Ken Corday's book

[Toups]

Yup, here's what Corday said:

From page 186:

"She had been the head writer for only six months but had been part of the writing staff for nearly two decades, and the show was flourishing under her pen. We had been getting good, consistently solid ratings and staying in the front of the soap opera pack. She was writing a successful show, and I couldn't understand why she was being replaced."

From page 227-228:

"In 2008, we received a blessing in the form of head writer Dena Higley. Ironically, she has just been hitting her stride as head writer on Days of our Lives when she was replaced by Jim Reilly fiver years earlier in the debacle of 2003."

Corday called this, flourishing, and hitting her stride???? What was he smoking! I agree with you that this was the worse DAYS I have ever seen. Worse then Langan and Sheffer's Jan-August 2007.

[soapfan770]

That's interesting because Days hit record ratings lows under Higley's pen. Not to mention the tales of the Salem earthquake and then having out of nowhere Roman and Kate being the parents of Rex and Cassie instead of Tony and Marlena.......no explanation was given for that and it made very, very little sense. Not mention Corday gushed in Variety how much Days needed JER. Does Corday explain why he let Brash and Cwikly go?

[Toups]

I have a bunch of stuff about the SSK here:

It's a fun read, and I don't see how people can say the SSK wasn't planned. As I've said before, some details may not have been planned/changed, but the major stuff (the killer, the final victim, the big twist) were planned. Also, I really believe Corday panicked and moved up the storyline, while Reilly wanted to stretch things out - there was suppose to be a trial and knowing Reilly, it would've lasted months. Marlena on trial for murder - that's genius! LOL

I don't remember Corday talking about B&C.

[Toups]

Reilly would've never written out John/Marlena. Reilly's knew she Marlena was the show's "biggest star" - that's he picked her to be possessed and picked her to be the SSK.

[Titus Andronicus]

Amazon's search brings up nothing on either name.

On Josh Taylor:

I'm reading bits and pieces of the Amazon parts and I can nearly literally smell the bull, even through a computer screen.

[Vee]

This man lies every two minutes. We all know that. Therefore the only reason to believe him about the SSK is because diehard kids who grew up watching Reilly's dreck don't want to believe "the master" could be overruled.

According to what I was told at the time, before and after the island reveal, Melaswen and the returning actors was never planned from the start. The Salem Stalker was conceived as a way to seriously slash the budget and reconfigure the entire show and its canvas. Those people were fired and were going to be dead. Reilly was not God, and he got shut down.

[JackPeyton]

Exactly.

[MichaelGL]

No words.

[Sindacco]

Corday is lying.

Higley was Head Writer March 7, 2003 - August 8, 2003. When she took over from Brash and Cwikly the ratings were 3.3. Her last week as headwriter the ratings were 2.6.

She was co-Head Writer with JER August 11, 2003 - August 18, 2003 but there weren't any ratings released from that week. JER took over as Head Writer August 18, that week the ratings were 2.8.

3/3/03.........4.......3.3..................11...3/10/03........4*......3.1................10

3/17/03.......3*.......3.2.................11...3/24/03........5*......2.9................09

3/31/03.......7........2.8..................09...4/7/03.........5*......2.9................09

4/14/03.......6*.......2.8..................10...4/21/03.......7.......2.9................10

4/28/03.......7........2.7..................10...5/5/03.........7.......2.8................10

5/12/03.......5*.......2.9..................10...5/19/03.......7*......2.7................10

5/26/03.......7........2.8..................10...6/2/03.........5.......3.0................10

6/9/03........8.........2.7..................09...6/16/03.......5*......3.0................10

6/23/03......7.........2.8..................09...6/30/03.......8.......2.6................08

7/7/03........5.........2.9..................09...7/14/03.......5*......2.9................09

7/21/03......5.........3.0..................10...7/28/03.......7*......2.7.................09

8/4/03........6*........2.6..................09...8/11/03......Nationwide Blackout/No Weekly Ratings Released

8/18/03......5*........2.8..................09...8/25/03......6*.......2.8.................09

http://www.jason47.com/days/weeklynielsens.html

[Toups]

We knew fron the start it wasn't just another serial killer storyline - where people are just killed off. That's too simple, it's been done before. Reilly wanted to do something bigger than a normal serial killer storyline.

From Fall 2003:

Wyman: My experience with Jim (E. Reilly, headwriter/consulting producer) is that he is a highly, highly original writer. It's a mistake to just take a storyline of his that looks like it has the attributes of a certain genre, like a serial-killler story, and think it's going to be just another one of those. There is more to this than meets the eye. The idea that for the sake of one thing or another, he would have a serial killer loose and start wacking people, that's just not the way he writes. It would be a mistake to think that you already know what's going to happen.

October 2003:

CORDAY: They're just started to watch the beginning of a four-chapter book. The first, most difficult chapter to watch will up to an end around Christmas. The second chapter comes to an amazing conclusion around the beginning of spring. The third comes to a conclusion right around the 4th of July. The fourth chapter comes to a conclusion at Labor Day next year, at which time this story will be going into its next orbit. Every one of these beats that Jim has planned will be worth staying tuned to. This is not your mother's serial killer storyline. It encompasses a far greater concept.

