Harmony Refers to Phyllis as "Miss Phyllis" on Thursday's The Young and the Restless
The New Year always brings with it a crop of fresh resolutions. "I'm going to lose weight." "I'm going to put back for a rainy day." "I'm going to spend more time on charitable causes." "I'm going to stop getting stark, raving mad about soap operas."
Not even a full week into 2012, and I've already broken one resolution by getting so angry at a television show I literally felt my blood boil. The maddening soap in question was CBS Daytime's The Young and the Restless, which on Thursday's air show had Harmony, a black female character played by soap legend Debbi Morgan, refer to her white female boss as "Miss Phyllis."
During the head-scratching scene, Ricky Williams asked Harmony about a job at Restless Style, the magazine the recovering drug addict was recently hired to work for. Harmony replied that the person Ricky needed to talk to was "Miss Phyllis, Phyllis Newman." I was so stunned I had to rewind it twice. I was fairly certain I hadn't set my DVR to tape a Hattie McDaniel movie from the 40's, nor an oft-recycled, racially-charged period piece like The Help or The Secret Life of The Bees. No, I was in fact watching a daytime soap opera set in 2012.
To say I became incensed on Twitter is quite the understatement, and to be quite honest, I regret that, because really, what's the point? For years we've been pointing out the passive-aggressive racism this show has exacted on its audience and stars, only to receive eyerolls from those who don't get it, or a myriad of excuses cloaking the sins of The Powers That Be.
I was too young (and there was no Twitter) to get fired up when the late Bill Bell named the Abbott's black maid Mamie; had a brother going around in white face and/or introduced Nathan Hastings as an illiterate thug called "Kong." Even at 13-years-old watching the soap in 1990, I questioned Drucilla not being able to read, when her sister grew up in the same African-American, middle class home—and managed to become a sorority sister and doctor— yet I was too caught up in Victoria Rowell's electrifying performance to focus on the negative aspects of the character.
To Bell's credit, he ended up telling popular, separate-but-equal stories for his black characters in the 90's. The writers who followed him continued that trend right up through the much lamented Lynn Marie Latham stint. Sure, the infamous LML may have destroyed the Abbotts and stripped Y&R of its glamour, but Dru and Neil (Kristoff St. John) at least had front burner stories that were equally as bad as Genoa City's white citizens during her tenure. From the moment Bill Belll's daughter-in-law Maria Arena Bell took over, however, all of that changed.
Even as we were praising MAB for restoring the Abbotts and Newmans, she did nothing for the Winters clan. After months of pressure, she finally scripted a half-baked story where Devon's (Bryton James) aunt Tyra (Eva Marcille) showed up in town with his gospel singng kid sister in tow. When a love story between Tyra and Neil failed to click with audiences, MAB revealed Tyra wasn't in fact Devon's relative and had the pair promptly screw before the character was ushered out of town.
Since that time, the black characters have been relegated to a hot plate behind the back burner, with only a botched triangle between Neil, a woefully recast Malcolm (Darius McCrary) and the monotone Sophia (Julia Pace Mitchell) to pass for diversity. Sure, it can be said that other characters like Michael Baldwin (Christian Le Blanc), Lauren Fenmore (Tracey Bregman) and Paul Williams (Doug Davidson) have been shown equal disdain by the current regime, but I don't recall any of those stars admitting they were punished for speaking out with a lack of airtime, like St. John revealed he was on Jamie Foxx's radio show.
If you ask anyone in the industry, you'll hear what a swell gal Maria Arena Bell is. "She isn't a racist," people insist. Maybe not, but she is a sadly out-of-touch, Beverly Hills socialite passing for writer. A true writer is curious about the human condition. Agnes Nixon didn't have to be black woman to write amazing tales for characters of color on Guiding Light, One Life to Live and later All My Children, where she created the iconic characters of Jesse and Angie, in creative conjunction with new Y&R hires Darnell Williams and Morgan. Nixon masterfully interwove tales featuring ALL the people on her canvases, despite their respective races. I keep hearing what a big fan of All My Children MAB was in the 80's. Did she fast-forward all of that?
