DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Contessa Donatella]

Dawning realization! Of course you couldn't DO Eileen's 5 characters without extensions on guarantees! [smacks self in forehead] But Drake & Dee should have had 4 per week & no usual role needs more than 4 days.

I had no idea they let Reilly go over like that. That's amazing. He was lucky they valued him. Although, of course, I know in other jobs he followed the rules, so it was clear to him that he had some leeway at DOOL that he didn't have at GL or Y&R or any of the other shows he worked at, so many ya know. Maybe he was sly like a fox & just acted like he didn't understand going over guarantees! So many different fanbases hated Higley, I don't think it was just you!!!

Edited September 12, 2022 by Tonksadora
Hit with a thought.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: EPISODE # 583: FEBRUARY 26, 1968

 

PROLOGUE: FADE IN: SINCE A WEEKEND HAS PASSED, PERHAPS IT'S BEST TO TAKE UP THIS EPISODE SHORTLY BEFORE CLOSE OF PRECEDING SCRIPT. OPEN WITH TOM & ALICE SITTING IN THE LIVING ROOM. HEAR KEY IN DOOR:

 

ALICE (without getting up): That must be Kitty. She told me she was spending the night with Joan again. Must have changed her mind.

 

CUT TO HALLWAY AS MICKEY CLOSES THE DOOR BEHIND HIM. HE'S WEARING A LOOK OF CONCERN, MIXED WITH PUZZLEMENT. HE TAKES OFF HIS COAT. CUT BACK TO LIVING ROOM, DOUBLE BEAT, THEN ALICE FINALLY SAYS...

 

ALICE: Kitty?
MICKEY (off): No, Mom. It's me.

 

TAKE TOM NOT UNDERSTANDING THIS AT ALL. BOTH RISE, ALICE IS PLEASED OF COURSE.

 

ALICE: Well, then you didn't take that trip after all.

 

MICKEY LOOKS AT HIS FATHER, WEARS A NEUTRAL EXPRESSION SO AS NOT TO TIP ANYTHING TO HIS MOTHER.

 

TOM: Mark was here to pick up Marie earlier. He mentioned the trip to your mother.

ALICE: What difference does it make who mentioned it?
MICKEY (big smile, over compensating): No difference at all, Mom.

 

WHICH SATISIFES ALICE. MEANWHILE, TOM LOOKS A HOLE THROUGH MICKEY, MICKEY CATCHES HIS LOOK.

 

ALICE: Sit down, join us.

MICKEY (so that he can have privacy with his dad): Mom, ahh, by any chance would you have a snack tucked away in the kitchen for a hungry son?

ALICE: I think so. Roast beef sandwich?

MICKEY: Sounds great.

ALICE (exiting): Won't be but a minute.

MICKEY: Take your time, Mom.

 

BOTH MEN WAIT BEFORE SAYING A WORD UNTIL THEY KNOW ALICE IS DEFINITELY IN THE KITCHEN. ALTHOUGH EACH LOOKS EACH OTHER STRAIGHT IN THE EYE. FINALLY:

 

TOM: I thought you were leaving tonight.

MICKEY (beat, then): As it turned out, I won't have to make that trip.

TOM (beat as Tom looks at him somewhat bewilderedly): What're you talking about?
MICKEY: When I got back to my office this afternoon, I called a former classmate of mine in Pittsburgh to get a hotel reservation for me. I wanted something reasonably close to the address you gave me of Mark's parents.

TOM: Go on.

MICKEY: I gave Greg the street number, he wasn't familiar with it so he looked it up.

TOM: And?

MICKEY (dramatic pause): There is no such street in Pittsburgh.

TOM: There's no...?

MICKEY (beat, goes on): Thinking that there might have been an error somewhere, I then phoned the plumber union there. Mark gave his father's name as Phillip, right?

TOM: Right.

MICKEY: Dad, there isn't now nor has there ever been a Phillip Brooks listed among the membership of that union.

TOM: But...

MICKEY (goes on): As a last resort, I tried the phone number you took from Mark's record. A telephone company supervisor told me that number has never been used either in Pittsburgh or its suburbs.

 

LONG STUNNED REACTION BY TOM

 

MICKEY: You asked the question before, now I'm asking it with you: "Just who is -- Dr. Mark Brooks?"

