DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[DRW50]

1967 Who's Who in Daytime TV

 

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[SoapDope]

These may have been posted before. Here is a page of Days photos from 1968.

http://www.gettyimages.in/galleries/search?phrase=days+of+our+lives+1968&family=editorial&sort=

 

 

1967 photos.

http://www.gettyimages.in/galleries/search?phrase=days+of+our+lives+1967&family=Editorial&sort=mostpopular

 

Edited February 19, 2016 by SoapDope

[Paul Raven]

[SoapDope]

John Lupton (Tommy) looks like he could be Johnny Carson's little brother. I think someone said Lupton went on his show and they both talked about how they resemble each other. I wonder why Lupton never returned to the show after 1980 ? He didn't pass away till 1993. He did a movie before his death. I read he was on Y&R in 1980.

I wish we could see some episodes from that time, especially when Marie fell in love with her brother without knowing it. I wonder how they handled kissing/romantic stuff etc....up to the reveal ? I remember reading they wanted Tommy to be a Vietnam veteran instead of Korea, but NBC put a stop to it since it was a hot issue at the time.

 

I would also like to see Kitty Horton's storyline and the Bill/Laura/Mickey triangle.

[SoapDope]

I watching the 1998 Archive Of American Television interview with Bill Bell. The interviewer asked him about getting Deidre Hall her job at DOOL in 1976 and Bill said " I can see her and she never says Hello" and the interviewer said " That's Deidre".......How soon they forget.....LOL

[vetsoapfan]

I was fortunate enough to be watching DAYS (and many other soaps) back in the 1960s, and did not even realize how good we as viewers had it, with masters like William J. Bell, Agnes Nixon, Irna Phillips, etc., in top form, spinning enthralling stories to keep us glued to our seats. The Tommy/Marie saga and the Bill/Laura/Mickey triangle could not have been better handled in those days. Tommy and Marie never actually had sex, thank heavens, and their romantic relationship was based more on long gazes and poetic dialogue than physical contact. I was shocked when I saw Bill raping Laura in the hospital, and never dreamed it could turn into a beautiful love story later on, but...it did. (I loathed the idea of a rape victim falling in love with her rapist, just as I did when GH wrote Luke and Laura as a romantic couple.) The Bill/Laura/Mickey drama lasted for YEARS, up until 1976 when Mickey discovered that Mike was Bill's son and not his own. No soap nowadays would dream about extending a story for almost a decade, but because DAYS did just that, the final reveal about Mike's true parentage, and the fall-out with Mickey's nervous breakdown, was enormously powerful. To this day, I consider 1976 to be DAYS' very best year, ever. (Kudos to the great Pat Falken Smith, who was its headwriter at the time.)

[SoapDope]

How did they handle the rape onscreen in the late 60's ? Did they just fade out as it began ? I read that one of the most violent shown on daytime back then was in 1973 with the rape of Chris Brooks on Y&R(another Bell written story).

 

Bill Bell talked about how he kept the secret of Mike's paternity going for years, so I assume Pat Falken Smith finished the storyline. Pat wrote with Bill so I wonder if she consulted with him during that time ?

 

The Tommy/Marie story resembles Bell's story of Lorie Brooks falling for her half brother Mark on Y&R 1975-1976.

Edited March 1, 2016 by SoapDope

[vetsoapfan]

They did not actually show much of the assault on-screen, when Bill raped Laura. The characters were in a hospital supply closet, if I recall correctly. (It's been 50 years--literally--so I may be hazy on some of the exact details.) Bill advanced towards Laura and she started backing away, protesting...fade to black. We understood what had happened in the next scenes, however, and both characters were horrified about what had just taken place.

 

The first rape story on Y&R, when George Curtis attacked Chris Brooks, was much more explicit and quite upsetting to watch. After unsuccessfully trying to fight him off, we saw a close-up of Chris' face as she was pinned down underneath her rapist, and she weakly cried out, "Daddy!" It made my blood run cold. Idiotic viewers later criticized Chris for "asking for it," because she had been friendly to Curtis and let him come home with her. Thank God society's attitude towards this sort of thing has changed. NO should always means NO, even if you do offer a man something to drink at your apartment. Poor Chris. UGH. The scenes of her in the shower, trying to scrub away the memory of what had happened (Curtis had already sauntered out of her apartment and lit a cigarette), were just as heartbreaking as the scenes of the actual rape.

 

Yes, Pat Falken Smith finished the storyline about Mike's paternity reveal, although Bill Bell was still credited as story consultant at that time. I have an interview with Smith from 1977, in which she refers to working with Bell earlier, and being skeptical that Bell would ever be able to turn the story of a man raping his sister-in-law into a viable love story. I was relieved she agreed with me about that disturbing plot twist, although as we all know, DAYS and Bell managed to pull it off, as did Falken Smith later on with Luke and Laura on GH.

 

Lorie's relationship with Mark on Y&R was handled differently in the end, than Marie's relationship with Tommy. Even after knowing that Mark was her brother, Lorie went to his clinic and begged him to be with her anyway. (Marie Horton did not do that; she flipped out and ran away to become a nun.) Mark refused Lorie's pleas outright, and left her alone to weep hysterically on a bench in the hallway, for what seemed like FOREVER. I'll never forget that scene. Usually, soaps will cut away and fade to a commercial after a few seconds of a character crying, but the camera remained on Lorie as she sat on that bench and sobbed and sobbed...and SOBBED. I think this was the turning point for the audience, who had considered Lorie more of a "bitch" up until then. It was hard not to feel sorry for her and start to see the character in a more sympathetic light. She certainly got her punishment for all the bad deeds she committed against her sister

[SoapDope]

I can imagine what Days viewers thought of Bill doing that to Laura. I saw the scene on Days in the 80's where Mike was talking about his real father Bill and explaining he was the product of an "Affair" between Bill and his mother. I don't know if the current writers wanted to wipe away that ugly detail, or if Mike was supposed to be in the dark of what really happened. He said he will always be Mickey's son regardless.  

