Q & A with Gary Tomlin
(AKA: Executive producer of Sunset Beach)

Writer/director/producer/actor Gary Tomlin has worn many hats over the years, but his current assignment, as executive producer of li'l Sunset Beach, has got to be the most challenging. It's the lowest-rated soap on the air, and talk of cancellation is as frequent as a flashback or internal monologue is on the show.

We spoke with Tomlin on the eve of the soap's two-year anniversary, and were pleased to learn that, unlike a recent storyline, this captain has no intention of letting his ship sink. — Jonathan Reiner

How has the show changed in the two years it has been on the air?

That's an interesting question. When we started two years ago, if you look at the demographics, which is basically all we hear about [from the network] — the 18- to 49-year-old women — we did about a 1.2 rating or something like that. Days of Our Lives did about 5.6, The Young and the Restless did a 4.9 and General Hospital was doing a 4.7. What's happened in those two years to daytime is incredible to me. Everyone's ratings are down, but we've pretty much held steady.

What has happened is that we've been put in the position of constantly trying to up the stakes in what we do. I was home one day, it must've been back in the spring, and I watched some of the shows, and I thought to myself, "If they're not that different from one another, why do there need to be that many?" We have sort of made an attempt to say, "You're going to get something different from Sunset Beach" if you tune in for a week. It might be a little crazy, outrageous or just something we do in production, but it will be something.

The original concept of the show was to bring nighttime to daytime, and I think we've learned very quickly that that was something the audience wasn't very interested in. Also, we wanted to bring some good-looking people to daytime. I think across the board, we have a great-looking cast, particularly our men, and it definitely is a younger show. A lot of the shows I look at really focus on the over-40 crowd. I understand why to a degree — they're wonderful actors, and their characters have been around for a long, long time, so you have a real investment in them. We have only three or four people under contract who are over 40. Plus, we've tried some things that people said we wouldn't be able to do — like "The Poseidon Adventure" and the earthquake.

I think most of the experimental stuff has worked to a certain degree. It's not like you guys fell flat on your face....

No, I don't think so. There are a couple of things that we haven't followed up quite as well as we wanted to, but we learned something from each of those experiences. We were all incredibly proud of the earthquake and the stuff on the boat. The production team did a phenomenal job with everything.

But the problem was that the story fell apart after the action/adventure sequence was over. As a viewer, I had a problem with that.

I think you're right about that. To a degree, part of the problem is the nature of the beast. For instance, when you take a situation like that — we put 10 or 12 of our main characters on that boat and put those people in a situation where they're essentially driving toward the same thing. But when they get back on dry land, they get back to their normal lives. To a degree, we lost some of the focus that we needed to have because we brought in some other stories and did a few other things wrong. I don't think we could've ever kept it as intense as it was on the boat, but I think we could have done better than we did.

The problem is, when you do a story like that and you get people to watch who haven't necessarily watched the show before, you have to try to keep them watching after the action ends. When the helicopter came to rescue the people off the boat, it was like, "Roll credits, and let's go out and have some dinner. The movie is over!" That's how it felt. On the "Terror Island" sequence, our ratings went up and we drew in a lot of 18- to 34-year-olds, but we also drove away a few of the over-35-year-old viewers. We're trying to learn from these things.

Is there a plan to keep the viewers who were drawn into the Rosario jewels storyline?

Well, a story we sort of started on the boat with Antonio, Gabi and Ricardo absolutely builds to a crescendo in the February sweeps. It's very exciting, and it actually crosses over into Francesca's story, as well, because there is a connection between Francesca and Antonio from years back, and we sort of heighten that again. I think the story of a priest, a cop and the girl between them is an interesting one. They're brothers and there is really no bad guy.

I must tell you that I loved the Martin's Syndrome storyline, and even, to a degree, the turkey-baster story. Were you prepared for the backlash?

Not at all. I felt like people got on such a high horse with that. They were screaming about it. It's funny, because these were people who were defending the Luke and Laura thing, the fact that he raped her and then they ended lovers. They had all these excuses for that, but the turkey-baster story, they thought that was outrageous. To us, they do use turkey-basters for that, although we did take liberties, but it was hysterical. When Michael discovers that he's not the father of the baby, it's spectacular. Sherri, Jason and Russell (Saum, George and Curry, who play Vanessa, Michael and Tyus) were wonderful.

