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| Part 1 Giant serpents, satanically possessed teens, killer comets...anything goes on Passions. Still, fans of the NBC soap weren't prepared for the juicy dish revealed last January in Hidden Passions: Secrets From The Diaries of Tabitha Lenox (Harper Collins). "Written" by Tabitha, a 300-year old witch, and published without permission by her wily doll Timmy, the tome - part Harlequin romance, part Peyton Place - became an instant New York Times best-seller. But Tabby's tell-all didn't tell all: James E. Reilly, Passions's creator, has helped TV Guide uncover a lost chapter, narrated by Timmy (who, as fans know, always refers to himself in the third person). The conclusion appears in next week's issue. But beware: Hot summer plot scoops are revealed! The night was cold. Timmy was down to his last candy cane and decided to use it in a farewell yuletide martimmy, Timmy's signature drink. Timmy came into the darkened living room to find Tabitha snoring loudly on the couch. Not one, but two empty martimmy pitchers were lying nearby. Timmy could tell his princess was troubled. Then, suddenly, a red glow surrounded her, and Timmy watched in amazement as his princess floated off the couch and out of the living room. Timmy could hear the deep, sinister, guttural voices from the basement. The dark forces were aroused and angry. They were summoning Tabitha to explain her failures. Timmy followed his princess and saw her float through the closed basement door. Timmy tried to follow, but it was no use. The Dark Forces wouldn't let Timmy go any further. Princess was on her own. Timmy could hear the voices coming from the basement. Tabitha was being called to account to the masters of the Dark for letting Hidden Passions be published. Timmy could tell from Tabitha's voice that his princess was scared. Tabitha begged for forgiveness, and promised that she wouldn't let anything from the secret scroll get into the book. The Dark Forces growled out the names of Sheridan and Luis. Are their secrets in the book? Tabitha swore they weren't. Now, dear reader, let me tell you, Timmy's ears pricked up at the mention of the secret scroll. What has my princess been keeping from her Timmy about Sheridan and Luis? Timmy listened carefully and what he heard made Timmy more intrigued to read this secret scroll. But where was it? Then, as if Tabitha heard the questions echoing in Timmy's head, she told the Dark Forces that the secret scroll was safely locked up in the attic. Now, Timmy admits to one failing, namely, curiosity. Timmy had to read this scroll. Some need, some drive that Timmy never felt before burned inside Timmy. Timmy stood at the door to the attic, looking at the mountains of boxes and suitcases, furniture and clothes that Tabitha has been storing away for the last 200 years. Where would Timmy find this secret scroll? Timmy remembered something Tabitha once told him about wind chimes and moonlight. When you were in trouble and the moon was full, as it was that night, let the moonlight shine through the crystal prisms and ask it to show you what you're looking for. Timmy never knew whether or not his princess was pulling his leg, but her house was full of such magic and bizarre things that he decided to give it a go. Timmy followed Tabitha's directions chanting a spell Endora used on Bewitched. Suddenly, a ray of moonlight hit the wind-chime crystals just like in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Timmy saw a beam of light cut through the darkness of the attic and pinpoint a spot on the furthest and darkest corner. The spell worked! Now Timmy would know what was on the scroll. Timmy found the ancient box containing the scroll, and after a deep breath and a sip of a martimmy, Timmy slowly lifted the top off. Dear reader, Timmy hopes that you never experience what Timmy did at that moment. The cries of pain and anguish coming from that box will haunt poor Timmy to the end of Timmy's days. What's worse is that Timmy recognized the voices of the tortured souls coming from the scroll. They were the voices of Sheridan and Luis. Timmy could hear Luis calling to Sheridan, his voice full of fear that she was lost to him. He could hear Sheridan's moans of pain, her prayers that Luis would rescue her. Their anguish! Their misery! Timmy's eyes welled with tears. Whatever the future, whatever the summer of 2001 had in store for Luis and Sheridan, it would bring grief to them beyond measure. Timmy's curiosity overcame his fear, and Timmy slowly lifted the scroll from where it had lain undisturbed for centuries. It was at that moment that long bony fingers grabbed Timmy by the shoulders. Timmy screamed as he had never screamed before. When Timmy got his courage back and turned to face whatever had Timmy in its grasp, Timmy was relieved to see it was only Tabitha. Timmy told her that she had scared the stuffing out of Timmy, but Tabitha only glared at Timmy with an anger that Timmy had never seen before. Tabitha was furious that Timmy had touched the secret scroll. Timmy tried to explain that Timmy had to know what the Dark Forces had in store for Luis and Sheridan. Sheridan