Contessa Donatella

WOW, it seems like SO much longer!!!

I seem to know a great many long term fans of the show who became terminally offended by the firings of George R., JC & Virginia Dwyer.

I love short-lived primetime shows! I have these: Models Inc, Pasadena, WonderFalls, The Dresden Files, Crusade & CPW. I want these: Birds of Prey, The Adventures of Briscoe County, Point Pleasant, Cashmere Mafia & Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Others I just really liked or loved include: Earth 2, Space: Above & Beyond, relativity, Timecop, Legacy, The Net, All Souls, Grosse Pointe, Wolf Lake, Keen Eddie, Jake 2.0, Jack & Bobby, Commander in Chief, JWS in The Flash, Gabriel's Fire, Life on Mars (both), Cane, the Nine, Six Degrees & Kidnapped.

I dearly loved JOAN OF ACADIA!!!

About this, Patrick Mulcahey said,"What we do now isn't nearly as vital or fresh or interesting as what we were doing eighteen, even twenty-five years ago. Soaps then were powerful, raw, shocking — we did anything and everything. What we do now is so timid and constrained. I understand it."— Patrick Mulcahey

I'm not talking about any kind of promotion, of which I recall none. What I am talking about is story that fans actually liked. Obviously you did not, which is fine, but that does not negate that they actually had fans & this applies to both Otalia & Jami. Of course, you can pull out negatives that may occur in almost any story but that does not damage the overall storytelling & I do not think dumbing down applied to either one. Now, it is of course entirely true that Jon was seeking revenge & only revenge at the beginning. But most great love stories begin some other way. And, if you think that Jon never paid, he did, in karma. Anyway, I do not think that this fits with most of these stories. I've said why. Seriously, though, I think I have framed this all wrong. Jonathan is a trope. He's the character who resents that they had a hard upbringing & were cheated out of their birthright & resent that they did not grow up in the big house, with money, nice clothes, good food, nannies & governesses & tutors, toys, attention & love. They come to town with revenge as their only motivation. So, I guess the question is was he a good example of that or a bad one, which I guess is down to the writing. The only thing that made the relationship inappropriate was that they are first cousins, but they did not grow up together.

LOL, I told you about the wrong Ben.

No need for correction. This is what happened.

Are you speaking of Ben Reade? And, yes, Google is no more reliable than IMDb or wikipedia. Ben Reade was on a lot past the 80s. Matt Bomer played the last version of him. It was a disaster, of course. I think it may have been during ConWest. Ben used to be basically a nice guy but then he did this despicable thing where he had a bet with some guys about deflowering a virgin. Later, he got mixed up with this awful woman. She turned him into a sex worker. Eventually all of this debauchery got to him & he committed suicide. WHAT a waste! Nice guy Ben Reade, now dead.

When you're right, you're very right. Just compare the nuimber of Stef's kids to the number of Hortons.

I'm still offended on Daphne's behalf that that one Tony/Andre retcon had her sleeping with the gardener for gosh sakes, like Daphne did anything to deserve that treatment. I don't even care if the gardener in question had a passing resemblance to a vital, young Don Diamont when they were in need of rescue on that island where Tony & Andre got a quicksand bath!

OH NO. I did not mean to dismay you so. It's not that I don't find her adequate, I do. But no more than that. 🙈🙉🙊

Speaking of Stefano, which we were in the other thread. Days of our Lives: The Complete Family Album by Lorraine Zenka. A 30th Anniversary Celebration: Regan Books, An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers. copyright © 1995 About his hiring, being cast ... Joe Mascolo (Stefano DiMera) I was with Burt Reynolds and Charles Nelson Reilly doing a Neil Simon play in Houston, Texas. My agent called to ask if I would test for this role on daytime TV. I refused. They asked that I read. I refused. Would you come to talk? When I came back to Los Angeles, I agreed to talk. Afterward I told my agent to find out who was the highest paid person on the show and tell them I wanted a dollar more. I thought for sure that they’d tell me to go away. I realized I was being a little difficult. I was having fun with it. The headwriter at the time, Pat Falken Smith, had seen me in a miniseries called, “Gangster Chronicles” and wanted me for Stefano. It was her call. She stuck to her guns. She wanted me for the role in spite of what others said and in spite of my protests. I gave her a few books on power and discussed what I would like to see in this role. The music, the chess, opera, art, culture, sense of power, family loyalty, and love. The bad guy cannot be totally dark. I particularly like the fact that if he gives his word to do something, he will not stop at anything. For the people he loves he will go to the end of the world. Died December 8, 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA (Alzheimer’s disease) According to Soap Opera Digest, he had an open-ended contract on “Days of Our Lives,” which allowed him to play villainous Stefano DiMera whenever he felt like resuming the role (and whenever the writers came up with a good story line). This allowed the character to be “killed off” more times than anyone can count, coming back — in one memorable sequence — through a bargain with Satan himself.

So we both were really lucky, since I saw her in it on Broadway, too, but, then, sorry, that's obvious. I'm mad at myself though because I was too star struck & suddenly shy to go talk to her after. This afternoon I listened to her last podcast, right before the wreck & it was just Anne, on an ordinary day, enjoying her & Heather talking to fans. It's hard for me that she's no longer in the same universe.

I join you in this Minority Rapport.

And thank god for that!!! Especially since a job like HW apparently needs to have "term limits" apply.

It really reminded me so much of Carrie in the movie of the same name which I realize is creepy max. I liked the irony of her telling him ahead of time, not to do it & why & talking about the danger in escalating a reply to the fire at Charlie's. But, then, when Lucas wants to say it shouldn't have been done, they make her abandon her own belief to be supportive of tit-for-tat. Very soapy messy. Little Sonny's supposed to be busy with the Brenda doppelganger ambitious ADA.

Now, I think Ava is the part that Maura was born to play but that neither surprises me nor alarms me especially since there is some fan lore that says that there was a plan considered where she would've been killed off that year & it was one of those thing they ultimately did not go with. So, they could've been cutting her back because of this plan they were considering. The fan lore attaches to her adding onto tampering with Sonny's meds, which I agree is an odious thing to do but Ava's done stuff that is odious for a pretty long time & has survived. Didn't mean to be tangential. Half was the starting point because of your IMO very valid supposition that Mo would be much easier to tolerate if we saw him half as often as we do.

Great point! The only thing is it would require someone at DAYS to care enough about time & character & event & story integrity to keep them from writing something that they wanted to write last year because of what happened BITD.

Two different things can both be true. She literally could be missing for 3 weeks AND also be regularly in the top 3. I know you know this, just like I know that. I mean, LW is a lead on this show, so these numbers only make sense. There's not any question. It's true, she works really hard. But, my original question remains unanswered. Who is it you know of who was cut by half?

I love that old school method & the fact that it tends to let the writing have the luxury of playing out every single beat of the drama.

I'm not aware of the show doing it to individuals or groups. Is there something you're thinking of that I might not be aware of? And, they have no problem dropping LW's count. Generally the same people are in the top 12 slots but LW was MIA for 3 weeks a few months back & it was no big deal, just the way story fell. If people's minimums/guarantees are cut it's usually, for example going from 3 per week to 2 per week. Adjustments rather than extreme cuts. ????

So you just cut his pay in half.