Beyond the Gates: Premiere Date, Time Slot Set by CBS

[Taoboi]

Amen.

[DramatistDreamer]

Yesterday I was listening to the radio station (community radio) and one DJ’s radio show began with a choral version of “Lift Every Voice And Sing” as she often does but this time, I felt such a stir in my spirit. My thoughts began to drift and I wondered whether MVJ has imagined what her opening scene to the first episode would look like. Has she written it already or merely sketched it out? Occupational hazard, I guess.  
 

My mind’s eye started imagining a well to do couple getting ready for a formal event with a flurry of people- stylist, tailor, makeup artist, barber, etc. From an antique radio (that still works), the strains of “Lift Every Voice And Sing” plays softly but distinctly the background. 
 

Not as a fan of soaps but culturally as a Black woman and a Black woman who is a writer, it resonated, truly hit home the significance of what this show could truly mean. A recognition not simply in terms of consumers but our creative voices and vision. 

[ReddFoxx]

Checked out a few opening scenes for soaps (not many too many to choose from since so most soaps are old and mostly lost). Several of them started outside which was probably to set the atmosphere for the locale. Loving started out with an introduction from Dorothy Lyman who was of course a big soap star then. It has been so long since a soap opera debuted that it's hard to say what the opening scene will look like.

[Khan]

Hopefully, it won't start with some little girl warning that "evil is coming!"

[BetterForgotten]

I know Bill Bell said something about him and/or Irna regretting that AW's first episode was a funeral, lol. 

[I Am A Swede]

That worked just fine for Emmerdale Farm though.  

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[DramatistDreamer]

If part of the main premise is the fact that these members of this prominent family live in a gated community, jmo but it would make sense for the introduction to occur inside the environs of this gated community.

Please just don’t do Generations’ opening episode that spends an ungodly amount of time with Kelly Rutherford hiding/sleeping under a sheet! Any onscreen entertainment that opens with someone half asleep or sleeping for most of the episode sets an ominous tone for the series’ prospects.

[BetterForgotten]

Events like a wedding (less so about the couple at this point as we’re getting introduced to them, but more so to get the canvas together at once) are usually a good starting point to get various characters together and understand character dynamics, and potentially tease stories that are to come. 

[te.]

I'd imagine the first scene would be someone entering THE GATES (dun-dun-dun).

[DramatistDreamer]

With the NAACP being a part of this, my mind went to a sequence involving these well-heeled folks being aided by their helpers (the “Upstairs/Downstairs” effect) as they prepare for some big civic event, the NAACP has tons of these lol.

[Aback]

One big takeaway from Lost is that you should start right in the middle of a crisis...

[Paul Raven]

How about opening with a major event- eg

a shooting,

a wedding where bride/groom says I don't,

a reveal eg So and and so is an imposter! etc

and then flashing back to 1 week before and we start the show from there so viewers are hooked from the start and know where the story is going and know by Friday what to expect.

[vanguard]

Something that hooks and intrigues the viewers instantly is the ONLY way to go in this day and time for any new show. Those days of slow-building a series are long gone. Viewers are not what they used to be.

[j swift]

IIRC, Santa Barbara opened with a huge event, and a flashback to a murder that wasn't resolved for a year, and the rating suffered.  As Tom Shales's review in the Texas thread shows, it began with what seemed like a big event, Alex stopping Iris's plane, but that went literally nowhere.  Whereas, B&B opened with the preparations for Ridge and Carolyn's wedding, so that we were building to a big event that would be revealed within the first month.

All of which is to say, history would tell us that there is more value in building toward an immediate big event, while getting to know the characters.  As opposed to jumping into a big event without a resolution that will quickly bore a sample audience. 

BTW, I would encourage everyone interested in lessons learned from a soap pilot to read the Tom Shales review, in the TEXAS thread, as it is a fun and well-written primer.

Edited May 21, 2024 by j swift

[Paul Raven]

In the case of SB taking a year to solve the mystery is counter productive. I'm talking about something that is resolved or revealed in the first week and move on with the ramifications from there.

As for Texas, it moved at a snail's pace so viewers were asleep by the time anything happened.

Citing those shows, another tip for MVJ is not to crowd the canvas with too many stories and characters at first , try delaying the debut of some characters till a few weeks in.

If they allow extra time to tape the first few weeks a smaller cast could cope with the extra workload.