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"One Life to Live" adds a gay love story starring an out actor
Boy, the tidal wave of gay that has been sweeping through daytime isn't showing any signs of ebbing, as now One Life to Live has announced that it will be outing two existing male characters, one of whom is played by a gay actor who has caught our attention before. According to soaps journo Nelson Branco, OLTL will soon reveal that Officer Fish (Scott Evans) and Kyle Lewis (Brett Claywell) had a sexual encounter in college, and will have them rekindle their intimate relationship, which will then be challenged when another gay character, Griffin, arrives. (The role of Griffin is casting now.) But that's just half of it: The real news for some may be that Scott Evans is, indeed, the openly gay brother of hotstuff movie actor Chris Evans, whom we've mentioned before in our Celebrity Gay Brothers features. Following the immense success of As the World Turns' gay couple and the new gay goings-on on The Young & the Restless, this great news is another sign that the status quo is indeed shifting. Thanks to our soapsmeister Anthony Langford for the tip, and be sure to keep up-to-date on all three storylines with his weekly Gays of Our Lives column! Submitted by on Mon, 2009-06-08 11:21. |
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This would be...
....good news except I heard that One Live to Live is cancelled. Does this mean they can be as reckless as they want with their story lines now that their days are numbered?
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.
Good reflexes, Brian
You just beat me in posting this story.
As far as OLTL being cancelled, that's not true. The soap will continue being produced by ABC and shown here. It has, however, not been picked up for next season by the Canadian network that has been showing it up north. Them Canucks will have to watch the American feed from now on.
The blog has daily recaps of One Life to Live. Because you only have One Life to Live.
Cancelled? Sort of......
Well, that's a relief...
Phooey Canada. The story I read just said it was cancelled. Maybe whoever wrote it got fooled, too. I guess I will have to go back to OLTL and check it out. I watched it for years but got pissed off at the ham fisted handling of the Todd story line when it was played by Rodger Howarth. Fans were mailing him offering to let him "rape" them. Rodger was so sickened by that, he ask to leave. (this is what he said anyway) Then, I hear, they put the raper and rapee together in a love story years later. How stupid.
On a completely unrelated note, I find it amusing that Howarth's two characters on the two different soaps both survived being "killed" by being locked in the truck of a car and pushed over a cliff.
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.
OLTL off again?
DOUBLE POST
As I watched scenes between the two last night I thought:
"Kyle & Fish would make a cute couple."
This morning I turn on my computer and find that they will make a cute couple.
Tonight I intend on thinking about how much this nation will benefit from the repeal of DADT and the gay marriage ban.
Brian, be prepared to break the story tomorrow.
The more the merrier
It seems that now that the pressure against gay characters is not the same than the last couple of years, more soaps introduce gay characters. We'll see how this work in the future.
And ABC soaps are safe? Well it's not obviously because the ratings, last week ABC soaps were only ahead Guiding light
True, But....
That's a good thing
Cancel a show very fast never is a good idea. The rating of Física o química at the begining of the second season were a bit disapointed, not bad but far from what the channel expected. Some years ago Antena 3, cancel a lot of shows after two or three episodes, but they change that now, and the results are really good, FoQ beat CSI at the end of that second season.
ABC soaps are in a
ABC soaps are in a different position than CBS. CBS does not own their shows. GL and ATWT are Procter and Gamble shows, and Y&R comes from Sony and Bell, and B&B comes from Bell. Likewise, Days is owned by Sony and Corday. BB and YR are pretty safe, due to ratings, but the others are always on the chopping block, because the networks don't own the shows, and thus have little real investment in them.
The ABC soaps, however, are all owned by ABC. Beyond having a studio investment in the shows, ABC also can milk more money out of the shows through SoapNet. ABC has an economic reason to want their soaps to suceed. The other networks don't.
Do ABC soaps...
...have the kind of international syndication deals the Bell soaps do? I understand that makes a lot of money for Y&R and B&B and, thus, if ABC is making money there that means they can accept lower ratings longer.
One challenge with these gay stories, from my view in the cheap seats, is that these shows get a lot of buzz, but there doesn't seem to be a long-term ratings boost (overall, it's been a while since improved quality really helped ratings) and, thus, the additional attention doesn't mean more profit. I'm surprised ATWT hasn't turned Nuke into the product placement kids (unless they've managed to be too subtle for me) since that's the kind of advertising that will make it into online clips put together by fans.
