I've just completed a binge re-watching of All My Children's Bianca/Marissa storyline. It's been a little light in new lesbian media these days (although I did just watch in interesting little short called Camp Belvidere; more on that in another post maybe) and when that happens I tend to go back to my old standbys for my girl-on-girl fix. Re-watching AMC is one of those standbys. As always, watching those clips made me start thinking about how odd the state of lesbian affairs is in the daytime soap world, so I thought this time I'd write it down and maybe not have to think about it the next time. Doubtful, but hey, no harm.
I don't know how many lesbians there've been in the history of US soaps. I'm not an avid soap watcher, although when I was a teen I tuned in to Days of Our Lives, Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and Another World whenever I had a chance. I of course didn't realize that tuning in to Another World simply because I was enthralled with Anne Heche, or that I really, really liked As the World Turns's Shannon O'Hara played by Margaret Reed might mean something...else. Like, it wasn't because of the stellar acting.
I became reacquainted with soaps by watching clips of Maggie and Bianca on AMC. I had heard about Lena Kundera but honestly, she wasn't all that attractive to me so I didn't really fancy going back to see any of that. It's kind've the way I pretend Callie and Erica didn't happen on Grey's Anatomy. I enjoyed the BAM storyline even though it just didn't make sense a good deal of the time, and it seemed that the writers were doing everything they could to keep them from having to actually do anything about the attraction between the two characters. It was so weird because they had already established this lesbian character in Bianca Montgomery, and that was such a big deal, and they'd given her a relationship already (two actually because there was Frankie I guess), but for some reason they were really balking about fully committing to Maggie and Bianca. Who the hell knows why? They kissed a total of I think 3 times during the series, and for all but the last time it wasn't mutual. You have the Maggie snogged Bianca while Bianca was with someone else kiss: http://youtu.be/Ery5wWUTgX4. I'd embed it but the user disabled that functionality. It's at the 3:40 mark.
The next time is the other way around. Maggie's in an abusive relationship with some dude and Bianca kisses her: http://youtu.be/ZYO-DcQcFc0. Same deal with the video, but this person seems to be the only one with any BAM vids on YouTube.
And the last kiss: http://youtu.be/LTmJLs4tgYk. It was still a sort've non-mutual kiss; it was a break-up kiss. They actually talked to each other and said out loud that they were lovers...right before Elizabeth Hendrickson left the show. I guess better late than never.
Despite the whole ridiculousness of the way they handled BAM—this weird we're not talking about it but you know what's going on, wink wink—I still give AMC all the credit in the world over the Olivia/Natalia era of Guiding Light. I caught up on it with YouTube and was actually in time to enjoy the remaining run of this one. Be sure to inject a nice amount of sarcasm when you read that line. I file that storyline under the heading of "Why Bother?". I have to give the PTB a little credit. It was definitely risky to not only have a lesbian relationship on the show, but to have it happen between the town's most notorious man-eater Olivia (take that as you will) and the most pious of papayas Natalia. Who also happen to have been rivals for the same dude. And Olivia also happens to have that dude's heart in her chest after he died and Natalia let them give it to her. Yeah, so some credit is due there. Not much though. Not when you consider that throughout the entirety of their "relationship", the only kiss they shared was some half-assed fast, hard thing that was not about emotions or passion or anything. It was the lamest setup for a kiss ever. You can pretty much fastforward to the 2:50 mark.
So yeah, words fail her but kissing her is the thing to do. Yep.
That was the only time they kissed. Their physical relationship didn't extend beyond lots and lots of eye sex and the occasional hand hold. They didn't even hug each other! And you know what was kind of insulting? They had a multi-episode gag about how sexually frustrated Olivia was because duh, it's Olivia, and they had her almost seek relief from her ex. The scene where they almost get it on is actually kind've hot. She comes to her senses, or rather he does because he knows she's in love with Natalia, and she goes back to waiting for Natalia to be ready for sexy times. As far as we know she never gets there. I've got to say, due to the unusually chaste nature of their relationship (let me say it again: no kissing!!! Ever!!) I've suspected something else was up. I don't think it was the actresses because they'd go on to do a web series together where they get pretty hot and heavy. Maybe it was because Jessica Leccia, the actress who played Natalia, was preggers at the time and it became difficult to hide it. Maybe they thought it would be super weird to have a very pregnant woman kissing another woman.
It's an odd sort of symmetry really. Guiding Light was pretty clear about the relationship between Olivia and Natalia. There was never any doubt. The characters talked about it clearly, openly. They even talked in positive tones about the sex they would one day have— but they never kissed. AMC didn't officially say BAM was a thing until both actresses were gone from the show. They left everything implied, but they gave us three weird kisses. I'll take three weird kisses over the nun-like bullshit of Guiding Light.
AMC seemed to get comfortable with its relationship with lesbians though, and as its comfort grew it would push the envelope with their lesbian storylines until the end of its run. Reese and Bianca came to town and it was oddly and refreshingly normal. They did normal couple thing. They hugged, they kissed, they cuddled, they made sexual innuendo. And they had the "hottest daytime sex-scene lead-up that led to a non-hot post-coital scene" ever. I made up that award, btw. This song sucks, but the compilation of scenes is pretty awesome.
I mean, those two were affectionate! They remain my all-time favorite daytime soap couple. Not a lot to choose from, but Bianca's been around the block a few times on this show in particular. Tamara Braun really sold it though; she and Eden Riegel had amazing chemistry and they were just fantastic together. I choose to ignore the shitty way they made Reese's commitment and sexuality ambiguous by throwing in Zach Slater. I mean, let's just not talk about it, okay? Because...it was shitty.
We'll also ignore the way they decided, for some bizarre reason, to remotely assassinate Reese's character when they brought Bianca back to town in the form of Christina Bennett Lind who had big shoes to fill, bless her heart. She wasn't bad, she just wasn't Eden Riegel. That brought on the Bianca falling in love with Marissa Tasker storyline, and AMC for its part steps it up a notch. We get a few kisses, we get an invitation to sexy times issued by one Marissa Tasker, and we actually get sexy times and not just a cut to post-coital clothed cuddling. Unfortunately the lack of chemistry between the two actresses made this a lot less gratifying than it could've been.
I mean, that first kiss? It made me cringe. The body language. The stiffness. You're supposed to be in love. I understand tentative, I understand nervous. That wasn't it. And the bedroom scene towards the end? Dude. On the one hand, thanks for giving us that, right? But on the other, so stiff! So uncomfortable! Why couldn't this have been a Reese/Bianca scene instead? I wish Eden and Tamara would pull a Venice: The Series and get themselves a web show where they can play lesbians in love again.
It's just so weird to me to watch AMC clips and see what they were doing with their same-sex couples, and to contrast that with Guiding Light which came later and therefore had AMC sort've pave the path for them already. Guiding Light fell way short though, and you wonder why they even bothered to have that storyline when they were clearly so damn afraid of it.
But here I am bitching and now there are no lesbians on daytime television. In fact, there is no daytime television really. So there's that.
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