I thought Crystal Chappell's return was fine at "Days of our Lives." It wasn't perfection, but it fit in well with what Higley, Whitsell, and Tomlin were doing in that era. Opening with Carly killing a crazy haired Lawrence and acting like Carly was this common criminal was a very odd stance to take, but it was clearly meant to generate conflict and give Melanie reasons to be leary of Carly when she learned she was her mother later on. That slant did continue a bit, but I didn't think it hurt her overall placement on the show. 

The show had spent the better part of 2008-2009 building the rift between Hope and Bo over Bo's decision years prior to keep the secret that Chelsea had run over Zack with Bo's "go alone" tactics in several events (Theo's disappearance, the vision of Hope shooting Kayla, and Ciara's kidnapping) leading to the deconstruction of Hope and Bo's marriage. I thought Bo and Carly went to bed a bit too quickly, but I absolutely loved the scene of Carly showing up at Mickey and Maggie to share her condolences with Maggie after Mickey died only for Hope to open the door moments after Hope had learned Carly and Bo had hit the sheets.  

Carly and Bo 2.0 didn't feel like endgame, which may have been part of the problem. Once they got together, the story was more about Bo and Hope being kept apart and Carly slowly weaving her way back into Daniel and Melanie's lives than anything else. I guess not spending more time on Carly and Bo as an actual couple could have been considered a flop, but I just never thought they were going to go there permanently. 

I thought Carly's days were numbered when Melissa Reeves came back, but the pivot into the darker Carly (which probably was the intention all along) with the drug abuse and slowly becoming involved with Quinn Hudson, Vivian's long lost drug dealing pimp son, worked for me at the time. With more time between then and now, I can see how really bleak the canvas became, but I still would have rather seen what happened in 2011-2012 with Higley than anything that we got with MarDar (as I still believe we would have gotten a gay Will).  

It's no slight against you to be clear, but I'm not gonna do the MarDar discourse again because we've all been over those points before haha. I will say I would really enjoy watching those years in sequence again and the stuff that I missed to get a better perspective, but I don't know if there is any archive of it out there given how strict Peacock/NBC is on DAYS stuff. (And if anyone has a link, DM me!)

I always thought it was a terrible waste not to get a new Nikki/Nicholas in on contract. The late Cody Longo(?) was quite good in his brief appearance.

Edited September 21Sep 21 by Vee

3 hours ago, Vee said:

The story wasn't good for Carly at DAYS but I think Crystal Chappell played herself there BTS most of all. Her crashout during and after that was legendary (on top of the Venice webseries grift) and I pretty much ceased taking her seriously ever again, let alone wanting her back on daytime.

I have clearly never been a CC fan in any iteration of Carly, but her antics were absolutely a train wreck.  It was fun to watch, but picking a fight with KA probably wasn't the best decision.

1 hour ago, dc11786 said:

I thought Crystal Chappell's return was fine at "Days of our Lives." It wasn't perfection, but it fit in well with what Higley, Whitsell, and Tomlin were doing in that era. Opening with Carly killing a crazy haired Lawrence and acting like Carly was this common criminal was a very odd stance to take, but it was clearly meant to generate conflict and give Melanie reasons to be leary of Carly when she learned she was her mother later on. That slant did continue a bit, but I didn't think it hurt her overall placement on the show. 

The show had spent the better part of 2008-2009 building the rift between Hope and Bo over Bo's decision years prior to keep the secret that Chelsea had run over Zack with Bo's "go alone" tactics in several events (Theo's disappearance, the vision of Hope shooting Kayla, and Ciara's kidnapping) leading to the deconstruction of Hope and Bo's marriage. I thought Bo and Carly went to bed a bit too quickly, but I absolutely loved the scene of Carly showing up at Mickey and Maggie to share her condolences with Maggie after Mickey died only for Hope to open the door moments after Hope had learned Carly and Bo had hit the sheets.  

Carly and Bo 2.0 didn't feel like endgame, which may have been part of the problem. Once they got together, the story was more about Bo and Hope being kept apart and Carly slowly weaving her way back into Daniel and Melanie's lives than anything else. I guess not spending more time on Carly and Bo as an actual couple could have been considered a flop, but I just never thought they were going to go there permanently. 

