In 1967, TVB launched its first TV series", "Under the Victoria Peak", which began TVB's more than fifty years of ups and downs.
In 1973, TVB aired the first real sitcom (situation drama) "Seventy-Three".
The following year, the play was also adapted into the film "Hong Kong Seventy-Three", produced by the Shaw Brothers, mobilizing Shaw and TVB artists to perform in the nest, with a large number of actors like stars in the sky, which can be described as a milestone in Hong Kong cinema.
After "Seventy-Three", TVB's traditional skills were determined.
In 1981, TVB launched a series of situation comedies "Hong Kong Bayi", a series of 6 films, one film per year, from "Hong Kong Bayi" to "Hong Kong Eighty-Six", which is still one of the classics in the hearts of Hong Kong drama fans.
The series was and is an absolute blockbuster at the time and is now, with a total of 1321 episodes filmed, the largest number of episodes in Hong Kong at present, and the record has not been broken.
And after 50 years of TVB's situation drama, there is also a record that no one can surpass, that is, almost all well-known Hong Kong actors have shown their faces in it.
Screenwriter Duntehi said that the form of the situation drama is a bit like a stage play, the director rarely stops, but the actors play freely according to the script.
This relatively loose shooting form is especially suitable for some fledgling new actors to exercise themselves.
In the "Hong Kong Bayi" series, Stephen Chow, Zeng Huaqian, Wu Zhenyu, Ouyang Zhenhua, etc. have all run the dragon set, and Zhang Guorong, Mui Yanfang, and Andy Lau have also made cameo roles in individual units.
Gu Xuan CP, who exploded through "Looking for Qin", actually cooperated for the first time in the 1994 sitcom "Dinner with Song Family", playing cousins in the play.
In the TVB sitcom "Forever God" "True Love" (1995), not only did it win a lot of actors, but even the guest lineup was quite powerful.
Lin Feng has played soy sauce here, Liu Kaiwei debuted here, and Horseshoe Lu also won the "Most Disgusted Role Interpretation Award" for the outstanding interpretation of "Xi Ti" in this drama...
By the way, the show's episodes have also grown staggeringly, with a total of 1128 episodes.
Don't look at TVB situation dramas are short character stories in some parents, so many years later, the reputation is getting better and better.
Especially after other types of Hong Kong dramas entered the bottleneck period, it highlighted the superiority of TVB situation dramas, such as "Happy Express of Love Home" (hereinafter referred to as "Happy Express"), which was launched in 2017 and broadcast more than 1200 episodes.
"Love Home Happy Express" began airing on February 20, 2017, the fourth part of the "Love Homecoming" series, because the quality of the first two parts of the "Love Homecoming" series declined, resulting in this situation drama not being optimistic when it began broadcasting.
Who would have thought that with the broadcast of the series, the show has become more and more popular with the audience, since it was broadcast seven days a week, the average weekly rating during the peak period is as high as 30 points, and even surpasses the main drama many times.
In terms of word of mouth, "Happy Express" is also in the front of the quality of Hong Kong dramas in the past decade, with a Douban score of 9.0.
The show has also increased from the original 180 episodes to 900 episodes, then broke through 1000 episodes, and has now been updated to 1216 episodes.
According to this broadcast schedule, breaking the record for the number of episodes of TVB's situation drama is just around the corner, and TVB has no intention of ending this drama, and it is said that it has signed 2,000 episodes.
The drama revolves around the story of the Xiong family, the protagonists are Liu Dan's father Xiong Shugen, Shan Liwen's uncle Xiong Shuren, Lu Huiyi's second daughter Xiong Ruoshui, Su Yunzi (2016 Miss Hong Kong Top 10) played by the third daughter Xiong Xinru, and Zhou Jialuo's grandson Jin Cheng'an.
Then the 5 of them are divided into separate branches, and the plot is getting richer and richer.
So the question is, it is also a small story about small people, what is the secret of "Happy Express", which can make it the highest-rated drama of TVB in the past 50 years, and also become the best Hong Kong drama in the past five years?
Secret one: dare to shoot
Although it is a drama that has been broadcast since 17 years, few people have heard of it except for old fans.
However, everyone has definitely seen it on the hot search, that is, the "TVB filmed the Tianwang Sister-in-law Training Class" that appeared in the fifth place of the Weibo hot-search list last November.
Previously, the news of Pan Weibai and his girlfriend's marriage caused heated discussion, and at the same time, it was also reminiscent of Aaron Kwok, the king who had married the model before.
After that, the Internet also exposed the rumors of Amy's sister opening the Tianwang sister-in-law training class, and the enthusiasm of the melon-eating masses was instantly ignited by the "spelling single celebrity".
Not long after, TVB made this rumor into a drama, that is, the 1046th episode of "Happy Express", "Golden Turtle Fishing Training Class".
In this episode, one of Xiong Ruoshui's company colleagues is with the popular Wei Tianwang, and two other red-eyed female colleagues discover her "earth-shattering secret" through tracking - the golden turtle fishing training class.