had only just come back from the dead at Christmas! After all they went through, what more could happen? She and Luis were finally so happy. Tabitha didn't see the romance the way Timmy did. She grabbed the scroll from Timmy, but the anguished cries coming from its folds only intensified. Tabitha shouted at the scroll for the voices to be silent. What awaited them was written on before the first dawn ever broke over Eden. Tabitha snarled at the scroll with a hatred Timmy had never seen in her. Timmy asked Tabitha what was going on. What was happening inside that scroll, inside the lives of Sheridan and Luis that would produce such horrible anguish? Tabitha sat down hugging the scroll and she told Timmy that he had opened a Pandora's box. She guessed that if Timmy was so eager to know what was in it, then it was Timmy, Timmy knew the future - and what awaited Sheridan and Luis. But remember, Timmy asked for it! Timmy was confused. Timmy had already read in Tabitha's diaries about Sheridan and Luis's past lives in the American Revolution, and Tabitha had no problem with that. What was so different in this scroll? Timmy knew that Tabitha's main goal was to prevent Miguel and Charity from ever making love because Charity would receive her full powers and be able to destroy Tabitha. Tabitha told Timmy that equally important to the Dark Forces was the destruction of Sheridan and Luis. Their love had endured over centuries, and the Dark Forces hated it. heaven was determined to thwart the Dark Forces and Tabitha, so over the centuries, it allowed Sheridan's and Luis's souls to be reborn and for them to always meet and fall in love over and over again - only to have Tabitha destroy it. Tabitha got tired of it, but the cycle never ended. It was a battle between heaven and Hades - with Tabitha, Luis and Sheridan caught in the middle. Tabitha remembered the first time she heard of the souls we now know as Luis and Sheridan. It was millennia ago when Luis served in Caesar's armies and met Sheridan when she was a princess in Cleopatra's court. Everyone thinks Caesar and Cleopatra were the great love affair that was going on then, but it was rally Luis and Sheridan. Tabitha was ordered to stop their love, and she thought for sure that she had. She put a curse on them never to meet again after she had Luis die in a battle and Sheridan bitten by the same asp that put Cleopatra to sleep forever. Tabitha thought that she had accomplished her mission and destroyed their love, but heaven had other plans for them. She kept on hoping that she could break the cycle of their love and romance for good. But heaven persisted, and it was in 1912 that Tabitha opened her newspaper and saw a picture of a woman named Susan Crane who was sailing back to America from England that April. Tabitha's head reeled. Dang that soul - Sheridan was back! Would that woman never cease to haunt Tabitha? Tabitha sickened. if Sheridan were alive, then somehow, somewhere Sheridan's love, Luis, would appear. Tabitha followed Sheridan onto the boat and looked for Luis but did not see him. She went through all the first-class passengers, and Luis was not among them. She couldn't believe her luck. Tabitha thought she'd have a quiet voyage, but then she saw a dashing young Irishman in steerage. Though the name he used in this life was Liam, Tabitha knew it was Luis. Sheridan (as Susan) and Luis (as Liam) finally met on the second day of the voyage. Sheridan had been unusually uncomfortable since she sailed. For some strange reason, she was constantly being pulled to the steerage section of the boat. She didn't know what was bothering her and why she felt every nerve in her body to be so alive. Tabitha knew what was going on. Sheridan's soul sensed Luis's presence on the boat, although neither lover remembered any of their past lives and didn't recognize each other from the many meetings and romances they shared before. Tabitha tried to keep them apart, but love as strong as theirs has a way of overcoming the blackest of magic. On a fateful night when Tabitha wasn't looking, Susan and Liam saw each other through the grill separating steerage from first class. Tabitha was in her cabin checking her book of spells when the power of their first meeting reverberated throughout the ship - she let her guard down for a second and the lovers met again! Tabitha knew what was in store for her now. But how to destroy their love this time? Tabitha told Timmy how she tried every spell in her book to keep them separated, but nothing worked for long. One night, Tabitha saw them heading down to one of the many impromptu parties that the poor passengers in steerage held each night to entertain themselves. Tabitha disguised herself as an old Irishwoman, sitting on the side watching the dancing while she was really waiting for a chance to drive a wedge between Susan and Liam. What she saw horrified her. In this present life, the souls of Sheridan and Luis were gaining strength. Tabitha needed help to keep them apart until her bigger spell worked, and that's when she saw one of the ship's junior officers. He was handsome and charming, and Tabitha quickly cast his horoscope. She