Days of Our Lives: March 2022 Discussion Thread

[SFK]

After Sonny and Chad hugged, there was Sonny sweat all over Chad’s lapel. It looked like a baby spit up.

Morgan Fairchild had Chinese paper lantern lighting on The City for a soft glow.

[Michael]

Late to the party, but it baffles me that they never tried ANY of the Billies in a legitimate way with any other love interest. Krista Allen got tested with JT's Roman and Ackles' Eric, plus the flirtation with Nicholas... Julie Pinson got teased with Max, Patrick, had the fling with Nick... and then when LR came back in 2012, they played around with her and EJ and her and Daniel. But it's like no one could conceive of a Billie who wasn't an accessory to Bo/Hope. 

The idea of putting her with a grown Dougie LeClaire in the 90s or 2000s intrigues me. They also could've cast a Mike Horton for her at any point in the last 20 years, and the most obvious pairing in the 2000s would've been to put Pinson's Billie with fellow loser-in-supercouple-love Frankie, whose portrayer was also married to Pinson.

[Vee]

I never got over Bo and Billie's breakup, and I never will!

[carolineg]

Frankie was always my thought too for Billie!  Shame they never tried that.   I remember thinking JA's Eric and KA's Billie had chemistry.   I feel like JA's Eric was mostly wasted as well.  Considering how iconic his character should be he never did much.

 

See, I liked their breakup.  Billie left with her dignity intact.  It was coming crawling back to Bo time and time again that hurt the character.

[Vee]

That has been the biggest issue, and yes, they should've invested in someone else for Rinna (or Pinson, in a pinch). But they never have, they just treated the recasts like her mother: The town mattress.

Absolutely.

I like Julie Pinson a lot, I loved her on PC where she had the same energy as Lisa. But Julie Pinson got plugged into too many forced roles on too many shows, most especially ATWT, and that includes using her as a sort of shadowpuppet version of Rinna on DOOL. Billie had no agency as a character after LR's original run and that really hurt Pinson too. These days when people bring JP up I just roll my eyes, sadly, because she's had enough ill-conceived runs on enough shows. It's not her fault. But no, no one has ever compared to Rinna for me or ever had the same stature in the role.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Vee

[Michael]

Frankie/Billie was RIGHT THERE. There was definitely chemistry between Ackles and Allen, too. It did seem like they never quite knew what to do with Eric. The initial story with Nicole tanked -- it was too focused on (very green) Arianne Zucker. Throwing her at Lucas and then Victor was really smart, but it left Eric out in the cold. His pairing with Greta was cute but always felt like D-story consolation prize material. 

And I'm with you on Bo/Billie. When LR's Billie left, it was a great conclusion to that triangle. Bringing in Krista Allen and making her pathetic and borderline-insane over Bo really boxed the character in, and then Pinson's Billie showed up years later STILL fixated on him. But there was definitely a point where Bo winding up with Billie felt like as viable a resolution to the triangle as him winding with Hope, which is pretty impressive.

We were posting at the same time, but I'm with you. They had the opportunity to restore Billie a bit to her pre-Allen character -- Pinson brought a bit of grounded earthiness, and you could buy that her Billie was a former addict who'd been raised by Curtis Reed and had scraped together a life for herself. But they just made her such a LOSER all the time. 

[Vee]

She has never really not been a loser since Lisa first left, minus a few shining moments here and there. I've made no secret how I felt about Krista Allen's unrecognizable take on the character, and Pinson's Billie carried the energy around like a weight and just felt like a joke to me. And most of Lisa's brief returns just feel like novelty bits for me that either go camp or are rough for other reasons.

If she was willing to commit to 6-12 months, or some sort of Alison Sweeney situation, I'd say go for it with Lisa. But otherwise, don't bother.

[carolineg]

I feel like Eric was always the forgotten twin.  Honestly still to this day.  Sami is just SO MUCH and Eric tends to be an afterthought (which is obvious since it took the show years to age him).  JA was a find and he was wasted his entire run.  I don't think the show ever had a clear idea for Eric.  Early Nicole was a snooze.   Kudos to AZ for making a nothing character work.  Nicole being a leading heroine in 2022 certainly wasn't on my bingo card in 1998 lol.

Bo is a really great character.  He's one of the few characters from a supercouple to make other pairings work.  Marlena obviously would be the other one.  I think all Bo's pairings (Carly, Billie) had followings.  Billie was such a cool, unique character.  It's a shame she is pretty much known for just hanging around Bo, waiting for his crumbs.  

I thought KA was okay as Billie.  She certainly was more sexy and a little porny, but it was the writing, not the actress that failed.

I thought LR was great in Beyond Salem.  It took about 5 seconds for me to be like-the real Billie is back.  There really is no other Billie.  I know people rag on Lisa Rinna for all the right reasons, but she really does have a certain charisma that lights up the screen.

[Vee]

Jensen made reference to DAYS not long ago on IG. I think Jared Padalecki or someone trolled him with pix or a clip of Eric or something.