That was fast...
Just last week, I heard that OLTL had a couple guys with this Otalia level of chemistry that had viewers wondering. I still have a week's worth of episodes on the DVR.
Great news
Wow, I was right!
I said in the comments section of last week's Gays of our Lives that it would be interesting if they were messing around in college and had to deal with their feelings now and this is announced today. Maybe they read my comment and decided to use it. Do I get a consulting fee? ;-)
Congrats to OLTL, I'm looking forward to this story. Fish is a good character and I love that he is going to be living with Christian and Layla now.
Just a side comment
What can I say
YES!!!
YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES!!!!!!
I've been waiting for this for months!
Ever since they introduced Fish, I thought there was something sort of gay about him, then you guys told me the actor is gay (thanks!). Then, when they first had Fish and Kyle meet, and everytime they meet up, there've just been these looks and pauses between them. I thought, maybe....? Then they had Fish sleep with Stacy, and Kyle seems googly over her too. I even asked the Flying Monkey a month or 3 ago, and he sadly reported to me that OLTL had nothing planned for that.
But here it is! Now, I love Luke & Noah, but after months of trying I have to fast forward most every other part of ATWT(due to lameness). I've started watching Y&R the past few weeks, but no gayness in that time. I always already watch GH & OLTL, which is defintely the most fun of the shows to watch. Fun enough my bf even likes it. Both of us couldn't beleive the tension they were showing with Fish & Kyle would lead to nothing...and now here we are! YES!!!!
Can you tell I'm excited? *)
GH
you watch GH? god, i heard that show has sucked for a while now.
last time i watched that show, jason and sam were dating....(then they broke up and i haven't watched since..*sigh*)
This is great!
The more gay visibility the better. I love Scott. He seems like such a sweet guy. I haven't watched OLTL before, cause we don't have that show here. But I will definitely start to watch, cause this story seems interesting.. Someone has to upload it to Youtube though;)
Harvey Milk: You gotta give 'em hope.
OLTL - excited!
This is great news. It should be a big departure from the OLTL Billy Douglas' (Ryan Phillippe) coming out story line of times past. Am looking forward to it. I wonder if anyone will upload it (hint hint) so we don't miss watching it. Thank you for keeping us informed.
Clips
OLTL -
YES! I'm all for uploading on YouTube too! LOL! I don't know the show at all, but that Scott Evans guy is so cuuuuuuuuute!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
R.I.P. - Heath - R.I.P.
JEFFREY RIGHT for "KING" biopic!
Maximum Coverage
Dear AfterElton,
Please feel free to include as much Scott Evans coverage as you can on the site. Until it reaches the same level of saturation as Jon & Kate Plus 8 in the supermarket tabloids, I will not be satisfied. More Scott Evans. MORE! I predict a top ten placement in next year's Hot 100.
Thanks!
Hopefully
A interview with him!
Since The Advocate got Chris Evans` interview early this year I think we should have his brothers` here on AE,don`t you think? ;)
The other guy is also pretty cute.
WOOOOOOOO!
Seriously this is the best news I've heard all day! OLTL is one of the best soaps on TV, and to hear that they are finally adding not just a gay couple, but a gay romance (and possible triangle) makes me so happy. OLTL has had a great history with gay characters (well, with one little misstep a couple of years ago with Nora's husband), and has a great history of using out actors, so this makes me love the show even more. I'm overjoyed right now. Fricken overjoyed!
(If you can't tell, I'm a One Life fan.)
Check out my blog soap at:
soapsudzbybobo.blogspot.com
So long as this story
So long as this story actually has legs and the couple aren't treated like token gays Bob and Lee on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, I'm all for it. The thing is, as far as I know, these two are isolated characters: neither Fish nor Kyle is connected to a core family in Llanview like Luke is connected to the Snyders in Oakdale. I hope this isn't a mere stunt storyline.
Also, OLTL better not do a repeat of its last gay storyline where Daniel Colson, who married Nora, was having an affair with a younger character (Mark something?) played by Matt Cavenaugh (Tony, WEST SIDE STORY), and Colson ended up going psycho and killing people because he didn't want to be outed.
THAT I don't want to see...
I wish this weren't from Branco
Hmmm......
