Really Eastenders? Again?!

Abi Branning & Ben Mitchell.

Are you for real Eastenders?! Haven't we seen this before in hmm... Eastenders?! Yes we have. Is it really necessary to have all the gay characters making some girl pregnant? So, next on the list is Ben Mitchell (Harry Reid). Again! Is this the end of Pen? I refuse to believe that! This is 2016 and this is the year that every gay storyline is going my way! To show you how used this plot is just keep reading.

1982-ish - Steven Carrington

Jack Coleman and some baby.

Ok, it was kind of off-screen, and Steven Carrington (Jack Coleman) was actually married to the mother Sammy-Jo (Heather Locklear) but he was gay and he did make some girl pregnant. If he just had come out when he wanted, that would never have happened. So, already in the 80's in Dynasty for heaven's sake! 

2009 - Oliver Fish

Scott Evans and some baby.

In 2009 Oliver Fish  (Scott Evans) from One Life to Live was so deep down in the closet that he had to sleep with Stacy Morasco to feel better when he was drunk. And she wanted to get pregnant so win-win I guess. But Stacy died and daddy had a new boyfriend so Sierra Rose got to daddys instead and actually, even though I don't like babies in soaps, I would really have liked to see more of the really cute family of Fish, Kyle and Sierra Rose. It's a shame that USA is full of homophobic biggots among all the nice people there, so the characters had to leave the show, of course.

2010 - Syed Masood

Marc Elliott and some baby.

The first time Eastenders did it. Syed was the muslim guy who felt he had to get married to a woman to please his parents and who ever, and when his wife Amira got to know that her husband was gay she was already pregnant, but she left Walford and Syed got to meet his daughter for the first time in 2012. But Syed's boyfriend Christian Clarke (John Partridge) is delighted because they are planning to get a baby anyway and he does call Yasmin his and Syed's daughter more than once. An Amiras. But it seems that it is working out. But I am wondering, when is both Syed and Christian doing a guest appearance together? We miss you Chryed!

2010-ish Deniz Öztürk

Igor Dolgatschew and aothers and some baby.

In 2010 or something Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew) is drunk and sleeps with his father's girlfriend Jessica. That is the final stroke for DeRo I think. Ok, the got back together in the end but it was never the same. Roman died and Deniz got back to just girls and he meets his son Jonas once in a while. This was a really really reaaally lousy storyline fron Alles Was Zählt. I hated it. I don't want to talk about it.

2011 - Ben Mitchell

Steve McFadden and some baby.

There's no picture with both Ben and his daughter Lexi so we have to do with granpa Mitchell instead. Well, it seems like Ben doesn't really care about his baby, but he kind of was in prison back then so we never really had a storyline with those two. And I guess the writers kind of forgot about it at the time whe he got out or something. In 2011 Ben Mitchell (then played by Joshua Pascoe) slept with Lola Pearce while he was drunk and I guess it was some kind of gay-straight experiment. So, if Ben already has an "accident" child, why is he making another? We all know that he is gay.
 

2012 - Will Horton

Chandler Massey and some baby.

In 2012 Will Horton had an one-night stand with his ex Gabi and of course she got pregnant. Ok, this is not the worst baby-storyline and Arianna got to very loving fathers in Will and Sonny (Freddie Smith) but babies in soap operas are so boring! No, I do not approve Days, I do not approve.

2014 - Ste Hay

Kieron Richardson, Ross Adams and some baby.

So even in Hollyoaks. Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson) had av very drunk one-night stand with the dreadful Sinead O'Connor in 2014 and that resulted in baby Hannah. Ste's husband John Paul (James Sutton) accepted it but Ste got and had a crush on some boring guy named Harry and I don't really care anymore. It could have been so good with Ste, JP, Leah, Lucas, Matthew and Hannah, but no. I am disappointed. 

2014 - Lari Väänänen

Ronny Roslöf and some baby.

And also in 2014 in Finland. Salatut Elämät also wants to do the baby storyline. Lari (Ronny Roslöf) also had a drunk one-night stand (there's a lot of those) with a girl, Sanni, who just happens to be the little sister of Kalle (Pete Lattu) Lari's future boyfriend. Boring, unecessary drama, the baby doesn't add any good to the soap, can't you just let Lalle to be happy?! I would.

