Days: Sally Sussman Morina

[JackPeyton]

i was just wondering what did Sally Sussman Morina write when she was working on Days? was it good? bad? did you like her? hate her? want her back?

[KLN]

Hated her.

She wrote the bulk of the neverending Princess Gina saga.

She turned Vivian into an idiot and Stefano into a fool with the "tooth chip mood control" storyline.

She introduced the Walker family (well, Nicole and Taylor), and Nicole, at the time, was quite a bore. It wasn't until Langan took over headwriting duties that she even had a purpose.

She wrote Mike and Carrie's affair. Remember hearing about the infamous flying bed? Yeah. That.

She wrote the neverending "Franco's Murder" storyline, with Kate/Lucas framing Sami for his murder. Parts were good, parts dragged on forever. Very hit and miss.

Psycho Ali.

Swamp Girl, also known as mud-covered Greta.

She introduced Craig and Nancy.

She penned "The Killing Pool," which was Kristen's exit story.

Also, many credit Langan for this, but SSM is the one who introduced Salem High and the SORAS-ed versions of Belle/Phillip/Shawn in the summer of 1999. She also introduced Mimi, Jan and Jason, but Chloe arrived around December of '99 and thus she was a Langan (or maybe even Lorraine Broderick, during her three week stint) creation. Still, Langan wrote the worst of "Salem High," as it didn't really overtake the show completely until he took control of the pen.

Oh, and she backburnered John & Marlena.

[JackPeyton]

wow. aside from the above i hated everything, and im shocked. becuase she involved with Spyder Games - my fave soap ever.

thax kenny.

[MichaelGL]

I liked 50% of her tenure. Ali descent into madness was riveting. The Horton/Brady BBQ for the fourth under her was good stuff also. Boy she did have her clunkers though.

[Pest Spray]

Yup, she started it.

[DaytimeFan]

Yeah, Sally Sussman Morina was the beginning of the end for John & Marlena.

That being said, I liked half of her work. To me, she was an extreme writer: it was either riveting or boring as all hell. She was very hit or miss but overall I found her stuff to be entertaining. I don't think she was the ideal fit at DAYS because of her long history at Y&R, very different shows. That being said, I'd take her back in a second.

[PhoenixRising05]

Your right about everything but the teens. She was only responsible for Belle. The rest was Langan and it's pretty known that Corday forced the teens on her and that may have been what forced her out and what forced Lorraine Borderick to quit after only a few weeks. Langan wanted the teens just as much so that is why Corday let him run amok for as long as he did until he had to do something about and did, making him come off like a hero.

She had some good stuff but the majority of her tenure was ridiculous. She ruined the story of Hope's past and went way too sci-fi. She would have some great dramatic weeks and her pacing was the worst of any recent HW IMO. She never built excitement well, sans for a few instances. She introduced too many newbies too (although I am thankful she brought us Nicole, who Langan developed later) and the loss of Christie Clark and many others around that time only made the period worse.

[bellcurve]

Oh PLEASE...

She is listed as the Creator/HW for SPYDER GAMES, but we know all of that came from the BRILLIANT mind of Christian McLaughlin. I'm not saying Morina's untalented, but let's give the credit where the credit is due.

P.S. I loved SPYDER too!

I always thought aging Belle/Shawn to be the same age was just odd and rather jarring...especially considering when they were actually born on the show. I know soaps do it all the time, I just found it odd that Belle would be the one to be aged...and aged SO much too. And it was even MORE odd seeing Nicholas Alamain aged to be almost as old as Billie, a woman who, at the time his character last appeared on DAYS, was old enough to be his mother.

If it were me, I would have brought back Nicholas as a teenager and developed that rivalry between he and Shawn-Douglas. If they found it absolutely necessary to have a teen set.

[Shawn]

The only good thing that SSM penned was the fantastic exit of Christie Clark. It was beautifully done.

[juppiter]

I loved SSM's time at DAYS. It was really unique.... no other soap has ever been quite like DAYS was while she was HW. I liked how she continued Reilly's Sci-Fi stuff while adding her own twist to it. It really worked for the show IMO. And were John and Marlena really backburnered? Wasn't there the whole Sub-Sex quadrangle?

[Pest Spray]

John and Marlena went backburner starting slowly in January and then completely after New Orleans in May of 1998. John was in the [*coughhorridcough*] Princess Gina story but Marlena was just gone for most of that. Marlena was brought on when there needed to be cast suspicion over Greta's motives (and who the frak could blame her).