In retrospect, I marvel at how Oprah was jusggling Brewster place and her daytime show among other things at that time. BP was filmed at Harpo in Chicago, maybe they did so during the summer when her daytime show was on hiatus?

I can only recall one episode of the series and it really stuck with me. It guest starred the magnificent Beah Richards. She was sort of a "not all there" prim and proper elderly lady who I guess was raised with a little white girl. Over the years, Miss Beah's character somehow became deluded and convinced herself that she was also white. Of course the women of Brewster Place are perplexed by this, and at the end of the episode, BR breaks down and snaps back to reality crying about how pretty her white friend was and how she hated her own brown skin that looked "like dirt". It was powerful and heartbreaking stuff. I mean, I don't have to tell anyone who's familiar with Beah Richards that whether it was Punky Brewster or Designing Women, she could flip a sitcom into Masterpiece Theatre. Lisa Gay Hamilton did a wonderful documentary on her: http://www.documentarychannel.com/movie.php?currID=9398&t=Beah:-A-Black-Woman-Speaks

Know yall got me going on amazon to order Brewster Place the series DVDS

Sorry to be slightly off topic here, but I wondered if the reason some actors play characters of different ethnicities is because casting directors see them as that. For example, are Galen and especially Lindsay too ethnic to play white characters?

i definetly think they have a very ethnic look and Galen doesn't look white to me

Unfortunately, for Renee Elise Goldsberry and Cornelius Smith, Jr., their characters were introduced the era that followed it - an era where daytime could care less about tapping into the potential of Black characters or would set them up to play second fiddle to the white characters (no matter how mediocre or unworthy). Had those two debuted 10-15 years prior*, I've no doubt that they'd have been the recipient of the superior writing that elevated Drucilla (and my Vicky) to top of the heap.

My question will always be: what changed? The 90s were filled with black actors and characters on various shows. The Grants and Speakes on GL. The Fyes on AMC, the whole Winters fam on Y&R... OLTL had a whole host of minority characters in addition to the Gannons and Vegas there was Lisa West and "Blair." What happened that made TPTB in the genre all of a sudden that the only way to be all right was to be all white?

My question will always be: what changed? The 90s were filled with black actors and characters on various shows. The Grants and Speakes on GL. The Fyes on AMC, the whole Winters fam on Y&R... OLTL had a whole host of minority characters in addition to the Gannons and Vegas there was Lisa West and "Blair." What happened that made TPTB in the genre all of a sudden that the only way to be all right was to be all white?

This started ramping up in late 1994 and by 1997 was blatant on all soaps except Y&R and ATWT. That seemed to be when minority characters would be added only as brief spurts of tokenism, and then soon forgotten. I think when the ratings fell in 1994 the networks decided they had to become more and more conservative in order to get viewers back.

My question will always be: what changed? The 90s were filled with black actors and characters on various shows. The Grants and Speakes on GL. The Fyes on AMC, the whole Winters fam on Y&R... OLTL had a whole host of minority characters in addition to the Gannons and Vegas there was Lisa West and "Blair." What happened that made TPTB in the genre all of a sudden that the only way to be all right was to be all white?

I forgot all about Lisa West. Did she have a storyline?

I think she dated Hank briefly.

My question will always be: what changed? What happened that made TPTB in the genre all of a sudden that the only way to be all right was to be all white?

To me, there's a simple answer (that can also be applied to mainstream TV, movies, and even music) - some folks started to buy into the notion of 'post-racialism' (a la Zoe Saldana's nonsense about no longer needing to complain about racism in entertainment because we have a Black biracial president) and many bigwigs decided to take advantage of that newfound naiveté by casting incognegroes and ethnically ambiguous folk so that they wouldn't have to deal with the pesky problem of providing equal/elevated consideration to their Black characters/actors over white characters/actors as they did in the 90s. In the event that they feel the sting of criticism about their lily-white canvas, they'd throw us a bone or two only to keep them deadlocked in the position of always being depicted as inferior to their white counterparts by the writing.

Edited September 26, 201213 yr by VirginiaHamilton

I think when the ratings fell in 1994 the networks decided they had to become more and more conservative in order to get viewers back.

Well that worked out great for them, didn't it?

i definetly think they have a very ethnic look and Galen doesn't look white to me

Gering will tell you in a NY minute that he is NOT Hispanic! He thinks of himself as white because his heritage is Spain.

Gering will tell you in a NY minute that he is NOT Hispanic! He thinks of himself as white because his heritage is Spain.

Yeah he's like Jewish and Basque, which is a whole different ethnic group itself. Which is why it was a wtf that year he got nominated for an ALMA award(Kamar beat him) as was perfectly fine playing to role of Latino if it meant he got something out of it. After all his views on playing a latino character even htough he's not latino, "It pays the bills"

Edited September 26, 201213 yr by frequentsoapfan

I'll be the first to admit that I've got a bias against the fuckery that they were trying to pull with Vangie and Frodd because I loathed him throughout his entire run.

I didn't have a problem with she and Todd but the show missed the mark because the tri with Cristian didn't make a lick of sense. I didn't even have a problem with her and Cristian as a couple but the way they started was disgusting. An intelligent viewer was suppose to believe that she couldn't get her white boyfried to say he loved her but her Hispanic one could who was dumped by his trailer trash wife because said wife was lusting after her white boyfriend and actually won. The only reason the triangle with Todd even happened was because the stench of her being treated like the ugly duckling of Llanview was too hard too ignore so they teased a psuedo romance with Todd, which was never really one to begin with because he would have inevitably gone back to Blair. Everytime I think of the writing for Evangeline who had to play second fiddle to those bitches I see red and to comepensate, they gave her a f.ucking halo. I can't think of one character in daytime who was so good to the point of unbelievabilty and she never got rewarded. But I digress... I wonder what Goldsberry is up to these days.

Edited September 26, 201213 yr by Money

Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of any of that.

I can't tell you how much I envy you for that. I love the Caroline or Change soundtrack.

You're welcome. You may just get the chance to see her perform one day-- she always seems to be performing.

What if Tyler Perry entered the soap industry, none of that Madea stuff, but sorta like "The Family That Prey". He write some good storylines in his movies, and with Reuben Cannon at his side as casting director it would be good.

Yeah he's like Jewish and Basque, which is a whole different ethnic group itself. Which is why it was a wtf that year he got nominated for an ALMA award(Kamar beat him) as was perfectly fine playing to role of Latino if it meant he got something out of it. After all his views on playing a latino character even htough he's not latino, "It pays the bills"

Since when is he spanish? I thought he was of Russian descent?

Lindsay Harley is of Greek and Italian descent

That said its not Galen or Lindsays fault that they get lumped into latino roles by casting directors. And all actors are cast paritally based on their looks.

Edited September 26, 201213 yr by JaneAusten

Since when is he spanish? I thought he was of Russian descent?

Lindsay Harley is of Greek and Italian descent

That said its not Galen or Lindsays fault that they get lumped into latino roles by casting directors. And all actors are cast paritally based on their looks.

He says his mother's side are Basque immigrants from Spain.

It may not be their fault but they have no problem reeping the benefits and it's not like they couldn't book roles as Greeks or Italians. And it's a way for daytime to skirt around having to cast actual minorities.

Didn't DAYS have some other hispanic family that they cast with white people too? And no I'm not talking about the Walker-Mendez family another one besides that one.