Time After Time/Soap World

Former As The World Turn's star Scott Bryce (ex-Craig) turned co-executive producer and director of the comedic web series Steamboat which chronicles the behind the scene world of a soap opera living in its last days, joins Time After Time/Soap World Blogger Missnanse to discuss the online series and the current state of daytime serials.   

Missnanse: Hi Scott, First I want to thank you for agreeing to the interview and to congratulate you on a wonderful web series. I want to say you and Michael O'Leary are brilliant and have brought us a wonderful new show Steamboat. Now down to business: How did the concept of Steamboat come about?

Scott Bryce: This show is the brain child of Michael O'Leary. He came to me with a script he had been developing for quite some time. We worked on it together and made changes, including the title.  Once we had  decided to green light the project, Beth Chamberlin came on board as Story Consultant. We polished the script together and you see the final result.

Missnanse: How did you and Michael come together to do this? 

Scott: Michael approached me. He had auditioned for a project I produced on Frederick Douglass for PBS two years ago, so he knew I was also on that side of the camera.  After several meetings, we created a partnership on the show  and began to "Pitch" it. In these difficult finacial times it became apparent that going through the normal process for developing the show was going to be difficult at best.  So we decided to go the "Webisode" route.  We merged our assets. We pooled some dollars for a budget then Michael supplied a remarkably talemted cast and I supplied a remarkably talented crew. We created a company, became an AFTRA signatory,  negotiated a deal with Palace Digital Studios and with the SONO Academy of beauty in South Norwalk CT, for locations, and away we went. Once we decided to "Go" it all came together rather quickly. And considering our constraints of money and time, I am very proud of what we produced. We could not have done it without the considrable talents of people both in front of, and behind the camera. And the show really works in web format. Our audience is growing rapidly and, most importantly for us, they are laughing. A lot. We wanted the show to be about more than soap operas. It's really a metaphor for our whole nation. The "downsizing", the budget cuts and stress we are ALL facing in this new economy.  And while we are facing this new reality, we feel that people need to laugh. Perhaps now more than ever.  So we are ecstatic that the fans are doing just that.

Missnanse: The soap genre seems to be in trouble. Do you think the web is the future for soaps?

Scott: The "genre" is not at all in troulble. What are Grey's  Anatomy or Desperate Housewives? They are soaps with a lot of money thrown at them. And the "news” business has changed so dramatically, it has become `infotainment. Brad and Angelina or Jon and Kate are the new Luke and Laura. We follow the lives of celebrities the way we used to follow characters. That said, the web is the future of a wide array of things, both good and bad. On the sad low end, the bottom feeders of Porn and banality are rampant, but on the hopeful high end, so too is the creativity that now has an outlet where none existed before. On Youtube, I watched a Ukrainian sand artist do such beautiful work that I was moved to tears. Just a few years back, that would have been impossible.Now there is a platform for the entire world to reach.  Ideas, news, education, connection, and yes,even comedies like Steamboat can exist and be viewed by so many. That is an exciting and challenging ability. Exciting in that there are no gate keepers anymore and the creatives can reach a potentially huge audience. Challenging in that it is difficult to monetize that. How do we make a living "giving things away?" It is a paradigm shift that is still happening and only time will tell where we all land. But I am optimistic. I think amazing and wonderful things are coming.

Missnanse: This is basically a comedy. Do all soap actors have such great comedic timing?    

Scott: Not all actors can do comedy, but a secret about soap actors is that most of them can. Maybe it has to do with the speed and "heaviness" of the material, so soap actors love to crack each other up. It's how they stay sane. Or stay Crazy.

Missnanse: The cast seems to be having a great time working together on Steamboat. In your opinion can they ever make a living doing this?  

Scott: We will have to see, but I certainly didn't do this as a charity.  We will have to see where the show goes from here. If it can generate enough of a fan base, yes, it can be worth doing. If it generates a huge following, who knows what could happen.Can you say Comedy Central?

Missnanse: Will there be more actors from Guiding Light and AsThe World Turns joining the cast?   

Scott: Perhaps. But if it keeps going, we want to add a couple of 20 somethings. Let’s call them “Hunk” and “Hottie”, for now. Also, we want to reach out to other shows besides ATWT and GL. Let’s face it, there is a vast talent pool of wonderul people who would be great on this."

Missnanse: Do you have hopes of this becoming a tv soap? I personally think it should be a prime time comedy, if all goes as well as the first three episodes.

Scott: I repeat, "can you say Comedy Central?"

Missnanse: I have been asking soap actors this question to see how you all feel about the subject. I hope you will have an answer. There are many of us fighting to save the soap genre and asking some cable stations to take on As The world Turns. Do you have a suggestion? How would you save the soap genre on television? 

Scott: I believe part of the problem is trying to "save" an outdated model. I don't mean "story telling," that is a model that will never go away. Why Steamboat is so funny, is because it looks behind the curtain at what we all know is happening. How does ATWT compete when there are hundreds of channels running block buster movies in the afternnon. When the "news" is Octomom?  One hour of network time is very expensive.  In my dad's day (Bill Bauer on GL among others) the show's were 15 minutes of live broadcast on tiny TV screens.  I recently saw a woman on a cross town bus watch Steamboat on her smartphone. I had a chuckle.. She's watching 8 minutes on a tiny TV screen. Hhhmmm... What's old is new again

Missnanse: Scott, again I want to thank you for your time and for your very thoughful and intelligient answers and  to say I hope we see you on the screen again soon .  

Scott: Thank you so much for your interest and support. Truly grateful.

Check out the first 3 episodes of Steamboat here.

Also visit the Steamboat series site @ http://www.steamboatseries.com

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