers (with 6.6 million Flemings in total).

During the 1990s, foreign soap operas such as Neighbours and The Bold and the Beautiful were extremely popular, the latter having achieved a cult status in Belgium and airing in the middle of the decade during prime time. Both soaps still air today, along with other foreign soaps such as Days of Our Lives, Australia's Home and Away and Germany's "Sturm der Liebe". Vitaya unsuccessful attempted to air the Dutch soap opera "Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden" in 2010. Other foreign soaps that previously aired on Belgian television include The Young and the Restless, EastEnders (both on VTM), "Port Charles" (at één, then known as TV1) and "Coronation Street" (on Vitaya). "Santa Barbara" aired during the 1990s on VTM for its entire run.

In the early 2000s, the only teen soap opera on Belgian television was Spring ("Jump" in English), which aired on the youth-oriented Ketnet and produced over 600 15-minute episodes from late 2002 until 2009, when it was cancelled after a steady decline in ratings following the departures of many of its original characters.

The most successful soap opera in Italy is the evening series Un posto al sole ("A Place Under the Sun"), which had aired on Rai 3 since 1996 (whose format is based on the Australian soap opera Neighbours). Several other Italian soaps have been produced such as Ricominciare ("Starting Over"), Cuori rubati ("Stolen Hearts"), Vivere ("Living"), Sottocasa ("Downstairs"), Agrodolce ("Bittersweet") and Centovetrine ("Hundred Shop Windows").

The most popular Italian prime-time soap opera, Incantesimo ("Enchantment"), which ran from 1998 to 2008, became a daytime soap opera for the final two years of its run, airing five days a week on Rai 1. The same happened with Il paradiso delle signore (Woman's Paradise), a period drama, which ran from 2015 to 2017 in prime time, and became a daytime period soap opera from 2018.

In the early years of RTÉ, the network produced several dramas but had not come close to launching a long-running serial. RTÉ's first television soap was Tolka Row, which was set in urban Dublin. For several years, both Tolka Row and The Riordans were produced by RTÉ; however, the urban soap was soon dropped in favor of the more popular rural soap opera The Riordans, which premiered in 1965.^[89] Executives from Yorkshire Television visited during on-location shoots for The Riordans in the early 1970s and in 1972, debuted Emmerdale Farm (now Emmerdale), based on the successful format of the Irish soap opera. In the late 1970s, The Riordans was controversially dropped. The creator of that series would then go on to produce the second of his "Agri-soap" trilogy Bracken, starring Gabriel Byrne, whose character had appeared in the last few seasons of The Riordans. Bracken was soon replaced by the third "Agri-soap" Glenroe, which ran until 2001. As RTÉ wanted a drama series for its Sunday night lineup rather than a soap opera, On Home Ground (2001–2002), The Clinic (2002–2009) and RAW (2010–2013) replaced the agri-soaps of the previous decades.

In 1989, RTÉ decided to produce its first Dublin-based soap opera since the 1960s. Fair City, which is set in the fictional city of Carrickstown, initially aired one night a week during the 1989–90 season, and similar to its rural soaps, much of the footage was filmed on location – in a suburb of Dublin City. In 1992, RTÉ made a major investment into the series by copying the houses used in the on-location shoots for an on-site set in RTÉ's Headquarters in Dublin 4. By the early 1990s, it was airing two nights a week for 35 weeks a year. With competition from the UK soap operas, RTÉ expanded Fair City to three nights a week for most of the year and one night a week during the summer in 1996, later expanding to four nights a week and two nights during the summer. Until the early 2000s, the series produced four episodes a week, airing all 52 weeks of the year. Fair City airs Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8.00 p.m. GMT on RTÉ One; however, after rival network TV3 moved Coronation Street to Thursday night, the Wednesday night episode of Fair City began airing at 7:30 p.m. each week.

