A new era for daytime soaps operas: Beyond the Gates

Making

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A Chicago woman, Irna Phillips, birthed the daytime serial — and a Chicago woman, Michele Val Jean, is ushering in new interest in the genre. Val Jean has written for several shows, including Generations, Santa Barbara, General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful. Now, she’s the creative force driving Beyond the Gates, the newest American soap, which debuted on CBS in February. The drama features a core Black family, the Duprees, who live outside Washington, D.C. It’s full of delicious soapy drama, with slaps, villains, cliffhangers and fabulous clothes. Val Jean talks about her career, from writing the infamous catfight scene on Generations and revisiting the Luke and Laura rape on General Hospital to the joy she feels watching the reception of Beyond the Gates.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I have a little surprise for you, listeners.
0:03.6	One question before we get started.
0:05.5	Can you do your, pronounce your full name for me?
0:09.3	Sure.
0:09.6	It's Michelle Valjean.
0:16.8	That's right.
0:17.9	The creator of the new daytime to soap opera Beyond the Gates that debuted in February.
0:23.6	It's actually Valjean, but I have enough trouble getting people to say Valjean, so.
0:28.6	Okay, I was like, oh God, I have said Valjean on the podcast, so I will...
0:33.6	That's okay. That's really correct pronunciation.
0:36.6	Okay, all right. Well, we will keep that. I can, I can do it.
0:40.3	I've been wanting to interview Michelle for over a year. And we finally had the chance to sit down over Zoom to talk. I was so excited.
0:49.9	I first want to know what is your soap watching origin story? When did you start?
0:55.6	Like many of us, I come from a family of soap watching women.
1:00.7	You know, my grandmother watched them.
1:02.5	My mother watched them.
1:03.7	So when I was coming up, I would watch them too.
1:06.7	And, you know, it's like developed a love for them.
1:11.6	Which ones were you all watching?
1:13.7	We were an ABC family because remember back then
1:16.1	you didn't change the channel.
1:17.9	So it was all my children and one life to live in Cheryl.
	...

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