I know I'm a month late on this but I wanted to check with my sources.

"MarDar did officially kill Stefano DiMera off." - That is false. Stefano was always meant to come back. We also never heard that Joe M. was fired from the show.

"MarDar had it planned for Ian to be EJ's father." - I don't know if Ian was going to be temporarily EJ's father but I know that M&D were going to make Stefano EJ's father again. EJ not being Stefano's son was just part of the story.

I know I'm a month late on this but I wanted to check with my sources.

"MarDar did officially kill Stefano DiMera off." - That is false. Stefano was always meant to come back. We also never heard that Joe M. was fired from the show.

That is true, but maybe the just decided to keep his exit a secret for so long since they shot the death scenes back in March. Lately it seems DAYS are more hush-hush about things compared to last summer when they promoted everything. Maybe they're taking a different approach now.

James Scott did an audio interview with Michael Fairman and James talked about when Joe was packing up and leaving after his last day James said I'll see you soon and Joe said I don't think so. He thinks Stefano should live on as an entity and doesn't need to actually be on-screen. He made it seem like Joe Mascolo is not coming back, or at least hasn't yet.

I want him to come back because I thought this was a very poorly written exit for a character like Stefano. And it felt like MarDar really wanted to show that he was dead, shot in the back, bullet went through the heart and out of his chest. Compare that to many of his death scenes in the past which were more vague.

I would love for that horrible couch incident to be a dream. Just about everything is a mess.

That is true, but maybe the just decided to keep his exit a secret for so long since they shot the death scenes back in March. Lately it seems DAYS are more hush-hush about things compared to last summer when they promoted everything. Maybe they're taking a different approach now.

James Scott did an audio interview with Michael Fairman and James talked about when Joe was packing up and leaving after his last day James said I'll see you soon and Joe said I don't think so. He thinks Stefano should live on as an entity and doesn't need to actually be on-screen. He made it seem like Joe Mascolo is not coming back, or at least hasn't yet.

I want him to come back because I thought this was a very poorly written exit for a character like Stefano. And it felt like MarDar really wanted to show that he was dead, shot in the back, bullet went through the heart and out of his chest. Compare that to many of his death scenes in the past which were more vague.

I am fine with Stefano being an off screen entity as long as Joe Mascolo comes back for the end of DAYS -- which hopefully will not come in 2013. The show was fine without Stefano when B&C were writing.

I personally don't think Stefano is needed, especially not the watered down version he's been due to EJ being around.