DAYS: Billie Reed Returns

[Greg]

I feel the same way.

Lisa is the ''real'' Billie.

The other two were just filler in my eyes.

[Cat]

I loved Deborah Adair as Kate for a long time, I thought she was great as this powerful-on-the-outside, shaking-on-the-inside fashion editor. You could see why Victor fell in love with her. There was a softness to her. When Lauren Koslow took over the role, Reilly was on board as HW and, love him or hate him, the show had already turned rather camp under his watch. Consequently, LK's Kate was very witchy, bitchy and OTT. It took me a LONG time to warm to this Kate and I couldn't for a long while. Now, go figure, she is one of my favourite characters, and that's because Koslow allows moments of vulnerability to soften Kate's hard edges. Her pairing with Stefano, weirdly, has done wonders for the character which, for a long time, was written as the Wicked Witch of the West. She is grounded in reality now, not a fairy tale villain.

Deborah Adair will always be an amazing Kate, the first Kate, but her work belongs to a time when Days was about its supercouples and Salem was still a New England town where international spies hung out at the docks every once in a while. This is the era of Sheri Anderson and Gene Palumbo. And just like the height of the Reilly Golden Age, in the mid-1990s, which brought us Carrie & Austin and Marlena & John, that era is gone. It feels part of the history.

As for Billie -- if Days had gone back to Krista Allen or Julie Pinson, I predict there would have been an OUTCRY on this thread about why they didn't bring back Billie's originator.

[Chris B]

I expected them to bring Julie Pinson back, especially considering how popular she seemed to be on As the World Turns (even winning that Emmy). I'm glad they didn't go that route though because I'm not too fond of her and didn't like her as Billie. It'll be interesting just to see Lisa Rinna act. I can't wait to see how she does. I LOVE her and only got to see her during her second stint as a cop. When she was on Veronica Mars, granted a few years ago, she did great work so she still has it in her.

[JackPeyton]

The biggest thing with me for Allen, aside from her lack of talent, is she did (and doesnt) have the maturity to play Billie. Billie was this mix of childlike yet mature beyond her age. All that she delt with made her grow up fast and that made her miss out on actually growing up. Rinna played it, she got it, she pulled it off.

Under Allen, and yes this was in the writing but also in her acting style, Billie was light, fun, happy - evem in the midst of being an addcit and losing her daughter she was oddly peppy.

Pinson was a fantastic recast and got some great stuff to work with. She was amazing with Steve too.

But i am glad to have Rinna back, for however long or short, in whatever storyline.

[juniorz1]

I came in here because I know I was harsh and for that I'm sorry.

But Rinna defined Billie and Allen regressed her. That's fact.

I've been watching DAYS for 29 years.

I win, you lose.

[JackPeyton]

It doesnt matter how long anyone has been watching or how much anyone knows about history.

Its all opinions.

She was seriously FANTASTIC on Veronica Mars.

[Cat]

I was going to mention that... I thought she showed another dimension to her acting on Veronica Mars, albeit in a small role as this tragic figure (and Harry Hamlin was skeevy and fantastic, too, it is worth adding). Rinna may annoy people but there is something 'here I am, warts and all' about her. And during her first stint on Days, she was brilliant. And HUGELY popular.

[Shawn]

This isn't a competition. It's a forum with different points of view. No one is right or wrong for what they like or don't like, and THAT is fact.

[juniorz1]

Hope you know I was j/k about I win, you lose.

How come it took you til 87? Age?

Because '82-'87 rocked so friggin hard!

[juniorz1]

And I agree about it being a forum with different points of view. I realize that I'm harsh sometimes in my disagreements.

But SOME posters just disagree for the sake of disagreeing and those are the ones I'm generally harsh like that with. Method behind the madness and such.

In any event, I could see where people would like Krista Allen if they didn't like Lisa Rinna.

But I LOVED her. She was such a three dimensional, fully fleshed out character and part of her reminded me of Hope, though she was very different from Hope. She was so refreshing for DAYS and a nice change from Carly. I still remember her testifying about being abused by Curtis and Muldoon's Austin sitting there crying. You really believed they were brother and sister and they were so sweet.

Count me among those who never have bought Austin as the older brother. I still can't believe it was intended that way.

Anyhow, I'd rank them like this:

1. Rinna 1

2. Pinson

3. Rinna 2

4. Allen

[Shawn]

Sorry. It's hard to tell sometimes on this board when someone is kidding or serious without those damn emoticons.

I'm 29, so I started watching when I was 5 with my mother. The first real "wow" memory I have when I started watching was Steve and Kayla's wedding. That's also when my love of Christie Clark began.

[Shawn]

No worries. I do give credit to LR for making the character rootable and so insanely popular. She did have good chemistry with PM and, like I posted earlier, amazing chemistry with RKK. I do try to block out her return in 2002 though. It was such a disaster, probably one of the biggest in daytime that I can remember.

[SalemPlace]

I'm so glad they didn't bring Pinson back. And I really couldn't stand her on ATWT but that may be the CarJack fan in me talking. I also think Lisa did an amazing job on Veronica Mars even though it was a fairly small part. Wow, I really miss that show.

[Gray Bunny]

Well if you saw Rinna on Melrose Place, you know she's got range, cuz Taylor McBride started off serious but then turned into total looney tunes camp! And I agree with someone's description of her: "Here I am, warts 'n all." What can I say, I like Lisa Rinna, even when she's a borderline trainwreck. She owns who she is and doesn't apologize for it.

[juniorz1]

See, I wasn't a Steve & Kayla fan and while I thought the wedding was beautiful, I thought it was trite, complete with Kayla FINALLY being able to speak.

But I'd already seen both Roman & Marlena weddings, Justin & Adrienne's gorgeous Greece wedding, and Bo & Hope's immaculate London wedding, so my standards for DAYS weddings were pretty darn high.

What's scary is I couldn't warm to Christie Clark's Carrie back then because I was partial to the original Carrie, Andrea Barber (who would later become Kimmy Gibbler on "Full House")

I started with my mother also, but when I was 3 and would refuse to take naps. I was hooked from the getgo and I still miss the characters of that period. Anna, Tony, Liz, Neil, Marie (the late Lanna Saunders), Alex Marshall, Gwen Davies, Larry Welch, Eugene, Calliope, Melissa (the cousin Hope truly grew up with- still miss & LOVE Lisa Trusel), old school Abe, old school Stefano, Delia, and of course, the Bo/Hope/Roman/Marlena/Caroline/Maggie/Mickey/Don Craig/Doug/Julie contingent who are (mostly) still around. I fell in love with Marlena back then. She was my first soap heroine love, before Marcy Walker's Eden even (though I'll always prefer Marcy's Eden of course). I admit that it softened the blow of Marcy leaving SB that it happened to be the same summer Deidre Hall's Marlena came back to DAYS. That, and I had Julie Osburn back (briefly) on AW as Kathleen. But having Marlena back was comforting as I was losing Eden.

The only thing I liked about the 2002 return is that she was in cahoots with Larry Welch. Love, love, LOVVVVED that Brash & Cwikly brought Larry back as a foil for Bo/Hope, as he was always their best villain. I wish LR would have stayed though and that things had gotten better.

I still have fond memories of her first run and her body suits.

I really liked Pinson as Billie and thought she did some really strong supporting work. And while I didn't love Juicy Janet on ATWT, I thought Pinson was a fabulous actress and was excellent with Maura West. I enjoyed their frenemyship.