I understand that you're upset and I'm sorry you're losing actors you care about, but there's a flip side to that. What if someone else considers Jim Reynolds or Renee Jones or Stephen Nichols or MBE more talented than Austin Peck and Christie Clark, and it's worth dropping them to save Jim Reynolds and Suzanne Rogers?

The difference, in my eyes, is that A/C are frontburner. And Abe and Lexie really never have been. People are complaining that A/C have been propping LUMI, but they are the same people who want Abe and Lexie. Abe and Lexie have been propping every G.D. character on the show for fifteen years - except themselves. If JR or RJ were actually used in a decent manner except for being pulled out of someone's sleeve every 9 months for one dramatic scene, it would be a different story for them in my eyes. I don't see why two characters who will NEVER be in a story are staying on a show with a budget crisis!

I'm going to have to say the same thing as Darn. You cannot possibly convince me that Wayne Northrop, Matthew Ashford, Austin Peck, Christe Clark, Billy Walrock and Melissa Reeves' departures are making the show unrecognizable. Are we watching the same show? I'm still seeing Frances Reid, Suzanne Rogers, Bill and Susan Hayes, Deidre Hall, Drake Hogestyn, Mary Beth Evans, Stephen Nichols, Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso on my screen. I'm thinking it's the same show it's been all along.

If you read my post, I said not the case for me, but people who have been watching the show for years before us? Sure they would prefer to have those six faces there in bad stories than newbies who can't act in so-so stories. That's human nature.

I don't know where you are seeing Rogers and the Hayes'.

IMO, if you watch for only 1 or 2 characters and tune out whenever they aren't on, you are not a fan of 'Days of our Lives.' You are only a fan of that character or couple and not the show.

As a fan of the show, I want the show to do whatever it can to stay on the air and provide us with good writing/stories at the same time.

Of course familiar faces make it recognizable. Hello, common sense!

Horrible stories ALSO make things unrecognizable. Bo and Hope and John and Marlena and Kate and Roman and Abe and Lexie and others were still front and center, it wasn't about the lack of Carrie and Austin it was the ATROCIOUS storytelling. It was killing Alice with a doughnut and bringing her and ten other people back in a story that made no sense, it was the repetitive awful dialogue, it was the overuse of flashbacks, it was the focus on ill thoughtout characters, it was Reilly being self-indulgent trying to relive some imagined glory days.

It was all these things, not the lack of Austin Peck and Christie Clark or Wayne Northop or Billy Warlock or Stephen Nichols or Mary Beth Evans. The show could and DID survive without them. The problem was the stories and the people behind those stories, pure and simple.

I understand that you're upset and I'm sorry you're losing actors you care about, but there's a flip side to that. What if someone else considers Jim Reynolds or Renee Jones or Stephen Nichols or MBE more talented than Austin Peck and Christie Clark, and it's worth dropping them to save Jim Reynolds and Suzanne Rogers?

For me, and only me I do not feel that either AP or CC are proven talents like some of the others. CC has been awful lately in my eyes and so has the story. I just don't see why someone else should be cut for two people whose story has failed, and I used to like the couple a lot.

And that's the other problem: How did you feel when the show was killing off veteran after veteran in the SSK? Did you say it had to be for the show to move on and recharge? What's so different now?

AWESOME post, Vee! I couldn't agree more.

I seriously DO NOT understand what the big f*cking deal is about all of this! Since their return, the actors haven't shined at all, and yes, it is due to storyline. But they could've try a little.

Now if some extremely talented actor like Peter Reckell or Stephen Nichols were fired, I would think almost EVERY fan would be upset!

Austin and Carrie are NOT a supercouple! They WERE, and that's in the past. 2006, people. Not the 90s anymore.

I don't normally get off all pissed like this, but I had to prove my point. Sorry.

What about Renee in the baby Isaac story? What about her and James's performances in the SSK?

Again, I don't know how you felt but was it different during the Salem Stalker? Was it okay for Jack, Abe, Maggie, Tony, etc etc to get killed because it was change for the future? They were all better actors IMHO with a lot more potential. And Austin and Carrie aren't even dying. So why would their exits make the show unrecognizable if you didn't think the SSK would when we assumed they were all dying?

