Ien Ang: Watching Dallas. Soap opera and the melodramatic imagination

˝For the world's television viewing public the beginning of the 1980s was markel by a new and spectacular phenomenon, Dallas. This American dramatic serial about a rich Texan oil family has achieved extraordinary popularity; no other TV serial has ever attained such high worldwide viewing figures. But what is it about Dallas thai makes it so successful as entertainment? What is its particular fascination? Why does it appeal to women more than to men? How do viewers from a non-American culture deal with the appearance on their screens of this privileged other culture? These questions form the starting point for an investigation of viewers' reactions to Dallas. The study is based on letters receivel by the author in response to an advertisement placed in a popular magazine. Readers were asked to write and teli her why they liked or disliked the programme, and their responses are used as evidense to illustrate and explain the conclusions she draws about the popularity of Dallas. What emerges from an analysis of the letters is the construction in Dallas of a 'tragic structure of feeling' which seems to be responsible for the viewers' experience of an emotional realism in the drama. The relationship between soap opera, fantasy and the place of women in contemporary culture is also investigated in the light of the viewers' reactions.˝