7de Laan
| 7de Laan | |
|---|---|
Seventh Avenue (Sewende laan) logo
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| Created by | Danie Odendaal |
| Country of origin | South Africa |
| No. of seasons | 18 |
| No. of episodes | 3916 (as of 11 november 2016) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 min (including commercial breaks) |
| Distributor | SABC2 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
7de Laan is a South African Afrikaans soap opera created by Danie Odendaal and produced by Danie Odendaal Productions. The series is set in and around the fictional 7de Laan (Sewende Laan or 7th Avenue) in the suburb of Hillside, Johannesburg, where the characters live and work. The programme's dialogue is primarily in Afrikaans and is subtitled in English with some English and Zulu dialogue in between. The street and shopfronts which are featured on the opening visuals, are that of Seventh Street in Melville, Johannesburg.
Odendaal originally conceived of the series when he was a resident of the Melville section of Johannesburg. At the time, Odendaal would watch the people of his community over breakfast and a cup of coffee at his favourite coffee shop. He would make up fictitious characters based on what he saw.
The working title for the show was Die Koffikan (The Coffee Pot). Later it was renamed Hoe Meer Dae… (How many days), but the name was considered too similar to the American soap opera, Days of Our Lives. Eventually, the title 7de Laan was chosen because it reflects a place where people live and work and because it is a common street name in South Africa.
The series made its debut on Tuesday, 4 April 2000, on South African public television network SABC 2. Initially, the series was broadcast on Tuesday only, then on Tuesday and Thursday, and eventually five days a week, Monday to Friday.
In April 2010, 7de Laan celebrated ten years on television. During this month, viewers got to see pictures of the show through its ten years during the end credits of each episode. On 9 May 2013, episode number 3,000 was broadcast. On 20 October 2016, the series broadcast its 3,900th episode. The 4,000th episode is anticipated to air in March 2017.
In 2009 7de Laan received 1.95 million viewers per episode. In 2015, ratings were considered "still big but flat." To improve the ratings, the show underwent changes in 2015, including a new theme song, opening credits, and sets. At the time, almost half (45,3%) of the soap's viewership across all race groups was older than 50 years of age.
In 2016, it was reported that the series was considered to be in "an ongoing ratings slide" but still drew 1.8 million viewers in September 2016 and was the 7th most popular programme on SABC 2.
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