Is Dena back to writing Days

[ivanmmd]

Is Dena Higley back to doing the writing at Days? It sure smells like her writing. Remember back when she was briefly headwriter before being canned- Her writing always felt like she could not come up with enough to fill a entire hour. And she was padding the show with filler. Boring shows where nothing happened- Like that Club Echelon where everyone sat around and did nothing. It was a strip club right? and they had Belle's birthday party there where the whole show revolved around Belle's panties of the day. Seriously that was the plot. Nothing Happened! Jack and Jennifer had the show "In the House". That was it- no story-just a boring talk show where Jennifer and Jack interviewed someone like Roman. Thrilling storyline. That Dating Reality show. All of it pure crap. I think that period was the worst Days has ever been. When Dena went to One Life, It did not seem to be her writing like it was on Days. It might not have been great, but it was better than the crap she did on Days. Now later, we get the clues that Dena was not really writing. It really was Ron C. Some reports said Dena's contribution was " Jessica will have an alter personality." That was it- end of her contribution to the writing. I don't know if this was true. But it sure explains why sometimes her writing is pure crap, and sometimes tolerable. It depends on her co writers. She waits on someone else to do the work. When Days was great with the baby switch, that was simply not Dena's writing. It was too good. Yes probably it was Whitesell and Tomlin. Now nothing is happening on the show. Dena suddenly in an interview brags about her late night story idea for Hope. Never mind she is retreading a Tom Langan storyline. The show simply seems like Dena's crap now. Episode after episode where absolutely nothing happens. One hour seems like three while watching. What happened? Why in the world would Tomlin let Dena back to control the writing? Yes they got renewed. But only for one year. Dena's mess might cause an irrepairable mess. Viewers might not come back. They seem to be banking on viewers coming back for Alice' funeral. Maybe they will. But that seems to dangerous to let the show get in this kind of mess, right after they saved the show from cancellation. What do you think?

[JackPeyton]

its the same show now that it was a year ago, minus the baby story.

[bellcurve]

I've always felt Dena's stench all over DAYS, even after Tomlin/Whitesell came in. The show, during the year of the critically acclaimed BABYSWITCH!©, was awful and painfully boring even back then. I never bought this whole, "Whitesell and Tomlin wanna try something different" B.S. DAYS is almost completely devoid of their brand of stupid campy humor and I bet THAT has alot to do with Dena.

[Sylph]

I'm waiting for Nelson to interview Whitesell after Hogan's line about Whitesell's stupid ideas.

It'll probably never happen, but…

[ivanmmd]

I can see you might have thought The Babyswitch storyline was boring. I personally liked it. But now the show is dreadful. Whoever the writer was then and now- the writing in my opinion only has drastically plummeted. If Dena has been writing all along, I give her props for that period. But Now- no Way. I just don't see why Tomlin is allowing the writing to be this bad. Whoever is writing now- it is really bad! I expected a lull after the babyswitch climax. But it has been months. The boredom is only growing for me. I am completly losing any interest in the show and I am about to stop viewing.

[Noel]

Dena Higley is

Just kidding. The BABYSWITCH!© storyline was the only story that intrigued me and it's not just because I'm a Nicole fan, but nothing else really caught my attention. Carly bores me to tears and even though I remember Carly back in the day, I will always see Crystal Chappell as Olivia on Guiding Light. But I'm trying to make the effort. And then the character of Melanie really disappointed me because it seemed that i was finally going to have a bitch to root for besides Nicole, but then they turned her all nice. But I'm still praying a good scene where Melanie reverts back to her old bitchy ways and grabs a metal baseball bat and bashes Stephanie right up side the head. Now THAT - would be priceless and something that would be worth seeing in slow-motion eating some buttery popcorn.

But DAYS could be worse. Who was the HW when the character of Billie Reed (played by Lisa Rinna) came back to Salem and it was discovered that she was a secret FBI? Don't tell me that was Dena Higley too.

[soapfan770]

I'm surprised that Tomlin didn't fire Higley when he brought in his own people (ie Whitesell) to write. From what I had understood Higley's been a HW in name only since last summer but it does seem with the recent talk that's not the case anymore. Corday might need an extra chapter in his tell all book that's coming out next month,

[ivanmmd]

You know I am not sure. I think it was Tom Langon or maybe Sally Sussman Marino. You got me to remember, yes there was some really bad writing before. The spinning bed with Carrie. Greta and Austin in the Garden of Eden. UggH! Boy have we put up with a lot of crap>

[Toups]

I believe that was Brash and Cwikly. June 2002?

Tomlin can't fire Higley. That's up to Corday.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I agree, DAYS has a lot of Dena's trademark aimlessness that I saw on her OLTL and during her first brief stint. Maybe Tomlin and Whitesell create some of the stories, but the execution of them is very characteristically Dena Higley. The show feels like it's spinning around in circles, and quite frankly, all of the A storylines suck, and the supporting storylines are nothing interesting.

[ChiTownBoi03]

Yeah...I think I watch like every two weeks now, or here and there. I'm reeaaalllly trying, since I grew up with the show. But even the baby switch and fallout IMO was dreadfully anticlimactic. I wholeheartedly believe the reason everything is so boring is because of Higley. If she wasn't present, I'm sure we would see some of what Whitesell is known for.

[Jane1978]

I actually think the show is better than last year. Last year was all about the babyswitch and that was it. Kate trying to poison Cloe had no direction till fall, the teens story was scrapped prematurely, Phillip/Stephanie/Melanie started strong but quickly went nowhere after the show decided to reform Melanie.

This year we have atleast four strong stories going on. Yes, I do think that Rafe/Calliope/Anna nevending talk was huge waste of time and I totally lost interest in EJ/Sami. But NT Hope, Baker and Nicol trio are fun, Chloe is good as crazy bitch and I´m always happy to see Mel and Steph in catfight. Plus we have some nice hints at Maggie, Victor, Vivian triangle and Kate, Stefano old secret which we know nothing about yet but apparently it´s big and could be devastating. I quess the show did a mistake when everything started to build at once so all the stories are just in their initial phases (so it seems nothing big is going on) but the babyswitch seemed as quite simple at first too.

[theherowithin]

It's grown tiresome and boring it needs something. Maybe Alice's funeral will help. I know I'm looking forward to seeing everybody together.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Alice's funeral and tribute will only be a short-term thing though, after it, they'll be right back to where they are now. It'll be nice to see some faces from the past and pay tribute to Alice/Francis, but when that's done, it's done.

[KLN]

Yup.

Days is boring. There are no stakes in the stories. The couples are boring. The day-to-day plot development is minimal. Every episode is filled with fluff and filler. (For proof, look no further than Rafe's search for the truth re: the Sydnapping, in which he hasn't discovered anything for six months and will continue making no headway for the rest of the summer... ZZZ. What's the point?) And don't get me started on the production values. I realize that's a very vain complaint, but the production values -- especially the lighting -- really detract from the show. When I say it's painful to watch, I mean that literally. The bright pink labia lighting hurts my eyes, and as IMA said on another board, it looks as if they've installed tanning bed lights over each of the sets. Budget be damned -- DIM THE DAMN LIGHTS!!