Heather Tom has been part of the soap world for 35 years. At age 15, she started playing Victoria Newman on The Young and the Restless.
Although she has been on The Bold and the Beautiful as Katie Logan for 18 years, Tom also appeared on One Life to Live for two years after leaving Y&R.
These days, Tom doesn’t just act. She also writes and directs episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful. Last spring, in honor of her 35th anniversary in soaps, Tom wrote, directed, and starred in an all-female episode and made history.
Heather Tom Talks History-Making The Bold and the Beautiful Episode
The episode was mentioned during her appearance on the Soapy podcast, hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart, this week. Tom admitted it was Executive Producer Brad Bell’s idea to have her act, direct, and write the episode.
“It’s never been done on daytime. It’s only been done like twice on any television platform, and that is something about our genre, by the way, that I think we do break ground a lot before others,” she shared. “I don’t know that we necessarily get credit, but we are innovative.”
Tom was thrilled that the episode seamlessly fit into the current storyline rather than being a standalone episode. Soaps are known for having standalone episodes for major milestones and achievements that don’t relate to the current storyline.
“I didn’t want this to be a flashback show,” Tom stated.
The actress also addresses something fans know all too well about The Bold and the Beautiful, the repetitiveness.
The Bold and the Beautiful Star Heather Tom Gets It
Soaps are notorious for having characters repeat the same thing multiple times a week and also for repeating storylines. However, some fans feel like The Bold and the Beautiful is guilty of both of those things on overkill.
Tom is fully aware of that as a writer and actor, and addressed the hot topic on Soapy.
“We have a certain amount of repetition,” she spilled, adding that the challenge is to “find a different way to say the same thing. The fact is that is built into our genre, and we are not the only show that does that. By the way, nighttime shows do it as well. They are just only on once a week.”
After over three decades in soaps, Heather Tom has become a jack of all trades, acting, writing, and directing in the genre that she loves.
The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS.