realized the Dark Forces - the same ones who live in her basement today - had sent him to Tabitha to cause chaos for Sheridan and Luis. Tabitha knew she could use him, but knew she needed something even more to take Luis out of Sheridan's life. It was then that Tabitha went up on deck and cast the biggest spell she ever came up with. She needed something big to separate Luis and Sheridan immediately. And something big is what she got. An iceberg! Part 2 Last week, with the help of James E. Reilly, creator of the NBC series Passions, TV Guide presented the first half of a lost chapter from Hidden Passions (Harper Collins), the best seller "written" by the 300 year old witch and gossipmonger Tabitha Lenox. In Part 1, the chapter's narrator - Tabitha's talking doll Timmy - revealed that the show's star crossed lovers Luis and Sheridan knew each other in many past lives. In fact, they met aboard the Titanic when he was Liam and she was Susan. Determined to separate them once and for all, Tabitha - who was also onboard - cast a spell and created an iceberg. Timmy confesses his eyes widened as Timmy realized the name of the ship and that Tabitha was prepared to destroy so many lives to just keep two young lovers apart. Everyone knows the story of the Titanic, but what they don't know is that Luis saved Sheridan. They were dancing when the ship hit the iceberg. Liam realized that the ship was in danger, and he got Susan up to the deck. When the boat she was in tipped over, he jumped in to save her. The ocean was freezing, and Tabitha danced on deck in happiness. But Liam was not going to let the woman he loved die. He saw a lifeboat nearby and swam to it, holding Susan and telling her she had to live. When Liam got Susan to the lifeboat, he handed her up to the young officer who was manning it. There was no room for Liam on the boat, so he told the young officer to protect Susan. Susan was heartbroken. She called out to Liam to save himself. She called on the heavens to rescue him, but Liam drifted away, telling Susan he would always love her. A shiver went through Susan, and without realizing what was happening, she suddenly relived in a moment's flash all of her grief over the centuries at losing this soul that was meant to share her love. She suffered a pain that no human has felt before or since. She wanted to throw herself into the icy ocean to die with Liam, but the young officer, remembering his promise to Liam held her back. Susan was saved, but they never found Liam's body. Timmy confesses that his heart broke at this point in the story. Timmy asked Tabitha what happened to Susan. Tabitha said Susan mourned for year over the loss of a man she only knew for a few days. Everyone told Susan that her memories of past lives with him were only her imagination, a product of being in the cold ocean for so long. Constantly at her side was the young officer of the Titanic who was there to comfort her and then to offer her his love, but Susan only loved Liam. Susan never forgot Liam, the true love of her life. Timmy asked his princess if Sheridan and Luis were going to be happy in this lifetime, but Tabitha only sat there and smiled. She rolled up the scroll and told Timmy that that was all Timmy was going to see. It was then that Tabitha ushered Timmy off to bed. But Timmy couldn�t sleep. Later when Timmy heard his princess snoring � yes, dear reader, Tabitha asleep sounds like a rusty chainsaw on full speed � Timmy crept back up to the attic and tempted his fate by peeking into the scroll once more. There should be a warning label on witches� scrolls. What happened to Timmy next scared Timmy so badly that his hair went completely white. Instead of words, this time the scroll exploded into a burst of images and scenes so real that Timmy felt he lived through each of them. As bizarre things started hitting Timmy from all over, Timmy saw Sheridan and Luis madly in love, planning their double wedding. Timmy was shocked to find out not only that Luis proposed to Sheridan but they were having a double wedding with Ethan and Luis�s sister Theresa. Timmy saw both brides walking down the aisle of the church. Everyone was so happy. The church was decorated in beautiful, bright colors, and the music made Timmy�s heart sing. Timmy experienced a nanosecond of elation as Timmy saw the two happy couples begin their wedding ceremony. But then something happened in a flash that still confuses Timmy. Timmy knows this is impossible and that Timmy must gotten it wrong, but Timmy sees a car driving recklessly in the middle of the church. Suddenly, Timmy hears panicked screams and cries. Timmy quickly shuts the scroll. Timmy was afraid the car was going to hit Timmy, but how could that be? Why would there be a car in the middle of the church? Timmy took another sip of his martimmy and decided to peek into the scroll again. This time Timmy wasn�t in the church. Timmy was in the Crane mansion. Sheridan�s brother Julian was there painting something inside a wedding ring. Timmy immediately knew it was poison and that Julian was planning to kill Sheridan. Suddenly, the scroll went dark again and Timmy tried to figure out what happened with the