TG4 produce the Irish language soap Ros na Rún ("Headland of the Secrets" or "Headland of the Sweethearts"); set in the fictional village of Ros Na Rún, located outside Galway and near Spiddal, it centres on the domestic and professional lives of the town's residents. It is modeled on an average village in the West of Ireland, but with its own distinct personality – with a diverse population that share secrets, romances and friendships among other things. While the core community has remained the same, the look and feel of Ros Na Rún has changed and evolved over the years to incorporate the changing face of rural Ireland. It has an established a place not only in the hearts and minds of the Irish speaking public, but also the wider Irish audience. The program has dealt with many topics, including domestic violence, infidelity, theft, arson, abortion, homosexuality, adoption, murder, rape, drugs, teen pregnancy and paedophilia. It runs twice a week for 35 weeks of the year, currently airing Tuesday and Thursday nights. Ros na Rún is the single largest independent production commissioned in the history of Irish broadcasting. Prior to TG4's launch, it originally aired on RTÉ One in the early 1990s.

Although Ireland has access to international soaps (such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, EastEnders, Home and Away, Hollyoaks and Neighbours), Fair City continues to outperform them all, and is Ireland's most popular soap opera, with the show peaking at over 700,000 viewers.

January 2015 Red Rock has broadcast on TV3. Red Rock airs twice a week on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The series is base in a fishing village in Dublin. The soaps centres around the local Garda station but also includes stories from the village.

RTÉ Radio produced its first radio soap, Kennedys of Castleross, which ran from April 13, 1955, to 1975.^[90] In 1979 RTÉ long running TV soap The Riordans moved to Radio until December 24, 1985.^[91] In the mid-1980s, RTÉ debuted a new radio soap, Harbour Hotel, which ran until the mid-1990s. The network later ran two short-lived radio soaps, Konvenience Korner and Riverrun, which were followed in 2004 by Driftwood.^[92] RTÉ does not run any radio soaps, however RTÉ Radio 1 continues to air radio dramas as part of its nighttime schedule.^[93]

• Rue Carnot (1984–1987) : Aired on Canal+.
• Sous le soleil (1996–2008) : Aired on TF1.
• Les vacances de l'amour (1996–2007) : Aired on TF1. Third series and first soap opera in the Hélène et les Garçons franchise.
• Plus belle la vie (2004–2022) : Shown on France 3 on Monday to Friday evenings.
• Cœur Océan (2006–2011) : Aired on France 2.
• Baie des flamboyants (2007–2008) : Aired on France Ô.
• Foudre (2007–2011) : Aired on France 2.
• Seconde Chance (2008–2009) : Aired on TF1.
• Cinq Sœurs (2008) : Aired on France 2.
• Paris 16^e (2009) : Aired on M6.
• Les Mystères de l'amour (since 2011) : Broadcast by TMC. Fourth series and second soap opera in the Hélène et les Garçons franchise.
• Les Flamboyants : (2011–2012) : A spin-off of Baie des flamboyants, aired on France Ô.
• Sous le soleil de Saint-Tropez (2013–2014) : A spin-off of Sous le soleil, aired on TMC.
• Cut ! (2013–2019) : Aired on France Ô.
• Demain Nous Appartient (since 2017) : Shown on TF1 on Monday to Friday evenings.
• Un si grand soleil [fr] (since 2018) : Broadcast by France 2.
• OPJ, Pacifique Sud (since 2019) : Broadcast by France Ô.
• Ici Tout Commence (since 2020) : Shown on TF1 on Monday to Friday evenings.

In Greece, there have been several soap operas.

An early serial was Sti skia tou hrimatos ("Money Shadows"), which ran from 1990 to 1991. September 1991 saw the debut of Lampsi ("the Shining"), from creator Nicos Foskolos. The series would become Greece's longest-running soap opera. After the success of Lampsi came the short lived To galazio diamandi ("Blue Diamond") and Simphonia siopis ("Omertà"). Lampsi was canceled in June 2005 due to declining ratings. It was replaced by Erotas ("Love"), a soap that ran from 2005 to 2008. After that series ended, ANT1 abandoned the soap opera genre and focused on comedy series and weekly dramas.

Greece's second longest-running soap is Kalimera Zoi ("Goodmorning Life"), which ran from September 1993 until its cancellation in June 2006 due to low ratings.

