beebs

1 minute ago, fivethej said:

 

Just wondering where you watched Salem Slasher/Phoenix story line from 1983-84? Did you find those on channel? It's no secret early 80's episodes are extremely difficult to find.

I'd be very interested in seeing this myself, if it can be passed along!

18 minutes ago, Broderick said:

 

Brenda Dickson's Jill always seemed a bit GRANDIOSE for the workplace.  And her favorite line was always, "What do YOU want?  Can't you sheee that I'm bisshy?"  (while polishing her nails)  

I think my favourite is still her telling Nina "I don't appreciate people SASHAYING into my offish!" with her ridiculous hat she probably stole from Phyllis Hyman's wardrobe.

Oh INTERESTING. Thanks @JAS0N47 as usual for the info. I'm surprised he was featured more heavily in '83. Seems like that was the last hurrah for a lot of the 70s vets before being cleared out for the Bradys. I do get the sense that PFS enjoyed writing for Neil far more than Ann Marcus, considering the numbers. But his appearances were always fairly consistent.

3 hours ago, j swift said:

I was just sitting here wondering if Joe Gallison (Dr. Neil Curtis) suffered from "Sarah Brown Syndrome"?

 

An actor who was hired due to their popularity on another soap but didn't get the writing they deserved on their new show.  Proof that an actor's likability is never enough if their character's story is not well told.  Bill Matthews was charismatic and popular on AW, but while Neil should have been interesting (a gambling addicted doctor who may have been a doppelgänger) , he just wasn't that intriguing on screen.  Neil was always a "b" story kind of guy.  Although Joe's good looks made him appear like a leading man, to me, he was always a little stiff.  As a result, unlike Don, when he disappeared from Salem, I hardly noticed.

 

https://www.starnewsonline.com/article/NC/20151113/news/605048397/WM

From what I read of his time in the 70s, he was FAR more central to the story up to probably 1979 or 1980. His mentions tend to drop off a lot after he finally divorces Phyllis, and Amanda is gone from the show permanently. Much of his story revolved around Amanda, Greg, Phyllis, Bob, and Linda. Once those characters were gone by 1980, I think they really struggled to find a place for him, even with his popularity with Liz.

I suspect a lot of what made his character fit in the canvas ended up swallowed up by Alex Marshall. Even though he was popular with Liz, the mentions in SOD paint him as being increasingly the "go-to" doctor in that time, with his tortured romance with Liz being mostly an incidental thing more than a central driver of story on the show after 1980. I suspect a lot of this was also down to the youth obsession that took hold around then, leading to the fixation of Toad, Prissy Jessica, Clumsy Cassie, and Josh, before shifting to Bo & Hope after '83.

7 minutes ago, Chris B said:

@Paul Raven @FrenchBug82 Oh I absolutely do think racism plays a part in Peter Bergman's ongoing hatred for the Keemo story. I mean we already know how quickly he dismissed Victoria Rowell as crazy for mentioning racial disparities and he talks about the Keemo story like it is the most awful thing that has ever appeared on Y&R. They had this man playing a Spanish drug lord who ended up raping his wife, but Keemo is the worst thing and the only thing you mention that can NEVER be brought up? Give me a break. Even if he thought that initial storyline was bad, what harm would it do to bring back his son who he canon? To me it can't be anything but racism. Maybe he doesn't feel like an Asian man could have the strength he would want for Jack's son. I'm not sure the exact motivations, but I think it is disgusting that they allow him to do this. 

 

Peter Bergman is almost 70 and they're still pairing Jack with 20 year old women. He needs to be transitioned into a Patriarch. Pair him off with Jill and let them head the Abbott family. Bringing on Keemo would give a viable Abbott who could run Jabot. Keemo could bring a wife and kids with him. This would allow Kyle (and Summer) to be written as their age and not stuck in business stories that are out of their depth right now. Give them friends, romantic entanglements, kids, etc. and things that fit their young age. Let Keemo (and Jack) take on the Jabot storylines. Plus Keemo also has a sister out there who isn't related to anybody and could be useful.

I also can't let go of his objections to his pairing with Angie at AMC back in the day. There's objection to a bad story, and then it steps over a line, and I feel his objections are just a TOUCH loud, and in the wrong places.

