vetsoapfan

I think he showed promise at the beginning of his tenure, when he worked with Carolyn Culliton. Later, when there was nobody to pull in the reigns, he went wild. He downplayed the vets and the Hugheses far too much, and overplayed his favorites. God knows what his beef was with Eileen Fulton, who became like an irrelevant, rarely-seen under-fiver during his reign. I felt there was a mean-spiritedness to his writing, which lacked heart, warmth and family values which were the core of ATWT.

UGH! Hogan Sheffer really s**t all over the show and its legacy, and did tremendous damage. By comparison, Stern and Black, and even the dreaded Jean Passanante did less harm. Now that we can look back, hindsight tells us that Stern and Black, while bad, could have been worse. They could have been Sheffer or JER or Carlivati bad.

I wouldn't be surprised. Network suits have a habit of championing creative personnel from primetime TV, as if (just by the mere fact that they have worked on primetime television), their work should be good. Jessica Klein, Lynn Latham, Stern & Black, Charles Pratt, Nina Laemmle, Anne Howard Bailey, and a host of other scribes who failed on the soaps, prove otherwise.

I've always heard they were gawd-awful at Falcon Crest, and crippled that show instantly when they took over the head writing reigns. I don't think Black and Stern were were as bad/damaging as JER, Charles Pratt, Thom Racina, Leah Laiman, and some other, notoriously-awful writers, but I have the feeling that their material would not be stellar under the best of circumstances.

This famous scene (starting at 42:04) aired on Another World in 1974, and was particularly engrossing because viewers had waited for six YEARS for Alice to unleash her fury on Rachel. (Actually, Irene Dailey's Aunt Liz was far too meek here. Audra Lindley's version of Liz Matthews from the 1960s would have whupped Rachel's a$$, and torn her hair out, from the moment that bitch marched in the room.)

It is an acknowledged landmark of daytime TV, but I did want to mention Ellen Holly's and Lillian Heyman's stellar work on One Life to Live, when Clara was desperate to pass for white. Her confrontation scenes with her mother were particularly outstanding. Years later, Al Freeman, Jr., was Al Freeman Jr., and always shone in his scenes. Paul Raunch really f***ed up, yet again, when he fired these beloved vets.

I agree about when the show's believability went completely out the window. For me personally, once a character is inundated with a plethora of sci-fi/fantasy/camp material, their viability as credible characters (who can be used in believable storylines) is also decimated. They can then continue to be featured in fantastical, outlandish plots, but I'll never see them as identifiable, human people with feelings worth caring about again. Fembots have never inspired my heartfelt sympathy. Right. JER turned DAYS into a cartoon, a joke IMHO. The show has never recovered. There are genres of television programs geared towards that sort of material, and it's fine if a portion of the audience enjoys it, but soap operas and outlandish, wacky cartoons simply don't mesh. As I've noted previously, The Great Gazoo does not belong floating around Maggie Smith's head on Downton Abbey, LOL. OMG, what a stinker story that was. DAYS had already fallen so far from the well-written soap it had been just two years before, when Pat Falken Smith was guiding it in 1982. I always considered Reva to have "stans" as opposed to fans. Manny and the San Cristocrap gang too. 🤢 Yes, she played Maggie Carpenter in the mid 1990s.

The epitome of this is Reva Shayne on The Guiding Light, who was heinously overhyped, overrated and overused, and saddled with one idiotic plot after another on The Guiding Light. On DAYS, the endless kidnappings, presumed deaths, back-from-the dead stories and other moronic material (Possessed!) dumped on Marlena Evan crippled that character's believability and viability decades ago. One Life to Live saddled poor Jacquie Courtney with a "British accent" when she played evil twin Maggie Ashley on that show. I adore La Courtney, but that wretched accent, which she could not pull off, God bless her, was wretched.

DAYS has never been better!

Okay, thanks. This was the latest that I've seen. The walls aren't even angled anymore? Is the front door still in the center of the archway, like in the photo I uploaded?

👏😘👍 Yes. Mary Matthews and Ada Downs existed side by side without issue on AW, as did Alice Matthews, Pat Randolph and Lenore Curtin on the same show. Lorie, Leslie, and Chris Brooks all managed to shine and be showcased during their shared time together on Y&R. Viki Riley, Carla Gray, Pat Kendall and Karen Wolek all had their moments in the spotlight during a shared era on OLTL. There's no competition among characters co-existing on the canvas at the same time, except in the minds over overheated fanbases. To me, the MORE popular actresses on a soap at the same time, the better for the show. DAYS was on fire when Susan Flannery, Denise Alexander and Susan Seaforth graced the show together.

Exactly, and now Maggie's even propping Marlena up by appearing in scenes with her. God bless our Maggie!😘 It's funnier than the proclamations that viewers who enjoy the Hortons are "just jealous of Marlena."🤣 Next we will hear that the Emmy-award-winning actress can't act!😉

Exactly. A flight of fancy, more than likely. 🙄 👏 "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."🙃

Oh wow, I hadn't seen such a recent shot of the Horton living room. The front door has moved several feet to the left from its original and traditional position. The dimensions of the room look smaller too. I prefer the "real" layout.

