DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Sindacco]

These last couple of weeks I've been watching some of my 1995-1996 DVDs, and while I love most of the stories and characters, John Aniston/Victor really was wasted. And this was long before he was fired in 1997.

[Khan]

And he continues to be wasted, IMO. Seriously, I almost think JER did him a favor by writing him out, because Victor had become so marginalized it wasn't even funny.

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMs9Z9RI2i8

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M81JKYlIeXw

[Sindacco]

Here's a promo from the Aremid storyline in early 1996.

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[teplin]

Wow, that promo's almost as bad as today's are.

[DRW50]

It's too bad no soap ever did anything with Jeff Griggs, who ended up mostly showing his talents in softcore late night fare.

[Sindacco]

DAYS 30th anniversary promo that aired in November 1995.

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[Paul Raven]

The more things change....Days was in crisis mode 23 years ago as this SOD article from Dec 89 demonstrates.

Fix-It Fever Hits Day

Actors,producer and head writer get the axe as Days struggles to bounce back from disaster.

Trouble...turmoil...a chaotic situation.”Is that the backstage atmosphere at Days?According to people in high places,yes. Still,one network exec insists the soap isn't floundering. arguing that”All shows have their good days and bad days”.

By any yardstick ,though,this soap has been having some awful days .The show recently dropped to 8th place in the ratings. In the summer of 88,the show shot to #1 when Steve and Kayla were married. but it's been losing viewers ever since.

According to insiders,Days is running scared and fix-it fever has set in. In November,Shelley Curtis was demoted from supervising executive producer to supervising producer,Anne Howard Bailey was axed as headwriter,and Sherri Stringer was removed as one of the show's producers.

Meanwhile. former Supervising Executive Producer Al Rabin was lured out of semi retirement to take over the show's reins. NBC claims the changes were made because “we wanted to put the original team back in place that had made the show #1”.

However,Anne Howard Bailey maintains,:The ratings reflect the chaotic situation since the introduction of the new regime at NBC”(Bailey is referring to Jackie Smith,new VP of daytime)

“I have not been able to do the things I wanted to do”.Bailey admits.”Let's just say,the stars were not in the right orbit,and I'm very tired. Frankly.I'm looking forward to a long rest and then going back to prime time.”

Bailey feels basically she wasn't the right writer for Days.”I was not walking uphill here. I was climbing a mountain. Days deserves somebody who is more wired to their particular kind of story.”(The new headwriters will be Anne Schoettle and Richard Allen,two of the show's current scriptwriters,who are both thirty years old.)

Shortly before the production shakeup,there was another commotion,when several actors were taken off-contract,including James Reynolds(Abe)Peggy McCay(Caroline)Frank Parker(Shawn)Christie Clark(Carrie)Michael Bays(Julio)and Joy Garret(Jo).

For Peggy McCay,the change has been hard,because her work schedule has been drastically reduced.”I used to work a few times a week”,she explains,”Now I'm on once or twice a month,and then I have three or four lines to say. I feel I could phone it in.”

The whole situation mystifies her.”I threw away opportunities because of the show. I had a chance to audition for Generations and I had to turn it down.(Peggy was even in the process of buying a new house,but had to nix the deal once she lost her contract status.)

Frank Parker is particularly disturbed by the show's ultrafascination with youth.”Any time Peggy and I had something substantial in the script,and the show was running long,it would be cut. That's so wasteful. I wish they could realise the value of older characters on soaps. Family oriented storylines like ours have a value beyond trivial sex and cops and robbers stuff”

However,his candor may have gotten him in hot water. After he spoke in another publication,a Days producer reportedly called his agent and said,”He'll never work on this show again”

Meanwhile,the firings continue. John Lavachielli ,who began playing Hank Tobin in November,was let go after a few performances. His replacement Ron Kuhlman lasted one day. Now there's a third actor in the role-Rick Porter(ex Larry AW)

Still most stars are guardedly positive about the future.”This show has to be about family values”,stresses Matthew Ashford(Jack)”Al Rabin is going to strengthen that again. He's a family man in terms of what he envisions

[DRW50]

I never understood the decision to dump Shawn and Caroline when they had three kids on the show at this time.

Did Ron Kuhlman ever make it to air?

Is Schoette seen as good or bad?

[ghfan89]

Depends who you ask. I know alot of Jack and Jennifer fans liked her and RA. They wrote the Cruise of Deception, probably their most famous storyline, which wrapped up the mystery of the diary pages that AHB started.The main difference between AHB's DOOL and AS/RA was that AS/RA brought the supercouple focus back to the forefront, where as there were some complaints in the press at the time that AHB's DOOL focused too much on the action stories and plots. AHB's most controversial story was the Hunter Tylo character coming on as a past love of Steve's, but apparently that was a story mandated by the network. AHB also wrote the Shane Amnesia story. I know there will be some that disagree with me, but I found AHB's writing to be a bit more sophisticated, gearing toward writing character's motivations, where as AS/RA wrote for the couple first rather than the character necessarily -- for example it seemed like Jennifer's rape happened just for Jack to have a reaction to it. AS/RA were the ones who brought on Carly and she ate up alot of airtime very quickly, from what I remember.

Edited May 11, 2012 by ghfan89

[Susan Hunter]

This makes me wonder what did Matthew Ashford do? Jack's story was pretty good with The Spectator and his adventures with Billie and Kate and you got the feeling that he was setting up a quad between Jack, Jennifer, Austin and either Kate or Billie. Then all of a sudden it just ended.

[Sindacco]

I liked Jeff Griggs on DAYS. I thought Jude was a great villain who came on for a specific story and served his purpose.

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Edited May 11, 2012 by Sindacco

[DRW50]

I know there were rumors about him being fired abruptly.

Thanks for the answers about AS. I always forget Anne Howard Bailey was at DAYS - I guess it must not have been too long, as she was at Santa Barbara up to mid-1988. I know the Marina story is hated.

I was reading a comment a few days ago about how Carly showed up and immediately had 3 days a week airtime. In some ways I'm surprised at how she became popular, as she was sort of glommed on to Jennifer and then inadvertently caused Jennifer to be raped. I guess CC just had the charisma to make it work.

[Sindacco]

Yeah there were rumors about Kristian Alfonso having problems with his gay porn past. Jeff himself denied that he was fired because of it and I believe him. Jude was not a long-term character.

I think she was only headwriter for about 10 months.