Days of Our Lives General Discussion

[KMan101]

 

I'm enjoying it too. I roll my eyes at times at how ridiculous JER could make things but I think, at times, his plotting was good and the canvas feels connected, even with some storylines isolated at times.

 

The possession stuff never bothered me.

 

I agree I like Kelker-Kelly as Bo. I think he was a good recast actually, despite the creepiness, which is kind of all I think about when he has love scenes with Rinna or Alfonso. But he works in the role. I'll ALWAYS prefer Reckell, but Kelly worked in the role IMO. But it made sense to have Reckell come back for the Hope story.

 

Muldoon has his moments. I personally don't think he's all that great but he has his looks going for him and does the whispery brooding thing well enough so I like him.  Even though Austin Peck was fun in his last little visit earlier this year I personally prefer Muldoon as Austin. Peck's Austin became too dumb to live and was just a hot body to look at. Anyway, with Muldoon I was LOLing so hard as he cried at the Titan Health Club after he slept with Sami and he was, of course, taking his shirt off. It just seemed like one of those scenes soaps would give a woman who was raped and they sat in the shower and sobbed. (Not making light of rape, but it just made me laugh as he cried and took off his shirt ... only JER ...)

 

Mark Valley was the Jack I knew back when I started watching (which was 1997) so it's fun to see him from the near beginning of his run but then I have to laugh because Jack and Jen are basically kept apart for three-four years. Sort of ridiculous. Jason Brooks is even a little green, TBH but you can see the chemistry between Brooks and Reeves

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But I liked Valley. I will FOREVER prefer Ashford though, but Valley wasn't awful in the role. It just sucks Melissa leaves later in 1995. Cameron was always blah to me as a recast.

 

JER's writing, which I'm a fan of when he doesn't go absolutely absurd, is like masterpiece theater compared to the last few writing regimes.

 

I still appreciate him bringing back Mike and Laura. Alice was central to plots at times, like now with the Gina mess.

 

Oh and I miss Tanya Boyd as Celeste. She was so over the top in the beginning it's great. lol

 

Christie Clark is so underrated. I wish she never left in 1999 and wasn't always dropped by regimes after being brought back. She should be the lead heroine at this point on the show. As much as I love the DAYS supercouples, I feel like some characters suffered because of it and often failed to exist when not in that coupling, like Carrie and Jack, when both could and should exist with or without their other half. Personally I'd have killed Austin off long ago to free up Carrie. He's been a weight on her for a long time.

[teplin]

I appreciated JER's mastery of "make 'em wait" plotting and the way he built things up to a huge climax. I didn't even mind his fake reveals so much. But I hated that every character lost about 50 IQ points from the beginning to the end of his reign. (Marlena was especially affected.) I think one of the reasons JER couldn't write for Matt Ashford and Susan Hayes was that those actors can't play dumb very well. (Hayes finally gave in and adapted to JER's style in his second stint, to her detriment.) 

 

I think Kelker-Kelly was a great replacement for Reckell, to my great surprise. I thought Reckell was darn-near irreplaceable. Mark Valley was no Matt Ashford -- but JER wasn't writing Matt Ashord's Jack, anyway. Valley filled the plot slot JER assigned to him. 

 

I do agree that JER at his worst is better than anything we've seen in years -- though a part of that does come from the much, much, much higher production values during the JER years. 

[Khan]

 

YES.

[Clark Still]

 

if I may ask, what youtube channel are y'all watching these on? I'm presuming they're unlisted so are there any links or anything y'all could provide? JER era is something I'd love to rewatch especially since its the era I grew up on. 

[Gray Bunny]

 

Enjoy

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I began watching in late July of 1995 with the devil storyline coming to its conclusion (literally, she was in the morgue and John was doing battle with MarDevil), Hope was about to open the puzzlebox, Peter Reckell rejoined a week later (never saw RKK originally, so PR as Bo and LR as Billie was my intro to Bo/Billie), and Sami had just been in a car accident in Oregon or something and was making her way back to Salem to announce she was preggars with Austin's baby at Austin & Carrie's wedding. Ah, good times. A great, fun era. 

 

If I could, I would love to go back and watch every episode from sometime around 1992 and watch the show transition into the "Reilly" era in 1993. So much drama, intrigue, high stakes, and passion in '93, '94, '95, '96. I think the Aremid story arc will forever be my favorite. 

 

Even the background music during that era was unforgettable and emotionally rich. JMO. 

 

There used to be a wonderful YouTube channel called JohnMarlena which had every single episode cut to just the John/Marlena storylines from Maison Blanche in '94 up to their summer 1997 reunion. It was great. I managed to save the majority of clips from the possession and Aremid, but not all. Wish I had saved all of them before YouTube/NBC yanked them down. I had a feeling it would happen one day so I started saving them just to be safe. 

[Gray Bunny]

 

Agree 110% 

[GSGfan2017]

@juniorz1Why do you think Patch and Kayla caught on as a supercouple during the latter half of the '80s?  Was it due to Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans?

