Tunie, whom fans will recognize from her years on “Law & Order: SVU,” has returned to her soap opera roots in CBS’s “Beyond the Gates,” the first daytime serial centered on a Black family in the history of U.S. broadcast television. Premiering Monday, it chronicles the dramas of the Dupree family, the de facto rulers of a tony gated community.

For the first time in more than 25 years, a new daytime soap opera is coming to network TV. "Beyond the Gates" is the first one-hour daytime drama to feature a primarily Black and multicultural cast.

In 1968, Ellen Holly became the first Black lead on a soap ("One Life to Live") while the true breakthrough roles had to wait until the '80s with Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan on "All My Children," then the '90s, with Kristoff St. John on "The Young and the Restless."