BTG: History, Behind the Scenes Articles & Photos

[janea4old]

tonight After Midnight on CBS, Clifton Davis and Karla Mosley

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[janea4old]

from LateShowColbert instagram stories -a peek at Tamara Tunie's appearance.
(They taped earlier this evening and will air later tonight.)

Sound on.

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[Khan]

It was always great to see Tamara Tunie on "L&O: SVU," even if the producers often had to stretch credibility just to get her into episodes.  (Most notable: the time she helped Stabler defuse a bank robbery/hostage crisis, with the sudden explanation that she had served in the military or something, lol).

[MontyB]

This picture gives me life! Look at Tamara up front and center.

[titan1978]

As I watch the specials, it’s really clear that MVJ focused on specificity with these characters. I watched the first months of the last three new soaps- Port Charles, Sunset Beach, and Passions. Only Passions felt like it had this kind of story structure and character foundation from day one. Passions was going for a very different tone of course. I hope that helps the show find an audience.

I hope the show is so successful it causes the other soaps to re-evaluate their current structures. The wrong lesson is to just put a bunch of Black people onscreen thinking that is all it will take to be competitive. They do need the diversity of course, but not just another group of pretty people standing around without a story. The right lesson is rich characters and actual stories. Not stunts, not multiple paternity stories playing out at the same time, and not generic characters/dialogue.

Edited February 20 by titan1978

[Vee]

They're going to need some stunts or action and major galvanizing events to get eyes on them in this still-competitive environment (particularly against GH). That's where someone like Guza comes in handy AFAIC. But it doesn't work without, as you say, rich characters and detailed stories.

Edited February 20 by Vee

[Soapsuds]

Tamara Tunie looked fabulous. She was stunningly beautiful on the late show. I loved that she mentioned she was previously on As the World Turns and how she had done it for 13 years, and that she was back home at CBS.

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[BetterForgotten]

If you haven't listened to it, Tamara Tunie's full Lecture at Carnegie Mellon is up. At various points, she bakes in stories from both ATWT and BTG.

The part that got me was when she talked about how often she was the only black contract player on ATWT, and what a burden that could be for both her and the show. She said something to the the effect that when you have one minority/black person in your cast, that character (intentional or not) is supposed to be represent an entire community, and that wasn't fair since black people are not a monolith and that was feedback she gave to the producers. She gave the example of black viewers often writing into the show about why none of Jessica's black love interests ever lasted, and why her only successful relationship was with a white man. She said BTG has the opportunity right out the gate to showcase a variety of black characters at the same time, which is not something she had experienced before.

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[Soapsuds]

I watched it, and it was a hot mess of a show. Now I remember why I never watched it again..

[Vee]

Tunie praises the writing of ATWT as 'brilliant' around 12 mins in, and the more layered critique of the show comes in around 1:02:30 during the panel discussion.

[janea4old]

Tamara Tunie on Late Show with Stephen Colbert: her full segment:

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Edited February 20 by janea4old

[BetterForgotten]

And here's the (totally unfunny waste, IMO) segment of After Midnight  where Clifton Davis and Karla Mosley appeared:

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Edited February 20 by BetterForgotten

[janea4old]

 

All the stories Ms. Tunie told on Colbert, are wonderful!

Her parents were morticians and her family lived in the upstairs of the funeral home -- the family lived upstairs, the funeral home was on the ground level, and the mortuary was in the basement -- she said it was like the show "Six Feet Under, only Black".  She began helping in the family business as a teen, doing hair and makeup. She was born into this life so it was all normal for her.
She said that when she got the role as the medical examiner on SVU,
"When I walked into the morgue on Law&Order:SVU, nobody could tell me nothing!"

What's great is that she has been told by Black women in real life that they, or their daughters or sisters, became inspired to study forensic science because of her role on SVU.

It's all on the youtube (two posts up from this)

Edited February 20 by janea4old

[BetterForgotten]

As much as I haven't been a fan of Julie Hanan Carruthers in her past work, in yesterday's Welcome the Neighborhood episode when she talked about coming in there last August and having to facilitate the building of sets, a control room, and making the soundstage technically coherent was proof of why she was hired. I think facilitating AMC's move between coasts must have been an invaluable experience for her to do able to get all the technical elements off the ground before BTG started taping last November. 

[Contessa Donatella]

So, I taped this last night & was about to watch it when here it appeared already an edit on YT! And, what a fabulous interview she is! You go, girl! "The only show that would bring me back to daytime is this show." Loved her anecdote about Lena Horne. What memories she has. Talking about her parents both being morticians & growing up living above the funeral home. Shout-out to ATWT & also coming home to her network, CBS. She's a PR person's dream come true. And, of course she looked amazing & was so completely at ease. 

"Listen, it's a soap opera so as pulled up & elegant as I am, there's always time for some mess. It's going to get messy."

Edited February 20 by Contessa Donatella