Sleeping on the Job: OLTL and Daytime Lose One of Its Brightest Stars
Actress Renee Elise Goldsberry to Leave ABC Soap One Life to Live
Apparently, they have been in a coma for the past four years and have no clue of the incomparable talent that is Renee Elise Goldsberry. They have slept through the incredible acting, phenomenal singing, hundreds of cheering fans and tons of critical praise. Clearly, someone at ABC Daytime is asleep. Otherwise, they would realize that the decision to have Goldsberry's wildly popular character, Evangeline Williamson drift into a coma is a big mistake.
It has been confirmed that the Emmy-nominated, fan-favorite actress Renee Elise Goldsberry has failed to reach an agreement with the powers-that-be at daytime soap opera One Life to Live (OLTL) and the ABC network. As a result her character Evangeline Williamson will soon slip into a coma.
The announcement of Goldsberry's departure comes on the heels of her second Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress. It also comes as her character Evangeline is in the middle of heated love quadrangle with other fan-favorites Todd, Blair and Cristian (played by Trevor St. John, Kassie DePaiva and David Fumero respectively).
Goldsberry joined OLTL on a recurring basis in February of 2003. Her character Evangeline Williamson started as the defense attorney hired by Llanview terrorist Mitch Lawrence. Despite her representation of such a villain, the character went on to gain acceptance in the town of Llanview and Goldsberry gained a legion of fans and admirers. In April 2003 Goldsberry was put on contract at the network and soon became one of the most popular characters on daytime television.
Fans were overjoyed by the unexpected pairing of Evangeline Williamson and the brooding FBI agent turned police investigator John McBain, played by Michael Easton. Although the couple separated in 2005, there are still numerous "Jovan" sites (that's soap slang for John and Evangeline) on the internet. "Van Fans" have followed Evangeline through her relationships, a kidnapping and near burning at the stake and a tornado induced blindness. Internet campaigns have been circulating for months begging the OLTL writers for Evangeline's entire backstory and additional family history. Recently fans have been debating who the right man for Evangeline is. "Crave" (Cristian and Evangeline) supporters have been clamoring for a reunion between Evangeline and her ex-boyfriend Cristian with other fans were excited about the potential for "Tangeline" (that's Todd and Evangeline) to become the next great soap opera super couple.
Goldsberry's untimely exit does not come as a complete shock to daytime fans. Rumors have been buzzing around the internet that Goldsberry and St. John will exit the show together this summer. In recent weeks, various sources reported that contract negotiations between the star and the show were at a stand still because Goldsberry wants more money and the freedom to accept more outside projects. In the past, OLTL executives have allowed Goldsberry to pull double duty between the show and Broadway (Goldsberry appeared as the original "Nettie" in The Color Purple). Goldsberry has not confirmed these rumors but she has made a statement regarding her exit from the show. In an exclusive interview with TV Guide's Daniel R. Coleridge, Goldsberry cleared up some of the rumors. She stated "my contract expired on April 1. I have finished taping. I don't know when my last air date is, but I did work until the contract expired. And since we have not been able to come to terms on a new contract, Evangeline will go into a coma. And out of all that has been reported about this negotiation, that is the extent of what is true." Although Goldsberry refuses to go into any further detail about the contract negotiations and her departure she says that "though we are at an impasse, there is no bad blood between ABC and me"
Perhaps that most unfortunate aspect of this story is the way that Goldsberry's departure is being handled by the show. During her four year tenure on OLTL, Goldsberry has been nominated for two Emmy Awards and several NAACP Image awards. She has gained many fans and provided daytime television with a rare example of a strong African-American female character. She is a wonderful actress and a talented singer. Renee Elise Goldsberry has been a role model both on and off screen. The decision to have Evangeline Williamson simply slip into a coma is both unimaginative and completely undeserving of a character and an actress that have done so much for the show and daytime television in general.
The powers-that-be should sleep on that.
Published by Kimberly Renee
Kimberly Renee is a future PhD with research interest in popular culture, African-American and women's literature. She is also a bibliophile, blog junkie, and music lover. View profile
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20 Comments
Post a CommentI liked the pairing of Chris and Evangeline. Their romance was very appealing and romantic and had nothung to do with race. Making Chris suddenly become stupidly chauvenistic' playing up the Latino characteristic was disappointing. My hope would be for these two to reunite.