 

That Chris Brooks rape sounds horrible. I guess Anthony Geary was just meant to play creeps.....LOL. I had heard that Chris was criticized for allowing George Curtis to walk her home.

 

The scene of Lorie crying for that long period before cutting away sounds unusual. I bet the switch boards at CBS lit up when Lorie told Mark it didn't matter if he was her brother. I think I read Bill Bell and Jamie Lyn Bauer got hate mail.

 

[vetsoapfan]

No one ever went into specifics with Mike about the night he was conceived, just that he was Bill's son. I can understand why the rape was eventually brushed under the carpet; it would have been very difficult to deal with, for the writers or for any of the characters.

 

On June 16, 1976 (and God only knows why I remember this date), Peggy Brooks, Chris' sister, was raped by Ron Becker. In an interview about this storyline, in which a second Brooks sister was raped within a three-year period, actress Trish Stewart theorized that Bill Bell wanted to revisit the subject because so many viewers had judged Chris harshly for inviting George Curtis home. The way the later story was set up, no one could have accused poor Peggy of "asking for" anything, as she was alone in Chris' apartment when Ron Becker forced himself in and raped her.

 

Unfortunately, during and after the Ron Becker rape trial, something must have happened behind the scenes with Pamela Peters, because Peggy just sort of  disappeared for an extended period of time. It was particularly awkward, I thought, because other characters also stopped referring to her. I scanned the daytime press at the time to understand what was going on, but there were never any reports about the actress' absence.

[SoapDope]

I wonder why Pam was gone that long ? Maybe viewers were turned off by another rape so soon and with another Brooks sister. I have read and heard about Ron Becker. How was Dick DeCoit in the role ? Did they try to make Ron sympathetic ? DeCoit has went on to do a lot in his career. He acts and produces shows and has a facebook page. I saw him in a comedy sketch making fun of Archie Manning and recognized him.

 

I say you are right about why Days swept that storyline under the rug. Since they are doing sick storylines now, they might as well revisit and reveal the truth about what happened all those years ago.

 

 

[vetsoapfan]

In a 1970s' interview in Rona Barret's Daytimers about his tenure on Y&R, Anthony Herrera said that at one point, Pamela Peters stopped working, looked directly into the camera and announced, "I don't understand this scene!" And then walked off the set. He did not elaborate the point, but that anecdote made me wonder if Peters was something of a diva backstage. William J. Bell later called Herrera into his office, said the storyline between Herrera's and Peters' characters was not working, and then fired the actor. I guess we will never know what went on way back then.

 

Dick DeCoit was pretty good in the role. I wouldn't say the show tried to make his character likable; not only had he raped Peggy, he was abusing his wife Nancy and feeding her pills to keep her unbalanced. The character was quite vile.

 

With Uncle Mickey dead, and Bill, Laura, and Mike all long-gone off the canvas, DAYS will probably never revisit the ancient history shared by the characters, but I would love to be able to raid the vaults and rewatch all the classic Bill Bell and Pat Falken Smith episodes from 1966-76!

[SoapDope]

I would love to see all those classic Days episodes (1966-1976) too along with classic Y&R (1973-1983).

 

That's a crazy thing for Pamela Peters to do. I know they were live on tape then and I bet everyone was pissed they stopped production. It sounds like she hated working with Herrera and whined to Bill Bell to fire him. I do remember him saying his time was miserable on Y&R in an interview. Quinn Redeker said something like that too in a magazine after he went to days in 1979. He said he enjoyed the cast of Y&R at that time when he played Nick Reed (in the late 80's he returned as Rex Sterling), but the backstage goings on was stressful. I think John Conboy was the source of most of it. He and Bill Bell had a power struggle over the show. I remember reading about fights in the control booth and Bell calling from Chicago to rake him out over stuff he saw on the air.

 

 

[Paul Raven]

Susan Flannery as Dr. Laura Spencer Horton, Edward Mallory as Bill Horton

January 01, 1900| Credit: NBC

LICENCE

[vetsoapfan]

DAYS was okay during its first season, but it was not really exciting, and did not really catch fire, until William J. bell took over as headwriter. That's why I say I'd like to see all the 1966-76 episodes again, although I certainly would enjoy watching the series from its 1965 debut, even if it did get off to a slow start.

Pam Peters was a young actress at the time, and perhaps, like so many of the original cast of Y&R, she was ((ahem)) restless to leave the show after a few years. I'm not sure when she was on or off contract during her run. When the character's mother, Jennifer Brooks died, Peggy was curiously absent during important scenes. On a Friday episode, Jennifer gathered her daughters together to toell them that she did not have much longer to live. As expected, all four daughters were present and expressed the appropriate grief. When the action picked up again on Monday, Peggy had disappeared. Lorie asked, "Where's Peg?" And Chris replied, "She couldn't take this." We were supposed to believe that Peggy, upon hearing of her mom's impending death, would simply leave the house and her grieving family members behind. It was really awkward, but at the time I figured Peters was either unavailable to work on that day, or had been written out of the script at the last minute due to unknown backstage issues.

 

It's long been said that John Conboy tried to have Bill Bell fired from Y&R, and if that is true, it's shockingly arrogant and aggressive. Any competent producer could have produced the show, but Bill Bell was...Bill Bell. We have since seen what his leaving the series has done to its quality of writing. In other words, Conboy was easily replaceable. Bill Bell, not so much. There's an interview with Bell available on youtube, and when he is asked about his opinion of John Conboy, you can tell that Conboy was not Bell's favorite person.

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by vetsoapfan