I think JER's first run at Days -- silly as a lot of the material was, and as much as it spit in the face of some characters'/couples'/actors' histories -- demonstrated that he had an aptitude for long-term plotting. If you look at the progression of the John/Marlena story from the time he took over through his departure in '97, it's really impressive how the various stories and challenges flow into one another. You went from Marlena cheating on Roman with John, to John being with Kristen while Tony faked his blindness, to the Paris adventure, to Aremid and Tony's "death," to the Kristen/Susan baby saga, to Roman's return. To me, that is where JER excelled.

Word. Reilly-1 will always be my favorite soap era. 1993-1997 was masterful.

Can anyone explain why JER chose to stretch out the days onscreen to ridiculous lengths?I think some days in Harmony lasted over a month onscreen.

I miss that, the long days. A lot of it had to do with saving money. Sets would stay up for long periods of time, less money of wardrobe. I've always liked that strategy of having long days. I know if I ever HW a soap, I would have those long days.

Toups,thanks for the feedback.The issues are dated Feb 16th and 23rd 1999.

I've never heard of that, if I'm honest. Most schools up here (in the great white north, eh?) let out at 3, meaning i'd get home just in time for the last half of GH or GL (GH if I had control of the TV, GL if mum beat me to it). So while everyone heard the buzz about Passions, very few of us were home to watch it. Thus why I never understood Passions' timeslot, or why AW was being fashioned by JFP to be 'more youthful' when the majority of the kids weren't home to watch it anyway.

Same here, though we got out at 2 on Fridays. But soaps all do this--OLTL is having yet another high school musical in May--why not wait for the Summer if they must?

The official USA School system page said this about hours there: "The school day in elementary schools is usually from 8.30am to 3pm or 3.30pm, with an hour for lunch. In high schools, hours are usually from 7.30am to 2pm or 2.30pm"

Jesus--I found starting high school at 8:30 (7:30 if we had any morning extracurricular classes) hard enough...

Edited February 10, 201015 yr by EricMontreal22

If Reilly were coupled with a better, technical EP and direction, it probably would have fared way better. Who knows?

I feel like Reilly had big ideas, but his weakness was not pairing himself with a stronger producer to execute that vision.

No. Probably not.

My favourite soap of all time. I am glad that JER got to finally execute his true vision for the show when it moved to DirecTV. He could finally tell outrageous stories without having to kowtow to NBC execs.

It's somewhat ironic that he didn't want ANY show to be cancelled to make way for his, and yet Passions was prettymuch responsible for TWO soaps' cancellations to make way for his.

But - and here, I have to give JER some credit - I think JER loved daytime so much that even those cancellations must've bothered the heck out of him.

My favourite soap of all time. I am glad that JER got to finally execute his true vision for the show when it moved to DirecTV. He could finally tell outrageous stories without having to kowtow to NBC execs.

I know nothing of this time for Passions--you mean stories becameeven moreoutlandish and ghoulish than the hermaphrodite,bisexual, incest loving serial rapist?

I know nothing of this time for Passions--you mean stories becameeven moreoutlandish and ghoulish than the hermaphrodite,bisexual, incest loving serial rapist?

Yes! Valerie the hermaphrodite convinced Julian (her father) to sleep with her...Julian didn't know they were related. Later, Valerie shifted into Vincent, and Vincent gave birth to their baby!

Also, Viki cut off Julian's "Little Julian", and a drugged-up Eve sewed it on backwards, upside down, and with some of it cut off! But in the final episode, Kay used her magic powers to repair it.

Passions was sooooo crazy on DirecTV! I loved it! You couldn't miss an episode because it was so wild!