William J. Bell knew what's what. That's why he is an acknowledged master of the genre. Back then, we just didn't get sidetracked by the rudimentary, sparse sets. The writing on soaps by Phillips, Nixon, Bell, etc., was too involving. Nowadays, we notice the cheap sets, and all the other technical flaws, because the writing isn't enough to keep our attention. We are bored, s we look around, LOL. This, 100% this. I've been expressing the same sentiments for decades now. The Mickey/Laura/Bill triangle on DAYS, with the secret of Mike's paternity at its core, was slooooow moving and based on family dynamics, repressed emotions and unrequited love. It lasted a DECADE, but was never boring, and kept viewers mesmerized. No clones, vampires, devils or extraterrestrials in sight! It was soap opera heaven! I wish everyone could have witnessed the engrossing material that Denise Alexander got to play as Susan Hunter Martin. Daytime TV magazine once reported that a husband wrote into DAYS, asking producers to give Susan some relief from her suffering. He wrote, "My wife is pregnant and needs her rest, but she can't sleep because she's so stressed about Susan!" Okay, I agree that such a reaction from a viewer is over the top, but when soaps dealt with real emotions and human, adult drama, fans were FIERCELY involved. With the dreck being produced today? Not so much.🤨 While I initially applauded the idea of hour-long soaps, people like Bell, Falken Smith, Nixon, Marland and Lemay were still writing, so the quality held up for a while. The budgets were high back then too. DAYS would sometimes have more than 15 characters on an episode. As the years went on, however, we lost writers and producers with the talent and understanding to run soaps well. Ratings plummeted, budgets were slashed. Keeping soaps at 60 minutes per day became increasing untenable. I think it would have been wise to cut all of them back to 30 minutes, years ago. A lot of dead wood could be pruned from the casts if they did that today. Core characters could be focused on, and all the useless filler material could be eliminated. I know. Since I started noticing how absurd and nonsensical television sets were, I see the impossibilities everything. Rhoda's loft was supposedly "upstairs" from Mary Richards' apartment. Interior scenes showed a staircase outside of Mary's front door, leading UP to Rhoda's place. Yet, outdoor footage of the building clearly revealed there WAS NO upstairs. Mary's apartment was literally on the top floor. Rhoda's garret was to the right of Mary's place, and even slightly lower. I don't know how TPTB never notice these things.

Right. Compelling human drama is far more mesmerizing than clones, extraterrestrials, brain implants, mad scientists freezing the world, devil possession, time travel, etc., particularly when there's no budget to handle the outlandish plots. Viewers who enjoy that sort of entertainment have theatrical films and cable TV series with king-sized budgets to enjoy. Watching soap heroines leaping into paintings and travelling through time, or becoming possessed by the devil and going on a killing spree just don't cut it by comparison. Particularly on soap budgets of $1.49, filmed on sets that look held together by Scotch tape and bubble gum, LOL.

I've never liked the over-the-top sci-fi/fantasy/camp nonsense on soaps, primarily because it's so contradictory to the exploration of the human condition, which is the essence of the genre. What makes the fantasy elements so much worse, however, is that the budget to produce such stories just isn't there, so all these dumb plots end up looking embarrassing. Soaps need to go back to their roots.

@Althea Davis, You are making me think all sorts of indecent and naughty thoughts with this Matthew Bomer GIF. Thank you so much!

I know they only worked together for a relatively brief period of time, but my dream guest for this tribute would have been Laurence Fishburne. What ABC and Paul Raunch did to this fine actress was egregious.

😁 Right! Human, realistic and warm stories on Bill Bell's and Pat Falken Smith's golden era of DAYS, how missed they are! So many miles above what was offered by JER, Higley, Carlivati and their ilk. That's a nice treat to see. Thanks for posting. I just have to wonder how Tom and Alice fit five growing children into two "guest" bedrooms! Thank goodness the house had four bathrooms! I agree. LOL! The exterior shots of the buildings just did not match or "work" with the interior sets for shows like All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show or The Golden Girls either. We just have to go with the flow, I guess.🤷‍♂️🙂 Personally, I don't recall ever seeing a family room. In the diagram, the dinning room probably should have been there, since we know that existed. Ada's first living room went through some weird changes back then too. Soaps should pay attention to sets. Fans notice and remember everything. Even changes in the sounds of doorbells makes observant fans go, "Huh???"🫢

Yes, there used to be a door where you mentioned: between the staircase and the front door. At the beginning of the show it led to Tom's office. Later it was a closet. It was a weird change, and I always wondered why no one on the show remembered that lay-out or kept it consistent. (The same sort of change happened on THE LUCY SHOW, when the section of the set beside the staircase changed without explanation. It's strange when the houses are supposed to be the same, but the walls, rooms and closets just magically come and go, LOL.) Overall, however, the Horton set has remained FAIRLY unchanged.

You are far too kind. Thank you so much, @Darn As I always say, soap fans are a strong and durable bunch. If we can endure years of JER, Dena Higley, Jill Farren Phelps and her friends, Charles Pratt, Ron Carlivati and Christopher Goutman, we can outlast ANYTHING!😝 Cool! The set in the commercial certainly does look like our favorite family's living room!

No doubt. The incompetent PTB at the time reeeeeeeeeeeally had to try hard, to bungle the return of a beloved vet so badly, so completely.

Oh cool, thanks for the heads up! We can never have too many Horton memories!