I love how all the people who are OK with this decision are using B/H, J/M, and S/K as saying they are the ones THEY would be mad at if they were fired.

Do you guys not see that A/C *WERE* the B/H and J/M and J/J and S/K of MANY viewers' generation????DAYS gained TONS of viewers in the mid-nineties.

It actually DOES match DAYS perfectly. Because DAYS ratings started falling years ago, as well. The cuts are only coming now, whereas GL's came years ago.

If things happen at completely different times under completely different circumstances that is a perfect example of not matching.

IMO, if you watch for only 1 or 2 characters and tune out whenever they aren't on, you are not a fan of 'Days of our Lives.' You are only a fan of that character or couple and not the show.

As a fan of the show, I want the show to do whatever it can to stay on the air and provide us with good writing/stories at the same time.

Toups, you're my Agree-Machine tonight!

That is so correct!

If things happen at completely different times under completely different circumstances that is a perfect example of not matching.

Don't look like different circumstances to me, but the timing with DAYS is delayed.

IMO, if you watch for only 1 or 2 characters and tune out whenever they aren't on, you are not a fan of 'Days of our Lives.' You are only a fan of that character or couple and not the show.

I agree with that. But I hope that is not aimed at me. Or my posting here for like what eight years must have gone completely unnoticed.

Peter Reckell left at one point.

Kristian Alfonso did too.

So did Deidre Hall.

The show survived, and viewers became fans of new characters and couplings.

Of course, this was before the Internet and fans that have gotten increasingly whiny and not willing to give a chance for anything.

And like Vee said, when the SSK was going on, many people were liking the story and continued to watch even as vets were being "killed."

Yet Peck, who used to be the whipping boy of the show, the one who was constantly criticized for his lack of talent, and Clark have sparked 14 pages of protest?

Give me a break.

Do you guys not see that A/C *WERE* the B/H and J/M and J/J and S/K of MANY viewers' generation????DAYS gained TONS of viewers in the mid-nineties.

The exact word. They WERE the J/M, B/H/, J/J and S/K back THEN.

It's not the same now.

And like Vee said, when the SSK was going on, many people were liking the story and continued to watch even as vets were being "killed."

Because the story was excellent and suspenseful. What on DAYS right now is TRULY excellent?

Well you know, I was a kid watching in the 90s too. Austin and Carrie meant a lot to me once. But you grow up and I don't see them the way I used to. I watched a lot of soaps back then and Days was pretty much junk food back then to me, not so great compared to others but I still watched and enjoyed. But it's been pretty bad for a long time to me, I'd like to see it better, and I never wanted Austin and Carrie back no matter if I liked their story once.

And no, I did not find the SSK excellent or suspenseful. I thought it was badly written and I thought it was wasteful, even though I had grown up watching Mr. Reilly's stories. It wasn't the same thing when I'm grown up. A lot of people were unhappy, a lot more than just this thing with Austin and Carrie, and they probably thought the show was becoming unrecognizable too. But why is it that if it's the SSK it's "being done for the future" and if it's Austin and Carrie under another writer it's "unrecognizable."

The exact word. They WERE the J/M, B/H/, J/J and S/K back THEN.

It's not the same now.

To US, they ARE still. And still have potential especially under a new writer.

I am one who doesn't watch a show just b/c a character or a couple is on, but I find it really hypocritical that some people are blowing off AP's and CC's firing as "oh well, the show will survive" (even though it's true) when they'd be pitching a god damn fit if let's say.....Deidre Hall was fired, or Peter Reckell, or Kristian Alfonso or Lauren Koslow or some of your favorites.

Each generation of soap fans have their favorites. While as a fan of the show, I'd be pissed if any of the above I named were fired, but I'd continue to be loyal to the show and watch. However, I'd be sympathetic to the people who's favs were fired.

For the record, I couldn't care less that Austin was fired b/c I don't really like him, but I honestly feel others could have been chosen instead of him. That's all.