The popular press tended to label Emmerdale Farm as "sleepy" until the 1980s. But then things changed.From the Sunday People, April 14, 1985:
Muck-raking is no longer confined to the cowshed in Emmerdale Farm. Infidelity and intrigue have transformed the once-sleepy story of Yorkshire folk into the Dynasty of The Dales - and helped catapult it into the top twenty.
Click on the picture to read the whole article.
Late in the decade, the series was given parity with the other English soap operas. The whole country saw Emmerdale Farm on the same date and at the same time - networked - for the very first time in January 1988 - an historic moment - and that year the series was broadcast throughout the Christmas season for the very first time!
Do I think Emmerdale Farm was the Dynasty of The Dales in the 1980s? No. Studying the episodes, I think it was far more influenced by Brookside, which debuted in November 1982!
2 comments:
I read on a soap forum thread that Emmerdale Farm was being marketed as "sleepy" by the Press in the eighties. I never thought it was - it wasn't plane crash valley like it was in the early nineties, but the producers only did that because ITV was threatening to take it off in 1993!
Good to see some actual 80s press stuff.
I read similar on a soap forum about the Press "marketing" Emmerdale Farm as "sleepy". It was true of the era 1972-1982, but altered during the '80s, as the Sunday People article shows.
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