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Interview with Beth Chamberlin of Steamboat and Cell
BY ADMIN – SEPTEMBER 17, 2010
POSTED IN: ARTICLES, POSTS, AND INTERVIEWS, BETH CHAMBERLIN, CELL: THE WEB SERIES, STEAMBOAT
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DCTV Creator Daryn Strauss spoke with Emmy nominated actress Beth Chamberlin, ex-Beth on Guiding Light and now one of the stars of two hit web series, Steamboat and Cell: The Web Series, about the acting process and her role in the online revolution.
DARYN: First of all, I am a huge fan of your work and I love the surge of daytime talent that has come to the web. How aware are you of the online shows coming from the daytime community?
BETH: I hate to admit it but I am very ignorant of all the shows out there. Of course, I know of Venice, Empire, and Gotham, but I know that there are many others out there. However, it makes sense to me that so many online shows are coming from the daytime community. We are the people who have felt the changes in the entertainment world the most. The “canaries in the coal mine,” if you will. It’s great that the canaries are learning to survive and even sing in the present climate.
DARYN: The transition from televised soaps to online programming actually makes a great deal of sense since most soap fans were already very digitally connected. Also, online video allows soap actors the ability to try something new in a flexible format. You’ve worked on two online shows so far, Steamboat and Cell: The Web Series. What continues to draw you to work on online shows?
BETH: Both Steamboat and Cell are series that are well written with characters that challenge me. As an actor, I have always been more interested in character and story than in where or how it is aired.
DARYN: You were an integral part of Guiding Light. Everyone I talk to that was involved with that show speaks about how much they loved working on it, and I think that spirit was brought to the show you worked on with other GL-ers, Steamboat. Since you are also a story consultant on Steamboat, how much input did you have into developing your hilarious character, Tabitha?
BETH: First, thank you. I loved Tabitha. She was so fun to play. In answer to your question, Michael [O'Leary] had the character of Tabitha already set. My role as story consultant on Steamboat had more to do with whittling down the amount of material to a shootable size, while helping to keep the narrative in tact. This is something that can be very difficult for any writer to do with their own material. As Stephen King says, it is like killing your babies.
DARYN: You also make an appearance in the Season Finale of the online thriller, Cell. If you look up the definition of “cliffhanger”, I’m sure you will see a screencap from this amazing episode! Your character certainly came on with a bang! What drew you to the role?
BETH: A good friend of mine told me to take a look at the show. When she first suggested it, I thought, “No, I have no interest in doing another web series at the moment, no matter how challenging the role.” But because she is a good friend whose opinion carries weight with me, I gave Cell a look. From the first episode, I was blown away. Cell was so well written and so well-produced that I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I believe that Cell is the kind of series that makes the transition from TV viewing to web viewing easy and rewarding. It is a leader in a shift change.
DARYN: The final scene is actually the first scene in the entire season that was shot outdoors, plus there was some fight choreography. Can you talk about the process of staging and shooting that scene? Was it complicated?
BETH: The answer is that nothing was complicated on this shoot– challenging because I got in at one in the morning on the day of the shoot and it was my first chance to meet people and get a sense of their rhythm. But nothing was complicated because Mark [Gardner] has a first rate crew in Austin. I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I was by every single person working on this project. They were like a well oiled machine.
DARYN: Much of the appeal of Cell is untangling the mystery about the group that is holding Sarah captive. As an actor, how much were you told about Season 2 going into the shoot? Do you prefer to know the full story arc, or do you prefer to work episode to episode?
BETH: As an actor, what I need is background more than anything. The background is what builds the character, the arc of future story is how I layer my choices. Mark gave me an incredibly detailed background, which gave me a lot of material to work with. As far as future story, Mark gave me what I needed to know to set up what happens in the future.
DARYN: One of the things I love about Mark’s writing and your performance is that within one scene, we see a complete transformation in your character. We first believe she is a caring suburbanite and then discover she is a kick-ass militant operative! Is this duality something we can expect to continue into the second season?
BETH: Thank you again. My biggest concern in shooting Cell was cloaking who the character is in the first moments, but doing it in a way that makes sense internally– that isn’t just a set up. So, I’m thrilled at the journey this section took you on. The answer to your question is that Cell is about the unexpected. What you have yet to know, just as far as who these people are, is so huge. Expect a lot of “OH MY GOD!” moments.
DARYN: Finally, as someone who has appeared on two web series so far, what is your take on the future of online programming?
