My View From Beyond the Gates: This Is Messy. This Is Premium Content.

You can plan and plan, but usually life doesn’t care. It waits until you are least prepared before striking. It’s sort of like the unannounced visitor who shows up at your front door the one time you haven’t done your weekly cleaning. This Is Messy. This Is Premium Content: A Beyond the Gates commentary by Soap Central founder Dan J Kroll for the week ending July 17, 2026.

Don’t have time to read the entire Beyond the Gates column? You can now stream an audio/podcast version of this commentary — complete with off-script silliness, bloopers, interviews, and more. And it’s totally free to download or stream. SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC | AMAZON MUSIC | iHEART RADIO

Since so much of what happens on a soap opera is usually gloom and doom – they call them daytime dramas for a reason – I want to flip the script a bit and start his week’s column with some good news. No, scratch that. Some incredible news. Beyond the Gates earned a whopping 15 Daytime Emmy nominations earlier this week. It’s really 16, if you ask me, but more on that in a bit.

Eight Beyond the Gates performers received recognition for their acting, second behind only The Young and the Restless’ nine. Seven of the eight nominees are first-time nominees. Of the six acting categories, the only one in which Beyond the Gates was the not represented was Outstanding Lead Actor. Here’s a break down:

And the Nominees Are…

Karla Mosley (Dani Dupree) and Tamara Tunie (Anita Dupree) were both nominated in the Lead Actress category. Trisha Mann-Grant (Leslie “LSD” Thomas) picked up a nod for Supporting Actress. Mike Manning (Bradley “Smitty” Smith) and Timon Kyle Durrett (Bill Hamilton) each earned a Supporting Actor nominations. Ambyr Michelle (Eva Thomas) and Arielle Prepetit (Naomi Hamilton Hawthorne) received Outstanding Emerging Talent nominations. And, finally, Jasmine Burke (June Hughes) landed an Outstanding Guest Performance Emmy.

In the technical categories, Beyond the Gates also made a splash. The show’s Writing Team earned a nomination. Surprisingly, though, the show was overlooked in the Directing Team field.

Other tech awards included Outstanding Music Direction and Composition, and Outstanding Hairstyling and Makeup for the episode that featured the Articulettes concert, and Outstanding Technical Direction and Video, and Outstanding Lighting Direction for episodes revolving around the second half of the Articulettes concert and the tribute to Barbara Mitchell. The show also was recognized in the Outstanding Casting category.

The 15 nominations are the most ever for a soap in its first year of eligibility. This is also the first time that there are two Black actresses in the Outstanding Lead Actress category. 2026 also marks the first time that a soap created, executive produced, and written by a Black woman has earned a nod for Outstanding Drama Series.

That 16th nomination I mentioned? The weeklong special that aired before Beyond the Gates debuted, Beyond the Gates: Welcome to the Neighborhood received a nomination in the Outstanding Arts and Popular Culture Program. It was technically produced by Entertainment Tonight, so ET gets the official nomination. But the special had Beyond the Gates in its title, so I am calling it an unofficial 16th nomination.

There’s So Much More To Say… So Check Out The Podcast!

There is a lot more to say about this year’s Daytime Emmy nominations, but to keep the word count down on this column I will save it for this week’s My View From Beyond the Gates podcast. If you haven’t checked out the podcast, it’s something of an audio book version of this column. Everything I write about, I talk about – but I also tend to add things that I didn’t think of when I wrote this column or didn’t have room to share, I share stories from more than three decades of covering the soaps, and I also wander off on tangents that usually end up in hilarity. It’s free to listen to on any streaming platform, so please give it a listen. Here are links in case you want to skip of there now: SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC | AMAZON MUSIC | iHEART RADIO

Whether your favorite Beyond the Gates performer received an Emmy nomination or not, here’s something that we can all agree on, the show has an abundance of talent and an embarrassment of riches. A lot of that was on full display this week in story, even if there wasn’t a cotillion or natural disaster bearing down on Fairmont Crest.

Those Who Cannot Remember The Past…

Soaps tend to forget their past. I suppose it’s easy to do when you’re talking about a show that’s been on the air for more than half of a century, but I’ve seen new soaps do it, too. That’s why I thought it was nice to revisit – even if only in passing – that a year ago Martin and Smitty were in a very bad spot.

