DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Vee]

Yeah, I remember Ian notably had a Phoenix-head cane or something. I wondered if the exiting HW team threw in the Ian/DiMera reveal on literally their last day or whatever. It was strange.

[dc11786]

I’m nearly positive the Ian McAllister stuff being Santo’s son was revealed in late August after MarDar had left the building. Ian had survived the explosion, but was devastated that Madison was not as lucky. I remember Ian revealed his mother was the Dimera family maid and that he believed Sanyo was his father. I think they had realized Ian was Stefano’s killer and tracked him down. This was during his final showdown with I believe E.J. during the same set of scenes where he revealed Stefano was alive and being held captive. Was there more to this prior? 

Also, wasn’t there some sort of Twitter drama with some soap blogger type (maybe Janey Giddins) where the person stated MarDar’s stories were still continuing (referring to the after effect of the explosion) and McPhearson threatened legal action or something else extreme. I feel like this all played out on Twitter.

If I remember correctly, Mascolo quickly departed again in August/September, but that I might be misremembering. 
 

Also, I sorta recall them trying to put Ian into a bunch of little situations. I believe he invested in Common Grounds with Sonny. Also, and this I may be completely misremembering, but wasn’t Ian looking to use the waterfront for his business interests reviving manufacturing in Salem which had been one of E.J.’s campaign promises. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by dc11786

[Vee]

I know the changeover happened in August, but it seemed like someone put whatever reveal was originally(?) planned for Ian onscreen either just before or right after they left the building, and then immediately retconned it out again.

I was always under the impression the explosion, etc. was Tomlin or Higley or whoever it was replaced them, but I may well be wrong.

Edited March 22, 2022 by Vee

[Khan]

The way HW's come and go at DAYS, it's amazing anyone can keep straight who wrote what and when, lol.

[beebs]

MarDar's entire run seemed like they were perpetually "setting something up" and then having it unceremoniously dropped. Nothing ever built to a satisfying conclusion, and there seemed to be a lot of "much ado about nothing" to a lot of the stories. Remember when all the vets were trapped in a cabin that exploded, but two seconds before the bomb went off, they teleported through a trap door in the floor and everyone walked in from the side of the screen without so much as a scratch, nevermind any sign that there had just been an explosion? Or Will, Sonny, Gabi, and Chad being involved in that weird social media site that got hacked and turned into a gambling ring, which was suddenly dropped, recapped via heretofore-unseen flashbacks at the beginning of an episode, and wrapped up by the end of that episode? If ever a headwriting team got their stories interfered with, it was MarDar.

Tomlin doing the DAYSaster seemed to be in his wheelhouse, considering his propensity for stunts like that in the past (SFT's flood being one that immediately comes to mind), but the only reason I would think it actually was TomSell's idea and not MarDar's lies entirely in the fact that I genuinely don't believe anything MarDar pitched ever aired as envisioned whatsoever.

Edited March 22, 2022 by beebs

[Vee]

What??

[beebs]

I distinctly remember this. I remember Stefano had locked Marlena, John, Rafe, Sami, Austin, Carrie...I'm NOT sure who else, in a cabin somewhere, and rigged the doors and windows, so that if they opened them to try to leave, the cabin would blow up. They spent the whole time panicking that they were all about to die, then about 10 seconds before the timer went off, Rafe tripped over the throw rug, and revealed a trap door, which all of them somehow managed to escape through before the bomb went off. It was...probably one of the most embarrassing things I've seen on this show, and that's saying something.

ETA: Okay I'm not hallucinating. This actually happened.

https://www.soapcentral.com/days-of-our-lives/recaps/2012/120507.php

Edited March 22, 2022 by beebs

[Vee]

DAYS has done low-stakes weird [!@#$%^&*] like this for so many years, tbh. Everything keeps working against most attempts at mature storytelling - the production values, the silly music cues (the 'sexy redneck twang' being the worst of all), the lighting and FX choices. I saw it in the 2000s post-Reilly, I saw it in 2011-2012, and there's been a few points since. They have never recovered from JER and Langan. But even for all those aesthetic things, the weird narrative cul-de-sacs or dead ends like what you describe have been around for so many years too. Things just sort of abruptly trail off. I put that on Ken Corday or his longtime minions in the day to day grind.

Edited March 22, 2022 by Vee

[carolineg]

Bo/Hope were there too.  I remember it being pretty funny because they all were resigned to dying and not actively trying to help themselves.  Like all the couples were making out and saying goodbye to one another instead of trying to do something about the situation.  Didn't they pretend they were dead for a minute as well?

[Khan]

And they never will.

[beebs]

Apparently they were "hiding behind a makeshift bomb wall" that Shane had suggested via walky-talky, to try to protect them from the blast, so they were hiding behind the crappy IKEA couches, presumably, while Rafe professed his undying love to Carrie while tripping over rugs.

If they survive Ken Corday's death, they MIGHT stand a chance, particularly if they move exclusively to Peacock (it's not the MOST unreasonable thing to surmise, Corday is 71), but...I won't hold my breath.

Edited March 22, 2022 by beebs

[carolineg]

I mean, did anyone ever think they were going to kill off John, Marlena, Bo, Hope and Carrie? Lol.  People may have been hoping for Rafe to die but we would never be so lucky.  I kind of liked Carrie/Rafe so I am going to hide underneath a makeshift bomb wall in shame for now lol.  It's like the only person I ever thought Rafe had chemistry with.

[Khan]

Exactly.  And even if they had, we all had been at that rodeo enough times to know that TPTB would have just resurrected them later.  "It's DAYS -- Just Go With It!".

[beebs]

I still say Noah's secretly Rafe's, but then that would tie his smug ass to the canvas forever, and I just don't have the spoons for that.

"Dr. Rolf somehow snuck into the underground passage and injected Rafe through the trap door in his big toe!" they discover years later as Rafe stands arm-in-arm with an also-not-dead Daniel Jonas. They are immediately thrown a ceremonial dinner and given keys to the city.

[carolineg]

"PLAN TO SAVE DAYS!! JOHN/MARLENA DIE A FIERY DEATH!"  *Stay tuned for a November sweeps shocker!  They LIVE!!

 

Ugh...I think GG does really good work with kids though.  That's probably his acting comfort level...I loved that little kid that played David that was always telling Rafe "no" regardless of the context of the scene.  He was adorable.