carolineg

I can't say I have loved anything on Days post-1999, but I'd rather it be on the air than not, so I am fine with JER saving it at the time. Yeah, I am giving JER a lot of flack because a lot of it's silly in re watch or when you think about it logically. It doesn't hold up that well and his newer work certainly doesn't, but I do think it's very memorable. In a way Days hasn't been for a long time. I feel like I can make points and acknowledge silliness and stupidity in his writing in a way I can't with, say, Dena Higley. Because nothing she did was memorable or worth discussing again during her run. Anyhow, personal opinion and all. I always enjoy discussing things with soap lovers even if when I disagree. Wasn't JER very religious, but also gay? And weren't there rumors he would act scenes out with dolls and only address the actors by character names?

Lol! Not trying to be doom and gloom, but Days wasn't exactly setting the world on fire in 1994.

Same. I was a younger teen, but I did find Days very easy to watch and easier to watch than GH which was very doom and gloom at the time. I knew I Days was the sillier, less respected of the two shows. They were just two different shows and I liked their different feels. I could watch the Devil on Days and giggle, but then turn on Stone dying, Lily blowing up, Monica's cancer etc on GH. I liked having that variety when I came home from school lol. I genuinely thought they were both good and entertaining for different reasons. Again, it's much easier to watch edits of Sonny/Brenda vs. Marlena/John because on GH they weren't repeating the same dialogue every day and having silly misunderstandings, so I definitely think 90's GH holds up better. I certainly remember my friends liked Days more though and thinking it was weird I watched GH, so maybe JER's ideal fanbase was 13 year olds lol. From an acting perspective, Drake/John was hurt in the long run, but from a career perspective he wasn't at all. He will land as the 2nd actor in appearances this year on Days ever (2nd to Dee, obvi). He certainly outlived Wayne and Roman's character. He's the leading man on the show with the main leading lady. He still gets front burner stories, is in a popular pairing, has a large family, and well liked across the board. Is he cheesy as hell? Yeah, but at this point Grandpa John works for the character. I totally see your point of view, but I don't think it worked out negatively for him. Let's face it, Drake was never going to win any acting awards regardless lol. At the end of the Day JER did save Days. In a productive way that helped the show long term with storytelling? Probably not. But it got people talking and kept the show relevant. There are many, many flaws in his run, but Days would have had a similar fate to AW if it weren't for JER.

Gotcha. That makes sense. I don't remember ED's hiring being that big of a deal, but it could have been. I generally loathed Carly and CC, so while I know she was super popular, the early 90's felt like the Carly show to me. I didn't take CC's exit as a loss, but I am sure the show did. It looks like ED debuted about 4 months after SB went off the air. I do like that JER beefed up the Dimeras. That was really a great idea.

The affair did drive story for years and years, but at the end of the day, Drake should have stayed Roman. Or at least it should have been changed back when Wayne left before Shawn/Belle hooked up. I know I have said my piece about the Tale of 2 romans being one of the worst stories ever. So stupid. I always wonder why Dee was so insistent on bringing Wayne back. Did she have some sort of issue working with Drake back then? Because, when you think about it, her returning really did screw Drake/RoJohn over. Obviously not in the long run, but initially. The Devil also said she would turn evil under her father's influence. Anyhow, I have fond memories of JER, but as an adult a lot of his stuff was simplistic and juvenile. I also think it's not the same watching edit clips or everything at once. It's not as silly when it's only 1 hour a day. The same scenes/dialogue get repeated over and over when you sit and watch multiple episodes or a story arc. I think it changes the experience because a lot of clips on you tube are specifically edited for a story and that's really not how it was meant to be viewed. I always thought Lisa Rinna filled CC's role. With ED, she was allegedly brought over to solely be John's love interest. Someone (not JER of course) at the network thought Deidre was or looked too old to be Drake's love interest.

