Passions

For other uses, see Passion.

Passions
File:Passionslogo.jpg
Created by	James E. Reilly
No. of episodes	2,071 (August 31 2007)
Production
Executive producer	Lisa de Cazotte
Original release
Network	NBC (1999-2007) DirecTV (2007-)
Release	July 5 1999 (NBC) September 17 2007 (DirecTV) – September 17 2007 (NBC)

Passions is a American television soap opera created by veteran writer James E. Reilly. It debuted on NBC on July 5 1999, replacing the long running soap opera Another World, and its final airdate on NBC will be September 7 2007. The series will begin airing new episodes on DirecTV-exclusive channel The 101 on September 17 2007.

In the beginning, Passions centered largely around horror-oriented themes; it now routinely uses drama and comedy instead. Passions follows the various romantic and supernatural adventures of the residents of Harmony, Maine New England hamlet.

Though plagued since its inception by low overall Nielsen Ratings, Passions has historically been top-rated in key demographics. On May 26, 2006, NBC announced it would renew the program for its eighth season, but the renewal also brought along significant budget cuts.

Passions was not renewed by NBC for a ninth season in 2007 as a result of NBC's decision to extend Today to a fourth hour. Series producer NBC Studios and DirecTV announced on April 25, 2007 that new episodes of Passions will begin airing on DirecTV original-programming channel The 101 on September 17, 2007. According to the announcement, the show will run Monday to Thursday in its current timeslot of 2 pm ET, with repeats of the show airing on the weekends.

On May 24, 2007, NBC Universal announced that many principal castmembers had been signed for the series' upcoming season on DirecTV. On July 3, 2007 is was reported that new Canadian premium television service SuperChannel will air Passions in Canada when the channel launches in October 2007.

On August 23, 2007, castmember Eric Martsolf said that DirecTV was working on a way to release episodes online once the soap left NBC. DirecTV has not made an official announcement.

Storylines

Major storylines throughout the soap's run have included:

• Theresa's (Lindsay Hartley) schemes to steal Ethan Crane (Travis Schuldt, Eric Martsolf) away from his wife, Gwen (Liza Huber, Natalie Zea, then Huber again). Ultimately Theresa seduces Ethan away from Gwen, who retaliates by exposing the fact that Ethan is not a biological Crane (his father being his mother's secret lover), a move that results in Ethan being disowned by his father (Julian Crane) and cut off financially from his wealthy family. Since then Theresa and Ethan have married, though the revelation that Theresa's son from another marriage is Ethan's own biological son hangs over her head.
• Kay's (Taylor Anne Mountz, Gina Marie May, Deanna Wright, Heidi Mueller) desire to be with her cousin Charity's (Molly Stanton, Kristina Sisco) boyfriend, Miguel (Jesse Metcalfe, Adrian Bellani), and her current inability to choose between Miguel and now-husband Fox Crane (Justin Hartley, Mark Cameron Wystrach). After Fox lied about his fake illness and Miguel trying to run him over with his car, Kay has chosen to be with Miguel.
• Tabitha's (Juliet Mills) desire to wreak havoc upon the citizens of Harmony, her exploits with her "living doll" Timmy, and the raising of her daughter, Endora (Nicole Cox).
• Eve's (played by Tracey Ross) affair with former Crane heir Julian (Ben Masters) and the search for their long-lost son, who was revealed to be the hermaphrodite tabloid reporter Vincent Clarkson (Phillip Jeanmarie), who wrecked havoc throughout Harmony as the vilainous masked blackmailer.
• Charity's premonitions and powers of good being a target of Tabitha and other evil forces. Her powers often foreshadowed many secrets and events that would affect the people of Harmony. More specifically, Tabitha trying to prevent Charity from making love to Miguel so she would not come into her full powers, the prom boat disaster, Warlock Island, Hecuba the witch, and much more.
• The recurring character, Norma, trying to to kill Tabitha (and Timmy during his time on the show)
• Whitney's (Brook Kerr) romantic relationship with Chad (Donn Swaby, Charles Divins); when Chad was mistakenly assumed to be Whitney's long-lost brother, Chad turned to a homosexual relationship with Vincent Clarkson, who later revealed that he seduced Chad to punish Whitney for growing up with her mother.
• Ivy's (Kim Johnston Ulrich) schemes to win back her first love Sam (James Hyde), with whom she conceived her son Ethan behind her husband Julian Crane's back.
• Sheridan (McKenzie Westmore) and Luis's (Galen Gering) relationship, which collapsed when Sheridan chose to marry Luis's brother (Christopher Douglas) rather than be with Luis. When Luis attempted to move on with his life by beginning a relationship with Sheridan's niece

