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Q & A with Gary Tomlin

(AKA: Executive producer of Sunset Beach)

Writer/director/producer/actor Gary Tomlin has worn many hats over the years, but his current assignment, as executive producer of li'l Sunset Beach, has got to be the most challenging. It's the lowest-rated soap on the air, and talk of cancellation is as frequent as a flashback or internal monologue is on the show.

We spoke with Tomlin on the eve of the soap's two-year anniversary, and were pleased to learn that, unlike a recent storyline, this captain has no intention of letting his ship sink. —— Jonathan Reiner

How has the show changed in the two years it has been on the air?

That's an interesting question. When we started two years ago, if you look at the demographics, which is basically all we hear about [from the network] —— the 18- to 49-year-old women —— we did about a 1.2 rating or something like that. Days of Our Lives did about 5.6, The Young and the Restless did a 4.9 and General Hospital was doing a 4.7. What's happened in those two years to daytime is incredible to me. Everyone's ratings are down, but we've pretty much held steady.

What has happened is that we've been put in the position of constantly trying to up the stakes in what we do. I was home one day, it must've been back in the spring, and I watched some of the shows, and I thought to myself, "If they're not that different from one another, why do there need to be that many?" We have sort of made an attempt to say, "You're going to get something different from Sunset Beach" if you tune in for a week. It might be a little crazy, outrageous or just something we do in production, but it will be something.

The original concept of the show was to bring nighttime to daytime, and I think we've learned very quickly that that was something the audience wasn't very interested in. Also, we wanted to bring some good-looking people to daytime. I think across the board, we have a great-looking cast, particularly our men, and it definitely is a younger show. A lot of the shows I look at really focus on the over-40 crowd. I understand why to a degree —— they're wonderful actors, and their characters have been around for a long, long time, so you have a real investment in them. We have only three or four people under contract who are over 40. Plus, we've tried some things that people said we wouldn't be able to do —— like "The Poseidon Adventure" and the earthquake.

I think most of the experimental stuff has worked to a certain degree. It's not like you guys fell flat on your face....

No, I don't think so. There are a couple of things that we haven't followed up quite as well as we wanted to, but we learned something from each of those experiences. We were all incredibly proud of the earthquake and the stuff on the boat. The production team did a phenomenal job with everything.

But the problem was that the story fell apart after the action/adventure sequence was over. As a viewer, I had a problem with that.

I think you're right about that. To a degree, part of the problem is the nature of the beast. For instance, when you take a situation like that —— we put 10 or 12 of our main characters on that boat and put those people in a situation where they're essentially driving toward the same thing. But when they get back on dry land, they get back to their normal lives. To a degree, we lost some of the focus that we needed to have because we brought in some other stories and did a few other things wrong. I don't think we could've ever kept it as intense as it was on the boat, but I think we could have done better than we did.

The problem is, when you do a story like that and you get people to watch who haven't necessarily watched the show before, you have to try to keep them watching after the action ends. When the helicopter came to rescue the people off the boat, it was like, "Roll credits, and let's go out and have some dinner. The movie is over!" That's how it felt. On the "Terror Island" sequence, our ratings went up and we drew in a lot of 18- to 34-year-olds, but we also drove away a few of the over-35-year-old viewers. We're trying to learn from these things.

Is there a plan to keep the viewers who were drawn into the Rosario jewels storyline?

Well, a story we sort of started on the boat with Antonio, Gabi and Ricardo absolutely builds to a crescendo in the February sweeps. It's very exciting, and it actually crosses over into Francesca's story, as well, because there is a connection between Francesca and Antonio from years back, and we sort of heighten that again. I think the story of a priest, a cop and the girl between them is an interesting one. They're brothers and there is really no bad guy.

I must tell you that I loved the Martin's Syndrome storyline, and even, to a degree, the turkey-baster story. Were you prepared for the backlash?

Not at all. I felt like people got on such a high horse with that. They were screaming about it. It's funny, because these were people who were defending the Luke and Laura thing, the fact that he raped her and then they ended lovers. They had all these excuses for that, but the turkey-baster story, they thought that was outrageous. To us, they do use turkey-basters for that, although we did take liberties, but it was hysterical. When Michael discovers that he's not the father of the baby, it's spectacular. Sherri, Jason and Russell (Saum, George and Curry, who play Vanessa, Michael and Tyus) were wonderful.

