BTG: History, Behind the Scenes Articles & Photos

[Khan]

I agree.  The one-family structure worked for the 15-minute soaps, because they didn't have the luxury of time to incorporate more than a handful of characters.  Once they expanded beyond those 15 minutes, however, the soaps needed more families out of necessity.

At the same time, I think a mistake that many modern-era soaps have made is throwing too many characters at their audience before they have had the chance to learn about them.  Even if TG ends up being an hour-long soap, I hope they learn from the mistakes made by PASSIONS, SaBa, SuBe and others and really use that hour in the beginning to concentrate on a select number of characters before broadening the canvas to include others.

[DramatistDreamer]

That’s the most manageable way to do it at the outset. It will be interesting to see how much the traditional approach to storytelling for the soap opera will be incorporated in this new series and how much innovation will be incorporated, perhaps leaving behind some methods that have shown to be less effective. 
I have long wondered why daytime soaps never at least tried to use the repertory system where you have some characters in active storyline for a period, rest them, rotate others in and you can even overlap and have parallel stories but don’t keep running the same characters ragged until everyone, including viewers get exhausted. I remember during the mid-late 1980s when ATWT was running hot and the stories were firing on all cylinders, they seemed to have problems retaining actors. One reason was obviously because these actors were getting other opportunities because they were on such a highly regarded series but others cited the fact that they needed a break from being so heavily involved in so many back to back stories and couldn’t get that break, so some eventually left. And it’s not as if everyone was being utilized similarly, a few actors were underutilized at the same time. From what I heard in interviews with some of the actors, it seemed as if execs wanted to focus on certain couples (a strategy that seemed smart in the short term but eventually marginalized any character that wasn’t part of a coupling) apparently, to take advantage of the super couple phenomenon of the 1980s and 90s. 
‘I hope this new series can avoid these pitfalls.

 

 

[All My Shadows]

I really wish I had more time to go crazy and speculate a million things about this new soap, but once summer is here, I expect to be obsessed.

Some random thoughts I've had...

- I love the fact that it's rumored to be replacing THE TALK. Get that outta here! Nothing would be sweeter than to see this new soap avenge the death of one of the old guard. Even if the random talk show survives this, I like the conversation centering around it being easily expendable in favor of a new soap.

- I hate "The Gates" as a title. If it's titled after a family, then I hate it EVEN MORE because unless their last name is just "Gate," the title should be "The Gateses," which sounds clunky. If it's a reference to a gated community, I still dislike it, and then I also dislike the premise of it being set in a gated community because no daily hour-long American daytime soap needs to be set in one neighborhood. For all of that, go UK and give us 3-4 half-hour eps a week.

- I know I'm alone in this and it's not gonna happen (and really shouldn't because this is 2024 and we are in modern times and not everything needs to have the grandmaw aesthetic as much as I wish it did), but give me a good old-fashioned syrupy soap title. "Behind Hidden Gates." "Through the Gates Unlocked." "

- The longest-running soaps to debut at an hour are PSNS (9 years and a month) and Santa Barbara (roughly 8 and a half years). We're in a different era, so that information might not be indicative of anything, but if we got 8-9 years out of this new soap, I'd be happy with that.

- Again, one neighborhood is too small for a daily hour soap, but so is one family. An old-fashioned standard that still works is the "two family" set-up that started off ATWT, AMC, and Y&R. With an hour soap, maybe up it to three families, with the third family built gradually around a character (or characters) who might seem to be strictly supporting in the beginning.

- Going back to old-fashioned things that I already know most people will say the new show should avoid. I want this baby shot on video tape, please and thank you. Three cameras, please and thank you, and all three cameras better know how to get all up in some faces for the tight close-ups. If we're gonna do a soap, then let's do a soap.

- What will CBS need this thing to do in order to consider it a success? If they're expecting numbers higher than Y&R, then I'd rather them just not do it at all. They need to be happy with substantially less than what Y&R is bringing in, and hopefully there's enough buzz to make it a streaming hit.

- Let's cast it. If we're doing two families at the start, then I want one headed by a veteran soap star (Debbi, where you at?) and one headed by a slightly younger name from a classic primetime series (like Karyn Parsons, if she still acts).

And most important. More important than anything else. Clarence.

[Khan]

Amen and hallelujah to that, lol!

I agree!  (Hell, even KNOTS LANDING couldn't remain set in the same cul-de-sac after awhile.)

I'm also vetoing any titles that sound pun-tastic and downright stereotypical, like "Keeping Up with the Joneses."  Save that [!@#$%^&*] for those two-cent church plays on Bounce, lol.

[vanguard]

I'm still hoping they choose Atlanta for the show's setting myself. So then the show can simply be known as "ATL" just in case " The Gates" is not the actual title.

[vanguard]

My dream setup:

Setting: ATL.

Wealthy black family: Matriarch, Patriarch, one adult son, two adult daughters, and a nephew biologically connected to the Patriarch.

