DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[fivethej]

 

His identify is no secret. Everyone else is following the rules keeping the links private but him. Tons of fake accounts and aliases to gain access along with someone assisting him. Real question everyone asking why he is doing it? He doesn't respond to anyone. Besides the obvious being a troll and having mental issues.

 

Check out his timeline people are leaving comments and he's also doing the same on there.

 

https://www.facebook.com/erik.stone.96155

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYLUKqcRZfrCG4bxP5UX2A

 

 

Edited April 27, 2021 by fivethej

[Vee]

No thanks, not interested. I could tell by one screencap posted what his true identity most likely is. And it's not lost on me that he's still here, however powerless. This is all he's got left. So stop sharing with people you don't know well enough.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Vee

[Dion]

Yeah and that kind of character can often serve as an audience surrogate.

 

One of my favourite Neil scenes is when he informs Victor and Kim that Andrew can't be Victor's son. Kim's quietly processing the information while Neil gets to give Victor the telling off on behalf of the audience.

[DRW50]

@jam6242 I thought you might be interested in this, mostly just for the sake of curiosity. Some truly bizarre and cringeworthy cable access show - at about 24 or 25 minutes one of the Joyce Dewitt-esque lady singers doing endless spoken word sings a bit of "Try To Remember" and dedicates it to Bill Hayes, mentioning he almost lost his life. 

 

WKYT-TV 27 1969-73 Town Talk June Rollings and Ted Grizzard - YouTube

 

 

[jam6242]

Thanks, that was a really strange show, lol.  I don’t know what she’s referring to regarding Bill.  He’s never mentioned any near-death experiences.

[AbcNbc247]

 

[Paul Raven]

Scriptwriter Cries While She Pens Soap Opera Plots Bv KARI GRANVILLE Register Staff Writer

 

Sheri Anderson spends her workdays in a make-believe world. But it's no fairyland. To say the least, most of the people who dwell in that fantasy world are beleagured with problems. Take Doug, for example. He's asked Julie to become his third wife. Doug's second wife happened to be Julie's late mother. To make matters worse. Doug has learned that his divorce from his first wife was never declared final.

Mickey also has a problem. He's in a sanitarium suffering from the emotional shock of learning that the teenager he thought was his son was actually fathered by his brother some umpteen years ago.

And Rebecca isn't much better off. She's pregnant through artificial insemination. After discovering the true origins of the soon to-be born baby, Johnny left her standing alone at the altar amidst 20 wedding guests. So life goes in the mythical Midwestern town of Salem. If it isn't one dilemma, it s another. That's because Doug. Julie. Mickey. Rebecca and Johnny are characters in the continuing daytime television drama “Days of Our Lives." And somehow, Sheri Anderson has found her talents immersed in the problems besetting these and more characters who come to life each weekday between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. on NBC.

 

She first met the troubled soap opera characters as a viewer when she was a student at Fullerton High School. Today, the 28 year-old blonde is one of six script writers who manipulate the residents of Salem. U.S.A.. through their tangled trials and tribulations. It's a team of writers that has been lauded for its work. For instance. Sheri, who has been writing for the soap since last October, now has an Emmy statue to display. She and her fellow writers captured the award in May for best writing on a daytime dramatic series. “Time" magazine gave “Days of Our Lives" its highest rating of four teardrops for overall quality. Although the soap shared the rating with one other serial, the cover story went on to say that “Days of Our Lives ' displayed the best writing and acting of the 14 daytime dramas. Sheri's working hours are usually spent at a typewriter, pounding out hour long episodes in her comfortable, one bedroom apartment that overlooks the channel at Marina del Ray. “When ! write. I cry.” she says. And Sheri claims the same of her fellow writers who faithfully watch the likes of Julie and Doug endure the perils of life in Salem: “We figure if we can’t cry, nobody else can."

 

Sheri makes no bones about it. Soap operas are designed to appeal to the viewers' emotional senses. But she quickly adds that they must be topical as well as entertaining. For example, Maggie has set out to become a single parent through adoption on “Days of Our Lives." Gambling fever got into the act when Neil cured his compulsive habit through Gamblers Anonymous. Once, the soap did a bit on the abortion issue by presenting a dramatized version of both sides of the question. Sheri doesn't claim full responsibility for dreaming up the sometimes confusing and always heart-rendering predicaments that the good citizens of Salem find themselves in.

 

A story editor in Chicago maps out the show a year in advance. His sketchy outline, known as the “bible" in the trade, is turned over to the show's head writer. Patricia Falken Smith, who in turn fills in much of the detail of the various plot lines. For each episode Sheri writes, she is handed a script outline. And in her hands, the simple outline becomes a drama packed 30 page script. According to Sheri, the desired emotional pitch of the episode is actually achieved through what she doesn't write. “It's all in what you don’t say. she explains. “You let the actors act, rather than giving them a lot of dialogue." Apparently, the trick works. It is estimated that 20 million Americans follow soap operas. Traditionally, that audience has been comprised of housewives and the retired. However, it now appears that students and just about anybody who has free time during the day might lie included in the ranks of those who shed an occasional tear. It is even reported that men such as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. former Texas Governor John Connally and artist Andy Warhol can be included among the faithful followers.

