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Passions is an American television soap opera created by veteran soap opera writer James E. Reilly. It debuted on NBC on July 5, 1999, replacing the long running Another World.

It centers largely around horror-oriented themes. Passions follows the various romantic and supernatural adventures of the residents of Harmony, a fictional New England hamlet.

Ratings and renewal

Passions has been a weak performer in ratings since its premiere, resting comfortably in last place amongst all soaps currently on the air nearly every week since its inception. However, unlike Another World, the soap it replaced, Passions does a much better job attracting younger viewers in the coveted 18-49 demographic. In the said demographic, Passions stands at a 1.4 for the season (ahead of CBS's As The World Turns and Guiding Light) The latest Nielsen ratings for the week of May 30, 2006 put the program at a 1.5/6, meaning 1.9 million households in the United States tune in each day. For the 2005-2006 season, Passions is the #1 rated soap among female teens age 12-17; the show is also the #1 rated soap in Women age 18-24 (tied with Days Of Our Lives) and the #2 soap in women age 18-34 beating every other soap in daytime except its lead-in Days of Our Lives. Passions is also number #1 in the division of boys ages 12-17 and men ages 18-34.

In early 2006 rumors surfaced that Passions was on its way to cancellation. On May 29, 2006, NBC announced it would renew the program for an additional season, now slated to air through July 2007. However, the renewal also brought along significant budget cuts; the soap faces a dramatic $4-5 million slashing of its annual budget. Most of the budget cuts affected crew members and those not on the air. Almost half of Passions crew members, as well as its press representitive was laid off. The show has also reduced its usage of multiple sets and show extras. It is believed that this will cause the show's storylines to drag on even longer, as this would reduce the cost of using multiple sets.it was thought that no on-air stars would be affected by the cuts; according to an insider "...none of the show's contract players will fall victim to the budget cuts, but at least a dozen behind-the-scenes crew members will be let go" [http://www.soapcentral.com/ps/news/2006/0529-renewed.php. However, three of the soap's actors, including Kelli McCarty, Sharon Wyatt, and Amelia Marshall have all been released from their contracts, sparking fears that more cast cuts may be on the way.

Storylines

Major storylines throughout the soap's run have included Eve's (played by Tracey Ross) affair with former Crane heir Julian (Ben Masters); Whitney's (Brook Kerr) romantic relationship with Chad (Charles Divins); Theresa's (Lindsay Hartley) schemes to win Ethan (Travis Schuldt, Eric Martsolf) back from his wife, Gwen (Liza Huber, Natalie Zea, then Huber again); Kay's (Taylor Anne Mountz,Deanna Wright,Heidi Mueller) desire to be with her cousin's (Molly Stanton) boyfriend Miguel (Jesse Metcalfe, Adrian Bellani) and her current inability to choose between Miguel and now-fiancé Fox Crane (Justin Hartley, Mark Cameron Wystrach); Ivy's (Kim Johnston Ulrich) plots to win back first love Sam (James Hyde) from his wife, Grace (Dana Sparks); Noah (Dylan Fergus) and Fancy's (Emily Harper) tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship; Sheridan (McKenzie Westmore) and Luis's (Galen Gering) continued separation from each other; Alistair's (John Reilly)'s never-ending quest for the ultimate power, including dressing as a monk and luring sixteen people to Rome; and Tabitha's (Juliet Mills) destruction of the citizens of Harmony.

History

Passions debuted with major fanfare (Reilly had been credited for a large surge in the ratings for Days of Our Lives) but also some controversy (lead heroine Sheridan's best friend was the late Princess Diana, and in flashbacks, Sheridan spoke to Diana on the phone right before she was killed). Originally, the viewers of Another World (which Passions replaced) largely held a vendetta against the new show as the stories told were markedly different from the ones they were used to. Many viewers did decide to stay with the new soap, however.

The show is known for supernatural hijinks and protracted storylines. Much of the criticism derived from the show's delusional view of women. These women perform outrageous and immoral acts, often in the name of "love". There is Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald (Lindsay Hartley), who has been presented as a heroine despite the questionable things she's done in her lifelong pursuit of Ethan Winthrop. Her latest scheme involved becoming Ethan and his wife Gwen's surrogate in order to trade their baby for her son, Little Ethan, whom they adopted. When she thought she had lost Gwen's baby, she drugged Ethan and slept with him to ensure that she would still have a baby to trade. Unfortunately, she hadn't miscarried and was unable to carry both Gwen's and her baby to term. On doctor's advice, Theresa agreed to have the weaker baby aborted. A DNA test on the surviving child proved Ethan and Theresa to be her biological parents. There is also Beth Wallace, who in her scheme to win Luis, imprisoned Sheridan in her basement pit for months (though only three days seem to have passed)and stole the woman's child to pass him off as her own.

