DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[JAS0N47]

688...7/25/68:

Cast: Tom, Alice, Susan, Julie, Janet, Scott, Brad, Lou.

Sets: Horton Front Porch, Banning Living Room & Kitchen, Park Scene (Bridge & Pond below).

Maybe she recited it on the bridge.

Glad you enjoyed them! That's all I have at the moment for that time frame, but hopefully in the future might have more.

[Planet Soap]

DAYS is probably the soap I’m the least historically familiar with. When would you all say was the show’s prime quality era, and the point where it became utterly unwatchable?

I’ll hesitate to ask when is the point the show went off the rails because I feel the common answer might be the Riley, posession era, lol. That was definitely over the top but some might say DAYS was really watchable at that point?

[FrenchBug82]

Actually I think the years immediately after the possession were MY favorite modern era (95-98ish). Kristen, Sami, Vivian era as I call it was just pure soap. OTT at times but in a funny camp way (and less nonsensical than the possession). But everything was firing on all cylinders and the stories crossed in ways that made sense.
Then VERY shortly afterwards - 1998-1999 the show went to absolute hell (Garden of Eden, anyone?) and while there has been definitely bursts of interesting stuff and cool storylines since, it has never consistently reached the coherent soap goodness that was last seen in the mid 90s IMO
Some people will probably be more nostalgic for the adventure eras of the 80s with all the iconic supercouples but I never warmed to that type of soap so I am not the target audience for it.

[beebs]

I'd also argue, from what I've read (and been gripped by), 1966-77 Bell/PFS era was some brilliant soap as well. I confess, I find the supercouple era goofy and corny, but you can't deny the warmth and great characters and relationships of that era, either.

[jam6242]

 

[Paul Raven]

 The Age Melbourne Australia Dec 12 1974

Days Of Our Lives switches to night- Thanks to the ratings and TVs growing concern with demographics, the long-running American sob-serial, Days Of Our Lives, will now be seen at night from GTV-9. The switch from daytime viewing started at 8.30 p.m., on Monday, December 9, the programme occupying this time slot on all five week nights A channel spokesman said the decision was made to enable a larger audience to enjoy the serial. The Monday episode followed on from the last daytime programme in the serial, presented at 12 noon, Friday, December 6. Replacing it during the day will be the tandem serial. The Young and the Restless, which has been extended to 55 minutes. Days of Our Lives documents in daily con-t i n u i n g episodes life with the Hortons played by -Macdonald Carey, Francis Reid, John Clarke, John Lupton, Edward Mallory, and Patricia Barry

 

This was fairly short lived experiment over the Summer non ratings period.

It got me thinking about NBC back in the 80's maybe doing a special week of episodes say Mon - Fri at 10 during Summer, maybe when the show was pre-empted for Wimbledon.

[victoria foxton]

 

   

Edited July 20, 2021 by victoria foxton

[te.]

It's a shame they hurried with SORAS-ing Belle. I really feel she should've been able to grow up on screen with only minor adjustments to age a la Will, but I guess they wouldn't have been able to push Shawn and Belle as that generations "supercouple" (which turned out to be white bread anyway)...

[carolineg]

I have talked a lot about my hatred for the show SORAS ing Belle so early.  It irritates me so much she is basically Sami's age and they reference things that happened on screen when Belle was a baby and Sami was a teen.   Shawn and Belle were cute for a minute, but it's a whole lot of nothing today.  WTH is Shawn?  I think Jarlena's only child should be so much more amazing than she is.

[carolineg]

I am a day late, but I don't think this historical moment should be forgotten lol.  Since we are talking about Belle.....

[te.]

Only three years until we can celebrate 20 years of Charity Rahmer

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[soapfave06]

Finally got back into Aremid arc after a year plus away and got to the scenes of Jennifer catching Laura with Jack courtesy Peter. There is so much messiness to this storyline, I just love it. I guess this played out for almost a year with Laura and Jack falling for each other as their sanitarium alter egos, to keeping their secret in Salem to the Aremid build up. 

Moreso than that I can't help but wonder what it was like for MR to play those scenes given her real life drama at the time. 

 

The show had so much going on here with Tony faking his death, this affair and Marlena/John/Kristen playing ever so slowly with Lexie searching for her adoptive parents and its all so Gothic and atmospheric. 

[carolineg]

Aremid is my favorite JER arc.  It's not as wacky as the Possession or Paris, but everyone's story moves.  And I personally think Tony/Andre's plan is low key brilliant.   The John/Marlena/Kristen stuff finally kicks into high gear as does Bo/Hope and Peter/Jennifer were in their prime hotness (make of that what you will lol).  There is a lot of good Stefano stuff as well with him faking his amnesia leading to his obsession with Marlena.   I love the whole atmosphere of the town and I even like the quirky Aremid town folk.   I love when Marlena is trying to seduce Stefano to free John while he's writing that love letter to her and everyone is trying to exonerate John before it's too late.  And let's be real, Kristen was super lame before she becomes evil so it's win win.  I would say Maison Blanche and Aremid are my two favorite arcs of that period.   But it all seamlessly flows Maison Blanche, to the Possession, to Aremid, to Paris, on to the Secret Room.   That entire time period was really good and it basically comes to a screeching halt once they recast Roman, but there was a solid 4 years of decent storytelling before that.

[soapfave06]

I would agree with this even as someone who wasn't watching then. Roman has not been needed since The Affair. I don't know how they possibly could have flowed from Secret Room and kept the momentum without hitting rock bottom as you said. I can't think of any other period in soaps where they had such a flow of Gothic mystery adventure. I would die to get this again haha

[carolineg]

I dont think Roman in theory was a bad idea. Josh Taylor was lol.  I think WN still could have brought something to the table but Jarlena were so endgame at that point it was a "why bother?" situation. and Eileen was clearly bored just waiting for her contract to expire. On the flip side the carrie/sami/Austin stuff finally climaxed.   The jungle stuff with john/ hope was just bad