Yes Days needed a shake up but the 1980 revamp was too much.

None of the new characters had much appeal and only Liz was embraced by the audience, and that was under subsequent writers.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

(Tom should be written up for telling Mary her father's medical history)

Well, to be fair, HIPAA wasn't a law until 1996! And hey, Kayla breaks that law on the regular today...

21 minutes ago, Wendy said:

Well, to be fair, HIPAA wasn't a law until 1996! And hey, Kayla breaks that law on the regular today...

Good point.

DAYS does know how to honor their history.

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Yes Days needed a shake up but the 1980 revamp was too much.

None of the new characters had much appeal and only Liz was embraced by the audience, and that was under subsequent writers.

Bill, Laura, Linda, and Stephanie definitely shouldn't have been written out. There was still plenty of storyline for all of them, especially for Linda and Stephanie in the aftermath of Bob's death.

Edited December 17Dec 17 by AbcNbc247

I had to laugh a bit when Amanda was rubbing perfume on her cleavage. I guess she wanted to smell nice in case Chris wanted to motorboat.

Mary Frann was also in the Tang ad with Florence Henderson. Polly Holiday (from Alice) was in the Mon in the Stove Top ad.

What was the point of bringing her back from the dead, only to kill her off again with no real payoff?

WEEK OF JULY 30 - AUGUST 3, 1979
Stephanie Woodruff convinced Mary Anderson to drop the lawsuit against Chris Kositchek because of her father Bob Anderson's health. Stephanie also confessed to Julie Wiliams that she's really the believed dead Brooke Hamilton and had plastic surgery which was as successful as Julie's can be. Margo Horton found Trish Banning's hidden diamonds, but Trish swore her to secrecy. Donna Craig likes Arthur, the son of Marlena's patient, Lester. Doug Williams hit the bottle while admitted to Dr. Neil Curtis that he was raised an orphan and his real name is Brent Douglas.

@SoapDope78 Thanks for that episode. Has it been up before?

The Journal April 17 April 1977

Actor Outlasts Soap Operas

BY DICK KLEINER

After 11 years of playing Dr, Bill Horton on NBC's Days Of Our Lives, Edward Mallory has reached the pinnacle of daytime television. He is one of the most popular of all the soap opera heroes.

But does h e find the work satisfying? " No , " he says. " No , it's not totally satisfying. I'm like an airplane. I've been through all the training—Carnegie Tech and all that — and I'm a good plane. I'm all fueled up and ready to take off. But then I'm stopped just before the wheels leave the ground. I've only taken off a few times in 11 years with Days of Our Lives.

Why, then, does he stay with the show? "Because of the money," Mallory says., with refreshing candor. Mallory comes originally from Cumberland. Met-, where he had a pleasant childhood. There was never a thought of acting as he went through school. After graduating from high school, he became a management trainee with a tire company. Then came the Korean War, which changed his life totally. He went into the Army, became a lieutenant, and was assigned to duties as an instructor. He found he could get his ideas across to his recruits better by dramatizing them — giving impressions, acting out his commands. It worked and -he enjoyed it.

So, when he was discharged, he decided that perhaps he had a future in acting. He went to Carnegie Tech — now Carnegie-Mellon — where he studied drama. He acted in many of the colleges plays and continued to act during s u m m e r vacations. After graduation He stayed in the Pitsburgh area, working on local TV stations. He was spotted there by an ex agent who advised him to try California. In i960 Mallory m a d e the move, and quickly established himself in a career that would ultimately lead to his role on Days Of Our Lives.

Now, however, Edward Mallory wants to branch out. His goal is directing. He has already tried his hand a t directing local little-theater plays, a film about acting, and a spoof of Days Of Our Lives for the cast's amusement. Now he's in the midst of making another spoof of the show, but this one is larger and more ambitious. So far, he's p0ured some $15,000 of his own money into the project. He's using the Days of Lives cast. And he's built a set — the castle of "Dr. Neilsonstein" in "Neilsonvania." The castle set is in Mallory's own living room. "It's all about a rating war between networks," he says. "And the upshot is that CBS tries to build the perfect soap opera hero — -and that's where Dr. Neilsonstein comes in. He makes the perfect-soap opera hero come to life."

6 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

@SoapDope78 Thanks for that episode. Has it been up before?

I'm not sure if it had been posted here before. I ran across it accidentally and I don't remember seeing it myself.

14 hours ago, SoapDope78 said:

Excellent find, thanks! The show is not cooking on full gas yet, but the elements are being gathered, such as Jake's debut, that will put to great effect by Pat Falken Smith.

SOME 2026 SET MYSTERIES...

Here's a sneak peek of a few sets that will be seen (much?) later in 2026...

On the left, some props from George's Kitchen and on the right, a fancy-looking window area.

Finally got around to watching that 1981 episode, and it's still a little crazy to me how different Days became just a few months later. Pat Falken Smith's second run only lasted six months, and we're still enjoying the effects of that six months almost 45 years later.

It's too bad that things didn't work out for Gregg Marx. In addition to being very handsome, he just has such a likable onscreen presence to me.

Btw, Jessica was a total mouse 😂😂