vetsoapfan

After Harrower left, Ruth Brooks Flippen took over as head writer. She did not last long before being replaced by Laemmle. Who knows how much (if any) power Flippen might have had. RBF was known for low-brow sitcoms and Scooby Doo; how she got hired always baffled me. The writer passed away soon after her stint at DAYS. Laemmle at least had dramatic-soap credits on her resume, but I had seen how Peyton Place had fallen apart and how Rich Man, Poor Man Book II had been a disaster under her, so I was aghast at DAYS hiring her. I felt the show's writing would go from bad to worse...and it did. Nina Laemmle arrogantly remarked that DAYS was "dull and repetitious," but the show became the worst it had ever been while she wrote it. IIRC, she slaughtered 14 characters in quick succession and then introduced 9 newbies of her own. Only Liz Chandler had any real appeal and staying power. Most of Laemmle's other characters came and went pretty quickly. It was a major mistake, and fans were in an uproar. I think Margo Horton died while Ruth Brooks Flippen was writing the show, but Laemmle eliminated a staggering number of characters and actors upon starting her 6-month reign of terror. Viewers were livid.

Perfectly said. Vintage soaps on the internet have been a godsend to many of us.

Thank you very much! Thank you for this synopsis. It saved me the trouble of writing a similar one up, myself. I never understood the point of bringing the Larkins in. They barely did anything, they were not terribly well-developed, and then they just suddenly reconciled and disappeared, never to be seen or heard of again. Bill Bell was probably going for a Greg/Linda romance, but there was no chemistry there at all. Both the actors playing Linda and Larry were bland. I did not miss them when they left.

Am I the only SONer ancient enough to have watched DAYS from the very beginning? I've thoroughly enjoyed reading all the recaps and opinions about the 1970s' material. To me, the show instantly collapsed after Pat Falken Smith was replaced by Ann Marcus. I felt like I was suddenly watching The Road Runner, LOL. Marcus was at the height of her game on Mary Hartman and Search for Tomorrow, but she did not understand or fit DAYS at all. The show was absurd, disjointed, and foreign under her reign. Elizabeth Harrower was slightly more DAYS-ish. She technically had a better understanding of the show's tone and characters, but she lacked the finesse, sophistication and skill that Bill Bell and PFS had been gifted with. Her version of the show was tepid and lopsided, with most focus going to a handful of characters. While I was miserable watching both these writers' material, little did I realize that they were better for the show than the heinously-awful Nina Laemmle would be in 1980. Egads! Laemmle butchered this show much more severely than the Dobson crippled ATWT in the early 1980s and Gail Kobe and Pam Long decimated The Guiding Light a few years after that. All three of these once-excellent series went through a very dark period as we moved into the '80s. ATWT rebounded for years after Douglas Marland took over, and TGL had a long resurgence in the Nancy Curlee era. Alas, DAYS only rebounded briefly in 1982 when Pat Falken Smith returned for a few months, but then collapsed again and has never been written well ever since. (Admittedly, some scribes have been slightly better than others, but many writers over the last 35+ years have been absolutely horrendous. The show has never regain the finesse, subtlety and quality that it was known for in the 1960s and '70s. It has long been a cartoon. The Cathy Breton character was originally poised to be outed as Marie's long-lost daughter, as the rumors went at the time, but the actress was a dud and so she was written out suddenly. Synopses may not capture the nuance of the Margo story well, but I liked the actress and felt the storyline was sweet. It just went on too long. Julie's facial scar had the bad habit of "shifting" around on her face from episode to episode, LOL. The show later retconned the story about Alex Marshall and his brother, as the actor became popular with the audience. Later, the show tried to bamboozle the audience into thinking that Alex only "felt guilty" that his brother had died, but WE SAW HIM MURDER HIS BROTHER ON CAMERA. For DAYS to later pretend it did not happen was really offensive. It was like when Luke Spencer clearly raped Laura at the Campus Disco on GH, but we were later supposed to accept that the violent and heinous rape had merely been a "seduction" once fangurls in the audience got the hots for Tony Geary. UGH.

