If there is a story or script from one of your favorite soaps over the last three and a half decades that is most memorable to you, it’s probably because veteran soap writer, Michele Val Jean had something to do with it.

The current creator, head writer and executive producer of CBS daytime’s Beyond the Gates has been razzle dazzling us with some impressive cliffhangers in the infancy of the newest soap opera on the block which debuted back on February 24, 2025. Already in its second season, and recently renewed in a tremendous show of confidence by CBS for seasons three and four, this week its spotlighting the highly-anticipated crossover event when characters from The Young and the Restless arrive at Fairmont Crest airing now through June 12.

Val Jean has tenured history in daytime from: being a script writer for Santa Barbara (and breakdown writer), Port Charles, Generations, and lengthy run a few times at General Hospital where she served as script writer, breakdown writer, and at one time co-head writer of the ABC soap, to being a long-running script writer at The Bold and the Beautiful, to finally landing her very own show as its head writer with Beyond the Gates.

Photo: CBS

Earlier this week, Michael Fairman TV chatted with Michele at the Toast to Black Excellence event in Los Angeles, featuring cast members of Beyond the Gates and The Young and the Restless as a precursor to their multi-arc crossover event and asked Val Jean what has been her favorite story in soaps she has ever written for. She responded that she had a top three and they all happened to be from her time on General Hospital and in the 90’s.

GENERAL HOSPITAL CLASSIC STORYLINES

Michele revealed her top picks, “Elizabeth’s (Rebecca Herbst) rape, because that was personal, Kevin and Ryan (dual roles played by Jon Lindstrom), and Stone’s (Michael Sutton) death.”

When speaking of getting the opportunity to write for mild-mannered Dr. Kevin Collins and his psycho killer twin, Ryan Chamberlain, Michele explained, “I was always like a true crime person and Claire Labine (ex-head writer, GH) loved the vibe Jon Lindstrom and I has as writing and acting were concerned. Claire said, ‘Go with it. So, she basically let us work out who these characters were and I was like, ‘I finally have my own serial killer!'”

Courtesy/ABC

DOUBLE TROUBLE

“One of the first scenes I wrote for Ryan was in the police interrogation room and Mac Scorpio (John J. York) and Sean Donely (John Reilly) were standing behind him. He was sitting at this table and in his jumpsuit and there was a light shining on him and he started confessing to all these murders. It was like a 7-minute monologue and it went on and on. He had so many murders (piled up). and then at one point, he goes, ‘Wait, a minute!” He got confused about all the women he had murdered and I said ‘I love this character!'”

GH fans will recall Ryan debuted first in 1992, and then Kevin joined the main characters in 1993. Val Jean recalled, “When Kevin came onto the canvas, he was so arrogant. He thought, ‘Oh, I’ll go fix my brother.’ It took Ryan about five minutes to figure out who Kevin was. The next thing you know, Kevin’s in the middle of a mental institution going, ‘I’m not Ryan!’ And, Ryan’s out on a date with Felicia (Kristina Wagner) I think we must have killed Ryan off six times. That was fun!”

Photo: ABC

PERSONAL VANTAGE POINT

In 1998, Val Jean wrote Elizabeth Webber’s rape storyline. She notably based the controversial and critically acclaimed storyline on her own personal experience with sexual assault.

Michele reflected, “Elizabeth’s rape was really important to me because I was watching the Campus Disco in 1979 (when Luke raped Laura), and I was raped when I was 12-years-old. I know what rape looks like. I wanted to win Tony Geary (Luke) an Emmy because he hadn’t had one since 1983. I also wanted to call a rape a “rape,” and I wanted to heal myself, because back when I grew up on the south side of Chicago in the sixties, you didn’t go to therapy. You pulled yourself up by your bootstraps, and you went on. There was a trial and my rapist went to jail. Once that was over, there was no more talking about it. So, those were my three reasons for doing that story. I managed to do all three, and that was the most personally satisfying.”

Courtesy/ABC

STONE AND ROBIN

Perhaps, there is nothing more iconic and important, than the death of Stone Cates, who tragically dies of AIDS. The episode where he passes away with his girlfriend, a young Robin (Kimberly McCullough) who now has contracted HIV by his side, aired on November 29, 1995. Val Jean had noted on social media that it was both an honor and a heartbreak to write this episode.

BEYOND THE GATES EARLY FAVORITES

Now, Michele is setting new favorites in her repertoire with Beyond the Gates. She revealed that so far, there have been two standouts. The first, the violent altercation on a deserted country road where Martin (Brandon Claybon) fatally struck one of two racist white men with a tire iron to save his grandfather, Vernon Dupree’s (Clifton Davis) life and his own.

“I am most proud of Martin by the side of the road (story), because I didn’t think the CBS network would let me do it, but the network has been so supportive. I took a lot of personal satisfaction from that. I’ve never experienced anything like that! ” Another top pick?  I loved the anniversary party when Nicole’s (Daphnée Duplaix) marriage got all blown up!

So, are some of your all-time favorite storylines the ones Michele Val Jean chose? Elizabeth’s Rape, early Kevin/Ryan and Stone’s death on General Hospital? What about the racism storyline centering around Martin Richardson and the bombshell reveal on Beyond the Gates that Ted had an affair with Leslie and a child, which came to light at the anniversary party of Ted and Nicole? Let us know via the comment section below.

Adam J. Harrington (ex-John Jagger Cates, General Hospital) is one of 10 major casting additions who will have recurring or guest star roles in the highly-anticipated thriller, Bishop to stream on Amazon Prime.

