Russell family (Passions)

Russell family (Passions)

The Russell family is a fictional family depicted on the American soap opera Passions. The family was created by the soap’s founder and head writer James E. Reilly. The Russells are one of the four core families in the fictional town of Harmony. They are characterized by their friendship with the Bennetts and Lopez-Fitzgeralds and their feud with the Cranes. The show’s treatment of sexual and gender identity has received mixed feedback from critics.

About Russell family (Passions) in brief

Summary Russell family (Passions)The Russell family is a fictional family depicted on the American soap opera Passions. The family was created by the soap’s founder and head writer James E. Reilly. The Russells are one of the four core families in the fictional town of Harmony. They are characterized by their friendship with the Bennetts and Lopez-Fitzgeralds and their feud with the Cranes. Most of the characters left during the show’s transition from NBC to DirecTV, leaving Eve and Vincent as the only representatives of the Russell family in the series finale. The characters initially received negative feedback for their representation of an African-American family. Despite the criticism, the cast was frequently nominated for NAACP Image Awards and featured prominently in a series of public service announcements for Black History Month in 2003. The show’s treatment of sexual and gender identity has received mixed feedback from critics, but the Russells won the award for Outstanding Daily Drama at the 17th GLAAD Media Awards. The series finale of Passions aired on July 5, 2007. Tracey Ross, Phillipie Ross, and Jeanmarie Johnson were the only Russells’ representatives in the final episode of the series. The matriarch of the family is Eve Russell, a respected doctor at Harmony Hospital. Her early storylines focus on her attempts to keep her relationship and child with Julian Crane secret from her family and the rest of the Harmony family. She is the matriarchs of theRussell family and is the only member of her family to be a doctor at the hospital.

She has a son with Julian, Vincent Clarkson, and a daughter with Whitney Harris-Crane. She also has an adopted daughter, Liz Sanbourne, who is the adoptive sister of Whitney’s husband and Liz’s son, Chad Harris- crane. Eve’s daughter Simone came out as lesbian to her family, and the revelation that Vincent was intersex led to her coming out to the family as a lesbian. The cast reflected the show’s “truly color-blind storytelling” rather than appearing as token characters, said Sheraton Kalouria, senior vice president of NBC’s daytime programming. The decision to create and cast two minority families was a conscious effort to simulate the diversity of the United States, and that the cast reflected that diversity. Rodney Van Johnson, who played T.  C. Russell, expressed an appreciation for the shows representation of “a strong African American family” that was involved in serious stories on daytime television rather than “just a flash in the pan”, and also said that the RussellFamily received a considerable response from African-Americans. Amelia Marshall, who portrayed LizSanbourne, said her character Eve is not purely defined by her race, and Charles Divins said the show was “refreshing’”. Johnson also said he was disappointed when the show began “taking out the people of color” such as Brook Kerr, Amelia Marshall and Cathy Jenéen Doe, and he also said it was an obvious that “this thing is going down.”