Soap operas don't get a lot of respect, but every once in a while, one comes up with something that's both incredibly real and worthwhile. That's right, I said, "worthwhile".
On ABC*, it's usually All My Children that has the social conscience, leaving the gangster drama to General Hospital, with One Life To Live usually sticking to family drama, although each of the shows has ventured into the others' areas of expertise (what soap would ever really avoid family drama?)
But the soaps have always had a hard time when it comes to portraying same-sex relationships. That's partly because to tell soap opera style stories, you need romantic triangles, temptations and tawdriness. And usually, when they bring in a gay character, it's one character (maybe two), so they really can't sustain story lines for him or her or even them, and they fall into back-burner hell. All My Children did a marvelous job when Bianca, Erica Kane's daughter, came out as a lesbian, and they've stuck with it, but after a while she just didn't get the screen time.
Several months ago, One Life To Live brought in not one, but three gay characters, all male, which is letting them have plenty of soap-style action to sustain the characters, and also giving them a chance to show us what it's really like to be gay, in the not-as-tolerant-as-some-might-think new millennium. It's been incredibly moving watching police officer Oliver Fish struggle with whether his parents, his roommates, his coworkers at the police department, would accept him when and if they found out he was gay.
On the episode that aired October 30, 2009, he stopped struggling.
I've removed all --- or at least most --- of the plot-line stuff from the video, so people who've never watched One Life To Live can watch this video and see for themselves this timid young man who has suddenly had enough and finally breaks his long silence. (And also to hopefully fall under the "legitimate use" news reporting section of copyright law.)
I apologize to anyone who finds the video isn't up to snuff. That's the Internet for you. And hopefully the suits at ABC will appreciate this post for the fan-appreciation that it is.
* If you're at work, or listening to music while surfing, beware the video that starts automatically at the ABC web site.