BETH: As I indicated earlier, we are in a time of transition. Five years from now, I don’t believe there will be much of a delineation between online programming and television programming. What line does exist will probably be the equivalent between prime time and daytime programming. This means that those that are taking the dip now are struggling and clearing the way for the future. Mark and others like him are the pioneers.
STEAMBOAT: The Series Captures Best Branded Entertainment Nomination
August 25, 2010 by Indie Intertube
(New York) – STEAMBOAT, the new web series comedy sensation, has been named one of three BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT finalists in the Next TV Competition of the LATV Fest, sponsored by NATPE, the National Association of Television Program Executives.
STEAMBOAT debuted on YouTube in March, where the pilot can still be viewed. The show has been compared to “The Office” and “30 Rock” for its “behind the scenes” look at the desperate, dying days of a once successful daytime soap. In true Christopher Guest style, the behind the scenes aspect offers a glimpse in to the real or “unreal” lives of the characters who all believe they are Emmy worthy actors.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for STEAMBOAT and our sponsors to be seen and to pitch our show to major decision makers in the entertainment industry. We will be exposed to the best development executives, agents, advertising and brand executives,” said Executive Producer and Director Scott Bryce.
The mission of the NATPE LATV Fest NextTV Competition is to showcase and reward excellence for a professionally generated video web series. Through the Next TV Competition, NATPE is searching for the best pilot for a new web series or the best new episode from existing web series.“LATV Fest has grown to become Los Angeles’ very own global convergence conference, a gathering of the industry’s foremost executive insiders with some of today’s most free-thinking producers. The event offers an unprecedented opportunity for attendees to actively participate in shaping the future of multi platform content,” stated NATPE’s President Rick Feldman.
“To be recognized as one of the best in new branded entertainment by industry leaders at this level is exceptionally gratifying. Our novel approach to product integrated, branded entertainment, offers advertisers measurable, quantifiable consumer touch points, something traditional media fails to deliver,” stated the show’s Creator /Writer/Co-Executive Producer, Michael O’Leary.
O’Leary and Bryce are no stranger to television and film, both having starred in the longest running shows in daytime and broadcast history. O’Leary is known to millions of loyal fans as Dr. Rick Bauer, on Guiding Light. Bryce, likewise, is prized by fans for his portrayal of Craig Montgomery on As The World Turns. In addition, both actors’ credits include multiple behind the scenes successes. O’Leary stars in the show alongside other familiar and popular daytime stars from Guiding Light and As The World Turns, including Beth Chamberlin, Jacquelina DeMarco, Michael Park, Kurt McKinney, Kim Zimmer, Justin Deas, Tuck Milligan and Orlaugh Cassidy.
Winners of the Next TV competition will be named during a live stream at the Los Angeles, CA event on July 14.
Steamboat Episode 5 – The Ghost of GL?
April 1, 2010 norrthpier
I was prepared for this. I knew it was coming, given the cast of this show. Sooner or later the writers would pair characters on screen who were previously paired on their original soaps. Such pairings would leave the viewer asking the question: ‘Is this pairing better now than before?’. It’s a risk. The possibility exists that fans will decide that Steamboat’s writers should have left well enough alone and not begged the comparison.
I’m a rabid Steamboat fan, and so every seeming inside joke is just a delight for me. I was not a fan of The Guiding Light’s “Rick Bauer’ and ‘Beth Spaulding’ (now Steamboat’s Michael and Tabitha). I disliked the pairing immensely, so I’m shocked to find myself rooting for Tabitha and Michael on Steamboat. I know. I know…Tabitha and Michael aren’t a couple . In fact, Tabitha is deeply repulsed by the idea of even kissing Michael while in character and filming their show – so why would I want to see them happy and in love as a behind-the-scenes couple? It’s even odder if you consider the fact that. Tabitha and Michael are engaging though exaggerated versions of their GL counterparts. At the time ‘Beth Spaulding’ began dating ‘Rick Bauer’ (or sleeping with him for kicks and helping him cheat on his loving family), she’d become a cold and cruel shell – a far cry from the Beth Spaulding fans first loved. Her mission was to make herself happy at everyone else’s expense, including Rick, Mel – his wife, and their daughter Leah.