I thought Carly's days were numbered when Melissa Reeves came back, but the pivot into the darker Carly (which probably was the intention all along) with the drug abuse and slowly becoming involved with Quinn Hudson, Vivian's long lost drug dealing pimp son, worked for me at the time. With more time between then and now, I can see how really bleak the canvas became, but I still would have rather seen what happened in 2011-2012 with Higley than anything that we got with MarDar (as I still believe we would have gotten a gay Will).  

The return in theory wasn't horrible at the beginning.  It was a very big disappointment to me that Days fired Deidre/Drake and then Steve/MBE and were like well here's....Carly.  Her first run was too long ago for most to care.

Tying her to Melanie/Daniel was also strange.  Like you said a darker Carly probably would have worked better since she killed Lawrence at the start, but I also thought that move was a mistake.  You are sucking a lot of potential drama at out her killing Lawrence at the jump.

Higley was obsessed with Daniel and Melanie and viewers absolutely despised them. I felt it was unfair re: Melanie given Molly Burnett's talent but I got it. Dena never stopped, either.

6 minutes ago, Vee said:

Higley was obsessed with Daniel and Melanie and viewers absolutely despised them. I felt it was unfair re: Melanie given Molly Burnett's talent but I got it. Dena never stopped, either.

I have always been vocal about my love for MB/Melanie.  I thought she was refreshing on a depressing canvas although getting so many stories and romances was overkill.  Daniel/SC seemed to be a weird hill for Higley to die on because he was fine in small doses I guess?  I just don't know what stuck out for DH to make her think he was the LEADING man on Days material.

On 9/19/2025 at 4:50 PM, Vee said:

I could never take the original Frank seriously because of his buffoonish roles in various movies.

8 hours ago, Khan said:

Especially after I'd seen him on "Punky Brewster."   

I still can't get over whatever the hell George Gaynes and Tony Geary were doing in the lead-up to Luke falling off Frank's yacht. Dueling affectations? Tony mocking George?

I kind of enjoyed the Frank Smith stuff in the 90s when Luke and Laura came back. It did get a little goofy at some point (I think there was a caper at some resort involving somebody else that I can't remember right now?) but the ending with all of them in Puerto Rico was great. In typical Ron C fashion, as mentioned up thread, the return was completely absurd, made no sense, and ruined a perfectly good ending from decades before. I still can't believe they even went there but the whole Luke DID mess was clearly being written as they went along.

I thought the Frank saga in the '90s, threading in Sonny more, etc. all worked. I need to rewatch the beginning of it again. I've been revisiting the November '94 stuff in Puerto Rico recently. I can't remember when they finally finished Frank off.

Damian Smith was a solid villain for several years though it got a bit silly near the end. I wouldn't hate introducing one of his kids or other relations today. It is crazy to remember that they apparently almost had Sherilyn Fenn from Twin Peaks as the latest Jennifer in 2015. She (unsurprisingly for Sherilyn) backed out or something but would've been much better than Holly Gagnier, good acting coach aside.

Just now, Vee said:

I thought the Frank saga in the '90s, threading in Sonny more, etc. all worked. I need to rewatch the beginning of it again. I've been revisiting the November '94 stuff in Puerto Rico recently. I can't remember when they finally finished Frank off.

Damian Smith was a solid villain for several years though it got a bit silly near the end. I wouldn't hate introducing one of his kids or other relations today. It is crazy to remember that they apparently almost had Sherilyn Fenn from Twin Peaks as the latest Jennifer in 2015. She (unsurprisingly for Sherilyn) backed out or something but would've been much better than Holly Gagnier, good acting coach aside.

I got real tired of Damian Smith by the time they had him faking his death and we had that goofy story with psychic Lucy, Mac, Luke, and Kevin at a spa tracking him down lol. I remember his death story being good though. I'd take a kid of his or some new Smith in a heartbeat over Sidwell or any of these mobster of the year we got these days for sure.

2 minutes ago, AdelaideCate007 said:

I got real tired of Damian Smith by the time they had him faking his death and we had that goofy story with psychic Lucy, Mac, Luke, and Kevin at a spa tracking him down lol. 

That's the one I'm thinking of lol.

19 minutes ago, carolineg said:

The return in theory wasn't horrible at the beginning.  It was a very big disappointment to me that Days fired Deidre/Drake and then Steve/MBE and were like well here's....Carly.  Her first run was too long ago for most to care.

