Telenovela
(Verónica Castro from the opening credits of Los ricos también lloran)
Telenovela comes from the terms tele short for television and novela ("novel"). The closest Anglo equivalent to these immensely popular and long running Spanish and Portuguese prime time television serials is the soap opera. However, while most English-language soap operas run indefinitely – Coronation Street springs to mind! – most telenovelas have an overall story arc which concludes after many episodes (the standard is 180). In Spain they are termed culebrones meaning long snakes because of their length and convoluted plots. A typical plot is rich boy meets poor girl, rich boy’s evil ex-girlfriend or family stand in the way of their happiness, poor girl turns out by quirk of fate to actually be from an incredibly wealthy background…
Telenovelas are not only immensely popular in the Spanish and |Portuguese speaking world, they also have a wide following in Russia, Eastern Europe, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Israel, the Philippines, and Japan as well. The first global telenovela was Los ricos también lloran ("The rich cry too", Mexico, 1979) which was exported to Russia, China and the United States. You may have been one of the millions who watched the Brazilian production Escrava Isaura ("The Slave Isaura", 1976) aired on Channel 4 in Britain. The ratings success in the US has led major networks to adapt the concept for English speaking audiences. ABC has included the phenomenal Colombian success, Betty la Fea (“Betty The Ugly”) in their Autumn 2006-2007 TV season lineup as a weekly series.
Currently, the most famous telenovelas come from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. Brazil's novelas tend to be racier and more likely to broach controversial subjects such as the landless workers’ movement (MST: Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra).
For more information and a listing of major telenovelas see Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenovela
Forums for the discussion of dozens of telenovelas, in English and Spanish. Includes links to related sites.
http://www.telenovela-world.com/