The Bold And The Beautiful is the first U.S. broadcast series — and possibly the first scripted series on American soil– to return to production.
The daytime drama will resume filming its current season on Wednesday, June 17, at Television City in Los Angeles. There is no air date set yet but the hope is for the half-hour soap to return to originals in early to mid July.
"We feel we're ready to go. Safety is our utmost concern and will be as we return to production. We've been modifying our spaces, modifying our studio, our booth, staying up to date on what the most important health and safety protocols are. Safety is our utmost concern and will be as we return to production" said executive producer and writer of The Bold and The Beautiful, Bradley Bell.
"Everyone has been tested. Actors will be tested at least once a week, maybe multiple times a week. All production personnel will be tested on Mondays, and we'll be filming Tuesday through Friday."
"In terms of the booth and control room, we have plexiglass between the director, the AD, the [technical director]. We've spread out all of our production people so they're at least six feet apart and divided by plexiglass. We've moved the lighting department to an auxiliary area where they have more space. We're limiting the number of people on set at any one time, and keeping the actors eight feet apart at all times — which will be tricky, especially during love scenes."
"We'll shoot one side of the couple in a romantic scene alone in the room, but looking at a spot very close to them, and then shoot the other side alone. When we edit it together, it will look like they're nose to nose."
"We're also bringing in, in some cases, the husbands and wives of the actors as stand-ins for their [characters'] significant others. So if you see hands touching faces in close proximity from a wide shot, instead of a stunt double we'll have a love-scene double, where it will be the husband or the wife doing the actual touching. Then when we edit it together, it will look like our couple on screen."
“We have some life-like blow up dolls that have been sitting around here for the past 15 years, that we’ve used for various other stories — (like) when people were presumed dead,” says Bell. “We’re dusting off the dolls and putting new wigs and make-up on them and they'll be featured in love scenes.”
