AMC spoiler from yahoo news...

[JER Soaps Fan]

If you're asking me whether I'd be offended, then I'd say no, I wouldn't. If you're asking me whether I'd watch, then I'd also probably say, "No, I wouldn't." These days, soaps really have to hook the viewer, in my opinion, with something meaty. This "Zarf" character is It! Just like "Passions" -- if NBC gets over themselves -- will see that Chad's coming 'down low' storyline is It for that show.

[Nixsoaps]

I think judging what we haven't seen yet is a bit premature. Many know that AMC's writers have this amazing ablity to mess everything up. But, I am hopefull that they do take the advice of the people they had come in and advise them on the situation.

I also do not think that the whole s/l will be ditched if it did not go over well with the fans. I think it would be the surgery that would come to a hault. Or at least it wouldn't be anything shown such as the walk into the surgery or the time after when Zarf would be in the hospital.

Can this save AMC, it's going to take more than this s/l to save the show.

[alwaysAMC]

I think we should all wait and watch to see how the writing for it is before judging.

There is potential. I can't wait to see how it all goes. I think the casting is perfect - Carlson impressed me in his 1 day on the show this summer as a dayplayer...and he looks the part (sorry if that sounds rude). Anyway there is potential.

[leevo64]

There is a whole lot of potential, but I think that the first change Zarf needs to make is to his name. ZARF?

[alwaysAMC]

haha - well when he was just a dayplayer - it made more sense bc he was an extroverted, flamboyant rockstar - so it made sense....maybe we'll find out that's not his real birth name.

But yeah - Spike, Zarf...what's next? haha

[DruRocks]

Yep, they're entering B&B territory with the interesting names.

[leevo64]

Yeah, I remember Whipple Jones. :-D

[alwaysAMC]

Perez Hilton just put up a thing on his website about Zarf and AMC's upcoming transgender storyline. It's garnering lots of buzz!

He made a joke - saying something about how AMC needs to get Janet Reno on the show as his older tranny mentor! lol

[Mr. Brightside]

I'm really uneducation when it comes to the transgendered...so is Zarf a man who is going to become a woman OR was Zarf previously a woman who is now a man?

[alwaysAMC]

I think they are going with Zarf was born a man in love with women, but wants to be a woman and be a lesbian....ah, I don't know - I'm confused. It'll make more sense when we finally see it on screen this week. lol But I think he's going to become a woman during the storyline.

[Mr. Brightside]

Thanks for your help. It really is confusing? I don't watch AMC but I agree that they should just give her a normal lesbian romance than turn it into this big thing. Gosh, god forbid that Erica Kane's daughter settles down with a woman.

[bellcurve]

This is BS!

This storyline is a copout for Bianca having a relationship with a born female.

I don't care if it sounds Transgender-Phobic. It's a total copout!

[AMCGio83]

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Underline

This SL sounds pretty stupid. It's NOT AMC. It's crap. PLEASE PLEASE let's get the characters we know and love in stories.

[rsmith2k2]

Yes, we don't know the absolute details yet, but for those wondering how well it will be written, just look above.

Bianca's magic kiss (though no doubt they are very nice indeed) makes Zarf (triggers) realize he's a lesbian trapped in a man's body? Oh for f.u.c.k.'s sake. Great messages about transgenders already!

*chickens clucking*

What'd it take less than a week for them to set up the back off wiggle-room?

Besides this being used as a device to avoid Bianca's actual lesbian love life as others have mentioned, I worry, if poorly written and odds are definitely on that, transgenders may suffer in their representation and acceptance as well. I've known lots of transgendered folks in my life and want them to have good representation and storytelling on Daytime TV but not with Bianca right now (in lieu of a lesbian love interest) and not at AMC considering the current climate.

The fans are in a state of justified revolt and are upset about veteran cast cuts. Zarf's gonna take the brunt of that rage so any slip ups in the writing and there's going to be problems. Zarf will be at the center of the blame spiral and what I hate about that (though it may be justified) is it may turn Daytime about writing for trans- characters at all in the future when the real viewer issues will have been much larger than the presence of a transgendered story. It could also have a chilling effect on lesbian-related content, depends how the backlash manifests itself and how big/small it is.

