Interview by Jeremy Kinser
Photography by John Skalicky
www.skalickyphoto.com

Daniel R. Coleridge is the cutie-pie soap columnist for TVGuide.com and the author of The Q Guide to Soap Operas, a breezy and indispensable new tome that offers fun facts (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert star Terrence Stamp based his characterization on The Young and the Restless’ Jeanne Cooper) debunks myths (once and for all, All My Children’s Susan Lucci is not the daughter of comedienne Phyllis Diller), and reveals all that is gay about your fave daytime dramas. For more on Daniel, visit http://www.myspace.com/danielsoaps.

The IN staff loves drama, especially when it’s on daytime television and not in our office. When did you first realize that your passion for it could translate into a career?

I first started watching soaps at 11 years old and later wrote a soap opera column for my college newspaper. I did it for fun and never thought that one day I’d be a professional soap columnist. Later, my then-boyfriend wanted to move to L.A. so I answered an ad in the L.A. Times for a writer for a soap opera magazine. I wrote for it for a little less than three years. Then I answered another ad for an entry level listings editor for TV Guide.

That sounds like a fun gig.

The best part of that job was getting the Will & Grace scripts four months in advance. I’d do Karen Walker’s jokes before Megan Mullally said them on the show.

Talk about job perks! So this eventually led to your super-popular soap column?

This is actually the third job I’ve had at TV Guide and it’s what I most wanted to be doing. I didn’t want to write features. I wanted to be a soap columnist.

What inspired you to write your cheeky guide to sudsers?

There are millions of gay and lesbian soap fans—that’s why I wrote it. There have been a lot of soap opera trivia books and fans eat them up, but so often gay and lesbian soap fans are ignored. It’s assumed this is a genre for heterosexual housewives.

And now you’ve set the record, ahem, straight. In the book your mother says she got you addicted to soaps in utero. Did you two watch soaps together the way some kids watch sports with their fathers?

Actually I forced her to watch soaps when Dynasty was on Wednesday nights. There was no wrestling the remote from my hand.

Somehow Joan Collins is always involved. What do you see specifically as the appeal of soaps for gays and lesbians?

There are lots of reasons. It’s escapism. Soap operas feed on fantasies on so many levels. There are hot men who talk about their feelings unlike in real life. (Laughs) How many hot men do you know who are willing to talk about their feelings and fight for love at any cost? In our commitment-phobic society, that’s a pretty great fantasy. Also, I think a lot of gay people have felt alienated from their families and what’s wonderful about soap opera families is they always seem to welcome the black sheep home. I think it’s comforting to see that people always have family and friends around them.

Which soap is the most progressive in its portrayal of LGBT characters?

Right now it’s As the World Turns because they have the most realistic gay person I’ve ever seen on any soap—the character of Luke Snyder played by Van Hansis. He’s a cute, nice, normal gay teen who goes through the problems the rest of us do. His coming-out process was very real and he’s not a victim. Sometimes gay characters are turned into victims and are gaybashed because they think we need to see them suffer before we can like them. They haven’t done that with Luke.

You open your book with a confession: “My name is Daniel and I'm a soap opera addict.” Do you think there’s still a stigma to admitting to watching soaps?

Absolutely. Soaps are denigrated and stigmatized. I tell people I had to come out twice—once for being gay and once for being a soap fan. People still have the outmoded impression that soap fans are elderly shut-ins or lonely housewives eating bon-bons and staring at the tube. Soap fans are actually smart, passionate and creative people, and they’re very loyal. It’s a very unique, niche world and I’m happy to be a big fish in a small pond. (Laughs.)