DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[asafi]

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I love the characters of Lee and Liz. I think they are great additions to DAYS during 1980. 

 

Poor Brenda Benet.. Her role on Days of Our Lives made her extremely unpopular with fans; Benet's character was breaking up one of the show's popular couples, Doug and Julie, and fans were outraged. However, Benet's most personal challenge occurred when her six-year-old son Christopher died in March 1981. While they were on a skiing vacation at Mammoth Lakes, Christopher went into cardiac arrest after doctors inserted a breathing tube when he suffered acute epiglottitis. Benet was devastated by her son's death and sank into a severe depression. On April 7, 1982, she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at her home in Los Angeles. She was 36.

[victoria foxton]

Lee's entrance was very soapy. Doug's Casino set looks rather meh.  Not everyone has 1890's costumes on. Would love to have seen Liz vs Lee. @jam6242 Thanks for sharing the clip. I tried finding pics of the opening of the casino. And couldn't find anything.

Edited December 11, 2020 by victoria foxton

[Franko]

Like, seriously, what is the dynamic between Max and Kellam? Two guys on the d.l., with one actively seeking a beard? Is Max the Eva Peron/Nancy Reagan in this relationship? It's less concerning than the idea of Max and Liz together.

 

For all the fun in Doug and Julie courting/flirting/reuniting with each other, you also get scenes like this, dependent on Doug not understanding the obvious.

 

A pairing which really should have gone somewhere, but didn't. Over on the ATWT thread, there's discussion about how invaluable Lisa was as the great connector/mother hen for Oakdale folks. I know I said this already, but oh how I wish Julie fulfilled this role more.

 

America's Next Top Beard takes a new direction ... 

 

Not to mention the one he took earlier in the year coinciding with Stephanie's death.

 

If this played out even a fraction of how unintentionally funny it reads ...

 

Shut the **** up, Donnie!

 

I'm a little confused why Lee would be humiliated, unless Liz was talking real loud. "And after seeing you two together, Lizzie, I can understand how he earned that Oscar!"

 

The Anderson/Chandler stuff is boring me so much, and there's nearly a year left to go.

[beebs]

@Franko I feel like Liz was fairly public about exposing Lee's affair with her ex-husband, but I also think Lee was more focused on being dumped by Doug, so that's probably the source of the humiliation.

 

I think the first business trip Chris took coincided with Stephanie dying, Bob having his last heart attack, and Mary deciding she was marrying Alex and was gonna install him as de facto head of the company in Bob's absence. So like... He comes back after 3 weeks and the company, in that time, is completely different than when he left. Every time he goes away, wild sh! t goes down, I swear! 

 

@jam6242 thanks so much for posting that video. Really helps clarify some things.

 

(sorry Frank, can't seem to remove the double tag) @Franko@victoria foxtonyou're right. The casino set is kind of underwhelming. Especially after all the effort they went to to renovate after closing Doug's Place. Hmmm... 

[Khan]

 

Everytime Doug and Julie/Bill and Susan look at each other, it's like looking at them fall in love with each other all over again.  Doug and Julie, and Bill and Susan, are what DAYS and soaps in general are all about.

[Franko]

That's true. Lee went for broke and failed.

 

It's truly insane that they'd go with that plot device so often. I mean, really, if it always has to happen when Chris is gone ...

 

I'm not impressed with the set, either.

[titan1978]

As someone that started watching in the 1980’s, there were plenty of characters I would have gotten rid of before Doug and Julie.  I get the show was moving them into older character territory, and had already moved Marlena to the centerpiece of the show.  But people like Liz and Neil (and I liked both of them) outlasted them in the 80’s and that is kind of shocking to me.

 

This might be blasphemy, but I would rather have Doug and Julie on the show back then as featured characters than Maggie and Mickey.  And again, I love them.  But Julie especially adds that extra layer that makes her good in all kinds of stories, and also independent enough to be in the mix of all the action.  Maggie can’t pull that off.

[JAS0N47]

Found out this fun fact today which I don't remember hearing before: Jack Coleman (Jake Kositchek) is the 6times-great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin.

[asafi]

So I just found out Susan Martin was played by 2 actresses... I didn't know that, I thought only Denise played her. 

 

"Susan Martin was originated by Denise Alexander from April 14, 1966 to February 6, 1973, when the character was written out of the show temporarily when the Days casting office hit a snag renewing Alexander's contract and the contract lapsed. ABC Daytime rushed to offer her a then-unheard of salary/perks package to join General Hospital as Lesley Webber. When Susan finally returned to Days, a new actress, Bennye Gatteys played her from April 6, 1973 to October 1, 1976.."

 

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[Paul Raven]

Days wanted Doug and Julie around but offered them contracts with fewer appearance guarantees  and Bill and Susan were not happy with becoming supporting characters and left the show.

[teplin]

 

Like the various Susan Flannery successors in the Laura Horton role, Ms. Gatteys couldn't hold a candle to Denise Alexander and felt like a place-holder for the "real" Susan. I'm surprised she lasted three-and-a-half years, her screen impact was minimal.

[titan1978]

Yeah, and I think it was a mistake in hindsight on the show’s part.  I know they chose to not accept the new lesser contracts.  And I loved Julie when she came

back without Doug for that period in the early 90’s.

 

But I also see the problem-  we still had Tom and Alice as viable characters for quite a bit after that.  And Julie is just too much to be a standard matriarch, and there wasn’t room for her to not have a real role on the show.  Just being Hope’s surrogate mother and Doug’s adoring wife is removing all of Julie’s personality.

[soapfan770]

Seeing the scenes between Stefano and Julie in early 1982 always have fascinated me, I wonder if the show should have kept Stefano's focus on Julie, at least for the early 80s to give her some juicy story at least. (I can't imagine seeing SSH agreeing to the later Queen of the Night or levitating above her bed stuff lol) I definitely can see being entwined with Victor as she was in the early 90s had Doug & Julie stayed on in the late 80s. No idea what Doug would have done though unless they brought his son to Salem. 

[fivethej]

Does anyone have access to these or know the person who runs the channel? Person puts a tweet out saying not to make it public but that's exactly what they did. Why make a post and share the videos when they're private and no way for people to watch them.

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[beebs]

Might not have been private two years ago when they made that tweet.