43 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

Hmmm, you really wanted Alice Horton choked to death on a donut..and felt that the original cast member matrairch was.."not essential?" (Though I heard Doug and at least Alice was "killed" after he had to change the storyline.) 

Everyone talks about what a genius the guy was but I thought his Days (at that time) was a piece of cr@p and watched it like an Ed Wood movie (though I will never regret watching it when Marlena fell off the terrace and bounced off of an awning and landed on a SCREAMING Sammi..if only it had killed her. So I would love to see what the original story was and how it would end. (his pet, Marlena a serial killer..I don't think so..) 

Sorry, went a bit off topic..."how bout those Marlena clones??" 

I wasn’t an Alice fan. I was more excited and impressed that JER had the cajones to kill her off. Frances Reid could have continued to appear as a ghost from time to time.

As a Marlena fan, I was delighted that the star of the show was the serial killer. JER always gave his biggest stories to Deidre.

And to keep it on topic, it was JER during the Salem Stalker story who brought back Marlena’s lookalike Hattie, albeit played by Deidre rather than Andrea Hall. I know it’s been 20 years now but Deidre sucks at playing Hattie. 

41 minutes ago, Vee said:

The Salem Stalker did one thing well - it got eyeballs on the show. JER was very good at that. He wasn't very good at much else after the '90s.

The deaths were often played for laughs and executed in the most cartoonish way possible, both script-wise and in embarrassing production value. You got to watch essential characters brutally slaughtered in comic ways while knowing the writer was giggling his way through it. I am a big fan of slasher movies; I think a serial killer story on a soap can be a lot of fun and good when done well and I am all for one that works right. (Some portions of the Music Box Killer story on OLTL a year later, ironically featuring Matt Ashford as the culprit, did a decent job.) But the SS as executed was just exploitative trash.

This extended to the character and dialogue work, the endless dream and fantasy sequences, the 'clues' and omens that went nowhere. JER wrote for sub-literate children after he left DOOL the first time, not that the dialogue was in great shape before he left (everyone talking to themselves or monologuing about exposition non-stop). In the early 2000s a lot of young fans online gave him an immediate pass because of their memories of their childhood. But once the millennium hit it was all his Catholic guilt over sexuality and fetishes, all his psychosexual obsessions with rape, gender, misogyny, the Church, etc. all at once, all the time. It's a fascinating subject for an academic paper but as a soap it was unwatchable. Nothing JER did onscreen at PSSNS in the last years of his life could ever make it to air today, nor should it. And the Salem Stalker was a precursor to torture porn. Just nihilism, because he clearly was wrestling with some of that at the core of his nature.

Abe, Maggie, Caroline, Cassie, Roman, Tony, Doug, and Alice were not essential. They were basically overpaid dayplayers by 2003.

The essential characters were Marlena, John, Bo, Hope, Sami, Lucas, Shawn, Belle, Brady, Nicole, Jack, and Jennifer. 

Jack and Victor were the only deaths I objected to.

I get it. You hate JER and still like to bash him even though he’s dead. Well he’s my favourite soap opera writer of all time. Passions is my favourite soap. 

This board is notoriously full of JER haters who constantly try to diminish his success and accomplishments. It’s very sad that they still do this but it is what it is.

P.S. Days was as good as cancelled in 2003 until they brought JER back to save the show. His rehiring was the last time Days had a five-year renewal. 

Edited January 24, 20241 yr by Lye-C

On 1/24/2024 at 3:46 PM, Lye-C said:

I get it. You hate JER and still like to bash him even though he’s dead. Well he’s my favourite soap opera writer of all time. Passions is my favourite soap. 

I am so sorry. Yet concerned.

3 hours ago, Darn said:

I am so sorry. Yet concerned.

😆🤣😶🙃🫨😫

8 hours ago, Darn said:

I am so sorry. Yet concerned.

Thank you for apologizing and taking accountability. I am very tired of the JER bashing.

10 hours ago, Darn said:

I am so sorry. Yet concerned.

🤣🤣🤣

Cindy's twin was named 'Karen'; she kidnapped Adam Junior.

But at least Natalie called out Trevor for his idiocy multiple times, and originally wanted to leave his dumbass for Count Dimitri.

Hayley pretty much knew from day-1 it was Janet... but something always prevented her from voicing it to "Porkchop."  LOL

Edited January 27, 20241 yr by Janet Marlowe

4 minutes ago, Janet Marlowe said:

Btw, Cindy's twin was named 'Karen'; she kidnapped Adam Junior.

Ellen Wheeler's second character, Cindy's twin, kidnapped Adam Jr?!!! WHY? 

On 1/25/2024 at 10:58 PM, Darn said:

I am so sorry. Yet concerned.

The way I laughed so hard at this LMAO.

 

6 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

The way I laughed so hard at this LMAO.

 

Yes, there was a whole group of us laughing our silly asses off!!! 

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Ellen Wheeler's second character, Cindy's twin, kidnapped Adam Jr?!!! WHY? 

 

17 minutes ago, Janet Marlowe said:

 

Well, if that's not just as stereotypical as evil twinship can be!!!

Thanks for the info! 

Edited January 27, 20241 yr by Donna L. Bridges
typos are always with us

1 hour ago, dragonflies said:

The way I laughed so hard at this LMAO.

 

Hey, at least she had the decency to apologize. It’s rare for JER haters to have any self awareness.

8 minutes ago, Lye-C said:

Hey, at least she had the decency to apologize. It’s rare for JER haters to have any self awareness.

Darlin', she was not apologizing.