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Mujer, Casos de la Vida Real
Format	Unitary
Country of origin	Mexico
Production
Running time	1 hour
Broadcast
Original channel	Canal de Las Estrellas (XEW-TV)
Original run	1985 – present

Mujer, Casos de La Vida Real is a unitary television show produced by Hispanic television giant Televisa. The show first emerged shortly after the Mexican earthquake of 1985 as a method to assist victims of the natural disaster. Though its conception was not exactly intended, Televisa decided to keep the concept of the program after seeing the outpouring of response from the Mexican public. Throughout its first few years, the show presented lighthearted themes, such as love stories and lost loves, as during the 1980s, such topics as domestic violence had still not been accepted in Mexican society. One such program from this time depicted a man shutting up a woman and threatening to beat her. But with the turn of the decade, the themes of the show took a more gritty turn, presenting more and more cases of rape, incest, child abuse, prostitution, domestic violence, and other elements of life that turned it into a haven for the preaching of social reform in Mexico. With these changes, the show was usually first in line to discuss topics that were usually kept out of the public eye.

Contents 1 Formats 2 Casos de La Vida Real: Edicion Especial 3 Similar programs 4 Recent news 5 Contact

[edit] Formats

The original format of the show usually consisted of two cases per episode, though some one hour 'special cases' were presented from time to time. In each episode, Silvia Pinal would appear before the public and discuss the social aspect surrounding the case the audience was about to view. Afterwards, she would return with comments of the featured characters as well as present her own personal view on what should be done to prevent such events from happening, or, in some cases, what should be done to allow them to happen. In other programs, an expert would appear as a guest to offer advice on what a person should do if they were to find themselves in that situation.

Throughout the 1990s, and a for a period lasting from 2000-2006, this was the format that the show followed, but it was changed in May 2006 with the new mini-series format. Instead of individual cases, various situations were presented in a continuous mini-series that ran throughout the weekdays (Monday - Friday) for one hour each day. This new format brought an end to the usually gritty and at times racy material presented by the program, and instead made way for more representation of the love stories and lost loves that had been presented by the show in its infancy.

Reaction to this new format has been mixed. Many fans argue that now with this new continuous mini-series format, it is not possible to understand the cases without watching every single episode, which many just don't have time for; while other fans argue that the mini-series format allows for a more accurate representation of cases as opposed to the bare minimum used by the thirty-minute individual cases.

[edit] Casos de La Vida Real: Edicion Especial

In the last half of the 1990s and until 2003, Televisa also offered another separate program, a branch of sorts to the Mujer, Casos de La Vida Real franchise. This branch, entitled Cases de La Vida Real: Edicion Especial (Special Edition), offered once-a-month cases which were said to have been more urgent to the production, although not much difference was seen between the 'special edition' branch and the original program by the public itself. This branch presented cases in the same format as the original program, but contained precariously more graphic and explicit material than the original, most likely because this particular branch was usually given a spot much later in the evening than its prodecessor. The special edition was viewed once a month by Mexican audiences

[edit] Similar programs

Based on the success of Mujer, Casos de La Vida Real evident with its more than twenty years of life, Televisa's main competitor created a similar program which they entitled Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres (translated; What We Women Stifle). Though this program basically served the same purpose as the Mujer series, the material was slightly more professional than the low-budget settings offered by Mujer, and the Callamos episodes revolved more around an actual plot aspect rather than simply the case itself.

Nonetheless, Silvia Pinal lashed out at the competing program, claiming it was no more than a complete copy of her own and that audiences would see this and no doubt turn away from it. But with more than five years of life, Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres has proven Pinal's prediction to be wrong, and the program shows no signs of stopping production.

[edit] Recent news

Most recently, news was released that Televisa would only start airing Mujer, Casos de La Vida Real on Saturday evenings starting in January 2008, thus possibly its mini-seris format. At first, it was believed that the show was to be cancelled, but this was later denied by Pinal, who informed the press of the plan for her show, as well as stated that she thought Televisa "knew what it was doing." This news caused excitement among some fans at the possible return of the original format of the show that was most prominent throughout the 1990s, but only time will tell what the show's definite future will be.it has been a great success with opening the eyes of other or in other words like a reflection.

[edit] Contact

The production of the show can be contacted with prospective cases by mail or e-mail.

Once received, prospective cases are reviewed by Pinal and her production team. It is said that the production sends responses to those cases that are not possible for dramatization.