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In Living Color - Soap Opera Weekly...

Blacks are making progress in daytime, but there's still a ways to go. (By Joe Dilberto, with reporting by the Weekly staff.) Blood is thicker than water, and family ties are hard to sever -- which makes including African-American characters in soap storylines a formidable task. But despite the difficulties of getting a foot in the crowded, long-running white core-family door, black characters are front-and-center in 2003. In fact, many of the plots generating the best word-of-mouth right now resolve around black characters, among them: Neil, Drucilla, Wesley, and Olivia on The Young and the Restless, Marshall, Jessica, and Ben on As the World Turns, Abe and Lexie on Days of Our Lives, and TC, Eve, and Liz on Passions. Fueled by strong stories and potent performances, these characters are adding their names to the pages of soap history. However, it's been an uphill climb in the traditional world of daytime. Because of the length of time soaps have been on the air (30, 40, 50 years...) it is hard to acheive the wholesale change that adding a flood of new black characters would bring. "These shows are more guided by their own history than prime time," agrees Prof. Robert J. Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "Guiding Light, As The World Turns, The Young and the Restless: These have long, long traditions." While the actors may change, the basic family units don't and fans expect to see those kinfolk regularly. And when these ancient bloodlines were mapped out, television programming was mostly white. Now, adding a new character and/or family means cutting back on time for staple families (never a popular move with fans), and no soap has had black characters long enough to become must-see dynasites. "It is one long, continuous storyline over years and years with select core families that don't change that much," echoes Raymond Bradford, national director for Equal Employment Opportunities with AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. "If the core family is Caucasian, then it's hard to start breaking ethnic characters into that family." One of the earliest efforts came frim legendary soap scribe Agnes Nixon. "I did the first [black story] on One Life to Live, and that was 34 years ago," says Nixon. In that landmark tale, Clara Gray (Ellen Holly), a fair-skinned black woman, called herself Carla Benari and pretended to be white. She was engaged to Dr. Jim Craig (Robert Milli), who was white, but fell in love with Dr. Price Trainor (Peter DeAnda; later Thurman Scott), who was black. Nixon remembers she encountered no problems with the network. That is the reason I went to ABC. I asked them if I had dramatic freedom, and they said absolutely." Another exception to the rule is newbie soap Passions, which hit the screen four years ago. "Passions was created with a core African-American family as one of its four founding families," Sheraton Kalouria, senior vice president, Daytime Programs, NBC, says proudly. So Passions can easily add new black characters (a la Liz) to the Russell mix. But more traditional shows also offer promise, according to Thompson, pointing out that prime time is integrated in the workplace, while soaps depict more diversity on the home front. "These shows show that African-Americans belong in the domestic space, mixed and integrated, as well as the professional space," he explains. And in that "domestic space", black households represent a huge audience for soaps. By The Numbers According to Nielson Media Research, blacks generally watch more television than any other segment of the population. Black households watched an average of 11 hours, 23 minutes of daytime television per week during the 1999-2000 season, the most recent year for which data are available. In contrast, all other U.S. households watched an average of 8 hours, 2 minutes. The higher figures held true across all age groups: Adults 50-plus, Adults 18-49, Teens 12-17 and Children 2-11. Black households make up about 12 percent of the television viewing audience, says Doug Alligood, senior vice president, Special Markets, for advertising agency BBDO. "Their impact is greater than you'd normally expect, relative to the size of the audience." (See accompanying charts [at the the bottom of the page] for a complete ranking of soaps among black and white households.) Alligood attributes Y&R's popularity to the way its black characters are tightly woven into the story. "They are integral to the main story more than some of the other [soaps]," he notes. "Without the black characters on Y&R, you're missing half the show." And that's an important distinction. It takes more that just black faces; black viewers want to see black characters at the forefront of storylines. "The presence of a black character on a show does not automatically guarantee an increase in black ratings or a black following for that show," says Alligood. "It depends on how you