THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 13, 1995 TAG: 9511110077
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
HOW IRONIC. In a month when NBC is celebrating the 30th anniversary of ``Days of Our Lives,'' ABC says it has to re-invent the soap opera if daytime drama is to survive into the 21st century.
Starting today at 12:30 p.m., ABC brings the soap opera into the 1990s with ``The City,'' starring Morgan Fairchild.
This soap, rising out of the ashes of ``Loving,'' will have the quick cuts, daring camera angles and up-tempo scenes that the MTV generation loves so much.
Could this be the beginning of the end of the famous long, lingering soap opera close-up? Definitely.
``It will not be the style we are doing,'' said Barbara Esensten, head writer No. 1 of ``The City.''
Anther new twist for daytime soaps: ``The City'' actors will not be studio-bound. That's evident in today's show when Fairchild, playing a communications tycoon, steps from a helicopter in a $3,000 white Versace suit.
The idea here is to put glitzy images on the screen that will win back viewers who have deserted soap operas for the drama of real life - the anything-goes syndicated daytime talk shows.
``What this thing really boils down to is how do we compete with the glut of talk shows,'' said Jim Brown, the show's No. 2 head writer.
To get Fairchild to star in ``The City'' for a year, ABC agreed to give her a role in a made-for-TV movie and to develop a prime-time series for her next year. In return, she gives ``The City'' a big name on the little screen and a humdinger of a performance as the cool (it rhymes with cruel) Sydney Chase, head of a vast communications conglomerate.
``Think of me as Rupert Murdoch in drag,'' she said. Fairchild plays Chase with a light touch.
That's no stretch for Fairchild, who looks smashing at 45.
She's been a scene stealer in sitcoms of late, playing a lesbian on ``Roseanne,'' a mother of one of the friends on ``Friends,'' and she was thrown over a wall on ``Cybill.''
She says she's giving an edgy, off-the-cuff, Americanized Noel Coward kind of a performance in ``The City.'' Chase moves from being despicable to nice in a New York minute.
Example: She is delighted to have a handsome married man as her lover. But Chase doesn't want him around after she leaves his bed.
``I'd be thrilled if we could have a life together,'' he says. She's not interested.
``Call your wife. Tell her our affair was a mistake. A terrible midlife crisis. I'm sure she'll understand.''
So cool. So cruel.
The soap operas were having a rough time before Ricki Lake, Jenny Jones, Jerry Springer and the other talk show hosts began stealing away viewers - before the O.J. Simpson trial coverage dominated daytime TV. With more and more young women working outside the home, the audience for soaps has fallen steadily since the 1980s.
Will ``Days of Our Lives'' see another 7,675 episodes? Not likely.
So, what's a network to do to save the soaps? Do something different. ``The City'' has evolved from the ashes of ``Loving,'' with enough ashes still around to keep a bit of continuity going. Twelve characters have moved from Corinth, Pa., to the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo to begin life anew. Who can blame them for leaving? There was a serial killer on the loose in Corinth.
The characters who move from ``Loving'' to ``The City'' include Tess Wilder who opens a modeling agency in a SoHo loft, hiring model Steffi Brewster, who is pregnant but doesn't want the father to know. Then there is Danny Roberts, former drug dealer, who is also a model.
Sooner or later, they'll all run into Morgan Fairchild as Sydney Chase. It's deja vu for Fairchild. She worked on ``Search for Tomorrow'' before striking out for Hollywood, where Fairchild has appeared in 20 TV series. by CNB