beebs

15 minutes ago, Vee said:

I know the changeover happened in August, but it seemed like someone put whatever reveal was originally(?) planned for Ian onscreen either just before or right after they left the building, and then immediately retconned it out again.

I was always under the impression the explosion, etc. was Tomlin or Higley or whoever it was replaced them, but I may well be wrong.

MarDar's entire run seemed like they were perpetually "setting something up" and then having it unceremoniously dropped. Nothing ever built to a satisfying conclusion, and there seemed to be a lot of "much ado about nothing" to a lot of the stories. Remember when all the vets were trapped in a cabin that exploded, but two seconds before the bomb went off, they teleported through a trap door in the floor and everyone walked in from the side of the screen without so much as a scratch, nevermind any sign that there had just been an explosion? Or Will, Sonny, Gabi, and Chad being involved in that weird social media site that got hacked and turned into a gambling ring, which was suddenly dropped, recapped via heretofore-unseen flashbacks at the beginning of an episode, and wrapped up by the end of that episode? If ever a headwriting team got their stories interfered with, it was MarDar.

Tomlin doing the DAYSaster seemed to be in his wheelhouse, considering his propensity for stunts like that in the past (SFT's flood being one that immediately comes to mind), but the only reason I would think it actually was TomSell's idea and not MarDar's lies entirely in the fact that I genuinely don't believe anything MarDar pitched ever aired as envisioned whatsoever.

17 minutes ago, allmc2008 said:

Ron's gayness is a factor to me as, despite that about himself, he is highly offensive in regards to LGBT on the show.

An openly out and proud man shouldn't be having the devil possess a man and having the man experience homosexual behaviour. It sends this message: gays are evil.

 

Ron is the reason why the idiotic notion of a 'gay agenda' exists. 

 

Then he again, he was an attorney and his court stories suck.

Ugh, terribly. And you wonder why he got out of THAT profession.

3 hours ago, allmc2008 said:

Casey is the guy who did "Forever and a Day".

Yeah, and did a bunch of blogs on here too, not to mention that "interview" with Harding Lemay that I still say was faked. Far be it for me to criticize someone for writing fanfic, of course, but he's hardly the benchmark of writing talent. Casey's infamous for brownnosing soap celeb types. He'd sell his first-born to Dena Higley if it got him attention from her.

2 hours ago, j swift said:

It feels like one of those times that the internet is intentionally disregarding an obvious joke.  I know people value the history of Days, and disagree with the current direction.  However, this tweet seems a bit more benign and undeserved of the vitriolic responses that it received.

While I disagree with many of the creative decisions that he makes, I also think it is unfair how often his critics bring up his sexuality and other superfluous details about his motives for making those choices. 

Nah, he's pressed. He may dress it up like he's joking, but this is just part of his pattern. 

I give him another six months in the job. Max.

1 minute ago, Khan said:

Nearly just snorted my tea out my nose, @Khan 

Also, be careful, knowing Ron, he'll do that and then give "Trish" her alters back.

4 hours ago, carolineg said:

I want to say they actual went on date(s) and everything, but it went nowhere because Sam left town.  I am going to say they would probably not be a great couple, judging by her sister's chemistry with Josh Taylor   It still shocks me how everyone is so easily fooled by Marlena/Samantha on the show (not in this particular clip).  They clearly are not identical-a viewer can easily tell them apart so I don't know what Don was thinking.   People always tell me they are mirror twins in real life, but the show pretends they are identical.

Yeah that story really REALLY dumbed Don (and half the staff at Bayview and UH, for that matter) down to make it work. Their voices aren't even the same. 

The real problem I would have with Chris and Sam is that Andrea Hall, in every clip I've seen, fumbles at least half her lines, to the point where I struggle to understand what she's even saying. I just can't see her working long-term as a regular character with anyone when she struggles so badly with her lines. I think, if they'd gone that route, they would have to go the David Canary route and have Dee Hall play both roles.

So, not only did Sam take over Marlena's life, but also tried to have her killed/threatened Marlena to her face shortly before Don rescued Marlena from Bayview. I would NEVER have forgiven so quickly, but, again, Ann Marcus and her lightning-fast plotty writing.

