العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolTELENOVELA
(Redirected from Telenovelas)
A 'telenovela' is a limited-run television serial melodrama of the type made famous in Mexico and Latin America. The word comes from ''tele'', short for ''television'', and ''novela'' ("novel/soap opera"). Telenovelas are essentially soap operas in miniseries format.
Patricio Wills, head of development at Telemundo, describes telenovelas thus:
While most English language soap operas can potentially continue indefinitely, almost all telenovelas run for a predetermined duration. They usually feature a fictional romantic melodrama,
air five or six days a week, and run for an average of 120 episodes.[2]
Most well-known telenovelas, which are sometimes called ‘’teleseries’’or ‘’comedias’’,
are produced in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries and usually air during prime time. Prime time drama serials were first produced in Brazil, Cuba and Mexico with ''Sua vida me pertence'' ("Your Life Belongs to Me", Brazil, 1950) showing twice a week, ''Senderos de amor'' ("Love paths", Cuba, 1951), and ''Ángeles de la calle'' ("Angels from the street", Mexico 1951), which was shown once a week. Mexico produced its first drama serial in the modern telenovela format of Monday through Friday airings, ''Senda prohibida'' ("Forbidden path"), written by Fernanda Villeli, between 1957 and 1958.
The first global telenovela was ''Los Ricos También Lloran'' ("The Rich Cry too", Mexico, 1979), which was exported to Russia, China, the United States and other countries. Currently, the most famous telenovelas have come from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela. In Spain they are also called ''culebrones'' ("long snakes"), because of the convoluted plots.
One of the most common complaints is that telenovelas are not representative of the actual racial makeup of the country where they are produced.[3] Most telenovelas, no matter where they are from, tend to have white, blond, blue-eyed stars. Whenever "ethnic"-looking people appear, they are usually of lower class origins and hold jobs such as janitors, while all the higher-class jobs are reserved for the lightest-skinned actors. This criticism is especially remarkable in Brazil whose non-white population is relegated to a few roles in each telenovela.
Mexican telenovelas are often traditional and tend to fall in four sub-genres:
★ The "working class melodrama," which is easy to understand and contains less explicit content. They typically feature a poor girl who falls in love with a rich man whose family spurns her, such as ''Dame Chocolate'' and ''Madre Luna''.
★ The historical romance, set in the past, such as the colonial period (''Martín Garatuza''), the restoration of the Republic (''El carruaje''), the late 1800s (''El vuelo del águila'') and the revolution (''Bodas de odio'').
★ The teen drama, which portrays the lives of high-school teenagers and their issues with sex, drugs and other coming-of age topics. It started with (''Quinceañera'') in the late 1980s.
★ The pop music story, portrays the lives of aspiring musicians such as in ''Idolos de Juventud'', ''Alcanzar una estrella'' and its sequel ''Alcanzar una estrella II''.
In Mexico, Televisa is the largest producer and exporter of telenovelas. TV Azteca and the independent company Argos Comunicación are its main competition. The American telenovelas produced by Telemundo tend to follow the Mexican model.
After the end of the Cold War, Televisa found an enormous market for its telenovelas in countries in the former Eastern Bloc, as well as in Vietnam and other Asian countries. For example, Veronica Castro became an international star when the novela she'd starred in years before, ''Los Ricos Tambien Lloran'', became a huge hit in Russia. By the late 1990s, the company claimed telenovelas were Mexico's leading export product. At the same time, as the Mexican government loosened its control over television, telenovelas, primarily those produced by Argos Comunicacion, addressed new themes, including poverty, political corruption, immigration, and drug smuggling.
Currently Yo amo a Juan Querendon is a popular Mexican Telenovela.
Telenovelas are not only immensely popular in Hispanic America, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, and in Hispanic communities in the United States, but also have a wide following in Russia, Eastern Europe, France, Italy, the Philippines, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, South Korea, and Japan.[4]
In Argentina, they are usually produced by Telefe, Artear, Ideas del Sur and Pol-Ka; in Brazil, by TV Globo, TV Record, SBT, or TV Bandeirantes; in Chile by TVN and Canal 13; in Colombia by Caracol TV, RTI Colombia, or RCN TV; in Venezuela by Venevisión or RCTV; and in Puerto Rico, they were produced by WAPA-TV or Telemundo Puerto Rico. In the United States, Telemundo and Univision, mostly importers of Latin American telenovelas, have started producing telenovelas with Latin American casts and, in the case of Telemundo, Mexican producers Argos Comunicación.
