EW Confirms Dena Higley is DAYS' Official New Head Writer

[leevo64]

Ava = Margaret

Rinse and repeat.

[jimmyk311]

Well this isn't really big news as many people in the soap press media and James Reynolds himself confirmed it in some way that she is writing the show.

But in a sarcastic kind of way, I think Dena writing for DAYS is wonderful. It gives all those bad soap writers who are both employed and unemployed the chance to come in to bring ratings up to a 10.0 and become the king or queen of daytime. Isn't that why Robert Guza is hitting record rating highs on GH?

With Dena over at DAYS, she can give DAYS a much more fresh, comedic, and youthful feel to the show than what that boring writer, Hogan Sheffer, could of did on that show. If the upcoming reality show storyline doesn't help bring in ratings, they can always do a country-style American Idol storyline that involves the entire cast and have the fans vote off each veteran character to the backburner and have a newbie character dominated the show for the next 16 weeks; that would help Dena's reputation to become the greatest writer in daytime history.

But, she could always turn the show's writing into a Favor of Love type of show where E.J. is searching for love in the Dimera’s bachelor pad with all the female characters living there.

If ratings stay the same or go up, it may convince SONY to fired Ed Scott again and hired Dena Higley as executive producer and head writer until Ellen Wheeler becomes the new EP of DAYS after next year, when GL is cancelled, and have the show produced in black and white on handheld cameras to save cost on the show. Hey, maybe Christopher Goutman and Jean Passanante could come on board as well to get DAYS to become the number two most-watched soap.

Let's face it, history is always repeating itself, and I knew, sooner or later, DAYS will always have a love affair with bad writing and crappy writers.

[PhoenixRising05]

Thanks buddy .

I agree. I know her track record but based on things so far, I do think it's unfair to crucify her based on her past. I hate her, don't get me wrong, but as long as she gives me a entertaining show that isn't JER-like, I'm good and so far she has. Like you said, she knows the history and she worked at Days for a long time. Alot of what she did on OLTL would've worked on Days since those kind of things is what many of the rabid fanbases enjoy. I think it's also important to point out that while her first Days run was awful, it was also only 6 months. Even B&C had "out there" stuff with the alien twins, which I am convinced was Corday. I think the reality show crap under Higley the first time was Corday too. He goes for those things and, let's face it, there was never any goop or out of place earthquakes or whatever during her tenure at OLTL. Her tenure was bad but how much of that was Frons telling her to force feed certain people down fans' throats and how much of Higley's first run was dictated by Corday? I heard rumors he demoted B&C because they didn't agree on direction with him either at times. I'm not by any means absolving Higley but after the crap Corday pulled on Hogan and others in the past, I wouldn't put it past him.

Also, I refuse to think Higley was primarily responsible for firing Martha and Brandon. Sorry. Corday loves his Shelle and it's widely rumored that this was a chemistry issue (which I agree with as Shelle did not have that sizzling chemistry. It was more of a nice one). I think once Belle and Shawn started having chemistry with Philip and Chloe and then they all became popular in different pairings, he panicked and cut them loose to preserve his beloved Shelle and have them follow in Bo and Hope's footsteps. I wouldn't be surprised to see one or both of them back by summer. I think he was just trying to save his beloved couple. There is no other reason for firing them. Corday pimped them for years. They were frontburner for years and had alot going for them story-wise. There is no other reason for it and Higley had been using them alot the past few months. I don't blame her for that at all.

As for the Bo story, believe it or not, not every illness is named or diagnosed. My grandmother went through an illness last year and to this day none of us, including the doctors, still know what the hell it was. All we know is her blood levels were messed up and her heart was affected. Thankfully, she is fine but a surgical procedure was needed so I can relate to the Bo story and have seen others around the boards relate to it as well. It's not like the Jack story. They threw out possible reasons for the illness (Bo's motorcycle crash, family history of pancreas problems, etc.) and they handled the medical stuff very well and took it seriously. Sure, it was too over dramatic at times but it wasn't a joke and we knew what was wrong and what was being affected. We witnessed the treatment and Days is actually showing both Bo and Chelsea recovering and word is that will continue.

