DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Titus Andronicus]

 

 

NBC exec Fred Silverman is the one who suggested Marie be a nun. He looked at the Horton family tree in early 1979 and said You know what this family needs? A nun!

 

I just looked up what was going on with Frann.

 

Frann was taken off contract by Ann Marcus. The end of Amanda's story was supposed to be her living happily ever after with Greg.

 

Meanwhile, Days was trying to build a relationship between Chris and Mary. However, Josh Taylor and Barbara Stanger didn't exactly get along. Harrower brought back Amanda for that reason and to also make some relationship conflict for Chris, but Frann wasn't put back on contract.

 

Harrower did want to continue the story, but Frann didn't want to stay.

 

The blurb didn't indicate whether Frann just wanted to move on, was tired of not having a contract or if she, too, did not want to work with Josh Taylor. I suppose it could be one or more of those situations.

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Marie was a nun during one of Maree Cheatham's brief returns in the early 1970s.  There is a Horton family photo that includes Tom, Alice, and all five kids -- including Addie and Marie, and Marie is dressed as a nun.   

[Khan]

IA, Alex and Marie's backstory is UGLY.  I'd be okay with the ill-fated romance and maybe Jessica's conception, but the S&M and the drugs (and the murder/accidental killing)?  Elizabeth Harrower, or whichever HW dreamed up that aspect of their past, went entirely too far.

[Franko]

Yup, Marie as a nun goes back to Bill Bell's writing. That said, I've always wondered if having her be torn between her vows and feelings for Alex was an attempt at capitalizing on The Thorn Birds (which was a big hit book at the time).

[Paul Raven]

When Marie returned as a nun Bill Bell wanted to do a story about her being tempted to forgo her vows but it never came to pass. Bill was struggling to tell current stories in the half hour and I guess the controversial aspect put a lid on that development.

[Titus Andronicus]

 

Thanks. My early Horton history is obviously quite shaky. I need to go back and read early summaries.

[te.]

IIRC, Marie became a nun because of what happened with Tommy.

[asafi]

 

Any chance to see somewhere the story of Marie falling in love with her brother, Tommy AKA Mark Brooks?

[beebs]

That's what I always thought, though it appears she simply left for New York at the time, and then wasn't heard from for awhile, which, I believe, is the time period Elizabeth Harrower seems to be trying to fill in (or retcon) . Because having three doomed relationships and a suicide attempt in the span of 18 months isn't enough to drive you to a convent apparently. So she had to make the time leading up to it even worse! 

Edited November 18, 2020 by beebs

[beebs]

Only via summaries. No one has posted any episodes past between 1966 and 1976 that I've seen anywhere, unfortunately.

 

 

I would be incredibly interested to see how that would've played out. Is there any information on who she would be drawn to in this storyline? 


I find it fascinating because Harrower seems intent on doing things differently and really pushing the psychosexual narrative back into the show, but she just...doesn't have the finesse of Bell or PFS, and a lot of it steps WAY over the line in many cases to me in a way that reads as cynical. I find early DAYS' steps into controversy worked because they managed to reflect the dichotomy between the old fashioned values the Hortons represented and tried to uphold in their public life, and that they truly believed to be the "correct" things to do, with the realities of the world that tended to clash with those values, and their attempts to "do the proper thing" usually ended up making their problems exponentially worse. There's really none of that in Harrower's work, it's just salaciousness for the sake of shock value in many cases. I think Harrower had potential to do very good things, but may have been under pressure to do shocking stories to give the show a shot in the arm and just couldn't do it in a graceful way.

 

 

Anyway, that's just my two cents, onto October:


One paragraph in and Mike already wins Dumbass of the Month: He asks Earl to add Margo's $1000 onto his loan so he can pay Trish and David back. Earl is fine with it, so long as Mike runs errands for him after work. Mike's dug himself a beautiful hole, hasn't he? He tells Margo about his side gig, and Margo asks what kind of errands Mike needs to run. Mike responds by stamping his feet like a two-year-old and telling her to mind her business, and leaves. MARGO WILL NOT BE SUSPICIOUS AT ALL NOW, SURELY.

 

Margo goes back to Earl and tells him that Mike will pay him back ASAP and that he can find someone else to run his errands. I'm sure with Margo's firm and intimidating voice, Earl was incredibly moved by this.

 

Just as I suspected, Earl gets back to Margo later in the day and tells her he'll need Mike for the next six months or so. Soz. Margo threatens to tell the Better Business Bureau on him (OH NOES!), and Earl tells her that if she does, Mike will have an "accident", like a mysterious house fire...and no one would know who's to blame! Believe it or not, only NOW does Margo realize Earl's a crook. This story has been going on HOW long now?? Time you got your nose out of your "How To Plan Your Own Funeral" book, Margo.

 

Earl then repeats his threats of "mysterious accidents" to Mike, and warns him that he will be kept on for 'as long as he is useful', which will apparently be a long time. Good job, Mike.

 

 

 

 

Chris has designed a solar panel of sorts, but Anderson is struggling to get production up and running due to a cashflow problem caused by Mary's cockup with the government contract. Alex offers Bob the money to get production started, no strings attached (he says). Bob, for once, has the good sense to be suspicious, and turns Alex's offer down.