Brazil's ''telenovelas'' (more often ''novelas'') are both more racy with ample nudity and apt to broach controversial subjects—many Brazilians can relate because of the ''telenovelas' realistic depiction of the middle class, working class and upper class. Brazilian productions are the most expensively produced in Latin America.[5] A teenage ''telenovela'', ''Malhação'' ("Working Out") is the longest-running ''telenovela'' in Brazil. ''Novelas'' usually last eight months at most in Brazil, but ''Malhação'' has been on the air since 1995. Four ''telenovelas'' are shown on Globo, Brazil's leading channel.
Colombian telenovelas such as ''Betty la fea'' often focus on comedy. However, some are in a more realistic vein (sometimes dealing with issues as drug dealing), or adaptations of novels. Telenovelas produced by RTI Colombia and Telemundo usually air on Caracol, while Televideo and Telecolombia produce some of RCN's telenovelas. Caracol and RCN also produce and broadcast their own shows. Currently, four or five Colombian telenovelas are usually broadcast from 6 PM until around 11 PM on those networks.
Chilean telenovelas focus on both traditional drama and middle class life, with some touches of comedy. Often, they show life outside of the capital, like in TVN's ''Iorana'' (ambientated on Easter Island). They are usually produced and aired by the Canal 13 and TVN channels, but lately other TV channels such as Mega and Chilevisión are joining the so-called "telenovela war".
Dominican Republic has started to produce its own novelas thanks to Venevision International, Iguana Productions and Atena Latina Productions. The first telenovela, ''María Jose...Oficios de hogar'' was produced by Venevision and the first Dominican telenovela company (now inactive), Colórvisión, in 1986. The telenovela ''Tropico'' was made by Venevision International, Iguana Productions, and Atena Latina Productions, in 2007 with mostly Dominican actors and a few from Venezuela and Perú. It is being aired by Atena Latina 7 in Dominican Republic and on Univision in United States. There are currently plans for more telenovelas made, filmed, and produced in Dominican Republic.
:''See MyNetworkTV telenovelas
In the United States, the telenovela concept has been adapted into English. MyNetworkTV, an upstart network launched by News Corporation, launched two with nightly serials on September 5, 2006, Unfortunately, after the success of "Desire" and "Fashion House", ratings began to decline. The second pair of telenovels, "Wicked Wicked Games" and "Wacth Over Me" had decent ratings but not as successful as the debut pair of telenovels. By the time the third pair of series, "American Heiress" and "Saints and Sinners" aired the ratings were disastrous and the format is being phased out. On the other hand, ''Ugly Betty'' has already proven to be a success story on ABC, although the network dropped the idea of the show as a telenovela and developed it as a standard weekly series. NBC is developing an adaptation of a racy Colombian telenovela titled ''Without Breasts There Is No Paradise''.
Some Spanish-language telenovelas are now translated directly into English for US viewers. Novelas on Telemundo, which tend to follow the Mexican model, are all closed-captioned in English because there is a small, but influencal number of English speaking Americans who watch the Spanish telenovelas. Xenon Pictures also adds English subtitles to its DVD versions of Mexican serials, including ''Amor Real'', ''La Madrastra'', and ''Rubí''.
The sudden interest in English telenovelas can be attributed to the appeal and successful ratings of the genre. Producers also see this as a way to attract the fast-growing Hispanic population, most notably the female sector of this demographic. In addition, telenovelas break the traditional United States television format, where a show runs for 20-25 episodes a season, once a week.