For much of the first three to four years of the series, supernatural elements such as witches, warlocks, and closet doors leading to Hell were major plot points. One central character was Charity (Molly Stanton), a saccharine young woman who would regularly become possessed by the "forces of evil" and turn into "Evil Charity", "Zombie Charity", etc. NBC even made a deal with the owners of Bewitched to allow "Dr. Bombay" to appear in scenes with witch Tabitha Lenox (not to be confused with Bewitched's Tabitha Stevens). "Dr. Bombay" appeared on three occasions, but Bewitched nixed any future visits; however, when Tabitha had a child in 2003, she named the baby Endora. Tabitha also stated on an episode that her mother was named Samantha and that her father was a mortal named Darren. Recently, a new storyline brought back some of these elements with the introduction of the character Siren, a mermaid that Endora brought to life and made human to keep Kay from leaving Fox for Miguel.

Over time, Passions moved away from supernatural elements and began to concentrate on the usual array of love triangles and returns from the dead. One of their most popular storylines was the interracial romance between filthy rich letch Julian Crane (Ben Masters) and icy doctor Eve Russell (Tracey Ross). Their '70s love affair produced a child, but Julian's father Alistair demanded they break up so Julian could marry a more "suitable" (white) woman. Eve married former tennis star TC (Rodney Van Johnson) and had two daughters, Whitney (Brook Kerr) and Simone (Lena Cardwell, Chrystee Pharris-Larkins, then Cathy Jenéen Doe). Years later, the revelations of Julian and Eve's love as well as the news that Eve had caused the car accident which ended TC's tennis career led TC to dump Eve and take up with her half-sister, Liz. Julian, who had never stopped loving Eve, reunited with her after giving up his boozing and adulterous ways. During the summer of 2005, TC and Eve's youngest daughter Simone came out as a lesbian. Passions made daytime history by being the only soap opera to show two women (Simone and Rae) in bed making love.

Fox and Theresa met on the day Ethan Winthrop married Gwen Hotchkiss, much to Theresa's dismay. Fox was caught crawling into Theresa's bed that night, dressed in boxers. From there, the two became instant friends and shared several heart-to-heart conversations over nightcaps in the mansion. When Theresa was discovered not to be Mrs. Julian Crane, she was kicked out of the mansion. Fox soon became her ally in her quest to get Ethan back. The two of them even pretended to date out in Los Angeles in order to make Ethan jealous. Theresa and Fox began to date seriously after Theresa lost Little Ethan. After Theresa tricked Ethan into having sex with her, she could no longer continue to lie to Fox, and the two of them broke up.

As of the end of 2004, Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald finally had a dream fulfilled; she became the mother of Ethan Winthrop's first living biological child, a daughter named Jane, thanks to drugging him as part of an elaborate scheme to get her firstborn son Little Ethan back from him and Gwen, who had adopted him. (Ethan also has two deceased children, a daughter baptised Sarah and a son who he and Gwen planned to name Nathan.) This storyline kept viewers on the edge of their seats, becoming the first major 'Who's the Mommy?' storyline in daytime, as Theresa was pregnant with Jane at the same time that she was Ethan and Gwen's surrogate. When Jane turned out to be Theresa's biological daughter with Ethan, Gwen lost her mind and kidnapped the baby, fleeing the country with Alistair Crane's estranged wife Katherine. Ethan, Theresa, and Fox rescued them from Alistair's island, thus reunited Theresa and Jane. Ethan planned to sue for custody of Jane, but offered to let Theresa keep their daughter if she would end the war with Gwen. Theresa pressed charges against Gwen hoping that Ethan would turn to her with Gwen in prison, and Ethan sued for custody as he had originally intended. Gwen was acquitted once it was revealed that a drug interaction had caused her behavior, and the judge gave custody to Ethan and Gwen, in part because of the method Theresa used to conceive the child.

Trademarks

Over its run, Passions has become widely known for its numerous parodies of pop culture. One fan favorite was the 2003 spoof of the 2002 film Chicago, in which character Edna Wallace fantasized that she, her demented daughter, Beth, Charlie, and her orangutan caretaker, Precious, had been incarcerated for the kidnapping of Sheridan Lopez-Fitzgerald and her unborn son, Marty. In this fantasy, the three women sang "I Ain't Sorry", a parody of "Cell Block Tango". The song was performed in the style of musical theatre, and was simultaneously mocked and adored by fans. Another spoof popular with the fans was the 2006 Bollywood spoof, in which Gwen dreamt of a life in India with her husband, Ethan, far away from his ex-fiancée, Theresa. The original song accompanying this spoof, "Love is Ecstasy", was a hit with fans, and NBC even put both a video clip and a downloadable mp3 version of the song on their website.

