A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word is a portmanteau of tele (for "television") and novela (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include Musalsala (Arab world), dizi (Turkey), serial (India), teleserye (Philippines), lakorn (Thailand), (Italy), téléroman (Canada, specifically Quebec), K-drama (South Korea), J-drama (Japan), C-drama (China) and (Indonesia) and zat lan twe (Myanmar).
Commonly described using the American colloquialism Spanish soap opera, many telenovelas share some stylistic and thematic similarities to the soap opera familiar to the English-speaking world. The significant difference is their series run length; telenovelas tell one self-contained story, typically within the span of a year or less whereas soap operas tend to have intertwined storylines told during indefinite, continuing runs.Paula Andaló, "Love, Tears, Betrayal...and Health Messages", Perspectives in Health Magazine: The Magazine of the Pan American Health Organization. vol. 8, no. 2, 2003 This makes them shorter than most other television series, but still much longer than a miniseries. This planned run results in a faster-paced, more concise style of melodrama compared to a typical soap opera.Beccera, Hector (April 17, 2015). A not-so-fond farewell to 'Sábado Gigante,' a corny, buffoonish show. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 17, 2015. "The telenovelas were better than American soap operas because the action was faster(.) Mercifully, unlike their slower-paced American brethren, they also were finite." Episodes of telenovelas usually last between 30 and 45 minutes, and rarely more than an hour, except for final episodes. The telenovela combines drama with the 19th century feuilleton and the Latin American radionovela. The medium has been used frequently in various countries to transmit sociocultural messages by incorporating them into storylines.
By the 1950s, Brazil became one of the first countries to produce novelas with high budgets and aimed both to the national and international markets. Mexico soon followed, and by the 1970s and 1980s the country started to engage more profusely in using telenovelas to shape behavior. This was particularly successful in introducing the idea of family planning. The 1990s played a key role in the international export of telenovelas, thus the so-called 'Telenovela Craze' that spread in many regions in the world.Gabriela Soto Laveaga, "'Let's become fewer': Soap operas, contraception, and nationalizing the Mexican family in an overpopulated world." Sexuality Research and Social Policy. September 2007, vol. 4, no. 3 pp. 19–33.
History Brazil is considered the pioneer of the telenovela genre. In 1951, Brazil produced Sua vida me pertence ("Your Life Belongs to Me"), the first telenovela in the world. In 1952, Cuba released Senderos de amor ("Paths of Love") and Mexico released Ángeles de la calle ("Angels of the Street"), shown once a week. Between 1957 and 1958, Mexico produced its first drama serial in the modern telenovela format of Monday to Friday slots, Senda prohibida ("Forbidden Path"), written by Fernanda Villeli. The first global telenovela was A Escrava Isaura ("Isaura the Slave Girl", Brazil, 1976), which was exported to Russia, China, the United States and other countries.
Inexpensively produced on bare sets, studios churned out three or four telenovela episodes a day; actors wore radio earpieces that gave them dialogue lines and stage directions. by the 1970s telenovelas were so popular in Latin America that they had almost completely pushed out American imported programs. Two or three were broadcast consecutively during prime time.
Genres
Telenovelas tend to fall within these categories: Working-class melodrama, which is the most popular to date, easy to understand and contains less explicit content. This is heavily reliant of the common rags-to-riches plot, typically featuring a poor woman who falls in love with a rich man whose family spurns her, such as the Las Tres Marias ("Maria Trilogy"): Maria Mercedes in 1992, Marimar in 1994 and Maria la del Barrio ("Maria from the slum") in 1995. All these telenovelas starred Thalía in the principal role. Historical romance is set in the past, such as the Latin American colonial period (Martín Garatuza, 1986; Xica da Silva, 1996), the Second Mexico Empire and restoration of the Republic (El carruaje "The Carriage", 1972), the "Porfiriato" on Mexico's late 19th/early 20th Century (El vuelo del águila "The Flight of The Eagle", 1994), the European Immigration to Latin America on late 19th/early 20th Century (Terra Nostra "Our Land" in Italian,1999; Argentina, tierra de amor y venganza "Argentina, Land of Love and Revenge" 2019; Esperança "Hope" 2002), the Mexican Revolution (Bodas de odio "Weddings of Hate", 1982), the process of independence in Spanish America and Brazil (Novo Mundo "New World", 2017; La Pola 2010; Bolívar 2019), the Second Imperial Period in Brazil (Nos tempos do Imperador, "In the age of Emperor" 2021) and the 20th-century military dictatorships in the South Cone (such as Anos Rebeldes "Rebellious Years", 1992). Teen drama, which portrays the lives of high school teenagers and their issues with sex, drugs and other coming-of-age topics. This genre started with Quinceañera in 1987. Mystery/thriller is a category of telenovela that is more cold-hearted than the other subgenres. It may portray a mysterious death or disappearance, which may tear couples, even families apart, such as Cuna de Lobos ("Wolves Crib"), La Casa al Final de la Calle ("The House at the Street End"), La Mujer de Judas ("The Juda's Woman"), ¿Dónde está Elisa? ("Where's Elisa?"), El Rostro de la Venganza ("The Face of Revenge") or La Casa de al Lado ("The House Next Door"). Chile has produced a lot this genre. Musical, which portrays musical stories with songs sung by the characters. Examples include, Guerra de ídolos, Floribella, La reina soy yo, Violetta and Vai na