poisoned ring. Was Timmy getting his signals mixed up? Timmy shook the scroll, wanting to know what was going to happen this summer. Timmy saw from the scroll that the months of July, August and September kept repeating themselves. Suddenly an ocean of water came pouring out of the scroll and the roof of the attic opened up in a cloud burst. Timmy was drowning, and all Timmy could hear were the screams of Luis. Timmy didn't understand what was going on. Why did Timmy see Luis grieving for Sheridan? Did she put on the poisoned ring? Did the car hit her? Timmy couldn't stop the images from coming out of the scroll. Timmy's heart jumped into his mouth. Timmy saw some crazy woman in a fisherman's outfit, wielding an ax, coming after him. How crazy was this summer going to be? It was then that Timmy found himself looking into the honeymoon suite of a hotel. He saw Theresa waking up, and for a moment Timmy was relieved that she had finally found happiness with Ethan. She was on her honeymoon, but it was then that the man next to her turned over and Timmy saw who Theresa was in bed with..Oh no, not him! The scroll went dark again, but the rain kept pouring. Next Timmy saw a funeral. Timmy heard people crying and saw a body being cremated. Someone was going to die this summer. Someone beloved - but who? Then suddenly a face filled the scroll and Timmy recognized it as the young officer from the Titanic. What was he doing back? The attic was quickly filling up with water. Just then, the door flew open and an irate Tabitha stood screaming, "What have you done this time Tim-Tim?" Tabitha swam over to Timmy, took the scroll and put it back in the box. The second the lid of the box closed on the scroll, the rain stopped and the water flowed out of the attic. Timmy made his princess a special martimmy to mellow her out. It worked, and when Timmy promised Tabitha he would leave the scroll alone, she forgave him for his curiosity. It was then that Timmy brought up the things that he saw: the ring, the car in the church, the wind, the rain, the body being cremated, Theresa in bed with "that man" and the face of the Titanic officer. What did it all mean? Tabitha told her Timmy that everything he saw would happen this summer. And a lot more than that. The things the Dark Forces had in store for Sheridan and Luis will make everything they've been through before in their past lives seem like child's play. Timmy reads and rereads over and over everything that happened that night. Timmy's heart aches for Sheridan and Luis for all they've been through over the centuries. While Timmy loves his princess, Timmy can't understand why she takes such pleasure in keeping lovers apart. She's had her lovers in the past - Rasputin, Attila the Hun - but something tells Timmy that love wasn't as pure as the love Luis and Sheridan share. This summer is going to be very painful summer for them. They are going to have wonderful highs of being in love, making love, pledging themselves to one another; but as high as the highs are, the depths of the lows will be their equal. This is a summer that the people of Harmony will never forget. And somehow, Timmy knows Tabby will never forget it, either. Entertainment Weekly Article Galen Gering looks worried. The actor, who plays the upstanding, hunky cop Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald on the NBC soap Passions, stands in front of a gazebo, as hundreds of red and white rose petals fall from above in a slow flurry. He is clasping the well-manicured hands of McKenzie Westmore, the bubbly blond with the TV-ready name who portrays his girlfriend, starry-eyed rich girl, and international socialite Sheridan Crane. Having just nailed a crucial scene in which Sheridan accepts Luis' marriage proposal, Gering, 30, should be smiling--but instead the actor wrinkles his forehead and fixes his shocked gaze upon the production crew. "That's it?" he asks, his voice heavy with disappointment. "No bombs, explosions, people dying? What's going on here?" He's got a right to be suspicious, because gushy vignettes of love and hunky-dory fairy-tale endings are fleeting on this Studio City, Calif., set. After all, Passions' most popular couple is not Luis and Sheridan, but a 300-year-old witch and her adoring acolyte, a talking doll. And the humble townsfolk of Harmony, a saltboxes-'n'-seafood hamlet located somewhere along the Atlantic coast, have a lot more to deal with than love triangles and kidnapped babies. Explains former Falcon Crest star Dana Sparks, who plays premonition-ridden craft-store owner Grace Bennett: "In the last two or three days, I've found out my husband was in love with a wealthy woman in town and had a baby with her. I fell down some stairs, miscarried, died, was resurrected, spoke to an angel, saved the town hunk from the jaws of a demon who was in the fires of hell, was on Jerry Springer's show, and got to play a scarecrow." Whoa! Angels and demons? Fires of hell? Jerry Springer?! This is definitely not your grandmother's soap opera. Heck, it's not even your mother's. But whatever you want to call it--comedy, drama, camp classic, soap send-up--Passions works. By tossing the traditional