Tying her to Melanie/Daniel was also strange.  Like you said a darker Carly probably would have worked better since she killed Lawrence at the start, but I also thought that move was a mistake.  You are sucking a lot of potential drama at out her killing Lawrence at the jump.

I think the show desperately needed to broaden the canvas and there were too many sacred cow couples that had become limited by the more extremist members of their fan bases (wasn't there something in 2007 about Steve and Kayla sleeping on sheets that fans bought for John and Marlena?). It was definitely a divisive decision (cutitng the vets) that I can understand upset people, but, to me, Carly's return had little to do with the others being written out. Bo and Hope's story was leading to a breakup and Carly was the determined to be the final factor. Having her initial story tied to murdering Lawrence because of her desire to keep her long lost daughter safe worked for me though Salem's reaction to it was confusing. It gave Carly more purpose than just returning to be Bo's side chick. 

I do agree that Carly's return wasn't going to give the show a big ratings boost, but, by that point, the show could no longer afford to be a show driven by a few people. As someone who was tired of seeing yet another incarnation of Billie,  I thought Carly's return was a breath of fresh air. 

Carly was integrated well as a member of the ensemble by utilizing the connections on the canvas. To me, bringing back Carly was the equivalent of bringing back Chloe or Nicole, a past character with some ties, but not too many incestuous connections that they couldn't be moved around a bit. There had been more time since she had left, but Chappell was hardly gone from the daytime universe for that entire time. The show needed more utility players. So many of the characters cut in the 2008-2009 purge were fairly set in their relationships. 

Tying her to Daniel and Melanie made sense in the context of what the show was doing at the time, which was building out relationships and families besides the few that had been hyper focused on for many years. I do think Daniel and Melanie were both divisive charactes because they were allowed to stay while so many vets were let go. Daniel, as a doctor, fit well into the medical community that was being reestablished even if his sexual exploits bordered on uncomfortable. Molly Burnett had energy, which was something I felt was lacking in so much of the younger set (though Shelly Hennig grew on me in her final months delivering that phenomenal wedding dress confessional to Nathan). Did all of Melanie's wacky antics land? No, but more did for me than didn't and giving her other connections (motherly Maggie, surrogate big brother Brady, friend Arianna) worked at establishi

With all this said, I do think Carly and Bo 2.0 fizzled really quick, but I don't think it was ever intended to be endgame. I seem to recall by December 2009, they had hinted at Daniel being Melanie's father so it was clear where the story was going to go after Carly and Bo ended. I would agree though little was done with Carly / Bo, and Carly / Hope, in order to utilize the relationship. I would have had Hope on the hospital board making Carly's life miserable, but I am not sure if Alfonso would have allowed Hope to revisit that level of privilege that Hope use to have. I just really enjoyed that initial Bo / Carly stuff and Carly's connection with other characters on the canvas. 

3 minutes ago, Vee said:

That's the one I'm thinking of lol.

I think he was also responsible for that psychic that Lucy and Felicia got involved with and that they were too dumb to realise was conning them lol. 

Madame Maia. Ugh.

I know they tended to lean on Felicia, Lucy, Mac, and Kevin for a lot of comedy during that era, but Madame Maia was a real low point. I feel like it went on forever too.

1 hour ago, Vee said:

It's no slight against you to be clear, but I'm not gonna do the MarDar discourse again because we've all been over those points before haha. I will say I would really enjoy watching those years in sequence again and the stuff that I missed to get a better perspective, but I don't know if there is any archive of it out there given how strict Peacock/NBC is on DAYS stuff. (And if anyone has a link, DM me!)

I always thought it was a terrible waste not to get a new Nikki/Nicholas in on contract. The late Cody Longo(?) was quite good in his brief appearance.

I love beating a dead horse so I'm not offended. 

I don't know of any archive for this. I would love to rewatch 2008-2017 again to see how things evolved. I got a drive years ago that had most of this, but it would only work on certain devices which was a pain so I just stopped trying. 

Cody Longo was good as Nikolas. I know people hated Quinn as Vivian's son, but having a situation with Vivian having to deal with the boy she considered a son and the man who was her son would have been great. Since I suspect that the show was originally going to have Gabi get pregnant in 2011, slipping Longo's Nikolas into the role later filled by Nick Fallon as Gabi's faux baby daddy would have been interesting. Vivian's grandnephew raising the child of Kate's grandson would have just continued to fuel the drama especially with Melanie paired off with Gabi's brother, Dario.