Fancy (Emily Harper), Sheridan transformed from heroine to villain and vowed to destroy both Fancy and Luis's lives if she can not have Luis. This has led Sheridan, among other crimes, to allow Luis to be convicted and executed for a murder he did not commit, attempting to murder Luis's sister Theresa, and attempting to slander Fancy's good name, culminating with the arrival of Fancy's sister Pretty, who was accidentally disfigured by Fancy when Pretty attempted to kill her sister over another

• Alistair's (David Bailey, John Reilly) continuing efforts to meddle in the lives of the citizens of Harmony, and recently his quest for ultimate power, including the impersonation of a monk to lure sixteen people from Harmony to Rome as pawns in his scheme.

History

File:TVGuide-JulietMills-2001.jpg

2001 TV Guide cover featuring Juliet Mills, Galen Gering and McKenzie Westmore

Passions debuted with major fanfare (Reilly had been credited for a large surge in the ratings for Days of our Lives) but also some controversy (lead heroine Sheridan's best friend was the late Princess Diana, and, in flashbacks, Sheridan spoke to Diana on the phone right before she was killed).

For much of the first three to four years of the series, supernatural elements such as witches, warlocks, and closet doors leading to Hell were major plot points. One central character was Charity (Molly Stanton, Kristina Sisco), a saccharine young woman who would regularly become possessed by the "forces of evil" and turn into "Evil Charity", "Zombie Charity", etc. NBC even made a deal with the owners of Bewitched to allow "Dr. Bombay" to appear in scenes with witch Tabitha Lenox (not to be confused with Bewitched's Tabitha Stevens). "Dr. Bombay" appeared on three occasions, but Bewitched nixed any future visits; however, when Tabitha had a child in 2003, she named the baby Endora. Tabitha also stated on an episode that her mother was named Samantha and that her father was a mortal named Darren. Recently, a new storyline brought back some of these elements with the introduction of the character Siren, a mermaid that Endora brought to life and made human to keep Kay from leaving Fox for Miguel.

Over time, Passions moved away from supernatural elements and began to concentrate on the usual array of love triangles and returns from the dead. One of their most popular storylines was the interracial romance between filthy rich letch Julian Crane (Ben Masters) and icy doctor Eve Russell (Tracey Ross). Their '70s love affair produced a child, but Julian's father Alistair demanded they break up so Julian could marry a more "suitable" (white) woman. Eve married former tennis star TC (Rodney Van Johnson) and had two daughters, Whitney (Brook Kerr) and Simone (Lena Cardwell, Chrystee Pharris-Larkins, then Cathy Jenéen Doe). Years later, the revelations of Julian and Eve's love as well as the news that Eve had caused the car accident which ended TC's tennis career led TC to dump Eve and take up with her half-sister, Liz. Julian, who had never stopped loving Eve, reunited with her after giving up his boozing and adulterous ways. During the summer of 2005, TC and Eve's youngest daughter Simone came out as a lesbian. Passions made daytime history by being the only serial to show two women (Simone and Rae) in bed making love. Most recently, Chad was revealed to be the child of Alistair and Liz, allowing him and Whitney to get married and raise their son Miles. Then a major storyline started on October 10, 2006 entitled "Passions: Tabloid Truth" This was another interactive storyline not unlike "Passions: Red" and "Passions: Vendetta" During the 12-week umbrella story we will see the some of the shows biggest secrets revealed via tabloid reporter JT Cornell. In the last months of Passions on NBC a mysterious half man and half woman blackmailer was practically blackmailing the entire hamlet of Harmony and that lead to many secrets being revealed. The blackmailer turned out to be Vincent the long lost son/daughter of Eve and Julian, who happens to be transgendered which leads many fans to think Vincent and Valerie are the same person since they are never shown together. Valerie knew who their child was months before it was revealed to be Vincent. Vincent blames his transgendered sex on Julian and Eve's drug use during their early relationship. The final months on NBC have shown many secrets revealed and Kay using her magic. But still two big secrets that haven't been revealed will remain to be seen. One being that Gwen and Rebecca are the ones that sent the email to the tabloids about Ethan's true paternity way back from 2001, and the other is Theresa's secret that Little Ethan is actually the biological child of Ethan. Whether or not these two secrets are exposed before Passions moves to DirecTv remains to be seen.

