EW: DAYS To Attempt Gay Storyline?

[Khan]

Maybe if soaps had just told the damn stories and trusted their audiences to go along for the rides instead of catering only to this-or-that fanbase, we wouldn't be debating such things right now as to whether AMC will be the next soap to go or OLTL. I'm just saying.

[Michael]

Seriously.

Speaking as a gay man, I am craving "gay stories" -- because they're a part of my family and friends' lives, just as black people, Asian people, Hispanic people, people with disabilities, and more are all part of our lives, and these soap towns look like some insane 1950s propaganda ad. I hate that daytime has put up this barrier where it has to be a BIG DAMN DEAL to have a gay character. Grey's Anatomy didn't try to ease their audience into Callie discovering that she was attracted to women... and it wasn't a big deal, at all. This bizarre resistance to anything resembling the real world has to be killing these shows, because as they're bleeding their existing viewers, there's not enough to appeal to other potential audiences.

[All My Shadows]

I was talking to a friend earlier today and told her that DAYS would be having a gay character (she used to watch when we were in junior high... SSK days), and she was really outdone that it would even be a big deal for a soap opera to have a gay character. It doesn't seem odd to me because I'm used to these out-of-touch ass shows, but to see the reaction of someone who has very little experience with daytime and its attitudes? Kinda eye-opening.

[JackPeyton]

Nope.

This thread has so many pages because nobody is interested and has no desire to see such a thing.

Am i craving for a gay story? Well... yeah. I am. I am also craving emotional stories that are reality based and feature characters i love and care about. I am also craving more diversity all around from race to sexuality to class.

[Vanguardian]

Well, that video clip of Will is interesting. He didn't say a word about the characters to be used for the story, not that I really expected him to because that would've been giving away too much. But could this be a trick? Many people assume that it's Will and this video clip with him would seem to imply it, but what if it is Chad, and they're using Will in the video as a smokescreen. Or, perhaps it really will be Will and Chad! What we do know for sure is that the storyline IS coming.

[All My Shadows]

I'm sure it's Will. CM looks very sexy hot cute adorable gorgeous excited in that vid, so it seems like he has something new/different coming up. But then again he and CJD are real tight, so he could be just excited for him. Who knows. Between this and that Sami/Kate scene from a few episodes ago, I'm headin' back to Salem for a while.

[ilovemarlena32]

CHILL!!! :-)

[Ann_SS]

The overall viewership, I highly doubt. More likely a segment of viewers. Besides it isn't like the primarily white mainstream soap audience was craving African Americans when they first showed up. IMO, diversity only helps the genre. If nothing else, it makes them socially relevant. If the soaps had embraced diversity sooner, they may have delayed their cancellations by a few years.

[JaneAusten]

I was speaking in the current context and content of daytime. Daytime used to be diverse and used to tell socially relevant stories. Aborotions, incest were told and were handled generally with care. I am speaking more in the current climate. I guess I ask because of the opinions and feedback you generally tends

to read on most message boards and I don't see a lot of it representing what you expect to be more progressive ideas. Even primetime shys away from these stories to an extent. I watched a teen pregnancy storyline on both FNL and PP about 6 months ago. FNL a show now cancelled handled it perfectly and realistically. PP took the cheap way out.

[JaneAusten]

I wasn't talking about posters in this thread I was talking about the audience in general. Daytime used to do an incredible job of telling these kind of stories. Ericas abortion on AMC was ground breaking. THey just seem to shy away from telling stories with thought and sensitivity and tend to go for shock value and stereotypes these days. The fact that accidental pregnancies, WTD stories are still told in the year 2011 and is still considered a soap staple just boggles my mind. But then a lot of entertainment on television is very much the same.

[Ann_SS]

I don't think that primetime tv has ever focused on social issues stories. Its strength in recent years is to be socially relevant by diversifying its casts, while daytime has gone in the other direction.

The message boards represent the tiny fraction of the whole audience, but I do think that most of the posters tend to be younger, better educated, and more socially liberal. Every now and then, you will see threads on SOC for example (since it is the largest board) asking about why there are no gay stories or criticizing the lack of diversity. Over the years, there have been many threads on the B&B board asking why there are no African Americans or gay people in L.A. So when there are gay stories, these posters tend to react positively with only a minority expressing negativity.

[JaneAusten]

I think there was a time when Primetime did a better job of this I specifically think back to some of the sitcoms in the 70's, MTM, the Norman Lear shows, evem shows like HSB and St. Elsewhere who was one of the first to tackle an Aids storyline.

Of course all of media tends to follow the climate of the country as a whole and in the past 10 to 15 years while we've seen an African American elected president, the overall social climate has become more conservative. The media as a whole just reflects that.

[Eric83]

+1.