Middle Class black family: Matriarch, Patriarch, no biological children. A niece (adopted daughter), a nephew (adopted son), a sister of the Matriarch, and a male cousin to the Patriarch.

Semi-wealthy white family (mostly supporting roles): Matriarch, Patriarch, one adult son and one adult daughter, and a sister of the Patriarch.

And a string of "lone" characters both male and female of different ethnicities.

 

Edited March 19, 2024 by vanguard

[DramatistDreamer]

As The World Turns was my favorite daytime soap and I have posted about the shooting techniques such as continuous shots with almost no cuts that were used in groups scenes that I loved so much. I just wonder whether anyone really knows how to do this anymore, especially with a multi camera setup. I would love to see those beautiful fluid shots but I won’t get my hopes up for that because it seems like it went away in soaps about a decade before ATWT got cancelled.

Listen, ATWT was my favorite soap so I have been relishing the possibility of The Talk getting bumped by a soap that is in part being produced by P&G.

[allmc2008]

I'm pretty much with you on all of this. That said, the press release was just released and I'm sure that the title, if anything, will be replaced. It's probably just a working title. I'm also certain that there will be more than one location/neighborhood. I'm imagining that the area in reference to the current title will be positioned as like the castle on a hill overlooking the 'little people'. The rich area, though the main area, is the area everyone else aspires to be in (either physically there or at the same social-economic level). If anything, the prime family will probably have extended family that's poor. Like, the brother of the rich patriarch will be poor. Ala "Rich Man; Poor Man".

[Contessa Donatella]

I hope I'm not duplicating. This you're gonna want to read. 

https://fangirlish.com/2024/03/17/why-cbss-new-soap-opera-the-gates-is-desperately-needed

[Vee]

I'm not super familiar with this technique despite immersing myself in Marland ATWT over the 2020s. I'd like to know more if you have a post you can point to sometime, thanks.

[edgeofnik]

Since P&G is involved, what I would've done is take the 'As The World Turns' branding and built off of that. Same premise as The Gates, except you have huge branding that exists and the ability to launch with some a few of the existing ATWT characters - such as Jessica or Jade. Throw in a couple of legacy characters a legacy family like the Stewarts and pivot from there. It's extremely hard to start from scratch.

Reboots have been done successfully in prime time, Hawaii 5-0, SWAT, CSI, etc.

It won't happen, but we all know how extremely hard it is for a new soap to launch. Regardless, I'm extremely excited about the show and what seems to be huge backing by the network to make this a success.

[ReddFoxx]

There will probably be at least three families plus assorted characters not in any of the families if it's an hour. I'd like to see one character who is not wealthy, but manages to work extremely hard to afford a home in the community and has to struggle for respect. That often happens in gated communities.

[Paul Raven]

I don't want to see a wealthy family unless the budget can support it. Also that immediately limits the type of stories that can be told.

[veu100v]

I'm glad to hear CBS is doing another soap, especially with a rich black family at the centre of the story.

I hope to see new great and beautiful young actresses and actors for the main roles, I know there is a lot of veteran black actos but a new soap needs to have also a young casting (around mid-20/early 30 years old)  to focus on.

I'd like to see new supercouples and also a great glamourous settings (I remember old CBS Capitol soap with great glamourous settings, wonderful faces and the beautiful stories so I hope new soap will do the same with black people). 

I'd like to see one of the main character will be a rich young beautiful woman who falls in love with a man who is the nemesis of her family and the show must go on... 

for the setting... do you think Atlanta? or New Orleans? I think it could be in a rich country (I think Santa Barbara, but I know there was another soap here)

[vanguard]

And now for their names:

Wealthy black family:

Patriarch: Gregory Montgomery

Matriarch: Valyncia Montgomery

Adult son: William Montgomery aka Gregory Montgomery, Jr.

Oldest adult daughter: Olivia Montgomery

Youngest adult daughter: Tracy Montgomery

Adult nephew: Curtis Montgomery

 

Middle class black family:

Patriarch: Charles McMillan

Matriarch: Gracelyn McMillan

Adopted daughter (niece): Sharon McMillan

Adopted son (nephew): Trayvon McMillan

Matriarch's sister (biological mother of Sharon and Trayvon): Yvonne Harris

Patriarch's male cousin: Damian Ross

 

Semi-wealthy white family:

Patriarch: Jackson "Jack" Hampton

Matriarch: Jillian Hampton

Adult son: Bryce Hampton

Adult daughter: Caitlyn Hampton

Patriarch's sister: Dr. Abigail "Abby" Hampton 

 

A couple of "lone" characters (more to come later when I think of some).

Sylvia Rivera: Highly paid housekeeper for the Montgomerys.

Reynaldo Rivera: Sylvia's very gorgeous hunk of a son who owns a highly renowned strip joint in ATL. Gorgeous, but also very shady.

 

Edited March 19, 2024 by vanguard