The Men Who Made 2011

It's time again for what has to be one of my favorite posts of the year! Starting in 2008, I've ended each year since with a look at the men who made my year extra special. While they're not necessarily guys that were new to the entertainment scene this year, they are guys that I've noticed either for the first time or in a whole new way, men who really stood out in 2011.

So, without further ado, let's take a look at the guys who made the past twelve months especially hot!

Every year that I've done this list, I've opened with a guy from One Life to Live. Thanks to the powers that be at ABC and the epic failure of Prospect Park to follow through on their deal to give the show new life online, 2011 is my very last opportunity to do so. Luckily, One Life to Live didn't fail to deliver this year by providing me with a viable candidate!

Josh Kelly debuted on the show exactly a year ago today as con artist Cutter Wentworth and he certainly helped to make the show's final twelve months hot! There's just something so good about a bad boy with a naughty grin! Josh even made facial hair, which I usually can't stand, seem downright sexy!
I will definitely miss having Josh Kelly steaming up the screen on daytime, but I'm certain the future holds big things for him. He's already landed a pilot for MTV called Dumb Girls, and I for one will be checking it out when and if it goes to series.

Speaking of MTV, my next pick for the Men Who Made 2011 is cheating just a little bit, because I'm actually choosing an entire male cast instead of just one guy. If you'd told me a year ago that I'd become a fan of an MTV show centered around high school students, I would have groaned. Surely I'd finally outgrown teen dramas (Glee being more of a comedy, of course), especially ones on MTV? Then along came an incredibly homoerotic series with a drop dead gorgeous male cast, and I was hooked.

I'm talking, of course, about Teen Wolf. The series had me wanting my MTV all summer long. I'm not even sure which guy I liked the most (okay, Tyler Hoechlin) because they all had that something special.

First up is Tyler Posey, who plays Scott, the title character. He's got an adorable grin, dreamy eyes, and a killer body:
Then there's the sidekick/best friend character, Stiles, a Seth Cohen for the 2010's, played to sarcastic perfection by Dylan O'Brien:
Then there's Jackson, that teen drama staple the asshole jock, played by a male model come deliciously to life in the form of Colton Haynes:
There's even an out gay character, lacrosse player Danny, played by Keahu Kahuanui, who had his own male date to the prom but ended up sharing a dance with Scott:
Finally, there's Scott's mentor, a slightly more mature werewolf, Derek, played by the electrifyingly sexy Tyler Hoechlin:

Yes, the summer of 2011 was made infinitely hotter by the men of Teen Wolf!

Next up, a guy who I had no idea existed before this past fall when I decided to check out the new series Once Upon a Time. The show itself is pretty good, though I can't see how they'll sustain the concept for more than a season or two at most. The guy who really caught my eye right from the beginning was Jamie Dornan, the hottie with the Irish accent who played Sheriff Graham and who for the second time this year had me re-evaluating facial hair:

He's pretty much my idea of a Fairy Tale Prince come to life, even if his character actually turned out to be the Huntsman who lets Snow White live. Sadly, in the most recent episode Sheriff Graham was killed off. Since part of the show is set in the fairy tale past, though, I'm hoping we'll at least see more of him as The Huntsman.

Finally, 2011 brought to my attention in a whole new way a man who I was perfectly familiar with before now. Back in 2008, I'd watched him on Greek, where he played Nick Pepper, a love interest for Calvin. He was likable enough, and certainly attractive, but at the time I wanted Calvin to get back together with Heath, so I wasn't at all upset when things ended with Nick and the character disappeared.

Flash forward to this fall, when the hilarious new series New Girl debuted on Fox. My first thought when I saw that Max Greenfield was going to be in the cast was a tepid "Oh, it's that guy." When I'd finished watching the first episode, which he'd stolen completely as Schmidt, my thoughts ran more along the lines of "I'm in love!" Max steals the show every week and they're not at all afraid to show off his body, which is an added bonus. So, if you haven't seen the show yet, get a little Schmidt on your face and take a look:

Well, there we have them, the Men Who Made 2011. A fantastic year for hot guys, if for nothing else! Can 2012 ever compete? Only time will tell.

A Soapy Jumble

Well, months have passed and we've recently learned that Erica Kane and Viki Lord will not, in fact, be living on. All My Children went out with a cliffhanger ending last September and One Life to Live filmed its own reported cliffhanger ending just days before the news broke that Prospect Park was 'suspending' their efforts to move the soaps online.

That's life, I suppose, though it's a big let down for the those who loved these shows. It's especially sad that both shows will have departed the airwaves with no real resolution for the characters that fans have followed for so many years.

I've come to accept that daytime soaps are ceasing to exist. I think we're already seeing the medium move online in many original soaps, and while it would have been wonderful to see a soap make the transition from TV to the Internet, just as so many years ago Guiding Light made the move from radio to television, it doesn't seem like it's going to happen, at least not right now.

This will leave us with a grand total of four soaps on the air, one of which is the soap I grew up watching, Days of Our Lives. I wrote way back in April that Days was going to be doing a gay storyline at long last, with legacy character Will Horton.

In the months since then, the show has introduced another openly gay legacy character (albeit one who had never been onscreen before) in the person of Sonny Kiriakis. Sonny is played by Freddie Smith, who most recently played a gay character on 90210.

Since coming to Salem, Sonny has faced coming out to his Great Uncle, the powerful business titan Victor Kiriakis, who was surprisingly okay with it. Sonny had come out to his parents, Justin and Adrienne, before coming to Salem and they, too, are supportive.

Once in town, Sonny quickly became friends with the other college aged characters, including Will, but faced some prejudice from Will's good friend T. The cause of T's gay panic was a picture of him and Sonny together, taken before T knew that Sonny was gay, which showed up online and referred to them as having a 'bromance'.

For a few weeks T hung around making homophobic remarks to Sonny's face and muttering threateningly to himself about making Sonny pay, but it seems that particular aspect of the story has now been dropped, which is a relief.

While all of this was going on, fans were left to wonder if the show, which had just changed head writers, was going to drop the Will aspect of the story altogether. While there had definitely been hints that Will was secretly gay (he put off sleeping with his girlfriend, Gabby, as long as he could and hasn't slept with her again since their first time), the show hadn't committed to anything they couldn't easily undo.

Recently, though, actor Chandler Massey has been able to confirm that his character will indeed be coming out of the closet. The show is still staying mum on whether or not Will & Sonny will end up becoming more than friends, though.