Nixon has said on numerous occasions in the press she wanted to combat the racial injustices she saw in society via her writing, which is why I will defend her legacy of diversity to the time I stop writing for this blog. Maria Arena Bell on the other hand, doesn't write from a place of curiousity about those who are different from her. She writes as an afterthought to her latest big casting get.
This woman appears to love having the power of being Y&R's Executive Producer/Head Writer/Chief Craft Services Menu Decider, but she doesn't appear to want to be bothered with actually having to have passion for the job, or for storytelling. Her pisspoor treatment of black characters on this show is but one example of that.
Sure, it might not have been MAB who wrote that line for Morgan's character. She's a head writer, not a script writer, and as some have pointed out, it could have been ad-libbed by the actor. However, it was MAB who decided to bring on a daytime legend to play an ebonics-spouting crackwhore. It also was MAB who reportedly insisted on having autonomy in her contract. So in my opinion, the buck stops with her. Does she not watch the footage before it airs? Is she too busy at MOCA?
I must also ask why Morgan agreed to utter such a line? This isn't taking away any of the tremendous respect I have for this phenomenal actress, but again, unless she was starring in a period piece about "colored" maids in the 1960's, there is no way in high hell she should have agreed to refer to a white woman with a "Miss" in front of her first name in The Year of Our Lord 2012. It just ain't fittin'. Watch the offensive exhange below at the 10:00 mark.
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Comments
29 October 2010
17 weeks 2 days
Dear Mr. Giddens:
I agree with your comments.
On Wednesday, January 4, 2012, I stopped watching "The Young and the Restless".
Why is superstar Debbie Morgan given such horrible dialogue? Ugh! This isn't 1940?
Why is there no respect for the show's history?
I started watching when Jill moved her family to the Chancellor estate and had Phillip buried there. I just can't take anymore. It's painful to watch and I give up.
Thanks.
11 January 2010
1 week 51 min
I think you are overreacting Jamey. It is a term of respect, one that a lot of younger people don't learn anymore. I teach my kids to call anyone that would be an authority figure to them either Miss Phyllis or Miss Newman. To me, watching that scene she saw this young kid(to her), and that's why she called her Miss Phyllis and right after that she said her full name. This could be because I am white and it doesn't have the same history for me, but I did not find this to be offensive at all. Now if Phyllis had told her she wanted to see the mockups and she said "Oh yes, Miss Phyllis, I'll go get them", THAT would have offended me.
22 January 2008
2 hours 4 min
I think you are overreacting Jamey.
***
Of course you do, Scooter.
18 August 2009
14 hours 44 min
I see the point, but I think it was ad-libbed. And actually, I honestly don't think it was meant to sound like "Slave jargon". I think DM added it in just because-...well, Victoria Rowell said things like that all the time, it just came off DIFFERENTLY with Debbi Morgan. ANd I highly doubt that VR would say it in a scene where she was speaking to her WHITE boss. But I won't give MAB too much, simply because it didn't seem like something that was scripted. I think it if were scripted, even Debbi Morgan would've objected to that. But when she said it, it seemed kind of-...idk. DIFFERENT. Sure, I was offended, but even THEN, I realized that that was nothing that could've been written.
I agree that MAB has treated the black characters (which had a lot to do with KEEPING Y&R number 1 for all these years) like dirt...but I highly doubt that any of these writers would go THAT far. Their feelings toward the black characters are not obvious to the naked or ignorant eye. For most, you would have to be black to "get" it...because others just say that whole "we don't see Paul, Nina, Michael, Lauren" line in every post. But I highly doubt that the writers would slip something THAT offensive in. If they did...it's disgusting.
If it was an adlib by Debbi Morgan, then I wish they would've reshot that scene. OF course the budget it tight but geesh. Either it was an innocent thing that they figured other people wouldn't think about because THEY didn't htink about it....ORRRRRR it was written that way and TPTB just didn't CARE.
