1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

One of the show’s hottest love stories was between Diedre Hall and Wayne Northrop, but Northrup left last year. Rabin said the audience refused to accept him. “Wayne was her second love on the show,” he said, “and it was a real struggle to get the audience to believe she could fall in love with a second guy.

That's an ironic quote, because the audience eventually believed that she could fall in love with a third guy.  And many current fans would be forgiven if they forgot the first one.

It's kind of funny to think that prior to the internet, the production's access to the audience response was so limited.

Edited November 20, 20232 yr by j swift

Where on Earth did DAYS get the idea that fans refused to accept Marlena with Roman?  If anything, I think they accepted him better than they did Don!

2 minutes ago, Khan said:

Where on Earth did DAYS get the idea that fans refused to accept Marlena with Roman?  If anything, I think they accepted him better than they did Don!

Well..... he was pretty hateful in the early 1990's 🙄 The Writing ruined his character! It sucked such an amazing character had to turn into this controlling SOB

9 minutes ago, Khan said:

Where on Earth did DAYS get the idea that fans refused to accept Marlena with Roman?  If anything, I think they accepted him better than they did Don!

I know, I mean, "the cop & the doc" were legendary. I've got a quote where they were #1 couple after L&L, although at the time both Genie & Tony were on breaks from GH, but, still, ... 

7 minutes ago, Joseph said:

Well..... he was pretty hateful in the early 1990's 🙄 The Writing ruined his character! It sucked such an amazing character had to turn into this controlling SOB

I am right now watching episodes from when Wayne & Dee came back in 1991. So far there is no sign of RealRoman acting like a jerk. I just watched the RealRoman reveal to the Brady family in October & it was amazing drama! But, in fact, I'm up to mid-November, chronologically on my RealRoman investigation & project. They tell me if I keep watching long enough his writing will make him behave as a jerk. We'll see. 

14 minutes ago, Joseph said:

Well..... he was pretty hateful in the early 1990's 🙄 

But the article was written on the occasion of DAYS's 25th anniversary, which happened in 1985.

22 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Producer of ‘Days of Our Lives reflects on his 11 years with show

By JERRY BUCK AP Television Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Al Rabin stood in the rear of the control room, one eye on the director talk - ing the actors through a scene by microphone, the other on a bank of monitors showing the results from the nearby sound stage. “Cue music,” said director Susan Simon. The music came up and actors Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso, rummaging through an attic set looking for family mementos, appeared on a half dozen screens. They were taping the NBC daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” which will present its 5,000 th show Friday.

On Nov. 6, the serial will celebrate 20 years on the air.

Uh, the show began on Nov. 8, 1965 

So this article is some unknown day (?) in 1985 & the audience absolutely had accepted "the cop & the doc" by that time!!! 

Saying Nov. 6 is a terrible error. 

22 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

 

Miss Simon, one of the show’s four directors, stopped the action. She leafed through the script and said, “Let’s go, page 46.” They tried again and Reckell flubbed his line. Before she could start the scene again, producer Rabin interrupted. “Can you convey to them to play the scene with more joy and mirth’’” Miss Simon relayed the message. Earlier, in his second-floor office, overlooking a narrow studio street, Rabin had talked about how “Days of Our Lives” had changed since its debut in 1965. “The show started as a half hour and then expanded to an hour,” said Rabin, whose full beard is turning gray He joined the serial 11 years ago as a director and producer. As he talked a TV set with the volume turned down displayed a feed from the sound stage. "Things moved a lot slower in those days. They walked into the kitchen and sat and had tea and talked about what was happening with the family. When we first went to an hour we had seven actors and did about 11 scenes. That was nice, but it wouldn’t work today Now we have about 25 actors and do up to 30 scenes The pace is much faster and it has the look of an action-adventure show. “Before, it was talk, talk, talk The doorbell rings. It’s someone’s lover. The scene ends. Then a new scene and more talk, talk talk. Now, we’d switch back and forth between scenes. Keep it moving. We always have five or six stories going at once.

The audience may like one story and not another, but they will get a few stories every day that they like. “One thing has never changed,” Rabin said. “To me, what makes every show work is that there’s always a love story. Generally, a couple trying to get together, and the appeal of that couple and how they relate to the audience. The intensity they have with the show is to me directly relatable to the success of the show. How you make it work is at least 50 percent luck." Rabin walked over to the TV set and pointed to the screen. “That’s the Horton couple,” he said. “Frances Reid is now a matriarch. She’s been with the show from the beginning. So have Macdonald Carey (who plays her husband) and John Clarke (who plays their son).” Besides those actors, director Joe Behar and cameraman George Meyers have been with the show 20 years. Another couple appeared “That’s Bo and Hope, played by Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso,” Rabin said. “They’re just back from London, where they got married. They’re a hot young couple. We try to keep the feeling of family and romance and a love story. . . . “We’ve been lucky,” he continued. “We’ve had four or five hot love stories. Charles Shaughnessy came on as a day player. We saw something when he played with Patsy Pease. If you have ability, it’s to find that little moment. We showed the tape to the writers and they changed him from a bad guy to an undercover agent. They’ve been a huge success. Now our job is to keep them apart.

“John de Lancie came on as a psychopathic killer 3 years ago. He was only supposed to be on a few weeks. Now he’s an eccentric love interest who thinks he’s a psychopathic killer He’s comedy relief. This is the first soap I’ve been involved in that has a comic love story.”

One of the show’s hottest love stories was between Diedre Hall and Wayne Northrop, but Northrup left last year. Rabin said the audience refused to accept him. “Wayne was her second love on the show,” he said, “and it was a real struggle to get the audience to believe she could fall in love with a second guy.