Mega Channel began producing soap operas in 1990 with the prime time serial I Dipsa ("The Thirst"), which ran for 102 episodes. Other daytime soaps have included Paralliloi dromoi (1992–1994) and its successor Haravgi ("Daylight", 1994–1995), both of which were cancelled due to low viewership; as well as the serials Apagorevmeni Agapi ("Forbidden Love"), which ran from 1998 to 2006; Gia mia thesi ston Ilio ("A Spot Under the Sun"), which ran from 1998 to 2002; Filodoxies ("Expectations"), which ran from 2002 to 2006; and Vera Sto Deksi ("Ring on the Right Hand"), which ran from 2004 to 2006 and proved to be a successful competitor to Lampsi, causing that show's ratings to decline.

Ta Mistika Tis Edem ("Edem Secrets"), which was created by the producers of Vera Sto Deksi, debuted in 2008 and has eclipsed that show's success. Its ratings place it consistently among the three highest-rated daytime programs.

YENED (which was renamed ERT2 in 1982) was responsible for the first Greek soap operas I Kravgi Ton Likon and Megistanes. ERT also produced the long-running soap O Simvoleografos. Since 2000 and with the introduction of private television, ERT produced additional daily soap operas, which included Pathos ("Passion"), Erotika tis Edem ("Loving in Eden") and Ta ftera tou erota ("The Wings of Love"). These failed to achieve high ratings and were canceled shortly after their premiere.

Alpha produced Kato apo tin Acropoli ("Under the Acropolis"), which ran for 2½ years.

In 2022, Alpha produce a new soap opera Paradeisos based on the Italian soap Il Paradiso Delle Signore.

The first daytime soap opera produced by a Cyprus channel was LOGOs TV's Odos Den Ksehno ("'Don't Forget' Street"), which ran from January to December 1996. It was followed by To Serial, which also ran for one year from September 1997 to June 1998.

CyBC created the third weekdaily soap, Anemi Tou Pathous ("Passion Winds"), running from January 2000 to June 2004, which was replaced by I Platia ("The Square") from September 2004 to July 2006. Epikindini Zoni ran from 2009 to 2010, and was cancelled after 120 episodes. Vimata Stin Ammo made its debut in September 2010 until 2014 and was followed by Halkina Hronia (2017-2022).

Sigma TV first commissioned the weekdaily comedic soap Sto Para Pente, which aired from September 1998 to June 2004, and was the longest weekday show in Cyprus television history, before it was surpassed by Se Fonto Kokkino, which ran from September 2008 to July 2012 and then by Galateia (2016-2020). Other Sigma TV weekday shows include Akti Oniron (which ran from 1999 to 2001), Vourate Geitonoi (which ran from 2001 to 2005, and was the most successful weekday series, achieving ratings shares of up to 70% of all television households in the country), Oi Takkoi (which ran from 2002 to 2005), S' Agapo (which ran from 2001 to 2002), Vasiliki (which ran from 2005 to 2006), Vendetta (which ran from September 2005 to December 2006), 30 kai Kati (which ran from 2006 to 2007), Mila Mou (which ran from September 2007 to January 2009), 7 ouranoi ke dinnefa alites (2012-2015) and Galateia (2016-2020)

ANT1 Cyprus aired the soap I Goitia Tis Amartias in 2002, which was soon canceled. Dikse Mou To Filo Sou followed from 2006 to 2009, along with Gia Tin Agapi Sou, which ran from 2008 to 2009 and itself was followed by Panselinos, which has aired 2009 to 2011.

The longest-running weekly show on Cyprus television is Istories Tou Horkou ("Villages Stories", which premiered on CyBC in March 1996 and ran until its cancellation in June 2006; it was revived in September 2010 but was cancelled again in March 2011 due to very low ratings), followed by Manolis Ke Katina ("Manolis and Katina", which ran from 1995 to 2004). The most controversial of these series was To Kafenio ("The Coffee Shop"), which premiered on CyBC in 1993 as a weekly series, before moving to MEGA Channel Cyprus six years later in 1999 as a weekday show and then moved to ANT1 Cyprus in 2000, which canceled the show one year later. There were plans to move the show back to CyBC as a weekly series in 2001, with the original cast, however, this plan was never realised. The most successful weekly shows in Cyprus currently are ANT1's Eleni I Porni ("Eleni, The Whore"), which premiered in October 2010 and CyBC's Stin Akri Tu Paradisou ("At The Heaven's Edge"), which premiered in 2007. The most successful weekdaily soap was Aigia Fuxia, which aired on ANT1 Cyprus from 2008 to 2010.

