Christi: …and to see them not make a big deal about it. It was just a fact. So yeah, I liked that.
Destini: Your turn Mel!
Mel: I know. I don’t know what to say! Christi’s so interesting and I’m so not. [everyone laughs] I think I’m interesting to myself…I don’t know how I’m gonna follow that up!
Actually, we all met on the BAM forums. We participated in their fan campaign. I don’t know when Christi and Destini came along. Were you guys there from the beginning?
Destini/Christi: No.
Mel: I was there from the incarnation of the BAM fans campaign. We were hanging out on the BAM board when the rumors started that it was going to happen (Otalia storyline). The TV Guide article came out, I guess Alan Locher made a statement that was basically based in semantics and everybody took it that Otalia wasn’t going to happen. We’re sitting there saying ok if you look at the words he’s saying and then you look at what’s on the screen it makes sense that it’s not going to be a gay storyline. A lot of people jumped ship saying oh this is never gonna happen. Then there was me and Desti on the board in the thread by ourselves talking about Otalia. We started sucking people in because we were so excited about it! We’d never seen anything like that before.
So we started doing our own play-by-play. I started them then Desti realized that she had the play-by-play the same time I did…the feed so she’s waking up, what time do you get up like 6:00 am in the morning?
Destini: I get up at 5am.
Mel: So we start doing the play-by-play’s together and people started joining us. A couple of us were like…got into it then it was like ok and they started watching it and it was the people that started watching actually helped us start the board.
Destini: At this point I already started the YouTube channel.
Mel: You started the YouTube channel and we were getting back to the BAM campaign because that just ended horribly with what happened between the characters. I was like oh we’re never going to campaign again. It was like a kick in the teeth! On a whim one day I was cleaning out my email box and I saw the SOD address. I’ve never had a letter posted in any of the soap mags but had seen some of the Otalia family episodes and I wrote in to the SOD. It was the only address I still had. I was like ahhh, what the hell, I’ll send in an email. And wouldn’t you know it, one of the girls posted that there was an Otalia letter in SOD. I was like…OH NO. Because I’ve never gotten one and I was just like oh my God I’m gonna be so outed that I actually wrote this letter [everyone’s laughing]. So I clicked on the line and was like oh God it’s mine. Then Desti and everyone else said hey maybe we should start writing too. So we started writing for Otalia. Then we decided we had to leave the BAM board because it kind of was a conflict of interest to have one same-sex paring on another same-sex pairing’s board. So we went into a friends’ board and we went into this little section we had created and we started talking about the board and Desti…
It’s refreshing to see that those as the “face” of the Otalia fandom are intelligent and well spoken and yet still can have their fangrrl moments. I’m so proud to be a part of this big, purple dream. I’m excited to see where this true supercouple will go in the future. It is my firm belief that Olivia and Natalia’s love story will be a major part of what saves Guiding Light. Kudos Desti, Christi, and Mel! Thanks to Eclipse Magazine and Tiffany! And many thanks to Crystal Chappell, Jessica Leccia, and everyone involved with this love story for the ages.
Great article. The intelligence, humor and passion with which the BPD team and the whole forum have rallied around Guiding Light must send a powerful message to the soap community. If this was just a “gay” phenomena AMC and ATWT would have experienced a similar frenzy, but it is so clear that this story is so different, and I could not explain it better than Mel, Christi and Desti did here already. SO I will close by thanking you for covering the Otalia craze from this unique angle.
thanks for the great interview tiffany!
not a day goes by that i don’t feel completely blessed to have found the big purple dreams fan forum, the otalia storyline and guiding light. i only wish i had found it all sooner. destini, christi, mel and the other administrators at BPD have created such a welcoming environment- our own little purple living room over at the big purple dreams board. and they each lead through service, which in turn brings out the giver in the rest of us.
i’ve never stood up to be counted in a fan campaign before. i guess i never believed enough in something before to invest the time or the effort to give power to my voice. but i believe in otalia and guiding light. and i believe in what we are creating over at the board. it’s positive and supportive and empowering. the otalia story gives me hope that someday, not too far in the future, every gay love story won’t need special promotion or sensationalization. that we won’t need special privileges. that our love will just be love, without labels. it’s been a long time coming, but thanks to GL, i can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
again, thank you for the closer look at our fearless leaders. now when are we getting some more juicy outtakes?
Great interview, Tiffany. Destini, Christi and Mel make BPD a fun, loving place to be. Even with over 1,800 members, it feels like a family. Even though I just returned to Guiding Light a couple of months ago, I can’t remember that exact turning point moment. Since re-connecting with the show and finding BPD it feels like I’ve always been there.
I appreciate you and Eclipse magazine shining the light on BPD and Guiding Light.
Dear Tiffany,
That was a fantastic interview! Its about time someone wrote about the Big Purple Podcasts, and I’m so glad you fessed up about listening to them – its hard to describe to someone unless they listen, but it really is the most engaging, funny (too many pee in the pants moments) 3 hours of entertainment. In fact, I had to laugh when I saw that there is now a play by play on the podcast itself! Guiding Light is a gift, Otalia is a gift, the writers creating this story is a gift, the actors doing their parts is a gift, and everything about BPD is a gift as well. We need to cherish and recognize them for what they’re giving us. Just like the show, a family has been created unexpectedly, and its a thing of beauty. Kudos to Destini, Christi and Mel for the tremendous work you do every day on behalf of bringing more audiences to this important story. We love Otalia and we love Big Purple Dreams!!!
Christi, I am so proud of you!
Mom2