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A real Marvel Soap Opera...

Started by drice6900,

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drice6900

drice6900

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Posted

No, it's not April Fools Day:

 

Marvel/Guiding Light crossover

 

ON THE GUIDLING LIGHT SIDE OF THE MARVEL/GL CROSSOVER

 

In two weeks, it's time for the Marvel crossover that has topped Archie meeting the Punisher in its out of left fieldedness: Marvel meets the Guiding Light. The crossover will take two forms - a comic story appearing in select Marvel comics starting next week (click the link below for a list), and the November 1st episode of the long-running CBS soap opera.

We sat down with Guiding Light Executive Producer Ellen Wheeler and Head Writer David Kreizman for more on the CBS side of the meeting.

 

Newsarama: We've spoken with Marvel's Jim McCann about this, and how it got rolling form his perspective, but this really all began when Shawn Dudley [Guiding Light costume designer] was asked to design a dress for Storm's wedding to Black Panther?

 

Ellen Wheeler: That is exactly how it started. When Shawn Dudley was asked to design Storm's wedding dress, it just made Alan Locher [Guiding Light Director, Public Relations] and I realize that we had an opening to talk to Marvel, and when we called them, they were very willing to take a meeting. The second Jim and I sat down, we could see the similarities and the many, many ways that there were either small ways to have crossover - say, just have one of our characters walks through with a comic book, or have characters start reading comic books, or something bigger. As it went forward it just kept growing. The second I brought it to David, he jumped on the idea.

 

NRAMA: But backing up a little - even when the door was opened, what made you think this was an opportunity that needed to be grabbed?

 

David Kreizman: We saw the similarities in the way we tell stories and the way we both have characters who have been around for a lot of years and the ways we have to find new kinds of stories for them, and yet honor who those characters were. The way we both have such loyal fanbases that follow us wherever we go and whatever we do. We saw that as a great opportunity, and both felt that there was nothing to lose, and that it could be great fun for their fans and our fans - and for us.

 

NRAMA: Let's talk about the format of the episode - this will be an "Inside the Light" episode, which differs from a regular show. Can you explain how it's different?

 

EW: This whole year, we've taken Wednesdays and devoted them to telling one story or one character's story, or one family's story - it's usually just one story that's told in slightly different ways than we tell normal soap opera stories. We leave behind the serial-ness of all the other stories, and even though we may propel Springfield forward, we do it form the perspective of one point of view.

 

DK: It gives us the chance to open up the way we tell stories, so sometimes we'll slow a story down and see a day in the life of someone, sometimes we speed the story up, and tell a week or two of story in one day, because it's just one character. We do things like voiceover, tell the show in reverse order, have a character talk to the camera, or things like that, which we wouldn't do in a normal episode.

 

EW: They're more like a "movie of the week" about one character or one situation that happens to be going on. While the rest of Springfield is still around and alive, we don't deal with the other stories during that day, which is very un-soap opera like. We just deal with one thing. So we weren't jumping that far field to say that we could have a special episode that is about someone dealing with superheroes, or getting to use superpowers themselves. The second I brought it to Dave, we knew we had this place - in these Wednesday episodes - where we could easily tell a story like this.

 

NRAMA: From what Jim told us, due to rights and licenses, you couldn't have actual Marvel characters, say, have an actor playing Spider-Man or Peter Parker, in your story, so did that put a crimp in your style from the start, or did you begin already thinking a way around that?

 

DK: We always knew that what we wanted to do was to tell a classic superhero story with our characters, and we would be able to pepper Marvel references through it. It's a Halloween episode, so we have characters who are dressed as Marvel characters for Halloween, and certainly there are a lot of references made. But we always knew it was going to be our characters that we going to be the focus of the story.

 

NRAMA: Big picture, then - what's the story about?

 

DK: It's a classic superhero story - an origin story and a character having superpowers and having to face the question of how do you live a normal life when you have powers at the same time?

 

NRAMA: And who gets the powers?

 

DK: Harley Cooper is the main character in the story. She's a mom and a cop, and a wife - someone who's always though of herself as something of a superhero, I think. She's got a lot going on in her life - she's got family problems, as does everyone in Springfield, and she's kind of wishing on this day, that she could have some super powers to help her through everything that's going on in her life.

 

NRAMA: So how do we go from there to being a full-fledged superhero?

 

DK: They've moved into a new house, and the wiring's gone a little haywire. She goes outside to deal with the Halloween lights that are flickering on and off, and she gets pelted with a water balloon by some trick or treaters.

 

EW: Trick or treaters dressed as Marvel bad guys, of course.

 

DK: When she goes to fix the lights, she gets electrocuted. She's rushed to the hospital, and when she wakes up, she had some very starling eyes, and some powers that she didn't have before. Her eyes are totally without color in their irises, and she's got a blue shock of hair as well. Everybody notices it, but nobody wants to say anything about her eyes.

 

EW: She slowly realizes that she has powers - she doesn't recognize immediately that she has them, but through the course of the next couple of hours in the show, she realizes that something has changed for her. She keeps saying she's fine and everything's fine, but her friends keep asking if she's sure, because she certainly doesn't look fine.