Move to DirecTV

Shortly after NBC announced that Passions would be ending its run on the network on September 7, DirecTV announced that it would be picking up the soap on September 17 airing the program on The 101 Monday through Thursday of every week.

The move to DirecTV comes at a slight cost, as the show's already low budget will be slightly trimmed.

As of August 12 2007, the following current actors have signed a contract to appear on the series when it moves to DirecTV: Erin Cardillo, Dylan Fergus, Galen Gering, Emily Harper, Lindsay Hartley, Liza Huber, James Hyde, Eric Martsolf, Ben Masters, Juliet Mills, Heidi Mueller, Tracey Ross, Melinda Sward, Eva Tamargo, Kim Johnston Ulrich, and McKenzie Westmore; in addition, newcomer Amy Castle has signed a contract to play Esme Vanderheusen's teenage niece, Viki. Meanwhile, Nicole Cox, Andrea Evans, Phillip Jeanmarie, Christopher Maleki, and John Reilly have all agreed to appear on DirecTV on a recurring basis. So far, only Silvana Arias, Adrian Bellani, Charles Divins, Cathy Jeneen Doe, Brook Kerr, James Stevenson and Mark Cameron Wystrach have announced that they will not appear on Passions following the transition. Arias's character has been recast with Hannia Guillen.

So far, Daphnee Duplaix Samuel, Danica Stewart, and Rodney Van Johnson, all of whom are currently on contract and recurring, have made no indication as to whether or not they will remain on Passions after September 7.

Passions' impending move to DirecTV was met with heavily mixed reactions from fans. While some viewers, especially those who are already DirecTV customers, are pleased that the show will continue on, others, mainly fans who are not subscribers of DirecTV, are upset that Passions will no longer be available to them through their current television services. As a result, numerous campaigns and petitions directed towards both NBC and DirecTV have surfaced across the Internet in recent months in an attempt to allow episodes of Passions to remain available for viewing online. As NBC's Passions webpage states that Passions would no longer be available for streaming on their website once the series leaves their network, it appears the fate of the show's Internet future now lies solely within DirecTV.

Trademarks

Over its run, Passions has become widely known for its numerous parodies of pop culture. One fan favorite was the 2003 spoof of the 2002 film Chicago, in which character Edna Wallace fantasized that she, her demented daughter, Beth, Charlie, and her orangutan caretaker, Precious, had been incarcerated for the kidnapping of Sheridan Lopez-Fitzgerald and her unborn son, Marty. In this fantasy, the three women sang "I Ain't Sorry", a parody of "Cell Block Tango". The song was performed in the style of musical theatre, and was simultaneously mocked and adored by fans. Another spoof popular with the fans was the 2006 Bollywood spoof, in which Gwen dreamt of a life in India with her husband, Ethan, far away from his ex-fiancée, Theresa. The original song accompanying this spoof, "Love is Ecstasy", was a hit with fans, and NBC even put both a video clip and a downloadable mp3 version of the song on their website. The show has also featured storylines and sequences paying homage to or parodying films and books like Titanic, Brokeback Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Wizard of Oz, The Da Vinci Code and Wicked.

