Days of Our Lives: December 2021 Discussion Thread

[te.]

I was referring to the role CC occupied in the press/media rather than on the show - she was fairly popular with the press and general public, so I think they brought on Eileen in hope that she would fill that void.

[carolineg]

Gotcha.  That makes sense.  I don't remember ED's hiring being that big of a deal, but it could have been.  I generally loathed Carly and CC, so while I know she was super popular, the early 90's felt like the Carly show to me.  I didn't take CC's exit as a loss, but I am sure the show did.

It looks like ED debuted about 4 months after SB went off the air.  I do like that JER beefed up the Dimeras.  That was really a great idea.  

[Khan]

I was a teenager when JER's much-heralded first run began, and let me tell you: even then, I found it simplistic, juvenile, not at all what DAYS used to be or should have been, and an almost clarion-like call for help.

I would say it screwed over Drake in the long run, too, because it's clear (to me, anyway) that Drake has struggled for years and years (and years) with how to portray someone that's more a concept (a romantic, brainwashed mercenary with a sketchy, elusive past) than an actual human being.  Hence, the really bad acting that's emanated from him since then.

Well, it's one thing to shake up an ailing show with a serial-killer storyline.  DAYS had gone to that well many times before.  But the ways JER was dispatching some characters...?  It was sick, and it smacked of the guy delighting in sticking it to everyone -- Corday, Sony, NBC, the actors, the fans, everyone.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Khan

[Bright Eyes]

I would love to see the Laura/Roman/Kate triangle, but you best believe Bill should be an equal part of it. Let him and Kate reach the potential they never did, but in the end, Bill and Laura reunite once and for all. I can't help but always be in his corner. The poor bastard is given short shrift far too much for my liking.

[titan1978]

I did make that thread because rewatching the earlier part of his run was pretty great soap opera.  Especially the way they told the story of Kate/Billie/Austin/Curtis.  But I fell off my rewatch shortly after Maison Blanche because that was when the JER I remembered was in almost full force.  The motivations were getting thinner, the reasons why people were doing what they were doing made increasingly less sense, and it started to feel more like the hybrid goth/camp version he fully evolved the show into by the time he left.

And that appreciation was truly rooted in having seen his work on GL when the Pandemic started.  I finally got to watch nearly all of the Curlee/Reilly/Demorest era. And watching his earlier DAYS run not long after really showed of the craft and skill he had in structure.  He just doesn’t have much deep characterization when solo, and it ultimately was not for me.

And all that goes without mentioning his clearly deep rooted psychological issues.  His treatment of women was awful.  And he really did make every character an idiot just to keep his stories moving, especially towards the end of his DAYS run and Passions/ second run.

[carolineg]

Same.  I was a younger teen, but I did find Days very easy to watch and easier to watch than GH which was very doom and gloom at the time.  I knew I Days was the sillier, less respected of the two shows. They were just two different shows and I liked their different feels.  I could watch the Devil on Days and giggle, but then turn on Stone dying, Lily blowing up, Monica's cancer etc on GH.  I liked having that variety when I came home from school lol.   I genuinely thought they were both good and entertaining for different reasons.  Again, it's much easier to watch edits of Sonny/Brenda vs. Marlena/John because on GH they weren't repeating the same dialogue every day and having silly misunderstandings, so I definitely think 90's GH holds up better.  I certainly remember my friends liked Days more though and thinking it was weird I watched GH, so maybe JER's ideal fanbase was 13 year olds lol.

From an acting perspective, Drake/John was hurt in the long run, but from a career perspective he wasn't at all.  He will land as the 2nd actor in appearances this year on Days ever (2nd to Dee, obvi).  He certainly outlived Wayne and Roman's character.   He's the leading man on the show with the main leading lady.  He still gets front burner stories, is in a popular pairing, has a large family, and well liked across the board.  Is he cheesy as hell?  Yeah, but at this point Grandpa John works for the character.  I totally see your point of view, but I don't think it worked out negatively for him.  Let's face it, Drake was never going to win any acting awards regardless lol.