position the people and the storyline -- and it depends upon the people themselves." Colorblind So how does Y&R do it? "The secret is, when I look at the show there aren't 'black characters' and 'white characters'," says executive producer David Shaughnessy. "They're just families. Everything is integrated, as much as possible, into the mix. Some are rich and successful and some are worker bees. They all mix in." Victoria Rowell (Y&R's Drucilla) is a fan of mixing it up. "Y&R does an exemplary job of integrating the cast. Kristoff St. John (Neil) has regular scenes with Victor Newman (Eric Braeden). Drucilla has scenes with Ashley (Eileen Davidson). For 13 years, the show has consistently had a strong black storyline that has not been an island unto itself within the show," Rowell continues. "I can honestly say that our show is not 'The Young and the Rest of Us'. It is really The Young and the Restless as a complete ensemble. Co-star St. John points out that "the magical storytelling of Bill Bell is unequaled in daytime. When was the last time you turned on a drama and saw a black family working out day-to-day problems?" Y&R producer Kathy Foster adds, "We write stories for people. We don't look specifically at race and try to pinpoint something. We write stories that any human can experience." The NAACP applauds Y&R's method. "To suggest that certain roles should only be played by one ethnic group over another is wrong and something that we should get away from," suggests Frank L. Berry, regional director for the Western Region of the NAACP. "We're all capable of performing any role in any situation in America." "Good writing has no color," echoes Renee Jones (Lexie, Days). And good writing goes beyond dreaming up plot twists -- it means creating compelling characters with whom audiences can relate. That's why Tracey Ross loves playing Passion's Eve Russell. "If you recast her and made the woman have red hair and blue eyes, you wouldn't have to change a line because she's such a person," she asserts. "I'm one of the luckiest actresses in daytime." However, Thompson cautions that taking a completely colorblind approach could be seen as unrealistically optimistic. "The social nexus that they travel in is not colorblind, and therefore their story can never be completely colorblind, either." Bradford dislikes "colorblind" terminology. "Even though it sounds fanciful, I always prefer 'colorful casting'. We came up with the term 'American Scene'. We just want an accurate description of what we see all around us. Pride & Prejudice "Colorful casting" has led to an expansion of the types of roles available to people of color. Gone are the days when blacks were mostly cast as criminals and street hustlers. "When I first started in the business, I played the hooker, I played the crack addict, I played all those roles, and then something happened," says Jones. "L.A. Law was the turning point for me because I finally played a character that had integrity, and that felt good. She was a lawyer. I wanted young girls to look up to the characters that I was playing." "I turned down a lot of jobs because I didn't like what I was asked to do," says James Reynolds (Abe, Days). "Every actor of color of a specific age has experienced that to some degree." Besides being offered demeaning roles, many actors recall facing personal prejudice. "I have indeed," says the now in-demand Tamara Tunie (Jessica, ATWT), who also plays Melinda on Law and Order: SUV. "I won't be specific, but [whether] it's racial or gender-based prejudice, it's definitely still prevalent." And the industry doesn't offer limitless opportunities to actors of color. "Television has come a long way, but it's still surprising when you see someone [like me] who's dark black, very African-featured," says Timothy D. Stickney (RJ, One Life to Live). "There are only so many brothers." "Sometimes, I worry that being an African-American man in a position of power is a threat to certain viewers," adds Lamman Rucker (Marshall, ATWT). "Some of the roles that I would go out for, they would tell me that I wasn't right because of the way I looked," shares Andrea Pearson (Gia, General Hospital). "That would be something interesting for them to address with Gia's character, because all women and all people of color go through prejudice to some extent. That's a sticky subject, but it's a serious subject." At the other end of the spectrum is Ross. "The only prejudice I ever seem to get is prejudice for me, not prejudice against me. People are taking extra pains for me, or trying to do something for me because I'm black," she maintains. "It's almost like they know that prejudice is out there, so they're trying to make sure it doesn't happen to me. I never feel victimized." The 'Black Story' Ever since Tunie joined ATWT in 1987, the "black storyline" has been an issue. "I had a great story with (ATWT's late head writer) Douglas Marland when Jessica was married to Duncan McKechnie, but it really was about her being