“The Bold and the Beautiful” is the first American soap opera reportedly planning to resume production two months after deciding to suspend due to COVID-19 concerns and “Stay at Home” orders issued by California Governor Gavin Newsom. The soap is eyeing June as its restart date if it can meet all the hurdles it faces.
According to Deadline, producers of the soap have issued a new memo to cast and crew informing them that they are working on resuming production in June should they get approval by the Hollywood unions, along with fulfilling guidelines set by Television City, where the soap is filmed, the city of Los Angeles and the state of California. Sources stress to the publication that a June restart is just a projection. The soap was said to have planned to restart production today, May 15, according to comments made by actor Scott Clifton during a recent Periscope session with his followers on Twitter.
“We have an idea. We were told, all of us — the whole cast — that we’d try for mid-May so, May 15th-ish. But we had been given other dates before that that didn’t pan out because things keep changing,” said Clifton. “Everything is tentative. We’re really itching to get back in there and give you guys more story. Even when we do go back there will be a lot more protocol than there was before. We might even have to film things differently where we’re not in such close proximity [with one another].”
“B&B” aired its last batch of original episodes on April 23. Production ceased effective March 17.
There’s no word on whether “Y&R” is looking to follow its soap sibling in resuming production should all the hurdles be met. Both soaps shoot at Television City in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles.
— Scott Clifton (@CliftonsNotes) May 12, 2020