Popular Soap TV Shows 2020 | Top Soap TV Series from ideaflicks.com

Coronation Street (1960)
Drama, Comedy, Soap
Coronation Street is a British television soap opera first broadcast on Granada Television in 1960. It was soon syndicated on other ITV franchises. The programme concerns the lives of the residents of Coronation Street in Weatherfield, a fictional area of Salford, and centres around its terraced houses, cafe, corner shop, newsagents, textile factory and the Rovers Return pub. The programme was devised in 1960 by local scriptwriter Tony Warren at the recently formed Granada Television in Manchester. Warren's initial kitchen sink drama proposal was rejected by the station's founder Sidney Bernstein but he was persuaded by producer Harry Elton to produce the programme for thirteen pilot episodes. It was first broadcast on 9 December 1960 and within six months had become the most-watched programme on British television. It has been one of the most financially lucrative programmes on British commercial television, underpinning the success of the Granada Television franchise and the broadcaster ITV. Coronation Street is made by Granada Television at Granada Studios in Manchester. It is shown in all ITV regions as well as internationally. On 17 September 2010, it became the world's longest-running TV soap opera in production. Coronation Street is noted for its depiction of a down-to-earth working class community combined with light-hearted humour and strong characters.
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Coronation Street

Emmerdale (1972)
Drama, Soap
The lives of several families in the Yorkshire Dales revolve around a farm and the nearby village. With murders, affairs, lies, deceit, laughter and tears, it's all there in the village.
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Emmerdale

EastEnders (1985)
Drama, Soap
The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.
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EastEnders

Family Affairs (1997)
Drama, Soap
Family Affairs is a British soap opera that was aired on Channel 5. First broadcast on 30 March 1997, there were five, thirty-minute episodes shown per week. It did not gain high ratings. Subsequently producers rejuvenated the cast, the style and changed the fictional location. On 2 August 2005, Channel 5 announced they would not renew Family Affairs. Production ceased on 4 November, and the final episode was broadcast on 30 December 2005. The series was shot on video to give a film look. In 1999 and 2004, single episodes switches to standard video presentation were carried out. Producer Sean O'Connor implemented the format from September 2005 until the final episode.
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Family Affairs

Sunset Beach (1997)
Drama, Soap
Sunset Beach is an American television soap opera that aired on NBC from January 6, 1997 to December 31, 1999. The show follows the loves and lives of the people living in the Orange County coastal area named Sunset Beach, on the coast of California. Although there is a town in California called Sunset Beach, the show's beach scenes were shot on nearby Seal Beach. The show was co-produced by NBC and Spelling Television. Sunset Beach won two Daytime Emmy Awards and was nominated another eleven times. The show also received twenty-two nominations for various other awards.
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Sunset Beach

Dark Shadows (1966)
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Soap
Dark Shadows is an American gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements. It was unprecedented in daytime television when ghosts were introduced about six months after it began. The series became hugely popular when vampire Barnabas Collins appeared a year into its run. Dark Shadows also featured werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel, and a parallel universe. A small company of actors each played many roles; indeed, as actors came and went, some characters were played by more than one actor. Major writers besides Art Wallace included Malcolm Marmorstein, Sam Hall, Gordon Russell, and Violet Welles. Dark Shadows was distinguished by its vividly melodramatic performances, atmospheric interiors, memorable storylines, numerous dramatic plot twists, unusually adventurous music score, and broad and epic cosmos of characters and heroic adventures. Now regarded as something of a classic, it continues to enjoy an intense cult following. Although the original series ran for only five years, its scheduling as a daily daytime drama allowed it to amass more single episodes during its run than most other science-fiction/fantasy genre series produced for English-language television, including Doctor Who and the entire Star Trek television franchise. Only the paranormal soap opera Passions, with a total of 2,231 episodes, has more.
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Dark Shadows

Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots (2013)
Drama, Soap
Follow the complicated dynamic between the rich and powerful Cryer family and the hired help who work in their opulent Savannah, Georgia, mansion.
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Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots

Dynasty (1981)
Drama, Soap
The saga of a wealthy Denver family in the oil business: Blake Carrington, the patriarch; Krystle, his former secretary and wife; his children: Adam, lost in childhood after a kidnapping; Fallon, pampered and spoiled; Steven, openly gay; and Amanda, hidden from him by his ex-wife, the conniving Alexis. Most of the show features the conflict between 2 large corporations, Blake's Denver Carrington and Alexis' ColbyCo.
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Dynasty