One of Passions' most notorious trademarks is the false Dream Sequence. Oftentimes, the show will play out an outlandish event, or explode a huge secret viewers have longtime been waiting to see, only to immediately after go back and reveal it all to be a day dream. This dream sequence can last anywhere from a few scenes to a few episodes, typically beginning without warning. On Passions, often a dream sequence will begin with no visual cues of any sort what so ever. Oftentimes going as far to include contradictory elements to give the dream sequence credence. (For instance, another character may show up within the dream wearing an outfit, or revealing information that the daydreamer had no possible way of knowing about beforehand.) While a veteran viewer can usually spot a fake dream sequence once it's neared its climax, the fake dream sequence tend to cause confusion amongst the more casual viewer who may not get to catch the revelation that it was all dream.

Roman Catholicism and its principles figure greatly into the show's themes. Several characters, including Grace Bennett and Pilar Lopez-Fitzgerald, are portrayed as being particularly devout Catholics, often praying with a rosary. Father Lonigan, the blind priest, has the ability to sense evil, causing lots of trouble for Tabitha over the years. Many theological debates on the importance of Catholic marriage vows have arisen over the years as well, as various characters attempt to divorce or remarry.

Another trademark of the serial is its preoccupation with the concepts of fate and soulmates. Since the show's first episode in 1999, the writers have pushed several couples onto the fans, claiming that they are "fated", and, with few short-lived exceptions, have failed to mix up any of the relationships. Some of the early "fated" couples were considered to be those of Luis and Sheridan, Ethan and Theresa, Miguel and Charity, and Chad and Whitney. Common indications of a couple's status as "fated" include (but are not necessarily limited to) Tabitha's desire to split said couple up, an unshakeable love that survives numerous break-ups and relationships with third parties, and/or an ability of one character, or perhaps both characters, to "sense" when his/her "soulmate" is in danger. However, despite the fact that each of these couples has existed as a storyline since the first episodes, the show seems to have given up on the "fated" angle as it approaches its end. Ethan and Theresa are still in love and fighting to be together, but Miguel is now in love with Kay (not Charity), Luis loves Fancy (not Sheridan, though Sheridan schemes to get him back), and Whitney recently left Chad after finding out about his affair with Vincent.

Likely due to Passions' school-aged target audience, the show often cooks up large, wild storylines for the summer, which often, but not always, take place in a city outside of Harmony. In 1999, a carnival came to town as characters were introduced; 2000 saw Luis and Sheridan traveling to New Mexico in search of his then-missing father, Martin Fitzgerald, and 2001 witnessed the failed double-wedding of popular couples Luis and Sheridan and Ethan and Theresa, and their subsequent journey to Bermuda, where Sheridan apparently perished in a boat explosion and Theresa wound up married to Ethan's ex-stepfather, Julian Crane. In 2002, Julian and Timmy set out on a journey in the magical land of Oz as Theresa was "executed" for Julian's "murder"; 2003 saw six characters (Chad, Whitney, Fox, Theresa, Ethan, and Gwen, collectively known as the "LA Six") travel to Los Angeles for the summer (and into October), while, in 2004, Luis and Sheridan traveled to Puerto Arena, Mexico, to retrieve his younger sister, Paloma (and ended up finding his missing father, Martin, and her "dead" mother, Katherine). The plot of the summer in 2005 was a deadly tsumani, which destroyed much of Harmony and resulted in the death of James's mother, Maureen, while 2006 saw the extravagant Passions Vendetta plot, in which Alistair lured seventeen people (Whitney, Simone, Paloma, Chad, Ethan, Theresa, Gwen, Lena, Spike, Jessica, Maya, Noah, Esme, Fancy, Luis, Beth, and Marty) to Rome (all shots of Rome were provided by Vita digital productions), where he planned to take over the world with a chalice stolen from the Pope's private chambers; the plot saw the death of Lena, Maya, Alistair, Beth, and Marty.

