1978 DAYS Behind the Scenes (writers)

[JAS0N47]

I think Gary just needed an extra week to get started on Days. They were hired as a pair, but her name appears alone for the first week. Same thing happened a few other times afterwards.

[JAS0N47]

No overlap or anything. I was just adding the airdate info to this thread since it seemed relevant. Julie was burned in April 1979, thanks to her mom, Elizabeth Harrower. Harrower wrote Laura out in June 1979. But Laura did return later that year in a recurring role, and was written out again with Bill during the "Valentine's Day Massacre" in April 1980.

As for Ruth Brooks Flippen, my only guess is maybe she was hired as the head writer, but then had to leave due to her illness. She died just over a year after leaving "Days", so maybe just after joining the show, she learned of her illness, and decided to leave. Just a guess on that though.

[DRW50]

So Laura was sane when she left in 1980 or did she break down again?

[Paul Raven]

One problem Harrower faced was that by this stage Days had an overabundance of happy married couples -Doug/Julie,Bill/Laura.Mickey/Maggie,Don/Marlena,Mike/Margo.They were also mostly older couples.

One of the show's strengths-signature,long running couples-was also one of its weaknesses.

Harrower had to create conflict and risk alienating viewers who had seen these couples struggle to get together.

I don't think the Doug/Julie breakup was well received.Although the concept was good-the fire affecting Julie's judgement,Doug discovering his brother etc the execution was off and it seemed that the characters reacted in ways to serve the plot. Julie had certainly been impulsive in the past,but her marriage to Doug made such reactions less convincing.

Having Bill Hayes on for a few days in bad makeup as his brother was a waste. Perhaps the Alex Marshall character could have been Byron-there would be way more long term potential that way. If Doug's brother was previously involved with Marie,fireworks ensue.

This would have been a good time to bring in Sandy Horton.Harrower tried with Steve,Julie's brother but the story and casting was off.

Days lost its way under Harrower but worst was yet to come.

[DRW50]

Thanks Paul Raven, I always appreciate your insights. I wonder if any of this is online.

[dc11786]

Nina Laemle's connection to "Days of our Lives" St. Valentine's Day massacre a disproven internet myth, sort of like Agnes Nixon's infamous plane crash? Jason can correct me if I'm wrong, but a majority of the characters written out during the massacre happened under Harrower and Flippen Brooks' watch. The Chandlers and most of the new characters connected to these people were introduced on Laemle's watch.

Looking at the weekly synopses, I believe Tomlin and Poteet-Lisanti laid a lot of good ground work for the show with stories that sort of foreshadowed Tomlin's more recent involvement in the series. They were responsible for fleshing out Lee Dumonde from a cardboard villain to a more a layered anti-heroine. She went into therapy with Marlena and mellowed a bit. Her bratty kid sister Renee popped up in town as part of the teen scene and Lee was revealed to have been a hooker in the past (Stephano loved him some working girls). Hope had her first attempt at teenage storylines with her cousin Jessica, who was torn between half-brothers Tod and Scott. Longtime good guy Chris Kositchek gained a younger brother, Jake. Trish and Mike Horton romanced while David was in San Diego, and when David returned to town all hell should have broke loose. While Falken-Smith made the story famous, Poteet and Tomlin started the Salem Strangler story with Stuart Whyland, Evan's father and Lee's beau, as the intended culprit.

[DRW50]

Did David come back or did the new writer change that?

Do you think Jake worked better as the Salem Strangler? What happened to Stuart?

I didn't realize that was an inaccuracy about Llaemle and the characters who were written out. Thanks for telling me.

[dc11786]

David did return, but the storyline between David/Trish/Mike never developed into the sort of explosive thing that it could have for the Horton family. When David returned, it was revealled he had become indebted to loan sharks and I think he even sold drugs. He was a more shady character, which would have definitely given Julie more to play off of. Mike and Trish had shared a history; they had been roommates prior to Trish conceiving a child with David. Plus, given Mike's own history of being raised by another man, this certainly would have been an interesting aspect to play given David's absence from Scotty's life.

Stuart ended up being offed by Stephano Dimera when he arrived in town. I guess Jake's role probably made the younger set's story more exciting. I really don't have an opinion either way.

[DRW50]

Thanks. David and Trish were both written out not long after this right? Or did Patty Weaver want to leave?

[Paul Raven]

Days departures

Stephanie Woodruff (Eileen Barnett last aired on February 15, 1980)

Cathy Breton (Cindy Daly last aired on February 19, 1980)

Linda Anderson (Margaret Mason last aired on March 5, 1980)

Robert LeClair (Robert Clary last aired on March 14, 1980)

Bob Anderson (Mark Tapscott last aired on March 28, 1980)

Phyllis Curtis (Corinne Conley)

Dr. Jordan Barr (George McDaniel last aired on April 10, 1980)

Donna Craig (Tracey Bregman)

Dr. Bill Horton (Edward Mallory last aired on April 14, 1980)

Dr. Laura Horton (Rosemary Forsythe)

Samantha Evans (Andrea Hall-Lovell)

I still think that for whatever reason Flippen was a fill in and the axed characters were part of Laemmle's story plans.

[DRW50]

Do you think any of those were necessary exits?

I wonder if they regretted getting rid of Bregman after she took off at Y&R.

[Khan]

It is so cool to get all this information on BTS DAYS in one place. I was remarking the other day, too, how it is a shame that more people don't look at the history of soaps, both on- and off-screen, the way they do the "golden age" of filmmaking. IMO, much, if not all, of the "studio system" era would have been irretrievably lost if not for the grass-roots efforts of passionate cinephiles in the form of film festivals and retrospectives. I wish someone(s) would do the same for classic soaps.

[JAS0N47]

Other final airdates in this time frame:

Peter Brown (Greg)...1/2/80

Mikey Martin (Dougie)...3/14/80

Rosemary Forsyth (Laura)...3/25/80

Corinne Conley (Phyllis)...4/9/80

Tracey Bregman (Donna)...4/11/80

Andrea Hall (Samantha)...4/18/80

Suzanne Zenor (Margo)...5/21/80

Natasha Ryan (Hope)....6/27/80

[JAS0N47]

Richard Guthrie last aired as David on 8/25/80

Patty Weaver last aired as Trish on 8/10/82

Gregg Marx aired as David from 3/24/81-11/22/83

[JAS0N47]

Elizabeth Harrower................................2/27/79-3/14/80.............3363-3633 (271)

Ruth Brooks Flippen..............................3/17/80-4/18/80.............3634-3658 (25)

Nina Laemmle.......................................4/21/80-10/9/80.............3659-3782 (124)

Guess there was just a hold up for Laemmle to arrive. This article: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yQoeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rlEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4033,6035517&dq=nina-laemmle&hl=en

is from 2/22/80. So Laemmle was in charge right after Harrower left, but for some reason, her name does not appear on any scripts until 4/21/80. Flippen is listed on the scripts as the head writer for those 25 episodes (3/17-4/18).

Here's an article about Laemmle: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eSoTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qQUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3514,1388289&dq=nina-laemmle&hl=en

And here's an article about Elizabeth Harrower's hiring:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=l-gTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vAUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7108,6117716&dq=elizabeth-harrower&hl=en