DAYS: Doug & Julie Remember Tom & Alice! | promo (February 16, 2024)

[Khan]

I don't know whether Bill Bell actually said this to Ken Corday, but if he did, then he was right: all you really need to make good drama are a man, a woman and a waterfall, "and for God's sake, who needs the waterfall!?".

[cody_1990]

I’ve honestly thought about this for years now. Especially since Days got CHEAP looking during the Tomlin producer years.  Anytime you see any episode of a soap from the 50s-the early 80’s, the sets look so drab and honestly cardboard looking. I am sure that’s partly why soaps got such a bad rep in the early days, but as a fan, it doesn’t matter because everything is so damn compelling.

Look at some of those 60s episodes of Days available online, they basically had the Horton house and a few other basic sets and that’s it. You don’t ever once while watching think I wish the sets were bigger or I wish the stories were more fantasy based, because stories based in reality are 100% more captivating. Just look at the August-September 1966 episodes when Bill Bell first started at Days. Marie grieving for her miscarried baby with her marriage falling apart or Julie in angst about losing David to Susan. Give me that over the stuff being produced now any day. 

[te.]

I think that part of it is the cast expansion that happened with going to an hour - suddenly you had a lot of characters that needed homes and places where they could realistically interact. When you had maybe a maximum of six speaking characters appearing per day (like apparently Dark Shadows had as their limit) you didn't need a lot of sets. When soaps started downscaling again, you were left with a lot of characters without homes or any places where they would logically have interactions, hence the recent "housing crisis" in Salem. 

It's been said before, but if soaps are going to survive moving online they need to start experimenting with shorter formats. When a rare Search for Tomorrow episode from the 50s was unearthed recently people commented on how quick, enjoyable and easy to follow it was. I don't think any daytime soap needs to be over half an hour tbh; one of the good things about DAYS moving online is that at least they aren't forced to film a lot of filler material for the episodes to make it to broadcast length. A lot of the better episodes usually end up being closer to the 30 minute mark than the 45 minute one. 

I genuinely never realised how messed up some of those floor plans were until I started trying to build things in The Sims 1. Besides not making sense from an architectural point of view (why would you have a gigantic upper floor plan while a relatively small downstairs?), but also just rooms running into each other, windows technically looking into other rooms and so on...

[vetsoapfan]

William J. Bell knew what's what. That's why he is an acknowledged master of the genre.

Back then, we just didn't get sidetracked by the rudimentary, sparse sets. The writing on soaps by Phillips, Nixon, Bell, etc., was too involving. Nowadays, we notice the cheap sets, and all the other technical flaws, because the writing isn't enough to keep our attention. We are bored, s we look around, LOL.

This, 100% this. I've been expressing the same sentiments for decades now. The Mickey/Laura/Bill triangle on DAYS, with the secret of Mike's paternity at its core, was slooooow moving and based on family dynamics, repressed emotions and unrequited love. It lasted a DECADE, but was never boring, and kept viewers mesmerized. No clones, vampires, devils or extraterrestrials in sight! It was soap opera heaven!

I wish everyone could have witnessed the engrossing material that Denise Alexander got to play as Susan Hunter Martin.

Daytime TV magazine once reported that a husband wrote into DAYS, asking producers to give Susan some relief from her suffering. He wrote, "My wife is pregnant and needs her rest, but she can't sleep because she's so stressed about Susan!"

Okay, I agree that such a reaction from a viewer is over the top, but when soaps dealt with real emotions and human, adult drama, fans were FIERCELY involved. With the dreck being produced today? Not so much.

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While I initially applauded the idea of hour-long soaps, people like Bell, Falken Smith, Nixon, Marland and Lemay were still writing, so the quality held up for a while. The budgets were high back then too. DAYS would sometimes have more than 15 characters on an episode. As the years went on, however, we lost writers and producers with the talent and understanding to run soaps well. Ratings plummeted, budgets were slashed. Keeping soaps at 60 minutes per day became increasing untenable. I think it would have been wise to cut all of them back to 30 minutes, years ago. A lot of dead wood could be pruned from the casts if they did that today. Core characters could be focused on, and all the useless filler material could be eliminated.

I know. Since I started noticing how absurd and nonsensical television sets were, I see the impossibilities everything. Rhoda's loft was supposedly "upstairs" from Mary Richards' apartment. Interior scenes showed a staircase outside of Mary's front door, leading UP to Rhoda's place. Yet, outdoor footage of the building clearly revealed there WAS NO upstairs. Mary's apartment was literally on the top floor. Rhoda's garret was to the right of Mary's place, and even slightly lower. I don't know how TPTB never notice these things.

[vetsoapfan]

Oh wow, I hadn't seen such a recent shot of the Horton living room.

The front door has moved several feet to the left from its original and traditional position.

The dimensions of the room look smaller too.

I prefer the "real" layout.

 

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Edited February 23 by vetsoapfan

[Gray Bunny]

I don't think this is the most recent. It is currently gray and it's shaped like a box; no angled walls anymore. 

[vetsoapfan]

Okay, thanks. This was the latest that I've seen. 

The walls aren't even angled anymore?

Is the front door still in the center of the archway, like in the photo I uploaded?

[Liberty City]

The O.G. blueprint is an interesting view, and makes me wish it semi-still existed in such a way.

I found this fuller edit of the photograph, which as someone else stated, is outdated:

Unfortunately, there are not many on-set photos taken like above, but these are the closest I could muster (2017 vs. 2023):

From the December 15 and February 16 promos:

[vetsoapfan]

@Liberty City, thanks for sharing the latest photos.

I can accept differences in paint color and living room furniture, but the shifting position of the front door in the foyer annoys me, LOL.

BTW, I was not able to see any of the recent flashback episodes with Tom and Alice.

Did DAYS feature any "real" Horton-family scenes from years gone by, or did we only get recreated flashbacks with the young actors?

And I haven't seen any interaction between Maggie and Marlena in so many years. I wish I could find their recent scene(s) together on-line somewhere. What was the context; what did they talk about?

 

[Liberty City]

 

[vetsoapfan]

ARGH!

I reeeeeally want to see those scenes now.

Thanks for the screenshots, @Liberty City.

I never thought I'd see Marlena and Maggie share a scene again.

Strangely, even after not being a regular soap viewer for a few decades, I am still interested in "my" characters.

Once a soap addict, always a soap addict!

[titan1978]

I do not mind a set refresh that makes sense. I remember the first time the Q mansion had a major renovation in the early 90’s, and they were all relegated to another wing of the house while the renovations were going on. Same with the excuse of the 1991 earthquake to refresh sets like the Brownstone.

With new paint and fixtures it should still feel like their house though. 

[Khan]

I don't mind a set refresh either, but I do worry that we're about to witness yet another Wayfair invasion.

[titan1978]

Remember when ABC was doing product placement? Imagine Julie sitting on their new couch holding a pillow talking about that beautiful stitching and color, what a deal it was on wayfair with code HORTON20.

[te.]