I believe Eileen was hired before Kristen was created. I believe she was snatched up directly from Santa Barbara when it was cancelled. No your paragraph made sense it's just a lot to comprehend when you break it down like that lol Here's the thing with John/Marlena/Roman. They seemingly dropped it when John/Isabella got together and picked it back up when Isabella died. Roman/Marlena were backburnered for most of 1992 until the Pit stuff started. We really didn't get to see them one way or another. Roman was undercover for a lot of this time. Even if Marlena was struggling with her feelings we didn't really see it until John/Marlena were back in love. Apparently, the affair was always the plan with or without Isabella it just got delayed when SG didn't re-sign. I honestly think that effected the story telling a lot and back burned Marlena/Roman until it was less tacky for John to go after Marlena post-Izzy B's death. Did Roman get a bad edit on this? Yes, but he also was the one pushing Marlena to just go back to the way things were. I get the feeling Days/Corday/the writers never really wanted Wayne back but it was part of Deidre's demands in her return and they were stuck with him. I didn't really want to see Roman or John be the bad guy. I think the affair just moved a little fast. The ingredients were all there just a lot of Roman's point of view was missing or just crappy. I honestly don't think OGRoman changed that much. He was always kinda disrespectful/sexist to Marlena and her job. RoJohn and Marlena just changed and Marlena liked the new version better. Regardless of whether or not Marlena was hotter for John's peen (obviously she was), John did kind of treat her better. I don't think the audience ever stop rooting for Roman. I still loved him. I just think the audience liked John/Marlena better as a couple. It happens. Roman is still 100% the wronged party in this. The show did Wayne, Roman, and Ro/Mar wrong for sure, but I still don't think it was a bad choice to go with John/Marlena in the end. But YMMV on this.

It's weird because I could easily see him with LK's Kate in my mind. But LK has chemistry with everyone. I wouldn't be opposed to a Laura recast as long as they bring her back alive lol. I like Anna and Tony just fine, but I could see Anna and Roman being tried again too. I can't remember if they had chemistry in the past. Anna's origin story was pretty bizarre though.

At least it seemed like Marcus always had a crush on Kayla. Shane's Kayla lust came out of nowhere. For some reason I thought Marcus was first though. Works for me. For some reason I have a hard time picturing WN with JLB's Laura. I don't know why, but I do. I mean, JT has to have enough money to retire now. He's been "playing" Roman for 25 years now. God, that was hurtful to type.

I remember wanting John/Marlena to sleep together so bad because Roman didn't seem to respect her at all. And John, as usual, was fawning all over her. In retrospect, Roman was a decent guy and John was WAY out of line, but it worked for me. Re-watching I still really enjoy it, but John is just super overbearing with Marlena and it almost makes me uncomfortable. And then he starts flaunting Rebecca in front of her and Rebecca asks Marlena how to attract John. Everything is so, so awkward including Kim and Victor being in on the affair. Anyhow, I appreciated that story started in 1991 and continued for years. Unfortunately, Roman's character never recovered.

OMG I can barely decipher that first paragraph even though I know it makes actual sense lol. I think you forgot about lame ass Isabella constantly bothering RoJohn about the fact she was pregnant and they could make their own new family. The way to go was probably to make John the villian, but I think the show had invested so much in Drake they didn't want to pull the trigger on that. So somewhere along the way RealRoman became the bad guy. Not in a villainous way, but so annoying you wanted Marlena to cheat on him. You know Marlena, she always drives defensively straight to John's penis lol. Listen 90's Days made vague sense to me at the time, but re-watching I am like tf is wrong with everyone? None of it makes logical sense. JER is freakin weird. The absurd notion that a child will make someone love you and stay with you forever. It's not the 50's. And like Kristen/John's child would keep them together but John/Marlena's child wouldn't? So weird. Every female villian was having kids at the time.

There had to be something more than a boring good girl to keep J/M apart. I mean aside from the devil and a giant gold birdcage lol. I think Kristen's trajectory sort of worked? One of my fave Kristen scenes is when she finds a picture of John/Marlena/and Belle? And throws it to the ground and stomps on it and says 'this is what's left of John and Marlena" lol. Good psycho stuff. I liked it. It fit the era and story fine. I mean, in the 90's a lot of women were fighting over John's penis....

Not a lot of time had passed since Steve's death, but enough for a soap I think. I want to say Marcus was up in Kayla's grill before Shane, but that didn't pan out.

Kristen was a social worker. She worked at the Horton Center. I assume she just inherited money from Stefano or Tony. I don't know. Maybe rich John paid her off. I do think she has some Dimera money. Also, I am pretty sure Isabella was low key rich and Brady has money just from her alone, so he could be funding stuff as well. Not on purpose, but Brady is pretty dumb and Kristen probably could of stolen money from him and he wouldn't notice. She's definitely less questionable than Ben/Ciara and their 'wealth' in a studio apartment.

Before REALRoman appeared Marlena and Isabella were caught in a no win situation with Ro John. In fact all four of them were basically good people in a bad scenario. Same with Roman/Marlena/John. I think you almost had to change it up with Kristen because it had been done to death with Marlena/John/Roman only a short time before. Just my opinion, I don't doubt your scenario could work, but I do think John/Marlena needed some evil machinations to keep them apart because it barely, barely makes sense in the way it played out.