Dynasty (2017)
Drama, Soap
The reboot follows two of America’s wealthiest families, the Carringtons and the Colbys, as they feud for control over their fortune and their children focusing on Fallon Carrington, the daughter of billionaire Blake Carrington, and her soon-to-be stepmother, Cristal, a Hispanic woman marrying into this WASP family and America’s most powerful class.
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Dynasty

Melrose Place (1992)
Drama, Soap
Melrose Place is an American primetime soap opera that aired on Fox from July 8, 1992, to May 24, 1999 for seven seasons. It follows the lives of a group of young adults living in a brownstone apartment complex on Melrose Place, in Los Angeles, California. The show was created by Darren Star for Fox and executive produced by Aaron Spelling for his company, Spelling Television. It is the second series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise. Season one and season two were broadcast on Wednesday at 9pm, after Beverly Hills, 90210. In 1994, for its third season premiere, the show moved to Monday at 8pm. The show had many cast changes during the run. Thomas Calabro was the only original cast member to remain on the series throughout its entire run. The show earned several Golden Globe nominations and placed #51 on Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" list.
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Melrose Place

The Young and the Restless (1973)
Soap
The rivalries, romances, hopes and fears of the residents of the fictional Midwestern metropolis, Genoa City. The lives and loves of a wide variety of characters mingle through the generations, dominated by the Newman, Abbott, Baldwin and Winters families.
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The Young and the Restless

Revenge (2011)
Drama, Mystery, Soap
When Emily Thorne moves to the Hamptons, everyone wonders about the new girl, but she knows everything about them, including what they did to her family. Years ago, they took everything from her. Now, one by one, she's going to make them pay.
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Revenge

Dallas (1978)
Drama, Soap
The world's first mega-soap, and one of the most popular ever produced, Dallas had it all. Beautiful women, expensive cars, and men playing Monopoly with real buildings. Famous for one of the best cliffhangers in TV history, as the world asked "Who shot J.R.?" A slow-burner to begin with, Dallas hit its stride in the 2nd season, with long storylines and expert character development. Dallas ruled the airwaves in the 1980's.
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Dallas

A Country Practice (1981)
Drama, Soap
A Country Practice was an Australian television drama series. At its inception, one of the longest-running of its kind, produced by James Davern of JNP Productions, who had wrote the pilot episode and entered a script contest for the network in 1979, coming third and winning a merit award. It ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes from 18 November 1981 to 22 November 1993. It was produced in ATN-7's production facility at Epping, Sydney. After its lengthy run on the seven network it was picked up by network ten with a mainly new cast from April to November 1994 for 30 episodes, although the ten series was not as successful as its predecessor . The Channel Seven series was also filmed on location in Pitt Town, while, the Channel Ten series was filmed on location in Emerald, Victoria.
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A Country Practice

Brookside (1982)
Drama, Soap
Brookside is a British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003. Originally intended to be called Meadowcroft, the series was produced by Mersey Television and it was conceived by Phil Redmond who also devised Grange Hill and Hollyoaks, the latter of which has taken Brookside's place as Channel 4's programme in the "Top 4" British soaps, alongside Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale. Brookside became very successful for a number of years and is notable for its tackling of realistic and socially challenging storylines. It was at its most popular in the 1980s and the early 1990s. From the mid-1990s it began raising more controversial subjects under the guidance of new producers such as Mal Young and Paul Marquess. It is especially well known for broadcasting the first pre-watershed lesbian kiss on British television in 1994, as well as a powerful domestic abuse storyline resulting in murder. The series caused an uproar when it featured a storyline of a consensual incestuous sexual relationship between two sibling characters during 1996. Brookside was also the first British soap to feature an openly gay character when Gordon Collins came out in 1985, and it was also the first to depict serious drug addiction with a number of different characters. Although the series had a long and successful run, by 2000 its viewing figures were in terminal decline and low ratings eventually led to its cancellation in July 2003. The final episode was broadcast on 4 November 2003 and was watched by around 2 million viewers.
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Brookside

Falcon Crest (1981)
Drama, Soap
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced. The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the Californian wine industry. Jane Wyman starred as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, alongside Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew who returns to Falcon Crest following the death of his father. The series was set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley northeast of San Francisco.
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Falcon Crest

