SBC soap operas

The Sentry Broadcasting Corporation is one of the largest Anglophone producers of soap operas in the world. There are two kinds of soap operas:

• Type A: closer to the Sierran format adopted in most Anglophone countries. Story lines tend to last a year and run for more than one year. There is usually two local soap of this type being produced, and the current one is Café Affair. New Wave, a series which is similar in format since 1995, targets younger audiences. Episodes run for about 30 minutes.
• Type B: there are two or three types: the 7pm soap tackles comedic storylines while the 9pm soap tackles more serious storylines that are relative to Bensonia's reality. The series run for about eight to ten months and episodes last 45 minutes without ad breaks. Additionally, there's the late soap which is on air at around 10 or 11pm, depending on the time. These soaps are more mature in theme and last 30 minutes without ad breaks. Some have been remakes of old soaps.

History

The first soap produced by the Sentry Broadcasting Corporation was You, Me and Her, a 40-episode filmed soap opera that was shot in a minuscule studio in September 1957. Episodes lasted for a quarter hour and was critically-acclaimed, despide SBC's limited capabilities.

SBC's first Type A soap, Frampton Row, was shown at 7:30pm on weeknights. It too became a success.

SBC started making Type B soaps again in 1965 when the network started expanding nationwide. The Type A soap had to move back to 6:30pm, but as the years went on, the addition of a local news program on the network have set it at an earlier timeslot.

2019 saw the abandoning of the Type A soap Café Affair, thus leaving New Wave, now in its 25th season, as the only local Type A soap on the network. The reason was a restructuring of its afternoon schedule following the cancellation of Entertainment Central.

List of soaps

Type A soaps

• Frampton Row (1960-1964)
• Medical Urgence (1997-2004)
• Café Affair (2016-present)

7pm soaps

• The Greatest Lie (1968-1989)
• Pygmalion 70 (1970)
• Race for Gold (1974-1975)
• A Slave's Life (1976-1977)
• Stylists (1980-1981)
• Men vs. Women (1983-1984)
• Tropical Breeze (1984-1985)
• Ah, My Life (1987-1988)
• Heaven and Hell (1994)
• The Grandiose Saga of the Migrant Workers (2001-2002)
• Draculas (2002-2003)
• Soul Mates (2005-2006)
• 7 Sins (2007-2008)
• Pure Essence (2011-2012)
• Boo, Everybody (2014)
• Ah, My Life: Here We Go Again (2016)
• Old World (2017)
• His Majesty, The King (2018)
• The Flame of Eternal Life (2018-present)

9pm soaps

• The Search for Gold (1976)
• The Illusionist (1977-1978)
• Savior of Bensonia (1989)
• Mary Anthony and the Sins of Life (1989-1990)
• Rebirth (1993)
• The Next Victim (1995)
• Just Another Love Story (1996)
• My Beautiful Love (1998)
• The Two Faces of Laura (2003-2004)
• Living the Dream (2005)
• Pure (2005-2006)
• Life is Hard (2006-2007)
• That's Paradise (2007)
• My Own Life (2009-2010)
• Printed in Love
• Save George, the Warrior (2012-2013)
• Love for Life (2013-2014)
• Rule of Life (2015-2016)
• The Power (2016-2017)
• The Other Side (2017-2018)
• Under the Bridge (2018-present)

Late soaps

• Bea (1975)
• Bea (2012)
• The Scam (2014)

International soaps shown on SBC

• [USS] The Young and the Restless (1991-1996)
• [NOR] Neighbours (1986-present)

Influence

In Bensonia

Type B soaps are not an SBC invention. In 1951, Inca Television broadcast Your Life Belongs to Me, the first soap opera, that was also an instructional tool to teach first-time television watchers how to kiss.

For most of their existence, Type B soaps were the most popular shows on the network. In the 90s, Headline Network had two successful soaps that easily defeated the popular ones on SBC, and they were both slightly pornographical in nature: Baccanal, in 1991, and period series The Activist, in 1996.

Elsewhere

Some SBC soaps have been exported to Latin Sierra. These soaps are dubbed in Spanish by highbrow Hopelandian voice actors that have Spanish as their first language, and are paid by SBC to do this. In some countries, they have been unsuccessful. In Churan, dubbed Bensonian soaps, however, are still popular, especially the prime time soaps.