All of this is certainly something to look forward to, but the history of gay storylines on the soaps isn't exactly littered with success stories! Call me a glutton for punishment, though, because I'm once more along for the ride.

All of this makes me miss the days when Luke Snyder was coming out on As The World Turns and there was still so much potential ahead for great story telling! The coming out story was so well done and things looked really promising when Noah first showed up. Then, of course, the boys were paired in one stupid story after another, most of which had an end goal of keeping them from ever having sex.

Speaking of Luke, Van Hansis recently had guest starring roles on episodes of Psych and Nikita. He was fantastic in both parts, playing a bloodthirsty victim of the insurance industry in one (below) and a Russian agent in the other (below).
It was so incredible to see Van on my TV screen again! It had been far too long. I thought he was especially good in Nikita, where he not only got to use an accent but also had an incredible scene where a single tear rolled down his cheek and completely killed me. I'd somehow forgotten just how talented Van was. Hopefully these were the first of many roles to come.

Erica Kane and Viki Lord Will Live On!

Back in April, I started a post with the words "It must be a very sad day to be Agnes Nixon." Today I am thrilled to say that I could write the exact opposite about the creator of One Life to Live and All My Children.

Every time a soap is cancelled, false rumors fly that the show will be saved by some other network or by a cable station. Back when Guiding Light was cancelled, there was even talk that the soap which had been the first to transition from radio to television could be the first to make the transition to being a web soap.

Sadly for GL fans, that didn't happen. It turns out, though, that the thinking behind that particular rumor wasn't so far fetched. It was announced today that All My Children and One Life to Live, the two iconic daytime soaps cancelled simultaneously by ABC back in April, will both be making the leap to airing online.

While all the details haven't yet been announced, it seems that a production company called Prospect Park has purchased the right to air both shows online for 'more than a decade'. ABC said, in part:

"Prospect Park will produce and deliver the two long-running programs to consumers via online formats and additional emerging platforms including Internet enabled television sets. Under the terms of the arrangement, the programs will continue to be delivered with the same quality and in the same format and length."

For nearly three months, fans of both shows have been bracing themselves for the loss of these two television icons, and now they've been given an amazing gift. Questions remain, of course, and I'm sure there are also many older fans who aren't Internet savvy for whom this news doesn't offer much in the way of consolation. But overall, this is great news not only for fans of these shows but for the medium in general.

A whole slew of online soaps have sprung up over the last few years, many starring current and former network soap stars. In fact, one of the best soap news sites out there, We Love The Soaps, has a whole news section on Indie Soaps and has even presented the Indie Soap Awards for the last two years.

It will be very interesting to see how these two classic shows fit into this modern medium. I'd be lying if I said that my very first thought, once I'd stopped cheering, was to wonder if airing without network interference will finally open the doors to more important story telling.

Both shows have already broken ground in telling LGBT stories, but imagine how much better they could have been without a nervous network butting in! I can't help but feeling that if this had happened a couple of years ago, we'd still be enjoying Kish as daytime's first gay dads on One Life to Live.

In fact, if I were headwriter Ron Carlivati, the first thing I'd do when Prospect Park took over would be to get them to rehire Scott Evans and Brett Claywell as Oliver Fish and Kyle Lewis!

Speaking of which, Carlivati had announced that after OLTL wrapped he'd be joining the writing team at General Hospital. While that would have been great news for GH, I'm hoping that he'll be staying put at OLTL now that it will live on!

A Sad Day

It must be a very sad day to be Agnes Nixon. The iconic daytime scribe who penned some of the most socially relevant stories in the history of the medium just saw her two remaining creations killed off at the same time.

I'm talking, of course, about One Life to Live and All My Children, which were both cancelled by ABC today. They will be replaced by a talk show revolving around cooking and a weight loss competition.

Though neither soap has LGBT characters onscreen at the moment, they were both leading soaps when it came to telling those stories over the years. All My Children broke real ground when they became the first soap to give us a gay character from a core family, Erica Kane's daughter Bianca, who came out of the closet back in 2000.

One Life to Live gave us the first teen gay character on daytime back in 1993 when future movie star Ryan Philippe played gay teen Billy Douglas. More recently, of course, that show gave us the amazing pairing of Kyle and Fish, which included the first real onscreen love scene between two men, including showing them in bed together afterward. In fact, that particular scene was better than anything I'd ever seen on primetime on any network. The two men also became parents, but were written off just when the show could have broken even more ground by giving us a story about the first gay dads raising a child on daytime.

Those were far from the only LGBT characters or socially relevant stories that these two shows told over the years, though they were certainly right up there with the best. All My Children was the show that gave us television's first legal abortion back in the 1970's and dealt with the very controversial issue of the Vietnam War in real time.

One Life to Live was the fist soap that had African American characters in major storylines in the late 1960's, including the controversial story of Carla Gray, a light skinned African American woman who passed herself off as Italian in order to get ahead in a racist society. A decade later they gave us the explosive Karen Wolek storyline, about a housewife with low self esteem who was secretly moonlighting as a prostitute. It made actress Judith Light a household name.

These were both greatly important shows not just to daytime TV but to television itself, mostly because of the driving force of Agnes Nixon, a woman who knew that you could tell great stories that were also meaningful and socially relevant. Sadly, her successors in the soap world largely forgot this lesson and all these cancellations we've been seeing in recent years is largely the result of that.

The simultaneous loss of these two particular soaps is in fact the worst blow that daytime TV has ever been dealt. If you had been able to fool yourself up to now that daytime soaps were not a dying breed, you certainly can't deny it any longer. There will soon be a grand total of four soaps remaining on the air.

All My Children will take its final bow in September and we'll have One Life to Live on our screens until January. With nine months remaining and nothing left to lose from those who blamed gay characters for driving down the ratings, can we hope to see a final return from Kish? It may not be likely, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This is truly a sad day for any soap fan, even those like me who have become disenchanted by the direction the medium has taken writing wise. A lot of television history and a lot of talented actors are about to be thrown out for what sound to me like two very short lived TV shows that no one will even remember a decade from now.

A Groundbreaking Story for Daytime

This weekend I received an e-mail from a reader wondering if, now that I'm blogging again, I would comment on the male/male rape storyline that has unfolded recently on General Hospital.

I have to confess that General Hospital is not a soap I've ever watched regularly and, with my life being a bit chaotic recently, I hadn't followed the story at all. I'd seen reports about it on soap websites, of course, but I hadn't had the time to tune in.