1 minute ago, carolineg said:

 

Carrie should absolutely be the lead.   I would say Belle, but she's so vanilla.  She is Carrie without the charisma.  John/Marlena's daughter should not be so lame.  And Sami/Carrie's rivalry is still very viable.

I like Gabi a lot.  I think CB is really good and not utilized correctly.  MM's Abby is a bore, but where is Stephanie? Chelsea?  Melanie?  Noelle? Sydney?  Johnny?  Unknown Carrie/Austin kid? Andrew?  Justin/Adrienne's 5 kids?  Where is POCKET? lol  There is just a lot of material and very little follow through.

Carrie and Austin's son is apparently named Noah. I'm sure that'll change once he's actually onscreen, though

Agreed on all counts. There is an embarrassment of riches to work with, and with such interesting histories to work with, the stories would write themselves if the writers would bother to do a minute of research. I still struggle to understand why Ciara isn't the daddy-starved brat Lauren Boles played. Nathan was underdeveloped, but would be great if he was fleshed out better. Hell, we don't even know who his FATHER is, over ten years later!

Johnny should be the vaguely sociopathic DiMera heir apparent of the teen set. I have NO idea why they haven't cast him yet.

1 minute ago, carolineg said:

Noelle would be great to add to the canvas because she's not related to half the town, but still a legacy character.   So you don't end up with a Claire, who is literally related to everyone.

I have said this before, but I feel like Deidre basically just said screw it after the Possession.  She's still good in the 
Affair story, but it takes a turn from Maison Blanche on lol.  I just think the DH's just do what they do with the kidnappings and life threatening stuff that happens twice a year.  But I do think the show needs younger characters because John/Marlena still lead and that's disconcerting when I don't see an heir to the throne.  Unless Ali wants to come back full time.

The show's problem is really that, while they invested a lot of time and energy into their young characters in the 2000s and 2010s, they didn't develop them as much as CHARACTERS, and they're paying for that now. The last blast crew are so generic they change personalities with every visit, and the 2010s teen crew, while better developed, don't follow through with the directions their histories suggest they should have. 

Chad should NEVER have forgiven Gabi, nevermind fallen for her. That not only negated the previous 3-4 years of story, but it also removed a lot of Gabi's thrust as a character to that point. She always felt inferior to, and unworthy, compared to the other women in her circle, and that motivated a lot of her choices, from hiring Andrew the Stalker, to sleeping with Will when she knew he was gay, to falling for and marrying Nick. She settled for scraps every time. While I do like that she finally had enough after taking the rap for Abbygabbylauragale killing André and grew a spine, the wind was definitely out of her sails for awhile.

The leads now could easily have been Austin and Carrie, but that chance has also past. I'dve brought them back for the 50th, had Patrick Muldoon's Austin rediscover his love of music playing piano at TBD, and have Eve and him connect over their shared love of music. While Carrie is busy working a case (let's say Ben goes to trial and Carrie is his attorney, pissing off the rest of the family after Will's murder), Austin spends his free time coaching Eve back into singing, and eventually they have an affair (for some reason, I see PM having chemistry with KDP and not Austin Peck). Obviously, Carrie hooks back up with Rafe during this time.

This could've carried years of story, and taken the pressure off the DM's. It's getting a little ridiculous at this point to focus the energy on them, really. You're right.

Just now, FrenchBug82 said:

Reminds me when Days was making fans vote on whether John or Stefano should be the father of Hope's baby (so many things wrong with that, not least of which excluding the option most fans would vote for and that they ended up going with later anyway) and the promos had three randoms with a sign in a studio parking lot.
I hope the one who had to pretend they were rooting enough for Stefano as Hope's babydaddy that they showed up at the studio with a sign were at least paid a stipend.

That one person was a writer. Guaranteed.

The only type of person who would've gone "who would be the most dramatic person to be the babydaddy, hmmmm" is a writer.

1 minute ago, carolineg said:

 

I was shocked at how good Deidre was in the rape and Strangler stories.  She is so free of her current histrionics.  She is just very good.  She even makes lame Josh seem okay.  And she's kind of good snarking at the lame Mary recast.  I would say Don/Marlena at Kellam's will reading/trial whatever where she admits Kellam rapes her is one of her best scenes ever.

Noelle is so needed.  We find out she is scandalous and slept with Rex and we don't even get to meet her?  Fail...

Yeah, well. DAYS does that a lot nowadays. See revealing Eli is David's son in the same instant that we find out David drove his motorbike into a ditch and died. All offscreen. 

