Philippine television drama

Philippine drama, notably called teleserye and/or telenovela in television is a form of melodramatic serialized fiction produced and aired in the Philippines. It rooted from two words "tele", short for television, and "serye", a Tagalog term for series. Teleserye is now used as the generic term for most Filipino soap operas on television, although the term officially came into existence in 2000 when ABS CBN aired its first official form of teleserye, Pangako sa 'Yo. Prior to this, Filipino soap operas were called either telenovelas (and still is referred to as such) and soap operas.

Teleseryes share some characteristics and similar roots with soap operas and telenovelas,yet teleserye has evolved into a genre with its own unique characteristics usually reflecting social realism of Filipinos. Teleserye are aired in prime-time five days a week, and replays during weekends, attract a broad audience across age and gender lines, and command the highest advertising rates. They last about three months to a year or more depending on its rating and come to a climactic close.

Teleseryes are produced by the two main Philippine TV networks and two independent companies.ABS-CBN, which is Philippine's pioneer producer and exporter of Teleseryes and, GMA Network. TAPE Inc. and the movie producer VIVA Entertainment were the two largest companies.

Timeline

Soap operas in the Philippines originated in radio, then it expanded into television in early 1960s. The first Filipino TV soap opera was Hiwaga sa Bahay na Bato in 1963 produced by ABS-CBN.

Soap operas in the Philippines were usually shown during daytime. Among the most popular daytime soap operas then were Gulong ng Palad, Flor de Luna, Mara Clara, Annaliza, Aguila and Valiente. But in 1996, soap opera programming was moved to primetime due to the popularity gained by Mexican telenovela, Marimar, aired on RPN 9. This is the start of telenovela craze in the Philippines. Major networks ABS-CBN and GMA Network followed the trend by having local and foreign telenovelas in their timeslot.

In 2000, ABS CBN, made a milestone in Philippine telenovelas when it introduced Pangako sa 'Yo, which was known to be the first official teleserye, and Kay Tagal Kang Hinintay. These teleseryes set the standard of present teleserye productions in the Philippines which also became a big hit in the Philippines and likewise to other countries. Because of this, subsequent soap operas shown on television are now referred to as teleseryes. GMA Network have made teledrama before ABS-CBN does but their series does not give too much drama which the audience are irritated.

Again, in early 2004 ABS-CBN revived the genre of teleserye which mixes soap opera, fantasy, myth, magic and enchantment. This genre was called fantaserye. The first official fantaserye that was shown on primetime TV was Marina. Marina undoubtedly set a benchmark for fantaseryes on television when it garnered consistent high ratings during its entire run. The ratings and audience share of the said fantaserye were even higher than the usual more established teleseryes during primetime.

In mid 2004, GMA Network, embarked on its own term of fantaserye which are called telefantasya. GMA produced Marinara and Mulawin, the latter becoming more successful which eventually started the GMA telefantasya craze. On the other hand, ABS CBN focuses on airing teleseryes for its primetime slots although it sometimes produces fantaseryes as well. It was this year that started further variations of the teleserye genre under the terms, superserye, sineserye and cinenovela.

Classical Philippine drama

Storylines

A popular plot of a teleserye is a love story between two different individuals, a rich guy who falls in-love with a poor girl or a handsome guy attracted to a very ugly girl. Their romances is then contradicted by the parents, or a third party.

Another popular storyline of teleseryes is the search of a mother for her children or vice versa. The story usually begins with the child being separated from the family at birth or at childhood due to some unforseen circumstances. Sometimes, the protagonist is exchanged and thus will suffer a miserable life.

Teleseryes usually focus on love, betrayal, jealousy, social status and revenge between characters. It is usually their family history and relationships that affect the later generation.

Twists

Among the most common twists in the romance between couples is that they will find out that they were brothers and sisters, but in the end they will also find out that they were not siblings because one of them is an adopted child.

Teleseryes are notorious for adding new characters to an already convoluted plot which adds more twist in the story. Usually the girl will meet a new guy which will eventually be her new love-interest in the story thus creating a rift between the lead characters.

Sometimes teleseryes play with its viewers that makes another twist in the plot. For example a character which was known to be killed or died in the story will eventually appear in the latter part of the story. The usual reasons of this situations is that he or she was saved in the accident or maybe the person buried was not him or her.

