Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, but Victoria Principal is thrilled to be back on a soap!

Guess what? Victoria Principal is back on a primetime soap—but she's not playing DALLAS' and America's beloved Pam Ewing!
     It has been 13 years since Victoria Principal left her role as the long-suffering Pam on DALLAS. Still—maybe because the 1978-1991 primetime soap remains one of the most popular TV series in history—Principal has had a hard time shaking her image as the good-hearted doormat whose mere existence represented a threat to the evil J.R. Ewing.
     But something has changed in the past year. Principal has suddenly become a hot commodity again, playing roles other than Pam. She has been hired for guest spots on THE PRACTICE, JUST SHOOT ME and PROVIDENCE and has a recurring role on JACK AND JILL. Now, Principal is getting her biggest opportunity yet to finally be free of her DALLAS alter ego. This fall, she leads the cast of NBC's TITANS. On the primetime soap, which premieres this month, Principal plays Gwen Williams, a strong-willed Beverly Hills divorcee who must keep her family together while running her own business.
     "I think this is a new beginning," says the actress, who admits that it took a lot to get her to consider going back to the genre she left in 1987. TITANS is being produced by TV wunderkind Aaron Spelling, who got the world hooked on DALLAS' arch primetime rival DYNASTY and went on to produce THE COLBYS, BEVERLY HILLS 90210, MELROSE PLACE and others. His newest venture TITANS is being touted as TV's newest "guilty pleasure." It's a classic primetime soap in every sense of the word. But Principal will be the first to tell you that the genre has evelved quite a bit since its 1980s glory days. "I think in order to answer the requirements of the American public, whose attention span has gotten shorter, you must have quicker cuts, faster stories and multiple storylines," says Principal, comparing TITANS to DALLAS. "So I don't think this is where we left off."
     Principal sounds serious, but at the same time, she realizes that TITANS is deliberately campy, with the kind of over-the-top scenarios meant to provoke gasps and, well, laughs. Perhaps this is why she was hesitant about jumping on board. "I have not done a series since I left DALLAS, by choice. And when I was first approached about TITANS, I declined, because I did not feel that I wanted to go back."
     Spelling and NBC were relentless, however, assuring Principal that they did not want her to play another Pam Ewing. "As Gwen, Victoria gets to be strong and angry," Spelling promised her. Principal likes that Gwen is well-rounded and thoroughly involved in her life, business and romance - at an age where, even a decade ago, the character of Gwen might have been portrayed as past her prime.
     "I love the idea that I'm going to play a 50-year-old woman - that they were not going to pigeonhole me and make me play someone younger so that character could have a full life," explains Principal, who puts her own age at 50. "Gwen is going to be a 50-year-old woman with a full life. This is the new 50—and I like that," Principal admits.
     So is it the character alone that lured Principal back to primetime soapland to thrill her legion of fans once more? The actress laughs and gives us that familiar and fabulous Pamela Ewing smile. "That's just part of it," she says. "Have you ever heard anyone say 'no' to Aaron?"
BY DAMON ROMINE