First, let’s admit that we all do this. It’d make us much happier people if we only ever thought about the good things that happened in our life, but the human brain is a weird thing that does what it wants to do. I suppose this Martin/Smitty look-back is tied to happiness since the couple was able to work past their troubles and come out on the other side even stronger.

The writers didn’t need to revisit this, but I think it was important that they did. The show has only a little over a year of history that we’ve actually seen. Everything prior to February 2025 has had to be newly created since the show wasn’t airing then. Using that past content can strengthen current storytelling, especially since the material is new and still in the minds of viewers. Newly created flashbacks are great, but I will admit that it does take me out of a scene when someone looks exactly the same now as they did in a flashback from 10 years ago. But that’s just me being picky.

I suspect that there is a reason for taking the trip down unhappy memory lane. It seems like the reflection on Smitten’s past road bumps are something of a harbinger of the trouble that Andre and Dani might soon face. Or another potential clashing point for Naomi and Jacob. And… possibly even more woes for Martin and Smitty.

When Is A Secret No Longer A Secret?

For someone who wants to keep her elevator encounter with Bill a secret, Dani sure has told a lot of people about it. I understand that sometimes a secret can eat you up inside and you just have to tell someone. There are secrets from the soap world that I have been holding since the 1990s and I can’t wait to share them in my memoir that I will probably never write.

Dani telling Pamela about “doing someone despicable” isn’t much of a surprise. These two women are the definition of BFFs. I cannot imagine Pamela ever sharing one of Dani’s confidences with someone. What I wasn’t expecting was her reaction to Dani telling her that she’d slept with Bill. “Well of course you did,” was basically her response. Maybe I am in as much denial as Dani is because I really believed that Dani would one day get to a point where Bill was totally out of her system. Not so, said Pamela, who painted quite a vivid picture of how Dani really feels. Pamela said that Dani will be hung up on Bill until the day she is lowered into the ground. Then, she’d claw her way out of her grave to get back up to ground level to see if Bill was mourning her death.

It wasn’t quite as judgy as it sounded. Pamela was just speaking in Pamelisms to explain that Dani and Bill have a long and storied connection that won’t just fade away. Pamela also wisely attributed that elevator sexytimes session to instinct, not romance. That was a lightbulb moment. I don’t know that she’s right, but it made me think about all the times that exes have done the deed on the soaps and whether or not it was about love or, you know, just the act.

Are Smitty and Martin Predicting Doom For Andre and Dani?

While Dani was getting words of wisdom from Pamela, Andre was getting words of warning from Smitty and Martin. It wasn’t exactly “Beware the Ides of March,” more of a “Beware the newness of your marriage wearing off.” It’s inevitable that Andre will find out about Dani and Bill’s elevator encounter, right? I can’t imagine the show keeping it buried until 2027. That might make for better story, but we live in a time of short attention spans and a need for immediate gratification. I’d be surprised if the secret stays a secret until November.

If Pamela is to be believed and Dani only had sex with Bill because it was instinct, I’d be inclined to say that she should be forgiven for her transgression. Andre seems like a forgiving guy, but I don’t know if elevator sex will be the penis that breaks the camel’s back. The issue that I have, though, is that I don’t know that I believe that the elevator sex was some genetic predisposition to handling stress. I fully believe that Dani still has feelings for Bill even though she doesn’t want to have them. Or maybe I am foolish for believing that. Maybe Dani does want to have feelings for Bill.

In an Instagram story, Karla Mosley (Dani Dupree) hinted that the writers might have shuffled some story ideas based on audience reaction with the Dani/Bill story being one of those that were adjusted. I think creating a story to acknowledge that two actors have incredible chemistry is probably a smart move. There is nothing worse than watching a show try to force a couple on the audience when no one is interested in the couple.

Where things get messy is that despite Mosley and Timon Kyle Durrett (Bill Hamilton) having chemistry, it’s hard to root for Dani and Bill as a couple because of everything that has gone down. Bill treated Dani horribly. She shot up his wedding. Add in that Dani has moved on to a new relationship with a really nice guy and… you just don’t want to see people get hurt. I suppose we are supposed to feel bad that Bill’s new wife is trying to kill him, but is that really enough to make us forget about all that water under the bridge?

