SEX, LIES AND SOAPS
PROGRAMME 3: FAMILY CONFLICT
OVERVIEW
The family has been at the heart of soap opera storylines since the origins of the genre as a dramatic vehicle for soap powder advertising on 1920s US radio. Despite myriad variations on the theme of village, street, workplace or campus over the last 80 years, family relationships have remained the constant structuring force.
Initially, the family unit was represented as the idealised focus for hearth and home, and storylines mapped its integrity and strength against the perils of the outside world. Since the birth of Coronation Street in the 1960s, the certainties of domestic life in soaps have changed and destabilised, along with social attitudes to marriage, sexuality, and parenting. When Channel 4 launched Brookside in 1982, this first major new UK soap in 20 years was instantly reviled in the tabloid press for its view of conflict-ridden problem families; three years later EastEnders opened with conflict in the Fowler family; and the big US soaps of the '80s and '90s were premised on the greed and ambition of family dynasties. As both producers and critics point out in the programme, drama is conflict, and much of the best conflict comes from the family.
Family conflict in serial drama is thus not new – nor is the tradition of mid-market tabloid editorials blaming many of the ills of society on the negative role-models represented by soap opera's dysfunctional families. However, even the most realist of UK soaps have increasingly begun to adopt melodramatic and extreme family storylines in the drive for audiences. The perennial 'who's the father?' storyline has given way to the more edgy 'who's the mother?' or the sudden appearance of unknown relatives, both of which are seen in this programme. Ordinary teatime rows between mothers and daughters now result in kidnap, public humiliation, or seducing each other's partners.
Soap producers do not claim realism for these storylines. They are 'heightened reality' – designed to appeal to teenage audiences for whom an innocent family picnic has no appeal – but are still able to touch on fundamental issues such as the tension between mothers and daughters, explored here in The OC, Coronation Street, and Hollyoaks. However, they also draw on our voyeuristic interest in how other people live, with the ability to focus on the pettiness of the domestic trivia that sparks conflict. Producers argue that they provide opportunities for identification, empathy and discussion of universal family issues.
This programme explores some of the myths and assumptions about the impact of these conflict-based storylines on teenage viewers. Psychologist Aric Sigman is a firm believer in the harmful effects of TV culture, and throughout this series he has argued about the passivity and impressionability of young people. Here he refers to evidence (unspecified) that confrontational behaviour in soaps encourages confrontation in real family situations.
In contrast, most of the teens interviewed are remarkably articulate in their evaluation of the relative realism of soap conflict. They are clearly able to differentiate between the voyeuristic pleasures of melodrama and the more grounded realism of recognisable situations with which they can identify and from which they can gain support.
As always, the producers are motivated by the need to produce drama that will satisfy what they assume to be the demands of the audience.
