Speaking of accents, I thought John Aniston's southern accent on Search for Tomorrow was ridiculous  I'm glad they didn't make him do another one when he went to Days of our Lives 😅

53 minutes ago, Mona Kane Croft said:

Of course, you are correct.  That is EXACTLY what brings up ratings.  The more popular actors a soap has, the better!!  Soaps that focus too much on one star usually end up in a bad place.  

The epitome of this is Reva Shayne on The Guiding Light, who was heinously overhyped, overrated and overused, and saddled with one idiotic plot after another on The Guiding Light.

On DAYS, the endless kidnappings, presumed deaths, back-from-the dead stories and other moronic material (Possessed!) dumped on Marlena Evan crippled that character's believability and viability decades ago.

15 minutes ago, Jdee43 said:

Speaking of accents, I thought John Aniston's southern accent on Search for Tomorrow was ridiculous  I'm glad they didn't make him do another one when he went to Days of our Lives 😅

One Life to Live saddled poor Jacquie Courtney with a "British accent" when she played evil twin Maggie Ashley on that show. I adore La Courtney, but that wretched accent, which she could not pull off, God bless her, was wretched.

13 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

On DAYS, the endless kidnappings, presumed deaths, back-from-the dead stories and other moronic material (Possessed!) dumped on Marlena Evan crippled that character's believability and viability decades ago.

 

I am of the mind that Marlena/Roman/John's believability as down to earth characters went out the door in 1991.  They continued to be viable IMO.  Although I have a hard time thinking any character outside of Tom/Alice is very believable on Days.  Days hasn't been a realistic soap since the mid 80's or at least the mid 90's.

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

Days hasn't been a realistic soap since the mid 80's or at least the mid 90's.

I agree!

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

I am of the mind that Marlena/Roman/John's believability as down to earth characters went out the door in 1991.  They continued to be viable IMO.  Although I have a hard time thinking any character outside of Tom/Alice is very believable on Days.  Days hasn't been a realistic soap since the mid 80's or at least the mid 90's.

Funny but I don't really think of the show crossing that line until Reilly. Specifically as of "Buried Alive". Before that to you is it the adventures, the villains, Eugene & Calliope? or what? Not the supercouples. 

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Funny but I don't really think of the show crossing that line until Reilly. Specifically as of "Buried Alive". Before that to you is it the adventures, the villains, Eugene & Calliope? or what? Not the supercouples. 

Personally, I think once you get to the point where Andre has a face mask pretending to be Roman it becomes unbelievable.  Once you have 2 Romans running around, Marlena and Roman back from the dead, and it's all a silly Stefano plot the credibility was gone.  GH was the same in the 80's and grounded themselves in the 90's.  Days just went wild with JER.

4 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Personally, I think once you get to the point where Andre has a face mask pretending to be Roman it becomes unbelievable.  Once you have 2 Romans running around, Marlena and Roman back from the dead, and it's all a silly Stefano plot the credibility was gone.  GH was the same in the 80's and grounded themselves in the 90's.  Days just went wild with JER.

Well, in Mar. '92 when Roman saves Bo from Torres & Bo's knocked out from the tranq gun. we see Roman peeling a latex mask off while Mrs. H is driving the getaway car, so you think as early as that, maybe? Because of the latex "Mission Impossible" TV show rip-off? 

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Well, in Mar. '92 when Roman saves Bo from Torres & Bo's knocked out from the tranq gun. we see Roman peeling a latex mask off while Mrs. H is driving the getaway car, so you think as early as that, maybe? Because of the latex "Mission Impossible" TV show rip-off? 

I was actually referring to 84 when Andre framed Wayne's Roman as a serial killer lol with his Roman mask

8 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I was actually referring to 84 when Andre framed Wayne's Roman as a serial killer lol with his Roman mask

Okay, then maybe it's not too much yet where I am in re-watching. That André, he sure was a stinker. 

18 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

The epitome of this is Reva Shayne on The Guiding Light, who was heinously overhyped, overrated and overused, and saddled with one idiotic plot after another on The Guiding Light.

And of course she had her special fans trained so that if a single solitary day went by without her on their screens that they would immediately call in & scream about how she was necessary for the future of the show. Even when she was working with a 4 guarantee, oh my god, that would leave a 5th day in the week when she might not be on! Don't get me started. 

