‘Passions’ explores familiar, unnatural> ‘Days of Our Lives’ writer creates new soap

They are rich. They are gorgeous. They are rotten. They rule the peaceful coastal New England town their ancestors founded with an iron fist and a haughty glare. They are the Crane dynasty.

They are middle class. They are beautiful. They are nice. They run the peaceful town their ancestors built with the sweat of their brows and hold a quiet disdain for the Cranes up on the hill. They are the Bennett and the Russell families.

They are poor. They are pretty. They are hard-working. They clean the mansion on the hill and the fish at the cannery on the wharf in the peaceful coastal community their ancestors never saw. They dream big, but those dreams always drift out of their reach. They are the Lopez-Fitzgerald clan.

These are the families of the new NBC soap opera “Passions” airing at 10 a.m., Monday through Friday. They live, they love, they harbor secret pasts and face uncertain destinies (especially with that witch flitting around). They inhabit a town called Harmony, which, most days, is anything but.

From the outside, the place looks a lot like Camden — a peaceful harbor surrounded by hills, church steeples standing over the town like sentinels, the lighthouse beckoning and warning all who pass by, a traffic jam along Route 1. But, where did that stretch of beach with miles of golden sand come from?

When exactly did the Hispanic families like the Lopez-Fitzgeralds and the African-American Bennetts build this community? They look, talk and act like people from away. Maybe, what they built wasn’t the cannery or the town hall but MBNA’s corporate retreat center, up on the hill, next to the Crane mansion.

Actually, they all came out of central casting and the imagination of creator and head writer James E. Reilly. He describes the new soap, which premiered July 5, as “Peyton Place” meets “Dark Shadows” or the “The X-Files.” While it is primarily based on romance and relationships, it will have those quirky elements.

Reilly should know quirky. He was head writer for NBC’s now oldest daytime drama, “Days of Lives” and wrote for many others during the past two decades. Characters on “Days,” as it is known to its rabid fans, have come back from the dead so many times, even the writers have lost count. Over the years, plot lines have included time travel and demonic possession in addition to the usual thwarted love that is the mainstay of all soap opera plots.

“Passions” was born when Proctor & Gamble (maker of Ivory soap, etc.), decided last year to pull the plug on “Another World” after 35 years. Sony, the network’s parent company, gave Reilly the green light to create a new daytime drama that would be fresh, hip and targeted to a younger demo, according to NBC vice president Jerry Petry.

The bottom line, of course, is ratings. “Days” consistently comes in second to CBS’s “The Young and the Restless,” while “Another World” usually was in the cellar of the Nielsons. NBC’s “Sunset Beach,” barely two years old, rates dead last.

In most of the country, the top-rated soaps run during the lunch hours, between noon and 2 p.m. In Maine, however, network affiliates (Channels 2 and 6) run the three NBC soaps from 9 a.m. to noon beginning with “Days,” ending with “Sunset Beach,” hammocking “Passions” in between.

As much as Reilly touts the standard romantic and familiar intrigue that has been the mainstay of soaps since their radio days (“Guiding Light” is the only soap left on TV that began there), the quirky plots and characters are the most appealing thing about “Passions.”

Juliet Mills, sister to Hayley and daughter of John, plays Tabitha, the Bennetts’ next door neighbor. She made a child-sized doll in the first couple of episodes and brought “Timmy” to life by week’s end. Whether they are out to do good or evil remains to be seen, but they are anything but ordinary.

In emphasizing young people, something all soaps do during the summer months in hopes of hooking viewers early, Reilly has the usual gang of unblemished and unschooled actors. But this group acts more like real life teen-agers than any others in soapdom.

The Bennett sisters plot against each other, argue over petty slights, and refer to each other as “alien” and “mutant.” Even Dad, the police chief, cannot enforce domestic harmony at home when Kay and Jessica go at each other.

They are oblivious to the fact that their mother, Grace, who can’t remember the first 20 years of her life, is being haunted by a Tinkerbell-sized ball of light that keeps manifesting into an angel. They haven’t noticed that Tabitha is making more than taffy in her kitchen next door. But they have noticed Miguel of the Lopez-Fitzgerald clan (Jesse Metcalfe) and his hunky older brother Luis (Galen Gering).

“Passions” opened with scenes of a troubled, yet beautiful, blonde woman walking the streets of Paris. She wandered past sidewalk cafes and purchased a bouquet from street vendors, then laid the flowers at the foot of the “eternal flame” built in a square near where Princess Diana was killed in a car accident. Sheridan Crane (McKenzie Westmore), of the Harmony Cranes, no less, was Di’s best friend and she too is chased by the relentless paparazzi into the same tunnel where the Princess died. Paleez!!

Besides the Crane dynasty, “Passions” may give birth to a new soap opera star dynasty. Liza Huber, daughter of daytime diva and, finally, Emmy winner Susan Lucci (Erica Kane of “All My Children”) portrays Gwen Hotchkiss, girlfriend of heir apparent Ethan Crane. Except for those distinctive eyebrows, she looks nothing like her famous mama, but does flaunt a few of her speech patterns. Now, if only Liza is blessed with Mama’s wardrobe budget, she too will be on her way to divadom and many, many on-screen husbands.

Shot in southern California, “Passions” is reminiscent of “Peyton Place,” which looked a lot like Camden, too. Whether this new soap turns out to be closer to “Dark Shadows,” “The X-Files” or is just “Days” recycled remains to be seen. Tune in tomorrow and discover secret desires, uncover forbidden magic and encounter limitless passion, but keep the Milk of Magnesia close by and watch out for Timmy.