The other side of the equation, I guess, would be how long can an audience tolerate having all of the tension between two characters if there is no chance of them reuniting. I am one of those people that loves every scene that involves Dani and Bill. But how long can that go on before the audience reaction becomes, “Oh, them again.”?

Kill Bill: Part 914

It’s been a really bad week to be Hayley Hamilton. She has a husband who just won’t die. Smitty invited her to join him at his table at Orphey Gene’s but he wasn’t really interested in her. And everywhere Hayley went she was confronted by people who couldn’t wait to tell her about herself.

Let’s start with Bill. I am starting to wonder if Hayley’s seriously slow-acting boobie poison is actually what’s making Bill sick. I’ve questioned if the poison is really poison. Now I am wondering if maybe Bill has some weird immunity to the poison and is instead having an allergic reaction to it. The audience seems to be about as impatient as Hayley is with the whole poisoning. I don’t see the story as something that has been dragged out. You can’t just kill someone with poison overnight. If it’s slow-acting, it will take time to do its damage. That can take months, maybe even years. If Hayley really wants to avoid becoming a suspect in Bill’s death she needs to stay the course. Of course, I know that the audience isn’t going to handle waiting another year for the poison to do its job. There has to be some sort of happy medium.

I will say that it has been really funny to watch Hayley have to pretend to be concerned about Bill’s health while all the while she is upset that he hasn’t kicked the bucket yet.

Hayley Hamilton’s Really Bad Week

One of the highlights of the week was watching Kat, Naomi, and Chelsea go off on Hayley at the country club. I understand why they think it’s wrong for Hayley to be wining, dining, and spaing while Bill is fresh out of the hospital. On the other hand, I know that some people just want to be left alone while they are recuperating. Still, it was funny to see all three women standing in a line staring down the newest Mrs. Hamilton. “Why are you here?” Chelsea snarled.

A day later, it was Dani that was giving Hayley a piece of her mind. Hayley tried her best to turn things back around on Dani, but it didn’t quite work. It was, however, quite something to hear Hayley claim that Bill’s health struggles might be due to her oversexing him. I mean, there are worse ways to go.

Then it was Leslie’s turn to darken Hayley’s doorstep. LSD (That’s Leslie/Sherry/Dana to the uninitiated) has been trying for months to become Hayley’s friend. She’ll have to wait a little while longer. A rebuffed Leslie warned Hayley that bad things happen to people who cross her. Hayley grabbed on to Leslie’s arm and let her know that she wasn’t one to be messed with because she was not some “mousy” Dupree assistant. Poor Laura is catching strays and she hasn’t been seen on-screen in months!

Look Before You Leap

I’m more than a little worried about Naomi. First, she kept her BRCA gene findings a secret from the world for months. Now, she seems ready to take extraordinary steps without taking a moment to really think things through.

When Naomi and Jacob sat down with Monica McCormick to discuss possible treatments and preventative measures, I got the impression that Naomi believed that having a double mastectomy would prevent her from ever getting cancer. She looked uncomfortable and a little caught off guard when Monica said that the procedure would lower, but not eliminate, her chances of getting breast cancer.

Shortly after I pointed out that the BRCA mutation also meant a higher chance of developing ovarian cancer – yes, I talk to the television – Monica broached the topic. Almost immediately, Naomi seemed ready to sign up for a hysterectomy. She did later tell Kat, Chelsea, and Martin that she was only going to focus on her breast health. I’m not sure that I totally believe her.

There’s no denying that witnessing her grandmother’s battle with cancer has affected Naomi’s thought process. I understand her thinking, though. She doesn’t want to die and she doesn’t want to suffer. She wants to have a million more years with all the people she loves. I can’t fault her for that.

Should Naomi Act Alone Or Listen to Others?

Yes, it is Naomi’s body and no one should tell her what she can and cannot do with it, I still worry that she’s rushing to make decisions before fully thinking things out. I also worry about how her decision-making process could impact her marriage. Jacob had been incredibly supportive, but I am sure all of this is hard for him. There’s that weird gray area of wanting to tell someone how you feel without making it seem like you’re making things all about you. Should Naomi take Jacob’s feelings into consideration before making any decisions? They are married partners in life, but where does the union end and the individuality begin?