I've watched OLTL since the day it premiered. Over the years, OLTL became known as a cutting-edge soap, sometimes controversial, but never one to shy away from a challenge. When the Evangeline character was introduced to Llanview, I couldn't believe my luck! A character who energized Llanview, was caring, yet determined, and tested well with the other cast members. Evangeline's pairing with John McBain, was pure kismet. An adult couple who were wildly passionate, but had adult conversations and dealt with their differences. How refreshing! They were so realistic, that their being an interracial couple was not an issue, at least for some of the viewers. Fans of the couple do not live behind rose colored glasses. JoVan fans were very realistic, but totally shocked that the once cutting-edge OLTL would destroy a great couple to placate a fan base opposed to such a pairing. Never mind that at the time OLTL's ratings were never better. With every outrageous storyline Evangeline was plac
(Continued from below)...OLTL has made a huge mistake by letting their golden woman go and as a result, it will no longer exist for me.
What can I say, I started watching OLTL because they had something no other soap had - JOVAN! I thought this was a soap that wasn't afraid to have the first ever interracial supercouple in the history of daytime. That this soap actually made you see beyond skin color and fall in love with the charaters themselves, that two people who were different yet the same in so many ways. But in the end, I came to realize it wasn't the soap that made me a believer or an optimist but is was the actors themselves - Renee Goldsberry and Michael Easton. They sold this phenom couple hook, line, and sinker and due to them, OLTL gained fans that would normally wouldn't watch like myself. Through this couple, I came to love Evangeline and through Evangeline, I came to love Renee. I have never in the history of daytime seen a female, let alone an African-American female, have so many romantic pairings and have of fans for them all - JoVan, Tangies, CrisVan, HuVan, KeVan, and even RJ/Van. OLTL has made a h
I hope they do everything in there power to keep her and then write a decent story for her because the pairing with Todd will never work as long as Blair is in the picture. Why can't they find her a decent upstanding guy with an edge for her to be paired with, I just don't get it. I loved the paring of Evangeline and John but did not care for he being paired with Todd, the character of Todd will always belong with Blair. If the people in charge can do everything in their power to keep the characters of John and Natalie on canvas I don't see why they can't do the same for Evangeline. I say let's get rid of the no talented Head Writer and get someone who can actually write a good story to get this show back on Track. If they do not appreciate the character of Evangeline or RG then it's there loss and I'm sure there are bigger and better things that awaits her in the entertainment world.
Simply put: OLTL is NOT worth watching without Renee Goldsberry. Without the luminous Evangeline Williamson on the screen, I don't care at all about the show. The Powers That Be have made a seriously bad judgment call when they let Renee go, and if they don't rectify their mistake soon, the show will lose many viewers.
Renee Goldsberry brought me back to One Life to Live. I stopped watching the day her interview appeared on the TV Guide Web site and I won't watch again until I read that she's returning.
For this viewer losing Ms. Goldsberry is about more than just losing a character I like. It's about fighting Brian Frons' violent, misogynistic and bigoted vision. ABC never hesitated to push her to the forefront in order to pimp this fading show. Fun in the Sun, SSW, the Emmys, Broadway Cares, she's done them all with a smile on her face. She's never badmouthed the show in the press, even when she had every reason to. She never even pushed for a preferred storyline, like perhaps a backstory. So now after FOUR YEARS of devoted service, all she's asking for is extra time off to make the most of her career and TIIC decide to play some perverted version of hardball.
I cannot stress in enough words how thoroughly disappointed I am in ABC. I never thought ABC would be so thoughtless as to let a gem like Renee go without much of a fight. I pray that her next employers will appreciate and respect her as much as her fans do. Hopefully they won't be afraid to let her shine.
I have been a viewer of OLTL for over 20 years, really, really, really, enjoyed it in 2004,2005 and part of 2006. Watched Renee Goldsberry from the beginning. She was like a breath of fresh air for OLTL, the Evangeline character brought class and dignity to the show. She was outstanding during her relationship with John McBain, a very strong determined, professional
African American character.I stop watching OLTL over a year ago, when they decided to dummy down the Evangeline character and make her the fall chick for all the other non-excitable characters on the show, when they needed to bump up a storyline, they simply place Evangeline in the middle of it, instead of giving the character and the actress her own storyline ( the blind storyline didn't count to me for it was just a way to facilitate the ever dull Christian and Evangeline dependency relationship). OLTL gets the thumbs down from me. I wish Renee Goldsberry much success she is indeed a gem and a really really wonderful a
OLTL's Evangeline character was a hot-shot defense attorney turned ADA that was unfortunately paired with a non-verbal, ex-Artist, ex-Boxer, ex-Con character in a romance. Looking at her counter-parts in other soap shows, those female characters (in the same profession)have been paired romantically with characters that were equal to, greater than, but never less than. Geesh! In the end they wrote the Evangeline character as "hard up" and desperate. She was apologizing for her boyfriend sleeping with another woman, because she'd kissed another man. Matter of fact the Evangeline character APOLOGIZED for her own existence. It may be just as well that Renee left that show, I couldn't stand that the only up front AA female character the show had was written to repeatedly shop for romantic partners out of the prison system.