Days: November 2019 Discussion Thread🦃

[Franko]

I knew I was forgetting somebody -- Tommy Horton also was written off during the revamp. And it sounds like Amanda Howard was done for good as 1979 concluded (I forget, was she killed off?).

[jam6242]

I think Amanda was written out with Greg in early 1979, and they moved to Chicago.  She came back to town alone a few months later and had an affair with Chris.  Then she learned she was pregnant (not knowing whether the father was Greg or Chris).  She had a miscarriage though and had to have a hysterectomy.  She decided to go back to Chicago with Greg.

[Khan]

So, they brought back Amanda (without Greg) just to write her off again?

 

Man, DAYS was in terrible need of direction after PFS left the first time.

[Franko]

Yup, right after I wrote my last post, I looked it up. Either way, that's two more gone. And I now know why Steve Olson left (because Mary turned down his marriage proposal).

[jam6242]

I think Josh Taylor was butting heads with Barbara Stanger, who was playing his love interest, Mary Anderson.  So they might have brought back Amanda just to give him another love interest.  Josh fell for Mary Frann in real life but I don’t know whether she reciprocated.  I actually did like their pairing.

[victoria foxton]

I found this article on the 1980 reboot. 

Please register in order to view this content

[Paul Raven]

I don't think Tommy was written off officially, he just vanished. But Tommy had appeared only sporadically throughout the 70's so it was hardly noticeable when he went missing.

Of course, when Sandy finally re-appeared, Tommy should have been around for a while to establish the character.

Also Mike Horton was dropped in early 1980 when Wesley Eure was written off. I think that had something to do with him being gay IRL.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Actually, Tommy Horton vanished (for the second time, BTW)--before the 1980 massacre. He was never formally written out, he just stopped being seen or mentioned, without explanation. We are left to assume he is dead, as he did not appear for either of his parents' or his brother's funerals.

 

Mary Frann was dropped from contract status during Ann Marcus' reign as head writer. Amanda was technically on recurring status but rarely seen until she and Greg Peters were sent off to Chicago. Just before she left, she at least was given a sweet scene with former love Neil Curtis, who told he that no one had ever touched him the way she did, and that he would always love her. Writing her out was a stupid move; a loss of a wonderful character and good actress. But Ann Marcus did not "get" Days, any more than Nina Laemmle did.

 

 

I'm pretty sure the story about Amanda's ectopic pregnancy happened before she and Greg were written out, but I could be wrong.

[DRW50]

@vetsoapfan that's a real insight about Mary Frann. As she was guest starring on shows like WKRP at the time I thought she'd wanted to leave. 

 

I remember reading in those old soap history special magazines back in the early '90s and the history for DAYS talked about Amanda learning her mother had died of a brain tumor and made peace with her death, and this in turn caused Amanda to make peace with her own death. And the writeup never mentioned her again, so for years I assumed she'd just died of a brain tumor. I always wanted to see the story as it sounded very touching.

 

This same magazine did weird things like last mention the Brooks sisters in the Y&R section around the time Leslie learned that Lorie was pregnant (or was it the other way around - one sister saw the other one was pregnant because she was getting into the shower or something). 

[vetsoapfan]

 

I know Frann secured several guest-spot roles on primetime TV during the mid-to-late 1970s, but I'm not if those spots would have been enough for her to earn a decent living and make her want to leave a secure job on Days. At the time she was taken off contract from the soap, it was reported in the press that the writers had no immediate story for her, hence Frann's being downgraded.

 

Amanda definitely survived her brain tumor. That was a plot written by Pat Falken Smith, so it must have been 1976. (The character was rolled into surgery wearing blue eye shadow, which made me groan. And immediately after the operation, Julie gifted Amanda with a "wig," which MIRACULOUSLY looked EXACTLY like Mary Frann's real hair, so Amanda never appeared ravaged by her ordeal, LOL. When Tom Hallick's character, Brad Elliot, on Y&R had his brain surgery, he came out of his with a perfect hair piece as well. Glamour before reality, I guess. 

Please register in order to view this content

) The story was indeed very touching. Even Phyllis Anderson Curtis, who was insecure and jealous of Neil's lingering feelings for Amanda, was sympathetic towards her, which made me care for Phyllis for the first time. Although she never ended up with Neil, Amanda went on to have relationships with Chris Kositchek (the first case of real, deep french kissing I saw on soaps was when Josh Taylor would slip his tongue into Mary Frann's mouth) and Greg Peters, whom she married. She remained affiliated with the show until 1979.

 

It was Lorie who discovered Leslie coming out of the shower on Y&R. Leslie was trying to keep everyone from knowing how far along she was, because she did not want Lorie to figure out that Lance was really the baby's father. Lorie gasped to her nude, VERY pregnant sister, "How pregnant ARE you???" And the truth came out. It was very poignant. Lorie wailed, "I know, and I will have to GO ON KNOWING, the truth about this baby!"

[DRW50]

 

Thanks for the details. You know I can hear Jaime Lyn bauer saying those lines. She was one of a kind. I hope these stories, from DAYS and Y&R, will be made available to us someday. We can dream...

[AbcNbc247]

Great article @victoria foxton! Thanks for posting!

 

I love reading all of these old articles about the big changes that soaps went through. Everybody always sounds so optimistic about how the soaps are going to end up, and so many times, there were either no changes or the soaps declined even more.

 

GH's revival really did change the soap landscape forever, but it also does depend on the capability of the writer, something that Nina Laemmle was lacking in.

 

And I find Al Rabin's quote hilarious. "We ran out of story possibilities" has got to be the biggest cop out ever.

[Paul Raven]

If only PFS had taken over Days in 1980...

[teplin]

That article mentions a new emphasis on "outdoor/on-location filming." I don't remember much of that during the time period. 

 

It was such a grim time for the show. I liked many of the characters that were written out and exactly one of the new ones – Gloria Loring's Liz. And the plots and writing were deadly dull, especially in contrast to what the ABC soaps were doing at the time.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Although my rational mind knows it's unrealistic, in my heart, I still secretly hold out hope that one day, vintage soaps will become available for us all to see.

 

She would return a few years later and very quickly performed miracle surgery on the show, but alas, she was forced out again as problems stemming from an old lawsuit arose. Then viewers got stuck with the tepid Margaret DePriest (who may not have been as dreadful as Laemmle, but whose work was just so bland).

 

 

There really was not a lot of new on-location filming, but I doubt it would have made any significant, positive difference. Viewers want to see good acting and absorbing stories unfold. We don't watch soaps to see a real-life tree outside the studio. And yes, the stories on Days were really dull at the time of the massacre. Laemmle arrogantly claimed that the show had been "dull and repetitious" when she came on board, but her own writing was tedious, cold, and lacking in heart and depth