 

DK: As she goes through her day, she starts to realize things she's able to do - she touches the handle of a car, and it immediately turns on. She's able to cook breakfast for her kids without actually touching the appliances in the kitchen.

 

EW: Which is just what she was thinking of - "How can I make this day easier for myself?" She got exactly what she wished for.

 

DK: And soon she starts to realize that she can use these powers for something greater - to help and save the town of Springfield.

 

 

 

 

NRAMA: Ellen, was directing this episode that radical of a departure for you, even in the context of other "Inside the Light" episodes?

 

EW: Well, I direct at least once a month - and really, all of the Wednesday episodes are sort of a departure. We do have special effects in this episode, but then again, we have stuntwork and do special effects all the time. This is us getting a chance to take a bigger step away and towards things that we don't normally do, and it was very fun for all of us - for every single department. It was fun for wardrobe, and it was fun for music, and it was fun to do more stunts and special effects in a day than we normally do.

 

But, like David said, these forms of storytelling are incredible similar, so we didn't find the departure a difficult one, and really, it's not that much of a departure. We probably were going to be telling a Wednesday episode about Gus and Harley when we got to this point anyway - they're in the middle of trying to have a baby, and we would've been doing an episode about what's going on in their lives when we got to this Wednesday. They are our strong, central family, so when Halloween came up, that's who we would've been talking about. We just got to give it that extra element of: if Harley got what she wanted, how would that change her life?

 

NRAMA: To clarify the connection with Marvel - when Harley does get her powers, it's not seen as anything…unusual, but rather, like those "other" heroes?

 

DK: Right. There are Marvel references in that people in the episode are aware that there are Marvel superheroes, so people make jokes about having a superhero in town - "Oh, like Spider-Man?" and those kinds of things. Harley herself is wondering if the Marvel superheroes shave the same kinds of problems that she's facing.

 

EW: The second we enter into that realm, we accept that superheroes are real, they exist, and a town like Springfield getting there own isn't too far from what would be expected. It's just a "Oh - we have our own superhero now." Not like, "Superhero? Superheroes aren't real!"

 

DK: And after she's foiled some crimes, she starts to get bored with the superhero lifestyle, and her brother Coop, who's an avid Marvel Comics reader explains to her that every great superhero has to have a super villain. So Harley goes on a hunt for a supervillain in town.

 

NRAMA: …don't leave us hanging here, David…

 

DK: [laughs] We have a continuing storyline about the "Springfield Burns" blogger - SpringfieldBurns.com is a website where someone, and we don't know who, is revealing secrets about everybody in town. So everyone in town is trying to figure out who this person, who's revealing their darkest secrets is. Harley, as a superhero, goes looking for the blogger.

 

EW: But - that villain, who becomes Harley's supervillain, has existed in Springfield for a long time. So, as we said earlier, our storytelling is very similar - there is a bad person in the story; that person is wreaking havoc in the lives of the citizens of Springfield. This is just taking things into a slightly different language change of saying "superhero" and "supervillain" when we're referring to characters we've had showing up all along. And again, as we're looking at how Harley responds to having everything she's wanted, all of Harley's problems existed before this day - we didn't have to step too far afield.

 

DK: Actually - soaps do refer to "supervillains" sometimes - in the magazines, and they may refer to couples as "supercouples" the good guys as "heroes," so the parlance isn't really that far off.

 

NRAMA: David, in writing, as you said, a classic superhero story, was there anything that you could tell was being done differently than you would have done rather than in a regular episode? Were certain elements of the story compressed while others expanded upon, for instance?

 

DK: Well, basically, with the story, it had to be about a person who went into it with certain problems that they think can be fixed by superpowers - and then learning that while superpowers can fix a lot of things, the emotional powers can often be intensified by having superpowers. They may allow you to do great things, but they don't simplify your life. Also - the story had us looking at the price to the family and relationships when you undertake trying to save the world…more than we would have, perhaps, otherwise.

 

For our audience, which a lot of them are working mothers, it's that question of how much do I put into my job, whether your job's being a superhero or a regular job, and what does that cost my family, and how much time do I put into each, and which is more important? Harley has to face all of those questions.

 

NRAMA: Flipping to the other side of the crossover for a moment - you both know your fanbase. Does the comic book version of Springfield and Guiding Light characters sound like something they'll chase down?

 

DK I think so - because our fans are so loyal. It's been proven with other soaps that they seek out novelizations of the shows and all kinds of other tie-ins that are done with soap operas. This is obviously a different one, but I do think that they will follow our characters, even into a medium that they're not accustomed to seeking out.

 

NRAMA: Finally - the end of the episode…I'm gathering that you're not taking the show into a superhero soap opera, so - at the end…I don't want this to sound crass, but…does Harley wake up?

 

DK: She's awake through the whole episode. It definitely happened. That was one thing that we wanted to make sure of - that what happened on this day really happened, and that story was driven by it. It's not like it was a dream or anything like that. And we leave it open ended, and asking…

 

EW: Could this happen again?

 

DK: Right - could this happen again? Could the powers come back? What would the implications be if they did, and would she want them to come back? The comic book leaves that door open as well. So we'll see where this goes in the future.

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