DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Titus Andronicus]

Marcus hadn't been headwriter for months when Pat Falken Smith filed the suit.

Days sounds like insane mess in the late 1970s.

This lawsuit. The messiness at the end of Harrower that saw a) Wes Kenney quit because of it and b) Harrower still writing for a least a week or two after her replacement was publicly named. Then Laemmle didn't start for a couple of months after she was named in the press and whatever role Ruth Brooks Flippen played. Or even if Flippen did any actual headwriting.

Laemmle being an absolute disaster is the icing on the cake.

On top of that, you have NBC almost going into desperation mode with a 90-minute show and it's a wonder that it survived even long enough for Tomlin and Poteet-Lisanti to have anything to salvage at all.

[Franko]

Fred Silverman seemed to think that expanded daytime shows would solve everything. Another World ... the proposed expansion to Days ... don't forget, the short-lived David Letterman Show started at 90 minutes. I wonder what he thought when Today expanded.

[te.]

I think in theory it sounds like a great idea - why wouldn't fans of a soap opera watch a 90 minute show? Add in that overall it's less expensive to do 90 minutes of one show than to do two / three shows. It's a bit like the thinking about the never-ending expansion of TODAY, except you know, soap operas doesn't function like that.

[jam6242]

From the July 11, 1982, Des Moines Register.  Apparently, Days wasn't airing there at that time.

Please register in order to view this content

[Franko]

Not to mention the fact that AW was at No. 2 until its bottom fell out. I'm just trying to imagine a lineup with so many expanded shows. That said, if there was any soap that maybe could have gotten away with a 90-minute runtime (in terms of keeping its audience) in 1980, it would have been General Hospital.

[jam6242]

 

[victoria foxton]

Please register in order to view this content

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[jam6242]

I'm glad Tina has some happy memories of the show considering the way it ended. 

[Planet Soap]

I'm just getting into classic DAYS with the "D'Goldenson" YouTube channel posting alot of classic John & Marlena. With two Romans I can see where OLTL and GH took a page from with two Jason's/ two Todd's minus the twin DNA mess. 

How did fans react to Drake Hogestyn taking over the role, and then Wayne Northrop returning in the middle of Marlena's comeback which rocked John & Isabella's relationship? That was a lot going on simultaneously!

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by ironlion

[carolineg]

I think the magazine polls were heavily in favor of RoJohn/Marlena as a pairing.  But then I have heard John/Isabella were popular as well.  To me, she was annoying af when Marlena came back especially when she got pregnant.  

Anyhow, the whole Tale of 2 Romans started great and a lot was going on, but then nothing happened with the quad.  Everyone stayed with their original pairings and it was very anti-climatic.  Obviously, things happened a few years later, but I remember watching the end of that story and being like "that's it?"  

I think it was a risky decision.  Drake was popular as Roman and I think in the end it really sidelined Roman permanently as a factor on the show.   John and Roman fill the same role.  And Drake as John won out.  Josh Taylor has a lot to do with it, but it seems like JER was over even WN's Roman because they fired him.   I think you can argue both men (WN/DH) had chemistry with Deidre, but I think Drake just had the 'hotter' chemistry with her and was a more ideal leading man, so it was John all the way. 

*BTW, Deidre did an interview today and was briefly talking about Manhattan Lives (which we all had a huge discussion about) and said it was all about Marlena needing to get away and moving to a "small town" and that it was a great bible lol.  Manhattan Lives implies it's New York and not a small town, but okay Dee. 

[beebs]

Ah yes, a small town of 8+ Million. You know 

Please register in order to view this content

[carolineg]

Haha!  She said it was multi-generational and called Manhattan Lives, but said it was a small town type of thing and I thought isn't that Salem?  But she said it was ages ago, but I had the feeling she still sorta holds a grudge it wasn't picked up lol.

[yrfan1983]

Maybe Manhattan Lives was set in Manhattan Kansas!

Please register in order to view this content

[Planet Soap]

@carolineg Wayne’s Roman seemed really sidelined after John & Marlena’s affair. Those kids must have been really confused around that time lol.

I suppose it’s similar to how Clint on OLTL never recovered from Viki’s affair till the recast.