And of course, there's more gay characters with babies in soap operas, Brendan Brady and John Paul McQueen for instance, but Brendan was married and an irish catholic back then and JP actually got baby Matthew with Craig before Craig shove of, so I don't think that those count. But do you see know Eastenders just how old this is? Why can't you just come up with something new? I am not looking forward to this!

Actor change

Sometimes an actor wants to leave a soap opera and the writers don't. Maybe the character have a big fanbase and a good storyline coming up. How to solve this? With an actor change of course! In Sweden the most noted actor change was when they changed from Jessica Zandén to Nina Gunke in the role of Rebecka Bovallius. In American and even German soaps it's quite common to change actors for differend characters not just one time, but even  two or three times. Jenny Steinkamp in Alles Was Zählt even got a fourth actor right now, and Juliette Greco, who plays Lena Bergmann in the same series, got replaced by Maria Kempken, but then replaced her again, when she got back from her maternity leave. Nothing weird about that. But what about our gay characters?


Dynasty 1981-1989

Al Corley as Steven Carrington.

Jack Coleman as Steven Carrington.

In Dynasty the gay son of Blake Carrington and Alexis Colby initially was played by Al Corley. Al Corley portaited Steven until the end of the second season in 1982, but then left the series according to wikipedia because he was complaining about Steven's "ever-shifting sexual preferences" and wanting "to do other things". Jack Coleman got to portrait the character instead, and did that until the end. And as a matter of fact, Al Corley has a point. Steven Carrington actually shifted a lot in his sexuality. Sometimes he was gay, sometimes he was straight, like he never was anything else. I guess today we would have called that bisexuality. Maybe that was an unknown concept in the eighties. But Steven Carrington always was my favourite character. I even had a crush on Jack Coleman. This was in the nineties when the series was broadcasted in the afternoons on TV4. Yes I was a faghag even back then.


Verbotene Liebe 1995-

Manu Lubowski as Gero von Sterneck.

Broder B. Hendrix as Gero von Sterneck.

When Verbotene Liebe started in 1995 Manou Lubowski played the character of Gero von Sterneck. About the same time as he leaves the series and the part of Gero get's recasted by Broder B. Hendrix Gero comes out as gay. If that has anything to do with it I don't know. Broder B. Hendrix on his hand stays in the part until 1999. A small fun fact is that the word "broder" meens brother in swedish. So know you know it.


Salatut Elämät 1999-

Niilo Heinonen as Elias Vikstedt in 2010.

Petteri Paavola as Elias Vikstedt in 2011.

The Finnish soap Salatut Elämät did a real Days of our lives in 2011 when they recasted Petteri Paavola as Elias Vikstedt. The year before the child actor Niilo Heinonen played the character and I estimate the character as maybe 9-10 years. When he got back he was about 16. The years went fast for Elias. The funny thing is that his father Sebastian, played by Jarkko Nyman, didn't age a day. But I am not complaining because the Elias storyline is a really good one and according to me just what Salatut Elämät and Finland needs. Then we don't need to be so stingy with time.


Days of Our Lives 1965-

Lots and lots of Will Hortons.

Chandler Massey as Will Horton.

Guy Wilson as Will Horton.

I think that Will Horton has the record of the most actors. No less than seven achtors played has played the part between 1996 and 2014. At first there was the twins Shawn and Taylor Carpenter that played Will between 1996 and 2002. They were replaced by Darian Weiss in 2002 for about a year when Christopher Gerse took over. He got to play the part for four years before Dylan Patton portraited the character in 2009 and 2010. Up til now Will Horton was more of a child/young teenager. In 2010 we could say hello to the lovely Chandler Massey who made Will mor of a grown man and also introduced Will Horton to some snogging with men when he got together with Sonny Kiriakis. So far so good. But early in 2014 Chandler Massey left the series but the couple has a lot of fans and has become a supercouple so the writers didn't want to split them up. I mean, if they changed the actor four times before, why don't do it one more time? Then Guy Wilson stood into the part and I hope that we can keep him. I really liked Chandler Massey but if we can't have him we want to keep Guy Wilson. We already had so many changes, so no more. It's so messy. Chandler Massey on his hand returned to school instead and of that we are very supportive!