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''Passions'' is an American soap opera which aired on NBC from July 5, 1999 to September 7, 2007 and on The 101 Network from September 17, 2007 to August 7, 2008. ''Passions'' follows the lives and loves, and various romantic and paranormal adventures of the residents of Harmony. Story-lines center on the interactions among members of its multi-racial core families — the African American Russells, white Cranes and Bennetts, and half-Mexican half-Irish Lopez-Fitzgeralds — as well as the supernatural, including town witch Tabitha Lenox. In January 2007, NBC canceled ''Passions'' but later handed it over to The 101 Network. The show aired its final NBC episode on September 7, 2007. Created by writer James E. Reilly and produced by NBC Studios, the series was subsequently picked up by direct broadcast satellite service DirecTV, which broadcast new episodes airing on its exclusive channel The 101. ''Passions'' aired its first DirectTV episode on September 17, 2007.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=NBC'S ''Passions'' to work its magic on DIRECTV viewers with all new episodes beginning September 17 )〕 In December 2007, DirecTV decided not to renew its contract for the series,〔〔〔 and the studio was unable to sell the show elsewhere. The final episode aired on DirecTV on August 7, 2008.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''Passions:'' After 10 Years, the Supernatural Soap Ends, part one )〕 ==Series history== ''Passions'' debuted in 1999 with major fanfare. Creator Reilly had been credited for a large surge in the ratings for ''Days of Our Lives'' years before, thanks to innovative storylines like that of heroine Dr. Marlena Evans being possessed by Satan that drew new viewers, but also tended to alienate stalwart fans. With ''Passions'', Reilly was able to start with a blank slate and no pre-existing fan base to please.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''Passions'' )〕 In the early days of the show, ''Passions'' heroine Sheridan Crane is identified as a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales; soon Sheridan recalls speaking to Diana on the phone immediately prior to the 1997 car accident which took the Princess' life. Sheridan also has a similar accident in the same Paris tunnel, and speaks to a "guardian Angel Diana" who urges her to fight to survive, which drew considerable controversy. Sheridan later adopts the name Diana after a boating accident that results in amnesia. The opening days of the show also introduced the Theresa/Ethan/Gwen love triangle that persisted as an ongoing main storyline to the very last episode of the series. For much of the first three to four years of the series, supernatural elements such as witches, warlocks, and closet doors leading to Hell were major plot points, many surrounding the machinations of the centuries-old witch Tabitha Lenox and her doll-brought-to-life sidekick, Timmy — named by ''Entertainment Weekly'' as one of their "17 Great Soap Supercouples" in 2008. In 2001, HarperEntertainment released ''Hidden Passions'', a tie-in novelization presented as Tabitha's diary, exposing the secrets and pasts of the town's residents. ''Passions'' featured a story-line involving Tabitha and Timmy promoting the book, which reached #4 on the real-life ''New York Times'' Best Seller list and garnered the series two alternative covers of ''TV Guide'' in July 2001. In 2003, ''Passions'' submitted a trained orangutan named BamBam, who had been portraying the recurring role of Precious, for a Daytime Emmy Award. Precious was the non-speaking live-in nurse and caregiver for elderly Edna Wallace, and held an unrequited love for Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, which was depicted in elaborate fantasy sequences. In early 2004, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which administers the awards, disallowed the entry with the following statement: ''Our ruling is based on the belief that the Academy must draw a line of distinction between animal characters that aren't capable of speaking parts and human actors whose personal interpretation in character portrayal creates nuance and audience engagement that uniquely qualifies those performers for consideration of television's highest honor.'' In mid-2004, Passions underwent major changes to the show in response of a new change of direction of storylines. That summer, storylines of ''Passions'' saw the departures of long-time characters of Charity, Miguel, Reese, Grace, Antonio, David, and Norma, due to the reconstruction of the daytime soap opera. New storylines saw TC and Eve's marriage ending, with TC beginning an affair with Eve's sister Liz, and Eve dating her ex, Julian Crane. Grace and Sam's marriage also came to end as well, as he had an affair with Ivy Crane and Grace falling in love with her supposed ex, David and leaving Harmony together. Simone and Fox schemed during that summer to break up star-crossed lovers supercouple of Whitney and Chad and nearly succeeded. However, Simone began dating women exclusively a year later after she realized that Chad would never love her like he loves Whitney. At the end of 2004, the introduction of new-series regulars such as Rae Thomas, Alistair Crane, Spike, Martin Lopez-Fitzgerald, Katherine, Paloma, Noah, and Fancy were introduced with huge storylines, which gave Passions its highest ratings in nearly four years. In summer 2005, the prominent character Simone Russell came out as gay; ''Passions'' made daytime history by being the first serial to show two women — Simone and love interest Rae Thomas — in bed making love. In 2007, it was revealed that longtime hero Chad Harris-Crane was cheating on his wife with another man. This was also a daytime first, with the men portrayed in bed together, committing -albeit unknowingly- incest.