BLACK SOAP OPERA ‘TURNS THE TABLES’

Leo Lester is ruthless, corrupt and rich. Maxwell DuKane once worked for him but was betrayed and now is running his own rival business. DuKane and Lester’s scheming daughter, Jazzmyn, were once in love but had a falling out. She wants him back but he’s interested in Michelle Watson, daughter of Clarence Watson, the community’s hard-working minister.

Sound like just another soap opera? Yes and no.

These are indeed the characters for a proposed new television serial, “Heart and Soul.” But it’s not quite like any other: The characters are all black.

“We’re turning the tables completely,” said Ralph Andrews, co-executive producer of the would-be syndication series. “Instead of having a few token black characters, our soap is built around the black community--and there are a few white actors within the play.”

Whether “Heart and Soul” will make it into viewers’ homes remains to be seen. A story outline has been developed and Columbia Pictures Television, for whom Andrews and fellow executive producer O.J. Simpson are working, is trying to drum up support from TV stations across the country.

If enough stations agree to buy the show, it could be on the air as early as March, Andrews said. But a start date of late next summer is more likely, he added. The proposal is to make 260 half-hour episodes--enough to run every weekday for a year.

“Heart and Soul” would be set in Los Angeles and, according to Andrews, would feature a full range of characters, both good and bad, from all levels of society--from powerful record industry tycoons and wealthy musicians to policemen, community workers, medical professionals, homemakers, gang leaders and members of religious sects. There is also an interracial marriage.

Andrews said that the soap opera is aimed specifically at the black audience and at the advertisers interested in reaching that target group. “We just felt there was a big void there that had to be filled,” he said.

Contrasting his proposed series with the nation’s current No. 1 TV series, “The Cosby Show,” Andrews contended that the NBC comedy “is not a black show in the sense that it shows the problems of the black community. Anybody can identify with it.

“The average white audience will not identify with what we hope ‘Heart and Soul’ will be,” he continued, “but we think they will watch it too because they’ll be interested in learning a little about it (the black experience).”

Because it is aimed at a target audience rather than the broadest possible base, Columbia went directly to the syndication market without even bothering to pitch the three commercial networks, Andrews said. “It’s something they won’t even entertain at this point,” he said.

The “Heart and Soul” outline was written by Stephen, Elinor and Jason Karpf, experienced soap opera writers and producers. If the show goes into production, Andrews said, an attempt will be made to fill as many of the behind-the-scenes jobs as possible with blacks.