The thing what I hate is people trash JER like he is horrid. He actually is talented. His early stint on GL was excellent. Everyone credits Nancy Curlee which is totally untrue. Curlee was a good force but Reilly engineered alot of those storylines.

Let's see why, Reilly left somewhere in 1992, and GL continued to get better and better until Curlee left in early 1994. When Demorest was writing by himself, the show had a huge dip in quality, it was still good, but not as good as it was.

Overall, when Reilly left GL, the show did not suffer, when Curlee did, the show did suffer.

I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just biased towards that era of GL.

Edited August 19, 200817 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

No, unless they're trying to get OLTL cancelled........

The thing what I hate is people trash JER like he is horrid. He actually is talented.

Nnnnot really.

I think JER purposely wrote the show bad because of his bad relations with Corday.

And that's so professional!

The thing what I hate is people trash JER like he is horrid. He actually is talented

People trash him cause he's a HACK, he is a big reason that Days was in such an awful state for YEARS

The thing what I hate is people trash JER like he is horrid. He actually is talented. His early stint on GL was excellent. Everyone credits Nancy Curlee which is totally untrue. Curlee was a good force but Reilly engineered alot of those storylines.

As Y&RWorldTurner pointed out, GL didn't suffer when Reilly left but went downhill when Curlee did. To me, that's case closed. Reilly was a relatively minor factor in GL's early '90's greatness and the show didn't drop in quality when he left. The fact that he's sucked everywhere ever since just clinches it.

The man has made NBC an absolute fortune. His DAYS 90's run was a ratings smash. When he took DAYS over in 1992 it was in the ratings cellar and then within a few years the ratings skyrocketed. I remember during the Eileen Davidson storyline climax in 1997, that DAYS was close to beating Y&R. The man made Corday and NBC millions beyond belief.

Having huge numbers and making alot of money isn't necessarily indicative of quality. In the case of Reilly's DOOL, I think the opposite was the case. His Days was so mindbogglingly horrible and senseless that alot of people couldn't take their eyes off the trainwreck. It's unabashed, unashamed craptasticness was almost hypnotic. Same for Passions. It was so bad some people couldn't get enough. With Days, Reilly began the slow, agonizing death of soaps by filling DOOL with worthless dreck and when it actually garnered good ratings and young demos, every other show became obsessed with trying to match or top the insanity he created. But it only worked for a very short time because the 12-29 year olds that he and his imitators attracted had short attention spans and when all the demons were exorcised, vampires slayed, and clones destroyed, the only people left watching were the honest to goodness soap fans who'd been there all along who couldn't believe that their shows had sunk to such pathetic depths just to get some attention. Overall, Reilly has been a huge detriment to the longterm viability of the entire genre.

His second DAYS run was not as successful. Mainly because he was head writing two shows and both suffered. Also Corday and Reilly butted heads. Corday and Reilly have an icy relationship. Corday was furious back in 1997 when Reilly at the top of the ratings game decided to leave DAYS to create Passions. He was just absolutely furious over what happened. Corday DID NOT want Reilly back in 2003, he wanted Higley as head writer. NBC practically told Corday that if he did not rehire Reilly, they would not renew DAYS. Ratings at the time were hitting all time lows. Reilly during his first year did great numbers during the stalker storyline but after that things went downhill. I think JER purposely wrote the show bad because of his bad relations with Corday. In 2006, it was getting so bad that Corday pressured NBC to dump Reilly from DAYS. This time the numbers were not good so he had more reasons. Reilly had an iron clad contract for like 5 years which Corday is paying off.

Frankly, if Reilly wrote Days so poorly on purpose just to get back at Corday, that's a hell of a lot worse than just flat out sucking. If that's the case, he should never work again. Those kinds of selfish, infantile ego trips from the producers, writers, actors, and "journalists" are the very things killing soaps. Get over yourself and do your freaking job!

Reilly will NEVER return to DAYS ever.

If that's true, then Days is damn lucky.

I think Reilly is done with NBC but do not count him out of daytime.

If he ever gets hired in daytime again it'll be by somebody who is desperate to get a show cancelled ASAP.

