Michael

That wasn't really how the post-2000 stuff with Mike played out. I don't believe they ever said he was abusive in any way to Jeremy, just that Jeremy was an a-hole and they implied that he and Mike weren't super-close or that he felt like he hadn't gotten enough attention or something (which felt at odds with the fact that he seemed to have left the show to go back to Israel to help raise Jeremy). But it was all pretty vague, and when I watched it, it never really felt like an indictment of Mike as a father. In 2010, RC wanted to return for Alice's funeral but had some other commitment, so they shot his stuff separately. Because he wasn't filming at the same time as the other returns, he couldn't attend the actual funeral, so they had Mike get into a car accident on his way into Salem. He mostly appeared at the hospital and had scenes with Lexie, Jennifer, Bill, and Carrie. He and Carrie seemed to get some sort of closure on their relationship, but it was bittersweet. It wasn't anything amazing, but it was done pretty respectfully and certainly wasn't some kind of punishment toward Mike/RC. He got a final solo scene to say goodbye to Alice, too (I think as he was leaving the hospital, but he might've made it to her grave).

I read Jean Rouverol's book three or four times in the 2000s. It's excellent! Obviously outdated now in terms of some of the specifics, but it's great. Totally worth picking up if you find a copy.

Thanks for posting that! Must've been such a weird time for viewers, with the amount of cast turnover going on in those years...

Thanks for posting that. I'd never read it, but it's interesting how even-keeled JER comes off there. As ridiculous as his show got, I really and truly believe that he knew EXACTLY what he was doing during that first Days run. It just had such an energy.

WUT.

Thanks for sharing the episodes and that interview, guys! Those John/Marlena fans asking questions really come across as so obnoxious. It's also funny to see feedback from the early days of Nicole, calling for a recast or for her to go entirely.

Another DOOL history project on my blog: I've started a revised history of the show, minus SORASing -- but substituting age-appropriate characters for the ones who appeared onscreen. (For example, Kristian Alfonso still shows up in 1983, but she isn't playing Hope, who's still only 9 at that point.) I've done 1965-79 so far, and the rest will be coming shortly...

I got my hands on 13 of the 14 "Soaps and Serials" novels that were published in the 80s, retelling stories from the first decade or so of Days, and did a blog post with recaps, reviews, curious findings, etc. The write-up is here, for anyone who might be interested.

I would be, too!

That's actually an incredibly interesting interview. Corday comes off as... Corday, hyping whatever the current thing is as The Best!, but Langan's answers are sort of fascinating. He comes off as both pompous and insightful, and only one of those is a thing I'd have gleaned from his onscreen work. I thought it was interesting that he was sort of openly disdainful of Belle as a character and how Storms infused the writing with something perhaps unintended -- not that I wanted him to stick around, but it makes me wonder if Belle would've gone in a different direction had that happened. Every writer stuck so closely to that "Belle is sweet and perfect!" thing, and it did neither the character nor any actress in the role any favors.

Something possessed me to watch the series finale tonight, and I had forgotten about that little moment where Bill says to Fletcher, "I miss Ben," and Fletcher responds that he misses him, too. The actors put a LOT into that small exchange, and it got to me. I just wish there had been time for more sentiments like that (er, minus the terrible foundation of Ben not being there to begin with).

Thanks for posting that. Really beautiful montage, even though it's difficult to watch tonight.

As popular as Reva had been in the 80s, I think there was some kind of weird network/P&G/show decision in the late 90s where they went, "Who's the Erica Kane/Marlena Evans of this show?" and crammed Reva/KZ into that role. It was so blatant and awkward. I thought KZ did a lot of great work, and she actually fit very well in the Peapack version of the show as this down-home kind of gal, but all the high-concept, "she's so sexy" stuff struck me as such an attempt to do what was working on other shows.

Weird that the caption says "their infant daughter" even though the story up above clearly states that she had a boy, Doug.

Oh, interesting! So the 33-34 estimate would be right on the ball, then. Thanks for the info.

Oh wow. So he was at least originally conceived of as being in his mid-late 30s by the time the show premiered. Interesting.

I actually remember reading -- it might've been in that Lorraine Zenka coffee table book -- that Mickey was 33 when the show started. That seems like a random thing to include if it wasn't said on-air or included in the initial bible/character bios. I think the narrative was that he was 33 and was a bachelor, always dating beautiful women and whatnot, until Laura captured his heart or whatever. I had never really thought about it much, but Maggie was definitely in like her early 20s when they got together, so there was a decent age difference there. I do think if Maggie had been cut loose from the Horton fold in the early 80s, she would've gone the way of Liz, Don, Neil, and the like by the end of the decade. I guess her only chance at survival would have been if Melissa or Sarah had really taken off as solo characters and she'd gotten to stay around in the context of their mother (or if she'd had another kid by Don or someone who had done the same). But I don't think she would have become such a fixture the way she did in the 90s and 2000s -- she was a staple, even if she wasn't really given dramatic material.

What was also odd at that time was they had that Nikki Munson, who was a total miscast for Nikki but I think would've worked as Molly!

^ Whoa! Nice find. Thanks!

That's a fascinating (and blunt) article. Thanks for posting. Pat Falken-Smith's quote about the actors expecting too much is ridiculous, though.

^ Thanks for sharing!

God, she was so "good" (bad). I would love for them to give her a cameo for the 50th or something. KB's Philip was very foxy. And Shawn in that cage was very interesting viewing, even though the story was so awful.

What in the EVER-LOVING hell?!?!

Thanks, Jason!

I love that! Works really well, actually. Nicely done. I'm always confused on something: have Frank and Martha Evans EVER appeared onscreen?