*** DISCLAIMER ALERT—If you are a fan of ABC’s “All My Children “ be warned this blog contains information about Thursday’s show.
In what is being hailed as a “television first,” this week, ABC’s “All My Children” will introduce a transgender character to viewers and will wait to see if the switchboards light up. Series producers admit that the story line, which involves a transgender character making the transition from a man to a woman, is “an unusual story line even for a soap opera.” (I’m not sure I agree with that given that I was a die-hard “Days of our Lives” fan for a number of years and watched the character of Marlena Evans wreck havoc on Salem during her time possessed by Satan.)
Anyway, back to the fictional Pine Valley. Basically, the new character, a flamboyant rock star known as Zarf, kisses the lesbian character Bianca and the drama ensues from there. So why introduce a transgender character to daytime soap fans? “All My Children’s” executive producer told news reporters that the show’s producers were looking for something new, and “knows its audience is always interested in anything to do with sexuality.”
“After 36 years, you start rehashing,” she said. “It’s inevitable. We didn’t want to fall back on the baby-switch story again.”
Show producers were quick to point out that the soap wasn’t interested in doing something “just to be sensational.” They said GLAAD and some transgenders were brought in as consultants in shaping the character, teaching the producers when it is appropriate to call a character “she” even before surgery.
In a statement made by a spokesman for GLAAD, the organization described the move as “groundbreaking” and considered it “breakthrough television for daytime to put a spotlight on transgender people and tell their story.”
All the action gets underway on Thursday’s show: after Zarf establishes a bond with Bianca that leads to the kiss, an angry Bianca tells him she’s a lesbian. It triggers something within Zarf about why it made such sense to be falling in love with a lesbian. Producers have not revealed if the show will stick with the Zarf character through any surgery. Some insiders speculate that the reaction of the soap’s audience to the story will have a lot to do with it.
Are you a soap fan? What do you think about the new storyline?
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