Fé. Horror is a less common subgenre of telenovelas, it can deal with anything of the horror genre, but the majority of these telenovelas deal with the themes of the supernatural like demons, witchcraft, ghosts, and the occult. It is one of the few subgenres that use special effects. It always portrays the main protagonist trying to find out the truth while at the same time confronting frightening events and the main antagonist which is always a witch or a warlock, demon, evil or vengeful ghost, or the devil itself such as El Maleficio ("The Curse"), El Extraño Retorno de Diana Salazar ("The Strange Return of Diana Salazar"), La Poseída ("The Possessed"), La chacala and La Mujer de Judas ("The Juda's Woman"). Epic, which portrays the epic characters' stories and lives for fiction and the Bible. Examples include, Os Dez Mandamentos. Romantic comedy, which portrays love stories with some or much comedy such as Las tontas no van al cielo ("Fools Don't Go to Heaven") or Yo soy Betty, la fea ("Ugly Betty"), the most successful telenovela in history."Yo soy Betty la fea’ entra al libro de los Guinnes Records Pop band story portrays the lives of aspiring popstars such as in Alcanzar una estrella ("Reaching a Star", 1990) and its sequel Alcanzar una estrella II (1991), as well as Rebelde Way ("Rebel Way") and the Mexican remake Rebelde ("Rebel", 2004), which spawned a multi-platinum pop group, RBD. Some, though not all, of these types of telenovelas are geared towards a teenage and/or pre-teen audience. Drug smuggling telenovelas have become frequently produced in recent times like La Reina del Sur ("The Queen of South"). Some of them are based in real drug traffickers like El Cartel, based on the Colombian Cartel de Cali, and Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal ("Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lorder"), based on Pablo Escobar life. Sci-fi is not a common topic of telenovelas, but some productions have tried to introduce this theme to the telenovela genre. Examples: O Clone ("The Clone") about human cloning, Aurora and O Tempo não para (English title: "Crashing Into the Future") about the cryonics , Casi Ángeles ("Almost Angels") about time travel and human chip implant, and El rostro de Analía ("The Face of Analía") about facial reconstruction . Political telenovelas are not so common. Politics is not usually the central theme in telenovelas, due to strong censorship in Latin America (See Censorship in Mexico, Censorship in Venezuela, Censorship in Brazil). However, there are some exceptions to telenovelas with a strong political approach like Por Estas Calles ("On These Streets"), La Candidata ("The Candidate"), O Bem Amado ("The Beloved"), Primera Dama ("First Lady") and La Mujer del Presidente ("The wife of the president"). The telenovelas A Calzón Quitado (English title: "The Naked Truth") and Cosita rica ("Wonderful Thing") indirectly portrays (in a satirical way) the Ex Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, with the characters of "Pedro Elías Ferrer" and "Olegario Pérez", both played by the actor Carlos Cruz.
Besides these, another category of series that has become popular in recent years is the youth telenovela, which borrows some elements of the teen drama format but is usually more family-oriented in structure, contains comedic elements and sometimes maintains a high concept or supernatural plotline (such as 11:11: En mi cuadra, nada cuadra and Chica vampiro).
Telenovelas have geographically diverged into two major groups – the Latinovelas, and the Asianovelas, portmanteaus of Latin and Asian with novelas. Telenovelas, in particular, are the most popular non-English-speaking scripted forms of entertainment in the world to date.
Novelas made in Spain and the Spanish-speaking Americas are widely popular in Spanish-speaking countries and communities.
Novelas made in Portugal and Brazil are highly popular in Lusophone countries, with Angolan novelas also making their way recently.
Some novelas also have a huge following in Europe's Mediterranean and eastern countries, as well as in Asia and Oceania. Latinovelas are primarily responsible for the telenovela trend in regions outside of Latin America, which is known as the biggest producer of telenovelas up until the early 2000s.
Millennial telenovela In the 2010s, the terms "millennial telenovela" and "modern telenovela" have been coined to describe an emerging genre related to the telenovela. Based in the same culture, the target audience is much younger (the millennials); the typical storylines and melodrama were recreated to better appeal to this demographic. Commenters have written that a millennial telenovela will contain many of the following themes: it fits into contemporary politics and culture; has positive representations of LGBT+ people when present; features themes of female empowerment and the sexualization of the male body; involves use of social media; presents characters of moral ambiguity rather than in black and white, and with more complexity; contains intentionally comedic moments; and is centered on an unconventional family.
Though the term "millennial telenovela" was first used in 2016 when BuzzFeed and Telemundo co-produced a short series to cater for the emerging Latin American millennial market, it became more widely used in 2018 after the success of the Netflix black comedy The House of Flowers.
The development of the genre may be a response to a controversial market practice of importing telenovelas to US channels, with a Univision and Televisa deal having to be renegotiated when traditional telenovelas fell in popularity around 2016; at this point, the majority of Hispanic people in the US were millennials, and "drawn to edgier and more fast-paced programs than traditional telenovelas." Though Univision did not start making its own hybrid shows, they began investing in online and multimedia programming, and bought into Netflix's original Mexican programming.