Characters You would like to return in short story arcs for Days' 50th Anniversary

[KMan101]

FIVE months?

Unbelievable.

And I'm fairly sure most DAYS fans know who Scott and Faith are. There was even a period in the early 90s when Julie returned that was talk of a Spencer Banning coming on but that never came to be.

[Sindacco]

Tony DiMera (Thaao Penghlis)

Peter Blake (Jason Brooks)

Celeste Perrault (Tanya Boyd)

Brandon Walker (Matt Cedeno)

Alex Marshall (Quinn Redeker)

Vivian Alamain (Louise Sorerl

Lawrence Alamain (Michael Sabatino)

Orpheus (George DelHoyo)

[sungrey]

Sorry, but she's one I would like to see return. Along with Belle, Shawn, Chelsea, Philip, Stephanie and let's throw in Andrew and Alex. THAT is the next generation of Days, not what's on screen now. And let's re-invest in the Hortons by bringing back Mike, maybe Bill...

I know all of these characters would have to be recast, but at least we'd have some history. I don't mind new, but it seems to me like Days is going too new and forgetting the fans that made this show popular in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Just my two cents. Any other thoughts?

More Tony, please! And it would make sense for Orpheus to return!

[KMan101]

sungrey, I'm asking a serious question. You don't seem to like any newbies on DAYS, which is fine, but why was Melanie any different? She hogged up the airtime, characters were butchered at her expense (just like Daniel) so I'm genuinely curious what you find appealing about her. I think Molly Burnett is fine, but the character was never very well loved from what I could see. Ever. I only began to like/tolerate her before she left. She finally wasn't treated like the best thing since sliced bread. And her connection to Carly, Daniel and Maggie (despite her chemistry with all of them) was ridiculously forced. All IMHO. But I am genuinely curious what you liked about her because I trust your opinion on DAYS.

And I'd love to see Melinda Clarke do a cameo simply because she's John Clarke's daughter. How is he doing anyway? Does ANYONE know? EDIT: it appears to be his birthday today, too. He's 83 (or 82. I see both 1931 and 1932 as his birth year).

[amybrickwallace]

This probably won't happen, but I would totally go for seeing Jed Allan (Don Craig). Poor guy went off to mail a letter and was never seen or heard from in Salem again - but rumor had it that he changed his name to CC Capwell and became the patriarch of a wealthy, screwed-up family in Santa Barbara, CA.

[sungrey]

All valid points, Kman. Let me explain a little at a time...

1. Always been a Burnett fan. Great smile, great acting when given the right stuff to play. Mel and Abby made believable best friends and Abby hasn't had that connection because there's no one on the canvas Kate Mansi can play off. Did she get the best material on the show? Hell no. But there's something about her that suggests to me she will definitely go places someday. Her best material, quite frankly, was under Marlene and Darrell, but it wasn't necessary to do the "Egg baby" story (at least not how it turned out). When Mel was on Days, Maggie and Daniel had natural scenes with her (like I said before, it wasn't necessary to force because Suzanne, Molly and Shawn all had great working chemistry)

2. For the record, I also liked Shelley Hennig as Stephanie and Mark Hapka as Nathan at the time. Stephanie/Nathan/Mel/Phillip could have been a great quadrangle under a better writer, and Higley wasn't it. If these characters ever came back, I know different actors would likely play them and maybe it wouldn't be the same, but at least we'd have some link back to the old show. I think that's sorely missing today.

3. Not a fan of some of the unconnected newbies. I am not a regular watcher and haven't been for a year and a half, but from the clips I've seen Jen Lilley has done well as Theresa and Casey Moss is great as JJ. I love the Theresa is Jeannie connection because it means we might see Andrew someday, who knows? And JJ has been a great foil for the Dannifer relationship, which gags me to no end. lol

4. There's about seven to 10 characters I'd write out and 10-12 I'd write back in, but Mel wouldn't be my first one to come back (lol). Instead I'd bring back Mike and/or Bill Horton to beef up the Hortons and give Lucas more of a presence. I don't know why, but I have this bad feeling he's as good as gone when Ali/Sami leaves. Then I'd beef up the Kiriakis connection with Alex, Phillip... Nathan would come back and I would establish his father WAS Pete Jannings (he and Melissa having had a brief fling post-marriage).

I just get the feeling this group of writers/producers will not think too much about the 50th. They should.

Hope this helps. Anything else?