The e-mail this weekend, though, prompted me to take a look at this story, which is a groundbreaking one for a daytime soap in the United States. I've heard a few rumors over the years that a male/male rape storyline was in the works on various soaps, but they always turned out to be nothing more than online speculation.

I've always thought it would be a pretty powerful story, if told right, but I honestly didn't think an American soap would ever go there. I knew that it had already happened on a British soap, though. Back in March 2000, Hollyoaks wrote what from most accounts was a pretty intense and well written storyline involving a male/male rape.

The character of Luke Morgan (played by Gary Lucy) had been bullied for awhile by his football teammate Mark Gibbs and some of his friends. When Luke finally stood up to Mark, he and his friends beat Luke up in a locker room after a football match. Luke ran off, but the guys gave chase and two of Mark's friends held Luke down while Mark raped him.

The actual rape took place in a special late night episode of the soap, but the aftermath played out on the show itself as Luke battled depression, lost his girlfriend because he felt he couldn't tell her about being raped, and eventually attempted suicide before finally opening up to his friends, family, and the police about what had happened to him.

Even then it was far from clear sailing, with Luke's father not wanting him to go public about the rape and his parents marriage crumbling in the aftermath. Mark and his friends were eventually found guilty and sent to prison, but it was far from easy for Luke to move on even after that. (I've only seen bits of the story itself on YouTube and read summaries, so bear with me if I got any details slightly wrong).

It always seemed less than likely that an American soap would tell such a story, especially when rape itself has always been such a poorly handled issue on daytime. Countless female characters have been raped over the years, but there are a few glaring examples that stand out as especially outrageous. Most famously (and most reprehensibly), of course, is General Hospital's Luke & Laura, where the rapist and his victim ended up not only marrying each other but becoming one of daytime's most popular supercouples.

On Days of Our Lives the character of Jack raped his wife, Kayla, before going on to become a lovably comedic character and one half of the popular Jack & Jennifer, not to mention a brother-in-law to Kayla, who'd married his brother.

The character of Todd Manning on One Life to Live was the leader of a very famous (and very well told) fraternity gang rape storyline back in 1993. While hardly a heroic character, Todd remains front and center on the soap today, with wives, ex-wives, children, and even a shared grandchild with his victim, Marty Saybrooke.

Worse, he essentially raped Marty again a few years ago when she had amnesia. That rape was more emotional than physical, since the clueless Marty thought she'd fallen in love with him and didn't regain her memory until after she'd made love to her rapist.

That's just a drop in the bucket and only touches on the male/female rapes. There have also been several stories in which a female character essentially rapes a male character and gets away with it completely, with no one even recognizing it as rape.

The one that comes to mind right away for me is from Days of Our Lives, where Sami Brady (herself a rape victim!) drugged her sister Carrie's boyfriend, Austin Reed, and had sex with him while he thought she was Carrie. That is certainly rape and would be described as such if the roles had been reversed.

That's really just the tip of the iceberg on this subject, so I'm sure you see why I thought that a male/male rape was doubly unlikely in a medium that is already squeamish about two men being together when both parties are willing.

So I wasn't really sure what to expect with this General Hospital storyline. It made sense that if any soap would feature a male/male rape, it would be the more violent than most GH, but I'd also trust them the least to deal with the aftermath of such a groundbreaking story.

The victim was 17 year old Michael, son of the show's lead character, mob boss Sonny Corinthos. Michael was in prison for murder last spring when he was beaten and raped by a fellow inmate named Carter, who was subsequently killed by Sonny's right hand man, Jason, who'd found out that Michael was being harassed by the man. The show left what exactly had happened up to viewer's imaginations until just a few months ago, when Michael discovered a friend being attacked and finally flashed back to what had happened to him.

Jason had his suspicions about how far the harassment in prison had gone, especially given how uncomfortable the virginal Michael seemed about the topic of sex after his release, but it wasn't until January that Michael finally confessed to Jason that he'd been raped.

Chad Duell (above), the actor playing Michael, really blew me away in that scene, as well as in subsequent scenes where he tells his brother & friend and discusses it with mother and then his macho, mob boss father.

Overall, in fact, I'm fairly impressed with what I've seen of this story, which admittedly is not much more than the clips I've just linked to! But Chad Duell seems a promising talent and I'm glad that Daytime has taken on another subject that seemed forever taboo. It's especially important, I think, that people finally see a story in which something that has largely been treated as a punchline in pop culture- being raped in prison- is far from being a joke.

Kish: Such Sweet Sorrow

Space issues on my Tivo finally forced me to watch the final Kish episodes of One Life to Live during this past week. I hadn't watched a single episode since just before they announced that Scott Evans and Brett Claywell had been let go, so nearly 30 shows had piled up.

Catching up with that many episodes would have been incredibly daunting in the past, since OLTL was the only American soap that I refrained from fast forwarding. I watched every story on the show. How could I not when they were so perfectly interconnected? It wasn't like the other soaps, with their isolated storyline bubbles.

I'd already decided that I wouldn't be watching the show anymore after I'd seen the end of Kish, though, so I just skipped everything that wasn't connected to them or to their story.

When I'd last written about the guys Kyle had done a sneaky DNA test on Fish and baby Sierra Rose and Oliver had blown his top and stormed out. At the end of that episode, though, he'd returned and stopped Kyle from destroying the unopened results.

As it turned out, Fish still wasn't ready to know the truth, but he asked Kyle to keep the results until he was. Meanwhile, a custody battle raged between Gigi and Schuyler over the baby. Kim and new husband Clint were contenders, too, for awhile, but that didn't really go anywhere. In fact, it seems like the show decided to drop several characters in this story at once- Kim, Kyle, Fish, and Schuyler- so everything wrapped up a bit quicker that I'd expected.

The catalyst for bringing about the conclusion of this whole story turned out to be Mitch Lawrence's number one disciple and all around lunatic, Allison Perkins. Perkins has come and gone over the years, most recently showing up a few years back to stir up trouble before she wound up in a coma.

Allison woke up just in time to try and help The Messenger get out of prison. Her plan involved kidnapping baby Sierra Rose from Schuyler and then holding her and Roxy hostage, first at the hair salon Roxy owns and then in Kyle's room at the Angel Square Hotel.

Allison ordered Schuyler to volunteer for medical duty at the prison so he could break Mitch out in exchange for Sierra Rose's safe return. Kyle happened to be the volunteer on duty that Schuyler replaced, though, so he ended up returning home early and walking in on a bound and gagged Roxy and loony Allison, who tied him up as well.

