DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Khan]

DAYS was in ratings trouble in '79, and I guess TPTB thought burning the [!@#$%^&*] out of their lead heroine would bring viewers back.

Maggie seriously thought moving Julie from the floor and into one of the kitchen chairs was a good idea?

[carolineg]

I believe SSH's mother wrote this story and it definitely put Julie back front and center.  If I remember the recaps correctly there were a lot of characters talking about how beautiful Julie once was. Then a now CrazyLaura became her therapist and was telling Julie she should basically give up on life because she never would be beautiful or whole again which led to the break up of Doug/Julie.

You know, at least Maggie got the fire out.  I actually don't know what Julie was thinking opening a stove on fire tbh.

[victoria foxton]

@beebs Covered this story on this thread awhile back.

Edited April 28, 2022 by victoria foxton

[carolineg]

Yeah, that's definitely where I got the info and remember that was the impression the recaps and @beebs gave.  It definitely sounds like emmy bait for SSH lol.

[Khan]

TBH, I don't know why Julie would have opened the stove either.  Attention, Kmart shoppers, we have a blue light special on Idiot Plots in aisle seven!

[carolineg]

It generally seems like the worst choice she could have possibly made lol.  Idk, adrenaline and panic can make you do stupid things, but Maggie was close by and seemed to have a handle on how to put out fires.  I guess it was a way to give Julie a meaty story and to break Doug/Julie up in a different way.  Not the most organic or plausible story, but it was probably the best of that year.  The Anderson stuff seems pretty boring to me.

Edited April 28, 2022 by carolineg

[Paul Raven]

I recall that John Kelly Genovese criticized the story at the time because Doug and Julie acted like idiots throughout (although some might say this was in character)

He felt it should have been a story that showed how their great love would help them overcome their struggles rather than the usual ' I can't be a burden to my husband, so i'll pretend our love has died'

[AbcNbc247]

Thanks!

I remember thinking that's what it sounded like in the recaps; scene after scene of Emmy bait but with no substance. In the end, poor Susan didn't even get a nomination for that storyline lol 

Edited April 28, 2022 by AbcNbc247

[j swift]

Do I recall correctly that in order to cheer Julie up during her recovery (which occurred while they were estranged), Doug dressed as a clown?

Also the scarring was both horrifically graphic, and magical in its disappearance.

[carolineg]

No idea about Doug as a clown.  Clowns creep me out.  Maybe Julie felt the same and that's why she divorced Doug lol

From recaps, it's sounds like the scarring was horrible and Julie went to multiple Drs and one bad skin graft and then one Dr. finally miraculously fixed it.

I believe in this thread somewhere there is an article where Harrower said she considered leaving Julie permanently scarred but it was vetoed by the network.  I have a hard time believing Julie being scarred for life was ever on the table.

Yeah, I don't think pivoting Doug to Lee helped matters either.  It's hard to tell without watching day to day because perhaps there were psychological nuances I missed with Julie's injury, but it does sound dumb considering all Doug/Julie had been through.  

Again, hard to tell without seeing it, but knowing SSH's acting, I could imagine it being very OTT and melodramatic.  In some ways it sounds like a JER story where the entire situation could have been avoided if Doug/Julie just talked to one another.

[teplin]

I was young and dumb, so you can't go by me, but I totally bought into it because of the way Laura was preying on Julie's insecurities in their psychiatric sessions. "Of course, Doug says he still loves you, but it's really his sense of obligation. He married a beautiful woman and now he's going to be saddled with a circus freak for the rest of his life. If you really love him, you owe it to him to let him move on."

Much more subtle than that, of course, but that was the gist. 

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[Khan]

Damn, Laura.  Why don't you just open the window and say to Julie, "You know what to do!"?

[carolineg]

Thank you for your take! Reading the recaps it seems Laura wasn't even that subtle lol.  But I could buy Julie being so damaged psychologically from the injury she wasn't thinking clearly.  It just seems like there was a lot of silly miscommunication between Doug/Julie.  I love reading the recaps and envisioning the story myself, but I love to hear from those who actually saw it. 

 

I believe Julie actually did contemplate suicide and left the hospital with a bottle of pills.   Laura was going into crazyLaura mode at this point, but apparently no one noticed and Julie appreciated her "honesty".

[Khan]

Like you said, if they had just talked honestly to each other, the story would have been over and done with.

That's what I miss about Claire Labine's work.  For the most part, she seemed to write her characters to the top of their intelligence, so that you didn't have the usual, silly miscommunications or misunderstandings that would separate characters artificially and leave the audience exasperated at the end.

The way Elizabeth Harrower seemed to have Laura going off the old rails, I'm surprised Laura didn't steal them from the medicine cabinet and then casually place them at Julie's bedside.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Khan

[carolineg]

Yes it seems like multiple couples and characters could have resolved their issues with one or two conversations and it makes everyone seem dumb in this era.  It gives me that 90's Days vibe where every couple literally could have solved their problems by having 1 honest conversation.

I am not clear why Laura hates Julie so much at this point.  I know she's crazy, but I don't know what Julie's ever done to her lol.  I am also unclear why Julie would chose a shrink related to her when there appear to be 2 other shrinks on the canvas that aren't married to her uncle.

Very true about Claire Labine.  During her GH run (which is what I am most familiar with from her) she really didn't rely on that miscommunication/misunderstanding trope.  Even though I would argue Ned's life would have been a lot easier if he just told Lois the truth instead of marrying someone else and carrying out this double identity ruse for months.  That was probably more Ned being an idiot than a miscommunication though.