When CBS’ “The Bold and the Beautiful” made the surprising decision to kill off its iconic villain Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) back in February, only to bring her back two months later with the twist that it wasn’t her who died but her look-alike, Sugar (also played by Brown), fans weren’t sure if the show decided to reverse course due to backlash, or if the plan was put in place all along—either way, executive producer/head writer Bradley P. Bell formally addressed the decision to bring back the character in a recent interview with Deadline.
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According to Bell, “Villains typically need a cooling off period, which just adds to the drama to their return.” He added, “And Sheila needs to cool her heels once in a while. Sheila has been a ratings dynamo, and that’s why she’s murdered so many people. She is now happily married and working at a restaurant. Somehow people forgive her because she’s always looked for love and acceptance. That’s something that we can all relate to.”
With “The Bold and the Beautiful” on the air for 37 years and “The Young and the Restless” airing for 51 years,” Bell told Deadline that in a challenging landscape, where television ratings are down across the board, “fans need to know that we are a place they can rely on, not only to visually see those characters, but to know that these character will still be the same you knew from a month ago or 10 years ago or 30 years ago.”
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Bell also says that when a show makes the surprising decision to say goodbye to legacy characters, the story must be strong enough to justify the departure. The comment directly correlates with the recent decision by “General Hospital” to kill off the Sam McCall character, played by 21-year veteran Kelly Monaco, with Bell saying, “You’re getting rid of a lot of history. But if the story is that good, it’s important to make that decision.”
An example cited by Bell was the 2012 decision to write out the Stephanie Forrester character on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” played by original cast member Susan Flannery, who was 73 at the time, made the decision that she wanted to retire after an extensive acting career in daytime television that includes “The Young and the Restless” and “Days of our Lives,” among others.
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“It just seemed like a poetic way for her to go,” said Bell, referring to Stephanie dying of cancer while being held by her arch nemesis/daughter-in-law, Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang), who she’s famously called the “slut from the valley,” following Brooke’s intimate relations with both of Stephanie’s sons (Ridge and Thorne), and her husband, Eric (John McCook).
“It’s always scary and it’s always difficult to say goodbye, but again, very necessary,” continued Bell. “You have to kill them every once in a while in order to keep your credibility as a writer. And I promise myself every year, I’m going to kill more people.”
This summer, “The Bold and the Beautiful” did just that when it offered up a serial killer storyline that saw two characters bite the dust (Tom and Hollis, played by Clint Howard and Hollis W. Chambers).
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On the Thursday, August 27 episode, it was revealed that the killer was none other than Luna Nozawa (Lisa Yamada), who had wanted a better life for herself after growing up with a drug-addicted mother, Poppy (Romy Park), and after recently discovering her missing dead beat father, Tom, was a homeless man. In her mind, this left her no other choice than to off anyone who might keep her from getting what she wanted – money and power. Luna went on to frame her mother for her crimes and even kidnapped Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) to keep her secret.
The storyline paid off in the end as the show recently topped its lead-in “The Young and the Restless” in three of the last four weeks among the key Women 18-49 sales demographic (unrounded).
“The Bold and the Beautiful” airs weekdays at 1:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT on CBS. Stream Live and On Demand on Paramount+.