rules of daytime TV to hell, the emerging cult serial is turning the ailing soap-opera industry on its well-lathered head and giving NBC's struggling daytime division hope: Its ratings in the key 18-49 demographic have risen 42 percent since May of last year, and Passions has helped the network reach No. 1 in that same demo for the first time ever. So while a new audience finds itself tuning in tomorrow--and the next day and the next--network execs are as puzzled as Galen Gering, realizing that this may be where love in the afternoon is heading. "I had to bang the drum," says Passions' Emmy-winning creator and head writer, James E. Reilly, 51, over lunch near his home in Amagansett, NY. "People's lives are so complicated. I had to give them a reason to try us. I wanted a show that people would talk about." He got exactly what he wanted--and then some. Immediately following Passions' July 5, 1999, premiere, the media cauldron began to bubble over with disdain. Viewers took umbrage at a short-lived plotline that compared Sheridan Crane to the recently deceased Princess Diana; the narrative was so vilified, it was decried as "totally inappropriate" by--no kidding--Yugoslavia's Princess Elizabeth. Even the actors, a mix of soap vets and newcomers, weren't quite sure what they had gotten themselves into. "It was definitely challenging," says first-timer Jesse Metcalfe, 22, whose teen hottie Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald spent much of last spring battling the undead in Hades. "Once i realized we weren't the traditional soap, it became easier." Ben Masters, 54, who portrays sniveling aristocrat Julian Crane, says, "The only way I could do it was over-the-top and three inches above reality. I said, 'I think this is what they want...'" Adds Westmore, 24, who found herself at the epicenter of the Princess Di brouhaha, "We weren't sure how to play it. Then we realized we could play it to the hilt and go overboard." So they did--literally. A splashy storyline last summer that saw Harmony's teen set go Titanic aboard a sinking "prom boat" helped Passions secure its No. 1 spot among teens 12 to 17. The show's sudden status as soap trailblazer had NBC brass turning cartwheels down their Burbank office hallways. "[Passions] made management take another look at daytime," says Sheraton Kalouria, NBC's senior VP of daytime. "It reenergized the daytime spirit at the company." And none too soon. NBC, until recently a perpetually last-place network in the soaps-ratings war, badly needed a hit, having axed both Aaron Spelling's Sunset Beach and 35-year veteran Another World in 1999. Two years earlier, they'd handed Reilly a hefty deal to create and write his own show after vacating the head writer post at Days of Our Lives, where he concocted headline-grabbing storylines of live burials and demonic possession that were obvious precursors to his Passions yarns. NBC knew launching yet another soap was risky, but it also trusted Reilly's Midas touch. "I think the show is the future of daytime," says Kalouria. "Jim is responsible for that. This show is introducing the soap form to a new generation." It's also introduced them to the most unlikely supercouple in daytime history: Tabitha and Timmy. Indeed, Passions' biggest--and weirdest--draw comes in the form of the aforementioned witch and the Chucky-like doll who aids in her schemes against Harmony residents. "I did not think the network would go for it," admits Reilly. "I thought I would have to fight, and I was prepared. Then they read the first week. They loved it! All they spoke about was Timmy the doll." Ah, Timmy. The mischievious sprite and master of disguise (he's worn everything from a Tony Manero disco suit to a Wizard of Oz flying monkey outfit) played by 38-inch-tall actor Josh Ryan Evans (Ally McBeal) has emerged as the show's true breakout character. Staffers in the MSNBC newsroom requested an autographed poster of the demonic duo, and the pair has received shout-outs on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and The West Wing. "He's like Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream." says Evans, 19, who became the first Passions cast member to be nominated for a Daytime Emmy last March. "He speaks to the audience. He jokes around. Timmy can do anything." Juliet Mills--who was plugging away at forgettable fare like The Other Sister and Waxwork II: Lost in Time before landing her role as Tabitha, Harmony's resident sorceress--couldn't be happier with her new cadre of disparate fans. "My 7-year-old granddaughter just loves the show," says the 58-year-old actress, "and so do all my gay friends in New York!" Ever pragmatic, Reilly elaborates on the allure of this 21st-century Luke and Laura: "Timmy and Tabitha are the relaxing break. You get involved in the heavy organ music, and [they] come on, and you go, 'Oh my God!' You throw your bologna sandwich at the screen and say, 'They're ridiculous. They're crazy.' But you laugh for a moment. And then you get back into the next story, which is more conventional. We let the audience laugh with us." If the audience is laughing, imagine how difficult it is for the actors to keep