IDK. I wonder if Debbi Morgan has a twitter...I want to ask...lol. ANd resolve this. Because I don't want my show to lose ratings over something that was an ad lib.
23 November 2010
2 hours 2 min
Not defending the line at all, but is there
any way it was meant "sarcastically"??
You know, some sort of (misguided) put-down
of Phyllis cause she's such a pain-in-the ass??
I mean, she's a great b*tch, but I don't think
I'd enjoy the experience of working for her. lol
I have enormous respect for Debbi Morgan,
she couldn't have missed the meaning of the phrase,
there must have been some reason she felt
justified in saying it.
Sounds like a Debbi Morgan interview should
be in the immediate future.
1 February 2010
1 week 6 days
First, "relegated to a hot plate behind the back burner" is a FANTASTIC line, Jamey.
Second, I'm just a white boy, but I totally, totally get why this makes you steaming mad. I don't think you're overreacting, really, even if I think this is more "straw that broke the camel's back" than anything. I actually do know of a white woman who gets called "Miss [Firstname]" by the black people of her neighborhood. But it's a TOTALLY DIFFERENT THING! She's an elderly woman who's lived there for over fifty years. They love and respect her. She isn't their employer and they aren't her employees. They aren't crackhos who can't read.
18 August 2009
14 hours 44 min
Exactly!! With an accomplished actress like DM, I don't see her saying the line if it were scripted. And if it WAS scripted, TPTB HAD to have coached her and told her what they meant by it (even IF they didn't mean what they said they meant lol). But I just find it hard to believe...I mean, some have said that VR and DM are good friends (which I've read somewhere as well)...and I'm pretty dang sure they have had conversations about Y&R and what goes on behind the scenes. So all sorts of alarms would've gone off in that woman's head when she read that line. I still think it was adlibbed. But I'm sure we'll all find out because SOMEONE is going to ask...lol
16 October 2008
3 hours 6 min
I hated when Ana used to Miss and Mister everyone to death.
22 January 2008
2 hours 4 min
She's an elderly woman who's lived there for over fifty years.
***
Exactly. Had she called Kay "Ms. Katherine" I still would have winced a bit, because of the history of adult black women having to refer to white women as "Miss," but it wouldn't have been nearly as offensive, given Kay's age and stature in the community.
Anyone who works in an office setting in 2012 knows it is insane to have an employee call their superior Mr. or Miss followed by their first name. Harmony works for Phyllis at a supposedly cosmopolitan fashion magazine; she isn't her chamber maid. I don't recall Chloe calling her "Miss Phyllis" when she worked there.
12 December 2008
5 hours 51 min
This woman appears to love having the power of being Y&R's Executive Producer/Head Writer/Chief Craft Services Menu Decider, but she doesn't appear to want to be bothered with actually having to have passion for the job, or for storytelling.
I agree with your commentary in general but this comment really hit the nail on the head. I don't get the sense that this show is her passion either. It's reflected in the chaos that is now The Young and the Restless. This show used to be about something. It was a beautifully crafted, character driven dazzler.
LML was the first guilty offender to steer this show off track. But under MAB she kept it off track and topped her predecessor by driving it into the ground. Y&R's identity is ambiguous to me. Bell wants it to be something but I'm still unclear what that something is. One moment I'm in awe and the next I'm rolling my eyes (but I'm mostly rolling my eyes). However, one thing is very clear to me. Her idea of good taste is not translating to the masses. If she really believes this show is in good shape then we all owe it to ourselves to bow out of this relationship gracefully because I don't see it getting better.
I wish the Bell children along with their matriarch, Lee Philip Bell, would end this crap already! It's gone on long enough. My loyalty spans 25 years. They owe it to the legions of fans who have kept it number one and on the air for all these decades. I want Bell, Sheffer and Hamner gone!!!!
30 August 2009
17 weeks 4 days
First and foremost, I don't think Debbi Morgan would in any way, shape, or form, deliver dialogue that she thought was racist. If she did, there would be a huge interview from her. She isn't some newbie that needs this job. She's a daytime legend. Your never-ending hatred of Y&R is well noted.
