Black firsts in the 21st century are often surprising. “Beyond the Gates” is no exception.
The first daytime soap solely focused on a Black family premieres this week on CBS and comes as the daytime genre is disappearing. “Passions,” which debuted in 1999 and ended in 2008, was the last new soap opera. But it was nothing like this.
Even behind the scenes, it is not lost on executive producer Sheila Ducksworth and creator Michele Val Jean that they are television pioneers.
“It is 2025 and it’s very true that Michele and I, from all accounts, appear to be the first two Black female executive producers doing a daytime drama,” she said during a virtual news conference in January.
Tamara Tunie, who plays matriarch Anita in “Beyond the Gates,” also remarked about the historic nature of this soap.
“The stark difference for me is the leadership of this show and the executive producer — being Sheila Ducksworth, an African American woman — and the showrunner, executive producer, head writer, being Michele Val Jean, is the first time in history as well,” Tunie said.
The soap is the first fruit of CBS’ partnership with the NAACP that was announced in July 2020, about two months after George Floyd was killed, to develop and produce scripted, unscripted and documentary content for both linear television and streaming.
Previously, Ducksworth, who is also the president of the CBS Studios/NAACP venture, served as co-producer of the Showtime series “Soul Food.” Val Jean spent her career writing for the soaps “Santa Barbara,” “General Hospital” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
“She and I have known each other for over 25 years, and we always said that we were going to do a soap together, and this was just an idea that I thought was right, and there was a time for it,” Ducksworth told NBC News during her appearance at this year’s SCAD TVfest with “Beyond the Gates” cast members Clifton Davis, Karla Mosley and Daphnée Duplaix. “And fortunately, not only did CBS feel the same, but Michele felt the same, and now 200 other people that are working on it feel the same.”
While some may consider “Generations” — which ran from 1989 to 1991 and featured Vivica A. Fox and Debbi Morgan — television’s first Black soap opera, Val Jean, whose first foray into writing for the genre was on that soap, offers more clarity.
“‘Generations’ had a Black family, and all due credit for that for sure, but there was still your white family,” Val Jean explained. The NBC series, set in Chicago, revolved around a Black family and a white family. “Our show is based around a centralized Black family. Everything comes from the Duprees.”
The Duprees are essentially royalty of the Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., area, who rule their gated community, Fairmont Crest. Tunie, beloved as attorney Jessica Griffin from “As the World Turns,” plays a performer who met her husband during the Civil Rights Movement. Clifton Davis — perhaps best known for his leading roles in the classic comedies “Amen,” opposite Sherman Hemsley, and “That’s My Mama” — is her husband, Vernon, a civil rights activist and respected political leader.
Their daughters, the spitfire Dani Dupree and dutiful Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson, are played by “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “The Young and the Restless” alum Karla Mosley and Daphnée Duplaix from “One Life to Live” and “Passions.”
On TV, “you have not seen this many Black people in the middle of the day,” Val Jean promised.
Davis said he modeled his character, Vernon, partly off congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, who died in 2020 at age 80. “Beyond the Gates,” he said, is a result of the civil rights struggle.
“I think we find out in our show that much of the promise has been delivered. Certainly, you can see it behind the scenes,” he told NBC News at SCAD TVfest. From executives at the network, to the heads of hair and makeup, Wankaya Hinkson and Stevie Martin; to the head of production design, Bruton Jones; and, of course, Ducksworth and Val Jean, Black people are involved in all levels of decision-making for the show, he said.
“I think this is particularly the right time with a battle going on that’s trying to remove Black history from the books and the pages of America. We’re making Black history again, brand-new,” he said. “We are living in the future with our new show.”
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