Main articles: Philippine drama
The Philippines airs and produces many telenovelas, many locally produced while others are imported from Mexico and South American countries. Many Filipinos enjoy watching telenovelas because of the cultural affinity that the Spanish-colonized country has with other Latin American countries. ''Marimar'', ''Rosalinda'', ''Betty La Fea'', and ''La Usurpadora'' are probably the most popular past telenovelas in the country, with Rosalinda having a 70% audience rating, the highest of any show in the history of Philippine television. ''La Usurpadora'' also had high ratings, and millions of fans of Gabriela Spanic crowded the streets when she visited, as they also did for Thalia, Fernando Carrillo, and Laura Flores when they visited the country. Thalia also was the special guest of President Ramos during the Centennial Celebration of the Philippines' Independence from Spain in 1998. Many telenovelas from the Philippines such as The Promise are also popular in other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Cameroon, Kenya, and Venezuela. Another hit was also "Marina" by ABS-CBN, a love story about a mermaid which stars Claudine Baretto, cousin of "Junior" Antonio Morales Baretto (husband of Rocio Durcal), of Los Brincos fame in Spain. Recent popular Spanish language telenovelas shown in the Philippines are ''La Fea Mas Bella'', ''La Estrambotica Anastasia'', ''Pasion de Gavilanes'', ''Rubi'', ''Mirada de Mujer'', ''Inocente de Ti'', ''Montecristo'', ''Cuando Seas Mia'', ''Betty La Fea'', ''La Mujer de Judas'', ''La Viuda de Blanco'', and ''Peregrina''.
The most important Telenovela award show is the TVyNovelas Award hosted by the Televisa ''TVyNovelas'' magazine in Mexico and the one presented by ''Contigo'' in Brasil. ''TVyNovelas'' also has editions in Chile, Puerto Rico, United States and ''Contigo'' has an edition in Chile.
The standard American, UK, or Australian soap opera is invariably designed to theoretically continue indefinitely, and indeed sometimes do endure for decades, with an ever-rotating cast of players and characters.
However, most Latin American telenovelas have an average run of six months up to a year. The show's duration is pre-planned at the show's inception, with the overall story-arc and conclusion also known by the show's makers at its inception. ''Mundo de Juguete'' is one exception to the rule, with a total of 605 chapters (1974–1977), and a few cast changes during the course of the serial. Some earlier Argentine telenovelas (most of them penned by Alberto Migré) also ran for a few years.
Telenovelas also have a different type of story from English-language soaps.
A popular plot is that of a poor, beautiful girl who meets a rich, handsome boy. He breaks up with his rich, evil and frivolous girlfriend to be with the heroine, at first to simply annoy his rich and callous relatives, but eventually falling in love because of her kind, caring heart and beautiful soul. The evil ex-girlfriend (usually accompanied by the rich guy's mother, sister or other close relative) stands in their way to happiness. Sometimes the struggle is ethnic (such as in ''Gitanas'' and ''Yesenia'' with Roma, or in ''María Isabel'' with people of indigenous origin). A popular plot twist is also the discovery of the real father or mother of the poor heroine, who almost always turns out to be incredibly wealthy. The story usually ends with the villains meeting spectacularly violent, gruesome, painful and gory end and the two heroes end up getting married and with a child, sometimes, even twins.
Brazilian telenovelas are a bit more complex, with convoluted subplots involving three or four different settings. Usually there is a rich setting, a poor setting and one or more settings in which the characters of both settings can interact. There is no black-and-white cut between ''good'' and ''evil'' characters, with the good guys often displaying weaknesses like promiscuity, drinking, stupidity, excessive ambition, etc. or the bad ones showing features or motivations that attract sympathy, like abuses suffered in the past, family problems, poverty, etc. It is not uncommon for a villain to attract the sympathy of the public, or even to end well. In 2006, for instance, the evil Bia Falcão, played by Fernanda Montenegro in ''Belíssima'' managed to escape a police siege and flee the country to France, where she resettled with a handsome boyfriend living on a secret bank account in Switzerland, which she had kept over the years. On the other hand, it is not uncommon for a hero to be relegated to a secondary role due to the actor's lack of charisma.
Besides the convoluted plots, Brazilian telenovelas also approach sensitive social issues and try to present a bit of the country's actual culture (in an idealized way, though).
Another important difference is that Brazilian telenovelas rely much less on individual stars than other Latin American works. A Brazilian telenovela may have a permanent cast of more than 40 actors, of which some 7 or 8 are ''central''. The chief reason for this is that telenovelas are not shot in advance (instead chapters are shot only fifteen days before being aired) so that they can respond to public reaction. Under this scheme, the eventual death or bad performance of the actor playing the main character may turn the production into o flop (which happened to Sol de Verão in 1982 after the death of Jardel Filho).
