DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Contessa Donatella]

OHHHHH. Why didn't you ... Okay, never mind.  All is forgiven.

[JAS0N47]

After Ralph Waite (Father Matt on Days) died, Bill told me back in the 1950's he would sometimes go to Ralph's church in New York and hear his sermons. (Ralph went into acting in the 1960's and finally appeared on Days as a priest at the end of his career.)

We would mostly discuss Days, but Bill would always have some fun additional details to add! 

I just heard from Don Frabotta last week and he told me that it was Bill that gave him the nickname "Fraboats", and it's still stuck to this day. Don heard from Susan recently and she still calls him Fraboats!

[DRW50]

Those are lovely stories. I always had a lot of respect for Waite through his work on the Waltons and NCIS, etc.

[Contessa Donatella]

I took his question at face value. I assure you I have no problem identifying Maree Cheatham. But, thanks as always.

[dragonflies]

[Khan]

It's incredible to me how a soap that was so popular could produce so many promos and ads that were so cheesy.

[DRW50]

Some seem deliberately cheesy (like the one about why Patch has an eyepatch, which made me laugh), while some others are just the worst excesses of the period (mainly that first promo, which looked like a Fleetwood Mac video - and poor Genie, so horribly styled).

I love the "thank you for making us #1" promo because if we are meant to believe it's the characters thanking us, we're meant to believe Victor took time from drug-running and terrorizing Salem to express his gratitude to us.

I do appreciate the expense in filming that Patch and Kayla promo set out in a "real" Salem, but I was distracted by the dry-cleaning sign. Was that meant to be a real business in Salem? 

I liked the short promo (again using real film stock) advertising Generations - set in Chicago!

Those two promos with Jack couldn't be more different. Hard to believe they were only about 3 years apart. Still, took more time than Luke Spencer or Todd Manning. 

Seeing Adrienne reminds me of how dirty the show did that character. 

If I knew where they were I might watch some clips of Marina as I remember some fans saying she finally gets interesting in the last months of her life (when she is obsessed with "the key").

Edited April 6 by DRW50

[fivethej]

What was the air date when Gabi told off both Andre & Kristen?

Edited April 6 by fivethej

[Khan]

V.O.: This week on DAYS: Diana is trapped inside a deadly boring virtual reality game - and only Roman's bare chest can save her!

[janea4old]

When I first looked at this IG posted here, I saw the image on the front and then clicked on the left/right scrolling to see the other images.  It appeared to a series of still images from old promos, with *only* the final screen coming alive into the "thank you" promo.

On my device, there is no "arrow" showing in the middle of the other images to indicate that I could press the image to play the video. In this IG, I had saw only still images, and didn't see any promos except for the "thank you" one at the end.

I read the posts by @Khan and @DRW50 here that were following that, and saw all the comments about various promos, and I was puzzled because I didn't see promos, so, at first, I assumed that the discussion must be referencing promos previously discussed much much earlier in this thread.

Then I realized that you were describing what must be promos that specifically relate to the images I saw.  I wondered at first if you both had previously seen all those promos and that the still images were simply bringing the promos back up for discussion.

But then I decided to investigate, and I pressed my mouse onto the middle of each image and then saw each promo video come alive.  Aha!
What a richness of cheesy old promos!  Thanks to @dragonflies for posting this and to both of you who commented!

Edited April 6 by janea4old

[dragonflies]

I love that IG page, they post a lot of old promo's commerical's etc

[Khan]

My favorite, if you could call any of those a favorite: "Two men fight for Jessica's love - and one of them is the Salem Strangler!"  Way to sweeten the pot, VO dude, lol.

Meanwhile, you could tell "It Will Excite You!" wanted so much to be another "Love in the Afternoon," but the dramatic head turns and goofy lip-syncs just make you think of the Solid Gold Dancers instead.

[janea4old]

The Jack/Kayla rape promo was creepy.  I get what they were doing back then, but now, yikes.

[Khan]

I agree.  The truth is, Jack's "redemption arc" and subsequent romance(s) with Jennifer always left me feeling queasy.  It's unfortunate that DAYS wrote him into such a corner, because Matthew Ashford was/is one of the show's best-ever actors, but Jack really needs to go and stay gone.

[DRW50]

They went so far from one direction to another, from darkness to comedy. I can see why they did, but it made Jack very difficult to even see as a character. And he really wasn't a character when Mark Valley and Steve Wilder played him. They have given Jack more serious material again in the last decade, but I'm not sure any of it was especially worthwhile.

That clip is long gone from Youtube but I was always fascinated by the "rape slap" clip. On paper, it's horrendous - Jennifer has been raped and is hiding her rape, which leads her to slap Jack when he tries to kiss her, while Jack believes she is calling him a rapist (as she literally says, "stay away from me, you rapist.") I could say they were trying to make us feel sorry for Jack or play "good rapist" and "bad rapist." But Melissa and Matt played the hell out of all the melodrama and instead of just being "poor Jack," it came across more as reminding viewers that Jack would never get past what he did to Kayla. 

(I assume it's never brought up with Jack and Kayla now, if they ever even interact)

Edited April 6 by DRW50