This training class was set up by Sister Amy (even the name is the same), the main purpose is to improve the possibility of students marrying into the rich, the slogan of the training class is also very straightforward , "teach you to get Wei Tianwang, become the sister-in-law of the Heavenly King".
The registration fee for the training course starts from 50,000 yuan, which needs to be made up according to the stage of training, but you can wait until you get married before paying the final payment.
In a word: unsuccessful, no charge.
The training mainly includes two parts, theoretical teaching and practical exercises.
Theoretical teaching is the experience of becoming a celebrity taught by Sister Amy.
For example, how to build yourself into an "unconfigured" Internet celebrity, how to attract the attention of the Golden Turtle Son-in-Law through PO articles on social media.
Here there is the bridge section of the "brand-name bags and bags taking turns to take pictures" that was once rumored before, as well as afternoon tea, "personally" cooking food, and the same pose to take pictures, the same copy of the PO text.
It can be said that the "terrier" of this training class almost completely "borrowed" from the previous Tianwang sister-in-law posing and Shanghai celebrity single incident.
Just ask if you dare!
Further ahead, "Happy Express" also alluded to the "peace of mind incident".
That episode is about the married rich second generation of Long Lux, who got the hug and kiss of the female star after getting drunk, and the whole process was filmed by the taxi driver.
And this video was sold by him to an underground auction, and the highest price was obtained.
The cheating scandal was exposed, and the rich second generation of Long Lux had no choice but to hold a press conference, and before the meeting, put on the makeup of "a night of sad whiteheads", drop a few drops of eye drops, bow ninety degrees and apologize publicly with tears:
I'm a stinky man.
From the perspective of the taxi driver to the line of Long Lux's apology to his ninety degree bow, almost all of them restore the process of the original case.
Not only is the "Heavenly King's Sister-in-law" incident alluded to the plot by TVB, but more importantly, the setting of the Dragon Family in the play is basically a copy of the story of the Gambling King's Family, such as the origins of several wives and the entanglement between them.
Sure enough, on the dare to shoot, really no one can compare with TVB.
In this way, it is not only closely following current events, but also very gimmicky and watchable "eating melon" plot, and it is difficult for the audience to love or not.
However, the words are nonsense, dare to shoot and dare to shoot, and the meaning cannot be lost.
At the end of the "Golden Turtle Fishing Training Class", two female colleagues who hoped to fish for the Golden Turtle finally woke up, gave up the "charm" constructed through falsehood, and decided to use inner beauty to attract people.
But after the positive energy, there is a reversal.
Although Amy's training class has fallen, a new celebrity training class has appeared, and the person who started the class is still one of the two colleagues who have been cheated by Amy sister.
Tip two: Fun
In view of the mode of the situation drama broadcasting and shooting at the same time, the plot will also become more interesting because it fits with the current hot spots.
For example, episode 611 was released in conjunction with "Avengers 4" that year, and the theme of the series was the "spoiler meme" that fans were very resonant with.
And the 873 episode "Upper Class Parasite" is obviously borrowed from the world's hottest Korean movie "Parasite" in 2019.
Father Xiong because of integrity to help Long Dare to guard the empty villa, the original work was successfully completed, did not expect that this day the old apartment they lived in was cut off from water and electricity, the family wanted to take advantage of the absence of the dragon boss, go to the villa to respond to emergencies.
The family enjoyed the "luxurious life" of the rich in the luxury villa, and did not expect that the next day the dragon boss suddenly brought his girlfriend to kill.
The whole family can't avoid it, and staged a classic scene in "Parasite", which is really sad and funny.
However, the most interesting and funny is the two episodes (606 and 607 episodes) in which Ouyang Zhenhua made a cameo appearance, which are based on the "true and false Jin Dong" incident.
However, unlike the previous "Dare to Shoot", these two episodes only borrow a point from "True and False Jin Dong" - The Master Milk Chasing Stars.
The group sister in the play (Xu Simin) is the ultimate fan of Ouyang Zhenhua and is very obsessed with him, during this time, she has been dreaming that Ouyang Zhenhua has an accident.
To this end, she went to the goddess to interpret the dream.
The goddess saw the obsession of the group sisters with Ouyang Zhenhua, and not only made up the story of her and Ouyang Zhenhua III's love affair, but also deceived her that if she wanted to break the bad luck in her dreams, she would need to spend money to eliminate the disaster.
In order not to let the Qun sister be deceived by the godmother to take away all 8,000 yuan, the eldest miss Long Lilian (Lin Shumin) spent 800,000 yuan to invite Ouyang Zhenhua to meet the Qunjie, and also performed three plays with her.
The highlight is on these three plays, namely "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" and "Color Ring".
However, these seemingly romantic and poignant love stories have all become comedies in the "three loves" of Qunjie and Ouyang Zhenhua.
At the beginning of the first life, the two were in love with each other and married.
As a result, in the next story, the talent did not win, and constantly fell, and finally the group sisters could only earn money by driving rats for others.
