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European Soap Operas: the Diversification of a Genre 253

12. Such as Laura, in Goede Tijden, who has an affair with Sten, her son’s best friend.
13. In Goede Tijden it happened to Helen, everybody’s surrogate mother whose lover Koen tried
to kill her, and to Robert, who was pushed through a mirror by his wife Laura; in Onderweg
Naar Morgen Frank was pushed down the stairs by (as it turned out) his wife Daphne; in
Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten the man who goes out with Saskia plans to murder her.
14. Two examples: Renco in Goede Tijden falls in love with Diane, who turns out to be his half-
sister, and so does Pim, in Onderweg Naar Morgen.
15. Such as Saskia of Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten falling in love with a man who was trying to
murder her, or Tina (in the same soap) breaking off with her lover Tom because she falls in
love with an extortionist kidnapper.
16. While no immigrants then lived on Coronation Street, two immigrant families lived on
Lindenstrasse – the Pavaroties, who own an Italian restaurant, and the Sarikakis, who own
a Greek restaurant.
17. Seeing Olli, Lindenstrasse’s neo-Nazi, as a basically decent guy, who had suffered from lack
of love as a child, and deserves a second chance, is shared by the viewer and by Lisa
Hoffmeister, a young teenager – blond, spiritual, orphaned. Lisa, the gentlest, kindest, most
innocently beautiful Cinderella believes in Olli against the advice of older people, making
him the hero of the one ‘pure’ love story of the soap.
18. The exception, which ended tragically, was Deirdre’s marriage to Samia, a Moroccan who
was under threat of being deported. Samia’s kidney was found compatible with the
kidney of Deirdre’s daughter Tracy, who suffered the consequences of a drug addiction.
After Samia donated this kidney he was the victim of a racial attack and died. The story is
beautifully pedagogic, as it demonstrates that human blood is identical everywhere, and
the spirit of generosity and self-sacrifice as well as brutal hatred is not the property of one’s
own community.
19. Samia, as recounted, was killed by hooligans. Gail’s husband Brian is stabbed to death,
Vicki’s parents are killed in a car crash.
20. In addition to the violence of the two neo-Nazis against foreigners, there are violent
husbands – Olaf King, who attempted to rape his wife (and caused her death), and Anna
Ziegler’s first husband, who beat her up.

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