When you do a new show five days a week, all year long, it's got to be tough to keep coming up with original stories. That's just the problem they were facing over at ABC's All My Children. In an effort to keep things original they are adding their first transgender character. According to Executive Producer Julie Hanan Carruthers, "After 36 years, you start rehashing. It's inevitable. We didn't want to fall back on the baby-switch story again." The character, Zarf, will be played by Jeffrey Carlson (pictured).I'm not familiar enough with the demographics of the daytime soap audience to have any idea how this is going to play out. Given the subject matter, it's reasonable to expect that there could be some backlash from fans who are turned off by the idea. On the other hand, there has been some absolutely bizarre stuff on soap operas over the last few years (vampires, witches, a superhero), so who knows? It could be just the rating boost All My Children is looking for. Whichever way it goes, I applaud them for taking a chance and doing something different.
[ via Yahoo! News ]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-27-2006 @ 11:14AM
Porchland said...
Pat or Jamie or Charlie, sure, but Zarf?
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11-27-2006 @ 11:48AM
chris said...
Zarf. Rhymes with barf. You read it here first.
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11-27-2006 @ 1:06PM
kt said...
ok well zarf was already on the show once, he's a british rock punk guy. all my children always introduces subject matter that has never been on daytime soaps before. i think with the amount of time it takes for them to develop this story (he falls in love with lesbian bianca montgomery first) viewers will embrace this character and story. i'm 25 and i've been watching this show for 12 years, i'm sure there are obviously older people who watch, but i don't think they'll have a problem with it.
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11-28-2006 @ 5:25PM
Jennifer said...
I'm all for the storyline. But "Zarf" sounds like "narf" and then I think of Pinky and the Brain. I can see them wanting to pick a gender-free name, but why not just, I dunno, "Madison" or "Lee" or "Chris" or "Pat?"
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12-06-2006 @ 8:09AM
Dexie said...
It's just appropriate since Bianca's "coming out" storyline was then the most controversial storyline and the very first woman to woman kissing on soaps.
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12-11-2006 @ 11:55PM
jaremelz said...
So far I haven't seen anything terribly trans about this character. they'd said s/he was a male to female trans person but how come s/he is still presenting as a man with just some eye makeup? i'm not trans, but my best friend is, and so far I'm not seeing it!
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