Local talent shines in new CBS soap ‘Beyond the Gates’
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Maurice Johnson is Augusta’s local actor, and he’s landed a role on CBS’s soap opera, “Beyond the Gates.‘”
It’s a storyline that follows a powerful family, but secrets and scandals are waiting to be revealed.
It’s the first daytime soap to feature a primarily black cast in more than 25 years.
Friday marks two weeks since the daytime drama hit screens, and Johnson was in town to mark the occasion with the community he grew up in.
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The Augusta community poured into the Henry Brigham Community Center to watch the new daytime drama’s 10th episode alongside Johnson.
He says it took so many people to help bring the story to life.
“Procter and Gamble did soap operas back in the day, but now them coming in, product placement, and then NAA coming in, these are authentic stories, these are authentic black stories,” Johnson explains, “It’s a central family we are basing this around, but a diverse story that’s being told of everybody.”
Johnson plays Ted Richardson, a plastic surgeon who is married with two kids.
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“Beyond The Gates” is the first soap opera to premiere in 26 years and the first black-led soap since 1989.
He says this is definitely for the people who missed the days of soap operas coming on.
“So you have kids in their 20s that have never seen soap operas, and we grew up in our mom’s house or grandma’s house and I couldn’t touch the VCR because Victor was on or Days of Our Lives, so this is surreal to me,” Johnson says.
Ronnetta Hartfield was one of many local fans at the watch party ing Johnson.
She says what he’s doing is sending a strong message to the people here at home.
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If you watch someone that looks like you and you see them on the television screen, on the big or small screen. They are there because they put the time in and they put the heart in, and that means you can do the same thing,” Hartfield said. “That’s what it’s about, it’s about the younger generation. They’re able to see somebody that came from here. I created a hashtag years ago just a kid from Augusta, and so I hashtag that on everything, so I want the kids to see that guy grew up here. Wherever they are from, they are able to see that the success is there.”
“Beyond the Gates” is shot right here in Georgia at our parent company, Gray Media’s Assembly Atlanta Studios.
You can watch it on CBS at 2 p.m. — and stream it on Paramount Plus.
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