It seemed like Jacob was at one point on the verge of saying that tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. Naomi could take all of the preventative measures known to man — and womankind — and get hit by a falling elephant the moment she steps out of the hospital. Or she could still develop cancer and succumb to the disease. She could do nothing and live to 110. There are so many “what ifs” that exist in this world. It’s hard not to wonder how things turn out in all of those alternatives if we take a certain action.

Smitten Trouble Ahead?

I am also concerned about Martin and Smitty’s future. They’ve gotten everything back on track and now Smitty’s boss, Cyd, is making comments about how she doubts that family man Smitty can do his job properly.

I think its way over the line for any employer to think that one of their employees owes them 100% transparency. Just because Smitty is a journalist, it doesn’t mean that he has to report all of Martin’s secrets to the newspaper so that they can publish them. In what world does that even make sense? Why Cyd can’t understand the concept of church and state blows my mind.

Smitty loves his family dearly, but he also seems to define himself by his work. Would he knowingly do something to torpedo his marriage just to prove himself at the job? I don’t know. I’d like to think that he wouldn’t. Smitty wasn’t thrilled when Martin single-handedly decided that he wanted to run for Senate, but he does seem okay with his husband being a U.S. Representative. It might be slightly more believable that Smitty might share information that would kill a possible Senate run, but even that seems like a bit of a stretch.

There’s also the (remote) possibility that Martin doesn’t win reelection. Maybe someone does reveal what happened that night on the deserted stretch of road. Or maybe he just doesn’t get the votes. Would Martin be able to handle that? Could that bring more friction into the relationship? Maybe I’m just looking for trouble that doesn’t exist.

Beside, Behind, and Beyond The Gates: The Speed Round

Here are some of the thoughts and observations about other things happening on Beyond the Gates.

Google This

Having Chelsea do an Internet search for her dad’s symptoms was incredibly realistic. If I had a dollar for every time I told one of my former Soap Central writers to stop Googling her health symptoms, I’d have a trust fund the size of Leslie Thomas’.

OCD ICU

I admittedly have some OCD tendencies. For example, I alphabetize my spice rack. All of my CDs and DVDs – yes, I still have those – are also alphabetized. It’s not that I am a neat freak or obsessed with the alphabet. I think because I worked so much for so long, I realized that I had very little free time for the things that I enjoyed. Spending ten minutes looking for a DVD was not something that I wanted to do. So if everything was alphabetized it meant that I could spend more of my free time being “free.”

Why am I oversharing? Well, because in one scene earlier this week the chairs in the waiting area of the hospital were arranged in a circle. The next day, they were back to the usual back-to-back linear format. Was that the show trying to say that the action was taking place on a different floor than normal? Did someone not notice that the chairs were arranged differently? Was there a meeting that took place off-screen and none of the participants were considerate enough to put things back the way they found them? I need answers!

Speaking of the hospital, I absolutely loved the girl talk between Shanice, Ashley, Madison, and Nicole this week. I liked the organic nature of friends friending.

LSD’s Bad Trip Of A Week

It wasn’t just Hayley who had a bad week. Leslie Thomas was also told off a few times. Ted finally told Leslie were she could stick her unwanted flirting. I know that a lot of viewers have been waiting for months to see Ted show some sign of a backbone. Well, this was the week.

Leslie even got an earful from her daughter. When Eva saw how upset Ted was, she basically told her mother to go kick rocks. Eva made it clear that she did not want her mother’s bad behavior to ruin the relationship that she had finally forged with her dad. The moments where Eva and Leslie clash are always good and I have to imagine there is at least one of them in Ambyr Michelle’s Emmy reel.

Those Scones

Joey’s scones looked delicious. I could do without the caramelized onions (not a fan), but the gruyère cheese and sage sounded yummy. I might need to use the Internet for its other purpose. No, not that you pervs. For looking up recipes. As an aside, I wonder if Jon Lindstrom likes to cook and bake. If he does, I almost feel like it’s a missed opportunity for him to not do Joey Armstrong cooking videos on YouTube.