 

Sheri believes soap operas are gaining in popularity largely because of the topical issues they deal with in an enter­taining fashion, attracting the younger audience. But the main reason she gives is: “I think people are beginning to recognize soap opera for the art it really is. The acting is so superior, and the writing has to be good because it can't be changed." Whatever the reason may be. the networks are enjoying the boon in the soaps’ popularity. The stories of frustrated love and endless conflicts that appear each weekday have created a profitable advertising market for the networks. In fact, daytime soap operas often support the prime time television shows with high ad revenues and low production costs. A nighttime show like “Kojak" costs $250,000 to produce and brings in about $200,000. In comparison, it costs about $170,000 to produce a week of “Days of Our Lives." which in turn brings in about $120,000 a day in ad revenues.

 

Taking advantage of this profitable market, the networks have expanded three of the soap operas to hour long formats. “Days of Our Lives," one of three soap operas produced on the West Coast, was the second show to be lengthened. Nothing in Sheri's background foretells of her career in this burgeoning world of daytime television. “It was really just a fluke how I got into the writing thing." she recalls. After graduating from Fullerton High School in 1970. Sheri became a well- traveled college student attending classes “everyplace under the sun," as she says. She majored in home economics and dabbled in art studies because her goal was to work in the art department of “Better Homes and Gardens." She never made it to the magazine, but instead found herself as a receptionist in a Austin advertising firm, where she eventually became director of public relations. After leaving the agency, she still did some free-lance public relations work arranging receptions for model home openings. One day, the caterer she used regularly for the receptions called to tell her that she catered a party for Ms. Falken- Smith and that the head writer was looking for someone to help her as an assistant on "Days of Our Lives.” “That was the one soap opera I had watched since I was in high school." Sheri says. So, she called Ms Falken Smith and arranged a meeting over lunch. A year ago last February, she landed the job of assistant and became an apprentice writer in October.

 

FAMILY TIES

Sheri's family is a close one as she describes it. and she still tries to get together with her parents. Cliff and Esther Anderson of Fullerton, her aunt and uncle, Marv and Elaine Anderson of Anaheim, and other relatives at least once a week. Sheri is glad she made the move to the soap opera writing business. It’s not without its problems, however. In her writing. Sheri must contend with at least 40 characters who appear regularly on the show. “You can't make them all sound the same,“ she says, adding that each character has his or her own speech pattern and mannerisms as well as the extra touches the actors and actresses bring to their roles. But in her thus far short career. Sheri has found a solution. “It's like in real life." she explains. “You learn to know a character like you'd learn to know a friend." In defense of her profession, which to some may seem to lie an illegitimate offspring of serious writing. Sheri says. "It’s 52 weeks a year and it's no reruns. “It's steady work and in this field that's hard to find."

[titan1978]

Thanks for posting that @Paul Raven

 

Really fascinating to see how PFS mentored Sheri, and that she had such extensive ties to DAYS from before the super couple era.  I know she was also at GH with PFS.  If I knew that before I had forgotten it.

[dolphziggler]

Newbie here, and really loving digging into these deep dives on past episodes. 

 

I just recently watched the whole Salem Slasher/Phoenix storyline from 1983-84, starting with Renee's murder at the engagement party, and ending with the concert and Stefano "dying" again. I have a few questions about this particular storyline....

 

Why would Andre kill Renee on Stefano's orders, in the first place? Stefano, for all his evil deeds, loved his daughter, so that makes zero sense. I have a theory that the killer wasn't supposed to be Tony when the storyline first began, but they couldn't come up with a better idea so they went with it. The whole twin Andre thing seemed like an afterthought, maybe brought on by fan backlash against a character like Tony, who had pretty much been redeemed, being a killer. 

 

I wonder who else they may have had in mind as Renee's murderer, if anyone? The only choices that made sense would have been Alex or David. But once it was revealed that the person who killed Renee was also the same person killing, or attempting to kill, people while disguised as Roman, those ideas kinda went out the window since the character of David was off the show by then, and Alex really wasn't the serial killer wearing a mask disguised as somebody else type. lol. 

 

[AbcNbc247]

Welcome to SON!

 

Renee actually wasn’t supposed to be killed. The night Andre took Tony’s place, Renee was able to immediately spot the difference between them so Andre killed her to keep her from exposing him. 

 

Stefano was furious and left Andre to “die” in a pit of a quick sand the following year. 

[dolphziggler]

Thanks for the welcome!

 

And yea, later on they added that twist about Renee noticing it wasn't Tony. But I was just wondering when the whole storyline began, if that was the plan or did the writers have someone else in mind as the murderer? I guess we'll never know, unless one of the writers at the time was asked about it. 

[fivethej]

 

Just wondering where you watched Salem Slasher/Phoenix story line from 1983-84? Did you find those on channel? It's no secret early 80's episodes are extremely difficult to find.

[beebs]

I'd be very interested in seeing this myself, if it can be passed along!

[dolphziggler]

A couple of different Facebook pages. That's all I'll say, unless I'm allowed to say more. 

[AbcNbc247]

Yeah. Same here.

 

I've asked that question a lot about what a soap writer's original plan was, especially for Days.