At the end of the Day JER did save Days.  In a productive way that helped the show long term with storytelling?  Probably not.  But it got people talking and kept the show relevant.  There are many, many flaws in his run, but Days would have had a similar fate to AW if it weren't for JER.  

[Khan]

Well, that's an unsettling thought, lol.

[carolineg]

Lol!  Not trying to be doom and gloom, but Days wasn't exactly setting the world on fire in 1994.

[Khan]

True, but if I could go back in time and choose between wanting DAYS to end and wanting JER to come in and save it...?  I think I'd choose differently this time, lol.

[Vee]

I was 12 or 13 when I first started watching DAYS. I loved a lot of Reilly's first run, then and now, and he absolutely saved the show and made it rocket to the top for a time; I also felt, then and now, it got stupid and juvenile well before its end. And I had no illusions about him when he came back, because I'd watched Passions. By the 2000s he had deteriorated on a lot of profound levels, and you could never put on his kind of show today because his work became downright crass and bigoted. That being said, nothing I said upthread re: fans has anything to do with anyone currently in the discussion.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Vee

[Khan]

You really have to wonder what sort of demons drove JER.  Because, as morose as ATWT became during Doug Marland's final days, you never questioned whether Marland was an all-around well-adjusted individual.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Khan

[carolineg]

I can't say I have loved anything on Days post-1999, but I'd rather it be on the air than not, so I am fine with JER saving it at the time.

Yeah, I am giving JER a lot of flack because a lot of it's silly in re watch or when you think about it logically.   It doesn't hold up that well and his newer work certainly doesn't, but I do think it's very memorable.  In a way Days hasn't been for a long time.  I feel like I can make points and acknowledge silliness and stupidity in his writing in a way I can't with, say, Dena Higley.  Because nothing she did was memorable or worth discussing again during her run.  Anyhow, personal opinion and all.  I always enjoy discussing things with soap lovers even if when I disagree.

Wasn't JER very religious, but also gay?  And weren't there rumors he would act scenes out with dolls and only address the actors by character names?

[Vee]

I was watching early-mid '90s AMC, OLTL and GH at the same time as DAYS and it was clear there was no comparison re: class and intelligence onscreen, especially with the second two shows. DAYS was junk food for me, with some incredibly sexy couples or characters I loved (Bo/Billie, John and Marlena, Kristen, etc.) and a rich gothic atmosphere. I made that distinction even as a kid, but by the time college rolled around the luster had worn for me because I had watched the rollout of Passions live, and woof. At the same time, Reilly's '90s DAYS also had rich themes, layers and above all scorching sexuality, even when the scripts increasingly failed it.

I think any interview with an industry pro who talks about Reilly's skills and talents, even today, makes it clear there was much more to him we simply don't know or understand, and I think he learned from the best and did some spectacular work at DAYS, which caroline and I have discussed before a few months back - and probably even at earlier shows, like the dream team of writers at GL in the early '90s. I also think what we do know about him, his personal obsessions and demons, later bled out onscreen in the worst ways and helped deconstruct and destroy his talent later on. But that's me.

Do we?

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They seemed pretty clear to me, lol!

Marland's desires and drives also often shone through onscreen from what I've seen, but it never seemed toxic, fucked-up or hateful.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Vee

[titan1978]

Agree so much on both main points.  It was like junk food compared to the other soaps I watched at the time- mainly ABC.  And I also agree that his personal issues destroyed his talent because his writing became so one dimensional and forced.  I assume he was very troubled and conflicted.

[carolineg]

I think it's also very clear JER burned through his best ideas before Passions.  Even when you think about how repetitive and black/white his triangles and stories were he had a lot of arcs.   It's one thing to a transform a show with already established characters and fan favorites.  It's another to create a show.  Days had a pretty great cast of characters to work with and Passions really didn't.  JER's 2nd Days run was a mess, but his main arc was highly messed with.  

There is so little known about JER personally besides actors anecdotes.  I think it's just possible he was spent and out of ideas.