Lets Hear It For “The Girls” – a commentary on Crystal Chappell’s SOW interview
August 9, 2009 by admin
Filed under Entertainment, TV
In the latest edition of Soap Opera Weekly, Crystal Chappell expounds upon the freeing nature of letting “the girls” out for a bit. I think we can all agree that Crystal has been anything but unrestrained lately in her portrayal of Guiding Light’s Olivia Spencer, Springfield’s sexual icon who has professed mutual love with her best friend and fellow member of “the girls” club, Natalia Rivera.
In the interview, Crystal is referring to her character, Olivia’s, near naked replacement romp with ex-husband Josh. Even the most naive water-carrier saw this one coming. There has been sexual tension between them for weeks, add that to a sexually denied Olivia, the heartbreak of a runaway love interest who is secretly pregnant with a Frank-furter’s baby, and you have the perfect daytime diva distraction. Hell, if Gus were to suddenly come back to life after a covert undercover assignment with the CIA, I would call this the consummate long-term soap storyline. Alas, Guiding Light has an expiration date, and that bulb burns out in about a month.
Can you honestly blame Chappell for wanting to shake her money makers a little bit? She has been wearing restraints for months, and not the good kind. Her character has been handcuffed so often, she is actually carrying them in her purse.
If nothing else from this article we can garner that the CBS censors are in full tilt. I believe my previous suspicions are confirmed as even the body positions of this upcoming no-label-required tryst is interrupted by the powers that be. While Chappell is permitted to take “the girls” out for a well deserved walk, the Standards and Practices allowance is apparently no top. A simulated spoon is fine, but you better not fabricate a fork.
I have to ask, why? The demise date on this thing is so close it’s beginning to smell, and CBS is worried about who’s on top? Could this be corporate push-back to the audacity of hope? My cynicism not withstanding, there is still quite a bit of hope out there. Hope that if Josh can have recess with “the girls”, then perhaps at some point in the next month Natalia can come out and play.
Hey, I get it. “The girls” are back in town but Natalia is not. In this scene of the “weak”, it’s Josh who gets the booby prize. What do you think the chances are when Nat gets back that she will get a little “cheek”?
Probably pretty good if you are thinking more face fondling. At this point to consider any Otalia affection toward a body part other than the face cheek is just asinine.
Why indeed? I get that conservative era of American TV is slow to move out of but nothing that has happened on air in that last 5 years comes close to the hetro sexuality shown on daytime in the early 90′s. The genre has slipped to the dark ages and therefore plays like a dinosaur.
The UK celebrates it’s soaps like we do the night time shows that become water cooler. In the US the genre has become more of a joke because of the slapdash storytelling and conservative shift in content.
It’s really gotten laughable to hear that a ‘who’s on top’ or a limitation to hugs and snuggles with Otalia has become the ‘word from above’.
Daytime keeps this up and no amount of moving shows to LA or changing production budgets will help it. CBS needs to get it’s head out of the book of standards and get with the times.
Great piece
Thx Mimi for yet another great article true to all facts. I say “Let the Girls Out!” I can’t recall the last time Olivia Spencer got to have a lil free time lol’s…At least when she was playing the Hetero part, we got some skin! CBS and others have killed GL and Soaps with just one Messed up s/l. Here’s what I see…I see 3 different soaps right now who are engaing in gay men s/l’s and 2 of them are on CBS, WTF? All us Otalia fans have been asking for to happen in the past 6 months is a Kiss! Thousands if not more, fans have called, written and voiced our concerns about Otalia for many months and to me, it feels like a lost cause. Crystal Chappell Is a Goddess! Jessica Leccia is her Princess! Why can’t we have a damn kiss? Otalia has been chopped to death since the non wedding. Things should have moved right along for them in a totally different way. I know they would have had probs with the kids, but for someone to throw in the preggers part was a slap in the face yet once again to g/l community. How many times do we have to see the same ole same ole? I know it’s a soap, but give me a break, Please! I still will never understand why GL was not picked up by another network or at least why Otalia wasn’t picked up.
Well written and an opinion shared by a lot ‘If nothing else from this article we can garner that the CBS censors are in full tilt. ‘
Thanks for this article.
I get that there is censorship going on, but why even have this tryst with Josh happen in the first place, knowing that Otalia will never be able to let their “girls” out together? Didn’t anyone involve notice the horrible double standard? There are about a million other things that Olivia could have done that would have advanced the story and that at least wouldn’t have rubbed our faces in the fact that any random straight pairing can get naked together on the show–and it will be pimped in SOW–but not Otalia.
IMHO if the censorship had not been so tight the last couple of years we would not be shutting down an institution like the Guiding Light. They have teased their viewership into medocrity and boredom. Thanks for this article, I think it is spot on and I hope, at least, they will give us a kiss before lights out!
A-men! It’s just so ridiculous to show a so-called ‘couple’ talking about coming out to the kids and the whole damned town when they hadn’t even shared a full-on, passionate kiss–much less anything else. and then hearing about the restrictions on the Josh/Olivia scene… not that a het scene is what i really want to see, right now, with either Nat or Liv–though I’m all for Crystal ‘freeing the girls’
but, really? ‘no one gets to be on top’?? WTF is *that* about? i, personally, have seen more of Bill and Lizzie going at it and just generally cavorting around half-naked than i ever wanted to, and they put restrictions on Josh and Olivia? why?
I am sick that Guiding Light is going off. This was my favorite soap and so much better than any of the others. What will I do?