SOAP OPERAS ABOUT RICH SCORE BIG ON BRITISH TV

The trials and tribulations of the wealthy in Texas and Colorado may not appear to be sure-fire TV fodder for British audiences, but “Dallas” and “Dynasty” have picked up a big following here.

“Wealth, power and sex is always a powerful formula,” said David Platt, a senior programming assistant for the British Broadcasting Corp., the publicly financed organization that funds the BBC1 and BBC2 channels.

Platt said part of the popularity of ABC-TV’s “Dynasty” was that it stars actress Joan Collins, who is British. “Dallas” was first shown on the BBC in 1977, when “the whole idea of a glossy soap opera was new,” Platt said. Its success contradicts traditional assumptions about the sorts of American shows that go over well in England.

“Usually, when an American show doesn’t go here, it comes down to literary reasons,” Platt said. “I remember someone saying that in America they make moving pictures and here they make talking pictures.

“With soap operas and all that intrigue, the writing is not nearly so important,” Platt continued.

But not all American shows make it to England.

“If the show is strictly about things like the Civil War or American ethnics or baseball, it’s unlikely that we’ll buy it,” said Leslie Halliwell, a buyer for the advertising-funded Independent Television Network and for Channel 4, Britain’s fourth--and newest--channel, launched in 1982.

Halliwell goes to Los Angeles twice a year to purchase new American material for Britain. He primarily brings back action series, since Britain has so many comedies of its own.

Of the situation comedies that do make it here, the series considered commercially safer are aired over ITV and BBC1.

“Happy Days” bucked expectations by crossing the comedy barrier to “become part of the furniture” locally, Halliwell said.

Some American series actually do better in England than they do back home, encouraging American suppliers to continue filming an otherwise shaky prospect.

The series “Fame,” a show about teen-age show-biz hopefuls at the High School of Performing Arts in New York, was continued by MGM partly on the strength of its foreign sales. The show, though canceled by NBC after the 1982-83 season, is still producing originals for syndicated U.S. distribution.