My Dead Daddy Says Hi

I am still enjoying Deanna’s private little chats with her dead father. I know, that sounds a little morbid – but they’re such good soap. Watching Deanna struggle through dinner with Joey and Vanessa was so much fun. Those forced smiles. The struggle to say nice things.

I have a theory about that note that Joey found in Doug’s belongings and later burned. The letter, which was purportedly written by Doug before his death, claimed that Joey killed him. Of course, there was no way that Joey was going to turn that over to Vanessa so he burned it. I thought it was odd that Deanna asked Vanessa if she’d found anything interesting in Doug’s belongings. What if Deanna planted the letter as a way to trap Joey? Neither Joey nor Vanessa made mention of the letter, so Deanna would seemingly know that Joey must have destroyed it.

Now I haven’t really thought all of this out to figure out how that would benefit Deanna in her plot to break up Joey and Vanessa. Maybe by next week’s column I’ll have crafted a scenario or, better yet, the show will reveal the answer on-screen.

Articulettes Reunion… or Wedding?

Anita did not seem happy when Vernon placed a call to Devon Winters to set up studio time for the Articulettes to record new vocal tracks. Anita has previously expressed concern that her cancer treatment had impacted her voice. Is that the reason for her angst? Is she just afraid to dream again for fear that her cancer could swoop back in an uproot her life all over?

Oooooh. Sharon has a boyfriend. Interesting that his name is Marvin. That’s another nod to a R&B legend of yesteryear.

Desserticide

Beyond the Gates continues its utter disrespect of dessert. We’ve already endured uneaten cupcakes and other crimes against pastries, but this week the show decided to attack ice cream. In a rant against Leslie, Shanice referred to Leslie as “Nutty Buddy.” In addition to being the name of a Little Debbie snack cake, that’s an ice cream cone similar to a Nestle Drumstick. The ice cream cone never did anything bad to anyone – except maybe folks who are lactose intolerant. So there is no reason for Shanice to defame an otherwise tasty treat.

On top of that, Deanna destroyed a bag of take home goodies after her dinner with Joey and Vanessa. Deanna thanked Joey for buying her dessert, so I have to assume that’s what was in the bag that she stomped on like a roach.

Beyond the Gates: Lines of the Week

The Beyond the Gates writing team seems to be having a little too much fun. Here are some of the lines of dialogue that tickled my funny bone or that I found memorable over the past week (and haven’t already mentioned in this column).

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“If every bad decision came with instant consequences the world would have collapsed by lunchtime.”
Pamela assuring Dani that sleeping with Bill did not give Naomi the BRCA mutation.

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“I didn’t realize that I was about to sleep with my sister.”
Dani when Andre tried to psychoanalyze her decision to not think about her BRCA mutation.

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“Life doesn’t always knock. Sometimes it walks right in.”
Ted Richardson

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“Love will hold the ladder, but you have to climb it yourself.”
Martin Richardson

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“Never trust a man with a 13-step skin care routine.”
Dani making fun of Pamela thinking that the male models were too good looking.

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“Jessica freakin’ rabbit was more.”
An angry Ted telling Leslie that her flirtations were no longer wanted or needed.

Gatecrashers: Reader and Viewer Feedback

I love interacting with other Beyond the Gates fans. So I thought I’d create a section to share some of the comments I’ve received on my columns and social media posts. If you’d like to see your comments shared here, you can scroll down to the Comments section below this column and post away. You can also chat with me on Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and/or TwitterX.

Follow my Random Acts of Dan

That’s all I have for this week’s My View From Beyond the Gates column. Thank you for reading and, as always, please feel free to share your thoughts on my column or Beyond the Gates in the Comments section below.

If you’ve enjoyed my column this week and want to see what I have written about Beyond the Gates in previous weeks, you can check those out in the My View From Beyond the Gates archive.

Have a penchant for gardening, interior design, or fixing up old houses? Check out my Manor Makeover series where I write about all of the things I’ve been up to here at Kroll Manor in Allentown, PA, over the past decade.

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Life outside the gates

Two of my former Two Scoops columnists from Soap Central, Liz Masters and Tamilu, have joined me here on my personal web site — and they are still writing about General Hospital. Liz is on deck with week with a new column called, The Way We Were.

To read more thoughts, opinions, rants, and raves about daytime television, be sure to check out our Editorial section.

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