In the end, Schuyler turned the tables on Mitch and Allison by giving The Messenger a drug that would kill him unless Allison brought Sierra Rose to him in the prison in exchange for Mitch getting the antidote he needed.

After Allison left with Sierra Rose, Fish showed up and saved Roxy and Kyle, who told him that Allison had the baby. I loved the way that Scott Evans played Fish's reaction to this news, it just seemed very believable, the way he stopped trying to untie Kyle and moved to the window (through which Allison had departed), in a sort of quiet panic.

Before leaving for the prison to try and save Sierra, Oliver stopped to open the envelope containing the DNA results and learned that he was, in fact, Sierra Rose's father. At the prison, he told Bo and Brody that he wanted to lead the team that was going in to get Sierra and that he was her father. Bo congratulated him on his fatherhood but had him step aside so that someone emotionally uninvolved could do the job.

Meanwhile, Schuyler's world had fallen apart as Allison revealed that he, and not Rex, was Mitch and Roxy's son. Allison, who has made baby switching her specialty, had switched Roxy's sickly baby (Schuyler) with a healthy, abandoned baby (Rex) the night of his birth, and had then given Schuyler to her sister to raise.

Schuyler still refused to save his newly found father until Allison had handed over his daughter. Once he had Sierra Rose he tried to head home with her, but Oliver stopped him and showed him the DNA results. Schuyler realized that he'd lost everything, which naturally lead to him holding Gigi at gunpoint and trying to shoot Rex, but we won't go into that.

Oliver was finally reunited with his child, and the look on his face was something like awe, love, and hint of fear, just like any new parent would have. Fish and Kyle took Sierra to the hospital to be checked out (her heart surgery had gone well, by the way) and then took her back to Fish's apartment and shared the happy news with Layla and Cristian.

The guys were so cute as they realized how much stuff they needed to buy. Just seeing the two of them interact with the baby made me completely love where the story had taken them and and also really made me sad that we wouldn't get to see them actually raising Sierra together.

Once Gigi had been rescued from Schuyler she headed for Fish's apartment to see the baby. After a visit with the new little family, Gigi was clearly torn about whether or not to continue her custody suit, but in the end she decided to move forward with it.

The final Kish scenes all took place in and around the courtroom the next day. Oliver had a great scene where he stood up and declared himself Sierra's biological father and told the judge that he was ready to raise her but that he hadn't been able to hire a lawyer yet because he'd been too busy buying all the stuff they needed for her.

The Judge asked if Oliver was married and he told her that he was gay but that he that he was committed to his partner, Kyle, and that they were ready to be the baby's parents. The Judge had a few more questions and raised the point that Kyle was a med student and Oliver a full time cop, which wasn't going to make raising a baby easy, but the guys said that they were going to make it work. I thought Scott Evans, especially, did a great job in these scenes. I'd have given Oliver and Kyle my own child to raise, if I had one!

Gigi's lawyer tried to use the fact that they both had busy work schedules to discredit the guys' ability to parent Sierra, and pointed out that his client was already successfully raising a child, but Gigi interrupted with a speech about how her own child hadn't been planned (she was a teenage mother) and that she'd had to work full time while being a single parent, and she was ending her fight for custody because Oliver and Kyle were going to be loving parents to her niece.

It would have been a great little scene, I think, except that Farah Fath (who plays Gigi) was just phoning it in. It was like Gigi was announcing that she'd decided to have pizza for dinner, there was no emotional weight to the scene at all.

At any rate, the Judge then declared that Oliver and Kyle had full custody of Sierra Rose. Gigi asked if she could hold her niece to say goodbye but Oliver told her that there was no need because he wanted his daughter to have her Aunt Gigi, Uncle Rex, and her cousin Shane in her life.

That was pretty much it for the guys. I was hoping we'd get a final scene where they returned to Kyle's place with the baby and had a really nice final moment together onscreen, but the last we saw of Kish was the two of them walking out of the courtroom hallway while Gig and Rex yammered on about their own storyline. Kyle did pop up one final time a few days later to have a few scenes at the hospital with Gigi and Rex, but we've now seen the last of both guys.

There's so much I'm going to miss, even beyond just the amazing Kish pairing itself. For instance, Kyle and Roxy's friendship! I loved that so much and thanks to the whole Rex/Schuyler thing Roxy is in a place where she needs a friend now more than ever. There's also Fish's working relationships with John McBain and Bo, his sort of hero worship of the two of them, which I always enjoyed seeing, not to mention my dashed hopes at seeing him and Brody as partners on the force!

I won't even go into the now forever unresolved relationship between Fish and his parents or the chance to ever see Nick Chavez again.

I'm so sad about the missed opportunity to feature two gay men raising a child together on daytime TV! There would have been so much important story to tell there!

Still, however it ended, One Life to Live did deliver the most incredible love scene between two men ever show on network TV, and that's certainly something. They also just told an incredibly well written and acted gay love story. I wouldn't trade that for anything, no matter how abruptly it ended.

I'll always look back on the past few years of One Life to Live, the Ron Carlivati era, as a final golden age in daytime soaps. That's not to say that the show was perfect (no show ever has been!), but this was truly soap writing at its best: interconnected, well told, socially relevant, character based stories.

With Kish gone and Passanante on her way in to sound the death knell for the whole show, that era has come to an end. I'm glad that daytime soaps got to have one final period of greatness before the inevitable conclusion of the genre (at least as it currently exists on network TV) arrives.

I'm now a lifelong fan of Scott Evans and Brett Claywell. I can't wait to see what they do next! Whatever it is, I'll be tuning in.

Take Cover, Llanview!

I've finally found a small silver lining to Oliver & Kyle being written out of One Life to Live: they'll be gone before Jean Passanante can get her hands on them!

Yes, the Head Writer who drove As the World Turns into the ground, quite literally killing it with terrible writing, is headed for One Life to Live as an 'associate-Head Writer' once ATWT has finished production.

One Life to Live already has a very talented head writer in Ron Carlivati, so one can only assume that this decision comes from a network that is familiar with Passanante's resume and may be hoping to kill off OLTL for good. If that's the case, they're certainly on the right track!

I am so glad that Passanante never got a chance to do to Kish what she did to Nuke, but I'm sad about what this means for a show that truly was the best soap on daytime TV over the past few years. Hopefully, Carlivati will remain in charge and Passanante's impact will be minimal.