I despised Ari's first run as Nicole, and I've never gotten over it. I thought she sparkled with E.J. in the late 2000s/early 2010s, but I think she looks so tired and worn down now, not unlike the Billie recasts. I think it's long since over and they should've just kept her with GV's Eric and let them be happy. But they've never fully utilized him either, though that is in part due to Greg's recurring run on the excellent Queen Sugar.

I would add about Lisa - I didn't see much of her 2011-2012 run, but I heard it was another bust. I know they got her involved with Countess Wilhemina again which was wise. I am one of the very few boosters of that brief era under McPherson/Thomas which I think started out very good, but I know it apparently went off the rails fast and I was unable to keep up with it for long at the time; DAYS is extremely hard to find online at least for me (if anyone knows an archive I can watch stuff at, PM me lol), so I can't speak to that progression. I was very pleased with McPherson's AMC 2.0 a year later, but that's beside the point. Anyway, that's a longwinded way of saying I'd be interested in hearing details on Billie in 2011/2012.

Since I've been rewatching a binge of OLTL 1993 today, it's worth noting that Peter Reckell's Bo is a prime example of a character who got to take off and spread his wings where John Loprieno as Cord on OLTL - a similar performer and character type - couldn't or wasn't allowed to. Loprieno could've easily had just as many hot pairings and stories, and was at least as good an actor as Reckell (better IMO, for anyone who's seen him on Star Trek)

I did not finish Beyond Salem, lol. I will try again.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Vee

[carolineg]

Days is so hard to find online.  Unless you are looking for specific characters (John/Marlena seem to have to most complete set of vids) you can't find anything.  

LR's Billie's return was a bust.  It's like the show wanted to capitalize on LR's housewife fame, but had no idea what to do with her.  I can't remember a single story, but I want to say the show was very Carly focused at the time and at the end of the day Carly/Billie do fill similar roles on the show.

Greg Vaughn is an interesting case.  He's handsome, capable, and likable, but he doesn't seem to inspire writers.  He's played iconic roles and no writer seems to want to do anything with him.

ETA-I  hate Carly Manning.   I have never known why she or CC were a thing.  If there are any Carly lovers out there-explain it to me.

Edited March 20, 2022 by carolineg

[Michael]

I've made peace with the idea that Billie Reed is now basically Lisa Rinna. They've saddled her with the improbable law enforcement career for two decades now, and while it's never felt "right" for the character to me -- the suggestion upthread that she would own a nightclub/restaurant sounds so much more like who Billie Reed should be -- it's what we've got. They might as well go for the camp of "glam superspy Billie Rinna" or whatever that we got with her 2017 run and Beyond Salem. I wouldn't want it all the time, but it's cute for what it is.

Rinna's 2012-13 run was... something. They brought her back with a lot of energy, and I think people appreciated that she was back in the mix with "Countess W," as they were calling it, but like everything under McPherson & Thomas's pen, it just kind of fell apart into nothingness. She wound up still being ISA (I think this was secret at first?) looking into EJ for some BS, and of course they limply toyed with throwing her at Bo AGAIN, and they had her give Daniel [!@#$%^&*] over being with both Chelsea and Kate -- which was fun for a minute but then started to look like they'd pair them. Then she just sorta hung around town for another six months. Her exit, which was all about her basically telling Kate, "You're a shitty mom and I'm accepting that, and I guess I love you anyway but I can't be around you this much," was surprisingly nuanced.

I can totally see the comparisons between Reckell/Bo and Loprieno/Cord, btw!

[Vee]

We might as well loop @Khanin on this, since I know how much he loves WN - I actually think they could've sold Wayne Northrop's Roman with Lisa's Billie at one point, a la Hal and Emily on ATWT. The world weary cop with the troubled younger woman.

I was under the impression Lisa's Billie only came back under McPherson/Thomas. I remember they were the ones who finished writing Carly out when they came on (along with a brief appearance by a, for once, age-appropriate and adorable Nicholas when she was in rehab). I wasn't aware that LR and CC's time ever intersected in that period. I thought Carly had already been gone maybe 3-6 months when Lisa's Billie turned up.

At this point Billie being ISA is baked into the character, but I don't have a problem with her doing both that and CW fashion/cosmetic stuff, which is how they've seemed to handle it in both recent returns that I know of. John ran Basic Black for years too while also doing the usual John things.

He was excellent on QS, but I think so much of what has been done with him on DAYS has come down to every creative that gets involved having bigger priorities than him. For Dena Higley, Gary Tomlin, etc. it was Shawn Christian or Galen Gering, for Ron it's many other men. I think you can never discount the Corday of it all too in terms of creative interference.

[Michael]

Carly and Billie didn't overlap in that era. Carly went out with the big "reboot" that McPherson & Thomas ushered in, and Billie came back the following spring (2012). I think they were more excited to get Lisa Rinna and to be using the Countess Wilhelmina name than anything -- there was never much plan for her.

[carolineg]

WN/LR probably would have been amazing together.   For some reason, I can see them together easily even if it would be messy with Bo/Marlena. 

You are probably right about Carly being gone when LR came back.  I thought she was still around, but I was not an avid Days watcher at this point.  It took me a long time to get over the DH's firing.  I probably was more upset about it than Deidre was.

[Vee]

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Yeah, IIRC Carly left and Dee/Drake returned within days of each other.