Our favourite TV shows over the years

Remember Lime Tree Lane? The popular ’80s and early ’90s series ended some time ago, but ask anyone about ‘old-time Jamaican TV’ and that’s one of the first shows they remember.

Miss Upton, Johnny, Honey and the others had audiences cracking up each night, as TVJ, then JBC, brought Jamaican life to the small screen through comedy.

Enter the Dojo, Rappin, Walk and Talk and Oliver at Large ensured a heavy dose of local culture on the box in the pre-cable era.

Ten years ago, when viewers were grateful for any programming other than local TV, the soap opera craze reached fever pitch. Jamaica has never gotten over its soap obsession, which arguably began some time around the Dynasty/Falcon Crest era and led to a huge fan base for such classics like Days of Our Lives and Santa Barbara.

“Oh, Santa Barbara,” housewife and soap fan Melinda Barnes remembers. “Eden and Cruise were our idols. I remember we didn’t have a TV in our house and Santa Barbara came on early, like 6a.m, and my sisters and I would have to go to the neighbour’s house and wake her out of her bed to watch.”

There are many more soap stories like this. The fan base in Jamaica grew rapidly, and so did the supply. Today, shows like Days of Our Lives – which, according to Wikipedia, debuted in the US in 1965 – Bold and Beautiful and Passions still draw many obsessed housewives to their television sets.

So does ethnic programming like the African soap Generations, says TVJ assistant manager/programming department Winsome Bernard.

She tells all woman that surprisingly, Generations has a huge male fanbase, who are among the first to get irate and call in whenever programming has to be interrupted.

“It has a very good following,” Bernard said. “This is because it deals with everyday life. The response has been overwhelming because people can relate to it.”

The Bold and the Beautiful also has its following, she said, and Anthony Miller’s Entertainment Report and Ian Boyne’s Profile have consistently maintained their fan base over the years. Two of TVJ’s longest running programmes, they haven’t lost popularity over the years.

She mentioned Hill and Gully Ride, which many viewers still love, and Smile Jamaica, which started in the late ’90s and is still going strong. “Smile Jamaica has the same momentum and popularity and even in recent surveys it has gotten very good ratings.”

Others, like the long-running Schools’ Challenge Quiz and Creative Cooking, never fail to attract an audience.

Nowadays, newer programmes have begun to attract good ratings, like Rising Stars, which kicks off again on June 4, Religious Hardtalk and Your Issues Live.

Imports like Monk and the Law and Order series are very popular, as are movies generally, Bernard said.

Mediamix’s Lennie Little-White who writes for CVM TV, said Face to Face, which aired about 10 years ago, was one of the first shows to deal with sexual problems and conflicts. Add to that the saucy Royal Palm Estate, which, after 11 years, continues to draw the largest TV audience in Jamaica after the news. Others he remembers include Starsearch at Traxx, similar to Rising Stars, and the old CVM at Sunrise with Cliff Hughes and Kathy Owen.

Now, Our Voices and The Golden Nugget have their fair share of viewers, while On Stage, which has been around for five to six years, still has a following. The Party, Little-White said, is a throwback to Teenage Dance Party from the ’70s, and satisfies hungry teenagers who absorb similar shows on cable. The Golden Nugget is extremely popular, he said, among the 18-35 age group.

It’s the cable that makes things different now, Little-White pointed out, as loyalty to stations has faded with the range of choices available. Viewers are more attached to specific shows now, not stations.

“People have a choice now so they’re not wedded to CVM or TVJ,” he said. “This is not unusual. It’s not just in Jamaica – it comes with the territory of the opening of diverse channels.” In three to five years, he predicts, there will be a growth in independent cable channels that will severely impact on TVJ and CVM.

These local channels have low overheads and operational costs and will go where the big stations won’t. “The viewing habits are changing, especially for the younger people,” Little-White said. “It’s now about who has the better programme. It’s a changing landscape that we all have to adjust to.”