Villains

Villains are created to make the life of the protagonist especially miserable. Old Filipino soap operas had very rude, violent, greedy, almost sociopathic villains.

Character of villains in teleseryes have changed from the old soap operas to the present teleseryes. In old soap operas villains were very violent and usually used power and money to make the protagonist miserable. Often, they aim to full-out kill the protagonist.

Villains in present teleseryes are less violent compared to the old ones. They no longer murder a character in the story to take revenge, except that they are still evil and cause the protagonist to suffer.

Ending

The story usually ends with the villains meeting spectacularly violent, gruesome, painful and gory end. Most complications will reach a resolution and the protagonists will end up getting married and with a child, sometimes, even twins.

However, the predictability of teleserye endings have become an issue and audience sometimes complain that the plot and ending of teleseryes are becoming repetitive, predictable and tiresome. Because of this, scriptwriters have endeavored to change the ending of some teleseryes to provide additional twist and originality.

Modern Philippine drama

Storylines

Common love stories was renovated like having a son or daughter to make the protagonist easier to return their past. Some dramas such as Bakekang, Bituing Walang Ningning and Pangarap Na Bituin. give importance to the showbiz industry. Former friends and siblings were fighting for fame and popularity. Other storylines used on the classical dramas were enhanced. Still the main topic of this dramas are love, jealousy, family and revenge.

Twist

Unpredictable twist were used even though the artist is almost stating the upcoming twist. Modern twist were being built-up in the start of the story starting fromlittle additional plot which can alter the original story path in order to further extend the series. Some twists can include having the protagonists as the scapegoat for the wrongdoings of the villain which further make them suffer.

Ending

The ending of the story is now very different. In early years of teleseryes, villains used to die a painful death. Latter series have changed this which can allow room for forgiveness and reconciliation between the main characters. Also, some protagonists die and do not survive the tumultuous lives they have lived as evident in Crazy for You and Maria Flordeluna. Modern drama serial have also opened up possibilities for a series return whereby the finale of the teleserye leaves a cliffhanger leading to a nailbiting ending. This can open an opportunity for the series to make a return. Introducing unknown characters in the ending of the story are also being used as evident in Maging Sino Ka Man were Angelika Panganiban and Rosanna Roces were introduced and lead the story to Maging Sino Ka Man: Ang Pagbabalik.

Additional genres

New genres have been incorporated in modern drama to enhance the plot of the story and diverge from the old formula. New genres were packaged into different sub-genres and can be called Suspenserye where dead characters were mostly used La Vendetta and the hit Patayin Sa Sindak si Barbara. Revenge was the common topic on this stories. Some dramas were turned to Musicaserye in the form of Bituin of the Superstar Ms. Nora Aunor as the first Musicaserye others are Kaputol ng Isang Awit, Bakekang, Bituing Walang Ningning and Pangarap na Bituin. Adventureserye also becoming popular in the form of The adventures of Pedro Penduko & Asian Treasures and Actionserye such as Basta't Kasama Kita ,Palos and Asero. Comediserye are also popular in today's television such as My Girl (Philippine TV series) and Full House (Philippine TV series).

New face of dramas

Philippine drama is very far from other dramas in the world because Philippine drama is very melodramatic containing convoluted plot and outstanding and critically praised storyline. However, due to very heavy stories involved, the audience have diverted themselves into lighter drama series thus prompting for a drastic change. This can be attributed to the foreign and imported television series dubbed in Tagalog language which have very different and refreshing stories. Because of this, the popularity of remaking foreign drama series has become popular in the Philippines. The first being the remake of the once popular Mexican telenovela MariMar into Filipino version. This has been followed by remakes of once Koreanovelas -My Girl (Philippine TV series), Ako si Kim Samsoon, and Full House (Philippine TV Series).Then later will be followed by the remake of the Colombian series, I Love Betty La Fea.

On the other hand, the older Philippine drama series have been exported to foreign markets and have thus proven to be popular thanks to Pangako Sa'yo which has been sold to more than 10 countries worldwide. This has led to many other local shows to be exported internationally, and Sana Maulit Muli which is recently airing in Taiwan. With foreign markets being tapped, GMA and ABS-CBN have both ventured to co-production with Malaysian television through casting of both Filipino and Malaysian actors in Muli and the upcoming A Time For Us.

See also

• List of Philippine television shows
• Telenovela
• Korean drama
• Japanese drama
• Taiwanese drama
• soap opera