BTG: History, Behind the Scenes Articles & Photos

[Liberty City]

YUP!

[BoldRestless]

I think the good news is the show is set in DC, but it's not Capitol. The political aspect is there but it's not the sole premise of the show. They started filming before the election results so presumably they wrote it without overt references to the administration. If the appetite to focus on politics isn't there, there's still plenty of fodder in a diverse soap that emphasizes class differences. If we look at the character bios again, there's several who aren't involved in politics and the ones in politics have other storyline potential. It was always a risk including it, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Edited November 7, 2024 by BoldRestless

[Khan]

At best, I think CBS will offload the show to BET and replace it with "Wake Up America with Megyn & Candace."  Regardless, however, I think its' days on CBS as it is are numbered already.

Edited November 7, 2024 by Khan

[detroitpiston]

I’m not with all the doom and gloom talk. As Lauren London once said “don’t focus on the future focus on the present” lol. Right now we have a black lead, black created soap opera being filmed and headed to airwaves next year with real backing. Lets keep celebrating that instead of manifesting negative outcomes.

[John]

So already dooming a show that hasnt aired one episode . Stop giving the President-elect power he does not have. 

 

[Sapounopera]

Does BTG feature any blue collar characters?

[dc11786]

Typically, I would agree with you about the displacement of politcian characters from their home space. I thought Frank Ryan's stories were limited because of the D.C. angle and thought ti was a mistake making Roger Forbes looking towards the White House. The smaller physical distance between the Maryland gated community and D.C. makes me think there is a more workable landscape here, but I may end up being very wrong. 

No need to apologize. I've read many, many posts by you over the years and know that you aren't the type of person looking to start a fight. I did want to address it because it seemed to becoming a bigger conversation and I thought I might have upset people. 

I think the justice angle is pretty embedded into the show with a cop son-in-law, politicians in the family, and multiple lawyer characters. The might jettison stories relating to life in the Capitol per se, but a pretty significant fiber of this series seems to be the connection to how law and order operates. 

If the NAACP remains involved, I don't see it disappearing. If they are bought out, I think that's a larger possibility. 

I think the main reason I don't see the political angle stunting BTG is because I many people are going to think that having a show featuring a predominantly African American cast is an example of CBS "trying to be woke." This isn't a show I thought that white midwestern housefraus were going to be gearing up to watch before the election, and certainly not now. I think trying to water it down is unnecessary because people who will be offended by the potential politics will be outraged that the show features at its core multiple African American women over the age of 40. It seems to be set in the Maryland/D.C. area for a reason. It could be set anywhere, but this is the location. 

 Then again, it might be worth noting that the Vanessa McBride character was originally an African American woman in the casting call articles online. So maybe there is already a bit of backtracking.

At 70, Dansby is not much younger than Val Jean. Neither is Judy Tate (69). Of the names I recognize, I suspect Danielle Paige is the youngest script writer with longterm daytime experience (she joined GL as part of their college writing program right?).

One of the Hamilton daughters, Naomi, the lawyer, is married to a cop, Jacob. He seems to come from a blue collar family. His friend, Derrrick, is a firefighter, and there is the nurse.  

I don't think it was stated implicitly, but the Thomas family may also be outside the gated community types. The mother Dana/Leslie is a waitress and the daughter is working as an assistant to Nicole Richardson. 

[dragonflies]

I completely agree!!! 

[ReddFoxx]

This is the first new soap opera in 25 years and we will not let the devil ruin it.

[vanguard]

Right. I created my own personal fanfic of characters early on because I was so excited about this show and I wanted the very best for it. No way will I allow negativity to creep in after all of that.

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[te.]

Location is one thing, but I feel like there's a limit to the conflicts that can be played out without representing the life in DC. I mean, it's fairly obvious that we're going to have the Senator father who is likely pushing his son to get as far as he can, while this is putting a stress to his home life since being a politician is time-consuming and everything you do is put under a microscope, so nothing is truly too private. But eventually they're going to have to resolve that conflict in some way before it becomes repetitive. 

But most of all, while I think politics in general is ripe for soap opera material, it's also an insular world in itself. That's why I think there might end up being problems if they're not really going to have a set of characters / physical sets to represent that - and that might end up causing issues with budget as it's hard to incorporate non-politician characters into that set too deeply and it might end up feeling like two-shows-in-one. There's a reason why soaps tend to opt to having their own businesses as you can always play musical chairs with the boardroom - not as easy in with politics. 

I don't know and I might be getting ahead of myself as the show hasn't started yet. But I could see it becoming an issue a year or two down the road as they'll run out of angles to play with it. 

 

As for the whole "they'll push it to BET"... let's see how it debuts first and how it performs on streaming. Ultimately, the audience CBS is trying to target hasn't gone anywhere regardless of election results and I'm sure they did a lot of market research before even contemplating on ordering a new soap. This wasn't done on a whim.

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[Sapounopera]

Thank you . I have always found the blue collar characters more interesting. 

[vanguard]

It would be great to meet the the blue-collar Hawthorne family at some point as I'm sure we will. More potential black characters for this show. 

[Liberty City]

It's in the "Maryland suburb" of Washington D.C., so it definitely looks like they're not focusing purely on the nation's capitol, which is smart.

[ReddFoxx]

That is not going to happen. Those crazy bitches would get CBS sued into the poor house with all the libel suits they'd.

I cannot believe that some of you all have this show off the air before it has started. If anything it will be more successful because this is what a lot of people. Black drama exploded during the idiot's first term and post.