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Philippine drama, notably called teleserye and/or teledrama in television is a form of melodramatic serialized fiction produced and aired in the Philippines. It rooted from two words "tele", short for television, and "serye", a Tagalog term for series. Teleserye is now used as the generic term for most Filipino soap operas on television, although the term officially came into existence in 2000 when ABS CBN aired its first official form of teleserye, Pangako sa 'Yo. Prior to this, Filipino soap operas were called either telenovelas (and still is referred to as such) and soap operas.

Teleseryes share some characteristics and similar roots with soap operas and telenovelas,yet teleserye has evolved into a genre with its own unique characteristics usually reflecting social realism of Filipinos. Teleserye are aired in prime-time five days a week, and replays during weekends, attract a broad audience across age and gender lines, and command the highest advertising rates. They last about three months to a year or more depending on its rating and come to a climactic close.

Teleseryes are produced by the two main Philippine TV networks ABS-CBN, which is Philippine's largest producer and exporter of Teleseryes and, GMA Network, by the independent company TAPE Inc. and by the movie producer VIVA Entertainment.

Contents 1 Timeline 2 Description 2.1 Storylines 2.2 Twist 2.3 Villains 2.4 Ending 3 Miscellanea 3.1 Records 3.2 Variations 4 See also 5 References

Soap operas in the Philippines originated in radio, then it expanded into television in early 1960s. The first Filipino TV Soap Opera was "Hiwaga sa Bahay na Bato" in 1963 produced by ABS-CBN.

Soap operas in the Philippines were usually shown during daytime. Among the most popular daytime soap operas then were, Gulong ng Palad, Flor de Luna, Mara Clara, Annaliza, Aguila and Valiente. But in 1996, soap opera programming was move to primetime due to the popularity gained by Mexican Telenovela, Marimar, aired on RPN 9. This is the start of telenovela craze in the Philippines. Major networks ABS-CBN and GMA Network followed the trend by having foreign telenovelas in their timeslot.

In 2000, ABS CBN, made a milestone in Philippine Telenovelas when it introduced "Pangako sa 'Yo", which was known to be the first official teleserye, and "Kay Tagal Kang Hinintay". These teleseryes set the standard of present teleserye productions in the Philippines which also became a big hit in the Philippines and likewise to other countries. Because of this, subsequent soap operas shown on television are now referred to as teleseryes. ABS CBN's biggest rival network, GMA, has also followed, producing their own term of teleseryes under the term, teledrama.

Again, in Early 2004 ABS-CBN introduced a new variation of teleserye which mixes soap opera, fantasy, myth, magic and enchantment.This genre was called Fantaserye. The first official fantaserye that was shown on primetime TV was Marina. Marina undoubtedly set a benchmark for fantaseryes on television when it garnered consistent high ratings during its entire run. The ratings and audience share of the said fantaserye were even higher than the usual more established teleseryes during primetime.

In mid 2004, GMA Network, embarked on its own term of fantaserye which are called telefantasya. GMA produced Marinara and Mulawin, the latter becoming more successful which eventually started the GMA telefantasya craze. On the other hand, ABS CBN focuses on airing teleseryes for its primetime slots although it sometimes produces fantaseryes as well. It was this year that started further variations of the teleserye genre under the terms, superserye, sineserye and cinenovela.

A popular plot of a teleserye is a love story between two different individuals, a rich guy fell in-love with a poor girl or a handsome guy attracted to a very ugly girl. Their romances is then contradicted by the mother of the guy because of their differences in life.

Another popular storyline of teleseryes is the search of a girl to her family members, usually the mother is being searched. The story goes, the girl was separated from her family at birth due to some circumtances, maybe by a bus accident or because the villain in the story wants to take revenge to the parents of the protagonist-the villain will either exchange the baby with other mother and let the baby protagonist live a poor life, or the villain just simply take the child from the mother and let it live a very miserable life.

Teleseryes usually focus on love, betrayal, jealousy, social status and revenge between characters, usually their family history and relationships affecting the later generation.

The storyline of most teleseryes are similar, although both ABS CBN and GMA have diverged into different storylines which started the variations of the genre.

Among the most common twist in the romance between couples is that they will find out that they were brothers and sisters, but in the end they will also find out that they were not siblings because one of them is an adopted child.

Teleseryes are notorious for adding new characters to an already convoluted plot which adds more twist in the story. Usually the girl will meet a new guy which will eventually be her new love-interest in the story.

Sometimes teleseryes play with its viewers that makes another twist in the plot. For example a character which was known to be killed or died in the story will eventually appear in the latter part of the story. The usual reasons of this situations is that he or she was saved in the accident or maybe the person buried was not him or her.

Villains are created to make the life of the protagonist especially miserable. Old Filipino Soap operas had very rude, violent, greedy, almost sociopathatic villains.

Character of villains in teleseryes have changed from the old soap operas to the present teleseryes. In old soap operas villains were very violent and usually used power and money to make the protagonist miserable. Often, they aim to full-out kill the protagonist.