Tabitha’s knee to Michael’s groin was the physical manifestation of Beth’s ‘knee’ to Rick’s life (aiding him in ruining his marriage, ending the only real happiness he’d had in a very long time). Beth caused Rick as much pain as Tabitha caused Michael – the only difference was the location of the pain. GL’s Rick, like Steamboat’s Michael, had a history of being cast aside and treated as second best for so long that the thought of even the slimmest chance to get close to the object of his unspoken affections (Beth) was enough for him to run the risk of being used and discarded. He’d talked himself into believing there was a shot of real happiness with Beth even after her horrid personality change.
Michael is an even sadder sad sack character than Rick, tossed aside for the sake of the pretty boys, secretly lusting for the ‘hot but crazy girl’, and hoping to have his shot at proving he’s worthy of being considered a real leading man. Despite Tabitha’s warning in the last episode that she’d kill him if he even thought of kissing her in their upcoming love scenes, emboldened by Scott – he went for broke… and was broken.
Given the above comparison, am I suggesting that writer/actor Michael O’ Leary has become the independent soap equivalent of the former writers of GL? Are the two seemingly different shows already converging? HELL NO! What made Rick and Beth such a horrific pairing is that their relationship flew in the face of GL history and was built on purely selfish instincts – making them a danger to anyone who loved them, and to one another. Beth was well aware of the unimaginable pain her husband/former father-in-law would inflict on Rick and didn’t care that she was putting him at risk; Rick, who’d loved her and cared for her since they were teens. Rick, who’d always been a heroic good guy became the worst sort of man – a cheating husband who was willing to leave his daughter fatherless for a woman who didn’t love him.
Tabitha and Michael are such new and fresh characters that a pairing between them wouldn’t bring the same sort of baggage as GL’s Beth and Rick. O’Leary is a competent writer who knows how to take his characters to the brink and pull them back in just enough time. It makes you both glad he pulled them back, and makes you wish they were back on that edge, again. You feel as if you’ve missed something when they don’t go over that cliff, because you want to go with them. The possibilities for a Tabitha/Michael pairing are endless. There’s something about rooting for an underdog like Michael.
The story is repeated countless times in films such as “Taming of the Shrew’, “Kiss Me Kate’, and even ‘Ten Things I Hate About You’ (each film increasingly less sexist by the way). Tabitha should never be ‘tamed’, just less abusive to Michael. Everyone else is fair game. The running joke on the show is that he’s not the pretty boy of daytime and everyone feels comfortable reminding him of that. He is, however, that character female audiences love. Poor Michael is not the pretty boy, he’s the good man worth a thousand of the pretty boys. He’s the man female audiences idealize even while being excited by the bad boys. In the end, we still want the good guy to win.
Speaking of being out on that edge
Who the frack gets shot at the end, PEOPLE? I loved Michael and Dirk’s nonchalant response to the gunfire, but I need to know! My money is on Rhonda. Is Tabitha the shooter? Will she still be holding the smoking gun while wearing a gleeful… snarl? Will Scott feel liberated by Rhonda’s shooting or angry that he didn’t get to pull the trigger himself? HEY! Maybe the victim getting the ‘Tabitha Treatment’ is the poor hapless Lactene girl, Candy. There we have it. One onscreen ‘too old to be my granddaughter’ character goes down. Will the Steamboat cast get to keep Candy’s set and dump the Cedars Hospital green screen special.
Soap Opera Celebrity Makes Spoof of Genre
Westport's Scott Bryce is using his know-how to re-create daytime drama.
Westport resident Scott Bryce was recognized recently for his work on daytime television by We Love Soaps, a website and podcast dedicated to the world of soap operas.
Bryce was named Number 37 of the 50 Greatest Soap Opera Actors. "It's flattering," Bryce said. "Especially since I left As the World Turns two years ago."
The top 50 list was created by a panel of journalists and critics who have covered the soaps for the past several decades. "The panel included Lynn Leahey, Jon Reiner, Alan Carter and many other noted soap critics," explains Roger Newcomb, editor ofWe Love Soaps. "We wanted the list to be as thorough as possible. We included actors dating back to radio soaps in the 1940s."
Bryce played Craig Montgomery on As the World Turns from 1982-87, 1988-89, 1993-94 and 2007-08. In 2006 he portrayed Dr. Crosby on One Life to Live.
In his review of Bryce's acting skills, Newcomb wrote: "Scott Bryce's transformation of Craig Montgomery from slimy young go-getter to vulnerable and flawed hero was one of the best performances on daytime television in the 1980s. When he returned to ATWT in 2007, the character had been turned into a bad guy again, this time a snarky, less sympathetic version. Somehow Bryce managed to make most of his terrible storyline work. There was a scene where Craig gave Meg a drug to make her lose her baby. As a viewer, I should have hated the character with a passion — that was probably the point of that plot — but Bryce was so brilliant that I actually felt sorry for Craig that day."
