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As the title of this paper suggests I want to emphasise certain factors which do create an overall argument for the use of soap operas as a necessity in modern society. My point of view might be surprising or even shocking for all those who believe in the superiority of a certain class which consider the viewers of soap operas as ordinary people and the programme they watch as pure pleasure of a primitive kind. Certainly, I clearly understand these people’s rigid objection to any soap opera like phenomena , and I also percieve the roots of their inflexibility. In this paper I’d like to defend soap operas as I thinkthey serve as a necessary ingredient of our modern society and their lack would create a gap for all their fans.

The appearance of soap operas dates back to the 1930s when they were broadcast on radio programmes in the US. Their conversion to a TV programme began in the 1950s , that is , they are the product of the post war atmosphere. The mass spreading of TV sets made it possible for film makers to bring this new kind of show to every household all around the States.

The subject matter of soap operas were different from that of those films on which the generation of the 50s had been brought up, starring actors such as James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Robeson and so on. People did appreciate these classic-movies, just as we find much enjoyment in watching them several decades after their birth. The value of these classical films is undebatable just as the fame of the actors and actresses playing in them . However, some sophisticated managers cleverly found out that people had a need which was different from prior times and thus created soap operas.

It would be untrue to claim that the birth of soap operas was the result of a social transition, although the main explanation might be this, as well. Social changes served as a deus ex machina for studio owners and film-makers as they realized the opportunity in the altering attitude of people.

Although soaps emerged from an American background they rapidly spred all over the world- even through the iron-curtain in a different shape. Soaps became a general-though not absolute- term for all the programmes which intended to satisfy the mass population of different nations. People who were bored by war-time propaganda, by romantic films dripping of sentimental episodes were longing for films which truly portrayed changed attitudes towards reality.

Soaps in a way are the tales of modern times. They are full of figures and charachters who serve as stareotypes representing the moral values of everyday people. Still, producers couldn’t risk to give a picture of the life of a lower-class poor family as people don’t like to be faced with the dark side of life. That’s why the classical soap opera is aplay about an upper-class or upper middle class family, living in a luxurious suburb or in an isolated fancy ranch, as it is the case in Dallas. The father, usually in a high ranking profession is the sole wage earner. By creating such conditions producers fulfilled different needs of the watchers. On the one hand they created a situation which seemed unattainable for most of the viewers, but on the other hand viewers recognized their own bosses, neigbours, husbands, wives, children, colleagues in the charachters. In other words they happily realized that the value-system of the figures in the soaps were not different from that of the ordinary people, that is themselves. The life of the rich might be just as tormented as theirs, so why should they worry ?!

Financial, social and educational difference seemed to be no more important, at least for the 30 minutes the soaps lasted. People quickly began to like soao operas as they in a sense calmed down their envy, hatred and misunderstanding of upper-class people. Soaps became a decisive factor in social attitudesfor the people who had become fans of them. People began to talk about soaps in the family and it crossed the borders of the family and became the subject matter of work-places, public places and became a part of life. Today even those who have never been affected by a single minute ooap opera have to take sides in the debate over them, and cannot avoid the emergance of the topic in certain conversations.

Soap operas are also big businesses. As there’s a good and stable market for them they serve as a good product to be sold. Nowadays soap operas rule TV screens every day, all day. You cannot switch channels without encountering an episode of Coronation Street, East Enders, Neigbours or Dallas.

Why do people love it so much ?

Apart from the above mentioned reasons, there are certain factors of soap operas which make them attractive.

Some of these reasons are:

- people find their own feelings in soap operas
- the charachters brcame members of the viewers’ family
- there’s a hint at general problems: illnesses, death, disintergration, encounters and so on.

Another important thing is that nowadays people are fed up with the everyday violence they experience in their own surroundings or through the TV screens.

In soap operas sin and violence are always off stage. Although they frequently affect the daily lives of the family members, good inevitably triumphs, or at least all wrongdoing is justly punished. The disturbing reality of housework or business seldom intrudes: in other words people get what they are longing for. An ideal life in which all the problems are solved in a well-balancd way.

Later , as certain transitions happened in society and social attitudes the search for relevance began to make inroads on the classical story line. Although the highest popular ratings continued to be earned by those programmes in the classical idiom, certain serials admitted to the open discussion of such matters as abortion, drug abuse and several diseases and inroduced racial and ethnic charachters into the previously all-white, Qnglo-Saxon population. Gradually an employed , married woman or an occasional blue-collar worker could be the main charachters of the soaps, just as in the Hungarian version of Neighbours.

Some soaps became legends which rule the skies or rather the screns of the world finding their way to more and more countries. Dallas is one of them.

Dallas, Ithink, serves as a stem from which different branches emerge and spread into the four directions, influencing the life and habits of millions.

Is it good for the future of our world ?

It’s a difficult question to answer, but I must admit that several million viewers in over one hundred countries can’t be wrong.