For me, it's the combination of outlandish elements and classic soap staples that makes the show appealing.

That's what we've been trying to do. Any other show in daytime that is doing the same numbers as they were doing the second week of January 1997 would be thrilled. We're still showing the same numbers, and everyone is saying, "What's wrong with this show?" Well, with the walls are falling down around us, we're just trying to hang on at this point.

Don't you think the situation is a little unfair? You've been in the business for a long time, and never have there been so many buzzards circling.

Well, they're circling a lot of shows. The problem is that it's very difficult for a man on death row to make plans, if you know what I mean. That's the problem you have on any show, and I know it's been a problem on Another World for a long time. You're constantly trying to jump through hoops, and the hoops just seem to get higher and higher and higher. The problem you also have when the expectation is "Make something bigger, make something bigger, make something bigger," something is only big in relation to what else it's with. If you make everything bigger, then nothing is big.

There was a story years ago about one of the network executives who did focus groups on all these shows, so he went through all the shows and compiled certain things that viewers liked. Then the executive said, "Give me a show that has all these things and it will be incredible," so they did a show with only those things in it, and the audience watched it and hated it! The reason that something is good is because of the build or because of the other things going on around it to balance it.

It feels like the show has been on for more than two years. What sorts of things would you like these characters to do that they haven't already done?

I would love to cross Cole and Annie. From the moment that he came on the show, I thought, "Wow, these two should cross! They have to!" With all the secrets that are blowing up, I think there could be a way to cross them together. There are certain people that you see together and think they would explode off the screen because you can actually see the chemistry. It's difficult on a new show. We have a huge cast, particularly for a new show, and sometimes I wish that we'd kept it smaller, because we're trying to keep a really good balance and not lose focus on our major players.

Is anything big planned for the over-40 crowd, like Kathleen Noone and Gordon Thomson (Aunt Bette and A.J.)?

Well, Kathy had some scenes with the girl who plays her daughter when she was blind and in the hospital —— it was unbelievable stuff. She's so amazing. She can make you laugh or break your heart. She's going to be pulled back into the Cole/Olivia/Gregory/Annie story to a degree, and I'd love to give her her own romance, but at this time it's a matter of making the time to do it. But, hopefully, Kathy will be pulled back into story much more.

Now, I have to ask this question, since it's one of the biggest news stories of the century: Are you worried that you will forever be remembered for Sarah "Lewinsky" and the infamous beret/embrace re-creation?

We talked to (NBC honcho) Don Ohlmeyer and he loves that "ripped from the headlines" thing, so that was sort of the idea, that Sunset Beach would do a ripped from the headlines theme. We talked about bringing in Meg's sister and doing the Monica Lewinsky story, but only to a degree. Then we said, "Screw it! Let's get a guy who looks a little like Clinton and do it." We just tried to drop in little silly things along the way. The most fun was when we brought in (the character) Melinda Fall. Actually, her original name was Melinda Triplet, but the actress (Elizabeth Alley) was hilarious.

I also loved Jessica Tuck's brief stint as Dianne.

Jessica knew (Sunset producer) Lisa Hesser from One Life to Live. Jessica and I had only worked together a couple of days on One Life, but I'm such a fan of hers. We came up with this harebrained idea to have this woman who was into her romance novels and do a Misery-style storyline. Jessica had a wonderful time, and the sad thing is I'd love to bring her on, but we don't have room.

I think the show makes great use of the short-term characters that come in to stir up trouble.

Definitely! We had Nurse Stacey back in yesterday, and we've got a guy who Annie who went to high school with who she runs into at the hospital. This guy was great! We're going to have to bring him back because he's too funny. He's a stand-up comedian named Mark Davis and he was just dynamite. Sometimes you can fall in love with these people and they're a little off the mark of what you're trying to do with the big picture, so you have to make sure that you're servicing the story.

Do you have any New Year's resolutions for the show?

The only resolution is be on the air in January 2000. That's pretty much it. We have a wonderful, enthusiastic cast, and they work incredibly hard. It's a fun place to work, and that's maybe the one thing I'm most proud of. In spite of everything, there's not a lot of tension or yelling or screaming. We're really trying, and we've got a lot of really good stuff coming up. A lot of secrets are going to get blown out of the water in January and February.

http://onelifetolive.about.com/library/prm...omlin091801.htm

Back to the Future: Interview with Gary Tomlin

By Travis Kinsey

Executive Producer Gary Tomlin leads OLTL forward by using the show's history in innovative ways

This article originally appeared in Soap Opera Weekly on September 18, 2001.