The kidney story was Harrower, she took over from Marcus in March '79. Marlena was pregnant with DJ around the time Laura was going off the rails, and there were scenes up on YT of Dr. Jordan Barr and Don trying to talk Marlena out of giving the kidney up to Sam because of the risk. 

IIRC Liz was married to an actor whose first name I forget (Rick?) and recognized Lee immediately as the woman she caught Rick in bed with in Paris, leading to their divorce. Shortly thereafter, Kellam called on Liz to come to Salem and help him on the campaign trail, which eventually led to Liz and Don's affair.

43 minutes ago, Khan said:

I realize DAYS' golden era had passed by this point, but even these scenes hold my interest more than anything that happens on the show nowadays.

 

The thing is, as much as I know Tomlin did a lot of damage to DAYS during his last run as HW, he did know how to write a decent story arc, and he and Michele Poteet-Lisanti did a decent job stabilizing the show and creating some degree of interest again after whatever the hell Nina Laemmle was trying to write. 

5 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Big mistake.

There was so much they could've done with the character following her reveal as Brooke, and Bob's death.

Huge. Harrower dropped the ball so many times with that storyline, and to have it end on such a clumsy note really was the nail in the coffin for me that she wasn't up to the job of writing the show.

At this rate, they should just go back to the title card on a blue background. Awful.

Moving LOL to 4:00 EST in 1979 felt really goofy to me, considering they could have easily moved LOL to 3:30 after GL and kept a lot of that audience after a highly successful show, and potentially ward off GH's increasing ratings at the time (and take advantage of AW's drop). One Day At A Time reruns felt like a bizarre thing to put in that slot instead, but I also suspect the move was more a design by CBS to force LOL into cancellation, and to try to force Bell's hand to expand Y&R to an hour while they were at it.

Just uploaded to YouTube, June 23, 1980. Rather poor quality, but always great to see more SFT online.

7 minutes ago, Neil Johnson said:

I remember when Stephanie intentionally burned-off her fingerprints in a hot frying pan.  Yuck!  

But at least the show was believable during this period.  And it had not yet become the Hope and Marlena show.  

That had happened a few weeks before this. It is shocking viewing, and really could have set an interesting story in motion, but, of course, Harrower dropped the ball and that thread went nowhere also.

 

25 minutes ago, Titus Andronicus said:

Wes Kenney would have stayed at least a bit longer.

Harrower was publicly replaced, but yet had to write at few more weeks, too.

There seemed to be pressure above Kenney's head to make sweeping changes, and I am curious to know where that came from. From what I've deduced, there was some major behind-the-scenes issues during 1978-79. Remember that fistfight allegation between SSH and Kaye Stevens, which led to Stevens' departure, Ann Marcus walking after having her story to give Chris a Vietnamese child vetoed (which she then brought to LOL), and SSH's issues with having her mother write the show, with her claiming everyone, Bill Hayes included, complaining to her about her mother's stories.

I think things were pretty toxic on-set around then, and combined with stagnant ratings, this leads the dominoes to fall. First Harrower is fired, Kenney quits in protest, Rabin is brought in, and then the reports of a clearing out to usher out the, what was it, "culture of negativity" on set, thus leading to 1980 Massacre. Looking at the timelines, I think Rabin was mostly responsible for the firings, but that there was probably someone leaning on him/the show to clear house.

I get the feeling that there was a LOT of bad blood, especially if bits of the drama were starting to spill out to the press at the time.

Just now, te. said:

Wow, what an exciting promo mentioning taxes! Really makes me want to tune in.

 

You can really see why AMC and OLTL were trouncing them at the time.

Ahh, all these storylines Harrower set up that went absolutely nowhere.

5 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

What i remember about Daniel's death was that Days actual used the ER set. When Daniel was rushed to University Hospital. But it didn't have enough money to show the car crash.  

Probably because they used all the money to use that John Legend song for Naniel to dance to once in the pub 

2 minutes ago, Khan said:

Didn't Lorraine Broderick quit as HW, because she disagreed with Tom Langan over how the teens were introduced?

Yep. That's what I read. Probably a number of things (considering Broderick isn't exactly known as a camp queen), but that was, if nothing else, the last straw.

