DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Lye-C]

I remember seeing something on Beth’s Days Page (probably ages ago) that Jack and Jennifer were also being discussed for a spinoff. Maybe their own or maybe Manhattan Lives?

Could Deidre’s fertility issues have played a role in the spinoff not going forward? Or maybe ultimately she didn’t want to relocate to NYC.

[Khan]

I remember that there even was talk of spinning off Calliope (or Calliope & Eugene) onto their own "comic soap," which would have been disastrous, IMO.  If anything, I would have spun them onto a primetime sitcom, which would have been a real first for daytime, lol.

[carolineg]

While I enjoy Calliope and Eugene, there are reasons wacky side characters are wacky side characters.   I am just wondering if this comedic soap was ever fleshed out.  Would it be a parody of soaps?  A dramedy?  An everyday sitcom?  It such a strange concept I want to hear more about it lol

Even the Last Blast Crew Saturday Morning Spinoff sounded better.  Because I remember thinking maybe it could work?

[Khan]

Unfortunately, @carolineg, that's all I know.

You know, when you think about it, the NBC soaps are the ones that always generated the most spinoff talks in the media.  You never heard about ABC being as desperate to spinoff AMC or GH (although, they would eventually, with PC) or CBS being desperate to spin off Y&R or B&B.  But NBC?  As soon as DAYS or AW or even THE DOCTORS was doing even slightly well in the ratings, it was "Let's see who we can spin off from this show!".  It's crazy.

Edited January 6, 2024 by Khan

[carolineg]

Darn, I was hoping we would know if their dogs had storylines and who would join the mess, but it's okay.

NBC's daytime success was so hit or miss they probably had to build their own hype.  I feel like they were the first network to show a lot of cracks in the foundation for their soaps.  I really don't know why a Days sequel never panned out, but I think the closest chance was Passions and NBC gave JER way too much control there.

[beebs]

It's funny, because I have somewhat facetiously bandied about to friends about how I wished they'd spun Doug & Julie off into their own sitcom in the 80s, rather than drop the characters completely. Have them move away to start a new club in a new town with Robert, or something. Bo & Hope can come pop in on occasion etc. 

Considering Bill Hayes' warmth and levity, and SSH's comic timing and dry wit, they could easily carry a sitcom on their own, and if DAYS was no longer interested in keeping them around...

[Khan]

I think that one big problem for NBCD was that it never had a core demographic.  CBSD always had the older, conservative viewers, while ABCD, after struggling initially, made inroads with younger and more urban ones.  Where did that leave NBCD?  I know the network attempted in the '80's and '90's to be the alternative to the other two with SaBa, GEN, SuBe and PAS, but I think those shows were "too niche" to be sustainable in the long run.

Another problem for NBCD was that the network itself never was independent the way CBS and ABC had been in years past.  Instead, NBC always has been a property of one conglomerate or another; and because of that, it's always had to brook more corporate interference in their day-to-day operations than the other networks have had to.

Finally, it's always been my impression that NBCD has long had a more contentious relationship with their affiliates than CBSD and ABCD have had.  They have literally no control over when or how each affiliate schedules their shows in ways that benefits NBCD the most; and the affiliates flat-out don't like much of what the network offers them to run, or trusts them.

I know soaps once were so profitable that they helped keep the networks afloat in other places, but if you told me that wasn't exactly the case for NBCD - that, in fact, NBC's primetime, news and even children's programming divisions always have been bigger moneymakers for them than their soaps - I wouldn't be a bit surprised, lol.

Ironically, @beebs, there was talk in the '70's of spinning off Doug and Julie - but into a new soap, not a sitcom.

Like I said, DAYS and NBCD always has been spinoff-crazy, lol.

Edited January 6, 2024 by Khan

[beebs]

FIGURES! LOL They couldn't help themselves!

I think it's interesting, because, thinking about what niche NBC filled when they were successful during the late 60s and early 70s, and it seems clear that they were initially the home of younger, more progressive viewers, but once Bell left DAYS, Nixon left AW, and Rita Lakin left DOC, ABC sort of...scooped the audience NBC had been cultivating. This left NBC sort of floundering after that. They didn't really have a stronghold market in daytime to latch onto the way ABC and CBS did.

