Carolyn Hinsey Lays Blame Of Kish Ending On Brett Claywell

In her new book Afternoon Delight, Carolyn Hinsey talked to Michael Fairman and they talked Kish Ending:


In an article with Michael Fairman, Carolyn Hinsey had this to say about How Kish ended


MICHAEL:

Oh, here we go. In the chapter Gays of our Lives, I was very interested to read what you had to say about Kish. I had heard from sources that Middle America in the end was denouncing it, and that ABC was blaming the couple for their ratings woes’. And then, there was a backlash by both the mainstream and the LBGT community on how could they blame the eroding ratings at that time on OLTL, solely on Kish, when people felt the character of Stacy Morasco was shoved down their throats. And then I heard from sources, some of the same things you wrote about; that it was more about the actors, Scott Evans (Ex-Oliver) and Brett Claywell (Ex-Kyle). What do you think went down?



CAROLYN:

There are a number of things that went down. First of all, One Life tried really hard to write a mainstream gay couple, which is something no other show has done. And they were vilified from all angles. Middle America said, “I will not watch two men kissing.” And then the gay community started a backlash that they were not on enough. How you can then call the only show that is trying to tell a gay story “homophobic,” is beyond me. Some people were saying, but not enough of them, “Great, I love it. I am watching for Kish.” So here you are trying to tell this groundbreaking story and you are being hammered by people who don’t want to see it, and hammered from people who want to see more, and no one was saying, “Wow, great job.” You persevere and you put the couple together. You have a love scene and one of the guys comes out and the parent’s turn on Fish, which makes everybody go, “Oh, poor Oliver.” And that in turn, makes us sympathize with him, and makes the audience like him even more than we already did. And then my understanding is, they offered the actors contracts, and they wanted tons more money then they were offered. The quote I used in the book and that I heard was they wanted, “Robin Strasser money.” And the truth of the matter is; the guys had only been on the show nine months. And so they were told what kind of salary they could get for someone who had been on the show that length of time. They could not strike a deal. So then it becomes, “Are we going to do some recasting? Are we going to bring in another actor to play this role that we are already getting hammered on from two different segments of our viewing audience?” But then, it dovetailed into my argument, which is: Why don’t soaps just tell the truth more. If someone would have come forward and said, “We offered them a deal and the actors did not accept it, and we are very disappointed.” That would have gone down better. But, I also think it’s not fair that the one show that tried to tell this story got vilified, while The Bold and the Beautiful, while set in the world of fashion, still does not have a gay character on the show.


MICHAEL:

One of the things you mention in the book is…did OLTL head writer, Ron Carlivati, go overboard because of the same-sex wedding-a-thon, and Dorian pretending she was a lesbian to get votes to be elected mayor?

CAROLYN:

In my opinion, it was too much all at once, and did not make sense. In what community do you pretend to be gay to get more votes? Never mind that Dorian was never a liar! I mean, she has been many things, but for her to lie about her sexual orientation just did not ring true. And, it was too much with everything else they were telling on the show, and if you noticed, they knew it. Then they pulled back on it pretty fast.

MICHAEL:

The one issue I wanted to bring up that you say in the book is, that it’s hard to create gay storylines for characters, because for instance, gay people don’t have accidental pregnancies. But I say to you, Oliver Fish got Stacy pregnant after she drugged him. So in a situation like that, a male gay character can be utilized. So the beauty of that was the show did weave in the gay couple. And the thing is, if things hadn’t gone down the way they did, they had a great opportunity because of that act, to tell the story of two men raising a baby! And now we see that on Modern Family, and that was the part of the story that riveted me. I wanted the guys to get custody of that child and then see them living in Llanview dealing with that.


CAROLYN:

Listen, if Brett Claywell would have signed a contract, you would have been seeing that story playing out today! But hold on! My gay friends are not sleeping with women. If you are a gay man and you can be drugged into impregnating a woman, yes, it’s dramatic, but is just not very realistic.

MICHAEL:
Your issue is the realism, and of course I understand that. I am saying OLTL used it as a plot-device with their gay characters. Look, I do believe what you said is true. But in this case, I am like, “Well, let’s just say we suspend belief like we do with everything else in soaps.” So I am thinking, “OK, we have a gay couple and one of them fathered a child. Ok, good. We have an issue for story there that also keeps them on air.” And then I am thinking, “Good. Now there will be a fight for custody and that could be poignant.” I think OLTL rushed this story at the end because, as you say, the guys did not sign contracts, and therefore, Kish got custody very fast and were sent off the canvas.


CAROLYN:

First of all, there is no doctor at Llanview hospital anymore. (Laughs) And if the actors would have stayed you would have seen Brett Claywell playing a doctor and Scott Evans playing a cop, and they would have been roped in to all the “normal” stories – kidnappings, and baby-switches and everything else, and in addition to the romantic side of it. In the same way they are currently writing John McBain and Natalie, they could have written it that way for Kish.