Before BAM…Daytime Drama’s Commitment to LGBT before AMC’s Bianca And Maggie (Part 1 of 3)

At this time, the most dedicated genre covering any kind of inclusion or progression of LGBT issues in the entertainment media is the daytime melodrama.  Long considered one of the most politically conservative art forms in the country, the American soap opera has personified WASP society.  Insulated in the comfort of small town flavor, fictional topography such as Pine Valley, Springfield, and Port Charles have tipped their toe in the waters of social angst as it relates to abortion, war, and AIDS, but until just recently issues of homosexuality and same-sex relationships have been hidden as if shooting an unscripted pregnancy behind a laundry basket or a discreetly placed shopping bag.  Today’s comprehensive daytime dramatic programming has no close rival in primetime network television who seem to embrace mostly female same-sex pairings in a pathetic attempt at ratings grabs among their demographic.  Desperate Housewives never seemed more desperate than when promoting the same sex kiss between Terri Hatcher and Eva Longoria, no more than a cheap sweeps ploy for increased advertising dollars.

Until the most recent history, gay and lesbian characters in daytime have been incarnated from script only a handful of times. Daytime’s first openly gay soap character bubbled up on All My Children twenty-six years ago. In 1983, AMC introduced psychologist, Lynne Carson, played by Saturday Night Fever alumnus and ABC prime time actress, Donna Pescow.  Dr. Carson was a short time psyche consult and full time lesbian used primarily to prove the heterosexuality of another character.  The good doctor was given no history in Pine Valley, no romantic pairing, and no future.  She moved her shingle to San Francisco after only two months.

Five years later, CBS and As the World Turns introduced the first gay male character, Hank Elliot, a women’s fashion designer…shock!  Hank appeared off and on over the next four years but left to attend to a never before seen partner who was suffering off-screen with AIDS.  Again, the storyline was not much of a creative stretch, but considering the times and the fact the President of the United States couldn’t muster up the courage to say the word, AIDS, it was groundbreaking.

ABC’s One Life to Live attempted in 1992 to establish the first gay core character, rumored to be Joey Buchanan, the youngest son of Llandview’s matriarch, Victoria Lord Buchanan.  Coming on the heels of Pat Buchanan’s 1992, battle cry, Republican Convention address where he stated, “and we stand with him [George H.W. Bush] against the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women,” backlash from network executives led to the compromise storyline of a friend of Joey Buchanan, Billy Douglas, and his struggle with coming out to friends and family.  Though critically acclaimed, once the storyline passed the anti-homophobic  message of which it was intended, Billy faded into the background and was gone within the next year.

Taking One Life’s lead, All My Children again came back to the gay table in 1995 and created a storyline for a character with a small, but vested fan base.  Michael Delaney was a decorated veteran in the Marines and Pine Valley High School’s basketball coach and history teacher.  Michael came out to his class and found anything but acceptance from the upstanding citizens of Pine Valley.  The school board soon filed suit stating Michael was teaching his “gayness” to impressionable young minds.  Though he won the anti-discrimination lawsuit, the victory for gay work rights was a hollow one in that Michael slipped quietly into an off screen existence and the storyline did little for establishing long-term gay characters on television.

The year 2000 produced Y2K and the return of Erica Kane’s daughter.  Neither one brought an end to the universe, but the resolution Bianca delivered to her mother on New Year’s Eve completed what eight (nine?) husbands could never do, render Erica Kane speechless…for at least a few hours.   AMC’s choice to develop the daughter of uber-diva, Erica Kane, into an openly lesbian character transformed the soap opera landscape forever.   For the first time a character with a well worn history and roots in the community was gay.  This wasn’t a character just off the jumbo jetway that all small soap towns have.  This was a character whose tenure began in 1988 (though they soap-aged her a bit) and was recurring as the daughter of the most recognizable character on daytime television.

The familial tension rose as Bianca began to revel in the newfound freedom truth provides.  Who knew Pine Valley had a gay bar?  We certainly never saw Michael Delaney there in 1995.  To publicly establish Bianca had the gay gene, we found out that she had an affair with another patient while in rehab.  No, not gay rehab; that would be too easy even for soaps.  Anorexia rehab because Bianca IS the daughter of a super model.  Of course we never saw this affair either as that would require some kind of physical, on-screen, contact not allowed by the House of Mouse.  It didn’t really matter; the girl left Bianca to get married to a man, a contract legal in all fifty states.  Bianca then, of course, falls in obligatory crush with the blonde straight girl.  It played out with the same kind of impact as a low budget, single camera coming out flick that plays late nights on the Logo channel.  Was this it?  Just a whole lot of want and covet.  This storyline, billed as original, seemed to be running on a full complement of platitude.  It was evident the powers that be couldn’t see the forest for all that pine.

Mary Frances Stone came into Bianca’s life after Erika ran over “Frankie” with her car.  From road kill to potential girlfriend in one, long, knowing stare.  Though disapproving of Bianca’s “lifestyle”, Erica was still fiercely protective, no boy…or girl…would ever be good enough for Erica Kane’s daughter.  The struggle for Bianca’s affection began.  Frankie was also struggling with her own sexuality demons.  She ended up breaking Bianca’s heart as she went one toke over the line with the local rich boy.  Erica vowed to kill her for what she did to Bianca…and you guessed it, Frankie ended up face down and dead in her bedroom.

Was this it?  Was this just another network cave in to a controversial storyline? The old courage meter of the past was looking quite anemic.  Of course, the romance was purely off camera, but the actresses, Eden Riegel and Liz Hendrickson, and their own personal commitment to the storyline, made you buy into it and want more. Women of all ages were searching for their story to be told, and through this storyline found themselves looking into some kind of magic mirror with a reflection of their own returned and not society’s idea of what is acceptable. This worldwide network of women organized through message boards and forums found themselves otherwise marginalized by mainstream media programming. Just as calling the bucket brigade to a four-alarm fire, mass emotional mailings were sent to the daytime network and the national soap media in hopes that AMC would reconsider killing off Frankie and the storyline and somehow move forward.  It could be done; people come back from the dead on soaps all the time.  Organized fan numbers and potential laundry soap consumers of this size could not be ignored, not this time.  So, on February 4, 2002, Frankie’s twin sister, Mary Margaret Stone (played by Liz Hendrickson), arrived in Pine Valley…

BAM! (to be continued…)