She had something. PP was definitely something different in a good way. Too bad she had so many personal struggles because I definitely think she's more interesting than Kayla. Sorry MBE fans!! Fair. That was awful and Shayla seemed really put out by Kim being upset. But again time and fan opinion have made them seem worse than they actually were.

I am so sorry you had to go through that, but happy you seem to have come out the other side well. It's always nice to talk about fictional characters and discuss silly points as an escape or stress reliever. Days and GH to a lesser extent have always been a comfort to me. No matter how much comes my way or how things change, Marlena will still be on cooing with John lol. That's a very good point. Her being "good" was a complete flop. I do think it's hard to put her up against another good character like Marlena. There had to be some contrast between the two.

I actually really like Kim. she's my 2nd favorite Brady after Roman *I know unpopular* But she was exhausting. And went through so much story in a fairly short period of time. Besides, I always thought it was shitty Shawn called Kim his best and brightest. Kayla deserved to win even if Kim/Shane are together now. I honestly didn't think Kayla and Shane were that bad.

There is something deep and tragic about a women who wants a man so badly that she would do anything and he will always be in love with someone else. Much like Sami, but her trauma was more on display and she moved past it sorta.

Don't bring up the dark years when John/Hope were pushed and pushed and pushed. Sure they had some chemistry, but WHHHHHY? I kinda like Shane/Kayla. Kim always seemed like ALOT to deal with lol.

I know it's a soap and it is what it is, but I was never clear why Kristen wanted to hold on to John so bad. He was literally in love with another woman!! Sure, John's tall and rich, but all these women on soaps are desperate to keep men that don't want them. Idk, Kristen is a hot lady. I don't know why she wanted a guy that was literally a giant red flag walking lol.

I mean I am going to fault John on this mostly. After Marlena's initial weirdness about John, she was pretty upfront with Kristen (post letter) about her feelings. Kristen did know where Marlena stood on it all. Kristen was absolutely the villian and did Marlena and John very wrong, but I don't think it's as black and white as J/M good. Kristen bad. Overall, she's just a blip on the radar for our Jarlena lovestory, but it was a moment. I want to start a petition to bring Wayne back immediately.

And in her all white outfit lol. It's just an odd thing to say, but it's something I will never forget. I always assumed Marlena was a good driver.

Oh, I love that argument. Sorry I just couldn't get past Izzy b. It was awkward when she told Marlena to care for John and people will talk about it but won't understand. Yeah, they probably won't understand you having sex with John, Marlena. When people say Deidre can't act I think she's wonderful in those scenes with Wayne. It was a real argument that finally made sense for them after years of them not talking about it. I don't know why, but I always giggle when Deidre/Marlena says I always drive defensively. Like what? I literally love Wayne so much. Roman was an ass but, damn, it's so difficult to reconcile JT's Roman with an actual good character.

Roman just got a bad edit on this. He wasn't very nice to Marlena, but I will always feel so, so bad for him when he finds out Belle isn't his daughter. It was sad. Kristen is her own character for sure. But I do think she should have a life long hatred toward John/Marlena because they did her wrong. I mean she did them very wrong as well, but they were being ridiculous and didn't really care about who they hurt as long as they didn't hurt themselves. Bye Izzy B! I actually cried when these aired and I strongly dislike Isabella. Not gonna lie she was very obnoxious. Sucks she died though. Her death tour around Salem was so annoying. Like I can't with her. So sorry brady grew up without her, but she sucked.

Agreed. Literally every piece of evidence pointed toward John. Tony/Andre's plan was brilliant not gonna lie. But of course Marlena would believe John. Anyhow, Marlena actually does tell John she only thinks of him as a friend and tells him to pursue Kristen after that bizarro cuddling scene so she is a total enabler on this. Like I am watching this in pieces after a long while and I am having a hard time understanding John/Marlena's motivations. I DO think John did Kristen dirty for sure. But I am not sure if Marlena did Roman dirty. I mean, yeah, she had an affair, but Roman was kinda a dick to her for his entire return. That DOES NOT excuse cheating, but the way Roman was treating her I'd probably want to bang John too. All the lies afterward suck and traumatizing Sami, but Roman was an assh*le. It just never sat right with me that Roman was all hey I am back nothing that happened in between matters at all. Also, sidenote. Deidre looks gorgeous with that longer hair. So, so pretty. But like her telling John they are just the dearest friends is a choice for sure.