Bradley Bell

Television drama across so many territories is offering viewers a plethora of subject matter and interesting, complex characters previously unexplored on the small screen. This current renaissance of the genre is occurring mainly in prime time in the form of series, miniseries and TV movies.

Daytime drama, however, has historically been the overlooked stepchild, and unfairly so. The Bold and the Beautiful has tackled tough issues for years—decades, actually. It premiered on CBS in 1987 and for nearly 30 years has centered on the Forrester family, owners of the fashion house Forrester Creations in Los Angeles. Along with the expected soap opera fare—passion, intrigue, betrayals, rivalries, outsize ambitions, relationships and lots of love, all set against the backdrop of the glamorous fashion world—what has set The Bold and the Beautiful apart is its emphasis on family, its high-end production values and its willingness to tackle tough topics.

Viewers have seen how the homeless of Skid Row in L.A. live, witnessed the near-deadly grip of alcoholism, the heartbreaking agony of a cancer diagnosis, and the difficulties and dangers of being an illegal immigrant.

In the past year, Bradley Bell, executive producer and head writer since the ’90s, has introduced a transgender character, Maya Avant, a beautiful model, fiancé and then wife of the Forrester Creations heir, Rick Forrester. Viewers have learned of Maya’s treacherous journey from Myron to Maya and have witnessed the prejudice she encounters not only from strangers and so-called friends, but also mostly from her father—none of which is treated superficially.

While it’s true that there have been other transgender characters on television as of late, from Jeffrey Tambor’s award-winning portrayal of Maura Pfefferman on Amazon Studios’ Transparent to Caitlyn Jenner on I Am Cait to Laverne Cox as Sophia Burset on Orange Is the New Black, fans of Maya on The Bold and the Beautiful benefited from a soap opera’s daily storytelling pace. Not only did The Bold and the Beautiful unfold the story slowly, it also had the luxury of time to show Maya’s many challenges and emotional states, as well as those of her father, and the prejudice he encountered in his community and on the job as the father of a transgendered person. The result was a detailed and thorough 360-degree depiction, buoyed by the fact that beloved characters were telling the story to loyal fans with whom they share a strong bond—making the transgender issue resonate more strongly than when treated in a news story or documentary.

“I feel we have to entertain our audience but we also have to use this time to hopefully inform them and enlighten them; we must use this platform to open some minds—that’s what we tried to do with the transgender story,” explains Bell. “There is a lot of work to be done in the world and I always think of the global reach that we have.”

“Southern California is a place where people are very progressive in their thinking,” continues Bell. “That is a good way to be; to be overly critical or judgmental of how people live their lives is not a good way to live and that’s what we are trying to do with the transgender story line: demonstrate the challenges that transgender people have to endure and hopefully get some people in the audience to be more accepting of them.”

According to Médiamétrie/Eurodata TV Worldwide, average global viewership of The Bold and the Beautiful from 2006 to 2015 has been 18.35 million viewers per day. If countries and territories that do not have people-meter audience measurement systems in place are included in the tally, it has been estimated that 25 million people watch The Bold and the Beautiful every day around the world.

For Bell, portraying transgender issues accurately has been as important as keeping his audience entertained and coming back for more each day. He has therefore sought the guidance of GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) in crafting Maya’s story.

“We’ve been working very closely with GLAAD,” he says. “Nick Adams [GLAAD’s director of programs for transgender media] has been working with us on terminology, reading all of our scripts, [adding] his input into all of our stories and being a real cheerleader for us. He’s been incredibly invaluable in guiding us. This is new to me, too, and that’s what’s so exciting. It’s been an education for so many people, including the writers, directors and actors who work here. It’s just been a wonderful experience as you learn there is a proper term and you understand why the term is that way. It’s about awareness and it’s been a great eye-opener.”

While the Maya story line has been very well received inside the LGBT community, Bell is aware that it has not been without risks. In fact, he admits that at the onset he was worried. Indeed, reaction from outside the community has been mixed. “There are going to be places in the U.S. that don’t like the story,” Bell says. “There are going to be countries around the world that are going to feel that this is too much and inappropriate, especially if you watch with family members young and old. But I thought it was worth the risk and I’m so grateful that CBS has been supportive of the story line, whereas I think they would not have been five years ago and certainly not ten years ago. But now they have and I’m so grateful.”

Maya’s story was one of the reasons TV Guide magazine named Bell a “Power Daytimer” in its recent Power Issue. The Bold and the Beautiful has been a constant ratings juggernaut for CBS’s daytime schedule, but the show’s influence is also felt far from U.S. shores.

Based on Médiamétrie/Eurodata TV Worldwide research, The Bold and the Beautiful has likely been the most watched soap opera in the world since the 1990s. In most territories, it’s the number one show in its time slot, and has performed very well for Canale 5 in Italy; Network Ten in Australia; SABC3 in South Africa; RTL4, RTL8 and RTL Lounge in the Netherlands; and RTS in French-speaking Switzerland, to name a few.

In an effort to further the show’s connection with international fans, over the years Bell has organized on-location shoots in several countries, including Italy, Australia, Monaco and the Netherlands. Bell is hoping for two international shoots in 2016.

No article about a soap opera would be complete without some spoilers, so for Forrester fans, the following comes straight from Bell: Even though Maya and Rick are married, they continue to face challenges. As Maya is not able to carry a child, she has asked her sister Nicole to be a surrogate. In 2016, we will see if Nicole’s pregnancy will bring the already close sisters even closer or if it will pull them apart. And here is another complex, emotional topic: surrogacy.

Viewers will continue to see more of Maya’s family in the coming year.

And Brooke Logan (who has had more husbands than I can remember, is it five?) has been without a man in her life for a long time—too long. In 2016, Brooke, the very romantic, hot and controversial lover, will be making a comeback!

But for all the passion and intrigue, Bell always comes back to the show’s strong moral compass. “I think we have a morality that viewers can trust,” he says. “If characters do bad things, in the end the story will wrap up in a way that, for the most part, good and decent behavior is rewarded, and I think that is life-affirming. We try to be motivational and we try to be a bit of a guide and more than just entertainment—a bit of a moral barometer when and if we can be.”