Hiling: My telenovela life: A TV pilot episode on the formulaic structure of teleseryes

• Main Authors: Confesor, Michelle Anne M., Fagar, Ramon Teodoro Choa
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Television soap operas > Philippines; Communication
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/5242
• Institution: De La Salle University

Teleseryes are a big fixture in Philippine television, filling up many TV slots and being viewed by millions daily, making it a bog part of Philippine Pop culture. Teleseryes originated from the "Telenovelas" of Mexico and Spain and the "Soap Operas" of the USA and have made huge ratings and viewership, making many local TV networks wanting to keep the same effect over and over again. With this, the formulaic structure of the teleseryes has been used countless times to maintain it. Hiling openly talks about the formulaic structure and content of Telerseryes. Marla, the lead character, is so obsessed with Teleseryes to the extent that she wishes her life to be one. She then experiences the inevitable formula, like the villain or kontrabida, social status imbalance, family wars, contrasting cultures etc, realizing that the real world is better than the ones portrayed by Teleseryes.