Days article from SOD Dec 26 1989

[Paul Raven]

Thought you might be interested,in light of all the shake-ups that have happened since...

Fix-It Fever Hits Day

Actors,producer and head writer get the axe as Days struggles to bounce back from disaster.

Trouble...turmoil...a chaotic situation.”Is that the backstage atmosphere at Days?According to people in high places,yes. Still,one network exec insists the soap isn't floundering. arguing that”All shows have their good days and bad days”.

By any yardstick ,though,this soap has been having some awful days .The show recently dropped to 8th place in the ratings. In the summer of 88,the show shot to #1 when Steve and Kayla were married. but it's been losing viewers ever since.

According to insiders,Days is running scared and fix-it fever has set in. In November,Shelley Curtis was demoted from supervising executive producer to supervising producer,Anne Howard Bailey was axed as headwriter,and Sherri Stringer was removed as one of the show's producers.

Meanwhile. former Supervising Executive Producer Al Rabin was lured out of semi retirement to take over the show's reins. NBC claims the changes were made because “we wanted to put the original team back in place that had made the show #1”.

However,Anne Howard Bailey maintains,:The ratings reflect the chaotic situation since the introduction of the new regime at NBC”(Bailey is referring to Jackie Smith,new VP of daytime)

“I have not been able to do the things I wanted to do”.Bailey admits.”Let's just say,the stars were not in the right orbit,and I'm very tired. Frankly.I'm looking forward to a long rest and then going back to prime time.”

Bailey feels basically she wasn't the right writer for Days.”I was not walking uphill here. I was climbing a mountain. Days deserves somebody who is more wired to their particular kind of story.”(The new headwriters will be Anne Schoettle and Richard Allen,two of the show's current scriptwriters,who are both thirty years old.)

Shortly before the production shakeup,there was another commotion,when several actors were taken off-contract,including James Reynolds(Abe)Peggy McCay(Caroline)Frank Parker(Shawn)Christie Clark(Carrie)Michael Bays(Julio)and Joy Garret(Jo).

For Peggy McCay,the change has been hard,because her work schedule has been drastically reduced.”I used to work a few times a week”,she explains,”Now I'm on once or twice a month,and then I have three or four lines to say. I feel I could phone it in.”

The whole situation mystifies her.”I threw away opportunities because of the show. I had a chance to audition for Generations and I had to turn it down.(Peggy was even in the process of buying a new house,but had to nix the deal once she lost her contract status.)

Frank Parker is particularly disturbed by the show's ultrafascination with youth.”Any time Peggy and I had something substantial in the script,and the show was running long,it would be cut. That's so wasteful. I wish they could realise the value of older characters on soaps. Family oriented storylines like ours have a value beyond trivial sex and cops and robbers stuff”

However,his candor may have gotten him in hot water. After he spoke in another publication,a Days producer reportedly called his agent and said,”He'll never work on this show again”

Meanwhile,the firings continue. John Lavachielli ,who began playing Hank Tobin in November,was let go after a few performances. His replacement Ron Kuhlman lasted one day. Now there's a third actor in the role-Rick Porter(ex Larry AW)

Still most stars are guardedly positive about the future.”This show has to be about family values”,stresses Matthew Ashford(Jack)”Al Rabin is going to strengthen that again. He's a family man in terms of what he envisions”

[Gordon24]

Woah, that seems to be an old article but interesting. There have been quite a few changes in casting, writing, and producing lately, most likely the same situation is occurring. IMO, I turn to DAYS and it is not the show I once loved, there are many faces I do not recognize and it just makes me not want to watch or get into the show. I do think DAYS will survive though.

[koos]

I wish the older actors were still that outspoken.

[Sylph]

Thank you, Paul, for the article.

[StevieM]

Bringing Rabin back started the process of fixing things. Unfortuately, Shelly Curtis was demoted and Tom Langan eventually got the nod. The rest of history was set in stone at that point.