Chicago Hope (1994)
Drama, Soap
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama television series, created by David E. Kelley. It ran on CBS from September 18, 1994, to May 4, 2000. The series is set in a fictional private charity hospital in Chicago, Illinois. The show is set to return in the fall of 2013 on TVGN in reruns.
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Chicago Hope

Hollyoaks (1995)
Soap
The daily soap that follows the loves, lives and misdemeanours of a group of people living in the Chester village of Hollyoaks where anything could, and frequently does, happen...
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Hollyoaks

The Secret Storm (1954)
Soap
The Secret Storm is a soap opera which ran on CBS from February 1, 1954 to February 8, 1974. The series was created by Roy Winsor, who also created the long-running soap operas Search for Tomorrow and Love of Life. Gloria Monty of General Hospital fame was a longtime director of the series. Like most CBS Soap Operas of the time such as The Guiding Light and As the World Turns The Secret Storm was filmed, and later taped, in New York at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 52 Street.
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The Secret Storm

Days of Our Lives (1965)
Drama, Soap
The Horton and Brady broods endure the romantic trials of life in Salem, a Midwestern hamlet filled with evil geniuses, star-crossed lovers and a rich family history.
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Days of Our Lives

Home and Away (1988)
Drama, Soap
Home and Away is set in the fictional town of Summer Bay, a coastal town in New South Wales, and follows the personal and professional lives of the people living in the area. The show initially focused on the Fletcher family, Pippa and Tom Fletcher and their five foster children Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Steven Matheson, Lynn Davenport and Sally Keating, who would go on to become one of the show's longest-running characters. The show also originally and currently focuses on the Stewart family. During the early 2000s, the central storylines focused on the Sutherlands and later, the Hunters. Home and Away had proved popular when it premiered in 1988 and had risen to become a hit in Australia, and after only a few weeks, the show tackled its first major and disturbing storyline, the rape of Carly Morris; it was one of the first shows to feature such storylines during the early timeslot. H&A has tackled many adult-themed and controversial storylines; something rarely found in its restricted timeslot.
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Home and Away

General Hospital (1963)
Drama, Soap
Families, friends, enemies and lovers experience life-changing events in the large upstate New York city of Port Charles, which has a busy hospital, upscale hotel, cozy diner and dangerous waterfront frequented by the criminal underworld.
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General Hospital

Doctors (2000)
Drama, Soap
Set in the fictional Midlands town of Letherbridge, defined as being close to the city of Birmingham, this soap opera follows the staff and families of a doctor's surgery.
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Doctors

Knots Landing (1979)
Drama, Soap
The domestic adventures, misdeeds and everyday interactions of five families living on a cul-de-sac in a small California community.
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Knots Landing

Holby City (1999)
Drama, Soap
Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.
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Holby City

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976)
Drama, Comedy, Soap
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman is an American soap opera parody that aired in daily syndication from January 1976 to May 1977. The series was produced by Norman Lear, directed by Joan Darling and Jim Drake, and starred Louise Lasser. The series writers were Gail Parent and Ann Marcus. The show's title was the eponymous character's name stated twice, because Lear and the writers believed that everything that was said on a soap opera was said twice. In 2004 and 2007, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was ranked #21 and #26 on "TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever".
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Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

Capitol (1982)
Soap, War & Politics
Capitol is an American soap opera which aired on CBS from March 29, 1982 to March 20, 1987 for 1,270 episodes. As its name suggests, the storyline usually revolves around the political intrigues of people whose lives intertwined in Washington, D.C.
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Capitol

Famous in Love (2017)
Drama, Soap
Ordinary college student Paige gets her big break after auditioning for the starring role in a Hollywood blockbuster. She must now navigate her new star-studded life and the highs and lows that come with being the new It Girl in town as well as balancing her college workload.
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Famous in Love

From These Roots (1958)
Soap
Follow the life of successful writer Elizabeth “Liz” Fraser Allen as she returns to her New England hometown of Strathfield to run her family’s newspaper after her father suffers a heart attack.
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From These Roots

Neighbours (1985)
Soap
Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera. The show's storylines concern the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in Erinsborough, a fictional suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The series primarily centres around the residents of Ramsay Street, a short cul-de-sac, and its neighbouring areas, the Lassiters complex, which includes a bar, hotel, cafe, news office and park. Neighbours began with three families created by Watson – the Ramsays, the Robinsons and the Clarkes. Watson said that he wanted to show three families who are friends living in a small street. The Robinsons and the Ramsays had a long history and were involved in an ongoing rivalry.
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Neighbours

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