September 5, 1989 Digest.
Generations Report Card and review, by John Kelly Genovese.
Acting C-
Storytelling D
Romance C
Innovation B-
GENERATIONS: Black and White - and Bland
GENERATIONS was touted in press releases as the show that would catapult daytime drama into the 1990s. "Black and white - in color," the on-air promos blared. Naturally, we waited anxiously for the show which would ultimately elevate the serial art form.
The opening credits are certainly a grabber - fast-moving photos of various points of American history (the industrial revolution, the Kennedy years, etcetera) are flashed on the screen while a jazzy, Scott Joplin-esque theme plays in the background. It sure beats an hourglass. The structure of GENERATIONS is also novel. For the first time in network soap opera history, one of the two core families - the Marshalls - is black. They mingle with the white Whitmores in friendship and business - and probably, in the future, in romance. This is a long overdue premise, allowing for no built-in excuses as to why black characters "ran out of story line' or "were difficult to assimilate with the rest of the show."
What isn't novel is the treatment GENERATIONS gives these characters and their surrounding issues. Outside of the basic premise, we have yet to see anything new here - not to mention exciting.
Granted, a new show must take time initially to introduce its characters. The audience must fully savor who the people are, what they want out of life and why it is so important that they have it. Unfortunately, after six months, the characters on GENERATIONS are still explaining themselves with very little of consequence going on. This would be more tolerable if the characters were given revealing monologues (instead of lengthy voiceovers, which are not only distracting but an antiquated technique) about what it was like growing up in Chicago; poetic glimpses into a character the way Claire Labine (former head writer of RYAN's HOPE) and Douglas Marland (AS THE WORLD TURNS's head writer) do so beautifully. The Marshalls and the Whitmores merely sit and chat about their family backgrounds, constantly hitting the audience over the head with their value systems and beliefs. It is almost as though GENERATIONS provides the facts about its characters, without character.
An incredible amount of time is spent discussing career moves. Rebecca Whitmore (Patricia Crowley) agonized endlessly about her long-awaited law partnership. Entire episodes centered on the impending ice cream partnership between self-made, down-to-earth Henry Marshall (Taurean Blacque) and slick Martin Jackson (Rick Fitts). The clincher of the ice cream deal - a game of pool - was enough to make George Jefferson look like Donald Trump. This is supposed to be a flattering, accurate representation of successful black people?
GENERATIONS also made much ado about whether Samantha ("Sam" ) Whitmore (Kelly Rutherford) would graduate from college. Frankly, this young lady is so obnoxious, we wouldn't have put it past Miss Frances to expel her from DING DONG SCHOOL. The bomb scare at her graduation ceremony could have served as a wonderful climax, kicking off a racially motivated mystery story and/or heavy romance.Instead, it was merely a prank pulled by a lovesick nerd.
The most irritating quality about GENERATIONS, however, is the day-to-day script writing. This soap is not of the 1990s, but of the early 1970s. Social-climber Ruth Marshall (Joan Pringle) clicks her tongue to hr mother, Vivian (Lynn Hamilton) about the new living arrangement between son Adam (Kristoff St. John), Sam Whitmore and Sam's cousin, Monique McCallum (Nancy Sorel). Vivian shakes her head and sighs, "It's this new generation. Why, in my day, there'd be tongues a-waggin." Aw, shucks. Henry's South Side background comes out when he visits Martin and his flirtatious, addiction-prone wife, Doreen (Jonelle Allen). When Martin invites him to play a game of billiards, Henry whoops, "Mmm-mmm-mmm, this is sho' one beauty-ful pool table!" Wonder if he gets invited back. And the young people all speak in early YOUNG AND RESTLESS lingo. There is a lot of "Cool it, man," "She's laid a hell of a trip on me," and "That's the understatement of the century."
When there is mystery surrounding a character, it is drummed into the audience incessantly. Monique's romance with Jason Craig (Tony Addabbo) should draw cheers from her relatives, but they immediately assume - with no basis - that something's rotten: "Who is this man? What's his background? This is your first serious boyfriend and we don't know a thing about him!" Considering the level at which GENERATIONS operates, one can only imagine Jason's horrifying secret. Maybe he was Henry's first ice cream distributor, and he purposely substituted Tabasco Walnut Fudge for Rocky Road to get back at Henry for beating his father at pool.
For all of these harsh words, our purpose is not to damn GENERATIONS as a bad show or a waste of air time. Its premise is original and its cast is reasonably good for a new soap, but the pace is simply too slow - and the dialogue too stultifying - for any of these performers to truly shine and grow in their roles. There is a disturbing self-consciousness that creeps into this show about "issues" like upwardly mobile blacks, older working women or two sexes cohabiting in a platonic environment - when, truth be told, it's old news.
In order to succeed and fulfill its promise, GENERATIONS needs to go in either one of two directions: It can become a daring, topical soap about race relations; exploring the ramifications of radical pressure groups, AIDS and violent city crime on the two families. Or, it can become a traditional family-based serial in which one family just happens to be black, a la COSBY's Huxtable clan. Either way, GENERATIONS could carve a niche for itself, developing its own unique style. As of this writing, however, GENERATIONS is still trying to find itself. And for all of Marshall's ice cream flavors, it's still afraid to sample anything other than vanilla.