Villains in present teleseryes are less violent compared to the old ones. They no longer murder a character in the story to take revenge, except that they are still evil and cause the protagonist to suffer.

The story usually ends with the villains meeting spectacularly violent, gruesome, painful and gory end. Most complications will reach a resolution and the protagonists will end up getting married and with a child, sometimes, even twins.

However, the predictability of teleserye endings have become an issue and audience sometimes complain that the plot and ending of teleseryes are becoming repetitive, predictable and tiresome. Because of this, scriptwrites have endeavoured to change the ending of some teleseryes to provide additional twist and originality.

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• First Filipino Telenovela-"Gulong ng Palad" (IBC,1977)
• First Teleserye turned film-"Mara Clara" (ABS-CBN,1992-1997; 1996(movie))
• First Teleserye where the three protagonists have been played by one actress-"Saan Ka Man Naroroon" played by Claudine Barretto as the triplets Rosario, Rosenda, and Rosemarie (ABS-CBN, 1999-2001)
• First Teleserye showcasing powerhouse casting- "Mula Sa Puso" (ABS-CBN 1997-1999)
• First Official Teleserye-"Pangako sa 'Yo" (ABS-CBN, 2000)
• First Teleserye viewed in other countries--"Pangako sa 'Yo" (ABS-CBN, 2000)
• First Political Soap-"Kung Mawawala Ka" (GMA, 2001)
• Teleserye whose ending was decided by text votes-"Sana'y Wala Nang Wakas" (ABS CBN, 2004)
• Teleserye which has a live ending-"Basta't Kasama Kita" (ABS CBN, 2004)
• First spoof of a teleserye-"Marinara"(GMA Network, 2004)
• First Fantaserye/Telefantasya based on a comic serial--"Darna" (GMA, 2005)
• First Fantaserye/Telefantasya based on a movie--"Darna" (GMA, 2005)
• First Teleserye Shot Abroad-"Vietnam Rose" (ABS-CBN, 2005)
• First Teleserye based on an anime--"Lupin" (GMA Network)
• Shortest Teleserye-"'Til Death Do Us Part" (It ran only for one month, ABS-CBN, 2005)
• Teleserye remake of a Classical Philippine Telenovela-"Gulong ng Palad" (ABS-CBN, 2006)
• First Teleserye depicting a story about OFW's-"Crazy for You" (ABS-CBN, 2006)
• First Teledrama/Telefantasya shot in multiple countries -"Asian Treasures" (Filmed in six countries, GMA, 2007)
• First Teleserye that its genre is suspense and drama - "La Vendetta" (GMA, 2007)
• First Remake of a Mexican telenovela - "MariMar" (GMA, 2007)
• Teleserye based on a Classical Philippine Radio Drama-"Maria Flordeluna" (ABS-CBN, 2007)
• Actress who has made the most number of Teleseryes (9 teleseryes as of 2007))- "Judy Ann Santos" (ABS-CBN)
• Actor who has made the most number of Teleseryes (9 teleseryes as of 2007))- "Diether Ocampo" (ABS CBN)
• Teleserye that hit the highest rating in an episode (Episode 108)- "Esperanza (TV series)" (ABS-CBN, 1999, 67%) [1]
• Teleserye that received the highest ratings in its finale episode-"Esperanza (TV series)" (ABS-CBN, 1999, 59.8%) [2]
• First Official Fantaserye/Telefantasya-"Marina" (ABS-CBN, 2004)
• First Sineserye/Sine Novela based on a movie-"Bituing Walang Ningning" (ABS-CBN, 2006)
• First Fantaserye/Telefantasya that has a sequel after the first book-"Panday" (ABS-CBN, 2005 (BOOK 1); 2006 (BOOK 2))
• First Teleserye that has a sequel after the first book-"Maging Sino Ka Man" (ABS-CBN, 2006-2007 (BOOK 1); 2007-2008 (BOOK 2))

• The terms Teleserye, Fantaserye, Tele-epiko, Superserye, Kiddieserye and Sineserye are used by ABS CBN.
• The terms Teledrama, Telefantasya and Sine Novela are used by GMA Network.

Teleserye/Telenovela

These are soap operas with the usual romance-drama theme.

Fantaserye/Telefantasya

This is the first form of variation in teleseryes. These are soap operas mixed with myth and fantasy. Often they are associated with local comic book superheroes remakes or creation of another dimension. A variant under the same category is a Tele-epiko. It features more action sequences and thus, a more masculine feel. Rounin and Ang Panday are such examples. Superserye is another variation featuring superheroes. Such shows are Krystala and Super Inggo

Sineserye/Sine Novela

These are movies serialized for television. To extend the normal two hour film, both networks have included plot twists beyond the normal.

Kiddieserye

Themed more for children. Such shows include Kokey, Princess Sarah, Super Inggo and Maria Flordeluna

• List of Philippine television shows