On 6/13/2024 at 12:48 PM, Liberty City said:

A lot of my stopping during the 50th anniversary was more-so do to the production value being shown to us. Very green/blue/unedited. And it was unattractive to me. And a lot was happening that just felt... unnatural.

Him being the longest-writer is not going to sit well with me, and goes to show just how much Ken Corday is not paying attention at this point, among other things.

I was never a fan of the "writer" at any of his other soaps. But, I always stated: he would work at Days of Our Lives, and he semi-did.... when someone like Sheri Anderson was there to hone in his off-the-trails writing. Once she left, we were getting the face masks, etc. and it was just too much for me. I think he needed/needs a co-head writer who can level-out his... inability to cohesively pull a soap together.

The show moving from NBC to Peacock should have done something, but I am in the beginning of April 2024, and nothing I've seen via Peacock wouldn't have aired on NBC, if I am being honest. Again, I look at what TOLN/Prospect Park did with All My Children & One Life to Live in 2013, and it was miles ahead of what Days of Our Lives is producing in its writing. MILES! They are not utilizing their new platform, and that's a crying shame.

I'll never forget some of the stars being like "We've got new cameras and we're allowed to use more vulgar language." And none of that has come to pass in terms of production. 

14 hours ago, j swift said:

And I wonder how often we blame writers because they are the most front facing forces behind the scenes, yet they may not have the power to direct the focus of the drama at will.

I agree with you here - I think that a lot of people end up thinking that the head writer has the final say, but remember that Ron was essentially told to bring back the Devil as an example.  There's also surely issues with how none of the Abby actresses wanted to commit to the show - considering Kate Mansi went to do General Hospital one suspects there might be reasons for that beyond Ron's control. 

We also can't underestimate that they probably do test panels every now and then to see what people react positively to (some people claimed that the reason Daniel was kept for so long and front-burner was because he tested high there). 

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Leo - a Mostly Sexless Gay with Sassy Lines tests quite well on panels. I think we sometimes overestimate how much people do think about the storylines that are presented.

Edited June 24, 20241 yr by te.

5 hours ago, Forever8 said:

I'll never forget some of the stars being like "We've got new cameras and we're allowed to use more vulgar language." And none of that has come to pass in terms of production. 

Oh, they definitely got new cameras, and I have comparison of 14 years, and the cameras have definitely improved in the past year's time. The lighting is still a problem (likely due to 4K lights and non-4K cameras, which resulted in the green-look we had for several years). However, the language is another issue... they've pushed boundaries a bit more, but not to the point where it couldn't have aired on NBC. It's disappointing. But again, given the atmosphere of that set, I'm also not surprised by it.

I think a lot expected we'd be seeing bare asses (which we couldn't even get in A Very Salem Christmas or Beyond Salem), hear "fück" & "shït"every other word, and just overall go apeshit over the streaming platform.

12 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

I think a lot expected we'd be seeing bare asses (which we couldn't even get in A Very Salem Christmas or Beyond Salem), hear "fück" & "shït"every other word, and just overall go apeshit over the streaming platform.

Originally, I assumed we weren't seeing more adult language and situations because we were still watching scripts that were written for broadcast TV, or that it was a Peacock mandate.

And, to be fair, there was a very short period of threesomes and casual sex without consequences. However, we still see folks in Salem say 'darn' while The Real Housewives are cussing up a storm on their uncensored feed.  So, it is confusing.

Edited June 24, 20241 yr by j swift

31 minutes ago, j swift said:

Originally, I assumed we weren't seeing more adult language and situations because we were still watching scripts that were written for broadcast TV, or that it was a Peacock mandate.

And, to be fair, there was a very short period of threesomes and casual sex without consequences. However, we still see folks in Salem say 'darn' while The Real Housewives are cussing up a storm on their uncensored feed.  So, it is confusing.

Well, I know for A Very Salem Christmas, Eric Martsolf said his butt-scene was cut because NBC was worried fans were not ready for that... maybe NBCUniversal thinks the same? Baffling. It's 2024. Get over it.

Days still airs on terrestrial TV in other countries, so I assume that's (part of) why we didn't notice a big change content-wise when it jumped to Peacock.

Ron Boy who is doing his 4 Visions and story’s repeatedly for years. I hate his direction so much. 
 

I criticized one story on X and he blocked me. What a loser 

I think Higley was far worse.  Her material in early 2003, when she wrote the show for about 5 months before JER returned, was by far the worst writing I have ever seen on a soap opera.  

To be fair, I think there are some people who to this day would still insist that Tom Langan was the worst ever.

8 hours ago, StevieM said:

To be fair, I think there are some people who to this day would still insist that Tom Langan was the worst ever.

And I would be one of "some people," lol.

9 hours ago, StevieM said:

I think Higley was far worse.  Her material in early 2003, when she wrote the show for about 5 months before JER returned, was by far the worst writing I have ever seen on a soap opera.  

To be fair, I think there are some people who to this day would still insist that Tom Langan was the worst ever.

I know the cheese stands alone but, I didn't hate Langan-Era. Aside from the Virtual Eden crap, I thought it was pretty damn good! Couldn't miss a day. I was certainly better than post Salem Stalker and the JER clean up era that we remained in for years. I was probably the last time I was addicted to the show. Again, Salem Stalker was good, it had a piss poor denouement though. I will say that I enjoyed Langan btter than anything happening now, or for the past few years. Maybe 2012.

On 6/27/2024 at 11:22 PM, StevieM said:

I think Higley was far worse.  Her material in early 2003, when she wrote the show for about 5 months before JER returned, was by far the worst writing I have ever seen on a soap opera.  

To be fair, I think there are some people who to this day would still insist that Tom Langan was the worst ever.

I agree with you. I have never seen worse writing than Higley in 2003. It is memorable because it was so bad and so dull. 

On 6/28/2024 at 9:24 AM, SteelCity said:

I know the cheese stands alone but, I didn't hate Langan-Era. Aside from the Virtual Eden crap, I thought it was pretty damn good! Couldn't miss a day. I was certainly better than post Salem Stalker and the JER clean up era that we remained in for years. I was probably the last time I was addicted to the show. Again, Salem Stalker was good, it had a piss poor denouement though. I will say that I enjoyed Langan btter than anything happening now, or for the past few years. Maybe 2012.

I agree with you. Aside from the Virtual Eden, which was truly bizarre, I enjoyed much of the Tom Langan era and watched every single day. 

I agree Highley is dull. Hell so was her OLTL for the most part. If she is this dull how come Corday kept rehiring her in 2008 and then again in 2015?

The writing is soooo bad it's making good actors look bad. Stephanie looks like she's in the class play. Horrid. And wanting us to pull for selfish, spiteful and disloyal women? Sara and Stephanie have no shame. Blaming everyone, spying on everyone and never looking at the rotted souls within. Ruined characters. No sense of plot ot how to end an episode. No Friday cliffhanger. I never thought I'd miss Rob C. Geez