/\£ Ease, I he Battalion TlfiilJiH | .! Hi K ill Friday, February 3? 1984 5 across college campus' Mindy loves Phillip; does Phillip love Mindy? By LAURI REESE Krista Tesreau, from St. where the show is filmed, and Staff Writer Louis, was hired in May to play her family lives in St. Louis. Mindy fell in love with Phillip the character of Mindy Lewis, a Tesreau said that she cer­ the first time she saw him. They strong-willed spoiled brat, in tainly wasn't expecting a sur­ dated for awhile and went to the daytime drama "Guiding prise party to be given to her by the high school prom together. Light." the cast of the soap opera at At the prom, Phillip started lik­ Mindy is mean and manipu­ Studio 54 — which is exactly ing Beth, the prom queen. Later lative, always ready to voice her what she got. Her parents and that night he got drunk and opinion, Tesreau said in a tele­ sisters even flew in for the passed out. The next morning phone interview. event. Mindy lied to him and told him "I love the character. How of­ Less than two years ago, Tes­ that they had made love. ten is it that you get the chance reau left her parents, two older But Phillip just couldn't for­ to play someone like that and sisters and one nephew in St. get Beth. Eventually Phillip and get paid for it?" Tesreau asked. Louis to study acting in Los An­ Beth started going out together, Mindy always gets every­ geles. She studied there for but still Mindy wouldn't give thing she wants, Tesreau said, about six months and then was up on Phillip. She followed but she loves a challenge — cast for the part she has now. Phillip and Beth to New York, that's why she was after Phillip, Tesreau said her family is ex­ where they were hiding from played by Grant Aleksander. tremely supportive. Just about Beth's deranged stepfather, He was the one thing she everyone in the family has who earlier had raped Beth. couldn't get. bought video cassette recorders Mindy somehow managed to Tesreau said she is nobnearly so they can watch the show be in the wrong place at the as spoiled as Mindy, but they when they get in from work, wrong time and was kidnapped are a lot alike. she said. and held at gunpoint by Beth's "We're both energetic and Tesreau watches a few soap father, who thought Mindy optimistic," Tesreau said. operas aside from "Guiding could help him find out his "Deep down inside, Mindy Light," but says she is not daughter's whereabouts. really does want everything tc hooked on them. Mindy was saved by Rick and go right." She said that before she got his toy gun, and it was then On the show Mindy is 18, but on the show she hardly ever that she realized that he was Tesreau had her 20th birthday watched soap operas and had her real hero and maybe not so Jan. 10. She said she originally only seen "Guiding Light" once Krista Tesreau plays Mindy Lewis, a student at bad after all. had planned on having quiet or twice. Springfield University, in CBS's "Guiding Sound like a soap opera? birthday — nothing special See "MINDY" page 6 Light." Well, that's because it is one. since she lives in New York, The vices and virtues found in soap operas By LAURI REESE People who watch soap op­ can be destructive when it be­ eras often feel superior be­ comes a substitute for real life Staff Writer cause, like the author of a relationships. book, they know everything, If you went through drop- Alston says. They are always add because one of your one step ahead of the charac­ For example, if you have to classes was scheduled during ters. watch "your soap" instead of "Guiding Light," or if you call studying for a test, then the "General Hospital" "my destructive results are ob­ Soap operas involve the au­ vious. soap," or if you were de­ dience the way they used to pressed for a week after Hope get involved in novels, and Bo decided not to see Alston says, in that a soap Whenever you're watching each other anymore on "Days opera is like a novel that can't television there's something of Our Lives," or if you yelled be put down. else you're not doing, she "Go Greg!" as he raced down says. If that something else is the highway to stop Jenny's Alston also compared soap studying, working, interact­ wedding on "All My Chil­ operas to gossip columns and ing with people who are im­ dren," then you're probably movie magazines, in which hooked. portant to you, or making readers see things they ordi­ friends, then you've got a narily wouldn't be allowed to problem. Dr. Jon Alston, a sociology see. professor at Texas A&M, says people get hooked on soap He says that even though Soap operas are not all bad, operas for the thrill of in­ the soap operas deal with ex­ however. Alston says they let The McCandless brothers of CBS's "Capitol" volvement, and to get a peek tremes of either good or bad people see how other people are left to right Christopher Durham, Michael into the backstage behavior behavior, the action is plau­ work out their problems and (behavior not open to the give watchers an opportunity Catlin, David Mason Daniels and Bill Beyers sible and people become loyal public) of other people with­ to the characters, even to the to evaluate their own morals. (center front). out feeling threatened. point of sending them birth­ "Capitol" centers around two families — the day or wedding presents. Davidson says studies have McCandlesses and the Cleggs — active political­ Soap opera fans can get shown that people say soap ly and socially in Washington D.C. emotional without being Dr. Emily Davidson, asso­ operas are realistic, are rele­ If you want "mean and nasty," this definitely blamed for it, he says. They ciate professor of psychology, vant to their lives and offer is the right soap for you. can boo and hiss safely. says watching soap operas solutions to their problems. g-rr -aw—.