〔Chad was the half-uncle of his lover Vincent, who first had an affair with Chad, as his alter ego Valerie Davis.〕 ''Passions'' also portrayed Vincent as an intersex person who became pregnant with his own father's son. Nearly seven years after the debut of ''Passions'' on July 5, 1999, the NBC-owned Sci Fi Channel began airing the series from its first episode starting February 13, 2006.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''Passions'' goes Sci Fi! )〕 Due to low ratings, the reruns were taken off the air as of May 25, 2006. On August 15, 2006, ''Passions'' became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for download and purchase from the online music store iTunes. On November 6, 2006, the show also became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for free viewing via streaming on NBC.com. Though plagued since its inception by low overall Nielsen ratings, ''Passions'' was historically top-rated in key demographics. The series was not renewed by NBC for a full ninth season in 2007 because of its low ratings coupled with the network's decision to extend its morning news and talk show ''Today'' to a fourth hour. Since NBC owned the series entirely, NBC began shopping for other networks, especially cable networks, to pick up the series for a ninth season, however there was no luck in other networks willing to pick up the series because of devastating low ratings and extremely expensive production costs. In April 2007, Satellite provider DirecTV bought exclusive rights from NBC to continue airing ''Passions'',〔(PS News: Passions News | NBC Pulls the Plug on Passions|Passions @ soapcentral.com )〕〔(PS News: Passions News | Passions Finds New Life on Satellite|Passions @ soapcentral.com )〕 with most principal cast members staying on.〔("''Passions'': Who Won't Survive the Move to DirecTV?" - TV SeriesFinale.com ), May 24, 2007〕 As the series was coming to an end on NBC, ''Passions Live'' talk show hosted by Eric Martsolf premiered in August 2007 every Thursday night on DirecTV's The 101, giving fans the chance to telephone the show and interact live with ''Passions'' cast members, making ''Passions'' the first and only soap opera to ever have a live talk show in U.S. history. The ''Passions Live'' talk show continued to air on Thursday nights after moving to DirecTV until October 2007. The live show was also streaming live on the ''Official Passions Site'' at NBC.com.〔(Passions - Collections - Passions Live - Video - NBC.com )〕 The series ended its NBC run on September 7, 2007, and new episodes began airing on DirecTV's original-programming channel The 101 on September 17, 2007,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=NBC'S ''Passions'' to work its magic on DIRECTV viewers with all new episodes beginning September 17 )〕 making ''Passions'' both the first soap opera broadcast on a direct broadcast satellite service and the first series to make such a transition from broadcast television. The series on DirecTV ran Monday to Thursday at 2:00 pm ET/11 am PT, with repeats airing later in the day and on weekends. NBC.com continued to cover the series' official website with updating features, video clips of each episode aired, updating news, and products relating to ''Passions'', including all of the full videos of ''Passions Live'' show, once the series left NBC and had moved to DirecTV. However, initially, new episodes were no longer available for free viewing on the ''Passions'' official website at NBC.com or for purchase at iTunes.com since NBC's broadcasting decisions were entirely sold to DirecTV and the ''NBC.com Passions site'' promoted a DirecTV link letting fans know that ''Passions'' was no longer airing on NBC and was only available on DirecTV. On September 27, 2007, DirecTV announced they would provide an ''All Access Pass to Passions'' to view all new episodes on the ''Official Passions Site'' at NBC.com for a monthly fee.〔, September 27, 2007〕〔(DIRECTV PROVIDES ALL-ACCESS PASS TO PASSIONS WITH NEW ONLINE FEATURE STARTING OCTOBER 1 )〕 This service began on October 1, 2007 for $19.99 a month then reduced to $14.99 a month when ''Passions schedule was cut from four episodes a week to three episodes a week. After the series moved to DirecTV, the subscription service added a special feature where a trivia question relating to ''Passions'' would pop up, on each episode airing on ''The 101'', for viewers to use their remote control to answer. ''Passions'' was the first soap opera to ever have this type of feature.〔 On December 10, 2007, ''Variety'' magazine and various cast members〔"''Passions'' Canceled Again?" ''Soap Opera Digest''. January 1, 2008, Vol. 33 No. 1.〕 confirmed that DirecTV had decided not to renew ''Passions'' for another year, but ordered 52 additional episodes to be taped through March 2008. New episodes of the series were broadcast until August 7, 2008, with DirecTV airing three new episodes per week starting January 2008.〔 Universal Media Studios wrapped up production of ''Passions'' on March 28, 2008. The cast and crew were told at the wrap party that efforts to find a new outlet had failed and that the cancellation was final.〔 Cast member McKenzie Westmore confirmed the news.〔("''Passions'': The Soap is Really Over This Time" - TVSeriesFinale.com ), March 31, 2007〕 Though ''Passions'' had been the highest-rated original program on DirecTV's The 101, it was reported that the network had failed to meet the projected number of new subscribers they had hoped to attract with the series. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Passions」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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