Lesbian role is bold move for soap opera
By Steve Rothaus
The Miami Herald
December 28, 2000
American television has come full circle since 1997, when Ellen Degeneres came out both in reel and real life.
Three years ago, Degeneres' revelation became the talk of the land: A major TV comedy star announced she is a lesbian, sparking a national controversy and setting the stage for today's many gay characters on television.
Earlier this month, Showtime scored its highest Sunday night rating in three years with the debut of QUEER AS FOLK, an explicit drama about gay men and women in Pittsburgh.
And now another milestone: Susan Lucci's ALL MY CHILDREN heroine, Erica Kane, learned on Christmas Eve that her TV daughter, Bianca, is a lesbian.
"We've been calling her 'Lesbianca,'" joked Scott Seomin, entertainment media director of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national group that monitors how gay people are portrayed in the media.
The ALL MY CHILDREN plot twist, which aired on Friday, isn't the first gay characterization on daytime television. In the past, gay and lesbian characters have been brought in for short-term, specific storylines _ and in the case of gay men, often killed off by AIDS.
But this is different.
"It is taking a risk, because they are doing this with Erica Kane's daughter, the most famous woman on daytime TV," Seomin said.
Another risk: Unlike QUEER AS FOLK, which is aimed at a sophisticated gay audience, ALL MY CHILDREN is a mainstay of Middle America. It's too early to know how the public will react to the dramatic goings-on in Pine Valley, USA.
Since ELLEN, TV viewers have become increasingly comfortable with gays and lesbians on sitcoms, Seomin said.
"People watch gay characters for laughs," he said. "The networks overwhelmingly feel the American public can handle their homos when in the situation-comedy formula."
ABC-TV's ELLEN didn't make it, canceled in 1998 because of low ratings. Some blamed Degeneres for the show's failure; they thought she brought too much gay talk to TV.
But within a year of the demise of ELLEN came WILL AND GRACE, NBC-TV's prime time hit about a gay man, his straight female roommate and their best friend Jack - a flamboyant queen.
A typical evening with WILL AND GRACE (and Jack):
Jack: "For your information, most people who meet me do not know that I am gay."
Will: "Jack, blind and deaf people know you're gay. Dead people know you're gay."
Jack: "Grace, when you first met me, did you know I was gay?"
Grace: "My dog knew."
It seems America loves gay talk on WILL AND GRACE: In the Dec. 17 Nielsen ratings, the sitcom ranked No. 6 and was watched in 13.8 million households.
Gay TV characters have become so popular (there are about two-dozen scattered throughout prime-time shows) that even Degeneres is preparing to make a sitcom comeback, playing ... a lesbian.
Now, ABC is bringing homosexuality to daytime and the network hopes viewers will continue to love ALL MY CHILDREN, Erica Kane and Bianca Montgomery.
Lucci, who co-workers say has enthusiastically supported the lesbian storyline, knows this plot is potentially volatile and needs to be executed carefully:
"I don't think it's our position to be instructive as much as it is to portray this realistically and with as much respect for the dignity of each human being involved," Lucci told The Miami Herald in a prepared statement.
Eden Riegel, the 19-year-old actress who plays Bianca, was more outspoken.
"The whole story is done in such a way that it's accessible to everyone. It's so real that the producers and the writers are making a concerted effort to show that a gay relationship is just like any other," Riegel told The Herald. "Everyone is behind making this story real and truthful and honest, and doing the best job we can with it."
When Riegel auditioned to take over the role of Bianca earlier this year, she had no idea about the intended lesbian storyline. The producers told her after she got the part.
"I knew after they made the offer," Riegel said. "They wanted to know if I was comfortable with the role, that I didn't have any reservations, that I would feel comfortable playing this gay character.
"Of course I had no problem," said Riegel, who is straight.
The lesbian storyline was conceived by Agnes Nixon, who created ALL MY CHILDREN in 1970.
For six months, the writers slowly revealed Bianca's secret.
"They did it in increments. From the start, everyone could tell that she was hiding something," Riegel said. "There was some difficulty with Erica, that (Bianca) didn't want to dress up in party dresses."
Bianca eventually revealed that while being treated in rehab for anorexia, she had a sexual encounter with a girl named Sarah, "the great love of her life," Riegel said.
The main emphasis on the storyline will be how seductive, heterosexual Erica (10 marriages to eight men) copes with having a lesbian daughter, Riegel said.
"The show is not condemning or condoning anything," Riegel said. It's not lecturing the audience. It's about a mother and daughter's love."
Riegel said she doesn't know how the storyline will be resolved, whether Erica will eventually accept Bianca's sexual orientation.
One thing is certain, though: Bianca won't be killed off or sent to boarding school any time soon.
"The audience has watched Bianca grow up and they've learned to love her," Riegel said. "The character is integral to the show.
"It's really bold that the show is committing to the storyline and they're in it for the long haul."
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