Along with Harrington on Tuesday, Dillon Casey, Rick Hoffman, Bronson Pinchot, Ron Lea, Kaniehtiio Horn, Hunter Dillon, Brett Donahue, Jorja Cadence, Ishan Davé were all announced via Deadline.

In story, on Bishop, a homicide detective Bishop Graves (Joel Kinnaman) – brilliant, battle-scarred – will put all of his skills to the test in the hunt for an elusive killer targeting San Francisco’s moneyed class. As this increasingly audacious killer develops a devoted following among the city’s powerless, Bishop becomes convinced these murders connect back to SF’s most powerful man, his own father, Lincoln Graves (John Malkovich).

MAJOR LINE-UP

The cast is even more star-studded with Jennifer Jason Leigh as Jillian Graves, Lincoln Graves’ sister, and aunt to Bishop Graves; Jordana Brewster (ex-ATWT and Dallas) as Kat Claiborne, a seasoned inspector at the San Francisco Police Department; Harry Treadaway as Wyatt; and Xavier Samuel as Anthony ‘Ant’ Graves, Bishop Graves younger brother.

Ulrich Thomsen, Erik Svedberg-Zelman, and Jennifer Beals will also appear in recurring roles. Guest starsalso  include John Larroquette and Rob Yang. The aforementioned Harrington will play the role of Eric Olsen.

Photo: ABC

JOHN “JAGGER” CATES MURDER STILL SWEPT UNDER THE RUG

As General Hospital fans will recall, it was back on the August 30, 2024, where Harrington’s John Cates was shot twice by mobster Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard). Till this day, no one even mentions the fact, or seemingly knows that Sonny got away with killing a man in cold blood. Will it ever come to light years later in a major way or stay buried in GH history forever?

Harrington first appeared on the ABC soap opera back in February of 2024, when in a shocking recast, he took over the role of Jagger, now going by the name of John and an FBI agent. The part was originally made soap famous by a young Antonio Sabato Jr. from 1992 to 1995.

After Adam wrapped his run, he participated in a livestream chat on You Tube’s Michael Fairman Channel where he opened up about learning it would be the end of the line for John “Jagger’ Cates, and much more. You can check it out below.

No word yet on when Bishop will debut on Prime Video, but Michael Fairman TV will keep you posted.

So, glad to see Adam landing a role in an upcoming thriller which also features so many great actors in the cast? Are you still shocked that Sonny Cortinthos shot and killed John and completely got away with it? Let us know via the comment section below.

Viewers of The Bold and the Beautiful noticed on recent episodes of the CBS soap opera, that Liam (Scott Clifton) had stitches above his eyebrow and looked like he had somehow hit his head or gotten into an altercation.

In the dialog on the Friday, June 5 episode, Liam’s brother, Wyatt Spencer (Darin Brooks) made some comments about it jokingly, so that the show could acknowledge it without getting too deep into the weeds.

As it turned out, in real-life Scott Clifton, who previously played Liam’s multiple head traumas, had his own experience with it as he revealed on an Instagram post on June 9, just what had happened, which is a bit of a frightening story. Within his Instagram post, he shared photos of a bloodied bathroom, the gash on his forehead and his visit to the ER.

Courtesy/CBS

Scott explained, “Some of you may have noticed the stitches above Liam’s eyebrows in Friday’s and yesterday’s episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful (along with a few playful lines of dialogue between him and Wyatt about it). Well, sometimes life imitates art, and Liam no longer enjoys the monopoly on head trauma.”

Next, the three-time Daytime Emmy winner revealed what led to the injury which was indeed concerning for Clifton’s family and his longtime fans. “The night before we were set to shoot these scenes, I’d just come off of a particularly stressful day managing a crisis to do with my 81-year old mother (everyone’s fine), couldn’t sleep, and got up in the middle of the night—a little too quickly, apparently—to use the bathroom. But something wasn’t quite right, and I could tell I was about to faint. That’s the last thing I remember.”

AFTER FAINTING, A TRIP TO THE ER WAS NEXT

After finding himself slumped over the edge of the bathtub, Clifton recalled, “My upper body mangled inside of it with my feet draped outside. Blood everywhere, a splitting headache, and an impregnable determination to claw my way to a mirror and see just how much extra work I’d created for the B&B makeup department in a few short hours. And that’s when I noticed the giant hole in my face. Spent the night in the company of some lovely ER doctors who fast-tracked me into a room, scanned me, stitched me, and gently admonished for thinking I could let a makeup brush anywhere near my face for weeks. Oh and also, I should prepare myself for some temporary memory loss and cognitive sluggishness from the concussion.”

HOW B&B CHANGED PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

Soap operas stop for no one and even the cast, so changes had to be made on the spot to write Clifton out of the taping schedule so he could recover. Clifton remembers,
“When our phenomenal producers Rachel Herman and Casey Kasprzyk got word a few hours later, they told me to stay home and rest while they rewrote the scenes to be taped the following week—leading up to which they would constantly check on me. The next day my phone was flooded with the most loving and concerned texts from the cast and crew, and that’s really the reason I’m posting about this: I am so sickeningly lucky to be a part of this team, this family, this wholly benevolent daytime empire.”

Scott concludes his post with some special shoutouts for all who stood by him during this short crisis. He began, “Thank you to everyone at Bold & Beautiful for your kindness, care, grace, patience and resourcefulness—from our incredible makeup team, to our steadfast on-site medic, to the producers, directors, and Darin Brooks for putting up with this newfound ugly mug. ❤️”

First, we are so glad that Scott Clifton is alright and was able to get the time off he needed to recover from hitting his head. Share your thoughts on what Scott’s head injury and let us know if you have ever experienced something similar in your own life. Comment below.

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