 

Alex then takes Stephanie to dinner, and tries to convince Stephanie to butter Bob up and get him to accept Alex's offer. He then propositions her, and Stephanie thinks he's joking, and goes home alone. Alex, not one to give up, tracks Stephanie down at the office a few days later, and suggests a much more intimate dinner the next time. Stephanie gives in, and heads to Alex's apartment for dinner, where he gifts her a gold necklace, before taking her to bed.

 

Apparently wining and dining (and bedding) Stephanie has worked, and Alex sets up a personal loan to Bob for the $4 Million needed to start production of Chris' solar panels. He even finds time for the girlfriend he's two-timing, and arranges for Phyllis to trade her Anderson stock for Magnis stock. Things are getting messy, and Bob frets upon finding out about Phyllis' little trade. Her trade may have cost him controlling interest in Anderson.

 

At the office, Mary walks in on Bob and Stephanie in an embrace. Mary sees the embrace as another sign that Bob and Stephanie are having an affair, and runs off before Stephanie can explain that it wasn't indicative of anything sexual. Stephanie does approach Mary later to explain this, and reiterates that she sees Bob as family, and that she's no rival to Linda. Mary actually believes her.

 

Later, Alex meets with the one and only Harold Trask to discuss University Hospital's heretofore unheard-of financial troubles. Alex suggests that, though Tom's doing a great job at chief of staff, the money troubles started when he took over from Greg, and that maybe he needs an assistant, like Neil, for instance.

 

 

 

 

Bob, sick of Linda's nonsense, has Mickey take her out of Bob's will. When Linda finds out, she lies to Bob and tells him she's pregnant, because, of course, Bob wouldn't want to disinherit an heir! Bob is not impressed that Linda's (allegedly) pregnant, saying he's too damned old to be a father again. But Linda acts wounded by the suggestion she abort, and reminds Bob how good a father he's been to Melissa.

 

 

 

 

Marlena calls Sam in LA, and Sam insists she isn't back on drugs, but she's still feeling lousy. Marlena decides to fly down to see her. There, the doctors tell Marlena that Sam needs hospitalization as her kidneys may fail. Marlena persuades Sam to return with her to Salem (Don's gonna LOVE that one).

 

Returning to Salem, Marlena discovers Don debating whether to run for city council full-time (since he was filling in temporarily as a favour to the mayor last month). Don is uneasy about campaigning while Marlena is pregnant and while Sam is ill, but Marlena urges him to run. He's pushed further towards running by Alex, who contributes $15k to his potential campaign.

 

Neil runs tests on Sam, and discovers her kidneys are very likely failing, and that she'll need a transplant, or she will be on dialysis, possibly for the rest of her life. Sam takes the news with her usual poise, sobbing that she'd rather be dead.

 

Donna inadvertently compromises Don's campaign almost immediately, by contacting a local "modelling agent" named Terry Gilbert, hoping to do some modelling to help pay Don back for covering her shoplifting sprees. Yeah, too bad Terry's modelling agency is a front for porn! Dumb Donna strikes again!

 

Donna's been hired on, for a whopping $7.50/hr ($26.90 today, I might add), and we find out Terry and Earl the Very Legitimate and Above-Board Loan Shark are in cahoots. Earl tells Terry to hold onto any pictures taken of Donna until after the election, as they could be worth a fortune.

 

 

 

 

Julie spots Lee and Doug together, as Doug is buying the emeralds at Chez Julie, of course. Doug doesn't see Julie before she runs off, but Lee does, and is thrilled. Her little plan is working.

 

Robert visits Julie, and lets her know that Doug hired Jordan to treat her. Well, that really sets Julie off, since Doug is still interfering, even though he has a new woman (she thinks). Her trust broken in Jordan, she assumes everything she's told him is being filtered to Doug, and cancels the facial skin graft. All this to spite her loved ones, who she thinks are more concerned with her looks than her mental well-being.

 

She tells Jordan as much the next time he visits, while he tries to get her to recall all the progress she's made. Enraged that he glossed over the fact Doug hired him, she lunges at Jordan, enraged, but realizes at the same moment how ridiculous she's being and breaks down in his arms, apologizing for being such a mess. JUST THEN, DOUG WALKS IN! He figures all of Jordan's advice to stay away from Julie is a ruse to get into her bed! (I mean...maybe not consciously but like...it kinda reads that way, tbh). Julie, while apologetic for her outburst, can't get over the fact he covered up who hired him, and asks Jordan to stop therapy sessions, having lost trust in him.

 

Jordan, realizing what's happened, goes to visit Doug. Doug isn't there, but Lee is. Jordan tells her that he and Julie aren't having an affair, she's simply going through "affection transference". Lee manipulates Jordan's words and suggests to Doug, when he returns home, that Julie HAS fallen for Jordan, and wants Doug to GTFO.

 

Julie, meanwhile, goes to see Laura at Bayview. Laura, now being surprisingly rational, tells Julie to get the surgery done, and go back to Doug. 

