The 40 most popular 1990s soap TV shows, ranked. Click any show for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden
1990
country: Netherlands
Goede tijden, slechte tijden, also known as GTST, is the longest-running Dutch soap opera, revolving around the lives of the families Alberts, Sanders, De Jong, Van Houten and Bouwhuis. It all takes place in the fictional town of Meerdijk.


Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten
1992
country: Germany
Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten is a long-running German television soap opera, first broadcast on RTL in 1992. The programme concerns the lives of a fictional neighborhood in Germany's capital city Berlin. Over the years the soap opera tends to have an overhaul of young people in their late teens and early twenties; targeting a young viewership.


Young Hearts
1995
country: Brazil
Malhação is a Brazilian television series for the teenage audience. The soap started in 1995, and was set in a fictional Gym Club called Malhação on Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro. Through the years the location varied slightly. Although the name of the soap remains the same, it is now set in the Múltipla Escolha High School.


Egoli: Place of Gold
1992
country: South Africa
A South African television soap opera created by Franz Marx which revolves around the daily ups, downs, trials and tribulations of a handful of families in and around Johannesburg (which is often referred to as eGoli - the City of Gold)


Klan
1997
country: Poland
Family is the most important thing, and the children of Władysław and Maria Lubicz from Warsaw can always count on each other, no matter what surprises life offers.


Secret Lives
1999
country: Finland
Salatut elämät (Secret Lives) is a Finnish television soap opera that premiered on MTV3 on 25 January 1999. The series' storylines follow the daily lives of several families who live in the same apartment block in Helsinki.


Family Affairs
1997
country: United Kingdom
Focuses on the lives of residents in the fictional London suburb of Charnham.


Holby City
1999
country: United Kingdom
Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.


Chicago Hope
1994
country: United States
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama television series, created by David E. Kelley. It ran on CBS from September 18, 1994, to May 4, 2000. The series is set in a fictional private charity hospital in Chicago, Illinois.


Caça Talentos
1996
country: Brazil
No overview available


Melrose Place
1992
country: United States
Follow the lives of a group of young adults living in a brownstone apartment complex on Melrose Place, in Los Angeles, California.


Sunset Beach
1997
country: United States
Sunset Beach is an American television soap opera that aired on NBC from January 6, 1997 to December 31, 1999. The show follows the loves and lives of the people living in the Orange County coastal area named Sunset Beach, on the coast of California. Although there is a town in California called Sunset Beach, the show's beach scenes were shot on nearby Seal Beach. The show was co-produced by NBC and Spelling Television. Sunset Beach won two Daytime Emmy Awards and was nominated another eleven times. The show also received twenty-two nominations for various other awards.


Madres egoístas
1991
country: Mexico
Madres egoístas is a Mexican telenovela produced by Juan Osorio for Televisa and originally broadcast on Canal de las Estrellas from February 4 to June 7, 1991. It is a remake of the 1963 telenovela of the same name produced by Valentín Pimstein. Created by Mimí Bechelani and adapted by Josefina Palos y Romo, the telenovela stars Julieta Rosen, Enrique Novi, Orlando Carrió, and Chantal Andere. The story follows Raquel Rivas Cantú, a young orphan and heiress who is raised by her housekeeper Mariana, a woman who secretly carries resentment against the Rivas Cantú family. After marrying Pablo, a widower with a daughter, Raquel's life becomes marked by tragedy, family conflicts, and betrayal. As secrets from the past emerge, Raquel and her loved ones must face revenge, ambition, and the search for justice and happiness.


In aller Freundschaft
1998
country: Germany
German soap opera about the staff of the fictional hospital "Sachsenklinik" in the city of Leipzig.


Between Us
1994
country: Germany
Unter uns is a German television soap opera, first broadcast on RTL on 28 November 1994. Centered around the lives of the people in a residential house, which is set in the fictional Schillerallee in Cologne. Since the show debuted the baker's family Weigel is the series core family. Unter uns isn't based on a foreign soap opera like Verbotene Liebe or Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten. After Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten, the show was the second daily soap for RTL, followed years later in 2006 by Alles was zählt. The show aired its 3,500th episode on 30 December 2008.


Hollyoaks
1995
country: United Kingdom
The daily soap that follows the loves, lives and misdemeanours of a group of people living in the Chester village of Hollyoaks where anything could, and frequently does, happen...


