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Joanna Johnson On Playing Lesbian Character on Daytime Vs. Nighttime: "Daytime used to be the more progressive place where they would bring up controversial issues!"
Courtesy/CBS
Joanna Johnson spoke with After Ellen.com about the debut of her new CW series, Emily Owens M.D. in which she is co-executive producer, and coming out publicly as she was venturing into The Bold and the Beautiful’s first same-sex storyline between her character, Karen Spencer and Crystal Chappell’s new character of Danielle. As soap fans know, the storyline was put on hold by B&B”s EP and head writer, Brad Bell, simply because Joanna became unavailable once Emily Owens M.D. went into full production!
In her chat with AfterEllen.com, Joanna was asked if she felt there was a different approach used bringing a lesbian character on to a daytime soap as opposed to a nighttime series. Johnson answered, “Well I guess there is a different approach when it’s CW and it’s a nighttime show and then when it’s The Bold and the Beautiful, which is a daytime show. Daytime used to be the more progressive place where they would bring up controversial issues and you could sort of get away with things in daytime. The censors thought, oh the kids aren’t home during the day. Of course now with recording things, it’s changed. I’ve kind of found that in some ways daytime has gotten a little more conservative over the years, definitely than nighttime, some of the things…they’re not as provocative.”
“But I think The Bold and the Beautiful has been a certain kind of show that didn’t really tackle a lot of provocative issues, which is OK. It’s really a show for entertainment. They’ve done some really cool things and some great storylines, but they’ve never had a gay character before. I think it’s great that Brad Bell wanted to bring on a gay character. But I also will say that it’s a safe gay character in the sense of, I’m certainly not going to get involved in any romance. I know that my daughter now has two moms and that’s interesting but I’m sure he’s not going to have me suddenly falling in love with Brooke and have an affair. I don’t think we’re going to go there.”
In addition, when asked about if a return to B&B is anywhere in the near future, Johnson stated, “I love to go back and do more of The Bold and the Beautiful. They’ve asked me a couple of times and I just haven’t been able to get away from here to do it. I hope that they still would want me to do it when I have a little more time and I can. I really enjoy it. I love all the people over there. It’s very sad that Ronn Moss (Ex-Ridge) is gone and Susan Flannery (Stephanie) is on her way out. It won’t be quite the same.”
What do you think about Joanna’s comments that daytime has become much less progressive than the days when it was the place that delivered ground breaking social issues of the day? Has daytime lost its edge? Weigh-in!
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B&B has lost its edge, for sure! I’d like to see some new characters in new storylines that better reflect the situation set. the near-incestusous pairings are tiring and the in-fighting over this fashion house is tired. If I had a soap with Chappel and Johnson, I’d make some hay while the sun shines and address some social change along the way. Daytime once excelled here. B&B has its moments but they have been lost among the endless triangle and the meanderings of silly plots in search of characters (at the expense of history and humanity!).
I dont think they should have started this storyline if Joanna Johnson had the possibility of leaving the show soon after they started filming.