Soap Hub couldn’t be more excited. CBS and NAACP, Procter & Gamble, and former The Bold and the Beautiful scribe Michele Val Jean are developing a syndicated soap opera called The Gates. Even talking about creating a new soap these days is huge.
The Significance of This Developing News
Earlier this week, news broke that a new daytime drama focusing on wealthy Black families was being developed. The significance of The Gates was instantly felt. First, it’s the first new American soap created since Passions back in 1999. Second, it’s the first daytime drama to focus on Black culture since the woefully short-lived Generations did it way back in 1989 (the NBC soap ended in 1991). Third, Michele Val Jean isn’t just a writer, she’s show-running the whole shebang. To have a Black female executive producer with credits like General Hospital and B&B acting as the potential new series’ guiding light? Well, that means everything in a day when the four remaining soaps still struggle with representation in front of and, especially, behind the scenes.
The Dream Casting List: The Actresses
On this International Women’s Day, we have a list of formidable actresses we’d love to see on The Gates, should this project materialize and see the light of day. Some of them are currently on soaps or have soaps on their resumes. Others we think could handle the hard work that comes with this genre whether The Gates turns out to be a half-hour or an hour show. Yet others we’d love to see hold court — it would be their world and they’d simply let us visit that gated community, right? Let us know what you think of our choices in the comments below. And if we’re missing anybody, add them to the list!
Current and Former Soap Queens
Renee Elise Goldsberry and Tika Sumpter, One Life to Live
Renee Elise Goldsberry and Tika Sumpter made splashes as sisters on One Life to Live and then have gone on to have successful careers in primetime, streaming, stage, and screen. If you’ve caught them on Girls5Eva (Goldsberry) or The Haves and Have Nots (Sumpter), you know they’d be great on The Gates.
Mishael Morgan, Brytni Sarpy, and Loren Lott, The Young and the Restless
The actresses who play(ed) Devon’s (Bryton James) ex-girlfriends and his sister on Y&R are prime candidates for The Gates as far as we’re concerned. Both Morgan and Lott have done some cool things in their post-daytime soap careers, racking up credits for Hallmark, BET+, NBC, and OWN. Recently, Morgan took her Daytime Emmy-winning self back to Y&R for a short stint. Meanwhile, Sarpy isn’t doing much on the show. Why not pluck her from Y&R and put her to work on The Gates? She just needs the right role to shine.
Vinessa Antoine, Tanisha Harper, Marisa Ramirez, General Hospital
General Hospital is a soap opera flush with talented actors and actresses. Vinessa Antoine, who once played Jordan Ashford left to lead her own Canadian series called Diggstown. She did a wonderful job. What is she doing now? The current Jordan, Tanisha Harper is beyond beautiful and badass. We’d love to see what she could do given a substantive role. CBS’s Blue Bloods is ending, which frees up Marisa Ramirez, who once played Gia on GH. Gia was Taggert’s sister, who was engaged to Nicholas. We’d love to see her back in this milieu.
Karla Mosley and Reign Edwards, The Bold and the Beautiful
To this day, we still wonder where the Avants disappeared to on The Bold and the Beautiful. Both Karla Mosley and Reign Edwards were standouts on B&B. Edwards has had a rich post-soap career, including two seasons on Prime Video’s The Wilds. Please make Mosley and Edwards happen on The Gates.
Soap and Other Acting Legends
Take your pick — any and all of these women would make gorgeous grande dames, mesmerizing matriarchs, amazing aunties, vicious villainesses, and awesome allies. Plus, they would make great archetypes we haven’t thought up yet. They’re all that good. No words should be needed to make our case for them being go-to actresses. Their experience in daytime, primetime, and really any time makes them instantly qualified to help anchor any show. They are great reasons for viewers to tune in on a daily basis.
Debbi Morgan, All My Children
As Angie Baxter Hubbard on AMC, Debbi Morgan could do no wrong, especially when paired with Darnell Williams’ Jesse Hubbard. Thankfully, she’s never forgotten her daytime soap roots. So when she wasn’t on the big screen in Eve’s Bayou or in primetime in Fox’s Our Kind of People, she often returned to soaps like Port Charles, The City, and Generations. So why not make that work for her one more time?
Victoria Rowell, Y&R
Victoria Rowell was magical as Drucilla Winters on Y&R. She commanded the small screen alongside the late Kristoff St. John (Neil Winters). What’s great about the actress is she knows her worth. If she doesn’t have the material available at her fingertips, she’ll create it herself. For example, she executive produced, directed, and wrote The Rich and the Ruthless, a soap that streamed on AllBlK before moving to BET+ for a season. She’d be a positive force of nature for any new soap trying to attract an audience.
What do you think? Post a comment!
Vivica A. Fox, Y&R and Generations
These days, Vivica A. Fox is known for her movies, TV shows, and commercials with Ice-T, but her street cred when it comes to soaps is major. She appeared on DAYS, Generations, and Y&R early in her career. On top of that, she did play Taraji P. Henson’s sister on FOX’s Empire. Since Fox knows her way around soaps, she might feel right at home on The Gates.
Jonelle Allen, Generations
More recently, Allen has done episodes of Shameless and 911 and voices Felicia Richardson on the Forever and a Day Podcast. Back in the day, she was Doreen on Generations. Doreen and Fox’s Maya had the catfight heard ’round the world. Michele Val Jean also wrote on Generations and worked with Allen and Fox. So that’s a plus.
Tamara Tunie, As the World Turns
If you have never seen Tamara Tunie as lawyer Jessica Griffin on ATWT, we feel sorry for you. Tunie followed up her World Turns career with a magnificent run as the medical examiner on Law & Order: SVU. She’d provide a warm, much-welcome presence on the set of The Gates in whatever capacity she wanted.
Lynn Whitfield, Greenleaf
To watch Lynn Whitfield in action is to watch someone fearless in her choices. The actress has appeared in so many amazing projects, but if we had to pick one of her shows for you to binge that will give you the best sense of the electricity she can create on a set, then go ahead and watch Greenleaf, all five seasons of it.
Jasmine Guy, A Different World
The hit college sitcom A Different World originally premiered in 1987. It’s been almost 40 years and the show is still popular today. Jasmine Guy is a big part of the reason why. Yet she was never stereotyped, she’s gone on to star in other series like Melrose Place, The Vampire Diaries, and more recently, Prime Video’s Harlem. Meanwhile, the cast of A Different World is headed out on an HBCU Tour because people still love that show. That kind of popularity can help a soap in its infancy, right?
Tina Lifford, Queen Sugar
If you want someone talented, fierce, formidable, and able to handle any range of emotions, look no further than Tina Lifford. The veteran actress had small roles on DAYS and Knot’s Landing. But we suggest you binge the entire Queen Sugar series sooner rather than later. Lifford is electrifying.
Angela Robinson, The Haves and the Have Nots
Finally, you haven’t seen a true TV villain if you haven’t seen Angela Robinson’s Veronica Harrington on Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots. (Take a look at our biggest women villains of daytime here.) There’s no way to describe how heinous this character really was. Just know that Robinson played her oh so beautifully. She’d be an asset to any cast.
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