Gay characters on soaps

[DeeeDee]

Soon Nuke fans will infest Y&R. *vomits*

[Khan]

On second thought? I say "no" to any gay storylines on Y&R. In fact, I say, "Hell to the no!".

[DeeeDee]

:lol: :lol: Exactly!

[MarkH]

I never thought of that. This is gonna get fun.

(And I'm sorry that Muppet comment offended you...it was an attempt at wry humor that obviously failed).

[Sylph]

Nukes are coming! This is gonna be fun. It really is.

[leevo64]

To be fair, didn't they turn down the threesome offer? That's a stereotypical story but it DOES happen.

[Adam]

Totally agree! B&S is the only network television show currently on the to actually do the gay community justice. It's great what they have done over there, and yes it possesses all the staples of what makes a soap a soap.

[MarkH]

Exactly.

They threw in a stereotype, and then THE COUPLE MADE THE NON-STEREOTYPICAL CHOICE.

[jfung79]

I'm boycotting CBS aside from ATWT and GL, so I know I for one won't be watching, but in general, it won't happen unless there is a quality story, and nothing I'm reading so far suggests the gay character on Y&R will be anything but a side character.

No need to watch crumbs on Y&R when GL is already getting everything right, and ATWT is doing a fine enough job.

Again I really have to wonder -- to those who think gay characters on soaps are just "walking PSAs", are you watching Guiding Light? Olivia, Natalia, and Doris are being given the full-on soap treatment, and are all multidimensional characters, nothing PSA about them. (I wouldn't agree with that statement about Nuke either, but I think I'm on firmer ground with Otalia.)

[DRW50]

I don't know if we're going to see a major same-sex couple on Y&R for some time, because the show is in a different place than ATWT and GL. Both of those shows are near the bottom of the ratings. They had less viewers to offend. Y&R is the #1 soap, and has more viewers to offend. Even when ATWT was in a healthier state, the rule still was in place. They had a very popular interracial couple, Duncan and Jessica, in the early 90s. Then in the late 90s, when Y&R tried a relationship between Neil and Victoria, they got tons of hate mail. I know it's not the same, because some have more of an issue with black man/white woman than they do with white man/black woman, but I think that shows the different atmosphere Y&R has to work in.

The interesting part is because of all the backlash against Nuke from some soap fans (not because they're a gay couple, just because a lot of people dislike the actors or the characters), they may actually get heavy praise if their only story for a gay character ends up being something like a gay character only being filler, or only being gay because of a story about how people react to their sexuality. They won't have to take a big risk on a gay character if they don't want to, and because of frustration with some of Nuke's writing and with the dreadful Rianca story on AMC, they may be seen as forward-moving because they may go back to the 90's soap trope of a character just being gay and having no real relationship of his own, instead of being shoved into a couple, like what we get with gay characters now.

I agree with what most of you are saying about Brothers & Sisters. I would say they feel free to take more of a risk because of the many gay writers and producers they have, but I don't think that's giving enough credit to Matthew Rhys. I've rarely seen a straight actor so comfortable with showing tenderness, affection, and passion with another man.

[All My Shadows]

:o :o

Y&R has my sympathies. I know Paul Rauch isn't afraid to stick his middle finger up, though.

Once AfterElton gets in on it, it's over. If Rafe isn't in a relationship by Friday, all hell will break loose.

[Khan]

Friday? Hell, I give them by 4 p.m. today. Tops.

[jfung79]

Luke was not shoved into a couple. It took almost two years for Noah to be introduced. (The natural course for the show to take would have been Luke and Kevin, but the show didn't take it.)

I don't think anyone will care (positively or being "offended" wise) about a token gay character on Y&R, especially if it is just a repeat of what other soaps already did in the 1990s. I don't think AfterElton would or should waste any space on a filler storyline or filler character. They barely mention Riley on Degrassi compared to the coverage they gave Marco, for instance. They also never really beat the drum about Lucas on GH after he was dropped.

You raise good points about what some fans' complaints about Nuke might lead to, but I hope instead (not holding my breath) that soap producers will look at the positive reaction to Otalia to see what that could mean for their soaps. The ABC soaps should if the Bell soaps are too scared to "offend."

[leevo64]

SO TRUE about AfterElton! I do enjoy the website, but they have extremely unrealistic expectations of gay representation. They expect Kevin and Scotty to be the focus of every episode of B&S, Christian and Olli to be the center of VL, and Nuke to be the entire ATWT. At least they admit that the Nuke writing is pretty poor. And the site is pretty honest about the films they review. I've seen some gay media sites give good reviews to any film with a gay theme or character no matter how awful the movie is. AfterElton's good in that respect. But I can't wait for them to start the "Give Rafe a boyfriend" clock counter or something. LOL

[DRW50]

I agree with you about the time they took to put Luke into a relationship, but now the focus seems to be more on how awful Nuke and their fans are, and how Y&R shouldn't want a fan base like Nuke fans. Many also seem to love Y&R so much now that any story they have which will involve a gay character will almost automatically generate praise. I've already seen some people saying Goutman at ATWT needs to watch Y&R to see how a gay story is told, even though the story has not started and does not seem to have any major part of the show.

I don't read the blog posts as much as I used to, but I read Gays of Our Lives and their writer is very even-handed about his expectations of the soaps and of their gay stories. He's had complaints about Nuke, he couldn't stand the Ravi/Nancy/Kris triangle on Hollyoaks and thought Kris and Ravi had no chemistry together. I think the complaint people have about VL now is that Christian and Olli haven't had a story in months and months. Most of the comments I read about Brothers & Sisters also seem to understand Kevin and Scotty can't be the stars of the show, they just want to see Scotty more than a handful of times a season, or see Kevin in a story besides working for Robert (I still don't get that storyline). When they first started recapping Brothers & Sisters, they didn't even like Kevin very much. I guess their opinion of him has mellowed over the years.