Lindenstraße is a German television show on ARD's Das Erste, one of Germany's two publicly administered TV channels. The first episode was aired on 8 December 1985 and since then new episodes have been broadcast weekly. Its current timeslot on Das Erste is Sundays at 18:50. The events of the Sunday episode usually take place on the Thursday before the show, based on the TV station's original plan of airing the episodes Thursday night. Prior of the start of the show, the timeslot was switched to Sunday evening but the Thursday remained the day the events usually take place as the show shall feature the daily life routine of the protagonists on a working day. Exceptions are the so-called holiday episodes that take place on Sunday, such as for Christmas and Easter and also on important election days.
Setting the pace for other soap operas in Germany, the first episodes were met with mostly bad reviews. However, Lindenstraße soon became one of the most successful shows on German TV.
The Colbys is an American prime time soap opera, which originally aired on ABC from November 20, 1985 to March 26, 1987. Produced by Aaron Spelling, it was a spin-off of Dynasty, which had been the highest rated series for the 1984–1985 U.S. television season. The Colbys revolved around another wealthy, upper-class family, who were distant relatives of the Carringtons of Dynasty and who owned a large multi-national corporation. Intended to surpass its predecessor in opulence, the series' producers were handed an immensely high budget for the era and cast a handful of well-known movie stars among its leads, including Charlton Heston, Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Ross and Ricardo Montalban. However, The Colbys was ultimately a ratings disappointment, and was canceled after two seasons.
The BBC's answer to Dynasty, Howards' Way was launched in 1985 with an enormous 1 million pound budget. The main characters in the show were 'best boat designer in the world' Tom Howard, his boutique running wife Jan Howard, 'I'll have a drink' Jack Rolfe and a nasty man called Ken Masters. It starred Maurice Colbourne.
In the tiny poor town of Asa Branca, in the middle of Brazilian Northeast, Roque Santeiro is worshiped as a saint. He was supposedly killed by a bandit, 18 years ago, trying to save the local church. After his disappearance, local leaderships such as landowner Sinhozinho Malta and mayor Florindo, took profit on that to control the humble population. They even make up a widow, Porcina, who should have married Roque secretly before his death. What they don't expect is that Roque is alive, and he's back to, allegedly, "save his people". Now Malta, Florindo, Porcina, and others must hold him down and explain the "truth" to their commoners, in a desperate attempt to save their own bottoms. Meanwhile, mysterious facts surround Asa Branca, such as a Werewolf, a film crew who are trying to shoot a movie about Roque's story, and violent murderers.