DEADLINE: Days of our Lives Misconduct Investigation Against Co-EP Albert Alarr

[JAS0N47]

They were once the gold standard of the industry, since they started over 100 years ago, covering every aspect of show business. I remember in doing research of old issues, they would even have a lot of reports about Days actors joining the show in the 60s and 70s. Guest actors would even take out full or half-page ads to announce they were going to guest on Days. But, like most newspapers/magazines, the quality has gone quite down in recent years.

[AbcNbc247]

Now this is the kind of news to wake up to. 

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I think we all knew that this was going to happen eventually. We (and Soap Twitter) just needed a little patience

And not to get all preachy, but it really is time to get a woman back in a leadership role on a soap.

Edited August 5, 2023 by AbcNbc247

[wingwalker]

Great news to wake up to. Glad they picked a woman to take over. DAYS has been a boys club for too long. Hopefully she can steady the ship and turn things around. 

[te.]

I just hope that this means that they can start retaining actors - especially younger ones - in the long-term, especially since they pretty much killed off Abby because none of the actresses wanted to commit to DAYS. At the time we thought it was budget reasons in addition to actors not wanting to be stuck on a sinking ship, but then Mansi signed with General Hospital...

[teplin]

Judging by the tone of Alarr's statement, I'd say there's an expensive legal battle ahead if they don't. There may be even if they do.

But I'm very happy for the cast. It's unforgivable that they've had to endure this for so long. 

[Vee]

His statement is clearly looking for a fight, IMO. And full of blaming everyone else. But it's also yet another sad indictment of the state of the genre - is Alarr of all people truly the first and only Black EP or co-EP in soaps (not counting stuff like Ishmael Reed's experimental avant-garde soap Personal Problems from over 40 years ago which almost no one has seen)? GH has hired and possibly fired a handful of new Black writers in recent years, too.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Vee

[detroitpiston]

I’m glad Alarr’s been fired but him getting away with this behavior for damn near 20 years and being allowed to take over the entire production indicates a need for bigger changes. He can’t be the only one exhibiting that kind of behavior BTS. More heads need to roll and a deeper look at how the cast and crew are treated and (over) worked. If the show was ever do for one of Ken’s “Plans to save DAYS” this is the time.

[Contessa Donatella]

Here, I take Albert Alarr's statement from Deadline.com & in italics I give my interpretation of what is really being said.

It is hard to overstate how heartbreaking I find this situation.

I am a big ole crybaby upset because I've lost my 2 million dollar job.

These allegations were already examined in a detailed and entirely independent investigation that lasted for two months. Dozens of individuals cooperated and every claim was thoroughly looked into. At the end of that process, the decision was made that I should continue in my role as Co-Executive Producer.

You cannot imagine how incredibly lucky I was to get off scot free!

Now, with no new facts presented, the studios have reversed course and caved to a cynical pressure campaign to force me out of my job.

Waaah, crying.

It’s important to set the record straight.

I've got to try to sell you on a different version of events.

Every day, I worked with hundreds of people, the overwhelming majority of whom would disagree with recent mischaracterizations of me.

I've got buddies who have been protecting me from paying for my actions for years & years.

I have been in this industry for decades, and not a single complaint has ever been made against me until now.

I was so successful at intimidating people & firing people that I had everyone scared into silence. Dammit now that is over.

Many of the claims recently referenced in the media are simply false.

I have lied about all of this successfully for years. I can't believe it stopped working.

Others have been taken so out of context or are so twisted that they are unrecognizable from the truth.

Of course my version of what is truth is unrecognizable!

To be clear, this whole situation stems from the animus of just two individuals.

There were just a few people that weren't intimidated by me, dadgummit.

Those individuals, at a time of industry-wide cutbacks and economic uncertainty, have been relentlessly angling for greater pay and increased influence on the show, and, it appears, believed that their best strategy to get it was to play on vile stereotypes in order to bring down a Black man in a position of power.

Now I will try to play the race card.

I will always be proud of being the only Black director/producer in daytime soap operas. And, while I am devastated by the manner of my departure, I will always treasure my years at Days of Our Lives and wish the wildly talented cast and crew the very best for the future.

To conclude I bring you my best bullshit.

Albert Alarr

[RavenWhitney]

Here's the WG East list of ficore writers.  No new names but they deleted at some point deceased writers including Hogan Sheffer and Barbara Esensten.  Meg Kelly went ficore in 2007 but she's not on either list. Not sure if she's around.  I'm sure if other writers went fi core WG East will eventually update the list.  Technically, I don't think it's fair to call ficore writer scabs. The scabs are the ones who don't take fi core status, but cross the picket lines (virtually of course) to write the soaps.  It's well know that, in the past, soaps have hired non union writers (novelists) and production folks.  It's been widely reported over the years, for instance, that AW 1988 strike writing staff consisted of Donna Swajeski (NBC exec), Janet Iacubuzio (AW prod. assistant), Mimi Leahey (soap magazine writer), Michael Zazlow (yes Roger Thorpe from GL) and his wife Susan Hufford and Nerissa Radell (I believe she was the wife of a tv or network lawyer exec at the time).  I also directly learned years after the 81 strike from the Edge of Night actor (Ernie) who played Cliff Nelson that Lois Kibbee (actress and novelist) and Laurie Durbrow (P&G exec producer) wrote Edge during that strike.  Of course, Kibbee was hired a few months after the strike ended, when Slesar didn't renew Steve Lehrman's script contract, validating that strike writers get hired because sometimes they are better than the striking staff writers. We know that Dena and Mark, Victor Gialanella went ficore and wrote Days in 07/08 but names weren't mentioned in the credits ever. Most of these non union writers get hired for a time after the strike ends.  AW fired half of it's pre 88 strike writers and replaced them with all of the writers mentioned above.  Watching soaps after strikes end, you can almost predict who was writing the show pre strike when unknown names appear.  After the 81 strike, when Pat Falken Smith quit GH (after Monty had ruined her plots during the strike) then we saw Thom Racina and Leah Laiman join the staff (never having written soaps before the strike). We also learned that ABC purchased the rights to Racina's novel about freezing the world which served as the central GH plot during the length of the strike.....badumbum...

https://www.wgaeast.org/enforcement/wgae-financial-core-list/

Edited August 5, 2023 by RavenWhitney

[AbcNbc247]

My response to his statement 

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[Contessa Donatella]

Me, too. I hope they hire a PTSD counselor to be available to the cast & crew full-time for about 6 months! 

Now I have to just stop cringing every single time I see his name in the credits. 

[Liberty City]

What a f**king joke.

[Contessa Donatella]

Excellent! If only there were a famous poem, "Ode to a Narcissistic Race-Card-Playing Monster". 

Yes, they finally covered the whole story mid-morning after. God, could they have been any later?! And, it's not Sloane, nor is Mara. 

[dragonflies]

Who is Janet

 

 

[jcar03]

Janet Drucker.