How to save Days of our Lives

[Gray Bunny]

If DAYS starts to resemble anything similar to what GL has been in the last 3 years, then please take Ol' Yeller out and shoot the living daylights outta DAYS until it's dead! I was a HUGE champion of GL, but now I simply cannot stand to watch one minute of it. It simply is not "Guiding Light" and I shudder for Kim Zimmer, the *STAR* of the show, because she deserves better, 115 pounds or 215 pounds, she is the DIVA of Guiding Light and rightfully so!

I wanna keep Deidre Hall around. My opinion on Drake Hogestyn is "Eh, whatever." But we need a cornerstone of the show; a figurehead that everyone knows and is familiar with. Deidre Hall has *STAR* power and is well-recognized, whether you love her, hate her, or love to hate her. She is the STAR of Days of Our Lives. 30-something former-fatties like the lovely Alison Sweeney doesn't hold a candle to Dr. Marlena! Samantha Gene will never be in Marlena's class!

How can we save Days of Our Lives? Well, for starters: Keep Deidre Hall on the payroll. I love watching this 61-year-old broad and if they have to pay her 1 million to keep her around, well then start shucking off the excess fat that do nothing to enrich the overall fabric of the Salem scene! Get rid of unimportant characters like Stephanie, Max, Melanie, Nick, Dr. Daniel, menopausal Kate, big-breasted Chloe, irratically written Phillip, yesteryear supercouple Steve & Kayla, and hell if you're gonna put someone on contract and then never use them just because they got a lousy Emmy nomination, get rid of Tony/Andre/IslandTony, etc.... are we really gonna believe and invest in any incarnation of Tony? Two years later we'll find out he's been Andre this whole time (again) and the real Tony from the 1980's has been kept captive on an island with the real Kristen (not the psycho Kristen of 1996-1998) the whole time. Tony is a representation of all that was wrong with James Reilly during his second tenure on the show. And with TonyAndreIslandTony comes the shallow-but-loveable-but-pointless Anna DiMera. Is she still around? Eh, who knows or really cares. Hell, at this point I'm ready to say sayanara to the twosome who are constantly spewing out "very special episodes" regarding autism: Abe & Lexie. That's great Dena Higley, bring awareness to the problem. But the preaching every effing time Abe and Lexie are onscreen is sucking the LIFE out of these characters!

You can get A LOT of mileage out of a cast of 20 characters, not 35, even on an hour-long show. The key is in the WRITING and commitment to the characters.

[Vee]

I'd put Tony, Anna, Lucas, and yes, Lexie on recurring. If Caroline and Victor aren't, they would be recurring now. Same with NuNuMickey if he isn't. Suzanne Rogers stays on contract unless Obama somehow manages to pass universal healthcare. Recurring is not a dirty word, nor is it a death sentence in terms of story. Catherine Hickland on OLTL, as well as Cady McClain on ATWT and many, many others got a lot of airtime and storylines while still "mere recurring players." But to me, Renee Jones in particular can be interesting, but is often boring. Unless a specific story is in mind I want her in reserve, supporting, and nowhere else. I love Lucas but he is drained and impotent now; I loved Lumi, but any future for them would have to wait until some sense is made of the Sami clusterfuck storywise.

OTOH, Abe would stay on contract. I find James Reynolds to be one of the finest and most unappreciated AA actors in daytime. I'd love to see him in a story a la the character of Lester Freamon on The Wire, in which Abe has been undervalued, taken for granted and put out to pasture as a law enforcement official (kind of like he has right now on the show) and finds himself having to sleuth out a case all by himself, and trying to see if he still has the old drive, and maybe meet a sexy new lady in the process - fracturing his marriage to a woman who has never been all that loyal. I think Abe could do a lot more on this show. So could all the players dropped to recurring, for that matter. I love Tony and Anna, but I think they can just wait til a story is ready for them, same with the slow-burn of a Victor and Caroline story, or anything for Mickey (while, just as in the case of Abe/Lexie, Maggie would be more my priority).

Rafe, Kate, Daniel and maybe Melanie would all be gone. Let Kate come back from time to time, but enough is enough. Nick would be salvaged. I wouldn't dump Chloe, Phillip or Steve and Kayla; I think they're all just too talented or in the case of Chloe, she has too much potential. She's had it just sitting there since she came back with a vixenish new personality facet, and Higley has totally mishandled that. It also can't be ignored that Chloe is one of very few characters not tied to a core family, which staves off the quasi-incest that pervades the show. I would recast Stephanie; can't stand Shelley Hennig.

As for the DHs, I say have them on contract but do like Tony Geary - a couple months on, a couple months off. Jarlena are limited characters these days anyway. Breaking it up means you don't run out of story.

ETA: In the place of having the DHs year-round, I'd bring back ol' Northrop as Roman and send Josh Taylor to the infomercial circuit for good. We'd have a strong, authoritative superstar vet presence around all year in the place of the heftier DHs, and Roman as a character is, IMO, more vital and connected to the core for stories - at least, he is with Wayne Northrop in the role.

[phloeishot]

How to save DOOL?

1) FIRE DENA HIGLEY!!!

2) Stop with the musical beds and bring love and romance back to the show.

3) Get rid of the newbies. Give the vets storylines that don't revolve around their children.

4) Restore the integrity of these characters. Put Chloe in a love triangle with Philip and Brady, her two loves again. It was very popular from 2000-2002 and it could be again.

[quartermainefan]

Easiest way to save Days is NBC scrap an hour of the bullshit reality TV nobody likes anyway and air Days 3 nights a week in primetime.

[Kstaff]

But at what cost? TV shows have to go sometime. Why fight to save it anymore? Every time this happens, Days backstage undergoes turmoil, angst....wait..........let's keep it and just watch the backstage drama. Reality TV, anyone?

And, I shudder to think that folks consider any one actor or couple the anchor or the be-all and end-all of a TV show (except, of course, for those shows NAMED after the actor or actress). If one person holds the future of an entire show, the entire show is doomed from the start, especially a soap, which in essence, is supposed to be an ensemble type show.