Luckily, I'd already decided to exit along with Kish, so if the worst does happen, I won't have to see the show descend to the sort of God awful stories that have plagued As the World Turns during Passanante's reign.

This just further confirms my new belief that, thanks to moronic network executives, the future of soaps won't be on daytime TV.

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Daytime

Given the topic I last blogged about and the lack of activity here in the week since, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd all been picturing me in a padded room somewhere, rocking gently back and forth as I mumbled the words to Kish's song, My Confession, over and over again.

Or perhaps you'd envisioned a suicide leap from a bridge, with my final words being a shouted curse upon the idiots who are running ABC Daytime.

The truth is much less dramatic: I've just been very busy. I wanted to write last Saturday, in particular, when I read the very ironic news that One Life to Live had just won a GLAAD Award mere days after announcing that they were writing off their gay characters for, essentially, being too gay.

I definitely wanted to write when someone had the nerve to spread rumors- which I feel were obviously meant as damage control for the network- that the guys had been let go for 'performance issues' and their personal behavior! This was in direct contrast with what had been said at the time the news broke and with the fact that both men have been pre-nominated for Daytime Emmys for said performances!

Brett Claywell responded to the rumors, saying:

"Scott and I treated each scene and each moment with the dedication and respect it deserved, and poured our hearts into those roles. Any stories to the contrary, especially this one, are malicious and offensive. Every scene that was filmed is a testament to that work ethic."

Scott Evans had something to say as well, via his Twitter account:

"Such a bummer what all of this is turning into. I will continue to respect the decision but will remain unhappy with the tactics."

What a shame that such an incredible, groundbreaking, and very beautiful story had to be marred in this way because the idiots in charge at ABC daytime let their homophobia show and then frantically tried to backtrack when the bad publicity started rolling in!

Brett and Scott are both incredible actors and they did such amazing work on One Life to Live. I have no doubt that we'll be seeing great things from both of them in the future, whereas daytime soaps are clearly doomed.

They're being controlled by these idiots who choose to ignore the future (such as viewers who like LGBT stories, who tend to be younger and could become long term viewers) to calm the fears of those who are quickly becoming the past (such as the older viewers who scream about 'immoral' characters- but just the gay ones, not the rapists and killers and hetero adulterers- on their daytime soaps and who, let's be honest, will be dying out within the next few decades anyway).

As for me, I'll stick with Kish until the end (and I'll write up their remaining episodes, including those that I've missed in the past week), but then I'm done with One Life to Live, and likely with network soaps in general, though I will probably follow Nuke (I'm very behind on them, sorry!) until As the World stops Turning in September, and I will always watch Days of Our Lives to some extent, since it's the soap I grew up with.

It's becoming clear, though, that the future of soaps isn't going to be on daytime TV. Even when talented actors and writers are telling great stories (which is very rare to begin with these days), the idiots in charge shit all over it. They've killed any chance the medium has of surviving in its present form.

I'm in Shock

I'm completely reeling from the news that One Life to Live is writing off Oliver and Kyle. Scott Evans and Brett Claywell will be off the air by mid April, according to Michael Fairman.

It makes no sense to me at all. I'm just completely stunned. If the show had been treating the characters like second class citizens, I wouldn't be as floored as I am. If ATWT wrote off Nuke, for instance, I could say "Well, they didn't know how to write for them anyway."

Kish has been so well written, though, that I'm left wondering where this decision is even coming from? The couple is popular and there is so much story still to be told with the characters.

Here's what Fairman's article says, though:

"According to the report, even though KISH has been a big success with the media and gay-advocacy groups have shown favor to One Life to Live’s efforts, the ABC Television Network says the duo failed to resonate with the mainstream audience, referencing Fish’s coming out story as one reason for tanking the ratings."

This just feels like such a slap in the face. So, blame the gays. Nice, ABC. Homophobic much?

I loved One Life to Live before Kish, but right now I'm honestly feeling like when they go, I go.

Kish Catch Up #2: With Special Guest Star, The Envelope

Today's show picked up with a brief bit of exposition for those just joining us: Kyle told Fish that the results in The Envelope he was holding would tell them once and for all if he was the father of Stacy's baby.

Fish said that he didn't understand. How had Kyle run a DNA test? He'd never asked for one. Kyle looked guilty and said that he knew that, but he'd done it anyway. Is it wrong that I'm kind of glad they're about to fight? They're both just so hot when they get angry!

Oliver was understandably furious that Kyle had stolen his DNA and run the test without his permission. I had to laugh when Kyle said "It's not like I cut you when you were sleeping!" but Fish himself wasn't amused and asked if Kyle had heard him when he'd said he didn't want to know.

Kyle: Yeah, I heard you loud and clear, Oliver. I also heard that you were so nervous and scared about being a gay parent. I know you haven't fully accepted yourself yet, so there's no way that you could accept raising this child with me. I know you, Oliver. I know that you would not be able to live with yourself if you didn't know whether or not Sierra was your daughter.

Fish claimed that he'd be perfectly fine without ever knowing, but Kyle didn't believe that and said that he didn't think Fish believed it, either.

Fish: So what? You know what, even if she is mine, I wouldn't saddle that kid with gay parents.

Kyle: What, now I'm not fit to be a father, either?

Fish: Wait a minute. Is that why you're so anxious to know? You want this baby to be mine so badly that... Do you know already? Do you know already if I'm that baby's father?

Kyle: I ran the tests, but I didn't look at the results. I figured we could do that together.

Wow, there's that internalized homophobia from Oliver again. Even when he's claiming that it's not about his sexuality, Fish can't help blurting out the hateful beliefs that are his parents' legacy to him. I really, really hope the show has Fish actually work these issues out by seeing Marty.

Kyle said that he'd thought that, whatever the truth was, they could find out together. Oliver rather brokenly said that he really wished that Kyle hadn't done this. Kyle said that it was done, so they might as well open The Envelope.

Fish changed tactics, asking if Kyle was trying to get kicked out of medical school again. He threw the whole doctor patient confidentiality thing in his face again and reminded him that Kim was going to go to the hospital board if they said anything.

Kyle said that he could live with that, that Sierra deserved to know the truth and that Oliver did as well.

Fish: So now you know what's best for me?

Kyle: Yeah, in this case I do! And I don't care if it pisses you off, I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Oliver, this is right thing to do. And underneath all of this, you know that.