 

TAKE TOM. MUSIC UP TO FINISH AND OUT. FADE TO: BLACK. UP ON COMMERCIAL.

 

ACT ONE will be posted soon!

[AbcNbc247]

It did always seem like MarDar would rather have kept Will in the adult storylines, and I thought it worked really well. Will’s coming out storyline was practically brilliant 

[carolineg]

Will is a character that works in adult stories just because of his upbringing and the Sami of it all.  I always assumed Will would be more mature than kids his age because he was more mature than his mother and father most of the time-even as a child lol.

[dc11786]

I felt MarDar's story scope was very narrow. The relationships they developed were strongly developed and had lots of character details, however, I didn't always find the story was their strong suit. Marlena and Will's relationship was definitely well developed under that regime, but Will's relationship with Kate was definitely downplayed and with Maggie was basically non-existent. There was also no real meat to the story. No one was against Will's sexuality. Will wasn't really interested in any guys (except maybe his former stepfather). The characterization was rich, but the plot didn't really include any action. It often was a lot of people hinting to Will that they knew he was gay (Marlena, the most often, and once, Sonny) but never really doing anything with it. The EJ/Will dynamic was also a little more complex than I'm giving it credit for as Will tried blackmailing EJ over the affair with EJ turning around and revealing Will was the one who shot him years ago, not Lucas. There was talk, I think, of EJ sort of mentoring Will, but nothing really ever happened. It was just a lot of talk. 

Chandler Massey definitely performed well with the adult crew. He has always been rather charismatic, but not always the strongest when it comes to delivering dramatic material. I cannot remember if he was a lot better when he was playing the material during MarDar, but I remember him being very ineffective against Blake Berris when they were writing Nick and Will as this generation's David Banning and Mike Horton. By keeping Will sequestered with the adults, there was no real attempt to build a younger core that would be needed to really tell stories based on the economics of the show. The veterans were too expensive and the show too cash strapped to really tell those kind of stories without some new, inexpensive faces to carry some of that dramatic weight.  

[JAS0N47]

EPISODE # 583 CONTINUED...ACT ONE

 

ACT ONE
FADE IN: HORTON LIVING ROOM. TAKE IT UP IMMEDIATELY WITH MICKEY LOOKING AT TOM, WHO STANDS THERE STILL IN ALMOST UTTER DISBELIEF.

 

TOM: I...I don't know what to say.

MICKEY (beat): Obviously, Dad, Mark has something to hide.

TOM (beat as he searches his mind): What? (Meaning: "What does he have to hide?")

MICKEY (beat): I don't know.

 

TOM IS ALMOST IN A STATE OF SHOCK DURING ALL THIS.

 

TOM (inner desperation): Your sister's...in love with this man.

 

MICKEY LOOKS AT HIS FATHER, KNOWING THIS ONLY TOO WELL. IT'S A HORRIBLY PERPLEXING SITUATION WHICH IS REFLECTED IN THEIR EXPRESSIONS. TAKE PICTURES.

 

MICKEY (after definite pause): What I don't understand...

 

TOM HALF LOOKS AT HIM

MICKEY: ...Why any man would be so stupid as to give that kind of information to the hospital, something that could be checked out so easily.

 

TOM (answering question by rote, his thoughts remaining with the real problem): He had to give some name. It's a hospital rule. Someone who could be notified in an emergency. Family, friend, neighbor. His surgery wasn't serious, he obviously didn't anticipate anyone ever to having use the information.

 

MICKEY (beat, then with a touch of hostility): No, they never do, do they?

 

TOM LOOKS AT MICKEY, REACTS TO THE HOSTILITY. BEAT, THEN...

 

TOM: Mickey, there's no doubt in your mind...

MICKEY: No, Dad, none. I don't know where Mark's family lives, but I can tell you it isn't Pittsburgh.

TOM (obviously reaching for some possible rationale): Could it be possible that the clerk or intern, whoever wrote down this information, could have made some error?
MICKEY: An error on the name, the street, the phone number? And what about Mark's having told you his father was a plumber. Could you be wrong about that?

BEAT. TOM DOESN'T ANSWER.

 

MICKEY: No, Dad. One human error maybe. But nothing like this. You must know that.

