Social Issue Storylines on the Primetime Soaps

[kalbir]

@Khan commented in another thread that the primetime soaps tended to avoid social issue storylines (I hope I'm not misinterpreting your comment Khan; also I didn't want to derail the other thread). I know viewers of the 1980s big four didn't expect to see Bill Bell-style social issue storylines, but of the social issue storylines attempted by the 1980s big four, which were good and which were not so good?

Edited February 15, 2022 by kalbir

[Joseph]

i know Dynasty began trying to approach social issues, there was Homosexuality, Claudia was coping to readjust after her nervous breakdown, there was marital rape, they hinted on Fallon being a Nymphomaniac that's what i can remember

and Knots Landing dealt with drug addiction

[Khan]

Unfortunately, that was all before DYNASTY decided to go full camp.  Steven became a straight man (who occasionally liked to sleep with other men)*; Claudia's mental instability became little more than a plot device; and Blake's abusiveness and Fallon's nymphomania were swept under the proverbial rug.

I thought KL did a good job exploring drug addiction with Karen and Olivia.  They couldn't get too in-depth with either storyline, however, because there were so many other stories going on and only so much time to explore it all.  (Just one of the many reasons why I've preferred the daytime soaps over the primetime ones.)

Conversely, I felt Maggie's battle with alcoholism on FALCON CREST consisted of nothing else but a half-dozen scenes of Susan Sullivan looking and acting sleepy.

 

*Allow me to clarify: there would have been nothing wrong with the suggestion that Steven Carrington was bisexual, but that's clearly not what the show was suggesting.  To them, Steven was just a mixed up kid who hadn't found the right woman.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Khan

[te.]

I think the issue with giving an alcoholism storyline at that point is that they quickly had to have her develop it and then quickly "recover" when like most addictions it's something that takes years to come to a realisation that it's a problem at all, much less go sober.

I thought Sue Ellen on Dallas and Alison on Melrose Place were decent attempts (for the genre that is, neither were kitchen sink realism) - Sue Ellen struggled with it for years before finally becoming sober (and even her relapse on NuDallas was among the better storylines they did). Alison's high-strung character being dealt blow after blow with the Keith drama, spiralling for a bit but at that point realised she had an issue with drinking too much (but didn't go sober) and then later completely losing it in season 3 felt like a logical long-term character arc for her.

[Khan]

Good point.  Even when non-serialized shows like "Family" and "The Waltons" did episodes about alcoholism, it was usually with the suggestion that the alcoholic has been battling the bottle for some time.  ("Oh, as long as I've known Aunt Gertie, she's always been the life of the party!")

I'd have to say that that was Linda Gray's finest hours on the show.  She certainly did a much better job portraying how alcoholism slowly eats away at the body, mind and soul than Ted Shackelford (ex-Gary, KL), who couldn't decide whether "playing drunk" meant pretending he was like the Incredible Hulk, or like Willie the Wino on "Good Times."

Edited February 15, 2022 by Khan

[te.]

I think the issue for prime time soaps with issues like addiction, homosexuality or mental illness are that they're character arcs rather than something that can just come and go. Part of the difficulty is of course that a lot of these shows changed writers, but even if they didn't they still only planned the shows season-by-season. Early on in Falcon Crest it was implied that Julia was nibbling away at the bottle, but of course the production having issues with Abby Dalton on set and deciding to make her Carlo's killer, they just decided to make her garden-variety crazy instead.

[Soapsuds]

Wait Abby Dalton difficult to work with?

Steven's bisexuality or homosexuality was so lame. Steven hugging another man was Taboo to him and his friends and family. I still remember Steven hugging his lover Luke and either Claudia or Blake walking in on them. Steven reacted guilty as hell for a hug . 

I lost count how many times I hugged my best male friend at the time. No one ever looked at us and said...oooooooooooo.... must be gay.

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[Paul Raven]

Never heard of this - tell us more...

[Khan]

Well, I know that part of the problem BTS with Abby Dalton was that she'd read only her scenes in each script.  She'd complain about the writing to the producers, but she'd admit that she didn't know anything about the scripts except her scenes in them.

Now, you could say hers was a deliberate choice; some actors only want to know what their character would know.  But it sounds more like AD was too self-involved to care about the parts of the show that weren't about her.

That's putting it mildly, lol. 

I realize that ABC was skittish about featuring a gay character with the implication that he had an active sex life.  But it isn't as if the Shapiros snuck it in on them.  I mean, Steven's homosexuality is pretty much there from the beginning.  It's the whole reason why his relationship with Blake was fractured.  Why buy the series with that element already in place, only to backpedal later?  Either stand by the choice to have Steven be gay, or tell the Shapiros to remove that element from their original story.  Otherwise, you just end up looking like chickenshits.

Then, to make matters worse, when Al Corley leaves the show, because what he was being asked to play as Steven was not what he'd signed up for, who do they get to replace him?  Jack Coleman.  A very wooden performer, who never looked comfortable "playing gay."

Frankly, when Corley's Steven left, the character should've stayed gone.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Khan

[Soapsuds]

Did we ever see Steven in bed with another man? I don't even recall him kissing another man. 

In Dynasty world a hug=a kiss.

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[Khan]

All I recall is the moment Steven and Bart Fallmont (Kevin Conroy) gazed into each other's eyes after an intense fight in a gym.  For his part, Conroy looked like he really wanted to [!@#$%^&*] Coleman, while Coleman looked like he was about to get eaten alive by one of the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park."

[Soapsuds]

Haha!

I remember those scenes. That was the closest we got to something sexual. 

And here it is!

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[Khan]

Yep, that's the scene.

I'm not gonna lie: if I had been in Steven's shoes, I wouldn't have put up much of a fight.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Khan

[Soapsuds]

Here comes the hug........means a kiss

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Same!!

[Khan]

Didn't Steven own a professional football team at one point?  Yet, from what I recall, there wasn't a single story or even scene about Steven helping one of the players cope with life as a closeted male athlete.  A story so simple that even the Pollocks couldn't have screwed it up (too badly).

Instead, we got some jive mess w/ Sammy Jo developing a crush on a player who was using drugs.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Khan