Exclusive: Who really tells Michele Val Jean where to take her characters on Beyond the Gates

Veteran daytime scribe Michele Val Jean has joined the ranks of other soap opera creators including Agnes Nixon (One Life to Live; All My Children), William J. Bell (The Young and the Restless; The Bold and the Beautiful), and James E. Reilly (Passions) courtesy of her show Beyond the Gates, CBS’s newest soap opera that debuted on Monday, February 24, 2025.

Michele Val Jean's COVID writing project gives soaps new life

Set in the prestigious gated community of Fairmont Crest, Beyond the Gates tells the stories of the prestigious Dupree family, headed by Anita (Tamara Tunie) and Vernon Dupree (Clifton Davis), their extended family, and their friends and foes.

Val Jean is a veteran scribe of numerous soaps including Generations, Santa Barbara, General Hospital, and B&B. She started writing Beyond the Gates during the COVID-19 pandemic and the show, a coproduction of Procter & Gamble Studios, CBS Studios, and NAACP Ventures, was greenlit into production.

Soap Central sat down with Val Jean for an exclusive interview to get the scoop on Beyond the Gates – how the show came to be and who tells her where her characters need to go!

Soap Central: Has it sunk in that you’ve joined the ranks of other soap opera creators?

Michele Val Jean: No, it hasn’t. It still feels surreal. When the promos came out, it was like “Wow!” I carried this world around in my head for four years. Then, I went to Atlanta for the first three weeks of shooting [last year]. And there it was – fully realized, living breathing, characters [who now] have faces and clothes and hair and sets! People had jobs, you know what I mean? All these people were working. It’s overwhelming, sometimes.

Have you taken a moment to let it all sink in?

No, it’s just work. I haven’t read a book since September.

You’ve written for Bridget and Jerome Dobson (Santa Barbara), Sally Sussman Morina (Generations), Claire Labine (GH), and Brad Bell (B&B). What did you take away from those experiences both as a writer and now, as someone who has created her very own show?

Something different from all of them, I guess. Generations with Sally was my first soap gig. She let scriptwriters sit around the table in the writers’ room when weeks were being plotted. I got my foundation there. I learned a lot there and I also learned that a soap opera can feel like a family. When it got canceled, it felt like a death in the family.

Then, I went to Santa Barbara. The Dobsons weren’t there that long [when I got there]. But, gosh, I love Bridget. She made me a script editor when I was so green and I had no business with my hands on those scripts. Courtney Simon (As the World Turns) and Bob Guza (GH; co-head writer, BTG) were writers on the show. I thought, 'I don't know how to [edit].' And Bridget was like, ‘Darling, editing is easy! If you like it, keep it! And if you don’t, cut it or change it. You’ll be fine!' And that was that.

I wasn’t a full-time script editor. The Dobsons had like 12 weeks of vacation a year. When they were gone, I did it. That was my takeaway. When I got to GH, Wendy [Riche, executive producer] hired me as a script editor and dialogue writer. Again, there was that sense of family under Wendy. I made some lifelong friends at GH. Brad Bell [executive producer/head writer, B&B] has been so supportive of this particular project. The whole show has. But Brad has gone above and beyond to support me in doing this…I learned something from all of these people that enabled me to write the bible for this. Everybody’s hands are really on it.

You said in the CBS News Sunday Morning interview that networks weren’t buying soap operas. What were your plans for your bible for Beyond the Gates?

I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere. It came to me during COVID. I thought it would be a nice COVID [writing] project since I couldn’t go anywhere. I kept writing for B&B the whole time I was doing the bible. But I didn’t think anything would come of it. Networks aren’t greenlighting soap operas anymore.

Why do you think this one got the green light?

I think the time has come for a soap to be centered around a rich, Black family [on] an hour soap. Black women are big soap opera viewers. I grew up in a soap opera watching family. My grandmother watched. My mother watched. But one of the things that troubled me was that there weren’t many people that looked like me. There was an occasional best friend. Sometimes a family would come in and go out. I didn’t see people who looked like me driving story. I think a lot of Black women felt that way. With this show, you get to see Black people driving story. Timing is everything in life. I think the time is right for this particular show.

We’ve seen on soaps wealthy Dominque Deveraux (Diahann Carroll) on Dynasty, supercouple Jesse (Darnell Williams) and Angie (Debi Morgan) on All My Children; leading man Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John) had his very own private jet on Y&R. There was the Ward family on GH. How do the characters who are on Behind the Gates differ from those characters?

The family is different. We haven’t seen characters like this. They’re very unique. Very individual. Very rich. Our matriarch and patriarch are iconic. Anita [Tamara Tunie] was a successful singer. Vernon [Clifton Davis] is a former Civil Rights activist. You hadn’t seen that on daytime television before.

Tamara’s a big fan favorite from not only Law & Order: SVU as Dr. Melinda Warner, M.E. but from her time as savvy attorney Jessica Griffin on ATWT. Can you talk about how she was cast?

We put out a feeler. She was interested. Sheila Ducksworth [executive producer] and I did a Zoom call with her. We all got along famously. She said, “Let’s make this work!” And we did. I couldn’t be more over the moon about it. She is the queen of us. She is wonderful and is amazing in this role. She has commanded it. She is everything and more that I wanted for Anita Dupree.

Beyond the Gates is the first soap opera in many years that’s not shot in Los Angeles. It’s also available on streaming. If you haven't caught the beginning, you can catch up by going to Paramount Plus.

It’s amazing. CBS Publicity has been amazing. We make use of social media. CBS Publicity has gotten the word out on all of its platforms. My phone started blowing up during a football game because a bunch of guys I know saw the promo [for the show during a game].

Was there any pushback on having a gay couple — Martin Richardson (Brandon Claybon) and Bradley “Smitty” Smith (Mike Manning) -- on the show? Or are we, no pun intended, 'beyond' that now?

There was no pushback. None at all. They’re a couple like any other couple. They have ups and downs. They kiss. They hold hands. They fight. We treat them like we would any other front-and-center couple.

Soaps are about the slow burn. Viewers wait years for secrets to come out, couples to get together, etc. How do you balance that with the need viewers have for instant gratification in today’s world?

You’ve got to believe in your knowledge of who the characters are. I can’t speak for everybody, but I listen to the characters – they tell me what they need and where they want to go. My job is to get them there in the most interesting and compelling ways possible. That’s what I do.

Catch all-new episodes of Beyond the Gates on CBS and Paramount Plus.