black and him being white. I got a lot of mail. I got a lot of mail supporting the storyline; I got some hate mail too, very negative mail. As far as this [Marshall] storyline, it's all been great mail." "Traditionally, African-Americans don't write in," says Stickney. "Black viewers are used to taking what they get. TV has never catered to a black audience. They (on-screen blacks) are in someone else's universe. I hear [fan response] in the world, when I'm on the corner getting a cup of coffee. My wife will hear it and she'll tell me what people are saying." And not all of what folks are saying is pleasant. "When I kissed Rebecca (Andrea Evans) in a fantasy, I got hate mail that I was too afraid to even tell anybody about," reveals Rodney Van Johnson (TC, Passions). "But that's part of America. Freedom of speech: You're allowed to say what you want to say, do what you want to do." Daytime did take a stab at addressing a black audience with Generations, the first soap to focus on a black core family. "Generations was a landmark show at the time. For the few years that it was on (1989-'91), there wasn't another quote-unquote black soap opera," says St. John, who played Adam Marshall and won a Daytime Emmy as Neil on Y&R. "Let me correct myself: It wasn't a black soap, there just happened to be a few more black faces. Here was this very strong black family, the Marshall clan out of Chicago. Successful Henry Marshall owned an ice-cream chain. For the most part that in itself was a huge deal for daytime." "I don't think its failure to get an audience has so much to do with the fact that it was an African-American cast," Thompson explains, "as it had to do with the fact that launching a new soap is not easy to do." "One thing I must say about NBC and (Generations creator/head writer) Sally Sussman-Morina," adds St. John: Generations hired three black writers, Judi Ann Mason, Frank Bandridge, and Michele Val Jean. Michele Val Jean later became a co-head writer if General Hospital." Val Jean is still a writer for GH. Words on the Page With black writers scarce in soaps, many performers are akkiwed some leeway with their dialouge. The story is dictated by thr writers, but any actor can "put their own flavor on something," says Y&R's Foster. "As long as someone's not saying something that can only be said on HBO, that's fine." Still, some of the writing can be found wanting. "I've been on several shows where people who weren't African-American tried to write an African-America point of view, but their usually writing from Cosby, or Snoop Dogg," says Van Johnson. "The way African-Americans speak is completley different than the way white people and other nonAfrican-Americans speak. There's a rhythm, there's a flow. You can tell when you read something that a black person didn't write this." "What's correct speech for a black person? We're American," argues Jones. "I add my own whatever to help Lexie be a little more spunky, but it's all in the way that you say something. See, that's the misconseption that people feel the have to write differently for a black person. It's all standard English." Things are Getting Better "As far as African-Americans on daytime, there has been an improvement. All you have to do is look at some of the contract players," says Bradford. "There's still along way to go, but it has improved somewhat." AFTRA reguarly schedules closed-door meetings with networks and producers, and sponsors talent shows to promote hiring minorities at all levels. NBC has recently been promoting Passions in magazines like Jet. "African-American women comprise a larger percentage of the audience of soap operas than they do of the population at large," notes Kalouria. "For two sweeps in a row, two of our driving stories have revolved around out core African-American characters." In addition, Passions' black actors recorded a series of PSAs to promote Black History Month. "We're not in the same place that we were 50 years ago, or even 40 years ago, but we have a lot of space for growth," says Pearson. "The fact that things are starting to change is promising." Thompson says soaps have to prove themselves relevent in the 21st century. "That's going to include integrating casts, because we live in a country with an integrated cast." How much Farther? "We will see equality when we see more African-American writers, when see more African-American hair and makeup people," Rowell says. St. John belives it is the responsibility of the-powers-that-be to seek out qualified minority writers. "But I don't think it is going to happen anytime in the future," he adds. "There needs to be more opportunities for people of color," says Van Johnson, "to write, direct, do sound, do lighting. But the door is so tightly closed because there's a lot of nepotism in the business." One important way to mainstream black storylines and characters; "Stop calling them 'black storylines' and 'black characters,' concludes Tunie with a laugh. ++ Return to Timothy D. Stickney's Domain