Y&R March 2021 Discussion Thread

[Soapsuds]

You mean gay Thom Bierdz doesn't count?

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Philip even came out. I always thought WJB wanted to make Phillip gay back when in 1987 but was afraid to.

[KMan101]

 

I feel that way about a lot of characters I see in the 80s on soaps LOL (I'm sorry but you know Marland on ATWT would have loved to pair up Andy and Paul, despite the Paul/Emily chemistry). You just know they wanted to go there but couldn't and I believe that with Phillip. I didn't mind Phillip gay but it was just such awful writing. It was baaaad.

Edited March 20, 2021 by KMan101

[Soapsuds]

Phillip and Danny were totally gay and should've been paired as a couple as sh!tty Cricket pinned for Danny.

[KMan101]

 

Yep! Forgot about Danny. Imagine Phyllis walking in on them together. I'd die.

[Soapsuds]

Ha!

 

I never bought Danny with any of his female pairings.

[KMan101]

 

I didn't see it either

[FrenchBug82]

 

I am sorry but I am a gay man and the gay rewrite for Philip made me very angry. It was tacked-on and felt disrespectful to the audience.
Whether they were tempted to do it back then (and sorry but I don't believe that for a second) they didn't and so it didn't ring true to do it now because we saw Philip and we know that wasn't his story.
Only good thing about it is that it brought Nina back and Boy did Tricia Cast nail those scenes. TB? Not so much.

I am obviously well aware of the conservative (temperamentally, not necessarily politically) choices EPs make. I am the first one to say it is obvious on race.
However, I do think it is a tad unfair to be blaming this for the fact there is only a lesbian couple on the show at this time. That's already a huge win after such a long pathetic drought.

LGBTQ characters are hard to write for because in a small cast where most everybody is straight, there are few romantic options for them other than the *other* LGBT character. In a cast of, what, 25, having both a gay couple and a lesbian couple can take out 4 characters out of the matchmaking possibilities for writers. So the fact they are not doing it is not just simply down to homophobia. I will grant you it should have happened way earlier than Mariah - that was down to conservatism. But now that they have gone there, I will let them write for her and her girlfriend without demanding a quota of male gay characters as well. I understand that once they are written in they can feel stuck in terms of story potential.

I do think where the dime has been dropped was not making Adam explicitly bisexual or pansexual. It could have been just a single scene - that MM, for all the hate he gets, was enthusiastic about playing back then - and they could have still continued mostly pairing him with women for story reasons. But opening that door ajar on his sexual identity would have been cool. I am still hopefuly that one day that side of him might be revisited with a bolder writing team.

As for B&B, yes. It is ridiculous that there has never been a gay character on that show. Ridiculous. I will give him he did a good job with the initial Maya story in terms of LGBTQ representation but no gay man in thirty years of a show set in the fashion industry? Dumb
I will say that with an even SMALLER cast and even less time on-air, the concerns I mention above are even more valid but B&B but as Bell has proved with his expanding the black representation on the show, he can do it. It is not like he has been shy about telling the story he wanted to tell and then move on from the characters so he wouldn't be *stuck* with the characters the way another soap would be once they were written in.
I do have concerns that if he wrote a gay character without a real story in mind it would end up a caricature or comic relief. But at the very least while a gay best friend acting as a sound board for Steffy or Hope would be lazy it would make sense and if the audience liked him, he could be expanded for story later - like Justin sort of has been.
 

[ranger1rg]

Nope. Not one. Michael Damian reads as gay, and couldn’t hide from that. Neither can CLB, in my opinion. I think Greg Rikaart was a great gay on Days as Leo, but I think he can pass as straight as Kevin on YR.

[Soapsuds]

I've never bought CLB with any female pairing either. Greg hides his gayness well as Kevin.

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[victoria foxton]

Greg let his gayness out on Days.

[KMan101]

 

I used to with CLB. Watch him stalking Christine. He's chilling. But I guess even then you know he's gay. It doesn't matter but CLB has become distracting, IMHO. I'm glad they don't use him much anymore. I mean, on paper you'd think Lauren and Michael would be a genius pairing. It killed both of them.

 

Greg Rikaart does good. I loved him as Leo. Kevin can kick rocks but he does well playing him as straight.

 

LMAO. You know in the real world Xander would have been all in.

[Faulkner]

CLB and GR were both more credible as straight when they were baddies IMO. But, like other have said, they became less believable when they settled into their routine portrayals and thus more like their offscreen selves.

OTOH Terry Lester was gay as all get-out and completely believable as pu**y-chasing playboy.

[KMan101]

 

Spot on. So many actors on Y&R are basically just playing themselves at this point. 

 

I've seem more of Terry Lester in the last few years as Jack than I ever have and damn do I love him in the role. I see why folks hate Bergman as Jack. I was always indifferent but I can't even look at him the same, lol.

[Faulkner]

PB’s Jack is a different character to me, both in portrayal and in writing (as Bell wrote to PB’s cry-at-the-drop-of-a-hat matinee idol strengths, which is close to PB’s persona IRL). His Jack that’s far less fascinating, charismatic, and rich as a character than TL’s, but one that I’ve come to accept on the basis of PB’s talent and decent chemistry with his onscreen family over the years.

I wonder what Lane Davies might have been able to do with Jack in a sort of role swap, as TL later played Mason on Santa Barbara. He wouldn’t have had the easy swagger of TL, though.

[Vee]

I understand why people love Lester, especially after watching these indispensable classic eps in the last year. But I do think Bergman was a true chameleon in the role when he moved to CBS, and has been deeply underrated in the last twenty years. They give him largely schlock but he shows up every day, unlike so many other veterans on many shows. He could do so much more but instead he's reduced to chasing Sally Jr.

 

CLB was wonderful with Lauren in the early days; he even had serious chemistry with Lauralee Bell despite their past storyline, which is probably why the show toyed with pairing him with the woman he tried to rape. But yes, I do agree he's become sedentary and the marriage seems like one of convenience; Lauren is his faghag. But I've been saying for years that they should do a Far From Heaven-type story with Lauren and Michael, and then go so far as to reveal that Kevin is bi too. That said, I'm not onboard with a lot of homebound gays on soap forums trashing gay actors who sold hetero pairings for decades. They deserve more than our contempt while people are willing to spread 'em for a bunch of str8 actors.

 

I agree Michael Damian reads insanely gay. But so cute.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Vee