In what I feel is a way to save a dying franchise of falling daytime soaps, Days Of Our Lives will follow in the footsteps of All My Children and One Life To Live (both shows have been cancelled) and take on a gay storyline. According to EW, Freddie Smith, who currently plays Teddy Montgomery's love interest on 90210 will play a young man named Sonny, a good-natured young man who returns home to join his family. As which family he will be apart of (you know all these soap folks are related one way or another) that bit of info has been kept under wraps, but my guess is he's Justin and Adrienne's son Jackson Kiriakis (hence the Sonny nickname).
”He is the center of attention kind of guy but in a good way,” Smith told EW. ”He’s very confident and mature, he’s traveled the world and is very open-minded. I’m very excited to portray him.”
As for which character will be his love interest, that bit of T has been kept under wraps as well. Who I end up falling for. Someone new? Someone on the show? We all make jokes, `who am I going to make out with first?’ It’s going to be fun to see.”
A few years ago All My Children was the first soap to feature a same sex storyline (done properly) when Erica Kane's daughter Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel), came out to her mother and eventually led to the first gay marriage between her and Reese Williams (Tamara Braun) — Days, like many other soaps has often shied away from featuring same-sex story lines on their show.
My fear is that it's typical when all else fails, let's look to the gays to boost ratings as a way for sparking controversy. It's become a tired and cliche move on the part of writers, and people in the industry who should know better. Soaps are a dying breed, and it's all about daytime talk shows and reality shows at this point. The tried and true storylines of the 60's, 70's, and 80's aren't going to work anymore. How many times can you switch a baby's DNA or get pregnant by your first cousin? All I have to say is be prepared for the backlash, which was evident with the Kish story line on One Life To Live last year, and the network succumbed to the pressure and ditched one of the best story lines on OLTL. I for one am not a Days watcher (my babysitter growing up watched it religiously), but I'm sure there will be plenty of folks watching to see how this story plays out.
His role begins on June 23
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