DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[Contessa Donatella]

Honest, I give! I already said they made it work! 

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[Titus Andronicus]

I don't think Reilly could have pulled off everything in the late 1980s.

A publicly-stated reason for letting Anne Howard Bailey go in 1989 is that Days' ratings indicated fans didn't like the more action-y storylines and the show and/or NBC wanted them to go back to supercouples.

Late 1988 did have some proto-Reilly vibes, though. Roman doing things under the influence of pagodas while Stefano teases that him and Diana that Marlena is alive. Plus Shane/Drew and Benjy with Steve and Kayla trying to figure out his mystery parents. Which of course was Stefano. Very Reilly-like to give Stefano yet another kid.

[carolineg]

All those stories were just odd for lack of a better word.  JER possibly could have done something with it, but the Roman/pagoda story was a big let down from the beginning.  It was clear Deidre was in talks to return and it didn't happen so the story just puttered out.  Benji might have been the only real story with legs.  It could have been explored more.  The Shane/Drew stuff was DOA on arrival although the show has used the twin fact in recent years.  

Lol!  We started getting into weird JER territory where John was going to drink Poisoned! Brainwash! Soup.  His haircut was the most realistic thing airing at that point.

[Contessa Donatella]

YES! Weird. And, of course, cleaned up John didn't look so frightening. The very long hair & the thick beard was too feral a look for as good looking a man as Drake is. Also, from above, agree about Benji. Benji was a good story. 

[carolineg]

I will agree John/Drake looked pretty rough back then lol.

Benjy had so much potential and again it was never really used.  Benjy/Benji-not sure lol.

[Lye-C]

The poison soup is an iconic moment in Jarlena history.

[carolineg]

I, as a John/Marlena fan, do know that lol.

[Lye-C]

Personally I loved how Gothic the show became under Reilly. He was also great at writing romances, payoffs, and pacing. Carrie and Austin are my favorite couple because of him. The original Gina story was compelling as hell. I also loved when characters would talk to themselves. Those were the days! 
 

Heck, I can still quote certain dialogue to this day, like when Laura told Kristen “the only thing you’ve given birth to is deception!” We need that heightened, stylized dialogue back.
 

Now the show moves far too quickly, the dialogue is terrible, there’s no romance or compelling couples, and no exciting stories. The last good one was the possession sequel. 
 

I had hoped that MarDar were going to be JER 3.0. They were his protégés from his first run and Passions.  Marlene replied to my tweet and told me JER was her mentor. Sadly, the show we got was nothing like JER. The day-to-day writing was good and felt like classic Days but the stories were not there. John and Marlena’s big comeback story is a Bernie Madoff knock-off? Sooo boring! And to this day they still don’t know EJ framed him for embezzlement. And don’t even get me started on how they used the vile Rafe to come between Carrie and Austin and completely wasted Patrick Muldoon!

I went on a bit of a tangent there, lol 

Edited February 10, 2024 by Lye-C

[carolineg]

Well, there are a lot of good things I can say about JER.  I loved the way he wrote John/Marlena.  I loved his events.

But pacing was never his strong suit.  Everything lasted forever when a few clear conversations would have changed the entire story.  It did dumb everyone down.  

Although I do still love the era.

[te.]

Worth remembering that the possession only lasted as long as it did due to OJs trial and it being able to keep people's interest. A lot of things that JER did probably wouldn't have happened at that point due to not being necessary, plus the possession being able to compete during the OJ trial really seems to be a reason why he got such a strangle-hold of the show.

Wasn't his stories on Guiding Light somewhat normal? I'd look towards what he did there to see what he'd do on DAYS.

[carolineg]

I believe the show also extended the Possession much longer than planned due to popularity.  You can see the points where a lot of the action is very superfluous and I think NBC wanted a sweeps ending in the summer. 

[te.]

Yup, I've heard claims that it was initially supposed to end around easter I guess to be as sacreligious as possible to have Marlena be free of the devil and "rise" from the dead when Jesus did. JER had issues, man.

[Franko]

I almost didn't include the possession in my roundup of Reilly's hypothetical '80s run, but I could also see a story like that being dragged out during the '88 writers strike.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, I am pretty sure Reilly himself wanted to extend, although he didn't really write more story, he just used a great deal of repetition, almost like they were doing scenes on a loop, if you can imagine that. 

At GL he was one of 3 co-HWs, and in the Locher Room Nancy Curlee said that when they told her & Stephen that they were going to be this triumvirate with Jimmy, they were immediately suspicious that they were screwing with them because his style of writing & their style of writing were seriously different. So, they decided they would beat them at their own game & the three of them bonded over getting the execs or the network's goats (whoever they was in this story) & beating them at their own game. So, I figure that is a rather sizable factor in his writing at GL being different. Among many other things they wrote the Blackout & they killed Mo, but they were instructed to do so. She also said in that chat what she'd have done with an alive Mo if they'd let her. 

[carolineg]

I have been pretty vocal about not being a fan of the Possession and I do think it went on too long.  It was a very cool talking point among random non-soap fans, but did it help Days in the end?  Idk..