For me, it's the combination of outlandish elements and classic soap staples that makes the show appealing.

That's what we've been trying to do. Any other show in daytime that is doing the same numbers as they were doing the second week of January 1997 would be thrilled. We're still showing the same numbers, and everyone is saying, "What's wrong with this show?" Well, with the walls are falling down around us, we're just trying to hang on at this point.

Don't you think the situation is a little unfair? You've been in the business for a long time, and never have there been so many buzzards circling.

Well, they're circling a lot of shows. The problem is that it's very difficult for a man on death row to make plans, if you know what I mean. That's the problem you have on any show, and I know it's been a problem on Another World for a long time. You're constantly trying to jump through hoops, and the hoops just seem to get higher and higher and higher. The problem you also have when the expectation is "Make something bigger, make something bigger, make something bigger," something is only big in relation to what else it's with. If you make everything bigger, then nothing is big.

There was a story years ago about one of the network executives who did focus groups on all these shows, so he went through all the shows and compiled certain things that viewers liked. Then the executive said, "Give me a show that has all these things and it will be incredible," so they did a show with only those things in it, and the audience watched it and hated it! The reason that something is good is because of the build or because of the other things going on around it to balance it.

It feels like the show has been on for more than two years. What sorts of things would you like these characters to do that they haven't already done?

I would love to cross Cole and Annie. From the moment that he came on the show, I thought, "Wow, these two should cross! They have to!" With all the secrets that are blowing up, I think there could be a way to cross them together. There are certain people that you see together and think they would explode off the screen because you can actually see the chemistry. It's difficult on a new show. We have a huge cast, particularly for a new show, and sometimes I wish that we'd kept it smaller, because we're trying to keep a really good balance and not lose focus on our major players.

Is anything big planned for the over-40 crowd, like Kathleen Noone and Gordon Thomson (Aunt Bette and A.J.)?

Well, Kathy had some scenes with the girl who plays her daughter when she was blind and in the hospital — it was unbelievable stuff. She's so amazing. She can make you laugh or break your heart. She's going to be pulled back into the Cole/Olivia/Gregory/Annie story to a degree, and I'd love to give her her own romance, but at this time it's a matter of making the time to do it. But, hopefully, Kathy will be pulled back into story much more.

Now, I have to ask this question, since it's one of the biggest news stories of the century: Are you worried that you will forever be remembered for Sarah "Lewinsky" and the infamous beret/embrace re-creation?

We talked to (NBC honcho) Don Ohlmeyer and he loves that "ripped from the headlines" thing, so that was sort of the idea, that Sunset Beach would do a ripped from the headlines theme. We talked about bringing in Meg's sister and doing the Monica Lewinsky story, but only to a degree. Then we said, "Screw it! Let's get a guy who looks a little like Clinton and do it." We just tried to drop in little silly things along the way. The most fun was when we brought in (the character) Melinda Fall. Actually, her original name was Melinda Triplet, but the actress (Elizabeth Alley) was hilarious.

I also loved Jessica Tuck's brief stint as Dianne.

Jessica knew (Sunset producer) Lisa Hesser from One Life to Live. Jessica and I had only worked together a couple of days on One Life, but I'm such a fan of hers. We came up with this harebrained idea to have this woman who was into her romance novels and do a Misery-style storyline. Jessica had a wonderful time, and the sad thing is I'd love to bring her on, but we don't have room.

I think the show makes great use of the short-term characters that come in to stir up trouble.

Definitely! We had Nurse Stacey back in yesterday, and we've got a guy who Annie who went to high school with who she runs into at the hospital. This guy was great! We're going to have to bring him back because he's too funny. He's a stand-up comedian named Mark Davis and he was just dynamite. Sometimes you can fall in love with these people and they're a little off the mark of what you're trying to do with the big picture, so you have to make sure that you're servicing the story.

Do you have any New Year's resolutions for the show?