2 October 2009
16 hours 35 min
I do totally agree with you, Jamey. Thanks for clarifying!
26 September 2010
7 hours 2 min
Jamey this is a very interesting topic. I, too, was a bit taken aback when I heard DM utter this on the show. My first reaction was that it was included due to the tremendous popularity of The Help last year and its buzz with all the upcoming awards shows. I understand completely your disdain for this considering it throws blacks right back into an insulting stereotype. BUT I think what we really need to look at is what is the closest truth based on reality in 2012. Unfortunately there are still A LOT of blacks, especially in the South, who speak this way. At my former workplace I heard it with my own ears many times. I'm sure you know this living in Atlanta(I'm in NC). So even though Y & R should always try to take the high road and try to help erradicate stereotypes, we need to try to figure out if the character of Harmony would really talk like that. I really don't know because I don't know if blacks in the Midwest use this. If she had been from the South it would've technically been feasible. Once again I'm not advocating the decision, just trying to break it down.
5 April 2011
19 weeks 5 days
My name is Phyllis Scott. I get "Miss Phyllis" all the time from both whites and Blacks. I'm Black. I never get plain Phyllis or Miss Scott; it's always,"how you doin', Miss Phyllis". I used to think it was a famous character's name and they were poking humor at me. My grandmother's name is PHYLLIS, also. People address her as "Miss Phyllis". Her relatives call her "Cousin Phyllis", even her cousins of equal rank.
Maybe the whole thing is inherent in the name itself and has no racial implications. Just my thought. When I was in grade school people use to taunt me: "You got a white girl's name....you got a white girl's name." I used to run home in tears. I started calling myself Phy One (Phyllis Oneida": shortened from both my grandmothers.)
Nobody names their girls "Phyllis" anymore, seems like.
11 April 2009
4 hours 29 min
Given Debbi Morgan's own published comments about the racism that she's experienced as a black actress, I doubt that she would have spoken a line that she felt was racist. I think "Miss Phyllis" was a flubbed line.
However, I do agree that MAB has done a spectacularly poor jobs with non-white characters since taking over whether that was the shabby treatment of Kristoff St. John, Nia Peeples or Bryton James or the deciding the best way to usher the character of Tyra off the canvas was by having her sleep with her own nephew and leave town in shame. It's been highly insensitive.
Unfortunately, daytime, in general, has a poor history of handling minority storylines. Hell, Peter Bergman got fired from AMC because viewers didn't like his and Debbi Morgan's interracial storyline. Days has done a poor job with the Carvers. Passions, although willing to integrate its black cast, it used lots of stereotypes.
20 November 2007
1 hour 30 min
Too many people first reaction was to be taken aback. I was too.
And I did not follow up with trying to put a mental nice cap on it. My guts are right and so are yours Jamie.
Just NOT acceptable.
11 January 2010
1 week 51 min
***
Of course you do, Scooter.
What exactly does that mean Jamey?
Do you honestly think the rest of my post is untrue or impossible that it was the reason?
Seriously, I don't believe that DM would have ever said that if she thought it had any racial or stereotypical implications.
5 April 2011
19 weeks 5 days
My name is Phyllis Scott. I get "Miss Phyllis" all the time from both whites and Blacks. I'm Black. I never get plain Phyllis or Miss Scott; it's always,"how you doin', Miss Phyllis". I used to think it was a famous character's name and they were poking humor at me. My grandmother's name is PHYLLIS, also. People address her as "Miss Phyllis". Her relatives call her "Cousin Phyllis", even her cousins of equal rank. Maybe "Phyllis" needs a respect prefix...a title to go with it.
Maybe the whole thing is inherent in the name itself and has no racial implications. Just my thought. When I was in grade school people use to taunt me: "You got a white girl's name....you got a white girl's name." I used to run home in tears. I started calling myself Phy One (Phyllis Oneida": shortened from both my grandmothers.)
