myles-campbell
"Are you ready for Eldorado?" This was the immortal line used by the BBC to herald their new thrice-weekly Spanish sunshine soap 'Eldorado' back in 1992. And much-heralded it was! 'Eldorado' was everywhere back in early 1992, in the papers, on TV trailers and in magazines. It was to be set in the purpose-built fictional Spanish resort of Los Barcos and would feature the "hedonism, heartbreak and deep-dark secrets" of a group of ex-pats and their fellow Europeans and would be the BBC's crowning glory, a sun, sea and sangria "supersoap". Were we ready for Eldorado? After enormous trumpeting, it looked like although 7 million of us were indeed ready for 'Eldorado', the show itself clearly wasn't ready for us. The flaws were unmistakable. Firstly, producer Julia Smith (who gave the BBC the hugely successful 'Eastenders' in 1985) had agreed to bring the start date forward from September to July. This created numerous problems. For a start the beautiful multi-million pound set would not be fully finished and it seemed foolish to have spent so many millions on such a great set design by Keith Harris, only to hurry ahead without allowing for it to be finished to the standard that such investment warranted. Not only this but summer viewing figures are always lower than those in winter so it seemed strange to launch a sunshine soap at a time when it would have the least appeal-in the summer! Julia Smith hired many unknown actors in a bid to make them stars but most were wooden and had to be axed after only a few months, notably the notorious Kathy Pitkin as Fizz. Writers were not allowed to see each others scripts which made continuity extremely difficult, another rule of Smith's, and because the set wasn't complete, sound in areas such as the Centro Commercial was awful. To top it all many scenes were conducted in foreign languages, which alienated viewers, story lines were poor and with the BBC ordering 3 episodes per week instead of the initial 2, the show simply couldn't cope. With no time for rehearsals, read-through's or help with acting, 'Eldorado' was not the "supersoap" promised by the BBC. Only 3 weeks in and it was in crisis, viewing figures were tumbling to 3 million, the papers slated it daily and it was fast becoming a £10 million failure. Something had to give. After only a few months, Julia Smith was axed from her post as producer and replaced by Corinne Hollingworth. Almost immediately the show began to turn around. Characters such as Dieter, Allan, Gavin and Snowy were axed in a cast cull while Marchell Betak was replaced as Trine Svendsen by Clare Wilkie. Exciting story lines such as the secret life and subsequent death of Javier, the attack on bar owner Joy and the difficulties of alcoholic Drew, were introduced. Scripts improved enormously, the sound was perfected and there was more focus on the experienced actors. New characters such as Natalie and 'Razor' proved a hit and by late 1992, 'Eldorado' was quickly becoming the hit that the BBC had promised. It had begun to find a direction, an identity, it wasn't too serious or too light-hearted but a mixture of both. It was becoming a quality production dealing with the highs and lows and emotions of people who no longer belonged in the UK and who had to build a new sense of who they were in an alien European community. It was relevant, very different and a soap that was giving us a new perspective. It was an experiment with the genre of soap opera that was starting to pay off. 'Eldorado' was being networked in several European countries, public opinion was changing and viewing figures were growing rapidly, ultimately matching those of 'EastEnders'. 'Eldorado' was finding its feet. However, just as things were on the up, Jonathan Powell was replaced by Alan Yentob as director of BBC1 and within a week of his appointment, he made the shock announcement that 'Eldorado' was to be axed. Yentob disliked the show and was largely unaware of its recent improvements. It seems he felt that it hadn't achieved the success expected of it after 8 months. Indeed it hadn't, but that was because the BBC had expected far too much; an instant hit. Soaps need time to grow and develop and no soap is an immediate success. Like 'Eldorado', 'EastEnders' was no major success story after its first 8 months and had numerous teething troubles. Unlike 'Eldorado', 'EastEnders' was given a chance and just look how it turned out. By March 1993, 'Eldorado' was destined to emulate the success of its sister soap 'EastEnders' but it would never have the chance.'Eldorado'was going to get there, watching some of the late episodes alone proves that, as do the high viewing figures it was achieving towards the end. But it was not to be. On July 9th 1993, we said goodbye to some great soap characters such as Freddie, Gwen, Joy, Trish and Marcus not forgetting the likes of Drew, Isabelle, Pilar and Nessa (the first disabled soap character who was played by a real-life disabled person). Far from justifying the criticisms leveled at it by the tabloids, 'Eldorado' went out in style with an excellent final episode that demonstrated just how far it had come. A massive 11 million people watched as Marcus and Pilar sailed off into the night and those blue credits rolled for the last time to Simon May's fantastic arrangement of the theme tune. In the end, we were ready for more 'Eldorado' just when the show had become ready for us. Isn't it ironic then that we had to say "Adios Eldorado".
C L (Severus_Snape666)
OK, so I admit, I never saw it when it was originally aired (being 8 at the time!), and I bought the Adios Eldorado video because I'd heard so much about Jesse Birdsall's character, Marcus! I thought it would be a 1992 version of Sunset Beach- terrible acting, bad sets, poor story lines that never went anywhere. But, I was wrong, for the characters were well thought out and yet the soap didn't got too bogged down with overly serious plots that modern soaps rely on. The quirky, colourful characters worked well because they were larger than life, not trying to be as close to a normal world as possible. I've only ever seen the couple of hours worth on the video, so I'm still waiting to see reruns on UK Gold, but I think its a fantastic show, Even my 12 yr old sister loves it.
chris_myers90
When in 1992 the BBC decided it needed a second soap to relieve the burden on 'Eastenders' to be the networks solo rival to ITV'S 'Coronation Street' and 'Emmerdale' the novel idea of setting it in the sunnier climes of Spain amongst British ex-pats seemed to give the show a unique selling point. Many shows come and go but the fatal blow to this soap opera may have been the original fanfare with which it was launched. The BBC spent £10,000,000 on preliminary sets and production but upon first glance the hugely anticipated drama seemed to have little in the way of story lines or characterisation. There were production problems with the sound that made the show at times impossible to watch.The hype that the show had been given and the fact that it was funded by the licence payer meant that the British press leapt upon it and it became a favourite object of derision. Initially encouraging viewing figures tumbled to only 3 million per episode and ten months after its fanfare debut the BBC pulled the plug and cancelled the show.It is well known that the quality of the show and the viewing figures were climbing towards and the end and that perhaps the show was finally starting to catch on. However, the damage had long been done. The media had slated it and tainted it as a joke and from this there was no return for the BBC. The massively expensive sets were mothballed and are now a museum for intrepid tourists and curious TV fans. The shown came to an end satisfactorily and somewhat gracefully (for otherwise see Crossroads #3) but one can only imagine how devastating it was for the actors (other victims of the shows bad initial production) and we can only estimate how much money was poured down the drain on the massively hyped and massively expensive white elephant.
gwilym49
Not a bad soap. However, the BBC, in its wisdom, decided to pull the plug when it seemed to be getting off the ground. This decision has always seemed a puzzle when programmes of questionable quality are screened by the same organization. It was sad to lose this programme, and how much public money was thrown away?
