DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[j swift]

BTW I still remember the local news here in LA covering "the protest" of fans who thought Marlena had died.  If you see the video now, the protest signs are totally fake, and protestors amounted to five random extras walking in a very orderly circle in front of the local NBC station rather that the studio where Days was filmed.  It was a classic publicity stunt.

 

Also, one of the most offensive parts of the Sam/Marlena switch was the portrayal of the sanitarium.  Not only was the drug abuse treatment center also a residential center for people with dangerous mental illnesses, but the threat was that Marlena was going to receive electro convulsive treatment (aka shock therapy) because she was non compliant.  That's quite a leap for a soap that had a psychiatrist as one of their leads.

Edited April 13, 2021 by j swift

[carolineg]

 

Didn't Sam need a kidney or something too lol?  And just randomly date day players?

 

I think I would have just left it open for Deidre to do a double roll.   From what I have seen of Andrea, she isn't an actress and comes off incredibly cold. But I guess it was such a pivotal moment in Days history it's fine, but I wonder if PFS would have done things differently in hindsight, knowing DH would become the leading actress on Days for 40 more years.  Who knows?  I can't even remember the last time Marlena mentioned having a twin or her marriage to Don lol

I always thought the protest was serious and real lol

[beebs]

In a sensible world, the kidney issue would've been what finally brings the sisters back together, but they'd already reconciled by then because Ann Marcus said so.

The kidney story was the next in a series of annoying domestic disputes between Don and Marlena that inadvertently showed just how poorly matched they were. Marlena was willing to give up a kidney for Sam, her own pregnancy be damned, and Don didn't even want Sam in the house. It's a miracle their marriage lasted another year, to be honest.

I think PFS knew there wasn't much for Sam to do, knowing that, ultimately, she was hardly like Stuart Chandler, in that she wasn't SO different from Marlena that she would really add anything to the show, other than open the door to yet more doppelganger nonsense. The best course of action, IMO, was indeed to kill her off.

I thought the letter-writing campaign was serious, but the protest...the more I look back on it and how Marlena was written mostly as part of the ensemble at that point, I really can't see it being legit so much as a publicity stunt. The public were way more willing to buy into that stuff back then, let's be honest.

[j swift]

I just researched the LA Times archive and one other tip off that the protest was fake is that it was covered by our local "wacky weatherman" Fritz Coleman rather than an actual reporter and Fritz appeared in a cameo as a reporter on Days the next week.

[carolineg]

 

I am surprised Don and Marlena ever got married.  Don kind of sucks.  Marlena could have done better lol.  I did always think Marlena/Don ended abruptly.  I assume they were going to get back together at some point.  But Marlena was hanging out with Josh Fallon way too much and then Roman appeared. 

 

Very true about Marlena/Sam being not different enough.  Once Sam became 'good' there really wasn't a difference.  I just thought it might have been interesting to see Sam progress throughout the years.   And it would have been nice to give Marlena blood family outside of her kids.

[beebs]

Who just happened to work for NBC! yeah, if it walks like a duck...

[carolineg]

 

Haha  Fritz Coleman.  Is he still around?  I like him lol.  

[j swift]

Poor Trista was another Evans family fatality due to a serial killer.  No wonder her parents stayed in Colorado for Marlena's many weddings, Salem is too dangerous for the Evans family

 

He just retired this year

Edited April 13, 2021 by j swift

[beebs]

It's funny, the stuff we're discussing is so clear in my mind, and yet, just months later, I have completely lost interest in writing the monthly synopsies I was doing. I know I'll get back to them in time, in one form or another, but like...it's surprising how quickly DAYS shifted to this whole slew of new characters I simply couldn't care less about. Most of the stories before, no matter how bad they were, were at least engaging enough that I got sucked into writing about them, and the characters, and everything. But Laemmle's characters were so bland that, with the exception of Jessica, who I find roundly unlikeable, and Liz, who was spared largely because I sense Gloria Loring really gave 110% every damn day than the writing, I really don't give a damn about these people, and they CONSUME about 80% of the column inches in 1980. No wonder the show was in trouble.

I can definitely see how, considering the shift toward these bland characters and their romantic back and forth no one gives a damn about, Marlena would have shifted to become more central during this period. She's the only thing that really grounds any of the Kellam & Co. nonsense, and even though she's being written as a complete knob throughout the story, you care about what happens to her, Don, and Liz.

Edited April 13, 2021 by beebs

[Franko]

I've said it before, but I have to imagine audiences were turning the channel to AMC in droves.

[BuckyB12]

 

I always thought that Marlena was Don's consolation prize after Julie and Doug finally got married. Like, he wasn't ever going to be a serious rival for Doug in the future (the function he served between Julie's divorce from Bob and the eventual Doug/Julie nuptials) so why not pair him with Marlena? I don't think anyone at the time, on either side of the camera, thought that Marlena would become the central heroine of the show over the next decade and would still be around 40 years later. Or, for that matter, that a few years later, Don would just vanish from Salem without a trace --  and no one noticed. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by BuckyB12

[carolineg]

 

Trista was lame, but poor Eugene.  Marlena's parents raised Eric/Sami so there's that contribution.  I actually would like to know what Marlena's parents thought about 2 Romans, numerous kidnappings/fake deaths, and devil possession.  They must have asked what they did to deserve it all lol

Deidre is really good in the Kellam story even though the material sucks.   I can see how she shifted to a lead pretty easily.  I think WN/Roman and the Strangler story really just solidifies it all.  Even if she isn't the greatest actress she's a very likable lead.

I actually wish they would have brought Liz back in the 90's..

[beebs]

I mean, REALLY! Even if AMC wasn't generally your cup of tea, the stories were WAY more interesting than what DAYS was giving you at the time. And then at CBS you have Y&R? DAYS didn't stand a chance with The Misadventures of the Omnipotent Chandlers. Y&R on its WORST days in the 80s was a thousand times more interesting than what we've been reading about on DAYS.

[carolineg]

 

I mean good for Don lol?  They were cute for a minute, but he was mostly a sexist jerk, so a young, hot thing like Marlena could have done a lot better.  

[beebs]

Agreed. I don't think the synopsies do justice to the work Deidre put in to sell these stinkers at the time. 

Liz should have been back so many times. I still think Noelle and Liz need to come back. When putting together my fanfic, I had Linsey Godfrey in as Noelle before the show cast her as Sarah, and honestly, agewise, I still think it's a better fit.

I do get the sense as well that Marlena was, up until around 1980, very much on the B-story at DAYS. She just kept knocking what material she was given out of the park and when Rabin cleared the rest of the vets out in 1980, she was recentred as a more central figure. 

I do think a good headwriter would've really dug into Don's sense that Marlena was a consolation prize, and built something of an insecurity complex into Marlena's dealings with Don into it, rather than all the Donna nonsense. Or maybe have it COLOUR the Donna story, where Marlena feels like Don cares more about Donna than her because he sees Marlena more as a warm body than anything, and have Julie and Don maintain the kind of friendship that Julie and Neil ultimately had, existing largely to stimulate Marlena's insecurities about her relationship with Don.

But no.