DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[DRW50]

Were there any particular actresses playing Mary Anderson you liked or didn't like? At the time did these characters seem like new blood? It's tough for me to say because we know now most of them were gone within a few years, but some of them seem very generic to me.

I think I have a Days with the Hayes where they also help introduce the new characters, but can't find it at the moment.

Edited January 13, 2011 by CarlD2

[jam6242]

Barbara Stanger was my least favorite. There was something about her I couldn't stand. I didn't mind the others as much. I liked Karin Wolfe the best.

Edited January 13, 2011 by jam6242

[DRW50]

Karin Wolfe was a writer later on (or was that Garin)?

[jam6242]

I hadn't heard that Karin Wolfe became a writer.

[Paul Raven]

I only saw Barbara Stanger and Melinda Fee. I liked Stanger because she brought a definite personality to Mary-an iciness and reserve that was unique. Fee's Mary was more of your standard soap bitch. I think Stanger could have played the transition of Mary into more of a villianess quite effectively.

[teplin]

I loved Stanger's Mary, her relationship with parents Bob and Phyllis, and her romance with Chris Kositchek (sp?). Fee's Mary was so far removed from Stanger's in appearance and temperament that I just thought of her as a different character altogether. She was totally forgettable, IMO -- although her death at the hands of the Salem Strangler ranks up there as one of my favorite soap episodes ever. I don't remember Karin Wolfe at all.

[jam6242]

I agree that Melinda Fee didn't really seem like Mary Anderson. I might have liked Stanger's Mary better if she was actually supposed to be a bitch but I don't think she was supposed to be at the time, yet came across as one. Karin Wolfe played Mary in the early 70s. She was playing the role when Mary's mother Phyllis accidentally shot her, thinking she was shooting at Julie. I also remember Carla Borelli playing Mary for a short time, I think right before Stanger took over.

[teplin]

Ah! I do vaguely remember Carla Borelli as Mary -- that's why she seemed so familiar when she turned up on AW as Reena. I saw a little bit of the Phyllis-shoots-Mary storyline, but I still don't remember Karin Wolfe! From what I've heard, Josh Taylor was none too fond of Stanger, either.

[DRW50]

Is this Susan Oliver Laura? I thought Susan Flannery was still around at this time but it doesn't look/sound like Flannery to me.

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[Paul Raven]

That was Rosemary Forsyth as Laura. The dating as being 74 is wrong.

[DRW50]

Thanks. Well at least I got the non-Flannery part right.

[Dion]

I know this question has already been answered months ago but I thought I'd tell you a bit more. Days has been running in Australia since 1968 (made possible of course by the fact that Columbia saved every episode in some form) on the NINE network, was about two and a half years behind and during the early 80s had a viewership over a million.

The supercouple era was probably the peak of Days mania in Australia, couples like Doug and Julie, Roman and Marlena, Bo and Hope and Steve and Kayla were very popular and Stephen Nichols even did a few mall appearances, including in 1991 (almost a year after he'd actually left the show!) and packed them out. After that Days began a long slow decline for a number of reasons (pre-emptions for Cricket matches during every summer meant that Australia fell further behind, plus since the 1970s housewives had of course been moving into the workforce etc) and the Bold and the Beautiful eventually overtook the show as Australia's most popular Daytime soap.

By 2004 the show was more than four years behind so Nine decided to skip four years worth of episodes (and did the same with Y&R) and picked up about six months behind the U.S during the Salem Stalker storyline. Of course it still gets pre-empted a lot during the summer for Cricket so once again it is now more than a year behind.

[DRW50]

Thanks. That's a shame. I would have thought the OTT stories of the Reilly era might have got some favor in australia given some of the crazy stories on some of the Australian soaps (although not as crazy as American soaps).

[Dion]

There was actually a bit of revival in interest in Days between 1996 and 2000(which roughly correspond to the Reily era in Australia) and the possession story got a bit of press when it aired over there in 1998. It's after 2000 (with the Princess Gina saga) that the problems truly began.

[DRW50]

This has probably already been discussed but I was wondering if you knew anything about some plans to reintroduce Bill and Laura Horton in 1987 or 1988. Why did this fall through?