Venice: The Series is a web series co-produced by and starring American actress Crystal Chappell, and is inspired in part by the Otalia storyline on the daytime drama Guiding Light.
Venice is described by Chappell as "a show about families, and life, and all the simplicity of it, and the turmoil of it. We're going to be following a character named Gina who is a designer, and she is a gay woman."[1]
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Crystal Chappell is known for playing Olivia Spencer on the long-running CBS daytime drama, Guiding Light from 1999–2009, and for her role as Dr. Carly Manning on Days of our Lives from 1990–1993, a role she reprised in October 2009.[2] She won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Daytime Drama for her work as Olivia in 2002 and was nominated again in the same category in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, she earned her first nomination in the Outstanding Lead Actress category and her second in 2010.
Chappell, along with help from her writing partner and co-producer Kim Turrisi, decided to create Venice: The Series when, in 2009, it was announced that Guiding Light would finish after more than seven decades and, thus, the romance between Chappell's character, Olivia Spencer, and co-star Jessica Leccia's character, Natalia Rivera Aitoro, would end. The popularity of the couple, also known by the portmanteau Otalia prompted Chappell to create a web series so that fans could continue to watch the romance between the two play out, albeit with different character names and storylines. Although Chappell's character in the show is an openly gay woman, the show is not a "gay web series" but rather a show that "embodies all kinds of people, with all kinds of issues".[3]
In August 2009, The New York Times published an article about the Otalia storyline and fans' reaction to it, as well as information about Venice: The Series
Ms. Chappell’s ability to mobilize her online fans will help the promotion of “Venice.” Since setting up a Twitter account in May 2009, she has amassed more than 30,000 followers, robust compared to her soap peers. Ms. Chappell’s online territory has no fewer than nine Web destinations, including the Twitter accounts of her former producing partners, Ms. Turrisi and Ms. Royaltey (both who left the show to pursue other creative endeavours); “Venice” Facebook and Twitter pages; Ms. Chappell’s Web site, crystal-chappell.com and Facebook pages; and her series site, venicetheseries.com.[4]
Venice: The Series stars Crystal Chappell as Gina, a designer and a gay woman, and Chappell's love interest from Guiding Light, Jessica Leccia, this time as Ani, Gina's love interest. Some of Chappell's and Leccia's former Guiding Light co-stars also appear in the series (now in its third season), including Tina Sloan, Gina Tognoni as Sami and Jordan Clarke as The Colonel. Other Venice cast members include daytime actress Hillary B. Smith of One Life to Live as Guya, Nadia Bjorlin as Lara, Galen Gering as Owen - Gina's brother, Michelle Carter as Michele, Lesli Kay as Tracy, Michael Sabatino, Chappell's husband, as Alan, and an old boyfriend of Gina Peter Reckell as an old boyfriend Gina. Other cast members include Shaun Christian, Eric Martsoff, Molly Burnett from Days of Our Lives.
In 2011, Venice the Series won the first Daytime Emmy winner for Outstanding Special Class Short Format.
Venice: The Series is set in Venice Beach, California, USA and is often filmed outside to take advantage of the incomparable scenery, both natural and otherwise.
Chappell decided to use small subscription service to finance the filming of Venice, which is digitally filmed. To watch Venice, subscribers visit the venicetheseries.com website and sign up and pay for a subscription. DVDs of past seasons of the show are also available for sale online at the website.