Titus Andronicus

Death Spa has a few soap connections

Days does not know how to age characters who started on the show as children. David Banning and Mike Horton became adults way too quickly, and Julie had an adult grandson when in real time David would have been a teen still. After becoming an adult at age 5ish, Mike has spent the last 45 years perhaps only aging 20 years, and that's only because Roark Critchlow looked a little rough. Now, all the generations are mushed together and that's made for weird pairings.

I'm leaning towards Nick Corelli's Phantom. The mask seems to indicate facial scarring and Corelli had the cape, too, didn't he?

There are a few links to the Days-specific portion of the site on Internet Archive. Here is another link from 2003. The Passions store had a few unique items, such as a MarTimmy glass, but Days doesn't seem to have tried to personalize it in any way. Most show merchandise falls in between. Mostly T-shirts, few really interesting things. Doing this in 2002 was too early - no social media yet - and the market was quite saturated with everyone and their brother trying to set up online stores, or be an online marketplace dealing in everything. It's very 2002. You can buy the first series of Friends on DVD for $60, or on VHS for $45. You could buy online, or order by phone.

Ooooooh, Corday's memoir is available for checkout on Internet Archive. Unfortunately, Corday has some major flaws in his timeline and memories of this era. He has Lisanti/Tomlin succeeding Harrower and not Laemmle. He also has a meeting with NBC happening in January 1980 that absolutely couldn't have happened then because of the combination of people he said here there: Ken/Rabin/Lisanti/Tomlin. Anyway, of that supposed January 1980 meeting: The four were to meet with NBC and Fred Silverman on January 3, 1980 in New York. Silverman didn't show. Instead, Silverman was said to have sent two New York Times literary critics to discuss Days. Ken had been told they had watched the show the past two weeks, but they didn't know a single detail about it. - Somehow, Ken does remember that Rabin was a brand new producer for 1980. - Betty Corday had a heart attack in November 1979. Kenny got sent to New York for this meeting - if it did take place when he said it did - because she couldn't go.

Unless one of the magazines from that era has gossip, I don't know if we'll ever get an answer for sure. A February 7, 1980 television column in the New Orleans Times-Picayune hints that NBC had at least a hand in it. "A major house-cleaning is underway on the NBC daytime drama Days of Our Lives. An NBC source says as many as a dozen actors will be leaving the soap between now and May 1 - "Leaving, dying, disappearing, going to college ..." He declined to say which performers would get the ax since "They haven't notified them yet."" Yikes. Bet all of the cast members were on edge. At this point, Rabin's in charge less than three weeks and while Laemmle's been hired, she hasn't taken over head writing yet. So, looking at Jason's page, some of the departures over the first five months of 1980 January - Peter Brown February - Eileen Barnett - Cindy Daly March - Robert Clary - Rosemary Forsyth - John Lupton - Margaret Mason - Mark Tapscott April - Debbie Lytton - Edward Mallory* - George McDaniel May - Suzanne Zenor * Jed Allan, in the July 1980 interview in the Oakland Tribune, said Mallory quit because he wasn't allowed to direct. Allan believed Bob and Linda were written out to give more scenes to Chris and Alex. Spotted a midyear Lynda Hirsch column that suggested Harrower was let go because of falling ratings. I'm of the mind that NBC brass panicked over the falling ratings, booted Harrower and got extremely desperate to get anything going. They were a few established characters that they absolutely couldn't touch, but everybody else was fair game. Laemmle was a bad fit, but NBC might have been looking for someone who wasn't a soap person and she at least had an association with prestige TV even if her more recent stuff wasn't as popular. Maybe they were having problems finding someone. Laemmle seems to have been technically hired before Wes Kenney quit, but the handling of the Pat Falken Smith situation from a couple of years earlier, plus however Harrower was being treated/Kenney being mad enough to leave couldn't have helped.