Gary Tomlin has an intimate knowledge of One Life to Live. Executive producer since January 2001, Tomlin served as a director on the show from 1992-'95. He continues to direct episodes even while he fulfills his duties at the top. His familiarity with the Llanview community has manifested itself in a way that matters most to daytime fans: the utilization of the show's rich history.

Well into his first year at the helm, Tomlin is pleased with the state of the show, and even more excited by what he has planned for the future. Tomlin sat down with Soap Opera Weekly's Travis Kinsey to talk about the present and future of Llanview.

TRAVIS KINSEY: When you took this job in January, what did you like about the show? What did you think needed fixing?

GARY TOMLIN: I thought the show had a very strong cast. I thought the writing was strong. But I felt it was a little too dark. The show didn't have as much humor as I'd like, and I knew that the show was capable of humor. Also, I didn't think there were enough young people, and the young people weren't strongly involved. You have to keep replenishing the audience. Otherwise, the show's just going to die. An article came out saying, "Gary Tomlin's taking over One Life to Live and he's bringing on 15 teenagers and the show's going to be Beverly Hills, 90210." It's not that at all, but I am trying to get a balance with the kids.

TK: You've done a good job spreading the wealth. Pretty much every character has story.

GT: We're trying. We're very determined that Tim Stickney and Nathan Purdee (R.J. and Hank) are going to have story, and we've brought on Sherri Saum (Keri) and also Kamar (De Los Reyes, Antonio) is going to be heavily involved in story. It's a minority group, and a group that has been ignored. Timothy has worked really well but not had any kind of front-and-center story. Nathan was wonderful during the trial, but he hasn't had any front-and-center story. We're toying with romances for both of them. We're determined to use these people more effectively.

TK: Your familiarity with the show is evident through the large amount of show history you're using to tell current story Max and Gabrielle, the return of Allison Perkins and Viki's alters are just three examples.

GT: In watching the show initially, I missed a lot of the characters. So I thought: Gee, what about Gabrielle coming back? Fiona's (Hutchinson) such a wonderful actress, and also [it allowed us] to bring back Al and shore up the family thing and have a young character on the show. The same thing with Allison Perkins; it invigorates the Viki storyline, and [Allison] kidnapped Jessica, so there's a history there. With Allison stuff, Chris and Lorraine (Whitesell and Broderick, the show's head writers) said "OK, where can we do something where we do bring back that history but also explore something that's going to affect the future of this show?" We were so fortunate to get Barbara Garrick, who played the role originally, because we used those flashbacks from 13, 14 years ago. It's a treat for the audience that has invested in the show for that long, and the audience that doesn't know the story and gets to see what happened and realize, "Oh my god, this is real. This isn't something they're making up."

TK: Is having directed the show before an advantage?

GT: Knowing the history, knowing what the audience responded to, knowing what a terrific cast we have here and what they're capable of is helpful. I'm not sure if I just started watching the character of Max, if I would've said, "Hey, this guy can be funny," if I didn't have a history of knowing what James (DePaiva, Max) is capable of.

TK: And you continue to direct, even as executive producer.

GT: It gets me into the trenches, so to speak. I work with the actors as actors, as opposed to talking with them here in my office. They get a sense of what I'm looking for. Same thing with the crew. It's good to see what difficulties they might be having. We have the smallest studio in daytime. It's very hard to move around. Our design team does a phenomenal job. Watching the show, you never realize that our studio is tiny.

TK: Some producers don't believe the Nielson ratings accurately reflect viewership. How much stock do you put in them?

GT: The ratings are all-important. The 18-to-49 demographic, that's absolutely critical. But the thing that I've said to Angela (Shapiro, president, ABC Daytime) and Felicia (Minei Behr, senior vice president, programming, ABC)--and the thing we all agree on--is we need to get the younger audience and not just be satisfied with the fact that our old audience continues to watch. You try to keep them happy but also encourage the younger audience to watch. A lot of people say the ratings are bogus. It's hard to tell. They bounce around so much, it's crazy. But those are the numbers people live and die by. Until somebody comes up with a better system, that's what we have to live with.