[amybrickwallace]

I have a feeling that Ali/Sami will be back for the 50th. Same goes for Christie Clark/Carrie.

[Sindacco]

Greg Meng praised what GH did last year. I think Corday and Meng want to go big for the 50th. I'm more worried about Tomlin and Whitesell, they are such a boring and mediocre headwriting team.

Might be spoilerish.

http://thetvwatercooler.com/2014/03/days-of-our-lives-interview-toronto/

[KMan101]

That's why I trust your opinion on DAYS

Such an awesome and fantastic pos/reply. Thank you! And it definitely helps me understand and frankly, I agree with ALL of it.

Nathan, Phillip, Stephanie and even Melanie were allllll wasted IMO (like most of the younger actors who can't wait to bolt -- I don't blame them one bit!)

And I COMPLETELY agree with you about the 50th (unfortunately LOL). I'm still a bit bitter over the handling of Nathan and even Jeremy.

To keep the discussion going, IMO, most of the returns this show has handled in the last 10 years have been BOTCHED. They don't spend the right amount of time re-investing and having the audience care again. All IMO, but look how many times Carrie has been wasted. Why would audiences care about her if they didn't watch her before? Same for Kayla and Steve. You also have to be able to reach the new audience and that's why the returns often are considered "failures". Which I would agree with. I know they just expect people TO care, but why should they?

(And I do agree Burnett is talented of course and definitely had chemistry with the people she was surrounded by, they soured me instantly by doing that egg-baby nonsense, which you already stated).

Also, and this is just a personal rant, but I will never get the appeal of Shawn Christian. Ever. (He's a mildly better Christopher Douglas). And if they insisted on bringing him on, they should have made him the new Mike Horton. I would have accepted that and they would have had their doctor, he could have shacked up with Kate and Chelsea still (can you imagine Laura flipping her [!@#$%^&*]?) and Chloe ... not related to any of them ... FYI writers

It boggles my mind how shows just waste so many of their characters year after year for the same old same old. I swear us fans need to get together and write this show.

[KMan101]

Thanks for that Sindacco. I trust Meng (and to some extent DeCazotte, who I feel has helped the show mix the JER type DAYS with the more 'normal' part of DAYS, if that makes sense). I don't trust Tomlin and his crony at ALL. Thank God for the scriptwriters (well, Salmons and the Cullitons, and I think Ford and Cherrill have stepped it up, or Iacabuzio, I can never really differentiate between Ford and Iacabuzio honestly) and probably Lorraine Broderick.

The only hope I have with Tomlin is because he was EP when they brought back so many people for Alice's memorial in 2010, but that was clearly a very special exception and still one of their most well executed in terms of returns, though I think some of it could have been handled better and they could have used that to make Marie, Mike, Bill and Laura relevant again. At least Laura made an appearance last year and I was also encouraged they bothered to bring back Jessica. So there's SOME hope ... I just don't want to set my expectations very high.

And Meng can love what GH did all he wants, it's a matter of them pulling it off and I also want to point out, depsite my distate for Carlivati, they at least rotate in a lot of the vets they brought back (not to my liking but I guess at least we see Bobbie, Lucy, Scott, Lesley, etc.)

[amybrickwallace]

The fans would do an infinitely better job!!!!

[sungrey]

Kman and Sindacco, it's NO secret at all that I want Days to go back to what worked in the past. If it means trashing some of the newbies and bringing back characters like Bo, Jack and the ones I mentioned before so be it. Bring back your vets, THEN add newbies off those vets. What if Bill and Kate somehow reconnected and a mature woman was brought on as a foil for their romance, for example?

Tomlin and Whitesell aren't the correct team to lead this show as writers. I know people gripe about Carlivati (I personally think he's great) but he really did a good job with GH's 50th integrating vets with the current characters. Not saying he should come to Days, but we need someone with an eye on the history.

[cassadine1991]

You lost me when you,mentioned Carlivati and what didn't even happen at GH

[amybrickwallace]

Even though I know it will never happen, and that the role has since been recast, I wish we could see Jensen Ackles pop in for the 50th anniversary - Sarah Michelle Gellar did when AMC was ending its ABC run, after all. Hey, we can dream, right?

[jcar03]

I would like to see them do a social media tie in. We no longer have SoapNet and I don't know if it still existed they would of done a long marathon of a non-ABC show like they did for GH. I would like to see fans vote on favorite moments and they could start 50 weeks out and post a classic episode a week online at nbc.com.