DAYS: Thaao Penghlis attacks the late James E. Reilly

[Rakesh]

Excellent posts Mr. Wheeler.

He knows damn well he will be begging Corday for a job in 6 months.

[Shylock]

No kidding? Man. That whole Aremid thing was actually quite good. Tony shooting himself, John's trial. All pretty good drama that JER never duplicated.

[Toups]

Possession was 1995 and Aremid was 1996. I thought Aremid was one of Reilly's best stories. Tony setting up John was brilliant.

Some of my favorite scenes ever:

[TheRedWarrior]

Even he didn't start it he definitely put the final nail in the coffin.

Sorry but I have no respect for the man and nothing but the utmost loathing for his "work" (if you can even call his garbage work). He just destroyed everything he touched.

I'm so glad he never came to Y&R, GH, or ATWT cuz I probably would have stopped watching.

Thaao is justified in his feelings and I fully support him. Plus it seems like people think either GL or Days will be gone soon so who cares if he's burning bridges. Looks like their bridges to nowhere...

[Toups]

Right......the final nail in the coffin....the coffin of what? Soaps having a good rep? Tell me the last time soaps had a good rep. 60's? 50's? 40's? Never?

Yeah...cause bringing in millions of viewers and reaching the highest ratings (for DAYS) in the 90's is pure destruction.

Maybe not in the HW capacity but he did wrote for those shows.

[SteveFrame]

He did work at Y&R. I think as a script writer. I am going by memory but I think he even got an Emmy nom as part of the Y&R team.

[Gray Bunny]

Bingo! Reilly refused to write for Aniston, that was clearly revealed. And we've heard about Ashford and Penghlis too. And a previous poster said they had no doubt Reilly could save DAYS again, but um, wasn't that the purpose of his 2003 return? He wrote the show til 2006 but lightning certainly didn't strike twice.

Marlena should've been repossessed. Anything with that woman front and center is ratings gold.

[Gray Bunny]

If it's any comfort to the 'dont speak ill will' posters, Irna Phillips was the inventor of the soap opera but a controlling, terrifying mega-bitch in real life! But that doesn't overshadow the immense talent she had

[Gray Bunny]

In a few years, there won't be any soaps and suddenly, local community theaters all over the country will be featuring former soap stars doing "Love Letters"! $2 donation or just walk in for free! Bill Hayes & Susan Seaforth-Hayes will be collecting the donations at the front door.

[TheRedWarrior]

Lol I honestly hope that's NOT the case but with all the doom and gloom surrounding the ratings, certain shows that the viewers (at least on this board) seem to never be satisfied with, and current trends it just doesn't seem likely that all the soaps that are on the air now will STILL be on the air in 5 years.

Personally GL has long been dead to me and even Phillip returning hasn't gotten me interested. I used to be obsessed with AMC and OLTL a while back but that changed. Same thing with B&B. At one point my life was consumed with keeping up to date with at leas 4 to 5 shows on a daily basis.

Now it's Y&R and GH (online recaps at SOAPNet only). Its sad but true.

And as far as JERk I really think he showed just how low a writer can go when it comes to soaps. Nothing will ever top him. So kudos for Thaao. I think it's very classy of him to call out JER's crap even if he is six feet under.

[Antoyne]

I'm confused as to where the attack is?

[MichaelGL]

I'm with the poster above.

[JONNYSBRO]

So you are all are saying REILLY FREAKING BIG [!@#$%^&*] RATINGS WERE NOTHING, give me a freaking break people. His ratings were a huge part of NBC daytime. He almost beat Y&R at the end of his tenure. It was not the beginning, it was not the FREAKING MIDDLE, but his last [!@#$%^&*] year at the show. Oh you mean the writers that freaking copied Reilly. I can name so many it would kill you. You mean the dumb freaking Esensten/Brown who created Reva the the DUMB CLONE were not channeling Reilly. After Reilly's huge succes everyone tried to copy him and failed. Reilly is one of the richest head writers in daytime history, he had the BIGGEST FREAKING RATINGS BOOSTS IN DAYTIME HISTORY. Nobody matched his ratings gains. You guys have no clue to what Reilly did for NBC daytime. The big freaking question over here, did you see his ratings? He kept going higher and higher till it would not freaking stop. As soon as Reilly left, the ratings started to plummet.

[SteveFrame]

Sorry but just because someone copies something doesn't make it great. Monkeys will watch someone pick their nose and will copy them doing so.

And high ratings do not mean quality and that is the thing that many of us are looking at. And even goes back to part of what Penghlis is talking about. Just because something gets high ratings doesn't mean it is quality or is a good thing for the overall genre. It is good for money and good for filling the seats in front of the TV but in the end if it ends up damaging the product what good has it done.

McTavish filled the seats in front of the TV with the explosion and the reveal that Josh was Erica's son back in February 2006. GH fills the seats with every ratings stunt that it does. But each one of the these things ending up hurting the shows that they were part of.

People will stop in big numbers and watch a fire or a train wreck or any type of disaster. Just getting high numbers doesn't mean it is quality. And that is what matters to me. Reilly did bring in big numbers and big ratings in the same way that Monty did back in 1980 with her out there stories. And the other monkeys looked and copied. Monkey see - monkey do. But in the end it ended up damaging the genre and the shows at the same time.

Not everything that Reilly did at Days was bad. Some of the stories mentioned like Aremid and stuff were great. But some of the stuff he did only served to hurt Days and when the others copied it - it didn't villify it - it was only copying a bad habit from another show.

As far as soaps being ridiculed - yes they were - they always have been. But they used to be ridiculed and looked down upon for different reasons. The out there stuff and the deaths over and over just added fuel to the fire.

[Darn]

He was a bad writer who repeatedly insulted basic human logic and thirst for entertainment for 9 years with that shitstorm Passions. Not to mention the horrible plotting and writing that has removed all the gravity and heart from Days.

And just so you know a lot of CRAP makes money and gets high ratings, that doesn't mean it's not crap.