The Finnish soap opera, Salatut elämät (Secret Lives), has achieved popularity in Finland since its 1999 debut on MTV3. It focuses on the lives of people along the imaginary Pihlajakatu street in Helsinki. The show has also spawned several Internet spin-off series and a film based on the show that was released in 2012 and the sequel film released in 2014.

Another Finnish soap opera, Rantabaari [fi] (The Beach bar), started airing on MTV Sub in 2019. It focuses on the lives of the people working at the titular beach bar (later pizzeria) called Trissa, located in Taivallahti in Helsinki, and their friends and family. Rantabaari is the sister series of Salatut elämät and features some characters who formerly appeared at Salatut elämät.^[94]

Other soap-like shows in Finland are YLE shows Uusi päivä (which has aired from 2010 to 2018) and Kotikatu (which ran from 1995 to 2012), however these programs did not adhere to a five-episode-a-week schedule.

UAE - KSA

AL Mirath (also known as Al Meerath or Inheritance) is the world's first Arabic soap opera. It premiered on MBC 1 and Shahid VIP on March 1, 2020. The series is a melodramatic saga that delves into the social, economic, and cultural aspects of life in Saudi Arabia. It revolves around the intense rivalry between two families, the Bahitanis and the Khawatnis, and includes elements of romance, secrets, and schemes.

AL Mirath has been a highly successful series. Initially, it was commissioned for 250 episodes. Due to its popularity, the series continued with additional seasons, and by 2023, it had produced 750 episodes.

Egypt

In February 2022, MBC launched the first Egyptian daily soap opera, Downtown West El Balad. In Cairo, two brothers became enemies after the death of their father because the eldest son was excluded from the inheritance. 190 episodes have already been produced.

In Latin America, for many years, primetime (as well as part of daytime) programming, for the most part, has been traditionally composed of telenovelas. However, throughout the years, there have been cases where a number of television programs tended to "mix" the concepts of television series and telenovela, such as, for example, a telenovela that lasted several seasons to end. With this "overlap", many people consider that these shows could be more accurately described as "soap operas". With this being said, the two most notable Latin American examples of TV programs that could fit on the definition of a "soap opera" are Chiquititas (in both Argentina and Brazil) and Malhação (only in Brazil).

Chiquititas was first broadcast in Argentina by Telefe in 1995 and soon became a national hit, especially among children. In regards to the audience, all eight seasons (the final season ended in 2006) of Chiquititas guaranteed the first place in the Argentine TV ratings for Telefe. Throughout the years, Chiquititas had a number of spin-offs not only in Argentina, but also in Brazil, Mexico and Portugal. In 1997, Silvio Santos, founder and owner of the Brazilian television network SBT, seeing the good ratings of Chiquititas in Argentina, decided to make a partnership with Telefe, and thus, SBT started to broadcast Chiquititas in Brazil, but in the format of "remake", with the use of the Portuguese language instead of Spanish, with the use of dubbing when singing the soundtrack songs (unlike the Argentine version, on which the actors themselves sung the songs), with a Brazilian cast and with slight modifications in regards to its plot (the Brazilian version was set in the city of São Paulo instead of Buenos Aires, although many scenes of the Brazilian adaptation were actually filmed at the same Telefe studios in Buenos Aires where the Argentine version was also recorded, due to the aforementioned partnership between Telefe and SBT). The Brazilian version of Chiquititas, which lasted five seasons and ended in 2001, was successful in the ratings as well, in a slightly smaller scale compared to the Argentine version, and despite the success of Malhação (see below), the soap opera was one of the most known TV programs of the late 1990s in Brazil, enough to put Chiquititas also in the imaginary of many Brazilian children (a proof of this is that the casting process for the third season of Chiquititas in 1999 reunited about 15,000 children in the city of São Paulo alone, a record number not seen even in any Brazilian telenovela). In 2013, SBT decided to make a second adaptation of Chiquititas, which lasted two seasons (the final season ended in 2015), but unlike the first version, which resembled more like its Argentine counterpart, the second version, produced only by SBT, is different not only because the soundtrack is entirely sung by the actors themselves (as well as on the Argentine version, on which the actors did not dub the songs, but unlike the first Brazilian adaptation). Despite the fact that the ratings of the 2013 version of Chiquititas were smaller, the soap opera was not considered a failure by the critics. SBT executives evaluated the ratings as being "satisfactory", and some fans consider the 2013 version to be a small "revival" of the 1997 version of Chiquititas.

