Beyond the Gates, CBS’ brand new soap opera, has hit the ground running. It’s quickly becoming a fan favorite with emotional drama, car accidents, gunshots, things getting smashed, and more. Wrapped in a stunningly beautiful visual package, the show is poised to take the world by storm and reinvigorate the soap opera genre. Creator Michele Val Jean recently opened up about one of her inspirations for the fun new series.
A Long Road to Fruition
“It’s the matriarch, the patriarch, the two sisters, the kids — they were all sitting there,” Val Jean explained to Variety about a BTG scene that was being shot, adding, “I was in the control room, and I got so choked up. It was like, ‘Oh my God, look at them. There’s my babies. That’s my family.’ ” She got emotional because the gig initially started out as a lark that blossomed into something far more impactful in her life.
The producer explained that four years ago, executive producer Sheila Ducksworth approached her and asked her to create a show bible for a Black soap. “I’ll make a little money, and stretch muscles I’ve never used before and go about my happy little life writing scripts,” Val Jean thought to herself, imagining retirement on her horizon. But when Ducksworth eventually came back and said CBS was ready to go with the show, she was floored and had to immediately get to work on world-building. (Find out about BTG’s writing team.)
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She Was Inspired
As Val Jean’s creative wheels started churning in her mind, she explained that her concept was to make characters that were truly interesting and hadn’t been done before. As the idea of a family that spanned generations came to her, she pondered further, “Who would be interesting?” Then she reasoned, “What if the matriarch of its family had been Diana Ross?” She liked that Ross had been a famous lead singer and then became a solo artist, and so the character Anita Dupree (Tamara Tunie) was born.
She fleshed things out by having Anita meet Vernon (Clifton Davis), who was an activist-turned-Senator, and thus the matriarch and patriarchs of the Dupree family came into being. The fact that CBS agreed to create the first new network soap in 25 years blew Val Jean away, and she noted, “We’re the ugly stepchildren in the entertainment business, and there’s a bonding in that because we know how hard we work.” (Check out the Times Square ad for BTG.)
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