Pat Falken Smith left in April 1977. Ann Marcus has the rest of 1977 and all of 1978. Ratings plummeted under Marcus. Marcus was fired in February-ish 1979 because of ... a lot of things. Ratings, storylines and backstage issues. Can't recall if the Kaye Stevens-Susan Seaforth Hayes fistfight was at the tail end of Marcus' reign or at the very beginning of Elizabeth Harrower's. Harrower seems to have been installed as head writer in February 1979 to try to stabilize things, but was canned in January 1980. So here's one thing I haven't figured out. Why was Harrower fired? NBC brass seems to have been doing a lot of meddling at that time and however the firing went down, it was enough to make Wes Kenney mad enough to leave. Was Harrower fired for something on her watch or did someone really want Nina Laemmle for some reason? Though Laemmle had no soap background - and doesn't seem to have any credits for a while - she was immediately named Harrower's successor. Laemmle was delayed for months in actually becoming head writer. Ruth Brooks Flippen is listed in Days paperwork as being head writer, but wasn't mentioned at all at the time. Even Flippen's LA Times obituary from 1981, the closest to a contemporary mention of her time at Days, only described her as a contributor to the show. Days seemed really committed to Laemmle despite the delay. It's never mentioned what the delay was, but considering Laemmle had an adult child die months later, I wonder if it was related. Personal issues led Laemmle to resign in September 1980. That ended up being fortunate for the show as in between, the cast turnover alienated fans and it seems like backstage wasn't thrilled either, based on a Jed Allan interview from midyear.

Looking up some old articles, I found a 1982 newspaper interview where Wayne Northrop said while Pat Falken-Smith's daughter recommended him for Roman (after seeing him on Dynasty), he also auditioned for Joshua Fallon. Checking some airdates on Jason's site, I'd assume he was auditioning for the replacement Joshua role that went to Scott Palmer. Palmer's airdates began about a week before Roman debuted. Northrop seemed to confirm that in the story, saying he was glad he got a brand new character instead of having to replace someone.

From their help page, Still unable to login? If you're unable to login after trying these tips, you'll need to confirm your identity to login. Attempt to login and continue until you need to enter your two-factor authentication code. Click Need another way to authenticate? Click Other Options, then click Get more help. Follow the on-screen instructions. From here, I think it will ask you about an authenticator. If it does, it's something you can download as an app on your phone. Google Authenticator, IIRC. My work computer is ancient, with memory issues which at this point means it doesn't keep up with my passwords. I have to use Facebook for my work and my phone is equally ancient and does not communicate well with Facebook. With the Authenticator app, I've been able to log back in without a problem. Authenticator is also a code, but works much better than texts or emails. It's been a few weeks since I've to do this, so I hope my memory of the procedure is somewhat accurate.

Damn. When I began watching was the last few months of his run as Roman in 1993. I've seen a good bit of clips from his first run. The 1983-84 Slasher storyline is my overall favorite and all of it because of how good Northrop was in it. His confrontation with Abe while on the run, where he convinces Abe he's sane is a tremendous scene. Northrop could play anything ... and it's disappointing that 1991-94 took away almost all of Roman's sensitive side and humor. IIRC Hall required Northrop as a package deal to get her back in 1991. A shame Days didn't appreciate what they had. After the two Romans business was done, they gave him nothing for a long time until the meatiness of the affair. Only to foul up the aftermath so bad Northrop took off. That said, Days was gifted Lynn Herring in 1992 and screwed that up horrifically.

Richard Cates was only on a few months of 1985, and in a transitional period. The crooked cop storyline brought in Patch and had a double payoff, first with Cates dying and second with Miami. With Miami, you get the Pawn ... and the decades that come after.

It would have been two very similar stories for Lexie. She was not long removed from the affair with Jonah and the whole Pacifier rogue cop by night. Wasn't Jonah trying to be a doctor at that time? Billie and Mike could have been interesting. Maybe Billie looking for stability while Bo waffles on who he really wants.

1983-84 Salem Slasher. Andre pretends to be Roman. Also has an outstanding scene later in the storyline where Roman pretends to be Don.

Marlena had a lot of falls from balconies over the years. You think she'd start avoiding them, loll.

The first week of the RoboJohn storyline was some of Hogestyn's best work to me. Dee Hall was really strong in that period, too. I actually really liked that arc, up until he became bogged down with the Hollingsworths. Just remembered I have a tape of that week somewhere. Need to dig that out.