He is the only head writer that has ever skyrocketed ratings to the stratesphere.

Days was hardly in the "stratosphere". Even in the thick of Reilly's signature "Marlena's possessed" schlock-fest that packed in the curious kiddies, they couldn't beat Y&R. They certainly weren't racking up numbers like early '80's GH, which began the trend of campy crap action to suck in the young audience to the detriment of the show's core.

Back in 1997, DAYS was the king of daytime. Reilly was the main reason they kept AW so long. Believe NBC wanted to cancel AW for years but with DAYS amassing so much revenue they could afford it. Of course he created Passions and they cancelled AW. Anyways I am sure Reilly is taking a break. I have a weird suspicion Frons will hire him as a consultant. Frons is a fan of Reilly. The problem is Reilly is not cheap. Reilly is very very rich, he is a multi multi millionaire. He does not need to work right now. If any ABC show I could see Reilly going to would be OLTL but as a consultant not head writer.

If Reilly really is a multi-multi millionaire, then he can afford to keep his talentless butt out of daytime. If he needs to work, I'm sure he can pen some teleplays about demon-possessed squid or alien angels for the Sci-fi channel but the soap world is better off without him.

But it only worked for a very short time

Actually, it worked for 5 straight years - it wasn't just "for a very short time".

1992-1993: 8th place

1993-1994: 6th place

1994-1995: 6th place

1995-1996: 2nd place

1996-1997: 2nd place

1997-1998: 2nd place

And that's just HHs. Reilly took DAYS to #1 in 18-49 and I'm assuming 18-34 and teen demos too, thus making a ton of money for Corday, Sony and NBC, and he was rightfully given his own soap opera.

Just don't be surprised if Jim Reilly is back writing for daytime.

JER hasnt bee the HW of OLTL for the past 2 months? Really?

Because i sure as hell think he has... lol.

As Y&RWorldTurner pointed out, GL didn't suffer when Reilly left but went downhill when Curlee did. To me, that's case closed. Reilly was a relatively minor factor in GL's early '90's greatness and the show didn't drop in quality when he left. The fact that he's sucked everywhere ever since just clinches it.

Having huge numbers and making alot of money isn't necessarily indicative of quality. ...

---Snipped rest just to make a smaller post---

Okay, sit down. I completely agree with this post! Now if only there were an emoticon for 'I am flat-out serious, full stop.'

While the outlandish plot may seem liek somethign JER would do the way ti's being executed is IMHO miles away from his "moves liek a glacier, everyone has the smae conversation for days" style he does. I don't think he's there at all.

So what on Earth happened to Ron Carlivati? A time-travel story?!

He's ALWAYS had a hard on for the campier late 80s era of OLTL when he was a huge fan and watcher. That's never been a secret...

He's ALWAYS had a hard on for the campier late 80s era of OLTL when he was a huge fan and watcher. That's never been a secret...

I know that, but time travel?!

I know that, but time travel?!

Its not event hat they did a time travel storyline. Its how campy and OTT it is, along with how long it has lasted, and how its suposed to be a real storyline and not a fantasy type thing. Gigi trying to struck by lighting to go backin time? rex using his cellphone back in the 60's? etc... its too much. and too over the top. and its gone on far too long!

however whats said is that mendora storyline is ten times more campy and over the top than the time travel storyline.

Its not event hat they did a time travel storyline. Its how campy and OTT it is, along with how long it has lasted, and how its suposed to be a real storyline and not a fantasy type thing. Gigi trying to struck by lighting to go backin time? rex using his cellphone back in the 60's? etc... its too much. and too over the top. and its gone on far too long!

however whats said is that mendora storyline is ten times more campy and over the top than the time travel storyline.

Now I want to hear people say how Carlivati is a gifted, marvelous writer who writes these great, amazing stories. It took him just a few months to visit the depths of terrible storytelling.

HAHAH I dunno. I think it's pretyt bad but I admit it is keeping me watching. And I've seen nearly all of the 1988 time travel story (which I don't think was too beloved--so it's odd he seemed to want to pay hommage to it) and this one is a step up I think... Which isn't saying much.