Updated February 24, 2025 at 13:12 PM ET
ATLANTA, Ga. – The atmosphere at Assembly Studios is friendly and fun, but firmly professional.
That's because, as much as the cast and crew of CBS' new soap opera Beyond the Gates enjoys cracking jokes between scenes, they film a lot of script pages every day. Sometimes, they get to as many as you might see in the entire screenplay for a short movie.
For the crew, that means quickly choreographing how four different cameras will navigate every scene, while the director – who often sits in a separate control room during filming – pops onto the set to help shape the proceedings. Staff on set also have to keep an eye on how the actors will move through each scene – making sure the shadow of a large boom microphone doesn't creep into a camera's field of vision.
For the actors, it means learning lots of lines for scenes where they may only get one or two real chances – or "takes" in industry-speak – to get it right.
It's all in service of a massive project: The first new daytime soap opera on network TV in 25 years, and the first hour-long daytime soap with a predominantly Black cast on network TV. (The last daytime soap focusing on a Black family was NBC's half-hour show Generations, which debuted 1989.)
"This is not your grandmother's soap opera"
Star Tamara Tunie says everyone working on the show is well aware of the ground they are breaking with Beyond the Gates.
"We're in Atlanta, where no one has really done daytime drama like this, and it's a big learning curve," says Tunie, relaxing in her dressing room shortly before she'll face the cameras draped in high fashion for her role as Anita Dupree, matriarch of the wealthy Black family at the heart of Beyond the Gates.
She knows her way around the genre, with more than 15 years spent on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns over an acting career that also includes roles on Broadway, in movies and on NBC's crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
"We've had to teach camera operators how to shoot it, we're teaching lighting designers how to light it, as well as actors who have never done soap opera before," she adds. "We're shooting for [getting scenes done in] one take … So you really have to come in prepared. Not just [by] knowing your lines, but knowing the intention of the character."
Set in a fictional suburb in Maryland known as a home for wealthy Black families, Beyond the Gates features Tunie's Anita Dupree, a once-famous singer married to retired Senator Vernon Dupree, played by Clifton Davis. The couple and their family are clustered in a fictional gated community called Fairmont Crest – based on real-life enclaves outside of Washington, D.C. – featuring all kinds of soap opera-appropriate drama.
Tunie says she's enjoyed having a hand in developing her character in a way she couldn't in her previous soap opera work. "When I joined As the World Turns, back in the late '80s, it was already a well-oiled machine," she adds. "This is really … creating something new and fresh. It's 2025, and this is not your grandmother's soap opera, OK?"
Clifton Davis, whose resume includes Broadway and TV shows like Amen and Madam Secretary, says he's excited to bring a new type of Black family to television.
"Sometimes we get lost in the stereotypical images that we see on television," he adds. "[Black characters] are the hoodlums, the hustlers and those kinds of things, which is all a part of life. But you haven't seen there are communities in the United States where African Americans are tremendously affluent. And it's those kinds of stories we're touching on that haven't been told before."
A lifelong love of soaps led to this show
Executive producer Sheila Ducksworth shows off the show's sprawling array of different sets – ranging from a hospital waiting room to the tony interior of a country club – like a proud parent. She heads a production partnership between CBS Studios and the NAACP that has produced Beyond the Gates – an idea inspired by a lifelong love for soaps that has included watching ABC's General Hospital and NBC's Generations, the first soap opera to feature a Black family from the beginning.
"Literally, that was one of the things that made me say, 'I want to do a soap opera that shows folks that look like us and do things like us,' and really hang a lantern on the cultural aspects that I thought were missing in soaps," Ducksworth adds.
After taking the job with CBS and NAACP in 2020, Ducksworth's first pitch was a soap opera featuring a wealthy Black family. She enlisted soap veteran Michele Val Jean, whose writing credits include Generations, General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful, to create the series and serve as showrunner and an executive producer. And, in another first for the soap world, most of the show's other department heads are Black as well.
Telling authentic Black stories starts behind the scenes
Non-white actors often tell horror stories about working on projects where the hair and makeup staff don't know how to style Black people. Stevie Martin, who leads the makeup department in Beyond the Gates, says the presence of Black stylists can help actors feel more secure.
"When you see somebody that looks like you, it automatically creates that trust factor," she explains. "When you have the same skin tone or a variety of it, then I know [that] you know what to look for and what not to do."
As she talks, Martin is working on actress Karla Mosley, who plays one of Vernon and Anita's daughters on the show. Mosley, who has appeared on soaps like The Guiding Light and The Bold and the Beautiful, says knowing that the show's behind-the-scenes technicians realize how to make performers look their best helps the actors deliver better performances.
"It's so comforting, because this is where you come first," Mosley adds, gesturing around the makeup room. "If you have a traumatic experience before you get on set, then it's really hard for you to focus. So it's truly a delight to sit here and know that you're taken care of."
Costume designer Jeresa Featherstone, an Emmy-winner for her work on The Bold and the Beautiful, says she brings an understanding about the families depicted in Beyond the Gates that goes beyond race.
"It goes deeper than being Black," she says. "I also lived in the [Washington, D.C. metropolitan area] … I know this family. They go to my home church. I know these people, so it feels more personal."
Davis says Beyond the Gates can send a message at a time when the Trump administration is attacking federal diversity and inclusion efforts – and corporations are backing away from them.
"There's an effort to eliminate or erase or modify Black history … [so] it's important for us to keep making Black history," he says.
"We're adding on this end. You may be swiping us off on the back end, but we're still coming … And we're going to keep on making history."
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