Racism and racial representation on soaps

[GLATWT88]

Sorry about your experience @mikelyons but I can't say I'm surprised. I always imagined working for a soap would be like going to a new school in the middle of the school year. Since these shows film pretty much all year, go on indefinitely with cast, crew and teams that are in place for very long time ago - you're going in with a bunch of cliques, mean girls (divas), and other nonsense that may be less likely to thrive ( although it still does) in other settings. Then this just leads to other issues like nepotism and favoritism and allows very little room for change. Hence, why racism continues to thrive in daytime which is clearly seen just from a lack of representation. 

[ReddFoxx]

That demonic looking woman is every racist white man's favorite colored gal. In slavery she would have been in the big house sleeping in the master's bed and telling him about the slaves trying to escape.

 

And his non-acting self has the nerve trying to pass judgement on anyone for anything. Old wrinkled up white asparagus of a man.

[janea4old]

 

 

 

for past writers: Danielle Paige - GL and DAYS.

[Gray Bunny]

In case anyone forgot... from 2018... 

 

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[~bl~]

That story about the soap that shall not be named is horrifying mikelyons though not surprising. It seems like daytime has been like that for ages if you are in and have a strong ally than you can work, otherwise not. The person who blocked you, argh. I was told decades ago, if someone is seen as too much of a "fan" of a particular program it was more difficult to even get an internship interview, so it seems like they really appreciate people who are ignorant. Of course, if one hires that way in a few months you will probably need someone else.

 

With the writers' room, well again many hires are people who just want to hold on to their jobs, and go from show to show, so the lack of any diversity is not a shock. Also for the most part I doubt they actually have a room, correct?

[Aback]

 

 

That was revolting. Woah suddenly I'm really fond of TK as Ridge. And I'm all for an umpteenth Thorne recast (given what Ingo tweeted). I thought L.A. was more liberal than this.

[mikelyons]

The primetime writers' room varies from soap to soap. I know AMC required most of their writers to live in or around NYC since the breakdown writers and head writer would meet in a conference room. Other soaps are written remotely with tons of calls, emails, etc. It's just the preference of the show's owner and/or head writer.

[ReddFoxx]

There are a good amount of people there who aren't remotely liberal. It is a fairly liberal place but sometimes just how liberal it is gets overstated.

[ajsp35801]

@mikelyons I was hoping the tale would end with you landing the role of your dreams in soaps.  But it's even better because you're happy and blessed without it. 

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

So interesting to read about the seismic shift that is happening within the publishing industry (an industry I once seriously considered), with women and men of color and two Black women, in particular, taking leadership roles at age old publishing houses.

Very key in this push is that the publishing industry realized that there were so few Blacks in even entry level positions, let alone on the track to the executive level that they had to hire outside of the industry, which made me think of how, if daytime cared (which we know they don't), they'd definitely have to take a similar tactical approach since we all know the scant diversity within the daytime soap industry.

[Faulkner]

It’s better than never, but it’s disheartening that some of these changes are only happening when these industries and institutions are really starting to lose power in the digital universe.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Faulkner

[Gray Bunny]

Boy, Krista would make for an excellent Jennifer recast... 

 

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[Vee]

Piggybacking off a conversation with @Darn: It is insane to me that Y&R squandered Keith Hamilton Cobb, no matter how difficult he could be IRL. (He was right about Noah and Julia's wedding on AMC tho.) I hadn't seen him in years til I caught a retro Y&R episode on CBS All Access today and goddamn. He had chemistry with everyone IIRC from watching in the past, especially Stafford.

 

Unrelated: Like Cobb on AMC, it’s worth discussing too that Kamar de los Reyes was a similar system shock when he came onto OLTL as Antonio. I haven’t seen his intro since I was a kid but I do remember that he was presented raw as hell. He had that voice, he was glowering at poor Carlotta and she seemed absolutely miserable and terrified about him. He was scary. But they knew what they were doing, and they pivoted from that to making him a three dimensional character and sexy romantic lead to their audience. I was obsessed with him and Andy within the year. I’d never seen a Latino man like that on daytime before and I don’t think I have since - including Antonio, whose second run was terrible on many levels.  Another mistake with Antonio: When he left the show with Andy he was going into law school. That’s a versatile role for a character that had been all intense emotions and gave him a new thing to play; I remember I thought it was interesting even back then. But when he came back he was just a cop. It was a lead of color moved out of a IMO more complex professional/power player role. But that’s just me.

[lucaslesann23]

What Did he do that made him "difficult"?

[Vee]

He had drama at every show he's ever been at, including Andromeda. I think a lot of that was due to Kevin Sorbo though. From what I remember of his press Cobb tends to fluctuate between looking down on soaps even when he was on them to making very good points on certain issues at times. I'd still have him on a show.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Vee