a straight face while delivering dialogue like, "Oh my God! I don't have anything to wear! Everything I have was destroyed when the house sank!" Sparks recalls busting up during a scene in which Grace made Harmony's hospital rumble with her otherworldly powers. "Everybody came running into the room," says Sparks, "and our brilliant town doctor said, 'What an odd thing to happen. Grace must have gotten so upset that she shook the whole room.' Literally, we never made it through the line. They ended up cutting around it." Such left-field lunacy has sometimes translated into pure profit, as when Reilly launched a story last November that found Timmy selling Tabitha's witchy memoirs to the HarperCollins publishing house. Suddenly, every episode seemed to feature not-so-slyly-placed promotional materials and numerous mentions of Hidden Passions: Secrets from the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox--a real-life tie-in novel (based on Reilly's back story and penned by romance writer Alice Alfonsi) that hit shelves in January and promptly debuted as No. 8 on the New York Times best-seller list. "It proved the passion and commitment of daytime soap fans," says Kalouria. "It was a wake-up call to the powers-that-be at our own network and at publishing companies. On that level, it far surpassed anything we could ever have expected." Adds Hope Innelli, VP and editorial director of Harper Entertainment, "A lot of the romantic things on the show happen with the younger characters. Here was a chance to find out what the older characters did when they were young. They did have a racy past, and that was fun to discover." So fun, in fact, that the book has sold an estimated 150,000 copies to date, and Innelli is high on producing a sequel. "I think there's opportunity. The property is rich enough." It does seem as if the sands in this hourglass aren't even close to running out. Though it's hard to engineer an encore when you've sent half the cast to hell, Reilly has prepared for the teen-viewer-rich summer months with such twisted storylines as an "island adventure" (featuring the show's buff and beautiful adolescent cast, natch), a sure-to-be doomed double wedding, and the beheading of a major character. Says Kalouria, "The stuff in store for the summer is Passions to the extreme." That's just fine with the actors, who recognize that realism is anathema to Passions fans. "That's not what we do here," shrugs Masters. "I like what we do. It's much more fun. I mean, God forbid if this were a soap soap opera." Amen to that. The Reilly Factor: NBC Plans a Passions Spin-off and more In a sprawling and unprecedented for a soap auteur, NBC has hired James E. Reilly, creator of its wacky daytime hit, Passions to develop a prime-time series, a prime-time movie and a Saturday morning spin-off of Passions, tentatively titled Harmony High. NBC Studios president Ted Harbert tells TV Guide he has been massaging an expanded pact with the reclusive Reilly since last fall. �Jim is a one-of-a kind creative force with an imagination that is the most amazing thing I�ve ever witnessed,� Harbert says. �We�re making this deal to get that imagination into other parts of the NBC schedule.� And to keep Reilly from straying. The scribe�s new contract lays to rest months of rumors that he might go elsewhere to create prime-time shows (among the networks reportedly interested in Reilly was the kid-friendly WB). And his deal won�t come as good new to Ken Corday, executive producer of NBC�s other soap, Days of Our Lives, who wanted the network to launch a Days spin-off called Salem High and had been talking up the project in soap magazines hoping to rouse fan interest. It�s too soon to tell which � if any of Passions�s characters will be seen of Harmony High, but Reilly says the likelihood of cast crossovers is excellent. "I can see the two shows being very symbiotic," notes Reilly, who wants to use the spin-off "to develop a young fan base that will move on to Passions as it gets older. It's a good investment for the future." As for his prime-time projects, �they won�t be copies of Passions,� says Reilly. �But they will have quirky twists and an element of a soap.� Adds Harbert: �Jim understands our need for new and different ideas. I don�t expect he�ll bring us things we�ve seen before. Planning a spin-off is tricky because Passions faces a casting crisis: Most of its stars signed three-year deals when the soap started production in the spring of '99, and those contracts will all lapse before Harmony High is expected to hit the air. (If Reilly's pilot gets a green light, the show could air by January, but it will probably debut mid to late 2002.) Since Passions's younger stars are the ones most likely to defect, Reilly plans to add more teens to the show, then move some or all to the spin-off. (He reminds us that there are three kids in the show's dysfunctional Crane family whom viewers have heard about but never seen.) Another challenge: The supernatural Passions is about as weighty as a Styrofoam peanut, but Harmony High will have to have educational and informational value in order to meet FCC requirements for children's programming. |