DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Vee]

I have no problem believing Dee threw her weight around, but Crystal ended up having issues at every single show she ever worked on.

[Vizion]

This Ken interview from 2001...

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[titan1978]

What a flashback that article was.  Remember when it seemed like DAYS would leave NBC and ABC seemed like the place it would end up, possibly causing PC to be cancelled and OLTL or AMC to be cut to half hour or cancelled?

 

Now it’s online or nothing once NBC is done.

[AbcNbc247]

I would say somebody should tweet this article to Ron, but he'd probably get all salty and angry at them.

 

I wonder what caused Corday to actually turn back to all the science fiction stuff. Yes, Langan and Brash/Cwikly branched out into outlandish/OTT storytelling but if you think about it a lot of storylines during their tenures were grounded in realism, until JER came back for his second stint.

Edited July 7, 2020 by AbcNbc247

[titan1978]

At the time, I got the impression he was kind of ashamed of what the show had become.  Now I wonder if he was pissed at Reilly for getting his own show and leaving DAYS.
 

He certainly appreciated the ratings Reilly got him, but he spent years and many interviews where he kind of acted like all that was silly.  Until Reilly returned.  Now I think he even says the possession is his favorite story, when for years it clearly was not.

[Manny]

Does anyone know why Brash and Cwikly never came back to DAYS? I seem to remember their short stint was quite popular with the fans back in 2002. They started that mysterious Stefano storyline with the presents Stefano left to everyone. I like that period. It seemed very refreshing after Langan (even though I like some of Langan stuff), but Brash/Cwikly stuff seemed so much more interesting. 

[AbcNbc247]

Yeah, he does. Probably the only reason why though was because of the ratings spike.

[titan1978]

The real giant spike came from the Kristen era, and the culmination of Sami/Austin/Carrie though.  I wonder what the demos were like though.  I bet a whole bunch of young, advertiser coveted eyes were glued to the show then. 

[carolineg]

 

As someone who was pretty young in 1995 the Possession was cool and made me a John/Marlena fan, but Kristen/John/Marlena and Carrie/Austin/Sami kept me.  I was never a huge fan of Bo/Hope though.  That all being said, the Possession is not something I re-watch and even cringe at now.  But all my friends watched/taped it after school, so it had to be geared to younger viewers.  I think Days was often #1 in 18-49, but I could be wrong.  It also was a refreshing change of pace to my other soap GH, which was pretty depressing, albeit awesome, in 1995.

[GLATWT88]

Days had a few weeks at #1 in 1995 and did well in the demos most of that year, but in 1996 it was pretty much #1 every week. 

[Paul Raven]

Ken Corday really puzzles me.

His interviews are often contradictory- he has regularly stated that back from the dead, brainchips, supercouples are over but that isn't reflected onscreen.

He feels a certain responsibilty to his parents legacy but at the same time is a big part of the problem.

[soapfan770]

The amount of contradictory and whiplash interviews Corday gave between 1999-2006 I hope the soap journalists received hazard pay for their time interviewing him.

 

During those years, Days tried to be all things--love stories, family stories, teen stories, social issues, crime stories, murder mysteries, evil twins, cheap stunts, and the kind of bizarre plot twists that seem uniquely Days. It was a foolish to mix all these ingredients AND expect it to work. Corday wanted an everysoap--he got a mess. I remember witnessing  the pitiful attempt to redefine the John/Hope subsex and subsequent subspawn, as complex family drama.(At least the denouement for the final revelations for that story were very good.)

 

If anybody was in need of a public neutering, it was Ken Corday. Corday defended Reilly’s style through the boom period of the mid-90’s. Then, he tried to out-Reilly Reilly with dumb gimmicks like the Princess Gina mess. Then, after a disastrous attempt to fuse Reilly’s outrageousness with more traditional soap story, Corday decided that the most radical thing to do would be to return Days to its’ roots. Ken Corday blamed everything on accomplice Tom Langan, fired him, and brought staff writers Peter Brash and Paula Cwikly to the fore. It seemed to be working, with the duo routinely making silk purses out of sow’s ears like Sami Scams Austin part 12, and the Hope/Lexie baby switch madness. So, what happened? Muttering something about budget expenses, Corday axed Cwikly/Brash and promoted Dena Higley, who basically wrote non-events like the Salem earthquake and mystery goop. The ratings dropped faster than a politician’s trousers, putting DAYS in a weak position when it was time to enter contract renewal talks with NBC. NBC wanted ratings up, budgets slashed, and James E. Reilly back as Head Writer. The alternatives? Go to another outlet that would probably want even more changes, or simply go off the air. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Corday chose to just lay there, and let NBC have their way and watched while Reilly makes a mockery of all the lofty ideals Corday was spouting. 

 

 

[SoapDope]

This is dated 1979, but it is from when he first started on Days.

 

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[victoria foxton]

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Julie and Doug Marry - October 1, 1976

[Darn]

Is this Kristian Alfonso? I feel like it is but I'm not sure. It's from 1981.

 

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