"Backlight" - The Pivot Year
“It’s just not funny anymore,” was the very first line of dialogue I wrote for season 3. I was making a point, any chance I could, that Misguided should in no way be considered a comedy. We were still going to have humorous moments, absolutely, how could we not? …but by the end of season 3, we were never going to be confused for a comedy again.
There was something magical that happened when I started writing this season. Out of the four seasons of Misguided, Season 3 might have been the easiest to write and probably the most fun. I wanted to build up to a wedding, and only having five episodes to do it seemed almost impossible, but I gladly accepted the self-imposed restraint and did my best to figure out who exactly would be getting married and what the fallout of this wedding would be. I was adding two new characters to our ensemble and would bring back Stephanie, Ivet (Breeze), and Jackie (Mo). I didn’t know how I would fit Jean in, if at all, and so I wrote.
During the filming of Season 2, I was in desperate need of a hospital room to film in. I searched the internet, needing to find something. I was in Hollywood; surely this would be something I could locate, and I had a little seed money from the Kickstarter, so all hope was not lost. That’s when I discovered 4 Hearts Studio in Sylmar. The best part about this budget-friendly establishment that catered to independent filmmakers was that they had multiple sets I could use. So not only did they have a hospital room, but they had the perfect office space for Jeva Jones.
Fast forward to my time writing Season 3 when I get an email from 4 Hearts Studio announcing their new free-standing restaurant set in Canoga Park. They were having an open house for clients to come check out the new facility, so I figured I would take a look and see what kind of set it was. Knowing full well that after using an actual bar in Season 1, my days of using real establishments were done since there were simply too many sound issues. No, if I could find a restaurant set in my budget, I would much rather prefer that.
I walked into the open house and was immediately hit with a wave of creativity. It was set up just like a restaurant, and there were plenty of places to film within it so that not everything was taking place at a booth or at the bar. There was even a stage. I started taking pictures of the set to reference back to when writing, and then found myself sitting at a booth, taking it all in and seeing the season play out. “What if the wedding happened here?” “What if this was Misguided’s version of Guiding Light’s Company, or Young and the Restless’s Crimson Lights?” This was the central place where everything could happen, and I’m sure it would make filming and scheduling so much easier… famous last words…
Now that the locations were set and the characters and storyline were established, it was time to cast this new season. Tamara was the name of my very first therapist, and truthfully, it was a placeholder name until it eventually stuck. I later loved how everyone who said her name would have a slightly different pronunciation of ‘Tamara.’ It solidified that I had made the correct choice in keeping the name. Then there was Doyle, my new love interest. Not only had I written yet another love interest for myself, but this time I wrote in so… many… kisses into the script. Who could I convince to play Doyle?!
During casting for Season 2, I had reached out to Justin Klosky, who played Joey Lupo on Guiding Light and had been paired with Stephanie’s character, Tammy, at one point. He was unfortunately unavailable at the time of filming to be Bauer McBride, so I thought I would take a chance and see if he would be down to join this time as Doyle. It was such a quick reply “yes!” that I almost didn’t believe it. Justin has been, hands down, one of the best scene partners in the four years. Before we began filming, I asked if we could meet up to take some ‘couple shots’ that I could use as set decorations. When I went over for the quick photos, he asked if we could run lines and get a sense of the characters and our relationship. This was a dream! I think that day really helped solidify our level of comfort with one another so we weren’t just showing up on Day 1 to make out. In fact, the first scenes we shot for this season happened to be the proposal. There’s a moment when I exit the scene that Justin gives me a little slap on the tush as I go to make us cosmos to celebrate. Wasn’t written and totally adorable. Justin was Doyle, and everyone on set made sure to tell me how much they enjoyed us together and that we did in fact have nice chemistry on screen.