Yes, that's him on the left.

Ahhh, so many (but not all, alas) soaps were written very well in the 1970s. It's a treat to relive their glory days!

I loved Daytime TV magazine and bought it every month without fail, but my favorite was Daily TV Serials. I also adored Afternoon TV and Rona Barrett's Daytimers. I wish I had kept all my old issues from the 1960s and 1970s; I had tons of them! Alas, I had to downsize when I moved from a house to a small apartment, and chose to keep scores and score of videotapes instead of magazines.

He is so vile.

It was incredibly stupid not to take advantage of the opportunity to reunite the show's most legendary and popular characters while both the original actors were guesting. Plus, they should have used more available flashbacks.

Well, she was paid $1000.00 a week, a huge sum back then, so no matter how bored Bennett was, or whom she got to play, she was well compensated.

Agreed, Slesar and O'Shea were the show's strongest writers. Too bad they were axed. Both were better than the Corringtons and (especially) Lipton.

I agree. AM was not necessarily the best actress ever to appear on the show, but she had a certain "something" that drew you in. Joan Bennett occasionally looked bored out of her mind, LOL, but she, too, had a certain charm and charisma, and I always enjoyed watching her.

Right. Bringing Steve back only to kill him off AGAIN was just incomprehensible and stupid. An important character like that could have easily been written out in another way, thereby leaving the possibility open for him to return later on...under better writers and (preferably) Jacqueline Courtney as Alice. What a waste. Me too. Yikes!

It was easy for me to identify him as Ligon.

I am vague on the details now, after almost 40 years, but IIRC, Bell balked at the idea of CBS expanding the show to an hour, and Conboy, who was enthusiastic about the idea, went to TPTB and suggested they fire Bell and replace him with a writer who would not resist the expansion. Bell made his distaste for Conboy apparent in his Television Academy interview (available on youtube).

I grew up watching the traditional, very slow-moving soaps, so I actually find DS's early somnambulistic style relaxing and comforting, as weird as that may sound. As soap fans, it's almost a miracle that both DS and TD have a) been preserved and b) been made available to viewers. Have fun binging! After the pandemic is over and I can no longer spend long, leisurely days reading and watching TV, I may resent having to go back to work. I am becoming far too accustomed to spending my days curled up on the couch!

There may have been more to the story. When Conboy was still at Y&R, he attempted to get Bell replaced as head writer. That would annoy me too, if I were Bell.

It's frustrating when you start to watch a great series on a streaming service, but they never end up buying all the seasons. With so many DS episodes to watch, I could not only see the entire run of the show, but also be entertained for MONTHS. I mean, 1225 eps represents a LOT of viewing hours!

Me too!

I must admit, when I saw that all 1225 eps of Dark Shadows were on Prime, I screamed like a beyotch! It would not even have occurred to me to search for it. I just stumbled upon the show by accident. They also have The Carol Burnett Show and several other favorites from the past. I just wish I could find the television series Family, which starred Kristy McNichol and ran for five seasons starting in 1976. I have the first two seasons on DVD, but the final three have never been commercially released. I'd kill to find it streaming somewhere.

Yes, Prime has a lot of vintage films and TV series, which is where my interests lie, so I may end up watching Prime more than Amazon in the weeks ahead.

I just got Amazon Prime last week, so now I have both that and Netflix. There are so many things on Prime I want to watch. I was shocked to see that they had the entire run of the original Dark Shadows!

AND...who played LISA???? I have no doubt that poor Eileen Fulton got the shaft again.

Howarth has a rabid base of fangurls who idolize rapists like Todd and degenerates like Franco, I suppose.

Andrew...or even Paul Holroyd. But Howarth? God, no. He was a terrible recast.