Say what you will about Branco, but he has a good track record. As good as anybody's, IMO. I think the stuff about his making things up is more of a urban legend because a lot of people don't like him. And I know a lot don't like him because he can be a bit abrasive and unlike a lot of those in the soap industry, will call even the most beloved and popular soap actors and writers out when they suck when most soap press wouldn't dare to truly criticize them when they deserve it. I don't always agree with what he says, but I like the fact that he tells the frank, unvarnished truth as he sees it. There's no doubt he can be biased, but he seems to recognize that in himself where as others in the biz are too busy trying to please everybody, but satisfying no one. The soap industry might be a better place if there were more of him.
As for whether it's going to happen, I heard late last week that OLTL would be adding gay characters soon and that was before Branco's piece came out.
I love Nelson's columns
Like Anthony, I don't always agree with Nelson, but in the time that I've been reading his columns, he's always been right on the money.
As for OLTL--I've never watched it, so I'll probably just keep an eye out for the youtube clips. (But kudos to them for going there, and I hope they do it right.) These days, I can only manage one complete soap opera at a time, and Y&R has me totally hooked.
I hate to say
I hate to say I told you so, but...
Last summer I predicted that the other soaps were undoubtedly developing gay characters as a result of the Nuke publicity. Remember last summer? The sex and kissing ban on ATWT? I got alot of crap for that and everyone was like, "yeah sure, what ever Nukely", and "if they're writing gay characters, where are they" And I was like, "ATWT dropped the ball and other shows are going to be picking it up as soon as they can. I gave them 9 months."
Well. All I can think to say is, I told you so.
I'm glad you were right.
It's kind of amazing to realize that there are now 4 American soap operas featuring gay or lesbian characters: Luke and Noah on As the World Turns, Olivia and Natalia on Guiding Light, Rafe (and whoever his lover will be) on The Young and the Restless and now Fish and Kyle on One Life to Live; if you add in the fact that All My Children and General Hospital have featured gay/lesbian characters in the past, I believe this makes only Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful as the only hold-outs of currently airing soaps.
Additionally, another way to look at it is that the ratio of gay characters to the number of shows is statistically much higher in daytime than it is in prime-time!
One Life to Live
So I watched a couple of episodes after reading this article. They didn't feature either of the characters in question, but here's my thoughts of the show in general for anyone considering checking it out.
In summary, I prefer it to the two other soaps I've started watching recently (As the World Turns and Young and the Restless, of course.) The things that draw me to it are probably invisible to long-time soap fans, who clearly prefer Y&R:
1) It makes the relationships and storylines clear to newcomers rapidly, even if you come in mid-story. I started Y&R when Kevin and Amber were in the middle of a major storyline, and yet it took two weeks for me to figure out that they weren't a couple. I still don't understand all this Katherine-Jill and Chancellor babyswapping, DNA-testing stuff, after watching the storylines for over a month. After two days, I feel like I understand the relationships on OLTL quite clearly (at least, the ones relevant to the current stories. Obviously, the big family dynasties can only be understood over time on any soap.)
2) Plot pacing. I know long-time fans seem to relish the glacial pace at which Y&R moves, but it's quite off-putting to me and, to judge from comments of other people I've seen drawn in by the promise of gay-inclusive storylines, to many people who aren't traditionally daytime-watchers. I think it's one of the few things ATWT is right about in trying to attract new viewers, even though I know it's one that long-time viewers don't like. With OLTL, I feel like I saw more development on the stories in two days than I saw in the entire first week I watched Y&R. I guess I'll see of that holds up in the long term, but it's a promising start.
I realize you can't judge a soap on its whole by watching two random days, but it says something that after those two days, even though they didn't feature even a walk-on by the characters I came in to see, it's probably going to be the first one I watch when I hit the DVR tomorrow.
hello guys!
I really dunno if someone's gonna notice my little comment here but i must say that this wonderful site suits happy gays like me... Oh my! I would really love to be a part of the newest "one life to live" doing the role of Griffin.
Coz the character itself is so like me, NAUGHTY SWEET! If im going to have a rare opportunity like that i'm surely gonna love it as you will too... hehehe...
Raffy here,
MWAH!
Speaking of OLTL ...
Someone told me the guy who plays David Vickers and one of the gay guys on Desperate Housewives is gay in real life. Confirm or deny? Anyone?
A gay guy trapped in a straight woman's body.