But more unfortunately, on this day, the sick talent thought that the rat medicine bought by the group sister was a herb to cure the disease, and he was poisoned by mistake and died.
The second life is still the standard of long-term love, and the result is that the two are happy but opposed by their families.
Ouyang Zhenhua's version of Shanbo died of depression, but just after transforming into a butterfly, he was killed by the group sister who was still in human form, because he felt that this butterfly flew around in front of Shanbo's grave, which was obstructive!
The third life was sad, and the initial progress of Qunjie and Ouyang Zhenhua's version of Mr. Yi was also very smooth.
On the day when the organization arranged her assassination, it was already the time when the enemy army surrendered unconditionally, and the assassination was canceled, but no one informed the group sisters.
The result is that the unsuspecting group sister pressed the trigger for the country, Mr. Yi, pawn.
The "matryoshka doll" plot of the play makes the audience feel very substitutionary, and the comedic interpretation itself makes the whole story dramatic.
Whether it is entertainment, or watchability, even artistry is dominant.
Tip three: Have love
In the final analysis, what attracts the audience the most in the situation drama is the story about "love" that revolves around the protagonist, including family, friendship, and love.
The show was particularly successful in shaping the characters, receiving 4 nominations at the 2020 10,000 Star Awards Ceremony, namely Liu Dan and Lin Shumin, Lui Huiyi and Teng Liming.
In addition to the same thing in the play, there is a warm and loving family love, but the most successful and most emotional is the classic screen CP in this drama.
I have to say that it is really rare for so many popular CP combinations to appear in a drama.
For example, the green plum bamboo horse is the strongest, sweet to the toothless Gong Shui love.
"Gong Shui" is definitely the best cp in "Happy Express", from the very beginning of the spread out of the Gong Shui love, the two from small to large, playing, there have been differences, but Gong Ye has been using his way to guard his "double chin angel" Xiong Ruoshui.
The two have quarreled and sweetened each other, but they have always supported each other, and despite the success of the marriage proposal, they are willing to postpone the marriage for 2 years for the sake of their careers.
The two have always faced all the difficulties together, and the most touching thing is that the feelings between the two people are "two-way".
Gong Ye will change his eating habits for Xiong Ruoshui and force himself to change his bad habits of picky eating, and Xiong Ruoshui is also willing to change himself for Gong Ye and challenge the bitter melons he does not like to eat.
Another example is the sadistic love between the big miss and the giant who sent Shui Hui.
The love affair between the big miss and the sending water is the sweetest and most abusive in this drama, which can be called "absolutely beautiful" love.
The two from the fateful encounter to the final unconsciously attracted to each other, the big miss in front of the water is no longer the big miss, but the little woman "Xiao Lian", she also needs someone to love and love, not a machine that will only make money.
But this innocent to illusory love finally has a day to face reality, when the reality shines into the dream, the half a year of good time between them can only become the most beautiful memories in each other's hearts.
The scene where the two have to face reality on Christmas Eve, but want to try to protect the love in their hearts, is really crying every time they see it!
In addition to these two pairs of recognized super popular CPs, college students with Jin Cheng'an as the main line in the play also have "sweet" love lines.
Zhu Lingling, Jin Cheng'an, Tan Yuying and Wang Guo, Chi Zixiao and Venus, etc.
In recent years, tvB's main drama ratings have become lower and lower, and many people have begun to sing about the decline of Hong Kong dramas.
Like Hong Kong dramas are less and less the original taste, the peak period is no longer waiting...
In fact, the taste of the old Hong Kong drama has been preserved in the sitcom, where there are both people's livelihood and current affairs, as well as entertainment gossip, and even some topics that are inconvenient to be mentioned in the main drama have room to play in the sitcom.
Although compared with TVB sitcoms, which have gone through more than half a century, mainland sitcoms started late, and it was not until 1993 that the first truly sitcom "I Love My Home" appeared.
And in terms of episodes and scale, it is not as "exciting" as TVB sitcoms, "I Love My Home" 120 episodes, "Wulin Wai biography" 80 episodes, "Family with Children" 4 combined is only 367 episodes, but these mainland sitcoms, within the scope of ability, there are also TVB sitcoms should have "sharp", "indoctrination" and "entertainment".
This may be the charm of the situation drama.
There will not only be many familiar old faces in TVB sitcoms, such as Liu Dan, Teng Liming, Tang Yingying, Qunjie, Ouyang Zhenhua, etc., but also many new faces.
For example, in 2016, the top ten Hong Kong sisters, as well as Zhou Jialuo, who starred in Jin Cheng'an, also let everyone see his acting skills through this drama, and thus became the youngest best supporting actor in the history of TVB.
It is reported that "Happy Express" is ready to find the most beautiful Hong Kong sister in 2020 to shoot the drama, and TVB is really not just talking about it.
At a time when TVB dramas are slowly losing their "Hong Kong flavor", fortunately, we still have TVB sitcoms.
Bluestone Film Editorial Office | Old Meng
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