Soap Opera Celebrity Makes Spoof of Genre

Westport resident Scott Bryce was recognized recently for his work on daytime television by We Love Soaps,  a website and podcast dedicated to the world of soap operas.

Bryce was named Number 37 of  the 50 Greatest Soap Opera Actors. "It's flattering," Bryce said. "Especially since I left As the World Turns two years ago."

The top 50 list was created by a panel of journalists and critics who have covered the soaps for the past several decades. "The panel included Lynn Leahey, Jon Reiner, Alan Carter and many other noted soap critics," explains Roger Newcomb, editor of We Love Soaps. "We wanted the list to be as thorough as possible. We included actors dating back to radio soaps in the 1940s."

Bryce played Craig Montgomery on As the World Turns from 1982-87, 1988-89, 1993-94 and 2007-08. In 2006 he portrayed  Dr. Crosby on One Life to Live.

In his review of Bryce's acting skills, Newcomb wrote: "Scott Bryce's transformation of Craig Montgomery from slimy young go-getter to vulnerable and flawed hero was one of the best performances on daytime television in the 1980s. When he returned to ATWT in 2007, the character had been turned into a bad guy again, this time a snarky, less sympathetic version. Somehow Bryce managed to make most of his terrible storyline work. There was a scene where Craig gave Meg a drug to make her lose her baby. As a viewer, I should have hated the character with a passion — that was probably the point of that plot —  but Bryce was so brilliant that I actually felt sorry for Craig that day."

"I took my dad's advice in playing a villain," Scott explains. "He told me to find everything nice that you can about that character because villains don't know they are villains. They think they are doing what is right."

Bryce's parents were both performers on stage and screen. His father, the late  Ed Bryce,  was a pioneer of early live television, appearing as Captain Strong on the first television space adventure, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, now a cult classic. For 14 years, Ed played "Bill Bauer" on The Guiding Light  and also was an award winner for his performances on Broadway.

Scott's mother, the late Dorothy Bryce, was featured on many prime-time shows and had a one-year stint on Dave Garroway's Today Show and on The Home Show with Hugh Downs and Arlene Francis. She also performed in dozens of television commercials. While raising her children she appeared in a variety of daytime serials. Before she died in 2009, she won the award for Best Actress at the Breckenridge Film Festival for her role in Glacier Bay (http://www.myspace.com/openthegatepictures), a short film about Alzheimer's disease.

Scott Bryce's soap opera background and know-how is now coming into play in a whole new endeavor. With the introduction of a new web series, he has intentions of adding a new audience to soap opera viewership as well as changing the face of programming sponsorships.

Working with Michael O'Leary, who played Dr. Rick Bauer on Guiding Light, he has created Steamboat, a comedy series that spoofs soap operas as well as puts product placement directly into the plot of the program. Coincidentally, O'Leary worked with Ed Bryce on Guiding Light. "His  character portrayed the grandson of my dad's character," Scott Bryce notes.

Steamboat  stars O'Leary's former Guiding Light  costars Beth Chamberlin (who is also serving as a story consultant), Kurt McKinney (Liam, Gotham), Justin Deas, Orlagh Cassidy and Bryce's ATWT costar Michael Park (Richard).

Bryce, as director, and O'Leary, as writer, are currently shopping the pilot episode of Steamboat (http://www.steamboatseries.com/), which is a comedy series  that focuses on the last days of a soap opera. 

"We write what we know," Scott Bryce said, noting that the word "steamboat" is a metaphor for something that has become passé. (In 1769, the Scotsman James Watt patented an improved version of the steam engine that ushered in the Industrial Revolution. Yet, by the 1870s, railroads had begun to supplant steamboats as the major transporter of both goods and passengers.)

Explaining the parallel, Bryce said, "Commercial television is over. People use their DVRs to skip over the advertisements. The soap opera genre is dying. Over the years, the audience has diminished.

"I wanted to make a metaphor for our world," he continues. "We are all being downsized. The game has shifted and we need to create a new model where programs partner with the sponsors. The product, literally, has to become a part of the program."

He added, "The days of having a character buy a Coca-Cola during a scene is no longer good enough. But, if it takes that character 30-minutes to open the can of Coke, then that's something else entirely."

He's hoping the Steamboat series — and its product integration model — will be picked up by a network comparable to Nick at Night or Comedy Central. "We've gotten interest in the show," he said. "People love it. When they watch it, they get a satisfying laugh."

To date, the program has about 2,500 supporters on Facebook and has received an impressive number of views online. "We stuck it on YouTube to make it part of a focus group. We are really pleased with its success," Bryce said.

He is now discussing with sponsors who would like to partner with the program. "We are talking to Villa Roma, a resort in the Catskills, which would allow us to have a show within a show within a show," he said. "We are working to make products into stars of the program. Some companies have seen the show and then come to us."

Five, five-minute Steamboat webisodes can be seen on Youtube.com. The pilot of Steamboat was shot at Palace Digital Studios in South Norwalk with a budget of about $3,500.

Those who enjoy seeing Bryce in front of the camera will be pleased to know that he continues to perform on both the large and small screens. He recently was seen in an episode of 30 Rock and has made appearances on Law & Order SVU and Gossip Girl. He has a supporting role in an independent movie,  Not Waving But Drowning, which is being filmed in Florida and New York.

His wife, actress/singer Jodi Stevens Bryce (http://jodistevens.com), is portraying Marlene Dietrich in the just-opened show, Dietrich and Chevalier: The Musical,  (www.dietrichandchevalierthemusical.com) at St.Luke's Theater, 308 W. 46th St., in New York.

The couple has a young son, Jackson.