Schemering 72, "In the DAYS OF OUR LIVES tradition of strong, quietly macho leading men, Pat Falken Smith created police sergeant Roman Brady (Wayne Northrup, fresh from prime-time's DYNASTY) and paired him with Deidre Hall's lady psychiatrist, Marlena Evans. Eventually Roman and Marlena replaced GENERAL HOSPITAL'S Luke and Laura as daytime's most popular couple."

Edited November 21, 20232 yr by Donna L. Bridges
combine 2 posts

18 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

One of the show’s hottest love stories was between Diedre Hall and Wayne Northrop, but Northrup left last year. Rabin said the audience refused to accept him. “Wayne was her second love on the show,” he said, “and it was a real struggle to get the audience to believe she could fall in love with a second guy.

I was puzzled when I read that, but I think he means at first the audience didn't like Roman. They were used to Don and Marlena and saw all the plot complications as a means to eventually re-uniting D&M.

The Don/Marlena fans may have been very vocal (lots of mail/phone calls) and Rabin recalls that reaction...which quickly subsided.

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

The Don/Marlena fans may have been very vocal (lots of mail/phone calls) and Rabin recalls that reaction...which quickly subsided.

That's my point, as we see from the 1980s ratings thread, the ratings were subject to multiple variables. So, the only other source of data they had to gauge popularity were phone calls or letters to assume the audience response.  However, much like Twitter/X or other social media today, the most vocal fans are not always indicative of the consensus.

Although it is amusing that apparently fans allowed Don to move on lots of other ladies. 

Given fan loyalties, I wonder if there are still people out there wishing Marlena had never found love again?  Because, unfortunately, a Don and Marlena reunion is impossible.

Edited November 20, 20232 yr by j swift

The article ran in various newspapers in August 1985. 

So, about the time the Richard Cates storyline was finishing up. He had been teased as a Marlena love interest and I wonder if how his character turned out depended on audience reaction.

Which makes me also wonder if a) the Pawn was already being planned and b) if they had any thoughts as to whether that could lead to a Marlena love interest. I've always felt that the Pawn was retooled in his early days. There were some lines, plus his relationship with Steve that seemed to change when Drake Hogestyn took over.

Days really didn't have a leading character in mid-1985. Marlena was involved with Cates, but not the biggest part of the police corruption storyline. Bo, Hope, Abe, Theo, the priest, Alice, just about everybody had an equal role that summer. Steve was quickly elevated out of a small role in that story.

It's a shame that it was years before Abe had that much meat in a storyline until decades later. This was some of his James Reynolds' finest work.

I want a Don and Marlena reunion now with a surprise pregnancy! Never Say Never!

9 hours ago, te. said:

I want a Don and Marlena reunion now with a surprise pregnancy! Never Say Never!

Keep hope alive (literally and figuratively)😄😁😆

10 hours ago, te. said:

I want a Don and Marlena reunion now with a surprise pregnancy! Never Say Never!

What's your plan about that little problem where he stepped out to mail a letter & was never again seen or heard from? I wonder if his daughter Donna knows. I think she lives in Genoa City! 

https://www.jason47.com/days/productionschedule.html

There are so many dark weeks in summer/autumn 2023 (although it is in keeping the usual 15-18 week off schedule since 2016).  I assume to account for the changeover in producer, and then the writing staff.  However, I wonder if that reduces the number of episodes written by scab writers versus other productions?  If the WGA strike ended 9/27/23, and DAYS was dark 10/2-10/6, with episodes filmed 10/9-10/13 airing 3/5, they may only have 8-9 weeks of scab material (assuming that the current writers got back to work immediately).

My concern/interest is will the scabs move the story forward like GH, or will they tread water?

Also, looking forward to summer 2024, I wonder if DAYS will take an Olympic break?  Obviously, they air on Peacock so it is unnecessary, but I wonder if they'll delay it for bandwidth in order to air all the games on Peacock?

Edited November 21, 20232 yr by j swift

8 minutes ago, j swift said:

https://www.jason47.com/days/productionschedule.html

There are so many dark weeks in 2023.  I assume to account for the changeover in producer, and then the writing staff.  However, I wonder if that reduces the number of episodes written by scab writers versus other productions?  If the WGA strike ended 9/27/23, and DAYS was dark 10/2-10/6, with episodes filmed 10/9-10/13 airing 3/5, they may only have 8-9 weeks of scab material (assuming that the current writers got back to work immediately).

My concern/interest is will the scabs move the story forward like GH, or will they tread water?

Also, looking forward to summer 2024, I wonder if DAYS will take an Olympic break?  Obviously, they air on Peacock so it is unnecessary, but I wonder if they'll delay it for bandwidth in order to air all the games on Peacock?

And, we don't know how it compares to their typical Dark Week schedule since not being in the studio is a primary way that both DAYS & GH save on their budgets.

39 minutes ago, j swift said:

https://www.jason47.com/days/productionschedule.html

There are so many dark weeks in summer/autumn 2023

The taping schedule allowed Greg Vaughan to spent almost all of summer 2023 at his home in Texas with his sons.  Maybe one or two visits to L.A. to tape.
It allowed Jessica Serfaty to spend almost all of summer 2023 with her son and her fiancé in Italy.  She took one or two trips to LA on her billionaire fiancé's private jet to film in L.A. but otherwise she was mostly in Italy (and nearby areas of Europe). 

Edited November 21, 20232 yr by janea4old