Fish stuck to his guns, asking if Kyle had permission to test the baby's DNA. Kyle pointed out that he worked at the hospital and Oliver asked if he hadn't been fired from the lab last year for running an unauthorized test for Jared and Natalie. Kyle corrected him, saying that he'd been fired for blackmailing them with the test results, not for running the test. Oliver reminded him that he'd almost gone to prison.

Oliver really is terrified out of his mind! Poor Kyle's shady past certainly has given Fish enough ammunition to throw his way as a distraction.

Kyle admitted to breaking the rules, but Fish told him that he'd broken the law and that, as a cop, Oliver couldn't have knowledge of crime and do nothing. He could arrest Kyle for this.

Kyle said that Oliver could be a father, and to him that was more important than any little rules he may have broken.

Fish told Kyle that he'd gone against his wishes and made him an accessory (Kyle: "To grand theft water bottle!" Love it!). Why? Oliver asked.

Kyle: 'Cause I love you. 'Cause I know that sooner or later, you'd regret this. 'Cause I know that it would kill you to stand back and let someone else raise a baby that's your own flesh and blood. A baby that's part of you, a baby that can make you feel like you have a right to be a father. You have that right, Oliver.

The way Kyle's voice broke during the first sentence and the way the entire piece of dialogue was filled with such heartfelt emotion had me feeling just a bit misty eyed myself. Brett Claywell and Scott Evans have both been knocking it out of the park these past two episodes!

Fish told Kyle that if he wanted to know the truth, he was on his own. He grabbed his coat and left Kyle alone, a devastated look on his face.

Oliver headed for the hospital, where he arrived just in time to break up a near fist fight between Schuyler and Rex. Fish asked Rex what it had been about and Rex filled him in on Gigi deciding to get custody of the baby and how Schuyler claimed to love the baby he'd known was his but denied for months.

The next scene was a heart wrenching one of Oliver staring in the nursery window at baby Sierra. The look on his face... damn. How could you not want to just wrap your arms around Oliver and tell him everything was going to be all right?! Scott Evans put a lot into that non-verbal moment, and I think it was a big turning point for Fish.

After looking in on Sierra, Oliver returned to Kyle's motel room, where his boyfriend was sitting on the floor, The Envelope still unopened.

Kyle (speaking in a very subdued voice): I'm sorry, Oliver. I never should have interfered. This is your decision to make and yours alone. I'm gonna respect that.

Oliver: Thanks.

Kyle: You got here just in time. I was just about to tear this up, but why don't we do one better? Let's burn it.

Kyle was just about to apply the lit match to The Envelope when Fish stopped him, as we all knew he would since clearly no Envelopes were harmed during the filming of this episode.

These were fantastic scenes. The tension between the guys was very well done. Now, let's open that damn Envelope already!

Kish Catch Up #1: The Results Are In....

I got a bit behind on the soaps, but as of tonight I'm all caught up on One Life to Live. Last Friday and today were both Kish episodes. This post is about Friday's show.

It started with Kim showing up at Kyle's motel room with a houseplant, noting that you don't go visiting empty handed. Beware of strippers bearing gifts, Kyle! FYI, earlier in the week, Kim had decided to honor Stacy by fighting for custody of Sierra Rose.

Since no judge in their right mind would award custody to a broke former stripper who was no blood relation to the baby, she enlisted her billionaire boss/potential Sugar Daddy Clint Buchanan in her plans, proposing marriage to him. Clint accepted the proposal and agreed to help her get custody. At the same time, Gigi has decided that Schuyler would be an unfit father and is going to be pursuing custody of her niece herself.

Kyle and Fish, who was just covering up that yummy hairy chest with a shirt (boo!) when Kim arrived, were no doubt surprised not only by the visit, but by Kim's subsequent thank you to Oliver for everything he did up on the mountain.

Ms. Andrews also assured them that Sierra Rose was going to be just fine. When Kyle asked what she meant, Kim told them that she was about to become Mrs. Clint Buchanan and that she and Clint were going to raise Sierra together.

Kyle asked Kim why she would want the baby in the first place and she told him that Stacy had wanted her to raise Sierra. Fish pointed out that Stacy had named Schuyler as guardian in her will, but Kim brushed that aside with a half truth, saying that Stacy had only done that to get Schuyler off her back. Kim declared that she and Clint would make sure that Sierra had everything, and Kyle responded with "Not if we have anything to say about it!"

Kim told the guys that where the baby lived had nothing to do with them, but Kyle reminded her that Fish could be the child's father.

Kim: Again with that! Schuyler is the dad!

Fish: I know! (shoots Kyle a 'cut it out!' look)

Kim: Well, would you tell your boyfriend then?

Kyle: Then why don't you prove it?

Kim: Excuse me?

Kyle: It's just a simple blood test.

Kim: How does this have anything to do with you?

Kyle: Because Oliver is the real father and you know it! That's why you're here, Kim.

Kim claimed that she'd come over just to be nice, but Kyle wasn't buying it and said that she was trying to shut them up because once it came out that Oliver was the father, she'd have no rights to Sierra.

Kim headed for the door, saying she didn't have to listen to Kyle.

Kyle: Do you really think Oliver is going to give up his own child?!

Kim: I think if you want to finish med school, you'll keep your mouth shut. And any information you think you have came from violating a doctor patient confidentiality. You come after me and Sierra and I will crush you like a cockroach.

Kim's parting shot was that Kish was off the guest list for the wedding. You know what that means, no catching of the bouquet for our guys.

I love Kim. Sure, she's playing the bad guy here, but she's at least got good intentions towards Stacy's baby. Plus, it's just really fun to watch her be such a total bitch!

I also love that Kyle is so fierce about all of this. Once again, it was Kyle who was fighting for Sierra while Oliver stood by, barely saying a word. He's clearly still completely terrified at the thought of being a father. After Kim left, he was literally standing there with his mouth open, looking dazed.

Once she was gone, Kyle asked Fish if he could believe what they'd just heard. Oliver thought that Kim was just trying to do right by her friend and that one way or the other, Sierra would win. How was that? Kyle asked. Fish explained that she'd either be raised by Schuyler and Gigi, or by Clint and Kim.

Kyle asked if Fish could really picture Kim raising a baby, and Oliver said that she'd have plenty of help and that Sierra would be a Buchanan and have everything she'd need.

Kyle: Yeah, except for two parents who love her.

Fish: You don't know that. Kim might surprise you.

Kyle: Yeah, and you're really willing to take that chance?

Fish: Yeah, well, it's not my decision

Kyle: Unless it is. Oliver you could be a great father! Being gay-

Fish: -Isn't the issue! Really, Kyle, this is not a gay thing.

