Khan

Agree. It seems like the only two soaps whose archives have been carefully preserved are DARK SHADOWS and THE DOCTORS -- which, if you ask me, weren't exactly what I'd consider to be quality shows.

Nah, she was just nuts. (I'm kidding.)

Of all the films to pay homage to, they choose the film where the heroine contracts consumption and dies at the end!?

Yep. Cathy Breton. And IMO, she comes across as being even more lame than Jessica. If that's even possible, lol. I suppose then-HW Hogan Sheffer wanted Nick to have solid, established ties to the Salem community; hence, making him the son (and sole offspring?) of a couple who hadn't been seen, heard from or even mentioned in decades. But, you know, I think it would have been better just to say he was Eugene and Calliope's kid and Marlena's godson.

ICAM. The fact that Sunny remained on-canvas through all the upheavals is a testament to how much SFT's fans loved Marcia McCabe. I just wish Paul Avila Mayer and Stephanie Braxton hadn't destroyed all hope of Hogan and Sunny ever hooking up permanently, because, IMO, MM and David Forsyth had terrific chemistry.

I hate to admit it, but I had sorta-high hopes for that otherwise cockamamie story about John's memories and personality being stashed away on some CD-ROM or something. It was like DAYS itself was admitting they had gone as far as they could with John as Roman-Lite or Dollar Tree Jason Bourne and were now gonna try and evolve him into an antagonist. I should've known better.

Especially when the shows...? Weren't that good to begin with.

Look, it's only a matter of time before the whole thing becomes wall-to-wall pre-taped bits hosted by Craig Robinson and Sarnoff, the Rapping Peacock. Lorne's just speeding up the apocalypse.

I'm saying she has no freaking idea what "good" writing is, only how much the writers at that moment are writing for her. She LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED what JER wrote for her, for example, but most long-time DAYS fans that I know would agree that JER really dumbed down Marlena to the point of insanity. I'm fine with her staying -- even though I think Marlena (along with most of DAYS' characters) has been damaged so badly that she'll never be taken seriously again -- and I'm fine with writers writing a lot for her, too. I just wish someone over there would remember what she USED to be BITD and make an attempt to bring back that concept of Dr. Marlena Evans.

Agree.

Thirty-six years later, Dick Ebersol finally gets his wish.

Way back in the dark ages, when Paul and Christine were freshly on the outs, I thought it would have been fantastic if she'd learned she was pregnant. So much juicy drama could have sprung from that plot twist: Christine finally becoming a mother, but without the man she loved...Paul, torn between the pregnant Christine and the also pregnant Isabella...a returning Danny pretending to be the father, so that Paul won't feel the need to return to Christine just for the baby's sake (or so Christine reasons to Danny)...and Isabella, Michael and Phyllis all suspicious as hell about the whole thing.

For sure, if THE DOCTORS had survived past 1982, I could see Toni returning and throwing a wrench into Mike and Kit's relationship...thanks to the now-grown child she had by him while everyone believed she was dead.

That's the problem with many love triangles on soaps, I think. No one seems to know how to write one without making someone look like a bastard or psycho.

You know the character's a dud when they have to pull a split personality out of thin, damn air. Exactly. You could tell the writers were attempting to fill out Alex's history and give him more ties to the canvas without really taking into consideration whether those ties made total sense. I mean, the circumstances under which Alex and Marie supposedly met were super-flimsy and logic-defying -- Marie Horton getting mixed up with hooligans who were into drugs and S&M, because she was so down on herself?? No way! -- and in order for all the offscreen stuff to have occurred (running off to NYC, meeting Alex, getting pregnant w/ Jessica, giving birth, giving up Jessica for adoption, and then joining the convent), Marie would have needed to be away from Salem and off-canvas a lot longer than she actually was, too. I think it would have been better if Alex and (Sister) Marie had met for the first time IN Salem, then gradually fell in love (as Alex struggled with his venal nature and believed that Marie would be better off without him, while Marie struggled both with her vows as a nun and her love for a "bad" man) without the needless backstory. Jessica could have been just a young, orphaned girl whom the two loved LIKE a daughter, and whose relationships with her could have kept them tethered to each other as they tried (in vain) to stay apart. That kind of thwarted, romantic yearning has always been DAYS' bread-and-butter. If written and played right, Alex and Marie could have been another Doug and Julie, or Bill and Laura. It says a lot that we saw neither hide nor hair of him the entire his son was in Salem. Because, God knows, the writers weren't gonna do it!

So, let me get this straight: Marlena is possessed by the devil (...again...), but instead of restraining her and performing an exorcism on her (...again...), they're just letting her run all over town like it's no big damn deal? This isn't the same as Viki/Niki, Ron; and even then, if someone has been taken over by their alter ego, and others are hip to it, he/she should be confined to a mental institution until their personalities have integrated.

That might not be such a bad idea. I've often wondered whether RH could have had more success in primetime anyway, since it was always grittier than other soaps.

Frankly, they could have axed SB (no offense, SB fans) and used that hour to launch GENERATIONS and another, half-hour soap. SB had its' charms, but I think it was clear by that point that the show was never going to grow beyond its' devoted, cult following. GENERATIONS, with some more guidance, could have achieved more appeal with the AMC/OLTL/GH crowd who enjoy(ed) a mix of the traditional with the different.

I...don't think so. If only Michael Storm had been willing to portray someone other than OLTL's Dr. Larry Wolek, I think he could've been a good replacement for Peter Simon. He certainly would have been better than Richard Van Vleet.

The gown she wore to her nuptials with Trucker wasn't TOO bad, but the dress she wore to her wedding with Jeff reminds me of Celia Weston in the opening credits of "Alice."

Same here, @Wendy.

No doubt, Miss Hall, whom I love dearly, was saying that Ron Carlivati has written the best material for Marlena, just as she says for every HW on DAYS.

Why Andrea Evans isn't gracing DAYS right now with her presence, I'll never know. She's EXACTLY what that godawfully written show needs.

It's kind of like what her former colleague and boss, Al Rabin, said once about producing DAYS. With every scene, he always asked, "What have we shared with the audience?". Rabin, Curtis and the rest of that team were very big on getting to the heart of each scene, so that every emotion at play was palpable for the audience. That's why I loved DAYS back in the '80's, even if it wasn't the same show it had been the decade before.

It's just as well that those ties were de-emphasized, though, because the whole backstory that tied Alex, Jessica and Marie together always felt mechanical and inorganic to me.