Days: Balance Campaign a Success!

[GBB]

Several people attending Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans event on Sunday reported that they mentioned the Balance campaign that so many were involved in was definitely noticed by TPTB. At one point Steve Wyman came into Mary Beth's dressing room and dumped about 50 Balance bars and said "they're everywhere!"

More importantly they said that there is going to be a movement toward more balance. SN said that if we hang in there for a couple more months we should see a lot more interaction among the characters and more balance in the use of characters. I think we're starting to see it already, but he compared what's coming up to the way it was in the 80s!

Also, he and Mary Beth were reportedly very upbeat about how things look right now for the show and for S&K. Unfortunately we won't see much of Mary Beth for another month or so at least. She was off nearly the entire month of May to film the Soap Star show for Soapnet and won't start filming Days again until mid-June. They both promised "good stuff" coming for S&K but no specifics.

I just thought eveyone who got involved and/or ran the Balance banners might want to know their efforts were noticed!

[DrewH]

That's great to hear.

[Andre]

THIS is what I like to hear.

So Mary Beth's time taping the Soap Star reality show was a factor in Steve and Kayla's recent backburning? That's good news. I think they deserve a good storyline; the writers just need to add... balance! Who'da thunk it? (Answer: everyone.)

I would have been involved in the balance campaign had I known it was even happening. That was a good idea.

[GBB]

Yep. Stephen has been working on his own while Mary Beth's been off, and he says he's working 5 days this week, so he won't be completely off-canvas while she's filming, thank goodness.

Yeah, you'd think it would be a no-brainer.

There were quite a few funnies from their event. Anyone interested in hearing them?

[King]

Wow! Sounds great!

[juniorz1]

Ummmm.......Yah!

[Andre]

I second the motion...Oh God, do I second!

[GBB]

Well my favorite story was the one that Mary Beth told about how she has this habit of rubbing Steven's butt whenever she's standing right next to him (said it's very nice and round) and that she does the same thing to her husband. Well apparently it's becoming too much of a habit with her because she was at a wedding recently standing with her arm around the uncle of the bride, chatting with him, and suddenly realized she was rubbing his ass! She was most embarassed *g*

Someone caught this candid of S&K during the event, so apparently she hasn't given the habit up. (not that I can blame her)

Oh, and when Mary Beth said she liked to rub Stephen's butt, he said, "What do I get to rub?" and as one they both said, "Nothing." LOL

There are some good pics of SN and MBE from the event here: http://labound-daysweekend.blogspot.com/

[KevC1980]

Thanks for the tidbit...I'm excited for Mary Beth and the soap star thing..should be fun for her..And glad SN is still getting to work...

[GBB]

Not really a funny per se, but I thought this was really interesting. Apparently some of the scenes where Steve was particularly "mean" to Kayla (after he was arrested and some in the mental hospital) were originally much worse in the scripts. Stephen couldn't reconcile Steve saying some of those things to Kayla even in a brainwashed state, so he toned a lot of it way back and refused to say some of it. I shudder to think how bad the original was. The stuff that got through was bad enough.

Also, found it really interesting that a lot of stuff on the 5/23 episode (where Kayla begins to try to deprogram Steve) was adlibbed on their part. Steve sitting up and dragging Kayla's chair over for a kiss, the whole ending bit where she crawls into bed with him and holds him as he falls asleep -- that wasn't in the script. The director initally didn't want to let them do it but he changed his mind.

Oh, and there are some more pics from the event here: http://www.nicholsevansfans.com/gallery/St...h-6-03-07-Event

Trying to think of other stuff...

eta - Oh, Mary Beth said that they both love Julie Pinson and want Billie to have a big storyline of her own, just "not with my man." *g*

A few more tidbits:

Mary Beth's husband is a doctor, and one of his patients saw her picture on his desk and asked if he was some kind of big Days of our Lives fan.

Stephen said soaps run very differently now. There's no time on set for rehearsal. And that you have to come to the set just ready to work. He and Mary Beth make sure they take time to rehearse on their own in the dressing room.

It was clear that Stephen had not enjoyed the recent storyline very much but said he'd done what he could to make the asylum stuff his own and that he'd put a lot of work into "the crazies."

Stephen also said that some of TBTB seem to care more about who gets a haircut than the writing on the show and the integrity of the storylines.

Mary Beth's daughter's boyfriend sent her a youtube link that was a video of nothing but S&K kissing & make out sessions. Her daughter asked if she could show her dad and Mary Beth said "he doesn't need to see that."

[Shawn]

I'm happy about this.

I really think this summer is going to be incredible.

[Andre]

This is a bit disappointing, but not surprising. I would really like to be behind the scenes of Days for a week. I just want to see HOW some of the stuff that gets through actually gets through.

[dawn9476]

I guess that is good but I never thought the lack of balance on Days was that bad. It is worse on other soaps and has been for years.

[dawn9476]

That is not surprising at all. That is pretty much how TIIC at every soap are.

[GBB]

I think practically no Bo & Hope and no John & Marlena for going on the better part of 4 months is a really bad balancing act. Add that to the near daily use of Shelle and Lumi (both of who I actually like, more or less, although Phelle is starting to ping my radar) and storylines that just about ground to a halt between Feb and April and I think the balance was a mess.