Clifton Davis (left) and Tamara Tunie on ‘Beyond the Gates’.Photo:CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
Beyond the Gatesis unlike any soap opera you’ve ever seen.
But behind the upscale gated community of Fairmont Crest, with its five-star dining and exclusive country clubs, the Duprees' seemingly picture-perfect lives are laced with secrets and scandals.
The cast includes Tamara Tunie (As the World Turns) as matriarch Anita Dupree, Clifton Davis (Amen) as patriarch Vernon Dupree, Daphnee Duplaix (Passions) as Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson and Karla Mosley (The Bold and the Beautiful) as Dani Dupree.
From left: Daphnee Duplaix, Clifton Davis, Tamara Tunie and Karla Mosley of ‘Beyond the Gates’.CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
“You certainly have not seen these characters before on daytime [television],” Michele Val Jean,Beyond the Gates’creator, showrunner and executive producer, exclusively tells PEOPLE. “They are a really close-knit, accomplished Black family, and they’re messy as hell. It’s not like they’re perfect; they’re messy as well.”
Val Jean adds that like many other Black families, no matter how “messy” things get, the Duprees will always have each other’s backs.
“When push comes to shove, they could be mad at each other, not speaking to each other, but when someone in that family is in trouble, the other ones are going to be there to get them out. That’s the foundation of the show,” says Val Jean. “That’s the foundation of most soap operas, all of the drama, but it’s gotta be rooted in something. And this show is rooted in family.”
Though the Duprees are known to bring the drama, there are a few soap tropes that Val Jean plans to avoid — at least for now.
“I think my show is going to be more grounded than that. I don’t think we’ll be seeing any.… Well, it’s hard to say sometimes. I don’t want to say ‘never’ if it works. For the most part, we’re not going to have aliens or anything like that. It’s grounded in family.”
For Val Jean, writing a soap opera about “rich Black people who were messy” has been a decades-long dream. She got her start onGenerations,the first soap opera to display a Black family. It aired on NBC from 1989 to 1991.
Michele Val Jean (left) and Sheila Ducksworth.CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
“Sheila Ducksworth is the engine behind all of this,” Val Jean says.
Ducksworth, who also serves as an executive producer, says her desire to portray a family like the Duprees on daytime television stems from the lack of Black representation in the genre.
“It’s just something I felt was missing, something that I haven’t seen before,” she tells PEOPLE.
“We would get our one, two or three characters out of 40 in a soap opera that were culturally and racially diverse, and that was it,” says Duckworth. “I always wanted to see more of a reflection of real life. So it was really important from a very young age, specifically, to see a soap opera where more people looked like me.”
Karla Mosley on ‘Beyond the Gates’.CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
“I think for people around all corners of the world to see that this is yet another look at Black life in America, I think it’s going to be important,” she adds. “It’s highly aspirational, yet attainable, and that’s what we want to put on display.”
Beyond the Gatesfeatures a multi-generational cast that also includes White, Asian and Latinx actors as well as characters with varied sexual identities. Ducksworth says viewers can expect itto encompass “everything.”
At the same time, she notes that the landmark series peels back the layers and gives the world a unique look at the Black experience.
“We have it set in a place where this is the mecca. This is the place where I’d say has the greatest concentration of Black wealth in all of the country. Yet there’s never really been a spotlight put on it. These aspects are real, [and] we’re incorporating [them] in our show to reflect the greatness and the brilliance of Black culture in America.”
One example is the series' fictional version of HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) Howard University called Banneker University. The name is a nod to mathematician, astronomer and author Benjamin Banneker and his contributions to Washington, D.C.
‘Beyond the Gates’.CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
While the national political and racial climate is an ongoing conversation, Val Jean is excited for viewers to letBeyond the Gatesserve as an escape to “transcend all of that.”
“We’re trying to produce and write the most entertaining show possible and take you out of all of that for an hour,” she says. “The world’s not going away. It’s going to be there when you turn off the show. And it’s still going to be out of your control. But for the time you’re sitting there watching the show, you can forget all that and just get into these people and their shenanigans. That’s my goal in this turbulent era.”
“I want to tell stories that feel fresh and utterly contemporary. One of the biggest aspects that has been in the DNA from the very beginning is aspiration,” Ducksworth adds. “It’s present, it’s strong, it’s real in the soap, and I’m excited about that because what’s better than hope quite frankly? For people to see if this is something you aspire to, there are people out there who have it. And we think with that comes just basically a lot of feel-good that people can enjoy in watching it. Not only is it just aspiration, not only is it just hope, it’s the reality that these lifestyles do exist.”
ThoughBeyond the Gates’debut comes as classic soap operas are facing cancelations, Val Jean and Ducksworth are hopeful it will make its mark for decades to come.
Beyond the Gatespremieres Feb. 24 on CBS and airs weekdays at 2p,m, ET.
source: people.com