Hvide løgne
1998
country: Denmark
No overview available


Passions
1999
country: United States
Passions is an American television soap opera which aired on NBC from July 5, 1999 to September 7, 2007 and on The 101 Network from September 17, 2007 to August 7, 2008. Passions follows the lives and loves, and various romantic and paranormal adventures of the residents of Harmony. Story-lines center around the interactions among members of its multi-racial core families — the African American Russells, white Cranes and Bennetts, and half-Mexican half-Irish Lopez-Fitzgeralds — as well as the supernatural including town witch Tabitha Lenox. Created by writer James E. Reilly and produced by NBC Studios, the series was subsequently picked up by direct broadcast satellite service DirecTV, which broadcast new episodes airing on its exclusive channel The 101. In December 2007, DirecTV decided not to renew its contract for the series, and the studio was unable to sell the show elsewhere. The final episode aired on DirecTV on August 7, 2008.


Dawson's Creek
1998
country: United States
Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama that portrays the fictional lives of a close-knit group of teenagers through high school and college.


Walking the Clouds
1999
country: Brazil
The adventures of a man with amnesia who struggles to rediscover his past while learning to live in the present.


White Lies
1997
country: Sweden
Vita lögner is a Swedish soap opera that aired on TV3,. The plot focused on the social life of the hospital staff and families in the fictional town of Strömsvik. Vita lögner was TV3's first big soap opera hit after Kanal5 bought Vänner och fiender from them in 1997. Many big stars in Sweden have done roles in the show, among them Alexander Skarsgård, Petra Hultgren, Anna Järphammar and Maud Adams. Charlotte Perrelli had a bigger role as Milla Svensson during 1997-1998. It was after Kanal5 bought the rights to Vänner och fiender and TV3 saw what a huge success the show was for the channel that they decided to produce Vita lögner to compete over the same time slot.


Shortland Street
1992
country: New Zealand
The lives and loves of the residents of Ferndale.


Isidingo
1998
country: South Africa
South African soap opera centering around the lives of the wealthy Haines family, the Matabanes, and the lives of the inhabitants of the mining town Horizon Deep.


Wild Angel
1998
country: Argentina
An orphan who's working in a Mansion, falls in love with the owners' son.


Chiquititas
1995
country: Argentina
The series focuses about orphans living in a manor, known as Rincón de Luz, where they're guided by a young woman that represents a maternal figure for them.


Für alle Fälle Stefanie
1995
country: Germany
Für alle Fälle Stefanie is an German medical drama television series created by Werner Krämer that aired on Sat.1 from May 15, 2005 to August 29, 2005. It was produced by Novafilm Fernsehproduktion. Für alle Fälle Stefanie follows the professional and personal life of nurse Stefanie Engel, then Stephanie Wilde and for a short time Fanny 'Stephanie' Stephan. The show was a giant success for the network and had around seven, in later years, five million viewers on a weekly basis. It won the Goldene Kamera award in 1997 and the Bavarian TV Award in 1996.


Amazônia
1991
country: Brazil
No overview available


Verbotene Liebe
1995
country: Germany
Verbotene Liebe is a German television soap opera Verbotene Liebe was initially based on original story and character outlines from the Australian soap opera Sons and Daughters, before evolving into a show of its own as the series progressed. The show originally focused on two core families: the wealthy Anstetten family and the middle-class Brandner family. More specifically, it dealt with the story of Jan Brandner and Julia von Anstetten, two strangers whose fascination for each other leads them to fall in love, neither of them cognizant of the fact that they are twins separated by their parents. It is this story of forbidden love that gave the series its title.


Familie
1991
country: Belgium
'Familie' is the longest running Belgian soap opera. The Van den Bossches originally had an electronics company, later a holding company that included a clothing chain and a sandwich shop. In the meantime, we closely follow the personal lives of the Van den Bossches and their entourage. Grandma Anna and all her children and grandchildren have been through a lot over time and it doesn't look like their lives will become calmer any time soon.


The City
1995
country: United States
The City is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from November 13, 1995 to March 28, 1997. The show follows the loves and lives of the survivors of the Corinth Serial Killer as they all moved from the Pennsylvania town of Corinth to an apartment building in New York's SoHo district. The show was a spinoff of Loving, also co-created by Agnes Nixon and head writers, Barbara Esensten and James Harmon Brown. The show won two Daytime Emmy Awards in 1996.