Another recurring theme on Passions is sexual violence. Many storylines, especially through the last half of Passions' run, have included rape as a plot point. The use of rape is so prevalent, in fact, that nearly every major character on the show has either committed or been victim to a rape, including a handful of characters who have both been raped and have sexually assaulted someone else. In 2006 for instance, a storyline was featured where Crane patriarch Alistair Crane made deals involving sex as payment with his wife Theresa, but then would subsequently rape her if she tried to renege. And in the summer of that year, Passions introduced the mermaid, Siren, who had the ability to force men to sleep with her simply by singing her "Siren song." Passions has even begun storylines involving double rapes, where couples are forced to sleep together by outside forces; in the fall of 2006, when police officers Fancy Crane and Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald were busted on an undercover assignment, the couple was forced to shoot a porn video for a mob boss or else be killed. Oddly enough, men on the show are equally as likely to be violated as women. In 2006 alone the following characters were all victims of a sexual assault: Julian Crane, Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane, Jessica Bennett, Fancy Crane, Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald, Fox Crane, Ethan Winthrop, and Katherine Barrett Crane.

One unfortunate trademark for Passions has been eerie deaths. In 2002, Josh Ryan Evans, who played Tabitha's extremely popular doll sidekick Timmy, died while on medical leave, just as scenes were airing where Timmy died in the hospital and went to Heaven. Passions had planned to revive the character in a few months once Evans returned from his own surgery, but instead had to write Timmy out. After five years of evil Crane patriarch Alistair being heard but never having his face seen (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer), Passions finally cast the role with longtime daytime vet David Bailey. Bailey was a hit with the cast as well as the fans, but on Thanksgiving Day 2004, he drowned in his pool, just as scenes were airing where various characters tried to kill Alistair, who actually suffered clinical death before being magically revived by Tabitha. Again, the viewers and the producers were stunned, but the show had no choice but to recast the pivotal role (with John Reilly).

Theme song and opening sequence

The theme song for Passions is titled "Breathe," performed by Jane French and written by French and John Henry Kreitler. A long version of this theme was also released but was never used on the show.

The opening title sequence used since the show's premiere in 1999, features shots of the city of Harmony and its landmarks. The sequence opens and closes with the show's logo in an italic typeface and in an Arial Black typeface in generic caps posted in front of the cursive form of the title. From time to time, the opening theme is shortened to the last two verses to fit in extra scene time.

Passions is one of the few American serials that, with the exception of occasional abbreviated versions of the intro, has not changed its opening theme since the series debut.

Hidden Passions

1st edition cover of Hidden Passions

In January 2001, HarperEntertainment released Hidden Passions: Secrets from the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox, an inside look into the history of Passions involving all the major characters, written from the viewpoint of Tabitha Lenox. A storyline involving the character of Tabitha and Timmy and the promotion of this book was aired on the show. During this time when the show enjoyed its peak popularity, the book even reached #4 on the New York Times Best Seller list. The novel was billed as being canonical, but the televised canon has diverged significantly from the novel since that time. For example, Rachel Barrett presumably did die in a boating accident decades earlier, and the death scene of her sister, Katherine, who was recently revealed to be alive, is included in the novel. In addition, the book portrayed Eve Johnson Russell as the daughter of a wealthy society couple in Boston, but the show has more recently revealed an upbringing in the rural South.

Reruns and other media

The Sci Fi Channel (which is owned by NBC) began airing Passions from its first episode starting February 13 2006. The reruns had originally been announced to begin February 6, 2006. These repeat presentations on SciFi were slightly edited, with the background music and popular songs substituted in many cases. Due to low ratings, as of May 25, 2006 the reruns were taken off the air.

On August 15, 2006, Passions became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for download and purchase from the popular online music store iTunes. On November 6 2006, the show also became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for free viewing via streaming on NBC.com.

According to NBC.com, Passions episodes will no longer be available on their website or on iTunes once the series moves to DirecTV. This may change, however, as on August 23, 2007, castmember Eric Martsolf said that DirecTV was working on a way to release episodes online once the soap left NBC. DirecTV has not yet made an official announcement.