 

Well...little late for that, because Doug hears Lee's bogus version of Jordan's explanation, gets drunk (again), and goes home to find Lee in lingerie, ready to go. And go, they do.

 

Trish, starting to worry about how much Doug is drinking (how many people in Salem are lushes at this point?? YEESH!), goes to Julie and begs her to talk to Doug, even as a friend. Julie won't do it, knowing how much she's screwed his life up already. Trish shows some more backbone and snaps at Julie that she'll do it herself, and not to worry anymore.

 

After going back and forth on it, Julie forgives Jordan, and AGAIN decides to go ahead with the facial skin grafts. Just call her Julie The Metronome.

 

 

 

Steven signs over his partnership of Chez Julie to Doug to pay Doug off for covering his gambling debts. Julie doesn't want anything to do with Doug, but agrees, since Steve DOES owe him the money. Looks like they're writing Steve out now, as Steve doesn't even directly approach his own sister about this, instead getting Mickey to inform her. I suspect we will not hear much more about Steve after this.

 

 

 

Dayplayer intern Joe invites Cathy, the 17-year-old runaway, to a "swinging party". Marie overhears Cathy accept. Cathy gets wasted, and Joe takes her back to her boarding house, where he tries to force himself on her. Marie is lurking in the hallway, and busts into Cathy's room, scaring him off. Marie comforts her as she sobs.
 

Maggie convinces Mickey that taking Cathy in isn't coming from a place of needing to be a mother (yeah right), it's a need to help someone who's in trouble. Mickey relents, agreeing to have Cathy stay with them on a trial basis.

 

Connecting Alex to yet ANOTHER character, he hires Cathy as his maid, and Cathy confesses to Marie that she's smitten with her new boss. Marie bites her tongue so hard she leaves imprints. Cathy also now wants to live on her own, since things are going her way now (you know, after like...two weeks). Chris warns Cathy to stay away from Alex, saying "there are other guys who could show you a good time and get serious about you". DUDE, SHE'S 17! ICK!




What is with this show as uncomfortably inappropriate intergenerational stories in the late 70s? And why are they so often involving Donna??? Like...most of these are underplaying how creepy the stories are, and it's just...weirding me out. There is a LOT of exploitation of teenage girls on this show in this era, and it's just too much. Blech!

 

I don't feel like we got a satisfactory end to Steve. It's like...just as his story ramped up, he just...handed his story over to Lee, and disappeared? Did Durant kill him? Did he say a proper goodbye? What about Trish's diamonds she taped to her desk? It's just so WEIRD how none of Harrower's storylines are following through so far. The set-ups are there, and yet they'll disappear or shift back into 1st gear just as they start to get momentum going?  It's a very odd era, to say the least.

Edited November 19, 2020 by beebs

[Khan]

Have I mentioned how much I appreciate these monthly recaps, @beebs?   They have REALLY lifted my spirits.

 

Reading these synopses, however, I get the feeling that DAYS was a show in desperate need of new direction.  We all can complain from now until doomsday how much the '80's ruined the show with all the run-and-gun stuff, but the truth is, there was no way the show could revert back to the Bell/Falken Smith style of storytelling.  The ratings were dropping, and there was really no one around who can do that famous style of storytelling as well as Bell and PFS.

Edited November 19, 2020 by Khan

[jam6242]

Bill Hayes has said that Bill Bell originally intended for Doug to lead Sister Marie astray in 1970, but tossed that story plan aside when he saw the chemistry between Bill H and Susan Seaforth.

[beebs]

Thanks, @Khan! Means a lot to hear you say that! It's been a LOT of fun writing them out, and learning more about this lost time for the show. I'm hoping to keep going through to the end of '83, since I think we all pretty much know what happened past then. But we'll see.

I sense that there were so many factors challenging DAYS' success at that time, and it would've been really difficult to maintain the tone that Bell and PFS had set up without a very solid changing of the guard to maintain the momentum. Unfortunately, I feel PFS burnt out before she was able to do this, and Corday's desire to see Ann Marcus take the job really stifled any such plan. Surely there were other successful writers of the period who could've maintained that level of quality at the time. I do wonder if the Dobsons could have been swayed from GL at that time, or if their wildly-varying quality would've once again proved a liability at DAYS. Labine/Mayer would've probably been a decent fit...though, of course, they were running their own show at the time.

 

I feel like the shift was inevitable, as you say. I just wish they would've kept the more adult tone the show had previously had, as I feel there was a very distinct shift to DAYS become a show for kids after 1983 that I just can't connect with the same way.

 

Thank you, @jam6242 for that info. Yeah, I think the direction they did choose was probably for the best, though I would've enjoyed seeing Marie back in action sooner, and not have her history become so dark under Harrower.

[Khan]

 

In a way, that's how I feel about the first JER era to the present.  I can connect to the Bill Bell/Pat Falken Smith era (that is, what little I've been able to see/read about it) and I can connect to the Pat Falken Smith II/Maggie DePriest/Sheri Anderson/Leah Laiman/Thom Racina era.  But, once JER entered the picture, I felt like DAYS had regressed into something I never wanted to see or see again.

[victoria foxton]

I feel the same way Khan.