18 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

One Life to Live saddled poor Jacquie Courtney with a "British accent" when she played evil twin Maggie Ashley on that show. I adore La Courtney, but that wretched accent, which she could not pull off, God bless her, was wretched.

So later Crystal Chappell played *another* person also named Maggie? 

2 hours ago, carolineg said:

Personally, I think once you get to the point where Andre has a face mask pretending to be Roman it becomes unbelievable. 

And yet, I'd take even that over JER's DAYS, because the difference between '80's DAYS and JER's DAYS is that '80's DAYS was still well-written, if also a far cry from the decade before.

25 minutes ago, Khan said:

And yet, I'd take even that over JER's DAYS, because the difference between '80's DAYS and JER's DAYS is that '80's DAYS was still well-written, if also a far cry from the decade before.

The character development was much better.  It's not believable, but the characters got more point of view while JER's characters repeated the same lines over and over for 4 years.  And...........I still can't tell you why Marlena didn't just tell John in 1996 that Kristen was bad news and that she (Marlena) still loved him. 

4 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I still can't tell you why Marlena didn't just tell John in 1996 that Kristen was bad news and that she (Marlena) still loved him. 

Because...

 

6 hours ago, carolineg said:

I am of the mind that Marlena/Roman/John's believability as down to earth characters went out the door in 1991.  They continued to be viable IMO.  Although I have a hard time thinking any character outside of Tom/Alice is very believable on Days.  Days hasn't been a realistic soap since the mid 80's or at least the mid 90's.

I agree about when the show's believability went completely out the window. For me personally, once a character is inundated with a plethora of sci-fi/fantasy/camp material, their viability as credible characters (who can be used in believable storylines) is also decimated. They can then continue to be featured in fantastical, outlandish plots, but I'll never see them as identifiable, human people with feelings worth caring about again. Fembots have never inspired my heartfelt sympathy.

2 hours ago, carolineg said:

Personally, I think once you get to the point where Andre has a face mask pretending to be Roman it becomes unbelievable.  Once you have 2 Romans running around, Marlena and Roman back from the dead, and it's all a silly Stefano plot the credibility was gone.  GH was the same in the 80's and grounded themselves in the 90's.  Days just went wild with JER.

Right. JER turned DAYS into a cartoon, a joke IMHO. The show has never recovered. There are genres of television programs geared towards that sort of material, and it's fine if a portion of the audience enjoys it, but soap operas and outlandish, wacky cartoons simply don't mesh.

As I've noted previously, The Great Gazoo does not belong floating around Maggie Smith's head on Downton Abbey, LOL.

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

I was actually referring to 84 when Andre framed Wayne's Roman as a serial killer lol with his Roman mask

OMG, what a stinker story that was. DAYS had already fallen so far from the well-written soap it had been just two years before, when Pat Falken Smith  was guiding it in 1982.

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

And of course (Reva) had her special fans trained so that if a single solitary day went by without her on their screens that they would immediately call in & scream about how she was necessary for the future of the show. Even when she was working with a 4 guarantee, oh my god, that would leave a 5th day in the week when she might not be on! Don't get me started.

I always considered Reva to have "stans" as opposed to fans. Manny and the San Cristocrap gang too. 🤢

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

So later Crystal Chappell played *another* person also named Maggie? 

Yes, she played Maggie Carpenter in the mid 1990s.

 

54 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

I always considered Reva to have "stans" as opposed to fans. Manny and the San Cristocrap gang too. 🤢

Not just stans though, the most extreme ones there are. And you can't say Manny without conjuring up the GL fanbase wars!! 

54 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

Yes, she played Maggie Carpenter in the mid 1990s.

Not used to shows repeating names unless it is familial naming of children & grandchildren.

Also shows used to avoid names being used on other shows to at least a degree. Now there's only 4 shows but there's 2 Finns, 2 Stephies, 2 Sonnys, there were 2 Victors but now only one, there were 2 Dougs,  ... 

Edited February 24, 20241 yr by Donna L. Bridges

I feel like Maggie/Margaret is a fairly common name, though? It's probably dated now, but it's not super unique like Marlena lol.  I wouldn't confuse CC's juggling clown Maggie on OLTL for Days Maggie under any circumstance.

Doug, Victor, Stephanie are all very common as well.  We live in a soap world where Maxie and Lulu are names for adults.  That's worse.