International broadcasts

Passions was broadcast nationally in Australia on the Seven Network each weekday at 3 pm, beginning in 2001. In 2005, the series was moved to an earlier 9.30am timeslot, before the show's international licensing was cancelled due to the music copyright fees. Repeats are currently being aired at 2 am Tuesday through Thursday.

Cast

Current cast members

Actor	Character
Erin Cardillo	Esme Vanderheusen
Amy Castle	Viki
Dylan Fergus	Noah Bennett
Galen Gering	Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald
Emily Harper	Fancy Crane
Lindsay Hartley	Theresa Winthrop
Liza Huber	Gwen Hotchkiss
James Hyde	Sam Bennett
Eric Martsolf	Ethan Winthrop
Ben Masters	Julian Crane
Juliet Mills	Tabitha Lenox
Heidi Mueller	Kay Bennett Crane
Tracey Ross	Eve Russell
Danica Stewart	Jessica Bennett
Melinda Sward	Pretty Crane
Eva Tamargo	Pilar Lopez-Fitzgerald
Kim Johnston Ulrich	Ivy Winthrop
McKenzie Westmore	Sheridan Crane Boothe

Recurring cast members

Actor	Role
Nicole Cox	Endora Lenox
Andrea Evans	Rebecca Hotchkiss Crane
Bruce French	Father Lonigan
Phillip Jeanmarie	Vincent Clarkson
Christopher Maleki	Spike Lester
Abby and Emma McCoy	Maria Lopez-Fitzgerald
Marianne Muellerleile	Norma Bates
Kathleen Noone	Edna Wallace
John Reilly	Alistair Crane
Daphnee Duplaix Samuel	Valerie Davis
Camille and Kate Schwary	Jane Winthrop
Colton Shires	Ethan Crane
Rodney Van Johnson	T.C. Russell
Sinqua Walls Mekhai Wilson	Miles Harris-Crane

Comings and goings

Actor	Role	Status
Hannia Guillen	Paloma Lopez-Fitzgerald	Debuts September 17
Marianne Muellerleile	Norma Bates	Exits September 4
Kathleen Noone	Edna Wallace	Exits September 4
Adrian Bellani	Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald	Exits September 7
Cathy Jeneen Doe	Simone Russell	Exits September 7
Brook Kerr	Whitney Russell Harris-Crane	Exits September 7
Mark Cameron Wystrach	Fox Crane	Exits September 7

Deceased cast members

Actor	Character	Year of Death
Owen Bush	Orville Perkins	2001
Josh Ryan Evans	Timmy Lenox	2002

Historical cast information

For a full listing of performers by role, see List of Passions characters

List of US daytime soap opera ratings

Awards

For a full listing of award wins and nominations, see List of Passions awards

Passions has been honored with numerous awards and nominations during its run, including Daytime Emmy Awards, Imagen Foundation Awards, and a GLAAD Media Award.

Breaking the fourth wall

With its humor and occasional tongue-in-cheek tone, Passions has been known to "break the fourth wall," or somehow call attention to the fact that the show is fictional. In an early episode, Kay, Simone and Zombie Charity were seen actually watching Passions. In a 2002 episode Theresa was giving birth while stuck in a cabin with Ethan and Gwen; she had a hallucination in which the three of them did a dance together and sang the show's theme. In 2004, TC made a reference to "that crazy soap after Days of our Lives", which in most areas airs before Passions. In one episode Fancy Crane used a magazine to hide her face from Noah; the magazine had an image of the then-unseen Rachel Barrett with the sentence "Who is she?" under the Passions logo. Fancy later commented that serials "are just like life; you never know what's going to happen!" In an early 2006 episode, Ivy and assistant Valerie were searching on the internet for Miguel to bring him back to Harmony and interfere with Fox and Kay's relationship. They couldn't find him, but Valerie tracked down his last place of employment: he was last seen working as a gardener in some suburban town on a street called Wisteria Lane. At that time, Jesse Metcalfe (ex-Miguel) was playing a gardener on the prime-time serial Desperate Housewives, which takes place on a street called Wisteria Lane. In the March 30, 2006 episode, while Passions reruns were airing on the Sci-Fi Channel, Simone compared life in Harmony to living in a show on the Sci-Fi Channel. Similarly, in the August 10, 2006 episode, Theresa commented that her office wasn't like a NBC daytime serial, and that she wouldn't hire somebody just because he looked like Jesse Metcalfe (who had portrayed her brother Miguel from 1999-2004). A similar inside joke occurred when the character Fancy had a dream that she was a cheerleader; in real life, Fancy's portrayer Emily Harper was a "Laker Girl" (cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers) from 2000-2003.