TOM (beat): I'm just trying to find some explanation, some legitimate reason, so that we don't indict this man without cause.

MICKEY: You don't consider lying about his background cause?
TOM (beat as he looks at Mickey): You're an attorney, son. You deal with motivation as well as fact. You say Mark has something to hide. What? Why?

MICKEY: Dad, I can only draw from experience and say that people have reasons for doing something like this. And that more often than not these reasons are either psychiatric, illegal or immoral. You want to work on conjecture, then take your pick.

TOM (double beat): What you're saying is...where do we go from here.

MICKEY: As far as I'm concerned, there's only one thing to do.

 

STOPPING BY NOW IS ALICE, WHO IS OFF MIC, OFF CAMERA.

ALICE: Would you like milk or coffee, dear?

MICKEY (beat): Milk'll be fine, Mom.

ALICE (still off): Good. Thats what I have.

TOM (very hushed tones to Mickey): Don't say anything to your mother just yet.

MICKEY (equally hushed): All right.

 

AT WHICH POINT, AND NOT BEFORE THIS MOMENT, WE BRING ALICE INTO THE ROOM CARRYING A SMALL TRAY ON WHICH IS A ROAST BEEF SANDWICH, A GLASS OF MILK, A DISH OF PICKLES, PIE.

 

MICKEY: Mom, let me take that. I could have come to the kitchen.

ALICE: No, if your father got out there he'd start snacking...and he promised he was going to lose five pounds.

 

SHE LOOKS AT TOM BUT HIS THOUGHTS ARE ELSEWHERE AT THE MOMENT.

 

ALICE: Didn't you, dear. (beat) Tom?

TOM (then he suddenly becomes aware): I'm sorry Alice. My mind was somewhere else. What did you say?

ALICE: That you're going to lose five pounds.

TOM (attempting to be light, but falling short): Yes. But I didn't say when.

ALICE: I assume it'll be before the next wedding in this family.

MICKEY: Wedding, Mom?
ALICE: Marie and Mark.

MICKEY: Has Marie said...anything about...

ALICE: No. But I'm sure that one of these days she will.

 

REACTIONS BY THE MEN, ESPECIALLY MICKEY SINCE ALICE IS LOOKING MORE TOWARD TOM, BUT OF COURSE GUARD AGAINST ANY REACTION THAT ALICE MIGHT SEE THAT WOULD, IF WE'RE TOO REALISTIC, CAUSE HER TO QUESTION.

 

MUSIC: UP TO FINISH AND OUT. FADE TO: BLACK. UP ON: COMMERCIAL.

 

ACT TWO WILL BE POSTED SOON!

[jam6242]

Love how the script is so detailed, even down to what was on the plate.

https://twitter.com/HeySoCalnews/status/1569415582860349441?s=20&t=u_k8hBC4fo5aix5HNxuXighttps://twitter.com/HeySoCalnews/status/1569415582860349441?s=20&t=u_k8hBC4fo5aix5HNxuXig

 

[asafi]

Gosh I would love to see those episodes from when Tommy Horton returned from the death and his family dealing with this situation! it's sad after the 70's tptb JUST deleted his character as if he wasn't exist. 

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[carolineg]

I love Aremid so much, but this was kind of a dull promo.  Just Jack wondering around looking for a ghost (rachel)?  It wasn't very exciting.

[victoria foxton]

 

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by victoria foxton

[carolineg]

Speaking of Melissa, who is Nathan's father?  Is it just someone unnamed person Melissa married/dated?  Is Melissa married?  Are there siblings?  I assume this was all explained back when Nathan first appeared, but I can't remember.  

[Contessa Donatella]

Was Rachel also called "The Woman In White" or am I crossing up references?

[carolineg]

No you are correct.  That's what everyone referred to her as when she was running around Aremid before they found out she was Kristen/Peter's mother.

[Michael]

I don't think we know who his father is. When they originally announced the character, or at least the casting call, his name was "Nathan Jannings," but someone must've reminded them that Melissa was around for several years and several guest stints after splitting up from Pete, so when he debuted, he was "Nathan Horton." I'm pretty sure they never said who his father was, but Nathan is theoretically the baby Melissa had after her 1996 visit for Hope and Bo's wedding (Lisa Trusel was pregnant at the time).