NEW YORK – In a story unusual even for a soap opera and believed to be a television first, ABC’s “All My Children” this week will introduce a transgender character who is beginning to make the transition from a man into a woman.
The character, a flamboyant rock star known as Zarf played by Jeffrey Carlson, kisses the lesbian character Bianca and much drama ensues. The storyline begins with Thursday’s episode of the daytime drama.
There have been a handful of post-surgical transgender characters in television shows, including a college professor in the 2001 prime-time CBS series “The Education of Max Bickford” and a model in the short-lived ABC soap opera “The City” in 1996, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Showtime’s “The L Word” currently features a character changing from a woman into a man.
“All My Children” was looking for something new, and knows its audience is always interested in anything to do with sexuality, said Julie Hanan Carruthers, the show’s executive producer.
“After 36 years, you start rehashing,” she said. “It’s inevitable. We didn’t want to fall back on the baby-switch story again.”
The show wasn’t interested in doing something just to be sensational, she said. GLAAD and some transgender people were brought in as consultants in shaping the character, teaching the producers when it is appropriate to call a character “she” even before surgery, she said.
Damon Romine, a spokesman for GLAAD, said he hasn’t seen the show yet but feels the people involved were genuinely interested in telling the story with dignity. Emotions are close to the surface in soap operas, and the story can serve a purpose by showing what transgender people go through, he said.
“I think it’s groundbreaking and breakthrough television for daytime to put a spotlight on transgender people and tell their story,” he said.
“All My Children” could use some attention. Mirroring the decline of daytime dramas in general, its average audience has slipped from 8.2 million in 1991-92 to 3.1 million last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. Particularly last summer, “All My Children” has tried several new characters, said Carolyn Hinsey, editor of Soap Opera Weekly.
“They’re trying really hard and they’re throwing a whole lot of desperate stuff against the wall to see what sticks,” she said.
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