In the April 6, 2007 episode, Kay was watching the sixth [sic] hour of The Today Show (an apparent jab at NBC's decision to extend it at the expense of the Passions timeslot) when it was interrupted with a news report that Luis had been arrested.

On the April 13, 2007 episode, the character Grace Nancier (a take-off of Court TV's Nancy Grace) said "Maybe I can get my own show, maybe even on Court TV," referring to Grace's program on that channel.

On one episode Edna and Norma are trying to kill Miguel, but Endora blocks them with a bubble. Later, they complain and Endora says something, which always appear in a bubble and no one seems to notice them, and Edna tells her "enough with the bubbles already."

On July 27, 2007 Endora tells Norma that the audience may understand what she is saying but she doesn't. Then Norma asks what audience. This is a way of indicating that Endora is aware of the viewers.

Promotion and product placement

Passions has been known to "promote" other NBC programming within its storylines, and to incorporate commercial products into the plot in a promotional tactic known as product placement.

Shortly after Passions debuted, Campbell tomato soup was featured as an ingredient in Grace Bennett's tomato soup cake. Also, Nestlé Purina Dog Chow was used to feed Tabitha Lenox's pet cat Fluffy.

In a 2004 episode, TC watched an NBC ad for Days of our Lives on his TV, and went on to praise the writers of Days of our Lives for coming up with such good storylines; Days, at that time, was under the helm of James E. Reilly, head writer of Passions. In the September 4 2006, episode, Fox was sucked into a black hole; he then told Tabitha that it was the kind of black hole that one gets sucked into on the Sci Fi Channel, which was the channel on which Passions repeats aired in 2006. Tabitha then told him stick with NBC (Passions' network). In an episode later in September 2006, Siren tried to get Miguel into bed by singing her Siren's song. Miguel told her that she should not audition for America's Got Talent. In another episode, Tabitha talked about The Biggest Loser season finale, which was also aired on NBC. A more recent episode featured characters watching a trailer for the 2007 Diane Keaton film Because I Said So (produced by Universal Studios, which, like NBC, is owned by General Electric).

The real-life 2001 release of the novel Hidden Passions was incorporated into the storyline as a book written by character Tabitha Lenox. For a time, Jessica Bennett was an Avon mark saleswoman, and more recently the show featured Johnson & Johnson's K-Y Jelly personal lubricant.

In the April 10 2007 and April 11 2007 episodes, Jessica was shown using the Clearblue Easy pregnancy test.

Throughout the run of the show, everytime their has been an onscreen car, with a couple of exceptions, it has always been a DaimlerChrysler vehicle. Recently they have dropped the Mercedes models in favour of the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep models.

Referencing The Move To DirecTV

In July 2007, characters from Passions began to make on-air references to the show's move to DirecTV in September. Most of the scenes occurs with Tabitha, who has broken the fourth wall on the series on many occasions.

The very first on-air reference occured on July 13 2007 when Julian, who recently learned that Tabitha was a witch, asked if she could use her magic bowl to find his and Eve's son. Then, he asks if she could pick up DirecTV in the bowl, a tongue-in-cheek reference to Passions moving to DirecTV's The 101 in September 2007. Tabitha uses her powers to find DirecTV but she discovers that that channel is too good for her being a bad witch (calling it "Heaven sent") and then lists some of the good programming that DirecTV has to offer. Julian then laments that he should have invested in DirecTV when he had the chance. At the end of the segment, the DirecTV logo is shown in the bowl followed by the phrase "Heavensent Programming Coming Soon."

