Television is a great invention in terms of mass communication and entertainment. First television was invented by John Logie Baird in the United Kingdom in 1923. Also, daytime radio programs were broadcasted before the television was invented. In 1961, notably after the production of colour television, the public’s interest in television and rates of television sales increased exponentially thanks to “Walt Disney Treasures” and the series industry began to develop all over the world. From the past to the present, different genres of a lot of movies and series have been released on television. As a result of this, some TV series, such as soap operas and science fiction series, are separated from each other because of various qualities they have. Both soap operas and science fiction series are very popular in the world; nevertheless, there are some differences in terms of the subject, the shooting location, and the audience.
The first difference between soap operas and science fiction series is the general subject of the both series. As we know that every type of TV series have a scenario and scenarios have the main subject which includes much meanings and information. To exemplify, science fiction series contains many mythological, fantastic, and imaginative scenes. Scriptwriter creates an imaginative world and all events happen around that world with many fantastic characters. That series is generally presented combining with historical facts and some scientific notions. For example, the series which is called Westworld is a science fiction series and there is an artificial world which is the same as in the western movies and human looking robots live in here. Westworld was created as an entertainment park but robots get out of control and the series continues as a human-robot struggle. Also, scriptwriter implies sense of fun in our future lives will transform like in this series. Namely, science fiction series gives some messages or predictions about technological life in the future. On the other hand, soap operas have emotional content such as, love, ambition, and passion. This type of TV series which involves the lives of many different characters in a type of melodrama are long running programs. Furthermore, each chapter keeps going very slowly and contains many intrigues based on revenge and love. There are always a man and a woman who love each other and there is a jealous person who wants to separate them. Lovers make peace and break up constantly throughout the series.
Another difference between soap operas and science fiction series is where the series was filmed. Science fiction series can be filmed everywhere, such as in a dystopian universe, in space, or underwater, and so on. Nevertheless, all of these places cannot be possible in reality. Therefore, some space or fantastic series are shot in green colour rooms called Greenbox using digital technology to create the imaginary world and persons. As an illustration, the movie Martian was shot in Wadi Rum in Jordan to visualize the planet Mars and the space and other stages were shot in the greenbox. However, the venues of soap operas are real and usual because they do not contain extraordinary or supernatural events. They are shot generally in luxury houses and hotels, for most characters are very wealthy. For another thing, soap operas were shot in coastal areas as well, such as Mexico, Brazil, or Texas because they generally come from the south of America and their language is English or Spanish.
The last difference between soap operas and science fiction series is related to which type of series the audience is more interested in. Age range and community structure are related to audience tendency. Nowadays, science fiction series are increasing because the more technology enhanced, the more fictional future plans arose and people started to tend to the future and technology. According to the research, most people, in particular teenagers, are interested in science fiction series which contain technical information about the parallel universe, discovery of new planets, and advanced machines. Moreover, multiplying media broadcast platforms, such as Netflix and speeding scientific exploration bear a rising rate of being watched. In contrast, soap operas are decreasing day by day because they seem boring to people any longer. To exemplify, there were only soap operas in the TRT channel in the past, such as The Young and The Restless, Dallas, Manuela, and so on. and people loved watching them in Turkey. Not everyone had a television in their home, so they used to go to their neighbours who had a television at the beginning time of the series and it was so enjoyable to watch together with all age groups regardless of old and young. In spite of that, almost everyone has either a television or computer now and most people do not like watching soap operas, maybe some elderly people might watch, because soap operas are so slow and boring for them in this fast life.
All things considered, although both soap operas and science fiction series that spread and are loved all over the world, they have some obvious differences, such as subject, places where was shot, and interest of the audience. In my opinion, though soap operas had different and special tastes in the past, they do not have the same taste now. In accordance with today’s conditions, science fiction series are much more gripping and informative in terms of both visuality and resource diversity and also they enable us to learn new terms and stories that we did not know while watching.