I miss Marlena's snark. She needs a snark partner, be it Kristen, Hope, or Mary. Deidre is great when she gets to show that side of Marlena. You're right as well, What I've seen of the reveal of Kellam's rape was riveting. But again, I think it's harder to give it 100% when the stories you're given are so...shall we say, fanciful.

I had Noelle come to town married to a secretly bisexual Alex Kiriakis, and she can't figure out why her husband is disinterested in the bedroom, meanwhile Alex is sniffing around Will Horton, so Noelle goes after Eric. I love a good mess. LOL.

But really, it doesn't make sense to tell the story without her. She's a blank slate AND a legacy character. It's a perfect opportunity, and they just didn't take it. 

3 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Idk, I did get the sense Don really loved her.  Moreso, after they divorced.  It was clear he did value her.  Not in the same way Roman or John did, but they never were very compatible to begin with.  But honestly, I never took Don/Julie very seriously, so i had no investment.

Well Deidre made sure she didn't age for years.  The woman has an excellent plastic surgeon. She was forty for like 20 years.  Plus she had younger love interests and was moved into being Hope/Kayla/Kim's contemporaries even if she really wasn't.

True, and it sounds like Bell and PFS didn't either. Don was her distraction while she was married to Bob and lusted after Doug. Don was always very much on the sidelines. Frankly, I think they could've leaned into Mary's lingering feelings for Don instead and used THAT to make Marlena and Mary rivals instead. The history precedes it.

1 minute ago, carolineg said:

 

Trista was lame, but poor Eugene.  Marlena's parents raised Eric/Sami so there's that contribution.  I actually would like to know what Marlena's parents thought about 2 Romans, numerous kidnappings/fake deaths, and devil possession.  They must have asked what they did to deserve it all lol

Deidre is really good in the Kellam story even though the material sucks.   I can see how she shifted to a lead pretty easily.  I think WN/Roman and the Strangler story really just solidifies it all.  Even if she isn't the greatest actress she's a very likable lead.

I actually wish they would have brought Liz back in the 90's..

Agreed. I don't think the synopsies do justice to the work Deidre put in to sell these stinkers at the time. 

Liz should have been back so many times. I still think Noelle and Liz need to come back. When putting together my fanfic, I had Linsey Godfrey in as Noelle before the show cast her as Sarah, and honestly, agewise, I still think it's a better fit.

6 minutes ago, BuckyB12 said:

 

I always thought that Marlena was Don's consolation prize after Julie and Doug finally got married. Like, he wasn't ever going to be a serious rival for Doug in the future (the function he served between Julie's divorce from Bob and the eventual Doug/Julie nuptials) so why not pair him with Marlena? I don't think anyone at the time, on either side of the camera, thought that Marlena would become the central heroine of the show over the next decade and would still be around 40 years later. Or, for that matter, that a few years later, Don would just vanish from Salem without a trace. 

I do get the sense as well that Marlena was, up until around 1980, very much on the B-story at DAYS. She just kept knocking what material she was given out of the park and when Rabin cleared the rest of the vets out in 1980, she was recentred as a more central figure. 

I do think a good headwriter would've really dug into Don's sense that Marlena was a consolation prize, and built something of an insecurity complex into Marlena's dealings with Don into it, rather than all the Donna nonsense. Or maybe have it COLOUR the Donna story, where Marlena feels like Don cares more about Donna than her because he sees Marlena more as a warm body than anything, and have Julie and Don maintain the kind of friendship that Julie and Neil ultimately had, existing largely to stimulate Marlena's insecurities about her relationship with Don.

But no.

1 minute ago, Franko said:

I've said it before, but I have to imagine audiences were turning the channel to AMC in droves.

I mean, REALLY! Even if AMC wasn't generally your cup of tea, the stories were WAY more interesting than what DAYS was giving you at the time. And then at CBS you have Y&R? DAYS didn't stand a chance with The Misadventures of the Omnipotent Chandlers. Y&R on its WORST days in the 80s was a thousand times more interesting than what we've been reading about on DAYS.

