DAYS: Why Drake and John?

[MikeGoldy]

A couple of things have interested me, and I wonder what posters here think. Do you think that Drake was written out for budget reasons, or Hogan Sheffer didn't want to write for him? Or, if he was written out because of the budget, why do you think he was picked instead of say, Deidre, Kristian, Peter, Mary Beth, or Stephen? If someone had to go, who would you have picked?

[IMissAremid]

If someone had to go I would have picked getting rid of Bryan Dattilo, Julie Pinson and whoever else of the younger set I needed to get rid of to add up to Drake's salary IF I had to pick.

But I don't think this was a money issue. I think Hogan didn't want to write for John and Ed Scott and/or Corday finally gave him the greenlight to do what he has wanted to do since last winter, which is kill off John Black.

[jcar03]

Plus John's death (if he stays dead) should create a ton of story and is turning out some stellar stuff already. People need to deal with it. People die all the time. No one got this worked up when 10+ characters were killed off in ridiculous ways (hello Alice!) yeah they all came back but I won't get into that mess.

I would still kill off John. I wouldn't change a thing.

[DaysFanatic777]

To answer the first post, I wouldn't have killed off Dee, Thats for sure. That would be the ultimate stupidity.

Why Drake and John, I don't know. I don't know if Hogan knew how to write for him, or just didn't care to. I think he really picks his faves, and doesn't really care what we think. John is a very central character, and he is going to be missed. BUT.....this has been the best week in ages for this show. I felt emotion today. I haven't felt emotion watching Days in a very, very long time.

I will miss Drake, but this is good television right now. It's going to hurt down the line, but I'm glued for the moment.

[sungrey]

One of my litmus tests for killing off a character is to ask myself "will this show wish it had the character back in five years?"

A great example is Search for Tomorrow. Mary Stuart had a son back in the early 1960s that Frank and Doris Hursley cavalierly killed off to drive up the ratings. Made for great drama in the short term, but the show suffered down the line because Jo didn't have a son to play off of that could have been involved in romantic storylines. Later writers tried to make up for it by introducing Bruce Carson, her grown ward, but it wasn't the same.

Y&R is already feeling the effects of killing off Camryn Grimes' character. Same for GH. Wonder if they wish A.J. were back on the canvas?

When AW killed off Frankie, I was one of the few who cheered because I wanted Cass to return to his bachelor ways (plus I preferred Cass with Kathleen, but that's another story). Then I saw the Nielsens go straight down after she died and I went "oh oh".

Short-term, everyone is absolutely correct. It's making for really good drama. Long-term, the show might regret what it did.

[Dr. Chip]

When Hogan first came on board, he indicated that he had big plans for Marlena. He talked about making her the show's matriarch and turning her into an independent woman again. There was no mention of John.

Then Drake and his family had the incident with the psychotic intruder in their back yard. It was after all this that John got shot and languished in a coma for five months. I think Hogan may have wanted to kill John earlier but kept him around until the intruder drama had died down some. Even Drake had no clue why he was being kept in that coma for so long.

This week has been great drama, but I'm sad to see this character go. I can only hope that this means Hogan has big plans for the character of Marlena. It's just hard for me to imagine this after the shabby treatment she's had since Hogan picked up his pen.

[Cheyenne]

What? I remember people were plenty upset when that happend.

To answer the question I really don't think Drake is leaving because of money issues. And I would pick Shelley Hennig, Trevor Donovan, and Marcus Patrick and maybe JKJ before Drake. I don't know if all their salaries would make up for what Drake gets/got. But at the moment I can't think of anyone else I'd like to see of the cast list.

[JackPeyton]

IMO, it had a bit to do with budgett. Im sure DH comes with a price, a huge one prob. and i dont think all the minor cuts could have helped the budgett as much as his big one. I also think it had a lot to do with Marlena. I think HS wants to take Marlena the Viki (oltl) route. And im all for it.

as far as long term vs short term... idk. i think right now days needs to worry about... right now. cuz if they regret it in 5 years, at least they are still around to regret it.

[ChangedBYSon]

Why Drake and John?

To free up Marlena!

Now they can use her a lot more and not pay

two giant checks for it.

[KLN]

Very rarely does a show's decision to kill off a beloved main character to generate temporary story ever outweigh the possibilties that they have long-term by keeping said character around.

One year from now, I'll probably be looking back and this and thinking, "Damn it! Why?"

For now, though... in the moment... all I can do it sit back and enjoy all of the amazing material that we're being given on screen, because this is some of the best stuff I've seen. Wondering why and worrying about the repercussions is THEIR job, not mine.

[ChangedBYSon]

I preferred Cass with Kathleen too!

I never understood why they got rid of Kathleen. I LOVED her!

[thelma42]

ITA!

[KSlater]

ITA. I believe this is the story that Hogan wanted to tell from December 2006 on, but certain circumstances kept him from doing it -- the intruder drama and not getting Joe M. or Thaao P. on contract with the show at the time. I'm starting to think that everything we saw from January until recently was something quickly thrown together until Hogan got the OK to go with what he originally wanted to write in the first place. Everything that happened in those months during John's coma I think will be forgotten with John's death and the show will start again in the direction originally envisioned by Sheffer when he came on board. I'm not exactly OK with this, but I do believe that is what's going on.

[Days4Life]

Of the big 6, Drake was the best one to go. Steve and Kayla were gone a long time so are relatively new and fresh with a lot of story potential. Bo and Hope are huge fan favorites, have a lot of family to interact with, are one of the last connections to the Horton family and are slightly younger than John and Marlena. It would be beyond foolish to get rid of Marlena as in many ways she's the face of DAYS and familiar to even people who don't watch the show. That leaves John, who has been around a long time and has such a convoluted history he would be more difficult to write for than the other five.

Now, I'm not saying I would have killed off John if I were writing this soap. He's a beloved character and Drake has been loyal to DAYS for many years. There are others I would prefer gone--Jett, Stephanie, Philip, NIck, Lucas (I know, wishful thinking!), Roman, even Kate and Billie (love both of them, but they haven't had a good story in years). We are getting some incredible shows because of this death; I just hope they keep the momentum going and John's death is not in vain.

[sheilaforever]

Not to offend any of his following but this was good and useful choice:

Drake's making seriously much money - for being one of the worst actors actors out there. John's death could create loads of story and the budget is breathing again...