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252 Communication Theory & Research
countries in Europe and America. The preference for local soaps over imported
ones wherever these exist (Silj, 1988) suggests that local production remains
worth pursuing for both economic and cultural reasons.

Notes

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the EC ‘Human Capital and
Mobility’ Programme (awarded to Liebes and Livingstone at the European Gender Research
Laboratory, LSE). They would also like to thank Shelley Anderson, Charlotte Martin, Sarit
Moldovan, Nina Nissel and Tsfira Grebelsky for research assistance, together with those col-
leagues in Europe who kindly answered our questions about European soap operas, including
Christina Apostolidi and Maria Ralli (on Greece), Millie Buonanno (on Italy), Carmelo
Garitonandia (on Spain), Dominique Pasquier (on France), Sven Ross and Runar Woldt (on
Sweden) and Hugh O’Donnell (on European soaps in general).
1. In the forever-open issue of what series may qualify as soaps we have decided to adopt the
definition of the genre commonly assumed, if not made explicit, within the research litera-
ture: a programme which continues endlessly (not a finite number of episodes culminating
in a conclusion), featuring at least two generations, concerned with the daily lives of the
characters, with no single hero figure, and reliant more on dialogue than action. We therefore
excluded such offshoots or kin-genres as romantic comedies and teenage series, which, while
sharing a number of features with soaps, are constructed on other forms of social networks
or which make viewers laugh as much as they make them cry or which adopt a linear nar-
rative which progresses towards a closure. These deserve a separate study.
2. The idea of babies, however, does play a central part in the plot, mostly as pawns in the
exchange between the sexes. Women often use a baby, real, false or expected, for improv-
ing their position, but babies hardly ever appear on the screen.
3. We arrived at the three forms in two stages. First, we found it useful to label the basic struc-
ture of the networks of the American vs the British subgenre as ‘dyadic’ and ‘community’.
Second, when we observed the networks of other soap-producing countries in Europe, we
found that some clearly conformed to one of our two categories, albeit within a specific
cultural context (i.e. the community of Lindenstrasse), while others adopted the network of
one dynastic family.
4. These informants were recruited by advertising for soap fans among European students in
London.
5. In each scene rather than in the overall plot-line, which is expected and never ending at the
same time (Thorburn, 1982).
6. France and Spain did not produce any soaps, although Spain did subsequently produce a
popular soap in 1996. Among the European states only Germany is a prolific producer
which may be compared to Britain.
7. We are extremely grateful to our colleagues across Europe who recorded and supplied
tapes, provided reprints in the various languages, and themselves assisted in interpreting
the cultural meanings of European-made soaps.
8. A third category, in terms of target audience, are the ‘minority’ soaps such as Catalan (in
Spain), Gaelic (Ireland) and Flemish (Belgium). These are made specifically for a regional
audience, or, in other cases, as a means of preserving a local language or dialect.
9. Thus, for example, Demitris, who rapes Elvira, ends up marrying her mother, while Elvira
keeps her baby.
10. It is somewhat ironic that Die Schwarzwaldklinik, itself strong on German cultural connota-
tions, was aimed at being exported overseas, and succeeded in doing so, while
Lindenstrasse, modelled on the very British Coronation Street and EastEnders, had been
intended only for home consumption (Silj, 1988).
11. Both, according to Mohr and O’Donnell (1996), based on a long defunct Australian soap
The Restless Years, with Dutch scripts produced after the first two seasons and developed
independently in both cultures.