Backstage Mysteries: Forever Unsolved

[DRW50]

I've heard some people say it stems from a contract dispute in 1991 or 1992.

[NothinButAttitude]

Well I'm sure that whatever Matt was asking for it was deserved. Jack was the biggest male star, in the biggest pairing on DAYS at the time.

[cassadine1991]

Wow, Corday still has a grudge from that?

[sungrey]

Not so sure this is Corday. We'll know if certain vets are approached to return now that Tomlin's gone and they say no....

[titan1978]

Reportedly, Corday only has a couple of true pets. Alfonso appears to be one of them from what I have read over the years.

He truly lets the creative folks run the show. It seems that he has an EP to produce and run the show, and HW to create the story and tone. And he steps away.

He may have no negative feelings for Matt at all. He let John be killed, then brought back and written off the show with Marlena. He let Bo be marginalized. He wasted vets for years. How big a grudge could he hold if he sued Missy and then let her back on the show? I think he just lets his people make those decisions, for good or bad.

The only time I can rember reading rumors of him getting involved was during Reilly's second run, when the murders were getting out of control and they killed Alice. He went through with it, then apparently freaked out. If you belive the talk that Melaswen was not how the story was going to end originally.

[cassadine1991]

How.was the Salem Stalker storyline going to end, wasn't it rewritten more than once?

[Khan]

To this day, I don't believe JER ever intended to bring back any of the Salem Stalker's victims. Not even Alice.

[titan1978]

I agree. But I can't imagine that he and the show would have gotten rid of Marlena too at the end. Not permanently. Not back then.

[Michael]

I think there was a shift in the story around the time Doug (followed by Alice) was killed. I still believe it was going to be a brainwashed Marlena actually murdering these people, and the next phase of the story was going to be clearing Marlena's name and getting to the bottom of the mystery. But people guessed that (and it wasn't "never done in daytime before!" -- though JER probably had some insane twist on it), so they went with Melaswen. It kills me that we're never going to know the truth.

[Soapsuds]

I remember the ratings being very good though during all the murders..but at some point even though the ratings were still high the story got stale for me. I wonder if Corday rewriting what Riley had in mind. The ratings actually went down when all the dead characters returned and I don't think the ratings ever went up for Days again.

[amybrickwallace]

Did JER actually write that whole story or did he leave the show before it was up? The only thing I really remember is that the whole story was tasteless (especially in the case of Alice's "death") and that it took place in 2003-04. When did he leave DAYS for good?

[Bright Eyes]

2006.

[amybrickwallace]

Thank you. Was he still with Passions at its end, or had he already passed on?

[DRW50]

He was there to the end.

[Susan Hunter]

I remember the Salem Stalker storyline having a very supernatural feeling in the beginning, Celeste was involved and the little children singing the Lizzie Borden song and then all of that was dropped. I also believe that everyone was going to stay dead, except Marlena and Alice.

About Matt Ashford. I have been rewatching 1993 clips on Youtube and Jack was heavily involved in story when he got the quick wrap up and send off. Jack was heavily involved in multiple stories. Jack was not only involved with Billie, he was also involved with Kate. It appeared that Reilly was going to do something with Billie and Jack or Kate and Jack while Jennifer and Austin were getting close. His exit story came out of the blue and didn't make much sense for someone who they were clearly building multiple stories for.

Now, I think that Laurence and Carly may have been written out to pay for Eileen Davidson and Thaao Penghlis (even though Kristen and Carly and Laurence overlapped a bit). I guess that Ashford could have been written out to pay for Joe Mascolo, but that clearly doesn't explain Ashford being written out two more times for unexplained reasons.