First new daytime soap on major network in 25 years to focus on wealthy Black family
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
There hasn't been a new daytime soap opera on a major television network for over 25 years until today. "Beyond The Gates" debuts on CBS and Paramount+ this afternoon, replacing "The Talk." NPR TV critic Eric Deggans visited the show's set in Atlanta to see how it's making history in another way by focusing on a wealthy Black family.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: All right, guys, we're moving on. That will be Act Two, Scene Two. Act Two, Scene Two, everyone.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: The atmosphere at Assembly Studios is friendly but firm because the cast and crew of CBS' "Beyond The Gates" understand they have to get a lot filmed quickly, enough to fill an hour of daytime television every day. And one of the biggest challenges, as co-star Daphnee Duplaix discovers in one scene, is just remembering all the lines.
DAPHNEE DUPLAIX: (As Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson) Ashley has no interest in you?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (As character) She straight up...
DUPLAIX: I have to finish my line.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that.
DUPLAIX: (Laughter) Interesting...
TAMARA TUNIE: We're shooting for one take, OK? Let's one take and move on.
DEGGANS: That's Tamara Tunie, who plays Anita Dupree, matriarch of the wealthy Black family at the heart of "Beyond The Gates." In addition to her work in films and TV shows, like "Law And Order: Special Victims Unit," Tunie spent more than 15 years on the CBS soap opera "As The World Turns." She has emerged as something of an unofficial coach for some actors who haven't worked on soap operas before, where they film a lot more material in one day than typical primetime TV dramas.
TUNIE: We're in Atlanta, where no one has really done daytime drama like this. And so it's a big learning curve.
(SOUNDBITE OF KURT FARQUHAR'S "BEYOND THE GATES TITLE THEME")
DEGGANS: "Beyond The Gates" is an ambitious effort. It's the first soap opera in nearly 35 years to focus on a Black family from its start. It's centered on Tunie's Anita Dupree, a once-famous singer married to retired senator Vernon Dupree, played by Clifton Davis. Davis, who starred in TV shows like "Amen" and "Madam Secretary," says he's excited to bring a new type of Black family to television, living in a fictional suburb near Washington, D.C.
CLIFTON DAVIS: There are communities in the United States where African Americans are tremendously affluent. And it's those kinds of stories that we're suddenly touching on that haven't been really told before.
DEGGANS: And CBS has leveraged lots of resources to make it all happen. There's a cast of 40 characters and about 200 people working on the show, which has 27 different sets.
SHEILA DUCKSWORTH: We are on two stages, a total of 35,000 square feet, so it's large, but you know, we could always use more space.
DEGGANS: Sheila Ducksworth, an executive producer on "Beyond The Gates," walks through the show's various sets like a proud parent. She heads a production partnership between CBS and the NAACP, which has made "Beyond The Gates" its first project, inspired in part by her time watching soaps like ABC's "General Hospital" and NBC's "Generations" years ago.
DUCKSWORTH: Literally, that was one of the things that made me say, I want to do a soap opera that shows folks that look like us and do things like us and really, you know, kind of hang a lantern on the cultural aspects that I thought were missing in soaps.
DEGGANS: Ducksworth enlisted pioneering Black soap opera veteran Michele Val Jean to create and write the show. And in a first for the soap world, many of the show's other department heads are Black as well. Stevie Martin leads the show's makeup department.
STEVIE MARTIN: When you see somebody that looks like you, it automatically creates the trust factor. We have the same skin tone or a variety of it, then I know you know what to look for and what to do and what not to do.
DEGGANS: As Martin talks, she's working on actress Karla Mosley, who plays one of Vernon and Anita's daughters. Mosley, a veteran of soaps like "The Guiding Light" and "The Bold And The Beautiful," says that trust can help actors deliver better performances.
KARLA MOSLEY: It's so comforting because this is where you come first, right? Hair and makeup.
MARTIN: Yeah.
MOSLEY: You're sitting in these seats.
MARTIN: Yeah.
MOSLEY: If you have a traumatic experience before you get on set, it's really hard to focus.
DEGGANS: Soap operas have been in decline for years. There are only a few still on network TV now. Still, Ducksworth cites statistics showing Black women are an important part of daytime TV audiences. She hopes to win their loyalty with "Beyond The Gates."
DUCKSWORTH: I think we all know that our grandmothers called them the stories and they got passed down. You grew up watching them and so you then watch them, and that is the hope for this soap, too.
DEGGANS: Davis says the show seems to be sending a message at a time when the Trump administration is going after federal diversity and inclusion efforts, and corporations are backing away from them.
DAVIS: There's an effort to eliminate or erase or modify Black history. It's important for us to keep making Black history. That's what we're doing. We're adding on on this end. You may be swiping us off on the back end, but we're still coming.
DEGGANS: Seems the crew at "Beyond The Gates" isn't shy about making their own contribution to history.
Eric Deggans, NPR News, Atlanta.
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