TK: How do you see OLTL as it relates to the other three ABC soaps?

GT: I think all the soaps should do their own thing. The Linda Dano (Rae) crossover was a noble experiment that worked very well, as long as you don't have something that feels like it's plopped in. Certain people are going to be able to watch more than one show, but a majority are probably going to be committed to one show. Keeping the individuality of those shows is very important. All four shows have their own personalities. What they've done with Port Charles is a very smart move.

TK: Your last job as an executive producer was Sunset Beach, a show that was infamous for being out-there. You then directed Passions, which is even more outrageous. How much of an adjustment is it to work on a show that's far more traditional?

GT: One Life to Live had Eterna; it had the Old West. It's not as if a lot of this has never been done before. This show has been doing crazy stuff for a long, long time, and they're getting back to that on General Hospital with the whole Stavros thing. We're not interested in that kind of science fiction, but we are interested in putting the fun in it. The most dramatic story can have a very fun aspect.

TK: What do you hear fans saying about the show?

GT: We do focus reports, which tend to be more representative of the regular fans than the Internet, because you get a real cross section of a lot of people. They'll say very supportive things, and you'll think: That makes sense. You try to address what people are saying.

http://onelifetolive.about.com/library/prm...nterview_gt.htm

One Life to Live's "Live" Week - Interview with Gary Tomlin

Exclusive interview with OLTL's Executive Producer

By Kate Walsh

KW: You put some very difficult scenes in this week: a love scene, a remote, a fight.... Were you trying to make it difficult?

GT: We were trying to make sure that we didn't just say "Okay, we're going to do the show live and everybody's sitting around having coffee.

KW: Do you work with the three camera system?

GT: We work with...we generally work with a three camera system, but this week we'll have eight cameras in the studio. Cameras will be moving during action in the sets, but this studio is too small for us to move cameras too far, so basically, the movement would be going from the sets that are opposite each other, so if cameras 1,2 and 3, are for the two sets here, 4,5 and 6 are for the two sets here and 7 and 8 for the two sets there, and the middle cameras will swing from one to the other and very often we'll need four cameras in a set. For the directors it also becomes very intricate in how you work out where the camera are, the booms are, what actors need mikes. There's a lot, and the music is done up here, upstairs they're watching, giving cues and sound effects too

KW: How is the sound different during a live week?

GT: Let's say you're in a big crowded set which we are very often and you have all this stuff going on and this running around and making all this noise and you cut to another set...stop...the noise has to stop immediately, because you're coming to a very quiet scene in another set, so all the extras, everybody has to be [quiet]...or else you're going to hear them and it may be coming one part of the country to another or one...within the context of the show, one city to another. Even if you have a phone call...one of the [practice] shows we did we had a phone call that cut back and forth, and one person was in the airport and the other person was in their bedroom, so every time we cut to the person in the airport you have to put in all the airport sound effects, every time you cut back it has to cut out immediately.

KW: When did this all begin, when did you first conceive of the idea?

GT: I've always wanted to do a week live. I wanted to do it on Sunset Beach, and because of cost restraints and also because of impeachment news, believe it or not, we didn't do it. I came here and I thought, the studio [is too small]...I wanted to do it, but I couldn't figure out how, and I never said anything about it, so I kept looking around and looking around and then we did six shows a week, and I could see the cast here is totally game to it. I could tell that they were absolutely capable of doing a week of shows live and then when we were on out Christmas break last year, it sort of hit me, just bring me more equipment instead of being hindered by what we've got I can bring in more cameras on those days and a couple more booms and we can make it work, so we came back in January and I talked to (ABC Daytime executives) Felicia (Minei Behr) and Angela (Shapiro) about it, and Angela laughed and thought I was out of my mind, but was very supportive, and then I mentioned it to the cast and crew and everybody was just phenomenally enthusiastic about it.

KW: What did the writers say?

GT: Well, Chris Whitesell and I worked together on SB, so we had an understanding, although the difference was we were in a much bigger studio on SB, we could use more sets, it wasn't really as much as a logistical problem as it was here. But Chris and Lorraine (Broderick) they love a challenge, they [said] , how can we make this work. Because it was May sweeps anyway, they had lots of good story going on, all this stuff is going to be exploding, so it would be a really good week to go live. And if we get people sampling the show, it's a good week to hook people in.