Philippine television drama

Philippine drama, can be classified into different forms and genres, the most popular is the teleserye which is a television form of melodramatic serialized fiction. 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.

Other forms of Philippine dramas are Serials and Anthologies which are shown on weekly basis, which is intentended to air a finite number of episodes, usually one season, depending on the ratings.

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.However, 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 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.

But prior to the teleserye craze in Philippine primetime, serial dramas and anthologies are the most watched programs. However, in 2008, TV5 revived serial dramas on Philippine Primetime television.

Classical Philippine drama

Storylines

A popular plot of a teleserye is a love story between two different individuals, a rich individual who falls in-love with a poor individual, who are often separated by ill-fate. Their romances is often contradicted by the parents, relatives, or a third party.

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

Also, most teleseryes' beginning is the childhood of the character. It mostly begins when they get separated from their loved one and as the story continues as grown-ups they meet again in such unexpected ways.

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; they are mainly tagged as "Kontrabida", derived from the words "kontra"-"against" and "bida"-"the lead character".

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

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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 from little 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. Modern drama serial have also opened up possibilities for a series return where by 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.

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. Examples of hit adaptations are MariMar, LaLola, Ako si Kim Samsoon, Stairway to Heaven, My Girl and Only You.

Exportation

ABS-CBN started the exportation of their dramas, most likely Classical dramas as it has a lot of difference on the other dramas. Pangako Sa Yo (My Promise to You) is one of the most successful drama abroad. Sana Maulit Muli was also aired in Taiwan. GMA Network's Boys Nxt Door, a teen melodrama, was the first Philippine TV series aired on a local broadcasting network on Korea and Mga Mata ni Anghelita were aired on Mexico. Both stations started to use online streaming to promote their series abroad. ABS-CBN also introduce a website called ABS-CBN International Sales.

See also

• List of Philippine television shows
• List of programs previously broadcast by ABS-CBN
• List of programs broadcast by ABS-CBN
• List of programs broadcast by GMA Network
• List of shows previously aired by GMA Network