The other new character in this season, Tamara, was set to be the villain of the series. I wanted a balls-to-the-wall, diabolical soap villain, but casting this character proved to be as challenging as casting my mother. I reached out to countless soap actresses, both working and not working, and it seemed like I was hitting a wall. I was, however, hit with the most amazing counteroffer when Cynthia Watros’s agent emailed me back and told me that she would be unavailable for the three days of filming, but would gladly offer a day to come if that worked. To have Emmy-winning Cynthia Watros join my show? Absolutely, I will take whatever I can get! She wasn’t even on General Hospital at the time of filming and only announced her return to daytime weeks before Misguided was set to debut. Timing worked out wonderfully, especially since I kept her presence a secret. The only people who knew she would be a part of the new season were obviously those filming that day, and Kim Zimmer (Reva on Guiding Light), who slid into the MisguidedSeries Instagram DMs to wish us well, and I responded with a photo of Cynthia and myself. In a haste, it was also a disappearing photo, so I never got to keep that memory. I figured it was okay, though, since I now have video footage of Cynthia and I working together in one of my favorite scenes.
Even though I was able to score Cynthia in my quest to find an actress for Tamara, I was still at a loss for who could eventually play my therapist. I was driving home from work late one night when I hit unexpected traffic. As I sat waiting for whatever needed to be moved off the freeway, it suddenly occurred to me, “What if it was Jean all along… rather, Tamara… What if Jean was Tamara and she’s been the cause of all this? Would that work?” I sat there in my car, parked on the 405, and played out the season if Jean Carol came back as Tamara. “I think this makes sense,” I said to myself. I got home that night and finished writing the script as if Jean Carol was already on board. The following day, I sent Jean the scripts to see if she would be available to join as this new character. She was more than down, and thus my ensemble was complete.
I had the sets, the schedule, Robin was back on board, and we were ready to go. Everything about Season 3 seemed to fit and grew into the show I knew it could be. I still was going to Susan Lucci’s Walk of Fame star, but this time around, I opted to have it be essentially a single day, chopped up throughout the season, and it plays out it’s the morning of my wedding. Having one outfit and one time of day made filming on Hollywood Blvd so much easier, especially easier than whatever I was going to be encountering in the future, though I didn’t realize I had it so good when I did.
Releasing Season 3, there was no way we were going to be considered a comedy. Everything I did in marketing this was screaming DRAMA! The taglines I used in the promo for the season were “Joke’s Over… Time for Drama…” and “Someone wicked this way comes…” We had not one, but TWO deaths this season. While we didn’t earn any Daytime Emmy nominations, Misguided was up for consideration, and that meant everything to me. We did score two nominations at the Indie Series Awards, and made history as Jackie was nominated once again for supporting actress, this time in the drama category. I had checked with Roger Newcomb, who co-produced the awards, to see if it was the first time a performer had been nominated for both a comedy and drama for the same role, and he confirmed it had been. We also were a selection at the Minnesota WebFest, and I was doing more press than before, including a live interview on Good Morning LALALand to promote this season and talk about my creative journey. The trajectory of the show was heading in such a positive upswing.
This was also the first time I had a public screening, an event I included for those who donated to our Seed&Spark fundraiser. A reporter from Soap Opera Digest had RSVPed yes to attend, but at the last minute couldn’t make it, so to make up for his absence, we scheduled a phone interview. An interview with Soap Opera Digest!!! I couldn’t believe it. Everything seemed to be working out and going better than anticipated. I knew I had to start working on a fourth season…
Before I get to the fourth season of it all, I need to circle back to the amazing earned media attention I got after posting a photo of the Mr. & Mr. wedding cake after filming the longest day. I simply posted this photo and said how truly blessed I was. No mention of filming, a fictional wedding, just a vague, happy post. That turned into people believing I actually got married. It also didn’t help that I was scheduled to go to Belize on vacation later that month, so when I put two champagne glasses next to each other, it might have looked like I was indeed on a honeymoon. That was a fun social media moment to help boost attention to the series.
Now, back to gearing up for the fourth season. I released Season 3 in May of 2019. There were storyline ideas sprinkled in Season 3 of what I could do going forward, but as I mentioned, Season 3 felt so right, I was trying desperately to recreate that magic with a fourth season. I also thought maybe I wanted to tell a story of importance, to take on a social justice issue that soaps were also known to do. I started doing some research on one topic that resonated with me. There were outlines, episode titles, potential new characters, but nothing was coming together the way this past season had. Then the dominos started to fall, and the positive trajectory this series had been on came to an unexpected halt. They use these taglines in soaps all the time, but this time it wasn’t happening on a soap, it was transpiring in real life, and truly, nothing would be the same again…
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