[Roman]

to me it was...and the acting and chemistry of both people. the writing was great then as well. Kayla was a recast, and Patch was supposed to only be on for a short while but SN caught on so much they gave him a full name and backstory. one of the last of the great supercouples. 

[juniorz1]

Timing.  Bo & Hope were gone and Marlena had just left- the show's 2 major supercouples had left within months of each other.  Marlena was absent (in a coma) for part of '86 and gone in '87- lots of airtime opened up and Patch had caught on with viewers.  The storyline where Kayla married Jack is when they really caught fire, especially once Matt Ashford was cast in the part.  The viewers had a viable villain to root against in the triangle.  Once Anjelica began poisoning Kayla, it felt like the story was neverending!  And just when that story ended, Kayla was too close to an explosion and went deaf (and dumb- for no reason!!) for what seemed like an eternity.

 

But if you want the short answer, it's because a hero wearing an eyepatch was a first as a romantic lead.

 

 

 

LOL I disagree with the bolded text SO much.  Stephen Nichols was the first "dude" of daytime- no bueno.  Mary Beth's Kayla never impressed me then either.  They had zero fire and spark.  As far as chemistry goes, I actually thought she had more chemistry with Charles Shaughnessy when they were paired when Nichols left.  I thought her acting improved as well.

As for the writing.....where do I begin?!?  While the initial story with Jack was pretty good, what followed was hogwash.  The decision to make Kayla DEAF and DUMB from the explosion was ludicrous!  Blind I could see, burned I could see, but deaf and dumb?!?   There was NO legitimate reason why she wouldn't be able to speak from going deaf so late in life.  It was especially glaring when she got her hearing back BEFORE her voice!   All so she could finally speak her wedding vows at that godawful tacky wedding?!?  BLECH.   And let's not forget that they gave Patch a glass eye for a period of time (STUPID idea) and then had him lose the SAME eye again because of fan revolt.  All of that was followed up by Hunter Tylo's Marina- another story that went nowhere.  I will say that Nichols did have chemistry with Tylo and I actually rooted for that pairing.

Can you tell I wasn't a big Steve & Kayla fan?

With all of that said, I actually like both of them and them as a couple ever since their return under Sheffer but man, were they a chore to watch in their heydey.

[Sindacco]

Some of us have posted playlists with full episodes on another forum. 

 

The following time periods are currently available to watch.
July 1984 - December 1985
June 1986 - January 1988
December 1988 - February 1991
January 1995 - June 1995
July 1995 - October 2001
January 2002 - May 2002
July 2002 - May 2003
November 2004 - April 2005
January 2006 - February 2006
August 2006 - December 2007

 

If you're interested in any of these I can PM you link.

That channel was first and foremost about Marlena. There was alot of John stuff missing.

[KMan101]

@DAYSepisodes on twitter posts episodes as well, they're currently in 1999. I've been watching their complete 1995 (unlisted) episodes on YouTube. I've saved the links to their 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 playlists. Ironically it's unlisted but they post the links on Twitter ... I can pass those along if anyone wants. I wonder if they had 1994 but I couldn't go back far enough on their twitter timeline to see.

 

I wish 1993 and 1994 were available.

[Roman]

Well juniorz you disagree. Oh well. We'll always see it differently......but that's my opinion. Ok? Ok. 

 

'84 to '91 I would love to see again. 

[juniorz1]

Ok  Roman! 

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[YRBB]

It's so weirdly fascinating to watch Kristen as a heroine. She's constantly in church praying! LOL Then again, we are seeing early traces of her treacherous behavior with secretly taking birth control. I think one of the most fascinating aspects will be watching how she transitions from heroine to batshit bitch. 

 

It's kinda funny that pretty much everyone is in a triangle of sorts, even if they don't know it. Tony/Kristen/John, Abe/Jonah/Lexie, Jack/Jennifer/Peter, Gina/Bo/Billie, Vivian/Victor/Kate, Sami/Austin/Carrie... I think the only NON triangle storyline is Marlena's possession.

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 So, yeah, the supercouple emphasis is intense. 

 

 

 

Thank you, both.

 

 

Those are probably his strongest and weakest points. I've noticed the lowering of IQ already. They're not all completely dumb just yet, but there's a clear change from, say, 1993 and how these people were at that point. They sure do ask a lot of obvious questions they somehow can't get the answer to -- which just happens to be convenient for the plot.

 

 

At this point, his classic soap tendencies cannot be denied. He plays the beats, people sit around places drinking coffee and catching up on their lives, etc. And then it's like it takes some crack and everything goes wonky. lol It's literally classic soap on crack.

 

 

 

That's where I'm watching from as well. They only have clips for 1993/1994.

[Roman]

The thing about Victor/Vivian/Kate.....Victor went to Viv and wanted to be with her. she turned him down...then wanted him after he got with Kate.