It's funny, the stuff we're discussing is so clear in my mind, and yet, just months later, I have completely lost interest in writing the monthly synopsies I was doing. I know I'll get back to them in time, in one form or another, but like...it's surprising how quickly DAYS shifted to this whole slew of new characters I simply couldn't care less about. Most of the stories before, no matter how bad they were, were at least engaging enough that I got sucked into writing about them, and the characters, and everything. But Laemmle's characters were so bland that, with the exception of Jessica, who I find roundly unlikeable, and Liz, who was spared largely because I sense Gloria Loring really gave 110% every damn day than the writing, I really don't give a damn about these people, and they CONSUME about 80% of the column inches in 1980. No wonder the show was in trouble.

I can definitely see how, considering the shift toward these bland characters and their romantic back and forth no one gives a damn about, Marlena would have shifted to become more central during this period. She's the only thing that really grounds any of the Kellam & Co. nonsense, and even though she's being written as a complete knob throughout the story, you care about what happens to her, Don, and Liz.

1 minute ago, j swift said:

I just researched the LA Times archive and one other tip off that the protest was fake is that it was covered by our local "wacky weatherman" Fritz Coleman rather than an actual reporter and Fritz appeared in a cameo as a reporter on Days the next week.

Who just happened to work for NBC! yeah, if it walks like a duck...

2 minutes ago, carolineg said:

 

Didn't Sam need a kidney or something too lol?  And just randomly date day players?

 

I think I would have just left it open for Deidre to do a double roll.   From what I have seen of Andrea, she isn't an actress and comes off incredibly cold. But I guess it was such a pivotal moment in Days history it's fine, but I wonder if PFS would have done things differently in hindsight, knowing DH would become the leading actress on Days for 40 more years.  Who knows?  I can't even remember the last time Marlena mentioned having a twin or her marriage to Don lol

I always thought the protest was serious and real lol

In a sensible world, the kidney issue would've been what finally brings the sisters back together, but they'd already reconciled by then because Ann Marcus said so.

The kidney story was the next in a series of annoying domestic disputes between Don and Marlena that inadvertently showed just how poorly matched they were. Marlena was willing to give up a kidney for Sam, her own pregnancy be damned, and Don didn't even want Sam in the house. It's a miracle their marriage lasted another year, to be honest.

I think PFS knew there wasn't much for Sam to do, knowing that, ultimately, she was hardly like Stuart Chandler, in that she wasn't SO different from Marlena that she would really add anything to the show, other than open the door to yet more doppelganger nonsense. The best course of action, IMO, was indeed to kill her off.

I thought the letter-writing campaign was serious, but the protest...the more I look back on it and how Marlena was written mostly as part of the ensemble at that point, I really can't see it being legit so much as a publicity stunt. The public were way more willing to buy into that stuff back then, let's be honest.

1 minute ago, carolineg said:

 

I was going to say wasn't Sam on drugs as well lol?  

Anyway, they really didn't play the fallout between Sam/Marlena or Sam's psychological issues enough.  I know it was drugs influencing her, but that's some crazy scheme she pulled.  A year later wasn't Sam living her best life as a successful actress?

I have often thought it was short-sighted to kill Sam off so early in Marlena's run.  I think the Strangler story is really good, but think of all the stories Sam could have been involved with over the years.  And Marlena never got any other family aside from a cousin that got killed off as well.  Idk, seems like a waste of potential.

Oh for sure! And that's the thing. Not a year later, Sam's back in Hollywood, and Marlena has forgiven Sam so totally that she's asked her to be Maid of Honour at her wedding! But somehow Donna isn't worth forgiving  at this point, for much less horrific crimes?? It all just made no sense.

I honestly think that PFS just saw what a terrible set of stories Sam had and just decided "nah". The twist of everyone thinking the Strangler got Marlena was too inspired an opportunity to pass up, and, in all fairness, watching what I have of Andrea Hall, she's not much of an actress. She would foul up her lines more times than she'd get them right. So unless they were gonna have Deidre do the double role, it hardly felt worth keeping both characters.

5 minutes ago, j swift said:

Speaking of naming your kid after your evil twin, how about Shane Donovan's son Andrew IV who was officially named after Shane's father, Andrew II, but also shared the name of Shane's evil twin Drew aka Andrew III?

 

The story of Shane's evil twin was even worse given the proximity in timing to the story of his ex-lover Gillian who had an evil twin Grace.  Which of course was just a few years after the revelation that Tony had an evil twin Andre. 

