Soaps Without Vowels Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dallas

The show 'Dallas' was set in and near Dallas, Texas, and consisted of several series with the storyline continuing from one series to the next. The programme centered on the rich and extended Ewing family, who owned their own oil company and lived on a ranch named Southfork. When the show started the Ewings and the Barnes families, who were also a rich oil family, had already been business rivals for some time and this enmity between them continued during the series. Although a male Ewing married a female Barnes, there was also some personal enmity and feuding (sometimes violent) between the families and between members of the same family. The programme also included characters who had extramarital affairs, experienced alcoholism, and engaged in unscrupulous business dealings.

The programme was first broadcast in April 1978 and the first series consisted of five episodes then it continued for another 13 full series of between 23 and 31 episodes each, which were shown between September 1978 and May 1991. Each episode was an hour long and the last episode of a series tended to finish on a 'cliffhanger'. For example, the by-then main character and villain J R Ewing was shot by an unknown person at the end of series three in March 1980 and viewers had to wait for the next series to begin in November 1980 to find out who had shot him and if he survived. 'Dallas' also generated a spin-off series called 'Knots Landing' while a number of one-off sequel programmes and a sequel series have appeared over the years.

Among the main actors in the programme were Larry Hagman, who played J R Ewing, Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy, and Victoria Principal. The show was created by David Jacobs and over the years a number of writers, producers, and directors were involved with it. It was made by Lorimar and first shown on CBS in the USA, where most of the series had high viewing figures, and then exported to some 90 other countries and translated into 67 languages. 'Dallas', its actors, and 'backstage' people were nominated for many awards and won a fair number, such as the 1980 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series won by Barbara Bel Geddes.

Answer: Coronation Street

The long-running and constantly popular British soap opera 'Coronation Street' was first broadcast on 9th December 1960. By its fiftieth anniversary in 2010, it had already been accounted the world's longest-running soap opera by the 'Guinness Book of Records'. Special, sometimes 'live', episodes of the show have been made to mark each 10-year anniversary between the thirtieth one in 1990 and the sixtieth one in 2020.

The programme is about the lives of supposedly ordinary inhabitants of Weatherfield, a fictional suburb in Greater Manchester in England. Over the decades more dramatic storylines concerning, for instance, a serial killer, drug and domestic abuse, and bigamy have been introduced. Many of the characters have appeared in the programme for long periods and one character, Ken Barlow, appeared in the first episode and remained in the programme for many years. Ken was played by the actor William Roache throughout and in addition both William's sons have appeared in 'Coronation Street' at different times with one playing his character's son and the other playing his grandson.

'Coronation Street' was originally broadcast for half an hour twice a week, then a third episode was added in October 1989 and things continued to evolve over the years, until in March 2022 three hour-long episodes started being shown each week. The show was created by Tony Warren and many producers, script-writers, and actors have been involved with it during its lifetime. Although they have been filmed by a few different production companies, the episodes have been shown initially on ITV/Channel 3. The programme has been exported to a number of countries, such as New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa, and both the show and the actors in it have won many awards, including a total of six in the 2024 'Inside Soap' Awards.

Answer: Home and Away

'Home and Away' is an Australian soap opera first broadcast in January 1988. The times and frequency of its broadcasting have changed somewhat over time but for many years five 22-minute early evening episodes were broadcast each week for 10 months of the year. The show was created by Alan Bateman and has had a number of producers and many directors and been made by a few production companies over the decades and the episodes have been broadcast on Channel Seven Network.

The show is about the residents of Summer Bay, a fictional town in New South Wales, and started with one family as the central characters but has broadened out to give more attention to the lives of other residents as well. 'Home and Away''s focus tends to be on the younger people in the town and its storylines include those around school, family life, and teenage romances but also more controversial themes, such as child abuse, drug trafficking, rape, and sexual grooming. Natural disasters, such as an earthquake, and transport accidents have also been featured.

Several of the show's numerous actors have been in the programme for many years and in 2002 Ray Meagher, who plays shopkeeper Alf Stewart, and a couple of other actors in the series became the then longest-serving actors in an Australian drama series. The others subsequently left 'Home and Away', one in 2003 and the other in 2008, whereupon Ray became the last original cast member still in the programme. The show has been nominated for many awards from different countries and has won a fair number of them, including 48 'TV Week' Logie Awards. It has generated a number of spin-off episodes and has been exported to over 80 countries, including New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, and Norway.

Answer: Paradise Falls

'Paradise Falls' was a Canadian soap opera set in a fictional tourist/summer cottage town of that name in Northern Ontario. Unlike many programmes, it was all filmed on location in the real summer cottage community of Muskoka, Ontario. Despite the somewhat rural setting, the town's inhabitants at different times engaged in political intrigues as well as in deceit, betrayal, murder, and particularly in many torrid love affairs.