Anne Howard (Gus) Bailey (RIP) was fortuitous when she mentioned Jacky Smith. Susan Lee was infinitely worse. She and JFP hopelessly destroyed AW, starting with the death of Ryan Harrison, played by fan-favorite Paul Michael Valley. Ironically, that led to Hogan's greatest failure at ATWT, his inability to get AW viewers over. Had he brought PMV back and done a Jake/Vicky/Ryan triangle he would have had much better results. And Jensen would likely have stayed for that story.

But AHB deserves credit for recognizing, towards the end, that DAYS was a different kind of soap. The stuff she wrote would have been fine for another show, but not for DAYS at that point. In that sense, she was kind of like Gene Palumbo, although not nearly as bad. And I suspect that GP went to his grave not knowing what he had done wrong, still dreaming of the Shane and Kayla love story.

Also, AHB was right about fighting the network. She had to fight like hell to let them pair the virginal Jennifer with the most loathsome and hated character on the show. But that story led to rising ratings in the late Spring and Summer of 89, after and earlier collapse in the winter and early Spring. Then the network brought back Emilio, after Billy Hufsey wrote all those letters to himself, and Jennifer gravitated towards Emilio, while Jack got thrown into the Steve/Kayla/Marina mess and the ratings tanked.

After she was fired her material kept airing for a few months and the ratings did recover somewhat. Jack and Jen reconnected and Jennifer made it clear that he was the one she loved and wanted. Killing Marina helped too.

AHB made quite a few mistakes. Dianna kind of went crazy (and Genie Francis then left), Julie's grandson Scott Banning was a twenty-something, Steve got a glass eye, Marina arrived, Kim moved on quickly when Shane was presumed dead, and triangles were galore. But her good stuff was really good.

Richard and Anne were great IMO, especially at the beginning.

Steve

[Khan]

Wasn't GF's exit from DAYS abrupt? IIRC, Diana Colville just walked out of Salem one morning, and never returned.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

She hated her time on Days, have you seen her Lifetime Intimate Portrait special? She said doing Days, and especially that underdeveloped character, was huge mistake in her career.

That didn't really answer your question, but I thought I'd add that bit of info. LOL!

[StevieM]

She did come close to returning in 1990 though. The show tried hard to lure her back. In the end, she went to AMC. Little did she know that ABC would fire her a couple of years later in order to pressure her to return to the role of Laura Spencer. She also might not have realized how huge a star Drake would later become.

Steve

[juppiter]

IMO, it's hilarious. When DAYS' writers went on strike, ratings skyrocketed. When they came back, ratings plummeted. Who knows? The strike could be great for DAYS!

[daysboy]

Is this for real? How sad for an actor to be so desparate to do such a thing.

[soapfan770]

Didn't Bailey pass away last year? I seem to recall reading her obit over when WoST was still around.

From Beth's Days Page on character's final scenes:

About her "underdeveloped" claim, her character on AMC wasn't any more developed either.

Interestingly the low ratings, with the except of Marlena's and Roman's returns in the late summer of 1991, would plague Days until the summer of 1993, when you know what happened...

Take a look for yourself:

http://members.aol.com/jason47b/ratings1.html

[Dr. Chip]

DAYS did fire Frank Parker for his comments and replaced him with a very boring actor. The role was even more limited than when he was playing the part. Before long, though, apparently DAYS had a change of heart, and Frank was back in the role.

[Dr. Chip]

Also, isn't it interesting that Anne Howard Bailey admitted that the NBC execs were getting their hands in the storylines? I can't help but wonder exactly what their role was with JER's second run, Hogan's early success and then months of nothing, the return of the DiMeras, etc. Of course, I guess it's a moot point if there are no daytime execs at NBC anymore.

[Vee]

Why exactly did Genie hate Days? I liked what I saw of her there, thought she had some spark and bite that they rarely gave Laura. I thought she was great with DH too.

[Ponz]

AHB was a wonderful writer but her style wasn't well suited to DAYS. The show strayed from its escapist romance/adventure formula during her tenure. Allen & Schoettle's writing was less sophisticated from a character-driven standpoint but they (Al Rabin) did a good job restoring the formula. Sadly, it was all shot to hell again when Langan arrived in 91.

I could be wrong but I believe she's remarked that the whole environment was cold and unwelcoming. I found that strange considering DAYS' reputation for having a very close-knit cast.