The Harrisonburg High School broadcast class has come up with some pretty great videos over the years, from Mr. Nipe’s fashion police to the Captain Planet commercial. The most recent addition to the broadcast archive is Una Telenovela, a spoof on popular Hispanic soap operas.

The idea for Una Telenovela: Love, Lust, and Lies, was conceived by seniors Emmett Copeland and Joanna Hernandez, and junior Paul Hairston, at the end of the last school year. Copeland and Hairston credit Hernandez with having the original idea.

“Telenovelas are ridiculously sappy, stereotypical Spanish language soap operas. And they’re just not parodied enough in pop culture,” Copeland said.

Last Friday the first episode of Una Telenovela aired. The episode was filmed the day before in Hernandez’s neighborhood pool, located across the street from her house. The episode established the complex love triangle the show is about. There are three main characters in the show: Cesar, played by Copeland, Pablito, played by Hairston, and Christina, played by Hernandez. Cesar and Christina are in a serious relationship, but the irresistible charms of Pablito are tearing Christina from Cesar. The end of the pilot shows Pablito looking at Christina, whispering, “Soon, senorita. Soon.” The episode ended with a stereotypical “To Be Continued.”

“I have been enjoying it so far,” Copeland said. “I’ve heard a few good things from a few people, and that’s enough for me.”

Hernandez agrees that Una Telenovela has received mostly positive feedback.

“All the reactions I’ve received are pretty positive. I mean, people even stay quiet during that part of the broadcast. People have asked me about it in the halls, they’ve told me the show should run every day. So I think, for the most part, people are either neutral or positive about [Una Telenovela],” Hernandez said.

The second episode of the series aired Friday morning during second block. The episode featured a new character, Cesar’s uncle (played by senior Jack Burden), who dined with the young couple. After the uncle insulted Christina’s wine, she ran out of the room in tears, directly into the arms of Pablito, where she was comforted. This incident only enhanced the love triangle; however, Cesar is still clueless.

While all the characters are considered funny in their own ways, Copeland concedes that Hairston’s character, Pablito, is probably the funniest. Hernandez disagrees.

“I think Emmett and Paul are equally funny, but in different ways,” Hernandez said. “Paul is more funny in a goofy way; he does goofy really well. Emmett is really good at making everything Telenovela-like, which is really funny and important to the show.”

There is no set-in-stone episode limit, but the trio are banking on nine episodes right now. But, as Copeland admits, the show will most likely end when the ideas run out. Hairston has a different take.

“The show will run until the people want no more,” Hairston said. To Hairston the likelihood of the cast running out of ideas is very slim.

“This is a general soap opera, so I guess there’s a brick wall we could run into, but it’s a pretty cheesy plot, so we can flush it out pretty easily,” Hairston said.

But for the cast of Una Telenovela: Love, Lust, and Lies, the end is far off in the future. Right now they are just concentrating on making the next episode as funny as possible.

“It’s just really fun to be a part of the show, and it’s great to do something like that for a grade. [Broadcast teacher Seth] Statford’s been really great, giving us a lot of artistic license. Plus this is great practice for my career in film,” Copeland said.

“It’s just so fun filming,” Hernandez said. “I get a stomach-ache from laughing everytime. Plus, Emmett, Paul and Jack are really fun to work with.”

Paul has a slightly different take on why he enjoys filming Una Telenovela.

“The finger mustaches are great,” Hairston said.

Below is the pilot episode of Una Telenovela.