DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Lye-C]

Robert Kelker-Kelly! I liked him too especially with Billie. I preferred Carly with Lawrence. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Here's a real treat then. 

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[DRW50]

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[asafi]

what is it? did Farah just badmouth Deidra???? 

 

 

I really liked the original Kate, deb Adair. she was great! it was nice bringing back Kate during 1996, just wasn't the same. and Lauren did wore out her welcome, and the romance with the fake roman is just stupid. not interesting. 

[carolineg]

That's a clip from the short lived reality show on E! called Dirty Soap with Farah, JPL, Kirsten Storms, Kelly Monaco, Nadia, and Brandon Beemer. 

I think Farah was trying to be funny or clever or something.  She comes off obnoxious throughout the entire show.

[te.]

We all know those reality shows are scripted to hell and back so it was probably meant to drum up the internet shade machine.

[carolineg]

If it was scripted it was done badly.  The show was so boring.  Nothing happened.  Plus, I think Farah was supposed to be sort of the "villain".

[Contessa Donatella]

This clip from it keeps showing up over & over. Yet I have never seen another clip from it. Makes me think this is what passes for its most outrageous scene or something. And, in that case I would have to say your assessment of it as Bo-ring must be dead-on! 

[Lye-C]

I liked Deborah a lot too. I can’t see her Kate being turned into a villain like Lauren’s. Her Kate also wouldn’t have become the town welcoming mat! 

[Contessa Donatella]

Maloney, M., & Bell, L. P. (2012). The Young and Restless Life 0f William J. Bell. Sourcebooks, Inc.

After a decade with Irna, Bill was ready for a new challenge. One arrived when Betty Corday, wife of the late Ted Corday, a former ATWT director & co-creator of Days of Our Lives, contacted Bill about taking over the head writing duties at Days of Our Lives.

The NBC serial, which featured the beloved Horton clan, had been struggling in the ratings and was headed for cancellation. ...

"It was the moment of truth," recalled Bill, who talked Betty's offer over with Lee before accepting it. ... The fact that Days hadn't found its creative footing yet actually made the opportunity even more attractive.

Irna wasn't happy with Bill's choice. At the time, though, she privately thought that he would fail & the show would be canceled & he'd be back. However, what happened was very different & Bill & his mentor lost touch. She also thought that Bill was driven because Lee made more money than he did.

Bill never failed to honor the contributions Irna had made to his career. Later saying, "None of us do anything of consequence alone. Like Agnes Nixon, I, too, had that legend of all legends, Irna Phillips, who invested a lot of herself in me."

p. 42

Bill, in fact, viewed going to Days in a positive light. He was, after all, leaving Irna's employ to save a show that she, along with Ted Corday, had created.

And save it he did.

p.59

In 1966 Bill left Irna's employ & went to work for Betty Corday. Bill's history with the Cordays went way back. Ted was a director at ATWT. Betty worked in the Casting Dept. at ATWT. "Ted was a superb director whose unique rapport & sensitivity with actors is legendary," Bill said. "His ability to extract every ounce of drama & emotion from the written word was a writer's dream. Betty, partner to Ted, was an equally dedicated mother, as well as a writer and a producer & a very powerful force in her own right. Each was the ultimate complement to each other.

p.60

Betty asked Bill to save her husband's show in 1966. Irna & NBC execs asked Bill why he was risking the sure thing of working at top-rated ATWT to take on ratings-plagued Days, which was about to be canceled. "I knew there was a chance of that happening," Bill said, adding enigmatically, "but what better time to take over a show?"

First off, he made casting changes. Hired Susan Flannery. Hired Denise Alexander. Hired Susan Seaforth Hayes. Immediately, Julie's boyfriend David got her best friend Susan pregnant due to a mistaken drunken evening. They all decided David would marry Susan & divorce later after the baby was born. Things were not to go well at all for poor little baby Dickie. David was supposed to be watching him & he fell off the swing & broke his neck. So Susan temporarily lost her mind & killed David. So, now, Julie & Susan are no longer best friends.

Lee Philip Bell was Bill's inspiration for the character of Laura! "Not her experiences, but the person, the being," Bill revealed in 1973. "When Bill was in charge of the decision-making in casting, it was assumed that you were a good actress before you got there," Seaforth Hayes recalls. "This wasn't a training ground for neophytes." SSH tells about her audition, a confrontation between Julie Williams and Susan Martin. (Funny, you'd think that would be Julie Olson.) "It was a very trying & emotional scene which involved anger, threats & hysterics. Julie was trying to give Susan a heart attack. Instead, she brought about her own labor pains."

At DAYS Bill didn't have the power that Irna had with P&G. He had to submit his stories to NBC. He planned to tell the story of the two brothers, Bill & Mickey, both in love with Laura. NBC said, "No, not doing it." He replied, "Then, I want a signed release from you that you will never use this story on any other show on NBC." Bill's bold bluff worked & he got to do the story!

Lin Bolen, the NBC Daytime exec who was portrayed by Faye Dunaway in Network, wanted Bill to do a particular story. He thought it was wrong but he tried it & could not continue. "He told me that he would never do that again," Susan Flannery shared.

Bill wrote a key scene where Bill is at a bar playing the song "Laura" on the juke box. This was the theme song from the Gene Tierney movie also named "Laura". In it the words said, "Laura, she's only a dream." Bill was drunk & morose over the marriage between Laura & his brother Mickey. Laura, a doctor, was sleeping in the "on call" room at the hospital. Bill found her there & got her up. Sleepily, she listened as he told her about the song & that she is NOT a dream! Then, it happened. It was left to interpretation whether the sex was consensual. Bill Bell thought that it was.

(This directly disputes what we saw happen!)

[asafi]

 

 

can't believe tptb killed both bill and Laura.. come on 

but astonishing the show has this amazing footage from the 70's!!!!! why can't they upload those treasure episodes online? so can finally see the stories from 65-1983. such a rare period. 

[Lye-C]

The two main actors to play Bill had been dead for years. The character had appeared on only one occasion in the past thirty years. I see no issue with killing him off.

Killing off Laura was unnecessary but could easily be undone. I’d love a Melaswen 2.0 story where Laura, Abby, Anjelica, Lawrence, and a few others turn out to be alive.

[Contessa Donatella]

What an amazing clip & filled with so many wonderful flashbacks. This is truly a treasure!!! 

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Edited February 19, 2024 by Donna L. Bridges
crying

[Lye-C]

I especially enjoyed the Jennifer and Bill flashback with the “real” Bill. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, I so loved Ed Mallory. My favorable memories of him go back to the very beginning of the show & I was a teenager & he was one of many very blue-eyed men with very melodic voices that stand out so in those memories. Paul Newman, Ed Mallory, Robert Newman, deep dark blue eyes that are kind & go on forever. And deep, gravelly voices. Later, with the recast Christopher Stone also had those deep dark baby blues & that same kind of warm but scratchy timbre to his voice,. Mallory played such a kind, intentional man that his rape of Laura was all the more heart-breaking to watch. And, Mallory & Susan Flannery as a couple were just choice! 

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