Another trademark of the soap is its preoccupation with the concepts of fate and soulmates. Since the show's first episode in 1999, the writers have pushed several couples onto the fans, claiming that they are "fated", and, with few short-lived exceptions, have failed to mix up any of the relationships. Some of the early "fated" couples were considered to be those of Luis and Sheridan, Ethan and Theresa, Miguel and Charity, and Chad and Whitney. In recent years, couples such as Noah and Fancy, Julian and Eve, Martin and Katherine, and Fox and Kay have also been introduced as being "fated". Common indications of a couple's status as "fated" include (but are not necessarily limited to) Tabitha's desire to split said couple up, an unshakeable love that survives numerous break-ups and relationships with third parties, and/or an ability of one character, or perhaps both characters, to "sense" when his/her "soulmate" is in danger.

One unfortunate trademark for Passions has been eerie deaths. In 2002, Josh Ryan Evans, who played Tabitha's extremely popular doll sidekick Timmy, died while on medical leave, just as scenes were airing where Timmy died in the hospital and went to Heaven. Passions had planned to revive the character in a few months once Evans returned from his own surgery, but instead had to write Timmy out. After five years of evil Crane patriarch Alistair being heard but never having his face seen (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer), Passions finally cast the role with longtime soap vet David Bailey. Bailey was a hit with the cast as well as the fans, but on Thanksgiving Day 2004, he drowned in his pool, just as scenes were airing where various characters tried to kill Alistair, who actually suffered clinical death before being magically revived by Tabitha. Again, the viewers and the producers were stunned, but the show had no choice but to recast the pivotal role (with John Reilly).

Theme song and opening sequence

The theme song for Passions is titled "Breathe," performed by Jane French and written by French and John Henry. A long version of this theme was also released but was never used on the show.

The opening title sequence used since the show's premiere in 1999, features shots of the city of Harmony and its landmarks. The sequence opens and closes with the show's logo in a cursive typeface and in a Arial Black typeface in generic caps posted in front of the cursive form of the title. From time to time, the opening theme is shortened to the last two verses to fit in extra scene time.

The sequence is similar to One Life to Live's 1995-2004 "Tour of Llanview" opening, in that the sequence features shots of landmarks and city scenes. However, the main difference is that there are no headshots of the show's cast.

Passions's is one of the few American soap operas that, with the exception of occasional abbreviated versions of the intro, has not changed its opening theme since the series debut.

Hidden Passions: Secrets from the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox

In January 2001, HarperEntertainment released Hidden Passions, an inside look into the history of Passions involving all the major characters, written from the viewpoint of Tabitha Lenox. A storyline involving the character of Tabitha and Timmy and the promotion of this book was aired on the soap. During this time when the show enjoyed its peak popularity, the book even reached #4 on the New York Times Bestseller list. The novel was billed as being canonical, but the televised canon has diverged significantly from the novel since that time. For example, Rachel Barrett presumably did die in a boating accident decades earlier, and the death scene of her sister, Katherine, who was recently revealed to be alive, is included in the novel. In addition, the book portrayed Eve Johnson Russell as the daughter of a wealthy society couple in Boston, but the show has more recently revealed an upbringing in the rural South.

Reruns on Sci Fi

According to variety.com, cable channel Sci Fi (which is owned by NBC) has begun airing Passions from the beginning since February 13. This was changed from an originally stated start date of February 6.*

The reruns on SciFi have been slightly edited, with the background music and popular songs substituted in many cases.

Classic episodes of the program were being aired on Sci-Fi, however as of May 25, 2006, the reruns have been placed on hiatus. The reason is, at this point, unknown.

Cast

Current cast members

Recurring cast members

Coming and going cast members

Former cast members (major, continuing roles only)

Deceased cast members

Trivia

  • Leigh Taylor-Young (Katherine) is only three years older than Ben Masters, who plays her son Julian. She is also actually nine years older than Sharon Wyatt, who plays her older sister on the show, Rachel.

  • The "dents" on Ben Masters's (Julian) head are the result of surgery following a motorcycle accident.

See also

External links

Soap operas | 1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States | NBC network shows | NBC Universal Television shows

Passions | תשוקות | Passions

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Passions".

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