DAYS/PSSNS: A Question for JER-Haters

[Rudolpho Meradi]

LOL. I can only imagine the chaos that would break out if NBC would announce that they are bringing back JER to be headwriter for DAYS a third time. However I dont think thats ever gonna happen as long as DAYS is on NBC since JER failed with the ratings the last time. But after 2009, anything could happen.

[PhoenixRising05]

Wonderful post and it sums up my position exactly.

I don't hate JER and I have liked certain things from 2003-2007 Passions and his last Days run but, overall, the guy has lost his touch since 2002. He has gotten so lazy and sloppy and I have no idea why. People think he got burnt out, which may be part of it. I always hated how both Days and Passions never were consistently good at the same time. One was always good and one was always bad.

The bottom line is you can't please everyone. JER can write good stuff. I know he isn't everyone cup of tea but he did do huge things for Days and was great at Passions for his first few years. It can also be said he has contributed to the decline of the genre, which I agree with.

It's sad when he can't even write the show he created right and the fact that the man has admitted many times that he likes to get under the audience's skin explains why he has fallen apart. He kept couples apart on Days in the 90's but the stories were so good and he gave us enough twists to keep things interesting. There was also some realism involved. His writing of Passions from 1999-2001 and 2004-2005 was great. His second term at Days lacked realism and forced couples apart. The stories and mismatched couples were forced, the show was too over the top, and the viewing climate was different. The patience of fans is short now. That is a big reason why I think JER has suffered in recent years. Fans don't have the patience for his long-term stories. They won't stick around to see him drag stuff out like on Days in the 90's, which he did much better. The journeys the couples took in the 90's was almost magical in that they still were connected despite being apart. JER needed to understand and still does that fans won't wait months or years for things to happen. The pace needs to be brisk and you can't have every couple torn apart at once. Every damn story can't be a triangle either and characters can't be destroyed left and right. JER is known to rewrite history but he has never destroyed so many characters like he did during his last Days run and the past few years on Passions.

Whatever the case, JER may be suffering from a different viewing climate but the big issue is that he got lazy and he started recycling stories, including much of his own. His lack of regard for the fans and their wants is horrible and the fact that he gets off on pissing the fans off, particularly couple fans, is why the man should never have a job again in the business. I used to like him and still do like some of what he does but the man is trash compared to what he used to be.

[Sylph]

Nothing else to add...

[ANDREA LOATHES REILLY]

No apologies needed.

Just keep the moron away from any type of television...cutting off his alleged writing hand would be gravy!

ANDREA

[psychofan]

I can see it now! Everyone here would be in tears and screaming and agony and I would be jumping for joy! lol

[Ponz]

I could care less whether he apologizes. I don't judge writers based on the comments they make to the media but on what they deliver onscreen.

Besides, JER has openly stated that he wants viewers all riled up and "throwing their baloney sandwiches" at the TV. It would be against his whole philosophy to apologise for a story.

[ANDREA LOATHES REILLY]

So grandpa was a sick fnck too? YIKES!

ANDREA

[Rudolpho Meradi]

I dont know. Maybe he was?

RUDOLPHO

[MichaelGL]

When I think of some the stuff JER wrote in the early 90s on GL, I feel as if he, Curlee, Demorest, and Broderick captured every essence of what a soap opera was supposed to be. As well as entertaining, filled with emotion, GL never insulted the viewer's intelligence then. Looking at Passions today, and his second run on DAYS, it seems to me something that he did all the time was insult the viewer’s intelligence.

Getting back to the topic at hand here, I don’t need an apology. What’s happened, has happened. All I want now is to enjoy my soaps (again). If he was to have a hand in that, by becoming the great writer he once was, I would be very happy.

[Sylph]

I have a problem with his glory days - I was never given any proof he was the one writing all those fabulous stories, he was just a part of the team. And that means nothing.

[Drew]

he's too damn arrogant to admit he's made any mistakes. Even as his brain child Passions is about to be booted off network TV.

[jadestar]

Exactly. The man probably doesn't even think he's made any mistakes even when the viewers were jumping ship.

When a writer's goal seems to be to piss off the fans more than write the kind of things the fans want to see, it's time for that writer to get the boot. I don't think JER will ever change so Passions going to DTV will not mean anything for the show except more of the same from JER that got Passions booted off of NBC.

[therethan4eva]

He ruined Passions.

I hate him..

[Sylph]

Well, since you're a fan, you should be thankful that he created it.

[titan1978]

I think his fingerprints show up on all the triangles of that time on GL. Blake is the proto Sami Brady IMO. I see his mark on almost all her stories during that time. Think how many times Blake is almost exposed lying to Alan-Michael, and her relationships with her father and her mother, how selfish and wounded she is.

Also the Frank/Eleni/Alan-Michael storyline screams Reilly to me.

I do credit the depth on Guiding Light at that time with the whole team. Reilly has never been a writer of any great substance IMO, but his plots and characters are easy to spot.