Post by Difficult Diva on Jul 14, 2011 16:47:42 GMT -5
TV Guide's Michael Logan interviews Carolyn Hinsey about her new book on soaps, Afternoon Delight: Why Soaps Still Matter and there's a part that I thought would interest folks on this forum.
www.tvguide.com/News/Afternoon-Delight-Carolyn-Hinsey-1035249.aspx
This is the type of mentality that has basically put US daytime tv into the grave within the past 20 years.
www.tvguide.com/News/Afternoon-Delight-Carolyn-Hinsey-1035249.aspx
TV Guide Magazine: You know you're going to get a lot of crap for the chapter called "Gays of Our Lives," right? You throw down the gauntlet and insist that gay characters can't work successfully in daytime.
Hinsey: There are a number of obstacles, one of the main ones being that soap opera storytelling spins around unwanted pregnancy. That's the reason birth control is zero percent ineffective in daytime and the reason gay characters have not worked in the past. Gay people don't have babies by accident. That whole arc of storytelling can't exist with gay characters. Now if you're creative, you can find another way to tell a good story, but with the exception of Bianca on AMC, that usually doesn't happen. They crafted that story well. They had Erica not understanding Bianca's orientation, which reflected the thoughts of many viewers. They had Greenlee being a mean girl and calling her Lesbianca, which made us feel sorry for Bianca and pretty soon we were rooting for the character. Then came Bianca and Maggie, and Lianca. It was perfectly done and people were invested. One of the problems you ran into with Kish on OLTL was that the gay community didn't think it was enough — they were resentful that their story was only on two days a week. The gay community had to be mindful that there were a lot of people in Middle America who did not want to see two men kissing or having a love scene on daytime TV.
Hinsey: There are a number of obstacles, one of the main ones being that soap opera storytelling spins around unwanted pregnancy. That's the reason birth control is zero percent ineffective in daytime and the reason gay characters have not worked in the past. Gay people don't have babies by accident. That whole arc of storytelling can't exist with gay characters. Now if you're creative, you can find another way to tell a good story, but with the exception of Bianca on AMC, that usually doesn't happen. They crafted that story well. They had Erica not understanding Bianca's orientation, which reflected the thoughts of many viewers. They had Greenlee being a mean girl and calling her Lesbianca, which made us feel sorry for Bianca and pretty soon we were rooting for the character. Then came Bianca and Maggie, and Lianca. It was perfectly done and people were invested. One of the problems you ran into with Kish on OLTL was that the gay community didn't think it was enough — they were resentful that their story was only on two days a week. The gay community had to be mindful that there were a lot of people in Middle America who did not want to see two men kissing or having a love scene on daytime TV.
This is the type of mentality that has basically put US daytime tv into the grave within the past 20 years.