It ran for three series, each comprising weekly 30-minute episodes, and was first broadcast in June 2001 while its very last episode was first shown in September 2008. The first of the three separate series consisted of 52 episodes, and the other two series of 26 episodes each. 'Paradise Falls'' first two series were initially shown on the Canadian Showcase television channel, a speciality channel later owned by Corus Entertainment, while the third series was first shown on the US cable channel Here! TV from April 2008 and then on Showcase from September 2009.

The programme was initially created by Paula J Smith and its executive producers included Ira Levy and Peter Williamson while it had several writers and was made by Breakthrough Entertainment. Altogether a large number of actors appeared in the show and among those appearing in all three series was Art Hindle, who played Mayor Pete Braga and was in both the first and last episodes, and Tammy Isbell as the character Rose Bernini, who appeared in the overall greatest number of episodes.

Answer: Desperate Housewives

American television shows described as soap operas include 'Desperate Housewives', which was created by Marc Cherry, who was also an executive producer for the programme. It ran for eight separate seasons, between them totalling 180 episodes, and was shown on ABC between October 3, 2004, and May 13, 2012. Marc Cherry's 'Cherry Productions' was one of the production companies involved and this company first worked in association with Touchstone Television and then worked jointly with ABC Studios from 2007 onwards.

The programme was set in Wisteria Lane, a street in the fictional town of Fairview, and followed the lives of several women as seen through the eyes of another woman who killed herself in the pilot episode. The show's storylines cover 15 years of the women's lives between the years 2004-2008 and, after a five-year jump in time, between 2013-2018. 'Desperate Housewives' also includes flashbacks and flashforwards and covers events from the 1980s to the 2020s. The suburban housewives appear to have ordinary and comfortable lives but between them they not only experience domestic struggles and family problems but also alcoholism, adultery, deaths, and murders, as well as other issues.

A fair number of directors and producers were involved in 'Desperate Housewives' during its production over the years and many actors had roles in the show. The main characters were the four housewives who were played by Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross, and Felicity Huffman. The programme was very popular and it and its personnel were also nominated for many awards, a fair number of which they won, including Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. It became very popular internationally and was exported to many European countries as well as to other North American countries, Australia, New Zealand, and countries in Africa and Asia.

Answer: Generations

'Generations' was a South African soap opera shown on the five weekday evenings between 1st February 1993 and 31st October 2014 in episodes of 30 minutes each. It was shown on the South African Broadcasting Corporation 1 (SABC1) channel and was created by Mfundi Vundla, who was also one of the four producers, and had many writers and actors during its lifetime. For some years the programme was also shown in Jamaica and Kenya and it has been broadcast in India too.

The show was set in the world of advertising with two rival businesses, 'New Horizons' and 'Mashaba Advertising', competing with each other, although a number of the agencies' staff members were in relationships with someone from the opposing agency. The plots of 'Generations' included, among other things, plotting, treachery and blackmail as well as some witchcraft, deaths, and relationship problems. It was watched by up to seven million people and became the most-watched 'soapie' in South Africa. Production of the programme ceased in August 2014 when 16 of the actors went on strike and were later sacked.

After a few months the series was revived as 'Generations: The Legacy', the first episode of which was broadcast on 1st December 2014 on SABC1. Some of the original cast transferred to the new version but other actors were brought in as well and this programme too was created and co-produced by Mfundi Vundla and again had many writers. It was at first regarded as a re-working or 'revamp' of the earlier show but has developed since then and has also evolved from having low audiences to being one of the most-watched television shows in South Africa.

Answer: Hollyoaks

The soap opera 'Hollyoaks' is set in Chester in England and it was first broadcast on Channel 4 in October 1995. Then in 2005 it also began being repeated on the associated channel E4 and in 2022 it was moved from the main Channel 4 to their streaming service. At its outset, the show consisted of one weekly 30-minute, early-evening episode but from 2005 the number of weekly episodes gradually increased until in 2023 five weekly episodes, as well as a weekly omnibus edition, were being shown. However, production was reduced again to three episodes a week in September 2024.

The show was initially aimed at and featured teenagers, but started trying to appeal to viewers of different ages by gradually including characters in a broader age range. The programme has dealt with a number of issues and at the start these were often relationship issues between young people. However, over the years it has also covered more serious matters including sexual abuse, underage pregnancy and self-harm as well as deaths due to accidents and murders. In fact 'Hollyoaks' has won a number of awards for handling social issues, such as the 2014 Best Storyline Award in the 'Inside Soap' Awards for a story about domestic abuse.

The show was created by Phil Redmond and has been produced, directed, and written by a large number of different people over the years. The cast has included many actors during its lifetime and they have stayed in the show for varying periods of time from one episode upwards with actor Nick Pickard having portrayed the character Tony Hutchinson for many years. 'Hollyoaks' is produced by Lime Pictures (known as Mersey Television before being taken over by All3Media). The programme has been shown in the USA, New Zealand, and Australia for differing amounts of time and is also shown on French TV on TF1 Séries Films. In the UK, it has generated a number of spin-offs, some of them dealing with more adult themes and so being broadcast later in the evening.

