The Riordans' success demonstrated that a soap opera could be filmed largely outdoors, and Yorkshire Television sent people to its set in County Meath to see the programme's production first-hand.

[5][6] The first episode aired on 16 October 1972 at 1:30 pm, and began with the Sugden family convening in the fictional village of Beckindale for the funeral of a relative.

[4] Peter Willes, the then-head of serial dramas at Yorkshire Television, did not like that the soap began with a funeral as he found it to be a "very downbeat way to start" and "a big switch-off".

[6] In the late 1980s, a new production team headed by executive producer Keith Richardson was brought in, and the show's focus moved to the nearby village of Beckindale, with more dramatic storylines such as Pat Sugden's 1986 car crash and the 1988 Crossgill fire.

Richardson produced the programme for 24 years, overseeing its transformation from a minor, daytime, rural drama into a major prime time UK soap opera.

[10] By 1993, Emmerdale was into its third decade on the air and December 1993 saw a major turning point in the show's history, when an episode featured a plane crashing into the village of Beckindale, killing four main characters,[8][6] giving Emmerdale its highest-ever audience of 18 million[8] and marking its transformation into a major prime time soap opera.

[6] The plane crash "allowed the writers to get rid of much dead wood, and reinvent the soap virtually from scratch,"[11] which included survivors changing the village name from "Beckindale" to "Emmerdale".

[15] The early and mid-2000s saw the introduction of major long-term characters, including the King family and Cain (Jeff Hordley) and Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins).

[16] This era also saw high-profile castings such as Patsy Kensit as Sadie King in 2004,[17] and Amanda Donohoe and Maxwell Caulfield as Natasha and Mark Wylde in 2008.

One of Oates' aims was to feature more of the village and rural countryside locations and to bring more "balance" to the show instead of focusing on "a few very high-profile stories".

[25] Major storylines during this period included a helicopter crash that killed Ruby Haswell (Alicya Eyo) and Val Pollard (Charlie Hardwick), and a multi-car pile-up.

[29] Executive producer Jane Hudson said that the episode was "a great opportunity for Emmerdale to show the female talent we have both in front and behind the camera.

[33] She was later confirmed to be a serial killer and has been responsible for the murders of Leanna Cavanagh (Mimi Slinger), Andrea Tate (Anna Nightingale) and Ben Tucker (Simon Lennon).

Radio Times appreciated the writing and acting, as well as how the series has "reinvented itself to turn away from the mundanity of the farm, and into a relevant, powerful and completely gripping soap".

[40] Hudson was replaced internally by Iain Macleod, who was promoted from Coronation Street's executive producer to overseeing both soaps.

[42] The initial cast changes saw short-term characters including Ethan Anderson (Emile John), Nicky Miligan (Lewis Cope) and Suni Sharma (Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana) written out of the soap.

[42] However, they later also removed characters with lengthy tenures, including Amelia Spencer (Daisy Campbell),[43] Wendy Posner (Susan Cookson), Will Taylor (Dean Andrews),[44] Brenda Walker (Lesley Dunlop)[45] and Leyla Harding (Roxy Shahidi).

The top ten, in order of first to tenth, was: the Emmerdale plane crash (1993), the storm that killed Tricia Dingle (Sheree Murphy) on the 10th anniversary of the plane crash (2003), the Hotten bypass crash (2016), Belle Dingle's (Eden Taylor-Draper) mental health battle (2016), the mirror maze which led to Val Pollard's (Charlie Hardwick) death (2015), Ashley Thomas' (John Middleton) battle with dementia (2016), the post office robbery (1994), Dave Glover's (Ian Kelsey) death (1996), Ross Barton's (Michael Parr) acid attack (2018) and the 40th anniversary episode which saw Carl King's (Tom Lister) death, two births and a wedding (2012).

Producers of the soap explained that "each hour-long episode on Tuesday will be specially written and won't be two half-hour ones put together.

In March 2020, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, filming was suspended, and the episodes transmitted per week were decreased to three on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

[65] In January 2022, it was announced that after 32 years, Emmerdale's transmission time would move to 7:30 pm, due to the ITV Evening News receiving a longer duration, with Thursday's episodes merged into one hour-long slot.

[72] The programme appears in Finland on MTV3 where it attracts an average of 200,000 to 250,000 viewers per episode, making it the most watched non-Finnish every-weekday program in Finnish television.

Laffan and the researchers found his farm ideal for scenes and the location was large enough for cast and crew members to park their vehicles there.

Yorkshire Television promised Peel to keep his identity and the location of his farm a secret, but viewers eventually discovered both and would visit in the hopes of meeting the cast there.

[8] On 27 May 1997, 13 million viewers saw Frank Tate (Norman Bowler) die of a heart attack after the return of wife Kim (Claire King).

Zoe Tate (Leah Bracknell) left the show after 16 years on 22 September 2005 before 8.58 million viewers, marking her departure by blowing up Home Farm.

Sadie King (Patsy Kensit) and Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) left on 21 September 2006, before an audience of 8.57 million viewers.

In March 2022, Leeds Live compiled a list of top storylines that viewers were disgusted by, with the list including Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) having sex with an underage Ollie Reynolds (Vicky Binns), Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) having a baby with her second-cousin Cain, Aaron Livesy (Danny Miller) assisting a quadriplegic Jackson Walsh (Marc Silcock) to die, Maya Stepney (Louisa Clein) grooming step-son Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) and Pierce Harris (Jonathan Wrather) raping Rhona Goskirk (Zoë Henry).

[92] Duncan Lindsay of the Metro described Meena as "the most unique and entertaining soap villain ever" and admitted that he wanted her to get away with her crimes due to her strong presence on Emmerdale.

[93] Many viewers praised Meena, and credited her with being the most interesting part of Emmerdale, while some complained about the violence shown in her murderous scenes, with Ofcom receiving hundreds of complaints about her brutality.