Kyle: Oh, then it's a coward thing.

Wow, Kyle really went there. Fish looked so stunned and hurt. While it kind of needed to be said, especially since Oliver is trying so hard to convince himself that his feelings aren't related to his sexuality, it was still pretty harsh.

Fish started to leave, saying that he had to go to work. Kyle said he didn't have to go and Oliver said he couldn't stay there.

Kyle: Oliver-

Fish: Listen, if I need someone to tell me I'm half a man, I can call my Dad!

Kyle: I'm sorry! Okay, I'm sorry. It was a cheap shot. You're the bravest person I know.

Fish: Later.

Kyle: You know the definition of a hero? Somebody who is terrified but moves forward anyway.

Fish: I'm not a hero.

Kyle: Yes you are! You save lives, Oliver! And I get it, it's terrifying, you're going to have a kid-

Fish: No, I'm not even scared!

Kyle: I can only imagine.

Fish: And Sierra isn't my daughter.

Kyle: Maybe, but Kim obviously thinks it's true, and I got a feeling you think it's true, too.

Kyle picked up an official looking envelope from the coffee table and suggested that they find out for sure, once and for all.

Fish asked what the envelope was, and Kyle told him that it was something he wasn't going to be happy about. Fish told Kyle to tell him what it was and Kyle explained that he'd had a DNA test done and the answer was right there in the envelope.

I liked that Kyle didn't open the envelope himself. The sneaking around to arrange the test was part of that whole shades of gray thing he has going on, but it would have been too much of a betrayal for him to have found out the truth without letting Oliver in on what he'd done first.

Talk about a Friday cliffhanger, though! I'm glad I was behind and didn't have to wait all weekend to see what happened next.

Pre Noms for Kish!

I haven't been feeling well at all these past few days, so I'm behind on the soaps and hoping to catch up this weekend.

If there's anything that could cheer me up, though, it was seeing that both Brett Claywell and Scott Evans have been pre-nominated for Daytime Emmy Awards!

The pre-nominees are those people in each category who've received the most number of votes from their peers to move forward to the actual nomination phase, where voters view the emmy reels and select the nominees and winners.

Brett has been pre-nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor Category and Scott in the Outstanding Younger Actor Category, for which you have to be 25 or younger. It's odd to see them nominated in different categories for the same storyline, but at least this way they won't be competing against each other!

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that they both receive full nominations.

A few Kish-related people are pre-nominated as well, including the fantastic Ilene Kristen, who plays Roxy, but I was surprised and very sad not to see Tika Sumpter on the list. Tika, who plays Layla and who is tragically under used by the show at the moment (where are Cristian and Layla, anyway?!), did some downright amazing work in the episodes where she figured out that Oliver was gay. I became a huge fan at that point, and I think that work would have made her a strong contender to win the Emmy.

Meanwhile, this is the first time since joining As the World Turns that Van Hansis won't be nominated for a Daytime Emmy, since he isn't included on the list of pre-nominees. Van was nominated in 2007 and 2008 for Outstanding Younger Actor and last year for Outstanding Supporting Actor, but he never managed to take home the Emmy. That was especially frustrating in 2007, when he was nominated for his work in Luke's fantastic coming out story.

With As the World Turns leaving the air next fall, my not so secret desire is to see Van on One Life to Live. What a match up that would be!

One other performer has been pre-nominated for an LGBT role this year, and that's the amazing Crystal Chappell, who played Olivia (one half of Otalia) on the now cancelled Guiding Light.

I've been loving Crystal's return to Days Our Our Lives as Carly Manning (along with the wonderful Louis Sorel as Vivian), and I know her legion of fans are going to be thrilled to see her name on the list.

Kish: Nearly 'Normal'

Oliver and Kyle had some pretty strong scenes on today's One Life to Live. It all started where last Friday left off, with Schuyler revealing to Gigi that he was Sierra's father while Kyle shot lasers out of his eyes at Fish, who kept silent.

Schuyler signed that consent form for Sierra's surgery and then Kyle and Fish made their exit, no doubt wanting to avoid seeing Gigi's head explode as her brain sloooowly computed this latest piece of information.

Before they left, Fish told Schuyler that he was going to file some incident reports and may need a statement from Joplin. Schuyler promised that he'd be at the hospital if Oliver needed him and then thanked Fish for saving his child's life. Fish claimed that he was just doing his job and Kyle looked like he was reaching the limit of his patience in the background.

The next scene with the guys found them arriving in Kyle's brand new digs, a much bigger room at Roxy's motel. In fact, I think it's Schuyler's old room.

Kyle suggested that Oliver relax and let his boyfriend take care of him after everything that had happened. Fish said that he was still pretty keyed up and Kyle felt that was understandable, given the day Oliver had.

Fish ran through all the events of said day for us: chasing Mitch, killing Nurse Charles, calling help in for Jessica, searching for John and Natalie after an explosion, pulling Rex and Schuyler off each other, saving Gigi from the lake, and not saving Stacy. He said that it just might have been the longest day of his life, which is pretty understandable considering it lasted several weeks.

Kyle, sounding disappointed in his boyfriend, said that Fish had managed to leave Sierra's birth off that list. He also pointed out that Fish hadn't been able to get away from the hospital fast enough.

Fish said that his job had been done, as if that was all there was to it, and Kyle reminded him that it wasn't done if he was Sierra's father. Fish started in on the whole "Schuyler says he's the father!" bit of non-logic again, and asked Kyle to give it up, saying that there was no way he was Sierra's daddy.

Kyle dryly noted that the unprotected sex Fish had with Sierra's mother meant that he could be, and Oliver, acting rather cornered, said that he couldn't be, didn't Kyle get that? Kyle asked Fish to explain it to him, but Oliver went back to the usual song & dance: Stacy put Schuyler's name in her will as guardian and everyone was sure of the baby's paternity except Kyle.

Kyle told Fish that they couldn't be positive without a DNA test and reminded him again of how simple it would be for Fish's former lab tech/current med student boyfriend to quietly have the test done once Sierra was through with her surgery and in stable condition.

Fish said no to this again and Kyle pointed out that even if Oliver didn't want to be Sierra's father, he had a responsibility to her. Oliver said that Gigi loved Sierra and hadn't left her side, and since Gigi was with Schuyler, they'd raise the baby together.

