DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[carolineg]

Both of those ideas would work too.  My thinking was instead of making Alex North a psychopath for no reason he could have blamed Marlena for Sam's death and at least had a reason for this crazy elaborate revenge plan.  Sam pretending to be Marlena would also be very in character though.

[j swift]

It also means that if Jessica Fallon came to Salem after college in 1980, she either would've been a 12-year-old nursing prodigy, or Marie would've had her at 15, neither of which fits the timeline.

Scotty Banning was born in 1978, making Julie a grandmother at 29 years old. 

Notably, Eli is listed as 45 in his wiki, which means that he was born the year before Scotty, which is almost possible since David and Val broke up in 1977.  But, retroactively, that means that Julie was a grandmother at 28.

I guess none of the Horton actresses on DAYS are particularly vain about their age, like Eileen Fulton?  Meanwhile, 60-year-old Roark Critchlow is playing 55-year-old Mike Horton.

Edited December 14, 2023 by j swift

[teplin]

I don't know if that was true. Susan Hayes:

“I was surprised when Julie’s son [David] went away to summer camp and was played by a 10-year-old and came home a 6-foot-4 blond and an unhappy adolescent with a sex life and pimples. That seemed very jarring. I’m used to it now, but I was hurt. The head writer explained to me that I was just being … that I didn’t want to be in an older category, but had to get used to it."

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-susan-seaforth-hayes-interview/

 

[Contessa Donatella]

I'm still curious where you came up with this. Were you maybe not watching when it was shown? Because it was very clear - Korean War. The only way it wasn't weird, because it was weird, but we were watching M*A*S*H* at the time, I believe, and that was also the Korean War. And then as a nation we had a considerable pause before we had the Vietnam War appear in pop culture. 

And apropos of nothing any more than a lot of talk about JER & about Marlena, did folks know that Deidre has a new dog & that she named him Reilly? I want to see a pic but none has been forthcoming! 

[j swift]

That's amusing.  Because I was wondering if it was SSH's mother Elizabeth Harrower that made her a grandmother at an early age.  But, according to the internet, she didn't start writing until 1979.

[Contessa Donatella]

About Deidre Hall

https://thecliffedge.com/?p=10538

[Gray Bunny]

Thanks for the math

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 Let's go with that and we'll say to hell with any SORASing that comes into play. After all, Julie seemed to go from 16 in 1965 to late 30's by the mid 70's, and then her grandson was in his late teens by the late 80's. So weird how they aged up Susan Seaforth Hayes' perceived age so rapidly. 

[te.]

I wasn't even born when it aired, but yeah, my impression was always that they handled it with more of a "don't mention what war" approach. Apparently not! It must've been something that filtered through considering they modified it later when they could mention the Vietnam war. It's my bad! But glad to have it clarified that they did mention it on air.

Edited December 14, 2023 by te.

[Contessa Donatella]

Understood. Age is not apparent when messaging online. Since I am old as dirt, I watched a lot of the Bill Bell Salem writing. Even though AW is my favorite, it is really the Bill Bell Salem writing that hooked me forever more on soaps. Susan & Julie & David & poor baby Dickie is literally the first I remember. That's like Aug. 1976 I think. 

[AbcNbc247]

Agreed.

It seemed like Julie, and Doug too were victims of the youth movement at the time.

I remember when we were discussing that time period in this thread a while back, we saw that once Doug and Julie were married, as a couple they were pretty much backburnered. 

Until the whole Larry Atwood saga. 

[Khan]

First of all, @carolineg and @Paul Raven, I absolutely love your ideas on how you'd rewrite the Alex North story.  So much better than what JER concocted, lol.

I think I would've gone down an entirely different path with Alex.  In my scenario, Alex would be an abusive ex-boyfriend of Samantha's from Denver, who would be back in Marlena's life, but with an assumed name and new face (preferably not Wayne Northrop's).

Alex, or whatever he was known as back then, disappeared years ago under mysterious circumstances.  Except, those circumstances wouldn't be all that mysterious for too much longer, as we would learn (through newly created flashbacks of Marlena's, featuring younger versions of herself and Sam) that Samantha killed Alex (or believed she did) to protect Marlena, whom the boyfriend had attacked while Marlena was trying to keep him from hurting Samantha again; and then convinced Marlena to help her dispose of his body.  Subsequently, Samantha fled to California to pursue her acting career, while Marlena took the job that brought her to Salem for the first time, with neither sister ever learning that the boyfriend, in fact, survived his injuries.

[Contessa Donatella]

It goes without saying that Alex North as we knew him, could hardly have been worse, but gee, who knew he could be so much better?!!! 

[Lye-C]

Alex having been married to Sam and then going after Marlena for revenge makes sense. I like it. 

[carolineg]

Great idea too!

I always thought it was strange that the show did so little with Sam.  Not even bringing her back to life, but she never had any exes or children that popped out of the woodwork like you said.  I think for a number of years Andrea Hall probably would have returned for a short arc and instead we got the first Hattie plot that just went nowhere.  And then Deidre doing whatever she was doing with Hattie after that.

[Khan]

Now there (Samantha's long-lost child) was an opportunity to introduce an African-American character with ties to one of the main families on DAYS.  They could have said that Samantha got pregnant by a black man - perhaps, an O.J. Simpson-type, who was a successful professional athlete-turned-actor - but gave up the baby, because of her career, and because she was afraid her family never would accept a half-black grandchild.

Even better, they could have revealed that Samantha turned to prostitution when her acting career had stalled, and that her child was fathered by one of her johns.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Khan