 

The third time it happened you would expect at least one Salemite to ask if the suspect had a twin.  But, after Tommy/Addie, Sami/Eric, Hope/Gina, Susan/Kristen, Rex/Cassie, Charlie/Tripp, and Eli's twins, I guess nobody in Salem is good at recognizing patterns. 

The fact that we're only NOW at the point where folks are suspicious of death, suggests to me this community at large doesn't have a particularly high ratio of Mensa members, put it that way.

16 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I am glad I am not the only one who has huge issues with the Sam/Marlena switch.   They are obviously twins, but you can literally tell them apart.  The whole story is just implausible.  I get it was cool because Deidre had a twin IRL, but c'mon, I doubt Sam could have pulled off such an elaborate scheme.  It made everyone, especially Don, look ridiculous.

Sam and Marlena were fine by the time Sam died.  They had long since reconciled.  I assume they wouldn't have named a twin after her if she hadn't died.  Eric Brady, Sr. molestation stuff wasn't known until after the twins were born.

Nah, you're not the only one. Especially all because Sam was addicted to pills that impaired her judgment? Sam ain't THAT smart. It made Don look even dumber than he usually does.

And yeah, they made up within a year. It was honestly stupid to me, because it felt like Ann Marcus refused to give that story any long-term fallout, and AFAIC, the breakdown of Sam and Marlena's relationship could've been GREAT, especially since AM introduced Marlena's parents and all. Marlena's tension between knowing that Sam only did what she did because her drug abuse, and the deep mistrust and trauma of being locked away falsely, could've been a GREAT story, but instead, we got....Donna.

18 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

I wanted Gerald Anthony to remain on OLTL, but Marco's pretending to be a doctor strained credulity, even though we did see him reading through medical textbooks. Neil was supposed to be an internist, and the idea that the imposter had practiced medicine and presumably written prescriptions for many years was ridiculous.  Samantha passing herself off as a psychiatrist? No way. Obviously, the two women were twins, but they were easy to tell apart. Bad, bad writing that depended on the audience being morons.

Exactly how I felt reading through the monthly recaps during the Sam locks Marlena away story. I can just see how absolutely put off viewers would've been after years of Bell and PFS' brilliance to see that mess play out. Not to mention the fact that not only do they NOT look identical, but Sam's voice was markedly lower than even Deidre Hall's voice TODAY. How they expected us to believe that not only her colleagues of over a year, but her intimate partner wouldn't notice the difference beggars belief!

3 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Didn't she also feel guilty because she had cheated on her dying husband with Neil and that played a part in her depression as well? lol

 

I wish some episodes of her were available to see.

Yep! And Neil wouldn't let up, as he is wont to do. Basically just drove her over the edge (and into the lake?)

One of her first episodes after her return in 1979 was the same 3-19-79 episode where Stephanie's in the hospital after trying to pan-fry her hands. But that's the only episode I've seen of hers. She comes off as quite likeable, from what little I see.

5 minutes ago, j swift said:

Amusingly, Leslie Jordan told the same tale about Mary Frann when he was on UK Celebrity Big Brother in 2015, and the message boards of that show were equally as defensive of Ms. Frann as those on this thread today.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I went back to read about her character Amanda on DOOL.  Within a two year span she had a brain tumor and a hysterectomy.  It is no wonder she left Salem, next they would have taken a limb (lol).  It was interesting to read the origins of Neil and Don, two male characters that have always been interchangeable in my mind, which probably made Dr Greg Peters seem redundant.  Also, this may have been the only plot I've read that focused on Tommy Horton's medical prowess.  I've read so much about Bill's surgical talents that I forgot that Tommy was so skilled with a scalpel.

And I think at one point, she was so depressed by Neil's philandering, she walked herself into the sea to die by suicide. The hysterectomy was due to cancer so she had to terminate her pregnancy that was a WTD between Chris and Greg, as well. Yikes!

13 hours ago, Faulkner said:

OT: the chart on people with disabilities reminded me of how often soaps have used temporary paralysis or blindness as a plot point only for the character to miraculously recover. 

Oh that's been a pet peeve of mine for ages. Mitch Longley being the anomaly that he is in the soap world is yet another damning indictment of the rampant ableism in the industry. 

29 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I always felt that they should gone that route with Will/Sonny after Arianna was born. 

 

Sonny, the world traveler, now having to settle down and be Mr. Mom. He could've had trouble adjusting to that life, and done all the things to Will that you suggested, which could have caused conflict with Will, and with Gabi. Ultimately, that what would've driven Will to have an affair with Paul. It could have played for years.