Malhação has been transmitted by Rede Globo on almost every week since 1995 and has become the most successful Brazilian soap opera in the ratings. On each one of the 27 seasons shown as of 2021, the soap opera stayed in the first place on the ratings (like the Argentine version of Chiquititas). Moreover, Malhação also had a number of spin-offs being produced in Brazil. However, unlike Chiquititas, Malhação is more focused on teenagers, with more mature issues like teenage pregnancy, sexual relationships and the use of illicit drugs being discussed on its plot. Another interesting topic is that Malhação is considered by some fans as being the "entrance door" to many rookie actors who obtain the first opportunity of working on Rede Globo, because history has shown that a good acting in Malhação increases the possibility of being "promoted" to the primetime telenovelas (also broadcast by Rede Globo). In fact, estimates indicate that hundreds of actors participate in the casting process of Malhação each year, proving that many aspiring actors want to appear in this soap opera to further progress their careers.

With the advent of internet television and mobile phones, several soap operas have also been produced specifically for these platforms, including EastEnders: E20, a spin-off of the established EastEnders. For those produced only for the mobile phone, episodes may generally consist of about six or seven pictures and accompanying text.

On September 13, 2011, TG4 launched a new 10-part online series titled, Na Rúin (an Internet spin-off of Ros na Rún). The miniseries took on the theme of a mystery; the viewer had to read Rachel and Lorcán's blogs as well as watch video diaries detailing each character's thoughts to solve the mystery of missing teenage character Ciara.

In 1996, a canadian artificial intelligence researcher named Chris McKinstry created the online soap opera CR6 which was an accronym for Clickable Reality, despite its obscurity it got some media attention at the time and featured talent such as Brendan Fehr, the website had shown that at least 8 episodes of CR6 were released. It remains an early example of a web-series but despite the seemingly positive media buzz for the show according to McKinstry, he lost over 1 million dollars on the show and CR6 was considered a failure, McKinstry would take his own life in 2006. However thanks to its historical context it has amassed a cult following from lost media searchers.^[95]

Due to the massive number of episodes typically produced for a long-running soap opera (into the tens of thousands for some) and the fact many episodes are lost over time, home video release (in VHS, DVD or Blu-ray) of daily soap operas is generally considered impractical and impossible beyond occasional retrospective releases or highlights. A notable exception is the 1966–1971 series Dark Shadows, which has had its entire run of 1,225 episodes (with an audio recreation of its sole missing episode) released to home video. In the case of American "primetime soap operas" this generally does not apply as typically such series produce far fewer episodes (generally on par with that of other genres), allowing home video release.

In motion pictures, the 1982 comedy Tootsie has the lead character impersonating a woman in order to gain acting work on a long running television soap opera. Several scenes parody the production of soaps, their outrageous storylines and idiosyncratic stylistic elements.

The 1991 comedy Soapdish stars Sally Field as an aging soap opera actress on the fictional series The Sun Also Sets who pines over her own neuroses and misfortunes, such as her live-in boyfriend who leaves her to go back to his wife, and the incidents of backstabbing and scheming behind the scenes, some of which are more interesting than the stories on the program.

Another 1991 comedy, Delirious, stars John Candy as a soap opera writer who, after a head injury, has a dream experience of being in his own creation. The dream experience is an increasingly outrageous exaggeration of soap opera plot elements.