As for Higley, despise what she did and I still think the WGA is going to continue to look into this. I think this is far from over and I hate this whole situation but, in the end, it all goes back to the show on my screen (just like in the days before I posted on message boards when shows were simply watched and not picked apart as much as they are now), which is still entertaining and using history and still engaging me. Until that changes, it's all good for me. Like Jen said, to each their own. I guess Shawn and I will have to keep up the optimism on our own .

[KLN]

I'm with Ryan, Roman, Toups, Alvin and the others who see this as a huge nail in Days coffin. I don't care if Dena's turned into the best writer in the world... she shouldn't be back for two MAJOR reasons.

1.) The way she came back was very controversial and underhanded -- I can't respect that. I also can't respect Corday for allowing it to happen the way he did.

2.) Her name has a VERY negative connotation attached to it. Just having the name connected with Days is a bad thing. Perhaps she learned her lesson after leaving OLTL and became the best writer known to man -- we don't really know. However, even if that's the case, it's not worth hiring her back -- simply because her name brings forth nothing positive with fans of the show.I mean, here's an extreme way of looking at it. Picture Adolf Hitler. Very negative things attached to his name. However, let's say it was found out that he was actually a superb writer and was hired at the show. Should they hire him just because he has talent? HELL NO! Nobody wants that name associated with the show, regardless of the talent. To me, hiring Dena Higley is an equivalent of that, LoL. With all the damage she's done in daytime over the last six years, every soap should stay far away from her, simply because her name brings with it very negative feelings and it's just not worth it, IMO.

I know that I, personally, have stopped watching the show in the last month. I'm not interested in her stories. I'm lucky if I catch half an episode a week. She has a very boring, awkward way of writing soap operas. I actually caught an episode the other day, and the majority of it involved some sort of shady cargo shipping at the docks or something involving Phillip, Max, Morgan, Victor, John and a man that I assume was Morgan's father... and I was completely bored. Nobody's interested in that stuff, or at least I'm not. Dena tried the same crap in 2003 by turning Salem into some crime-ridden town, with a new baddie criminal every week running some sort of shady, illegal operation as Bo and Hope (the bounty hunters) stalked 'em down in their criminal-catching SUV. It was like Gotham City lite... SO lame. When I tuned in the other day and saw all the lame "shady dealings" at the docks, it gave me the same feeling I had in 2003. I was just like, "Who cares?"

As for Ava, I was actually excited for her character, but after viewing a promo on NBC.com, I'm not so stoked for her anymore. It's never good to introduce a character as so in-your-face crazy from the start, because it will turn viewers off in the snap of a finger. Allow us to see the progression of their insanity, and that's when things get interesting. As it is, I'm sure viewers and just thinking, "Who is this crazy woman and why are we supposed to care about her?" Mind you, I haven't seen one episode with Ava since Steve saw her lurking outside of the plane in Ireland before it crashed, so I could be completely wrong about this. Reading comments on various boards though, I don't think I'm too far off the mark.

Tony/Anna sound like they're being written as complete filler, and did Anna always behave like a 14-year old girl? I read an episode recap the other day, and the majority of the Tony/Anna "dramedy" involved Anna begging Tony to let her steal Morgan away to be her own personal assistant or something. I'm thinking, "What? Who cares?" Dena Higley should take a peek at Y&R if she wants to learn how to tell business-oriented stories, and if she can't do 'em, she shouldn't write 'em.

As for Bo's illness, I haven't even been following it in recaps or spoilers because it bores me so much, LoL. It sounds to me like Bo went from healthy to on death's door in the snap of a finger, and once he was on death door, it just stalled... and stalled... and stalled. Those kinds of stories always bore me, because there's something so uninteresting to me about a character laying in a hospital bed for days on end. I need movement. I think one of the rules of soap operas should be to not show us a character in a hospital bed for more than three days, because it just gets boring. I can't fault Higley for this though, because it happens on all soaps, LoL.