Rede Globo is the main producer of telenovelas in Brazil. Its productions are split into three different categories, according to the airtime :
★ at 6PM (''novela das seis''), stories are romantic, soft and shallow (like Cabocla or Sinhá Moça). No violence, sex or bad language (with a few exceptions) and plenty of historic themes.
★ at 7PM (''novela das sete'') they air comedy plots, filled with action, humour and romance (and a bit of implicit sex). This is the schedule in which new writers are tested (the most recent talent to show up being João Emanuel Carneiro, with his conspiracy plots, filled with intrigue and social critique). Plots tend to be more experimental but thematic is usually formulaic.
★ at 8PM (''novela das oito'') plots tend to be more formulaic, but a wider range of themes are explored. These productions include action, romantism and humour and usually last longer than the others. These are the productions with the highest rates.
Telenovelas comprise the great majority of the dramatic productions by South American TV networks whereas in the US other formats like sitcoms or TV dramas are more popular.
★ Teleserye
★ Fantaserye
★ List of Teleserye
★ MyNetworkTV telenovelas
★ List of famous telenovelas
★ List of telenovela actors
★ Téléroman – The French-Canadian equivalent
★ Fotonovela – The magazine equivalent, a sort of photo-comic book usually with a romantic theme.
★ Soap opera – The English-language counterpart
1. Multichannel Plot Twists for Genre Retrieved 22 August, 2007
2. Telenovela market
3. Y Tu Black Mama Tambien
4. http://www.telenovelas.gr/worldtv/english.htm
5. Telenovelas in Latin America
★ Telenovela's news and reviews (in Spanish)
★ Iscrpan vodič kroz svijet telenovela (in Croatian)
A 'telenovela' is a limited-run television serial melodrama of the type made famous in Mexico and Latin America. The word comes from ''tele'', short for ''television'', and ''novela'' ("novel/soap opera"). Telenovelas are essentially soap operas in miniseries format.
Patricio Wills, head of development at Telemundo, describes telenovelas thus:
"The plot is always the same. In the first three minutes of the first episode the viewer already knows the novela will end with that same couple kissing each other. A telenovela is all about a couple who wants to kiss and a scriptwriter who stands in their way for 150 episodes."[1]
While most English language soap operas can potentially continue indefinitely, almost all telenovelas run for a predetermined duration. They usually feature a fictional romantic melodrama,
air five or six days a week, and run for an average of 120 episodes.[2]
Evolution
Most well-known telenovelas, which are sometimes called ‘’teleseries’’or ‘’comedias’’,
are produced in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries and usually air during prime time. Prime time drama serials were first produced in Brazil, Cuba and Mexico with ''Sua vida me pertence'' ("Your Life Belongs to Me", Brazil, 1950) showing twice a week, ''Senderos de amor'' ("Love paths", Cuba, 1951), and ''Ángeles de la calle'' ("Angels from the street", Mexico 1951), which was shown once a week. Mexico produced its first drama serial in the modern telenovela format of Monday through Friday airings, ''Senda prohibida'' ("Forbidden path"), written by Fernanda Villeli, between 1957 and 1958.
The first global telenovela was ''Los Ricos También Lloran'' ("The Rich Cry too", Mexico, 1979), which was exported to Russia, China, the United States and other countries. Currently, the most famous telenovelas have come from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela. In Spain they are also called ''culebrones'' ("long snakes"), because of the convoluted plots.
One of the most common complaints is that telenovelas are not representative of the actual racial makeup of the country where they are produced.[3] Most telenovelas, no matter where they are from, tend to have white, blond, blue-eyed stars. Whenever "ethnic"-looking people appear, they are usually of lower class origins and hold jobs such as janitors, while all the higher-class jobs are reserved for the lightest-skinned actors. This criticism is especially remarkable in Brazil whose non-white population is relegated to a few roles in each telenovela.
