L 171 M

Most people are not aware of the danger of the destructive effects that soap operas, such as Dallas, imported from western cultures have caused and cause even nowadays. We do not look at these phenomena with enough attention because the damages that have been caused by this disease and infected the pure spirit of innocent millions of people do not look harmful at the first sight, but in fact they are fatal.

Before I take the pleasure and begin to reveal my opinion I have got to admit that I have never seen intentionally a single episode of Dallas from the beginning to the end, but I strongly believe that there is no need for it in the program of the Hungarian Television (MTV1). Though I never watch this series I am familiar with some of the most important characters, because after hundreds of episodes broadcasted regularly you cannot avoid to come across them accidentally. Unfortunately more and more Hungarians get addicted to this series, and millions of people sit down in front of their television every Friday and watch the - even for the average American - unrealistic life of the Ewings. It was an unforgivable mistake by the management of MTV to introduce the Ewings to the innocent Hungarian nation.

Hungarian soap operas should be preferred to Dallas, because they reflect more our national feelings, and the settings and the themes are about our lives. I am actually a fan of Neighbours (Szomszédok) and Family Ltd. (Familia Kft), though sometimes they are really bad too, but it is actually their beauty, this is the art in them. We should remember that sometimes it is even harder to produce something that is ridiculous than to come up with something worth watching, but they are still better for us than the destructive foreign influence of the imported rubbish. We have already had a perfect example of how to make the best out of something which at first sight might seem inadequate. Just consider the case of the 'Hungarian orange' in the legendary film Witness (Tanú). This scene with the orange which is actually substituted by a lemon clearly demonstrates that we have to be proud of what we have instead of imitating the so called 'more advanced' western cultures. I do not think that it is barely by accident that the following words were uttered by our beloved Béla Bácsi from Neighbours under his previous name Comrade Bastion (Bástya Elvtárs): "A little sour, a little yellow, but it is ours."

Why do we need American soap operas, when we have our own ones? Why do we spend money on buying and dubbing them instead of producing our own ones which have much more to do with our everyday life? Why do we have to 'go' to Southfork Ranch every Friday, while we have the chance to 'visit' the Neighbours in Richfield (Gazdagrét) only every second Thursday? Why are Hungarian people forced to worry about, for example Pamela's life twice as much as having the possibility to see the development of the love affairs of Mágenheim Julcsi. The ruthless capitalist Jr. (or as we Hungarians call him - Dzsoki) comes into our home every week, but Gábor Gábor, who is our own capitalist from Neighbours, returns just half as frequently. Etus is just as good mother as Ellie, so she should be shown on television more often, as an example to follow, because she does not only have a charming personality, but she is also one of us, we should be familiar with her problems better then with those of Ellie.

In Dallas the married couples are very rarely loyal to each other, the number of the examples for unsuccessful marriages and divorces is very high. Love relations go on and on between the old characters, only the combination of partners vary. Jr. invites most women to his bed and as we see it works, he is always with a different woman. Gábor Gábor, the Hungarian businessman, wants to be similar in his own Hungarian way, but he is a bit less successful, especially with Mrs Mágenheim. In Dallas people sometimes get married only for financial reasons, while emotionally they should be considered rather enemies. Is this what we need to see every week, when the number of divorces is growing in Hungary when it is already one of the highest in the world?

Watching Dallas you may realise that in most situations money plays central role in human relations, money can buy everything and corruption appears as a natural human behaviour in most episodes. The characters are extreme figures, not common people who could be imagined in a real life situation. They do not behave like real human beings, for example Bobby resurrected from death after a couple of month, only because the letters of the American Dallas fans. This was the most ridiculous happening in the history of Dallas, but others can be found nearly in every episode.

So there are a number of facts which prove that why Neighbours is much better for us than Dallas. Neighbours shows the life of the middle class people which is much closer to the feelings of an average Hungarian. Those people who watch Dallas like to watch their dreams in which people have servants, huge houses and three cars in the garage.

Showing Dallas to Hungarians is just another unnecessarily developed form of the harmful American influence on our culture, just like the eat-and-go (wash-and-go?) or drive-in fast food restaurants, or the baseball hats on every second teenager's head. The psychological trick of Dallas, that all episodes finish with an unexpected twist, a surprising information or an open question, forces poor Hungarian TV-victims to wait anxiously for the following episode. In Family Ltd you see complete stories with more or less meaning and sometimes perhaps some humour week by week, in Neighbours in most cases nothing special happens, so people are not forced to watch the next episode if they do not want to. Personal freedom should never be violated so seriously by a TV program. We could be saved from these effects or rather attacks by having no more Dallas broadcasted on Hungarian TV. Unfortunately the Dallas-histery is arisen and supported in several other ways than the series itself, for example that Alexander Friderikus has invited Linda Grey (Samantha) and Larry Hagman (Jr. or Dszoki), or certain books have been published, such as Dallas: Men, Dallas: Women.

People may think that it is the reality what they see every week, beautiful places, beautiful and rich people, and they do not understand that how it is possible that they are so ugly and poor, and their home is nothing like Southfork Ranch, or the skyscrapers in America. These people will get depressed, and lose all their self-esteem, because they cannot imagine how they could live a life like 'average American people', shown on TV, can do with little effort, without much worrying. They slowly get more unsatisfied with their lives, and we are not far from finding one of the reasons for Hungary's extremely high suicide rate. We should be aware of the danger that if these people do not try to escape to suicide, the growing number of Dallas Clubs may lead to disobedience or perhaps even to revolution. Our government should be aware of this danger in the first place and realise at last that something has to be done immediately. It should always be kept in mind that people can be seriously influenced by series shown on television. Remembering the case of the Brazilian series, Isaura, about slavery these effects seem to be obvious, because when the famous actress Lucelia Santos visited Hungary a number of her fans started to collect money to free her from slavery and from Leoncio. The effects of Dallas can be even more serious, and fans should remember the case of that middle-aged women who committed suicide when Bobby died, or rather Patrick Duffy decided to leave the show.

In my opinion more Hungarian soap operas should be produced to teach the Hungarian nation about real life around us, and the money spent on buying and dubbing such things as Dallas should be given to talented Hungarian soap opera directors. We need more Neighbours in which people are good to each other, pensioners, shop assistants, hairdressers, doctors, waiters, taxi drivers, teachers, businessmen and children live in harmony and peace in Richfield, the ideal Hungarian suburb, and we are desperate to hear their philosophical thoughts about how to be good to each other and how to solve our problems without causing any harm to others.