EXCLUSIVE: Fans of The Bold and the Beautiful were gobsmacked by the decision to supposedly kill off Kimberlin Brown’s Sheila Carter in a February episode — only to bring her back from the dead two months later.
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Brown told Deadline “she didn’t see this coming, quite honestly .. I truly believe that my following and my fans and the people who have loved to hate Sheila all these years are responsible for me coming back.”
For the first time, Bell is addressing his decision to bring back the character that everyone loves to hate. While he didn’t say whether he changed his mind (or if it was all part of some secret master plan to throw off fans), he explained why it was necessary to temporarily part ways with Sheila.
“Villains typically need a cooling off period, which just adds to the drama to their return,” Bell tells Deadline. “And Sheila needs to cool her heels once in a while. Sheila has been a ratings dynamo, and that’s why she’s murdered so many people. She is now happily married and working at a restaurant. Somehow people forgive her because she’s always looked for love and acceptance. That’s something that we can all relate to.”
More importantly, Bell indicated how important it was to respect the importance of legacy soap actors, especially at a time when daytime dramas are struggling to hold onto viewers. Season to date, B&B is averaging 2.8 million in total viewers, down 12.5 percent from the previous season (3.2 million). The Young and the Restless is down 5.7 percent (3.3 million vs. 3.5 million) while General Hospita l is down 4 percent (2.3 versus 2.4 percent).
And the topic of retaining legacy stars is never more relevant, given GH ‘s recent decision to part ways with Kelly Monaco. Monaco, who originated the role of Sam in 2003, is expected to depart in the fall.
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“As you’re flipping around through all of these different options on TV, to be able to land on The Bold and the Beautiful or The Young and the Restless and to immediately see that this is your show in a world of change … there’s consistency here like nowhere else in entertainment,” Bell tells Deadline. “51 years of Y&R and 37 years of B&B … fans need to know that we are a place they can rely on, not only to visually see those characters, but to know that theses character will still be the same you knew from a month ago or 10 years ago or 30 years ago.”
If soaps are ever faced with the prospect of saying goodbye to a legacy character, it’s important to decide first whether the story is strong enough to justify the departure, advises Bell. (While ABC isn’t confirming how Monaco’s Sam will depart, Soap Opera Network reported that GH will kill her off).
“You’re getting rid of a lot of history. But if the story is that good, it’s important to make that decision,” explains Bell, who recalls what it was like to write off Susan Flannery’s Stephanie Forrester in 2012. Flannery was one of the core four cast members who helped launched the CBS soap in 1987, but at age 73, she was ready to walk away from her storied career in daytime.
Recasting such an icon was out of the question, so Bell fashioned a goodbye that had Forrester dying of cancer in the arms of her daughter-in-law Brooke, who Stephanie used to refer to as the “slut from the valley.”
“It just seemed like a poetic way for her to go,” explains Bell. “It’s always scary and it’s always difficult to say goodbye, but again, very necessary. You have to kill them every once in a while in order to keep your credibility as a writer. And I promise myself every year, I’m going to kill more people.”
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