ShareThisSometimes it takes a diva to play one. And Kim Zimmer, who inhabited the larger-than-life personality of Reva Shayne on the CBS soap "Guiding Light" for more than two decades, is more than up to the challenge.
"I've become Norma Desmond!" she said gleefully. While she has the lead on stage in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Sunset Boulevard" in Michigan later this month, her reference has double meaning.
Norma became a star in silent pictures, a medium that faded from the American landscape. Zimmer, 56, became a star on a daytime drama that died two years ago, and the future of soaps in general is looking rather dim.
"I'm not saying that everyone who works at (show sponsor) Procter & Gamble is evil -- they're not -- but when they made the decision they wanted out of the soap-opera business, it went quickly downhill," she said in a phone interview from her home in New Jersey.
Zimmer currently appears as Echo on a show slated to end in January, ABC's "One Life To Live." Like the unsinkable Reva, she keeps landing on her feet and looking ahead.
Writing a book proved to be cathartic, and a great deal of gossipy fun.
"The whole concept of writing a book came from the fans. When they decided to take ('Guiding Light') off the air, we were traveling around the country with 'So long, Springfield' events.
"People kept asking to explain what was happening, and I felt the need to explain my feelings," said Zimmer, a four-time Emmy winner.
The result was "I'm Just Sayin'!: Three Deaths, Seven Husbands, and a Clone! My Life as a Daytime Diva."
This book, she says, is "a truthful account, just my opinion of what went wrong and what went right. The good, the bad, the ugly, all tied up with a neat little ribbon."
There was a great deal of ugly in the last few months of "Guiding Light," as fans pleaded with CBS and Procter & Gamble not to cancel the longest-running daytime drama in history.
"Guiding Light" presented more than 15,000 episodes since its radio debut in 1937. Zimmer said she was honored to be chosen to speak the last line.
In the final scene, Reva and her soulmate, Josh Lewis (played by Robert Newman), get back together -- yet again -- and prepare to drive off in his battered truck.
"You ready?" said Josh. "Always," replied Reva.
"It was outrageous. Of course, I've said that line so many times over 27 years to Joshua, but to have it be the last time? I was a nervous wreck, such a little phrase, one word, but it's the last word on the oldest-running soap opera in history," she said, adding they did just one take.
Although Josh and Reva drove happily down the road, the same cannot be said for soaps. Once a mainstay on daytime television, they are being systematically axed by networks claiming that costs are too high and viewer numbers too low.
In April, ABC announced that "All My Children" would end in September, after 41 years, followed by "One Life to Live" (43 years) in January. These shows were licensed to Prospect Park, a media and production company responsible for USA's "Royal Pains" and FX's "Wilfred."
New episodes of the shows will run online, although there is hope from some quarters that Prospect Park will use its cable connections to work a television deal as well.
"I'm hoping it draws new fans across the board, not just young ones," Zimmer said of the online format. "This is where we started having trouble at 'Guiding Light.' They were trying to capture a younger audience, and in doing that they alienated" older viewers.
"But younger people like the antiquity of these shows as well, so I hope we can get them all to watch. ... I think it's a wonderful opportunity and it's the future of daytime series."
There are some big unknowns about a switch to the Internet. For instance, will shows be able to keep the highest-paid actors, such as "AMC's" Susan Lucci? Zimmer said she is open to appearing on the new version of "OLTL," but she is not a contract player and has the luxury of occasional commitment.
"I can now say that I have become what I've always wanted to be, the character player," she said. "Not only am I embracing my age now, but I'm embracing the extra 40 pounds I'm carrying around.
"I had a rough menopause. There is a history of breast cancer in my family, and to take hormone replacement? It wasn't in the books for me. I spent 10 years struggling with it, head-on."
She deemed the book tour a chance to relive the heyday of "Guiding Light" and allow fans to "enjoy the journey with me. I've had a lot of people who read the book tell me it's like I'm sitting next to them, whispering little stories in their ears.
"I feel it's like Yogi Berra said, it's like 'deja vu, all over again.' "
(Email Maria Sciullo at msciullo(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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