"I took my dad's advice in playing a villain," Scott explains. "He told me to find everything nice that you can about that character because villains don't know they are villains. They think they are doing what is right."
Bryce's parents were both performers on stage and screen. His father, the late Ed Bryce, was a pioneer of early live television, appearing as Captain Strong on the first television space adventure,Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, now a cult classic. For 14 years, Ed played "Bill Bauer" on The Guiding Light and also was an award winner for his performances on Broadway.
Scott's mother, the late Dorothy Bryce, was featured on many prime-time shows and had a one-year stint on Dave Garroway's Today Show and on The Home Show with Hugh Downs and Arlene Francis. She also performed in dozens of television commercials. While raising her children she appeared in a variety of daytime serials. Before she died in 2009, she won the award for Best Actress at the Breckenridge Film Festival for her role in Glacier Bay(http://www.myspace.com/openthegatepictures), a short film about Alzheimer's disease.
Scott Bryce's soap opera background and know-how is now coming into play in a whole new endeavor. With the introduction of a new web series, he has intentions of adding a new audience to soap opera viewership as well as changing the face of programming sponsorships.
Working with Michael O'Leary, who played Dr. Rick Bauer on Guiding Light, he has createdSteamboat, a comedy series that spoofs soap operas as well as puts product placement directly into the plot of the program. Coincidentally, O'Leary worked with Ed Bryce on Guiding Light. "His character portrayed the grandson of my dad's character," Scott Bryce notes.
Steamboat stars O'Leary's former Guiding Light costars Beth Chamberlin (who is also serving as a story consultant), Kurt McKinney (Liam, Gotham), Justin Deas, Orlagh Cassidy and Bryce's ATWTcostar Michael Park (Richard).
Bryce, as director, and O'Leary, as writer, are currently shopping the pilot episode of Steamboat (http://www.steamboatseries.com/), which is a comedy series that focuses on the last days of a soap opera.
"We write what we know," Scott Bryce said, noting that the word "steamboat" is a metaphor for something that has become passé. (In 1769, the Scotsman James Watt patented an improved version of the steam engine that ushered in the Industrial Revolution. Yet, by the 1870s, railroads had begun to supplant steamboats as the major transporter of both goods and passengers.)
Explaining the parallel, Bryce said, "Commercial television is over. People use their DVRs to skip over the advertisements. The soap opera genre is dying. Over the years, the audience has diminished.
"I wanted to make a metaphor for our world," he continues. "We are all being downsized. The game has shifted and we need to create a new model where programs partner with the sponsors. The product, literally, has to become a part of the program."
He added, "The days of having a character buy a Coca-Cola during a scene is no longer good enough. But, if it takes that character 30-minutes to open the can of Coke, then that's something else entirely."
He's hoping the Steamboat series — and its product integration model — will be picked up by a network comparable to Nick at Night or Comedy Central. "We've gotten interest in the show," he said. "People love it. When they watch it, they get a satisfying laugh."
To date, the program has about 2,500 supporters on Facebook and has received an impressive number of views online. "We stuck it on YouTube to make it part of a focus group. We are really pleased with its success," Bryce said.
He is now discussing with sponsors who would like to partner with the program. "We are talking to Villa Roma, a resort in the Catskills, which would allow us to have a show within a show within a show," he said. "We are working to make products into stars of the program. Some companies have seen the show and then come to us."
Five, five-minute Steamboat webisodes can be seen on Youtube.com. The pilot of Steamboat was shot at Palace Digital Studios in South Norwalk with a budget of about $3,500.
Those who enjoy seeing Bryce in front of the camera will be pleased to know that he continues to perform on both the large and small screens. He recently was seen in an episode of 30 Rock and has made appearances on Law & Order SVU and Gossip Girl. He has a supporting role in an independent movie, Not Waving But Drowning, which is being filmed in Florida and New York.
His wife, actress/singer Jodi Stevens Bryce (http://www.jodistevens.com), is portraying Marlene Dietrich in the just-opened show, Dietrich and Chevalier: The Musical, (www.dietrichandchevalierthemusical.com) at St.Luke's Theater, 308 W. 46th St., in New York.
The couple has a young son, Jackson.
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Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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10:00pm - 11:00pm
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