 

Honestly, if I was writing it, I would've made Sonny/Will/Paul the gay Hope/Liam/Steffy, albeit with better writing lol

I could see it. I probably also would have not made Paul a retcon secret child of John's from a period when he was front burner in story, but that's for another thread.

I also think that they could have found a more organic way to make Will a bit more of a b!tch, almost as a reaction to Sonny. That volatility could have been exciting, and rebelling against Sonny's desire for domestication by sleeping around a bit would have kept things fresh. Hell, tie it to Titan, and bring on one of Sonny's brothers, and have Will hook up with him in an attempt to move up the ladder at work, while claiming he wants to "do it on his own without family help". Almost to justify his desire to sleep around in his own mind. He's Sami and Lucas's son, for God's sake. It's okay to give him SOME edges.

Realistically, the stories I would want to see some of these characters in do play on some of these things, but I think if you commit to fleshing them out in terms of character and family, you can still be compelling beyond just the optics of the story at hand.

Having Will have an affair with Paul on DAYS came too soon and the character changed too quickly, but it could have been done much smoother if they had played up Sonny's domineering side, trying to control Will's career (not wanting him working for a Titan company, fearing Will would get sucked into the family mess etc), and Will resenting the interference so much, and resenting Sonny's time he spent living "the gay life" before they met, while Sonny is the only man Will's ever been with. And that led to an eventual affair, and a messy divorce, and saw Will decide to party it up, largely to spite Sonny, who still wants to be with Will, but only on his terms, effectively trying to shove the genie back in the bottle.

If you use the domesticated qualities in some of the characters as a means to conflict with the needs of others, it can be used organically without devolving into PSA or stereotype. But it requires gradual movement that daytime is completely disinterested in now.

I'll go one further: Terry on GH. I sorta tossed an idea out there to a friend that I wished the show hadn't killed AJ off again, because I'd be down to see him and Terry get together, but not realize she was trans at first, and once he did, he attacked her, but Terry either killed him or severely wounded him.

This could lead to a great story of Terry and Liz taking on the great Q money and power, and lawyers, in court. The trial could highlight the class disparity as well as flipping the queer issue of trans women being killed by partners on its head, and giving them something of a voice. Daytime has the room to do something like that, of course. If there was the interest.

1 minute ago, EricMontreal22 said:

Yeah this would probably been just before 1995?  Right when the station premiered.

Oh I have a lot of respect for Marcus (I don't really know about her DAYS except what she says in her interview--I'll investigate ).  For the msot part she seemed to understand how shows worked, and I think also it's impressive that she could handle "legit" soap as well as parodies like Mary Hartman Mary Hartman (it must have been kinda annoying that Norman Lear always got all the credit for that...)

Yeaaaah, we were discussing her DAYS run in the DAYS behind-the-scenes thread, and reading through the Daytime Serial Newsletter recaps from her run...it was one show she just did NOT get, and, while it may have played better onscreen, she messed up a LOT of what Pat Falken Smith had set up, and her pacing was...too quick. I'll let you judge for yourself, but the general consensus was that she was a bad bad fit.

But yes, everywhere else, particularly in prime time, her work has largely been nothing but praised, and especially her turnaround of KL, so I still have to give her props for that.

1 hour ago, EricMontreal22 said:

(By Bravo I mean the Canadian Bravo which isn't connected to Bravo US).  I remember really liking it--I think at that age anyway it connected to me more than Mary Hartman.  It was outrageous but more grounded in a discernible reality (as I think Ann says in that clip).  I swear I taped some episodes but would have to go through my storage.

That explains why I never saw it. Our cable back then was MacLean-Hunter and we didn't get Bravo/Showcase/Etc. until about 1995? I'll keep my eyes peeled if any more content comes out. I feel like Ann Marcus was, beyond her disastrous DAYS run, considered a pretty solid writer.

Just now, Paul Raven said:

Would love to get my hands on PFS interview for Afternoon TV mag where she detailed her Days plans.

Do recall she talked about Doug/Julie faking a separation to allow Stefano to move in on Julie  and try and uncover his secrets.

She talked about them having secret rendezvous and nearly getting caught etc.

That does sound like an interesting plan. It sounds like her return wasn't entirely designed to be so short. I have to wonder what forced her back out so soon.