NBC had made their name on game shows, and once that bubble burst in the late 80s, there wasn't much to prop up the daypart.

[carolineg]

Yes!  Their ideas were never cohesive.  All these soaps were a bit too niche like you said (maybe not SaBa, but it had a lot of behind the scenes issues and never found the exact footing).  You could never pair the lineup completely together.  I think the marketing was off a lot as well.  Passions and Sube had big lead ups, but it was always silly to watch those 80's ads for AW, Days, and Santa Barbara like they all had the same tone if that makes sense?

Also, hi @beebs!  Nice to see you!

[beebs]

Hey @carolineg! Thanks, I know I've been pretty absent for awhile 

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NBC really never did have consistent tone after the 70s, I agree. And the fanbases of each of their shows would be resistant to ANY attempt to align "their" show with any of NBC's other shows, particularly in the 90s when NBC was trying to refashion AW into DAYS-lite with the Justine stuff and the Lumina mess (not that I disagree with the outcry, in this case). Very much a case of them seeing a viable idea for a show and hoping it stuck, regardless of whether it worked for their lineup.

I suspect part of it was not having nailed down a strong writer to any of the shows to cultivate this identity, despite having Nixon and Bell in the 60s and 70s. ABC took on Nixon as their figurehead to set the tone for their soaps, and CBS took on Bell (obviously taking the reigns from Irna Phillips and P&G). If NBC had maybe nailed down the Dobsons (if SB had performed better, naturally), or Lakin, it might have worked out better for them.

The closest NBC came to this was with Reilly, but we all know how THAT turned out.

[carolineg]

Yeah, it was very unfortunate how they tried to align AW with Days in the 90's and the fanbase they had left hated it.  I didn't draw me as a non-viewer in either.  Sube, Days and Passions were probably the easiest lineup to pull together.  I think Days resurgence in the 90's made it all feel more viable than it actually was. It was too late in the game at that point and JER had way too much power.

I know someday you're are going to let me know how Days of 1982 and 1983 turned out.     Not like I miss your awesome recaps or anything.....

[Khan]

You're correct on all counts, @beebs.  Especially about NBCD's slate of game shows holding up the rest of the lineup until they inevitably faded.

Imagine for a moment, though, if NBC, and not CBS, had brokered the deal that brought Y&R to their lineup in '72/'73.  Would NBCD's fortunes have been different?

Lin Bolen, as well, had a chance to counter ABCD with HTSAM, but from what I understand, the show was DOA, thanks to bad writing.

Oh, totally, lol! 

NBCD's marketing always has been such an embarrassment.  We laugh and roll our eyes at DAYS' current promos today, but were campaigns like "It Will Excite You!" or "I used to be hot [!@#$%^&*] on that ABC soap, but now I'm at DAYS and I'm loving the difference (until ABC offers me more money and better storylines)!" any better, lol?

Even their "Love in the Afternoon" campaign, which happened years before ABCD's, was so low-rent and low-energy, it was more like "Snooze in the Afternoon." 

And OMG, when Pat Falken Smith and her team returned to DAYS after working on GH!  That was an excellent opportunity to put together a brief montage of some of PFS' past work on DAYS with the v.o. saying, "The writers who wrote all that great stuff you loved on that other show?  Well, they've come back home - to DAYS!  And you're gonna REALLY love what they do next!"  So what does NBCD's marketing department do instead?  After inadvertently giving GH more advertising by mentioning their name, they gather some of DAYS' older stars together (and NOT the younger ones, who might have appealed more to ABC viewers) and have them stand on risers and smile for the camera like a damn high school show choir!

Anyways....

You might get away with suggesting DAYS and SaBa were tonally similar, but AW, too?  Girl, no, lol!  To me, AW always was like ATWT and GL's cousin who shopped at TJMaxx instead of Bloomingdale's or Macy's.  It might have tried to be hip like the other soaps on NBCD, but it never could stop being just another, meat-and-potatoes P&G soap in its' heart.