October 2003:

Hold onto your remotes, DAYS fans. The serial-killer is only beginning of what Head Writer/Consulting Producer James E. Reilly has planned for Salem. "There are amazing twists down the road," promises Executive producer Ken Corday. "Chapter one is just November Sweeps; this is a huge story. This is as big as it gets for Jim Reilly. He took a long time to conceive this, believe me."

Corday says Reilly's initial story pitch was riveting. "When Jim told me the story in June. I took a pad, thinking these would be 10 minutes of notes," recalls the exec. "I put the pad down, and he went on for almost two hours. My hair stood up. I hadn't been pitched a story like that in a long time. It is incredible." As for the victims of the serial killer, Corday explains, "They're not going to take this thing seriously if Bart and Henderson die. They're going to start taking it seriously when they see our beloved characters horribly murdered. Jim says, "I want to bang the drum so loud, they're not going to believe what we're doing at DAYS; they're going to come watch and they're going to stay.'

And stay for a while, Reilly already has fireworks planned for 2004. "There's going to be major magic in the show---hang on till next spring; you won't believe your eyes," Corday previews. "I would say by June of next year, when this things really starts to wrap, as we approach Wimbledon, people will be at the doors of NBC to find out what's going to happen."

NY Post - December 15, 2003

- When the killing is over, there'll be a total of 10 actors on the unemployment line.

- (Warning: spoiler alert! Reilly admits that it will be a well-known character. "I didn't plant someone on the show to take the hit," he hints. "It has to be a beloved character.") But the killings won't end there. When the stalker claims a final victim, it will be - of course - the most shocking one of all.

The Boston Herald - January 4, 2004

- When the killer is caught, the story will go through the confession and a trial, revealing the reasons behind the slayings.

Newsweek - Jan. 19, 2004

- He's already figured out the major "Days" plotlines through the end of 2004

SOD - January, 2004

- With his lead actress almost positively in place, Corday promises that this is only the beginning of a tale that will go through the end of this year if not longer. "The reveal of the murderer is the end of chapter one. Chapter two is even better," says the exec. "There are basically huge cliffhangers everyday, but the ones that will blow people away are this one, another one prior to Wimbledon weekend, and then again, six/eight weeks later prior to the Olympics."

- Concludes Reilly "I know many people believe that once they know the serial killer's identity, they will instantly understand the madness behind the murders. They're wrong. The serial killer will be unmasked, but the audience will again be taken on a roller coaster of a ride, which will include more murders and emotional twists. The story is far from over. Prepare for a big shocker which will leave my skeptics and supporters stunned."

--------------------------------------------------

All of these statements made before Corday panicked in late winter/spring 2004 - that is when I believe Corday moved up a lot of stuff and wanted Reilly to end things earlier than he intended. That's why there was no big Wimbledon cliffhanger or Olympic cliffhanger which Reilly had planned way back in June in his pitch to Corday.

[tylerbo20]

sorry but the entire book is b.s. if you want a good juicy read from days stars read doug and julies book they give lots of background and behind the scenes on days.i enjoyed theirs more. i hope deidri hall writes a book soon.

[Vee]

Yes, he was going to do a "twist" by recycling the Satanic stuff from the '90s. But the victims would still be dead, and they would still be off the show. No Melaswen.

You're making my argument for me. What you're saying indicates large rewrites, including the fact that - once again, now - the story was completely overhauled and the actors were all re-hired.

The John Aniston return shows just how slapdash this was. They killed him off in a lame bit of business that wasn't at all connected to the Stalker. That was in order to free up his salary, as well. It was a cast purge that backfired. If you're going to admit Corday is a pathological liar, don't point to quotes of his to support claims that Melaswen was going to happen all along.

[bellcurve]

+1

I was a HUGE Reilly fanboy back in the day and will still defend Reilly 1.0 to people who ask me about it and it's campy glory, but I've never believed the original plan was to bring back all of the fired actors on "New Salem." Nothing about the story made sense after they killed off Alice(and YES, I believe Alice getting killed off was in the original plan too) and the way the characters were brutally murdered(esp. Maggie) suggests to me that Reilly, even in his, "Back from the dead" predictability wanted these to be final so he could move on to his own new characters and brand of camp, repetition, and crap storytelling he's so infamous for pushing onto the audience.

That would have been fun to watch.

[Eric83]

No. There is no way, Corday would have been ok with him killing Alice off like that. I think Celeste would have been murdered after Tony. Then, the final victim would have been someone very close to Marlena. (i.e. Belle or Will). When SSH and BH were asked to come back, they strictly stated that they would not return for Doug or Julie to be killed off. But Doug ended up dying, and later Bill Hayes let it be known that Corday told him that he was going to come back from the dead. Which is clearly when everything was changed. Alice's death was a just a way to squeak out one more shocking death, to up the ratings, before everyone was revealed to be alive.

I agree with this. In all actuality, Reilly killed off alot of dead weight. None of the characters he killed except for Jack, Maggie, and Victor hold any relevance today. I wish if they would have stayed dead that Reilly would have killed off Mickey, like John Clarke asked to save Suzanne Rogers' job.

[Bright Eyes]

I always thought John was supposed to be the last murder.