JSF, you may catch enough AMC or have watched enough soap to understand that this story could go wrong and for any number of reasons on any soap. Do you know enough about McTravesty's AMC to comprehend just HOW badly and in just how SICK a fashion it could go wrong?

If Zarf should prove a success, I still doubt the character's longevity on the show, much less how fast to The Backburner Cafe he'll be shipped even if accepted somewhat by the audience. And, should things not go so well with Zarf or how they write his/her relationship to Bianca, I have NO doubt (even if not planning to do so at the moment), that TPTB would make Zarf the serial killer in a NEW YORK MINUTE if they need to ditch him/her.

Remember the big blitz for the Lianca Airport Kiss (first same-sex kiss in Daytime history)? Within three months, McT had taken over the show, Bianca had been raped, impregnated by that rape and separated herself from her lover without a word of explanation.

Going on almost four years later, The Destroyer is still writing...anything is possible. We should ALL be scared. Until our faith in the show was lost, more specifically in the intentions of the writers and the suits, in another time when AMC took its stories of social relevance and progressiveness seriously, before An UnAbortion Walked The Earth, before The Rape of Daytime's First Core Lesbian Character and before the sullying of nearly everything we hold dear about AMC, the viewers may have welcomed this story as one in the long tradition of this once great soap.

Instead, there's recrimination immediately and cynicism. Both deserved in my opinion, but not about transgenders in general or their place in daytime. I am just concerned about the overall objection to bad stories and misplaced emphases at AMC will be turned against transgendered characters by fans and assigned blame by The AMC Brass.

I've already seen a lot of negative swipes around the board about the transgendered around the AMC cyberworld. I think a lot of it is misplaced frustration with the show, but still I hate to see it amongst a group of viewers who've prided themselves as being fans of AMC's socially relevant tradition.

But then McT (and her co-horts) tends to do that....she makes everything ugly.

I am okay with the general themes of self-acceptance, acceptance of others who are different and just having a trans- character on Daytime. But as a Bianca fan brushed off, spit upon, taken for granted, ignored and insulted almost constantly for three or four years and still no fully realized lesbian love story arc....it pisses me off. The trans- story would be a fine adjunct story for Bianca and her current gf/love interest, but no TPTB decide to make trans- the story, Bianca an adjunct and unwanted newbie fluffer, all the while getting some disgusting media play/board buzz with the will they?/won't they? make Binky straight/bi-/suddenly attracted to a transperson.

Making fans happy isn't really all that hard to figure out but AMC gets it wrong again. Now regaining lost, cynical, disgusted fans who finally gave up? Exceedingly difficult outside the short-term gain from gimmicks (and same goes for the ever elusive totally new to soaps, under 30 Frons embarrasses himself and his network in his genuflections to attract their attention).

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One big wild card no one's discussed much though is Eden's ability to sell an esoteric story and a badly written McTavish story (and yes, I am EdenGeek). I still think that a lot of the material McT's had "success" (though I wouldn't personally characterize it that way) worked because Eden and other capable actors elevated a lot of bad material beyond what was on the page. She and Carlson may sell it or at least some aspects of it. Viewer resistance is going to be difficult to overcome, but if you hit soap viewers directly in the heart, the melt like leetle wusses (as do I).

[Canfan]

I also read that Babe of course is going to play a big part in Zarf's story. That will be the end of him/her right there. Making Babe no doubt his friend and champion is going to backfire big time on this character because TIIC refuse to accept how generally hated Babe is and how she poisons anyone she comes in contact with. I can hardly wait to count the days until they have Jr spewing biogoted venom at him trying to show us how wonderful once again Babe is for sticking up for the downtroaden. Come on you had to know this story is really about how wonderful Babe is and not the plight of transgenders in the world. Oh and sex according to JHC, well sex for everyone but Bianca.