Kyle stuck to his guns, though, and started to tell Oliver that with the baby's mother dead, if Fish was the father he was legally responsible for her. Oliver interrupted, telling Kyle that he didn't care about what was legal, he wanted what was right: Sierra should be with normal parents!

Wow. I honestly didn't see that coming, though it is completely in character given the way Fish was raised. I thought Fish was troubled by the idea of being a parent out of the blue, but it didn't occur to me (not having had parents like George & Barbara Fish myself) that he'd actually be worried about Sierra herself growing up with gay parents!

I do have to say that Scott Evans played this scene very well. What should have felt like a complete slap in the face actually kind of tore at my heart because of the way Oliver's voice broke on the word 'parents'. Fish is clearly in a lot of turmoil over this and his eagerness to believe the baby isn't his now becomes far more understandable.

It makes perfect sense that Fish, in spite of being happy with Kyle, still hasn't been able to let go completely of all the narrow minded and hateful beliefs that his parents raised him with.

Kyle said on Friday, in reference to Stacy, that homophobia could have played a part in her naming Schuyler as the father, that raising kids was where people often drew the line. Kyle was right on the money, it seems, but it wasn't Stacy's feelings coming into play, it was the homophobia George & Barbara instilled in their son.

Brett Claywell was fantastic in this scene too, by the way. The look of sadness on Kyle's face after Fish finally blurted out the true nature of his worries spoke volumes.

Kyle: Normal parents, you mean straight parents, right?

Fish: I'm going to shower.

Kyle: No. Not now you're not.

Fish: Would you forget it, Kyle?

Kyle: No, you said it!

Fish: Please, can we not do this right now?

Kyle: So you think you can't be a dad because you're gay?

Fish: No! Of course I can. We have the right to do and be whatever we want.

Kyle: But you don't believe a word of that.

Fish: Yeah, Kyle, because I live in the real world.

Kyle: The real world? The real world where only straight couples can raise kids? How does that normally work out, anyway? What's the divorce rate now? And what about the kids that start out with only one real parent? Oliver, you are a good, caring, honorable man with a partner who loves you. Isn't that what a child needs?

Fantastic moment for Kyle, I have to say! And bravo to One Life to Live, yet again, for tackling a serious issue through great storytelling! This is everything good soaps should be: entertaining and socially relevant, all at once!

Fish claimed that Sierra would have that with sort of life with Schuyler and Gigi and Kyle let him have it , pointing out that Gigi clearly hadn't know the 'truth' about Schuyler being the father and asking who knew if they'd even be together by tomorrow.

On a shallow note, I do love when Kyle gets angry!

Fish felt that Gigi and Schuyler would keep things together for the sake of the baby and Kyle said that Gigi would always be Sierra's aunt but that Schuyler couldn't be counted on and the two of them wouldn't always be together. He told Oliver that his idea of this perfect couple was fantasy, but Fish just said that it was 'still better'.

Better, Kyle asked, for who? For Sierra, or for Oliver? He told Fish that just because he was gay didn't mean he had to give up his child. Fish snapped that Sierra wasn't his and then asked Kyle to drop all of this if he loved him. Nothing like a little emotional blackmail to end a really long day!

Kyle: I'm not going to give up on you.

Fish: You know that it's not giving up on me if you just let this go.

Kyle: Oliver, you can't walk away from this baby without knowing for real whether or not she's yours. Okay? The man I love couldn't live with that.

Fish: Don't I get to decide what I can and can't live with?

Kyle: Yeah, sure, but-

Fish didn't let Kyle finish, cutting him off to say that he was going to go take a shower and 'wash this day' off of him.

After Fish left the room, Kyle picked up his empty water bottle and sealed it in a plastic bag to keep it nice and fresh for DNA testing. You know what they say, you can take the blackmailer out of the lab, but...

Fantastic scenes today. I know other shows would have just swept Fish's struggle with internal homophobia under the rug the minute he and Kyle finally got together, as if that solved everything, but you don't grow up trying to be what George and Barbara Fish expect you to be without it having a lasting impact. I'd love to see Fish get some counseling from Marty to eventually work through these feelings!

I also loved that they're showing that 'shades of gray' side of Kyle again. I know that he's genuinely sorry for what he did in the past, but it seems only natural that when faced with a situation like this, his reaction would be to take matters into his own hands.

I love that these two characters are still very human and fallible. I want to see them give in to their flaws, then face up to and try and overcome them. That makes for good storytelling.

Setton Departs; Ollian in America?

If you've read my recent Kish posts, you know what a fan I've become of Amanda Setton, who has played Kim on One Life to Live since last June.

I just read the news that, in spite of being offered a contract and a pay raise, Setton has decided to leave the show and head to California for pilot season. She's reportedly filmed her final episode already.

I'm sure that she'll land a great role in L.A. (and, by the way, who knew she'd been in Gossip Girl for a whole season?), but she's leaving behind some big boots to be filled by whoever they recast in the role of Kim. It's just not going to be the same without Setton's unique take on the character.

Since Kim is presumably going to be at least somewhat involved in Sierra Rose's life, this will affect the Kish storyline to some degree.

Hopefully it will also wake the powers that be at One Life to Live up to the dangers of having these great actors and actresses working without a contract! You'll recall that Scott Evans has never been on contract with the show either and if a better offer came along, there would be nothing to keep him in the role of Oliver Fish. Scary thought for Kish fans!

Speaking of gay soap characters, it has been a long time since I've mentioned the German soap Verbotene Liebe, which features the fantastic gay couple Christian and Olli (dubbed Ollian by their fans). If you haven't ever seen this wonderful soap couple, you can follow their entire story from the beginning on YouTube, with English subtitles.

The reason I'm mentioning this now is that an American producer, Sam Martin, has purchased the rights to Christian and Olli's storyline and intends to make an American version of it!

It's funny to think of someone buying just one storyline from a soap opera to make into a series. Imagine if the British, for example, decided that Fish and Kyle would make a great series all on their own, with none of the connecting characters or stories included!

Okay, that would actually be pretty cool, and I think the idea of an American version of Christian and Olli could be great if it's done right. Verbotene Liebe has never held back on having Olli and Christian showing affection, including scenes of the two of them in bed together. They're a very romantic couple. Will the American version be so true to the characters?

I suppose it's possible, especially since HBO has the right to first refusal. Still, it's impossible to imagine anyone but Jo Weil and Thore Scholermann as these two characters, so the show is going to be very different no matter how they do it. It will be interesting to see what develops from all of this. In the meantime, check out the originals on Youtube!