Anyway, this is really long and I should probably end this little Higley rant now, but I truly felt the need to add my $.02 on the matter.

[KLN]

Werd.

[ChiTownBoi03]

O Lord, this is not promising news. In any case, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Everything about the show right now is so damn boring. I'm especially disappointed in the Ava story because at first I was intrigued by her. Now, she's this run-of-the-mill-gone-psycho over a man after week 1? GEEZE. I did homework during the entire kidnapping...it was that non-memorable. It's crazy because just the other day I said to myself "dang, what is this March 2003??" Guess this truly confirms where that feeling is coming from. Oh well. It is what it is, I suppose. Judging by what I have been *trying* to get through on my screen, I for one am not confident in this woman's second chance to pull DAYS from the bottom.

[ChiTownBoi03]

O Lord, this is not promising news. In any case, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Everything about the show right now is so damn boring. I'm especially disappointed in the Ava story because at first I was intrigued by her. Now, she's this run-of-the-mill-gone-psycho over a man after week 1? GEEZE. I did homework during the entire kidnapping...it was that non-memorable. It's crazy because just the other day I said to myself "dang, what is this March 2003??" Guess this truly confirms where that feeling is coming from. Oh well. It is what it is, I suppose. Judging by what I have been *trying* to get through on my screen, I for one am not confident in this woman's second chance to pull DAYS from the bottom.

[JackPeyton]

i couldnt agree more.

days right now is the ebst it has been in years.

i have no lvoe for DH, however she has worked wonders in a few months.

but then again this is DH and most of her stuff starts good then fails bad soo...

[dragonflies]

Kenny I want to marry your post

[rhythmchyc]

OK.

Why is it that any other person in entertainment who f&*$s up has to work hard at repairing their image but friggin' loony Head Writers get hired on the spot?

I wanna be a loony Head Writer.

[Loretta3938]

IMO, Ava appears to be a combination of two characters Dena wrote on OLTL...Margaret and Nash's ex-girlfriend (although I've forgotten her name...was it Claudia or something like that?) Margaret was totally psycho, but the other character eventually calmed down, but only after she killed her own father.

I'm willing to give any writer a chance, but I remember I liked Dena when she first went to OLTL (who wouldn't after Malone's Tico/Jessica/Antonio story that sent the ratings plunging?) Her stories are already interesting me less than they did a month ago, and I hate to see what will happen if Days keeps her on as a solo headwriter.

[Sylph]

Which soaps, which people? Well... I know you won't name the people, but at least name the soaps.

[rhythmchyc]

It was Claudia. And I think the writers calmed her down because they considered hiring her full time so they attempted to make her somewhat normal.

[brimike]

From what I hear, writers like JER and LML are very nice people, just difficult to work with because of disorganization, misunderstandings, no follow-through on stories, etc. It's frustrating, but not enough to dislike a person.

If what DH allegedly did is true (and let's face it - nobody's thinking otherwise), then she basically spit in the face of not only the writers who went on strike, but also the writers who chose public embarrassment and the scorn of their friends and colleagues by going fi-core. She scabbed until she got caught, and then suddenly, a week before the strike ends, she goes fi-core to try and escape disciplinary action.

Toups made a comment about her being hated - and here's why. Except for a few Sweeps periods at OLTL and Days (even a broken clock is right twice a day), she's a weak head writer who used the strike to turn her back on both the union, AND the other writers (both striking and fi-core) for her own gain. When Days is done (be it in one year or two - because let's face it, it'll take a miracle for it to go beyond 2010), she's done. Fi-core writers won't hire her - striking writers won't hire her - and I'll be stunned if ANY network gives her a head-writing position again.

[UKBoi]

This is a little worrying though, she could be of the attitude that if she's going down she's going to take Days with her, or try to write some way OTT storylines to try and prove herself to save her career which would ultimately backfire as we know how good Dena is at following through with climaxes to her plotlines...