Mexico
Mexican telenovelas are often traditional and tend to fall in four sub-genres:
★ The "working class melodrama," which is easy to understand and contains less explicit content. They typically feature a poor girl who falls in love with a rich man whose family spurns her, such as ''Dame Chocolate'' and ''Madre Luna''.
★ The historical romance, set in the past, such as the colonial period (''Martín Garatuza''), the restoration of the Republic (''El carruaje''), the late 1800s (''El vuelo del águila'') and the revolution (''Bodas de odio'').
★ The teen drama, which portrays the lives of high-school teenagers and their issues with sex, drugs and other coming-of age topics. It started with (''Quinceañera'') in the late 1980s.
★ The pop music story, portrays the lives of aspiring musicians such as in ''Idolos de Juventud'', ''Alcanzar una estrella'' and its sequel ''Alcanzar una estrella II''.
In Mexico, Televisa is the largest producer and exporter of telenovelas. TV Azteca and the independent company Argos Comunicación are its main competition. The American telenovelas produced by Telemundo tend to follow the Mexican model.
After the end of the Cold War, Televisa found an enormous market for its telenovelas in countries in the former Eastern Bloc, as well as in Vietnam and other Asian countries. For example, Veronica Castro became an international star when the novela she'd starred in years before, ''Los Ricos Tambien Lloran'', became a huge hit in Russia. By the late 1990s, the company claimed telenovelas were Mexico's leading export product. At the same time, as the Mexican government loosened its control over television, telenovelas, primarily those produced by Argos Comunicacion, addressed new themes, including poverty, political corruption, immigration, and drug smuggling.
Currently Yo amo a Juan Querendon is a popular Mexican Telenovela.
Latin America
Telenovelas are not only immensely popular in Hispanic America, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, and in Hispanic communities in the United States, but also have a wide following in Russia, Eastern Europe, France, Italy, the Philippines, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, South Korea, and Japan.[4]
In Argentina, they are usually produced by Telefe, Artear, Ideas del Sur and Pol-Ka; in Brazil, by TV Globo, TV Record, SBT, or TV Bandeirantes; in Chile by TVN and Canal 13; in Colombia by Caracol TV, RTI Colombia, or RCN TV; in Venezuela by Venevisión or RCTV; and in Puerto Rico, they were produced by WAPA-TV or Telemundo Puerto Rico. In the United States, Telemundo and Univision, mostly importers of Latin American telenovelas, have started producing telenovelas with Latin American casts and, in the case of Telemundo, Mexican producers Argos Comunicación.
Brazil's ''telenovelas'' (more often ''novelas'') are both more racy with ample nudity and apt to broach controversial subjects—many Brazilians can relate because of the ''telenovelas' realistic depiction of the middle class, working class and upper class. Brazilian productions are the most expensively produced in Latin America.[5] A teenage ''telenovela'', ''Malhação'' ("Working Out") is the longest-running ''telenovela'' in Brazil. ''Novelas'' usually last eight months at most in Brazil, but ''Malhação'' has been on the air since 1995. Four ''telenovelas'' are shown on Globo, Brazil's leading channel.
Colombia
Colombian telenovelas such as ''Betty la fea'' often focus on comedy. However, some are in a more realistic vein (sometimes dealing with issues as drug dealing), or adaptations of novels. Telenovelas produced by RTI Colombia and Telemundo usually air on Caracol, while Televideo and Telecolombia produce some of RCN's telenovelas. Caracol and RCN also produce and broadcast their own shows. Currently, four or five Colombian telenovelas are usually broadcast from 6 PM until around 11 PM on those networks.
Chile
Chilean telenovelas focus on both traditional drama and middle class life, with some touches of comedy. Often, they show life outside of the capital, like in TVN's ''Iorana'' (ambientated on Easter Island). They are usually produced and aired by the Canal 13 and TVN channels, but lately other TV channels such as Mega and Chilevisión are joining the so-called "telenovela war".
Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic has started to produce its own novelas thanks to Venevision International, Iguana Productions and Atena Latina Productions. The first telenovela, ''María Jose...Oficios de hogar'' was produced by Venevision and the first Dominican telenovela company (now inactive), Colórvisión, in 1986. The telenovela ''Tropico'' was made by Venevision International, Iguana Productions, and Atena Latina Productions, in 2007 with mostly Dominican actors and a few from Venezuela and Perú. It is being aired by Atena Latina 7 in Dominican Republic and on Univision in United States. There are currently plans for more telenovelas made, filmed, and produced in Dominican Republic.