23 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:

 

  

Seeing years after the fact, how off-the-rails the show had become under Langan round 2000-01, makes me wonder how on Earth the show maintained the ratings it DID have around that time. I know the Last Blast squad had fans, but surely it couldn't make up for how awful a lot of the rest of the show was around then?

10 minutes ago, Bright Eyes said:

2016 was the last time we saw her, so Ron Carlivati hasn't used her at all.

Fair, I confess I haven't watched much for the last few years, since Ron's writing isn't exactly my cup of tea. Thanks for that.

21 minutes ago, asafi said:

Macy Alexander - did she die the second time around after being hit by that damn Chandelier? 

Marie Horton - Loved her! didn't come back for more then a decade since Alice Horton funeral. Ridiculous. 

Kimberly Brady - return briefly during 2010 and then.. poof, disappeared. 

Dru winters of course. the poor thing fell of a rock and we to this date do not know if she's alive or not 

Lisa - brad's wife that locked him a cage for weeks or months, was she ever caught? 

 

 

Kim's been back a number of times since then! Mostly to do with Theresa, but she's popped in and out pretty regularly from about 2013 onward.

4 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:

Oprah was fun for a long time. But once she got stuck up(enlightened) and started pandering too her studio audience. I stopped watching. At her best Oprah could connect with her guest and audience at an emotional level. I like her earlier yrs. When she was more genuine.

Thank you, was gonna say exactly this. I can still watch Pre-1993 Oprah and be entertained. She was fun, enlightening, entertaining, and tackled a lot of serious stuff and remained relatable. But once she became this...purveyor of soundbyte "wisdom" and woo, I tuned out. 

59 minutes ago, FrenchBug82 said:

If I leave Daniel Feuerriegel, Chandler Massey and Robert Scott Wilson to ya'll, can I have Blake Berris?
Thanks.

You'll have to fight ME for him

The change definitely happened with the music sometime in 1976, as the 1977 episodes that were found featuring Rick and Leslie used the Urbont theme (there was a bit of the closing credits featuring Barbara Walters plug for the ABC Evening News in one of the episodes, I remember), so I am almost 100% sure the shift to Urbont's theme occurred at the same time that the organ music was retired, which appears to be 1976 or late '75.

18 minutes ago, Nicholas Blair said:

The show expanded to 60 minutes and then to 90 minutes without TPTB figuring out how much additional story they would need. After Reinholt was fired, he showed one of the magazine writers a scene where Vic Hastings and Angie Perrini (probably the original one, the boring Toni Kalem) talked on and on about office furniture until Steve Frame came in and said he was going to Australia.

I'll give Lemay the benefit of the doubt re: the 60 minute move, as at least the move was unprecedented (I know there had been some soaps move from 15 to 30 minutes, but they were, of course, the first to go to an hour, in any medium) and they were still trying to work out the kinks for awhile. But expanding to 90mins not four years later and STILL not be prepared was just weird to me. They adjusted quickly, but those early episodes are just painful.

19 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

Especially how to stall for time while figuring out how to break a 10-dollar bill.

LOL I nearly forgot about that ridiculous scene.

I still joke with my friends about how about 60% of that episode was about people's various difficulties in trying to tell everyone in town that John Randolph had died in a fire at the edge of town. AT LEAST TWICE. 

23 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

In Canada, neither Hulu nor Decades are available to us, unfortunately. 

I am a complete and abject failure at internet technology. I could not get this app to work for me when I desperately tried to install and use it months ago. I'll give it another shot. It couldn't hurt. Thanks for the reminder. If St. Elsewhere were also available in Canada on the CTV app, I would move heaven and earth to make it function for me. But...Family alone is enough incentive. 

I did not "get" the appeal, either, and I was still watching TGL "live" in those days. Then again, I never really wanted Reva on the show in the first place, considering how much airtime she hogged. Her histrionics just made me grimace.

Actually, that's not a bad price for all the seasons combined. I'd pay that.

And Jeff Kober, Dodger on CB, is now on GH, to add another soap connection.

You're a fellow Canuck! Welcome! You understand my pain!  I'll have a look and see what BFlix has, though I don't much enjoy streaming outside the "legal" platforms.

Reva has only really appealed to me during the Annie story, and even then, she's just a bit much, I agree.