Answer: Neighbours

The Australian television series 'Neighbours' was first broadcast in March 1985 on the Seven Network but was cancelled after four months then commissioned by the then Network Ten, which brought in more young actors. When it resumed the show went on to become the longest-running series on Australian television in 2022 and it had continued to be broadcast on Ten until it started being shown on their digital channel, Peach, from 2011. It was decided to end the programme in July 2022 but Network 10 and Amazon Freevee brought it back again in September 2023 and it has been produced by three different production companies during its lifetime, with the latest of these being Amazon MGM Studios. 'Neighbours' was shown in the fairly early evening five times a week from the outset but this changed to four weekly episodes when it resumed in 2023.

The series was created by television executive Reg Watson and concerned the lives of residents of a fictional road named Ramsay Street located in Erinsborough, a fictional suburb of Melbourne. 'Neighbours' began by focusing on the rivalries and interactions between three households containing the Ramsay, Clarke and Robinson families but broadened out to include more characters and greater numbers of young actors were introduced. The storylines still concerned family and school problems and relationships but over the years have also included eating disorders, alcohol and drug abuse, kidnapping, murders and serious health problems, among other issues.

The programme has involved a few different producers but many directors, writers and actors, and quite a few of the actors stayed in the show for a long time, some leaving and returning a few years later. For instance, Stefan Dennis plays Paul Robinson, who was in the programme from when it started until 1993 then left and returned in 2004. During its lifetime, 'Neighbours' has been nominated for a large number of awards and won several of them, for example being nominated for at least 89 Logie Awards and winning at least 31, as well as being inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame in 2005. The show has been exported to over 60 countries, including Kenya, South Africa, Iceland, and the UK, where it has proved lastingly popular.

Answer: Shortland Street

'Shortland Street' is a New Zealand soap opera set in a fictional hospital of that name in Auckland on North Island. The show is mainly about the hospital staff, their families, and their relationships. At times some more violent themes have been introduced, such as individual murders, a serial killer, a stalker and attempted suicides. The first episode was broadcast in May 1992 and the show has been broadcast mainly in 30-minute episodes five times a week on Television New Zealand (TVNZ) 2 for over 30 years with breaks for the Christmas and New Year periods.

Over the decades the settings and the cast composition have evolved to reflect changes in the real-world hospital system and to better reflect the ethnic composition of New Zealand's population. 'Shortland Street' has not only continued to be shown for many years but has also become one of New Zealand's most-watched television shows. It has won a number of awards, such as the Television Legend Award in the 2019 Huawei Mate30 Pro New Zealand Television Awards

The programme was created by Caterina De Nave with Jason Daniel while very many producers, directors and scriptwriters have contributed to the show over the years and a great number of actors have appeared in it. Among the actors whose characters have remained in the programme for a long time is Michael Galvin, who plays Chris Warner and who first appeared in 1992 then left the show for four years before returning. 'Shortland Street' was first produced by South Pacific Pictures and then since 2006 has been produced by Fremantle Australia and it has been exported to several other countries for different periods of time, including Australia, the UK, Fiji, and Zimbabwe.

Answer: The Queen

'The Queen' was a South African soap opera that ran for seven series and 1,633 episodes between August 2016 and January 2023. It was produced by Ferguson Films, a company owned by Connie and Shona Ferguson. Connie also starred in the show as a widow who became head of the Khoza family who used their legitimate business as a front for drug dealing. Connie's husband Shona was also in the programme and played a police captain who was involved in trying to bring drug dealers to justice but Shona's character died during the fourth series.

The show contained a great deal of violence and depicted wars between the Khozas and other families of drug dealers and a very large number of actors appeared in it. Among the latter was Themba Ndaba, who played Connie's brother-in-law and, like Connie, was in the series from the first to the last episode. Connie was the executive producer and a few other producers, several directors and a large number of writers were also involved in creating the series. 'The Queen' was recorded in several African languages with English subtitles and an English version was recorded for showing in other countries. The episodes were shown for some 30 minutes from Mondays to Fridays and the programme was first shown on Mzansi Magic, a digital channel set up by Multichoice, then later also on a French channel, Canal Plus.

The first series consisted of 208 episodes, the next five all contained 260 episodes and the seventh series comprised 125 episodes. During its lifetime the show and its personnel were nominated for a number of awards and won several of these. Themba Ndaba and Thembsie Matu won the Favourite Actor and Favourite Actress categories in the Dstv Viewers Choice Awards in 2017 and 2018 respectively. In addition, Loyiso MacDonald was adjudged Best Supporting Actor in the South African Film and Television Awards of 2020 while a total of four awards were won for different aspects of 'The Queen' in 2020 and 2021 in The Royalty Soapie Awards.