Last Wednesday, after heavy thunderstorms caused trains to be delayed for over an hour, I did what any passenger would do, I began to reflect on Passions.
Passions was a 2001 soap opera that soon became a source of immense joy for me. I thought Big Love was full of twists and turns, but they have yet to feature a story line involving an intersexual who becomes pregnant with his own father’s son. I guess only time will tell.
I combed google for a refresh on the show as the only characters I could remember clearly 9 years on were Tabitha the witch and her Chucky inspired sidekick Timmy. I guess I wasn’t the avid fan I claimed to be, as BamBam the orangutan didn’t ring a bell. You would think it would from the following snippet from Wiki.
In 2003, Passions submitted a trained orangutan named BamBam, who had been portraying the recurring role of Precious, for a Daytime Emmy Award. Precious was the non-speaking live-in nurse and caregiver for elderly Edna Wallace, and held an unrequited love for Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, which was depicted in elaborate fantasy sequences. In early 2004, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which administers the awards, disallowed the entry with the following statement:
“Our ruling is based on the belief that the Academy must draw a line of distinction between animal characters that aren’t capable of speaking parts and human actors whose personal interpretation in character portrayal creates nuance and audience engagement that uniquely qualifies those performers for consideration of television’s highest honor. “