Nobody names their girls "Phyllis" anymore, seems like.
9 July 2009
3 weeks 1 day
We also have to remember that Y&R's writing team does have a black woman on it by the name of Susan Dansby. If she saw that in the scripts, she would have yanked that line faster than you can say jumping jack flash because I'm quite sure she would have found that line to be extremely offensive. Like Stoney7 said, there are several reasons why it may have ended up on our screens. Until we know the full scope of what really happened and who the offending party is/was, we cannot judge what happened on our very TV screens yesterday until we have the full story. But I do hope that Jamey or someone else here at DC ends up interviewing Debbi Morgan and asking her point blank about that line she used in yesterday's episode. Until then, stop with the finger pointing. For every finger you point, you've got 3 more pointing back at you.
Yes, I found the line a bit jarring myself and I am white. I may not fully understand black history (yes, I have many black friends and my first boyfriend was black) and the many things that blacks have gone through in this country, but when I hear a black person on my TV in 2012 saying a line like that, my one and only hearing ear perked up and I thought, "Did she just say that?"
To Scooter, you're not helping here. You're only making Jamey all that much angrier by the minute and a very angry Jamey is not something you want to cross. Jamey as a black man has a right to his opinions and for you to tell him that he's overreacting is a slap in the face. I sincerely believe that you owe him an apology.
Michael
15 January 2009
36 min 44 sec
Hey I don't even watch the show. Because you know they would never hired Susan Lucci to play a trailer trash woman trying to turn her life around.
18 August 2009
14 hours 44 min
MAB and her staff are bad WRITERS...
They've got Melody Thomas Scott pissy drunk and running around town slurring and stumbling (tho I love it)
THey've got Sharon Case sharing her cookies to any man who has a golden ticket...
They've got Stacy Haiduk lurking around town with a veil on her face (which is not that badly bruised might I add)
They've got Jess Walton, Tricia Cast, Tracey Bregman, etc....ALL white actresses doing absolutely NOTHING....
So I don't think it would be a stretch for them to have Susan Lucci playing a trailer trash woman. Just like I didn't think it would be a stretch to see Debbi Morgan play Yolanda.
I'm mixed with a few things, mainly black, white, puerto rican...but I was raised entirely by my black family. ANd regardless as to what I am, I think its pretty apparent that TPTB don't give a good kitty (in the words of my girl Dru) about the black characters on this show. But what I DON'T see is them scripting a completely BLATANT racist shot for an actress like Debbi Morgan to say. I just don't see it happening. And even if they had, I KNOW she wouldn't agree to say it.
31 January 2010
2 hours 21 min
Dear Jamey,
This aging White boy is totally with you! Let me add: it is distressing to see how lots of White readers of Daytime Confidential don't understand what you're saying and write that you are overreacting. Same old rotten tune that is always sung by the callous majority when anyone points out an instance of sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, or any other type of bigotry. No, people, Jamey Giddens isn't OVERreacting; you are UNDERreacting.
I hope, Jamey, that you will continue to speak out strongly against racism and other forms of bigotry, whether on YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS or anywhere else. You have my support and respect.
4 November 2011
6 weeks 5 days
Is that true? My recollection is that he landed Y&R after the dismal zero-chemistry storyline between Cliff and Angie. I recall it being a big "get" for Y&R to steal Bergman away from AMC, but I don't recall anyone saying AMC fired him. Just asking.
30 March 2009
3 hours 36 min
Spot on Jamey!!!
I've ranted about MAB over my Melody Thomas Scott but my second offense to her is her lack of use of the "black" characters on her show. Up until Drucilla's "death" they were featured for two decades with no problem. Now we get a dismal 4 episodes a month during a good month.
Whether people like it or not, I know many who are NOT African-American won't get it. They will think you are overreacting but this isn't the first offense by MAB's regime. You pointed them out during your piece so I won't be redundant but the proof is in the pudding.
I watched the clip yesterday and was taken aback as well. I was at a lost for words. This is unacceptable in 2012.