United States
:''See MyNetworkTV telenovelas
In the United States, the telenovela concept has been adapted into English. MyNetworkTV, an upstart network launched by News Corporation, launched two with nightly serials on September 5, 2006, Unfortunately, after the success of "Desire" and "Fashion House", ratings began to decline. The second pair of telenovels, "Wicked Wicked Games" and "Wacth Over Me" had decent ratings but not as successful as the debut pair of telenovels. By the time the third pair of series, "American Heiress" and "Saints and Sinners" aired the ratings were disastrous and the format is being phased out. On the other hand, ''Ugly Betty'' has already proven to be a success story on ABC, although the network dropped the idea of the show as a telenovela and developed it as a standard weekly series. NBC is developing an adaptation of a racy Colombian telenovela titled ''Without Breasts There Is No Paradise''.
Some Spanish-language telenovelas are now translated directly into English for US viewers. Novelas on Telemundo, which tend to follow the Mexican model, are all closed-captioned in English because there is a small, but influencal number of English speaking Americans who watch the Spanish telenovelas. Xenon Pictures also adds English subtitles to its DVD versions of Mexican serials, including ''Amor Real'', ''La Madrastra'', and ''Rubí''.
The sudden interest in English telenovelas can be attributed to the appeal and successful ratings of the genre. Producers also see this as a way to attract the fast-growing Hispanic population, most notably the female sector of this demographic. In addition, telenovelas break the traditional United States television format, where a show runs for 20-25 episodes a season, once a week.
Philippines
Main articles: Philippine drama
The Philippines airs and produces many telenovelas, many locally produced while others are imported from Mexico and South American countries. Many Filipinos enjoy watching telenovelas because of the cultural affinity that the Spanish-colonized country has with other Latin American countries. ''Marimar'', ''Rosalinda'', ''Betty La Fea'', and ''La Usurpadora'' are probably the most popular past telenovelas in the country, with Rosalinda having a 70% audience rating, the highest of any show in the history of Philippine television. ''La Usurpadora'' also had high ratings, and millions of fans of Gabriela Spanic crowded the streets when she visited, as they also did for Thalia, Fernando Carrillo, and Laura Flores when they visited the country. Thalia also was the special guest of President Ramos during the Centennial Celebration of the Philippines' Independence from Spain in 1998. Many telenovelas from the Philippines such as The Promise are also popular in other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Cameroon, Kenya, and Venezuela. Another hit was also "Marina" by ABS-CBN, a love story about a mermaid which stars Claudine Baretto, cousin of "Junior" Antonio Morales Baretto (husband of Rocio Durcal), of Los Brincos fame in Spain. Recent popular Spanish language telenovelas shown in the Philippines are ''La Fea Mas Bella'', ''La Estrambotica Anastasia'', ''Pasion de Gavilanes'', ''Rubi'', ''Mirada de Mujer'', ''Inocente de Ti'', ''Montecristo'', ''Cuando Seas Mia'', ''Betty La Fea'', ''La Mujer de Judas'', ''La Viuda de Blanco'', and ''Peregrina''.
Awards
The most important Telenovela award show is the TVyNovelas Award hosted by the Televisa ''TVyNovelas'' magazine in Mexico and the one presented by ''Contigo'' in Brasil. ''TVyNovelas'' also has editions in Chile, Puerto Rico, United States and ''Contigo'' has an edition in Chile.
Comparison with soap operas
Technical differences
The standard American, UK, or Australian soap opera is invariably designed to theoretically continue indefinitely, and indeed sometimes do endure for decades, with an ever-rotating cast of players and characters.
However, most Latin American telenovelas have an average run of six months up to a year. The show's duration is pre-planned at the show's inception, with the overall story-arc and conclusion also known by the show's makers at its inception. ''Mundo de Juguete'' is one exception to the rule, with a total of 605 chapters (1974–1977), and a few cast changes during the course of the serial. Some earlier Argentine telenovelas (most of them penned by Alberto Migré) also ran for a few years.