Felicity
1998
country: United States
Felicity Porter, a sensitive and intelligent girl from the San Francisco Bay Area, decides to give up a slot at Stanford University's pre-med program to follow her long time crush to college in New York City. Things get even more complicated when she meets her dorm's resident advisor and they fall in love.


Jequitibá
1993
country: Brazil
Jose Inocencio had innocence only as part of his name, but only those who new him well could notice this. But nobody knew him. He was a storyteller, and he was always the main character in the stories he told. He managed not only to create stories about himself, he managed to create a legend. The story of this powerful cacao farmer; Maria Santa, the beloved wife who died; and their four children is the main theme of 'Renascer'.


Hurricane
1997
country: Mexico
Huracán is a Mexican telenovela shown in Mexico from October 13, 1997 to March 27, 1998, starring with the late Jorge Russek, Fernando Balzaretti, and Eduardo Palomo.


Cara & Coroa
1995
country: Brazil
Fernanda and Vivi are identical, but from different worlds. A cruel plan swaps their identities and transforms their lives into a game of lies and ambition.
Paradise Beach
Paradise Beach
1993
country: United States
Paradise Beach is an Australian television series made by Village Roadshow Pictures. It is associated with New World Television for the Nine Network that aired between 1993 and 1994. The series is set around characters living and working on Queensland's Gold Coast and was filmed largely on location, offering views of crashing waves, golden beaches and scantily clad young women and men. Paradise Beach was intended not only as a rival to Australian soaps Neighbours and Home and Away but also to be the first breakthrough Australian soap to make it in America.


Pantanal
1990
country: Brazil
No overview available


Goenkale
1994
country: Spain
Goenkale is a Basque soap-opera, produced by Pausoka Entertainment and ETB, which is broadcast every Monday and Tuesday on Basque Radio-television's first channel, ETB 1. Set up in an imaginary Basque seaside town, the title of the serial is the name of the main street in that town. First broadcast in 1994, almost 3,000 episodes have been made so far, and it is one of the most successful programmes of ETB 1. In the beginning every chapter lasted 30 minutes and they were broadcast from Monday to Friday. Then the Friday episode was removed. Since 2004 two one hour long episodes are broadcast every Monday and Tuesday. Then thirty-minute episodes are repeated in the afternoon everyday.


Na dobre i na złe
1999
country: Poland
Na dobre i na złe is a Polish television medical drama series, broadcast on TVP2 since November 7, 1999. Currently in its 15th season and with over 520 episodes, it is the longest-running primetime drama on Polish TV. The show revolves around the lives of doctors and patients of a hospital in Leśna Góra near Warsaw. Na dobre i na złe has been very popular among the viewers, despite recent criticism on its lack of originality. It won the "Telekamery" award for the best TV series in 2001, 2002 and 2003.


Skilda världar
1996
country: Sweden
Skilda världar was a Swedish soap opera from 1996-2002 about two families in Stockholm and their friends. One rich family and one poor and about Daniel and Sandra who are from the two families and fall in love. Later in the series it is discovered that Daniel and Sandra are twins. The series goes further and further away from their story and goes more towards the hate from all characters against Rebecka who is trying to destroy the relationship between Sandra and Daniel. Skilda världar is one of TV4's most watched shows in history and was the longest running daily soap opera in Swedish television. The series was based on the 1980s Australian soap opera, Sons and Daughters.


Chiquititas
1997
country: Argentina
Chiquititas is a Brazilian children's musical telenovela co-produced by SBT and Telefe and originally broadcast on SBT from July 28, 1997, to January 19, 2001. Based on the original Argentine telenovela created by Cris Morena, it was adapted for Brazilian television by Ecila Pedroso for the first season and Caio de Andrade for the subsequent seasons. Starring Flávia Monteiro, Fernanda Souza, and a large ensemble cast, the series ran for five seasons and became one of the most successful children's productions in Brazilian television history. The story follows a group of orphaned children living at the Raio de Luz orphanage, where they find love, friendship, and hope under the care of the kind-hearted Carolina "Carol" Correia. As the children face abandonment, family conflicts, first love, and personal challenges, they rely on music, imagination, and friendship to overcome adversity while dreaming of finding a family and a brighter future.
1990s television was the last era of true mass audiences, when a network sitcom or a season finale could be a shared national event.
Soap opera is television's most enduring form — continuing serials built on relationships, reversals, and an audience that returns for decades. Its storytelling grammar quietly underpins most modern serialized drama.