On television, several soap opera parodies have been produced:

• The Carol Burnett Show (1967–1978) featured a recurring skit, "As the Stomach Turns", that spoofed the American soap opera As the World Turns.
• The first season of the children's television series The Electric Company featured a recurring sketch, "Love of Chair", spoofing classic soap operas. The title was based on the long-running soap opera Love of Life, and its announcer Ken Roberts was also the announcer on Love of Life.
• Two of the most famous U.S. parodies were the series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976–1977) and Soap (1977–1981), the latter of which was a weekly sitcom/soap opera parody.
• The cult Australian prison soap opera Prisoner (1979–1986) included a spoof television soap that the inmates were occasionally seen watching called "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow". In one episode, specially recorded audio can be heard in which two characters from the fictional soap opera play out a ludicrous script which clearly pokes fun at the heightened melodrama of daytime soap operas.
• British soap opera Brookside (1982–2003) included an in-universe soap opera parody of itself called "Meadowcroft Park" which Brookside characters referenced and were occasionally seen watching. The soap was set on a newly built housing estate in Chester and real scenes, even a "Part two" caption, were produced for airing on the character's houses TV's. Notably, Meadowcroft was also the original working title of Brookside.
• Fresno was a 1986 American miniseries spoof of the prime time serials of the period.
• The recurring "Acorn Antiques" skit on the UK's Victoria Wood As Seen On TV (1985–1987) was modeled on Crossroads and other British soap operas of the 1970s. In 1992, Wood included a new soap parody for the one-off programme Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast called The Mall which was set in a shopping centre. Wood played Connie who was a send up of Polly Perkins character Trish Valentine in failed BBC soap Eldorado which was still airing at the time.
• Let The Blood Run Free (1990–1994) was an Australian parody of medical drama series.
• The 1990–1991 ABC drama Twin Peaks was a prime time series that poked fun at the genre. Episodes during the series' first season also included a fictional soap within the stories, titled Invitation to Love.
• Shark Bay (1996) was an Australian parody of glamorous beachside soap operas. It featured many actors who had appeared in Australian soap operas Sons and Daughters, Prisoner, Home and Away and Neighbours.^{[citation needed]}
• The 2000–2001 WB sitcom Grosse Pointe was a self-parody of creator Darren Star's behind-the-scenes experiences producing nighttime soaps, in particular Beverly Hills, 90210.
• South African comedian Casper de Vries produced the soap opera parody Haak en Steek (which ran from 2003 to 2004), based on South African soaps like Egoli: Place of Gold.
• The now-cancelled ABC soap opera One Life to Live would often poke fun at the genre as well, even featuring a soap within the soap called Fraternity Row, which many of One Life to Live's characters had either worked on or watched. Months after ABC announced in April 2011 that it would cancel One Life to Live, the series featured a storyline in which Fraternity Row itself was cancelled, leading the character of Roxy Balsom (Ilene Kristen) to desperately try and save the series, to no avail. A special episode that aired on December 19, 2011, featured the cast of One Life to Live acting out an episode of Fraternity Row in a dream of Roxy's; the episode poked fun at both One Life to Live and the entire genre itself, featuring many soap opera stereotypes such as overacting, outrageous story lines, bad casting and incestuous relationships; it also parodied some storylines featured on the real-world soap. The second-to-last episode of One Life to Live showed characters watching the final episode of Fraternity Row and exposing the show's last big secret: the series' main heroine and protagonist, Lorraine King Vonvaldenburg Baxter Beumont, was really a man.
• Second City TV featured The Days of the Week: "Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. Saturday. Sunday. These are...The Days of the Week."
• The ABC comedy drama Desperate Housewives (which ran from 2004 to 2012) was a semi-satirical nighttime series that took many elements from the genre.
• The Fox broadcast show Futurama has a recurring spoof of All My Children called All My Circuits.
• The Adult Swim animated series Tender Touches, which premiered in 2017, is a parody of soap operas.

• Soap Opera overview – Museum of Broadcast Communications
• SoapHub.com – Portal for US soap operas
• SoapCentral.com – Portal for US soap operas
• Soapdom.com – Portal for US soap operas
• SoapOperaDigest.com – Portal for US soap operas
• Soaps.com – Portal for US soap operas
• Soaps of the Past page on MySpace (US soap operas)
• What's on TV – Portal for UK soap operas
• The Aussie Soap Archive – Classic Australian soap operas
• The Soap Show Interviews and news on UK and Australian soaps
• US soap operas overview, news and recaps
• SoapOperaDaily - Portal for US & UK soap operas