Conceptual differences
Telenovelas also have a different type of story from English-language soaps.
A popular plot is that of a poor, beautiful girl who meets a rich, handsome boy. He breaks up with his rich, evil and frivolous girlfriend to be with the heroine, at first to simply annoy his rich and callous relatives, but eventually falling in love because of her kind, caring heart and beautiful soul. The evil ex-girlfriend (usually accompanied by the rich guy's mother, sister or other close relative) stands in their way to happiness. Sometimes the struggle is ethnic (such as in ''Gitanas'' and ''Yesenia'' with Roma, or in ''María Isabel'' with people of indigenous origin). A popular plot twist is also the discovery of the real father or mother of the poor heroine, who almost always turns out to be incredibly wealthy. The story usually ends with the villains meeting spectacularly violent, gruesome, painful and gory end and the two heroes end up getting married and with a child, sometimes, even twins.
Brazil
Brazilian telenovelas are a bit more complex, with convoluted subplots involving three or four different settings. Usually there is a rich setting, a poor setting and one or more settings in which the characters of both settings can interact. There is no black-and-white cut between ''good'' and ''evil'' characters, with the good guys often displaying weaknesses like promiscuity, drinking, stupidity, excessive ambition, etc. or the bad ones showing features or motivations that attract sympathy, like abuses suffered in the past, family problems, poverty, etc. It is not uncommon for a villain to attract the sympathy of the public, or even to end well. In 2006, for instance, the evil Bia Falcão, played by Fernanda Montenegro in ''Belíssima'' managed to escape a police siege and flee the country to France, where she resettled with a handsome boyfriend living on a secret bank account in Switzerland, which she had kept over the years. On the other hand, it is not uncommon for a hero to be relegated to a secondary role due to the actor's lack of charisma.
Besides the convoluted plots, Brazilian telenovelas also approach sensitive social issues and try to present a bit of the country's actual culture (in an idealized way, though).
Another important difference is that Brazilian telenovelas rely much less on individual stars than other Latin American works. A Brazilian telenovela may have a permanent cast of more than 40 actors, of which some 7 or 8 are ''central''. The chief reason for this is that telenovelas are not shot in advance (instead chapters are shot only fifteen days before being aired) so that they can respond to public reaction. Under this scheme, the eventual death or bad performance of the actor playing the main character may turn the production into o flop (which happened to Sol de Verão in 1982 after the death of Jardel Filho).
Rede Globo is the main producer of telenovelas in Brazil. Its productions are split into three different categories, according to the airtime :
★ at 6PM (''novela das seis''), stories are romantic, soft and shallow (like Cabocla or Sinhá Moça). No violence, sex or bad language (with a few exceptions) and plenty of historic themes.
★ at 7PM (''novela das sete'') they air comedy plots, filled with action, humour and romance (and a bit of implicit sex). This is the schedule in which new writers are tested (the most recent talent to show up being João Emanuel Carneiro, with his conspiracy plots, filled with intrigue and social critique). Plots tend to be more experimental but thematic is usually formulaic.
★ at 8PM (''novela das oito'') plots tend to be more formulaic, but a wider range of themes are explored. These productions include action, romantism and humour and usually last longer than the others. These are the productions with the highest rates.
Telenovelas comprise the great majority of the dramatic productions by South American TV networks whereas in the US other formats like sitcoms or TV dramas are more popular.
See also
★ Teleserye
★ Fantaserye
★ List of Teleserye
★ MyNetworkTV telenovelas
★ List of famous telenovelas
★ List of telenovela actors
★ Téléroman – The French-Canadian equivalent
★ Fotonovela – The magazine equivalent, a sort of photo-comic book usually with a romantic theme.
★ Soap opera – The English-language counterpart
References
1. Multichannel Plot Twists for Genre Retrieved 22 August, 2007
2. Telenovela market
3. Y Tu Black Mama Tambien
4. http://www.telenovelas.gr/worldtv/english.htm
5. Telenovelas in Latin America
External links
★ Telenovela's news and reviews (in Spanish)
★ Iscrpan vodič kroz svijet telenovela (in Croatian)
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
