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Thursday, December 10, 2009

JOSE MIRANDA CRUZ' S "HIWAGA SA BAHAY NA BATO" (1962-63): LOCAL TV FIRST TELESERYE


"Hiwaga sa Bahay na Bato" (1962-63)/ Written and Directed by Jose Miranda Cruz/ Stars Dalton de Castro, Flora Cristobal, Eva Darren, Teddy Santos, Noel Nolasco, Estela Grande, Lita delos Reyes, Baby Bernardo, Ernesto Fajardo, Lina Chico and Ben David

We had our first television set sometime in 1961 or 62, a black-and-white RCA Victor (there's no color TV that time). I remember rotating the knob and tuning to Channel 3, watching old tagalog classics or Channel 7, with Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 or reruns of Popeye animated cartoons. At this time, ABS-CBN Channel 3 premiered the first TV soap opera titled Hiwaga sa Bahay na Bato. It was aired from Monday to Saturday, 6:30 to 7:00 pm. That was in the latter part of 1962 and as a little boy, I was horrified seeing a monstrous and disfigured hunchback who lived beneath the stone house unknown to the owner, a filthy rich hacendero (played by Dalton de Castro). The hunchback was played by a radio talent, Ben David, who later became popular for being overacting or "OA." He was known portraying Judas or Hudas in Lenten plays and would burst with phrases like “O…Hindi…” or “ngingit ng mga pangit”

Ben David’s love interest was the very young Eva Darren, who up to now is appearing in TV soaps (now called telenovelas or teleseryes). I considered Darren one of the pioneers as far as TV soap operas are concerned.


Hiwaga
ran for about 4 to 5 months, from September 1962 to January 1963. It was one of the most successful early soap operas and made unheralded Director Jose Miranda Cruz a household name. Cruz went on to do more soap operas--- Prinsipeng Tulisan, Hanggang May Buhay, Larawan ng Pag-ibig, among others.






Courtesy of ABS-CBN

3 comments:

TheCoolCanadian said...

Simon:

Didn't Miranda-Cruz also did the radio and TV drama GABI NG LAGIM with Ben David? I guess it was near mid 1960s?

As a child, I remember watching a Gabi ng Lagim on TV and the set was very crude, the crosses and the graves in the cemetery were obviously made of card boards. Just a few years later, the set were done more realistically when Architects began working as set designers. In fact, in the early 1970s a TV station built its own TV town for the the daily soap MALYERBA (a contraction of two Spanish words: Mala & hierba), directed by Tony Santos Sr.

Unknown said...

sir lagay po namin kayo sa citation sa study namin please?

Unknown said...

Oh hinde!

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