At the start of the July 26, 2007 episode of Passions, Norma and Edna are shown being forced to return to Tabitha's basement presumably by the demons ("the boys in the basement") that occupy that space. As they are pleading with Tabitha to save them from this situation, they explain they don't want to go back to the basement because it's pure hell, making reference to having to endure six hours of the Today Show with no DirecTV. Obviously this is another tongue-in-cheek shot at NBC who decided to cancel Passions on their network in favor of expanding Today to four hours (not six as exaggerated in Norma's plea).

In late July 2007, the Crane mansion, Tabitha's house, and the Bennett's house now sport a DirecTV satellite dish. On August 6, 2007 Edna reminds Tabitha and Norma that a new show is arriving on Direct TV on September 17 at 2:00, which is coincidentally the same date and time Passions will begin airing.

On August 10, Rebecca told Gwen that the occurrences in Harmony are like that soap that is moving to DirecTV, whereas Gwen said she has already made the switch. On August 22, 2007 Rebecca told Gwen she's being a bit over dramatic because she's been watching too much DirecTV.

On the August 23 episode, Tabitha makes reference to the NBC executives whining about the move to DirecTV.

Behind the scenes

Justin Hartley (ex-Fox) and Lindsay Hartley (Theresa) met on the show, and married in real life in 2004. They have a daughter, Isabella, born in 2004.

In a case of déjà vu, Juliet Mills' character Tabitha brought a doll to life in a 2005 episode. The doll was none other than Phoebe Figalilly from Nanny and the Professor, the sitcom in which Mills played the aforementioned character. Her real-life daughter Melissa Caulfield played the Phoebe role.

The characters Joyce Summers and Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are fans of Passions. However, the Spike from Buffy has no explicit connection to Spike from Passions. Passions has also been mentioned a couple of times on the Australian night-time serial Home and Away by some of the characters who have said that they will be watching or have watched an episode.

McKenzie Westmore is the daughter of Michael Westmore, an Emmy- and Academy Award-winning makeup artist.

Immediately prior to stepping into the role of Kay in 2003, Heidi Mueller appeared on the first season of the reality show Who Wants to Marry My Dad? as one of the four kids who selected from several women to be a wife for their father in 2003.

In an episode of the TV series Charmed, Piper Halliwell sits in bed watching a clip of Tabitha from Passions "wreaking havoc on all of Harmony."

Controversy

When it premiered in 1999, Passions featured a controversial storyline in which Sheridan Crane was identified as a close friend of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. In the storyline, Sheridan recalled speaking to Diana on the phone immediately prior to the 1997 car accident which took the Princess' life. Sheridan also had a similar accident in the same Paris tunnel, and spoke to a "guardian Angel Diana" who urged her to fight to survive. Sheridan later adopted the name Diana after a boating accident that resulted in amnesia.

In 2003, Passions submitted a trained orangutan named BamBam, who had been portraying the recurring role of Precious, for a Daytime Emmy Award. Precious was the non-speaking live-in nurse and caregiver for elderly Edna Wallace (Kathleen Noone), and held an unrequited love for Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald (depicted in elaborate fantasy sequences). In early 2004, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which administers the awards, disallowed the entry, with the following statement:

Our ruling is based on the belief that the Academy must draw a line of distinction between animal characters that aren't capable of speaking parts and human actors whose personal interpretation in character portrayal creates nuance and audience engagement that uniquely qualifies those performers for consideration of television's highest honor.

In 2007, Passions began the storyline of Chad, Charles Divins, cheating on his wife Whitney, Brook Kerr, with a man. Passions was also the first soap opera to have a storyline with a major underlying gay theme with the union of Simone Cathy Jeneen Doe and her partner Rae. Another recurring lesbian couple are Norma and Edna who met in a mental instution and became allies against Tabitha. In August 2007 they were seen dancing romantically and talking about their love life.

See also

• List of Passions awards
• List of Passions characters

External links

• Passions at NBC.com
• Rotten.com essay on Passions
• Daytime Soap Operas Passions -news, rumors, cast updates, polls
• TV Series Finale/Passions - cancellation details, possibilities of continuation and petition