Racism and racial representation on soaps

[Taoboi]

Same.

 

New characters should be established...sllllowwwwly. And...they did it slowly with him so that would have been perfect.

 

Ugh. I had blocked out that montage.

 

 

YESSSSS I was trying to remember who described her that way because that was a bullseye.

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LOVE.

[Meredith]

The only soaps that you will find South Asian actors in are the ones that are made in the UK  or India.  

The only soaps you will find North Asian actors in are the ones that are filmed in Hong Kong.    

Y&R are such hypocrites. They sent out a tweet about stopping Asian hate yet they have no Asian actors. 

[Lust4Life76]

  I spent a majority of my day reading all but 15 pages of this post, which I will finish tomorrow...

 In reading all of the things people contributed and commented on so far, I have to say, if only the writer's room of our existing dramas were this diverse and constructive.

 

  Granted there were moments of tense exchange, but nobody said the conversations about race would be comfortable, in fact, I hear that to achieve progress they're going to be uncomfortable.

 

  This is where I imagine, as part of her research, Agnes Nixon drew the voices for her characters, and though audiences related to one character or another, we understood or became aware of many points of view...

 

  One of the posts that stuck out to me, and I apologize, I think it was @victoria foxton, (I've read so many pages) who may have posted to the effect that "All My Children's" drama and differences in characters was inspired by the Vietnam War that rocked our country, and how the show created 3 years of stories from that event alone...

 

  So, why can't our shows tell those stories in a way they once did? I mean, long ago are the days "As the World Turns" had to forbid any character to speak of President Kennedy's assassination, when it was said assassination that interrupted CBS' "previously scheduled  programming"...

  (Forbidden, until Rosemary Prinz, as she revealed to Alan Locher last Friday on his show, accidentally went up on her lines as Penny Hughes and alluded to the strife in our country...)

 

  How atavistic is the genre, that in spite of the "Classic Episodes":

  Couldn't Genoa City have had a protest (peaceful or otherwise) at Chancellor Park in response to George Floyd, and the characters responses to it?

  Couldn't General Hospital's Dr. Monica Quartermaine have had the capability to instruct America on COVID procedures as our nation, as well as our world, went through it's own personal drama?

  Did Bold and the Beautiful need a boost from scandalous Carol Baskin to pimp their show, making me think twice about the "couture" (or the quality) of its production...

  And not to be insensitive, but couldn't Salem Place dramatize a mass shooting that might create viewership to tune in to see the reality that continues to divide our country, and respect the rule that in this type of event - nobody returns from the dead. 

 

  And I already figure (per previous posts, I think one that involved a Twitter thread), executives are too afraid to tell those stories...

 

  It seems the networks have failed us? Then what can we do?

Respectfully,

Erik

[Lust4Life76]

God, I dream of this day in my current job...I am so glad that you took a leap of faith and landed on your feet.

  One more thing...I was really touched that people mentioned Claire Labine, as a collaborator in writing story for people of color on "General Hospital". I remember people watching the show during this time and enjoying it immensely because of the diversity and issues she brought to the forefront.

  In a way "GH" inspired the networks to make her "Ryan's Hope" to be more outrageous than planned, so it was only poetic justice her "RH" reel the Hospital back in from the days of Lassa Fever and Ice Princesses. 

[Chris B]

 

I was happy to read that Victoria Rowell’s show is moving to BET+! That’s a much bigger platform and the biggest issue was a lack of budget when it was on UMC. Hopefully this leads to bigger things for her. It’s also nice to have her back at Viacom considering she spent about a decade being blacklisted. It’s so nice to see all her hard work fighting for representation finally paying off for her. 

[Lust4Life76]

It's interesting Peter Bergman tried to discredit her by calling her crazy in respects to her claims, when he just admitted on the Locher Room last Thursday that he once tried to give Agnes Nixon story direction on where he believed his character, Dr. Cliff Warner, should be going! (Needless to say management interceded and he kept his job, but still!)

[Lust4Life76]

Re: [S.W.S.N.B.N.]...

  Why do I remember her being in the soap opera news 10 years ago? I show on IMDB.com she was a writer for "Days of our Lives", but I always felt she had a connection to "One Life to Live" too? 

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

If you are talking about who I think you're talking about -- yes, she definitely wrote at least one episode of DOOL, because I saw her name in the credits.   I am not aware that she had any connection to OLTL, although she may have been a fan.  She told me her favorite soap was Another World, and she really knew the history of that show!  We had a couple of conversations about AW, and how she learned to speak English by watching the show.   

[Chris B]

There was an episode of OLTL written under a psyudonym that many believed was her. I believe the name was Veronica Sandbridge. According to her (IIRC), she wrote for Days first and was fired when her background was reported in the press. Then I’m not sure the order, but she had a deal with Televest and worked on GL/ATWT as a consultant and Y&R she ghost wrote for the black storyline when LML was HW. She takes credit for the writing around when Carmen was there which VR didn’t like because she found it stereotypical but they made up a while back. 
 

Personally I loved the writing around that type. I loved that they were equal in importance (and screentime!!) to the white characters and I felt like the Barber-Winters were fully integrated in the show. I strongly believe that had VR not quit, LML could’ve lasted longer because those characters were such a ratings draw for them. They were getting over 6 million viewers, then when VR left the ratings plummeted and then after the writers strike of course we know LML wasn’t invited back. 

[Lust4Life76]

I thought she was very intriguing, because she had such a love for the soap genre and wanted to tell incredible stories. It was like "just hire her already!" I mean if the passion is there?!

[Chris B]

She has a video on YouTube about an hour long where she discusses her work on soaps in great detail. It’s a fun listen because she’s such a character. Also, she names names which is rare. 
 

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[rlj]

ugh at her praising her ex lover Osama Bin Laden !

[vetsoapfan]

I do not believe a word she says. I think she's delusional and toxic.

[Faulkner]

Lol don’t get us shut down in this thread with the Vola Voof talk. She’ll materialize, and it’ll be a wrap. I was here for the lunacy back in the day.

[vetsoapfan]

 

So was I. SWMNBN should remain in the past. 

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