Masters of the Sea (TV series)

Masters of the Sea was a 1994 Singapore English drama series produced by the Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS) (now Mediacorp) based on The Bold and the Beautiful series from United States. It was the first full-length Singapore English drama series to be produced in Singapore. It officially began on Wednesday, 12 October 1994 to Wednesday, 5 April 1995. This drama serial consists of 26 episodes. It began production on 1 March 1994 and completed on 30 June 1994 durated 4 months. This drama was aired on Singapore's national free-to-air terrestrial channel by Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS) (now Mediacorp) Channel 5 every Wednesday from 10:00pm to 10:30pm SST, with a duration of 30 minutes, before News 5 Tonight, with audio language localised into Singapore English/Singlish dubbed. The series starred Wong Li-Lin, Ng Chin Han, Irene Ng, Bryan Wong, Lim Kay Tong and Donald Li.

Reception
Masters of the Sea was derided by some as "fairly disastrous". One of the criticisms was that it portrayed an elderly Chinese Singaporean and Malay Singaporean woman wearing the wrong costumes and ornaments and speaking the wrong phrases. The soap opera was accused of plagiarizing American television soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.

The creator of Masters of the Sea, Joanne Brough, mentioned in 1995 that it was "too ambitious for a first effort", due to having a larger cast and not enough time to develop plots in a limited 30-minute episode. TCS executive Daniel Yun said in 1997 that the failure was because the foreign consultants did not understand the local context, and called it a "half-baked Singaporean attempt". Despite that, the experiences helped TCS to produce later serials, including Triple Nine and Growing Up.

Broadcast
In Indonesia, Masters of the Sea was aired on Indonesian public free-to-air terrestrial television by TVRI Jakarta (simulcast in Batam). It officially opened on Wednesday, 12 October 1994 to Wednesday, 5 April 1995 every Wednesday from 9:00pm to 9:30pm WIB before delayed programme of Dunia Dalam Berita with dual audio language localised into Singapore English/Singlish and Singaporean Mandarin/Singdarin dubbed and no commercial based in all Batam Islands/Batam and surrounding areas due to Indonesia–Singapore relations and Indonesia–Singapore border.

In Malaysia, Masters of the Sea was aired on Malaysian public broadcasting|public free-to-air terrestrial television by RTM Malaysia 3. It officially opened on Wednesday, 12 October 1994 to Wednesday, 5 April 1995 every Wednesday from 10:00pm to 10:30pm MST before Dunia Jam 10 with dual audio language localised into Singapore English/Singlish and Singaporean Mandarin/Singdarin dubbed and no commercial based in all Johor Bahru/Johor Bahru District and surrounding areas due to Malaysia–Singapore relations and Malaysia–Singapore border.