Say what you will about Bill Bell but he wrote a lot better stories and the characters of Nate and Drucilla were played by much better actors than say Darius McCrary's Malcolm and Julia Pace Mitchell's Sophia.
I don't know anyone who is in their right mind would refer to anyone as Miss/Mister who's their boss. It's a shame and it's clear how out of touch Y&R is with "black" ppl. Getting on Y&R shouldn't be our only complaint though. B&B and the other soaps on the air don't do a much better job.
3 April 2009
2 weeks 6 days
Jamie, what do you think of the Evans family on ONE LIFE?
Stefan, I live in Wisconsin...and I have always found it amusing...how Y&R glamourizes the "dairy state".
Erik
7 April 2011
3 hours 15 min
I agree with you 100%, Jamey. Rarely watch Y&R these days, so fortunately missed this craziness. It had become very difficult to be a Black viewer of daytime serials because of the treatment of Black actors and characters involved. Soaps have become steadily less diverse and the 'diversity' we see is relegated to the hyper-stereotypical-fashion, ie. Yolanda and Angelina on Y&R, Mookie on now defunct AMC (I spit nails over that one) and the few Blacks being glorified day players despite being on a show for year's (DAYS' Abe and Lexie.)
13 February 2010
2 days 18 hours
I don't think DM would have delivered the line if she thought it was racially charged. I can understand how some might see that it was, but I don't think there was any intentional or subconscious intent of racism.
I do think that Jamey hates MAB and Y&R right now, so it's a nice ax to grind with TPTB there.
As far as the show going to shit, it's obvious to any viewer that it is. I cannot fathom what these moronic writers must talk about when they are pushing these stupid s/l's. It's like they are truly a bunch of monkeys hurling crap against the wall. The show's a fucking mess.
26 September 2010
7 hours 2 min
LOL I read you said that recently in another post Erik and I thought it was really funny. I agree with you that's it's hilarious that so many leaders of industry and millionaires live in a town in Wisconsin. LOL I pretty much guessed I wouldn't typically see a Nikki newman diva with her full-length chinchilla coat and perfect silky flippy hairdo in a Wisconsin restaurant. lol
15 October 2008
14 weeks 1 day
I think it was an ad-lib. She, just like Genie Francis, had made such a to do about wanting to differentiate from their previous iconic characters. And if this is what she thinks of this Tyler Perry inspired character as being a "black Erica Kane", cliches and all, that is on her.
Yeah it is fun to place blame on MAB, but I don't think she and her team are that stupid to script that.
22 January 2008
2 hours 4 min
@StefanStavros "BUT I think what we really need to look at is what is the closest truth based on reality in 2012. Unfortunately there are still A LOT of blacks, especially in the South, who speak this way. At my former workplace I heard it with my own ears many times. I'm sure you know this living in Atlanta(I'm in NC)."
***
Unfortunately, there are also still a LOT of whites, especially in the South, who speak like Harmony too. Don't get it twisted. At my current workplace, I am forever having to tell Luke it is "She and I went to the movies," not "Her and I went to the movies." Yet if we were on Y&R, I'd be the one in a doo rag calling him "Misser Luke."
Just like I know a lot of blacks who speak like Harmony, I know white people who act like Dog the Bounty Hunter and his family, and that man who dives into swamps looking to fight snapping turtles. I also know white doctors, lawyers, CEO's and (surprise surprise) black doctors, lawyers and CEO's.
I also know some white people who would appear to come straight out of Deliverance, as well as blacks who come straight from the hood, however, on this particular soap opera, they only go for the lowest common denominator when creating stereotypes for black actors to play out.
How do you think it would go over if the Newmans and Abbotts were replaced with people akin to those on that reality show about Moonshiners? Contrary to popular belief, there are people of ALL races who speak with broken English and act uncouth. Blacks didn't corner the market, yet if you believe TV and film, you'd think we're all on crack, waiting for a nice white person to teach us to read and how to use utensils to get sugar out of a damn dish.