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"Beyond the Gates" celebrates 1 year on CBS

By
Jobina Fortson-Evans
Jobina Fortson-Evans
Anchor, CBS News Atlanta
Jobina Fortson-Evans is a three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and anchor for CBS Atlanta's 6 a.m. newscast.
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Jobina Fortson-Evans

/ CBS Atlanta

It had been 25 years since a daytime soap opera debuted, until 'Beyond the Gates' hit the scene on CBS last year. Actress Tamara Tunie called it a "glass-ceiling-breaking show," and the only thing that would bring her back to daytime TV. 

"In these challenging times, it is exactly what is needed," Tunie said. "Seeing beautiful Black excellence at 2 o'clock every single day." 

There was a time when soap operas dominated daytime television. Millions of people watched every day. The storylines were a part of the national conversation.

"I've been on soaps before, and I've never had anything like this," Karla Mosley, who plays Dani Dupree on the show, said. "I've never had people follow me on social media and talk to me so intricately as though I am the character. I even had to post the other day because I knew Dani was going to step her foot in it and I had to say, 'Y'all I'm not Dani and Dani is not me!'" 

"Beyond the Gates" focuses on the Duprees, an affluent and powerful Black family living in a gated community outside of Washington, D.C. 

BEYOND THE GATES
ATLANTA - MAY 16: "Episode #124" -- Coverage of the CBS Original Series BEYOND THE GATES, scheduled to air on the CBS Television Network. Pictured: Clifton Davis as Vernon Dupree, Timon Kyle Durrett as Bill Hamilton, Karla Mosley as Dani Dupree and Tamara Tunie as Anita Dupree. (Photo by Quantrell Colbert/CBS via Getty Images) CBS Photo Archive

"Beyond the Gates" is a show of firsts. It's the first soap since the early 1990s to feature a predominantly Black cast. The soap is also the first to have Black female executive producers. The show earned two NAACP Image Award 91³Ô¹ÏÍøs, including outstanding drama series, the first for a daytime drama, and outstanding hair styling. 

"I think you put your finger on it when you say historic because that is what it means for me," Clifton Davis, who plays Vernon Dupree on the show, said. "I'm old enough to have lived through a bunch of history, and I've seen African Americans' experiences in the arts. I've watched it grow from almost nothing to what it is today." 

Clifton Davis started acting 58 years ago. He calls the show the cherry on the top of his career

"We work very hard to be the best that we can be and bring the best to our audience," Davis said, 

Soaps require stamina. 

"When you're on a primetime series, you have about eight days to shoot an episode," Tunie said. "It's 47 minutes. Our 47 minutes is all contained into one day, every single day. Daytime is on the air 52 weeks out of the year." 

There's no hiatus for the show. The cast shoots 80 to 90 pages of scripts every day. For them, it's worth it. They do it for the fans and the people they love. Mosley has two daughters who get to see themselves reflected on screen. 

"That means so much to me," Mosley said. "On the other end, to have people like my mother and the grandmothers who have never been able to see something like this, really be able to get behind it, gives them hope for the future and me hope for the future too."

You can watch Beyond the Gates weekdays on CBS Atlanta. 

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