As for whether SaBa also was "too niche" for the mainstream audience, I would say SaBa was "too niche" in tone, if not in content.  IMO, SaBa always was more irreverent and tongue-in-cheek than even the ABCD soaps.  And I think it's quite telling that, after trying for most of its' run to siphon viewers away from GH, SaBa (and the Dobsons) gave up toward the end and tried to steal away GL's audience instead, hiring both Pam Long and Kim Zimmer, phasing out many of the Capwells and Lockridges and rebuilding the show around the blue-collar Walker clan.  IOW, after trying to be the anti-dote to the P&G shows, SaBa decided to be like the P&G shows instead.

I agree.  There never was any tonal threads that could connect AW, DAYS and the other shows on NBCD's lineup meaningfully.  In fact, if you were a typical NBCD viewer, it probably was quite jarring to go from a show like AW, which was so traditional and down-to-earth that it could be almost journeyman-like; to DAYS, where couples were jetting off to exotic locales in search of prisms and [!@#$%^&*] (to say nothing of the madness that went down in the '90's, lol).  I mean, how do you build an ad campaign around that and everything else on the lineup?  "NBC Daytime: We're Random as [!@#$%^&*] And We Guess We're Okay With That?"

JER and PASSIONS are what happens when you, as a network, give creative autonomy to a reclusive individual with deep-seated psychological issues, who then creates a show that is so god-awful and that will never appeal to anyone older than the age of 12.  At the very least, you are dooming your entire lineup to the kind of existence that NBC's daypart has to this day.

ICAM, @carolineg.

You know NBCD was making a mistake in trying to align AW more with DAYS when even JFP was like, "Nah," lol.

Edited January 6, 2024 by Khan

[carolineg]

@Khan I always thought if Santa Barbara could have made it a bit longer it would have fit in the mid 90's lineup.  Moreso than AW.  AW just felt dated by then.  SB had the campiness and humor that you could at least market.

I do have a fond liking for the "It will Excite you Promos!"  Because they are absolutely hilarious to watch now.   For some reason I always got the feeling Peter Reckell in particular wanted to die of embarrassment.

[Khan]

I agree.  But I think that one SOW article we read re: "Manhattan Lives" was correct: NBC's affiliates had lost whatever faith or patience they had in the show and gave up on it.  Did they give up on it too soon?  Maybe.  But I don't think there was anything the network could have done to convince them otherwise.

Poor AW.  That show tried and tried and tried to move the needle again, but it was like no one apart from their most diehard fans even cared anymore.

I want to die for him and for everyone else who was forced to participate, lol.  Even those yellow-and-black promos that ABCD actors had to do after Disney had purchased the network weren't as embarrassing.

If NBCD had been smart, or smarter, they could have figured out how to steal "Clarence" away from CBSD.  Just imagine him promoting DAYS ("Don't blink, Marlena, and don't look away!," lol.)

Edited January 6, 2024 by Khan

[carolineg]

Oh definitely I think it was out of NBC's control, but if it could have just made it a couple more years I think the audience could have been there.   The markets are a bit weird to me because I was from Illinois then California so Days and GH aired at different times.  I now live in a state where Days/GH before Peacock aired at the same time and I think that's more common?  So I am not sure if GH/SB would have gone up against one another or not in most markets.   So I might re-evaluate my thoughts because I don't think it ever would have done that well against GH.  But if it just aired against talk shows and stuff it might have done okay.  I am not explaining this well, but I just don't know SB's exact competition at the time. 

AW was so mismanaged at the end and the slow death was rough.  I would fast forward my VHS tape for the 60 seconds just to avoid it and move on swiftly to Days lol. 

Drake and Deidre looked surprisingly into it.  Fierce head snaps.

I kinda liked the Yellow/Black ABC print ads because it was just like a couple of words-Nikolas-Brooding Romantic- lol.  Find out more on GH!  So silly.  The bumpers on air were ugly though.