Are you a Days of our Lives fan? Big Huge Insane News

[Fairy]

For those that care, Days of our Lives, which has been on the bubble in deep deep doo doo for quite some time, has been renewed by Sony Pictures & NBC for only 18 months. That's the good news. The bad news is that there will be mass firings and repackaging. Confirmed gone are:

Deidre Hall - Marlena (fired)
Drake Hogestyn - John (fired)
Jay Kenneth Johnson - Phillip (left after refusing to take pay cut)
Blake Berris - Nick (fired)

At least five other actors are rumored -- RUMORED -- to be on the chopping block, but nothing is official yet. The news is all over the industry wire, so check out Variety or Soap Opera Digest online for the official word.

Gulp!

[Radosti]

Hmmm... it won't be the same without Deidre Hall... she's pretty much the show... but the younger story lines are taking over... I don't watch it enough to know. But it seems like they have the same drama every time I come back.

[kep]

I haven't watched this show for at least ten years. I can't believe some of these people are still on! More then that, I can't believe they still have storylines for the show.

[mrshalco]

I've been out of work on worker's comp for a month and a half...so I've watched a few episodes here and there! I can't believe they are fired! Should be interesting to see who else goes!

[Fairy]

I watched from the time I was 4, and when I say "watched," I mean I noticed it as it was on when my mother watched it. But I got hooked all by myself in my own right when I was 11. That was Roman & Marlena's heyday, the Salem Stranger, Bope, it was just the best. Deidre Hall was my idol. But then when Steve & Kayla came on in 1985 (Steve in '85, Kayla in '87), the whole thing changed, they were the whole show for me, and it's been that way ever since. When Steve died, and they did that awful Shayla thing (Kayla & Shane), I wanted to throw up, and when Mary Beth Evans left the show and they burried Carly alive, I left the show, bye bye. Then in 2006, I heard Steve & Kayla were coming back, and I roared back with them. If they go again, I'm gone in a heartbeat. If the show doesn't die on its own first.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I stopped watching when Marlena got possessed. WTH???

Whoa on the shake up though.

Beth

[maestramommy]

OMG! No way! It's not Days without John and Marlena!

I haven't watched it in years but I got totally addicted in college and still kept watching for a while after. Back in the day when John was Roman:)

[JoyNChrist]

I stopped watching when Marlena got possessed. WTH???


Whoa, I remember when Marlena got possessed...I must have been YOUNG (I'm an '86 model). My best friend's mom was obsessed with Days...wonder if she still watches it?

[elektra]

I think high school summers and then college were my "Days" years.
My brother and I were just talking about Sammy and how she's still on the show.
Hope/Gina/Hope/Billie? Roman/John/a priest/John?
Austin was just the worst actor I thought (saw him snowboarding once).
And how it took the whole summer just to make it through one day in Salem?
Marlena possesed was lame. And Tony staging his own murder to blame John?
I think the last time I watched, Brady and Belle were just babies and I think they are adults now?? Yikes!

Oh I saw Lucas once at a bar in LA 10+ years ago. He totally had a half-shirt on! Gross.

..... Like sands through the hourglass....

[irie i]

My Mom has watched since I was little so I started watching too. I stopped watching consistently a few years ago...I was pissed because they just NEVER let Bo & Hope, my favorite couple, alone. lol. I really only started watching again when Hope came back from the dead. I DESPISED Billie. Then they started messing with Belle and Shawn D and it really pissed me off! I also hated the new Belle. I used to tune in every three or four months ... thats about as much as you need to tune in to know whats been going on since the story is so slow-moving...but I totally gave up on it.

BUT!

I can't believe they are getting rid of MARLENA of all people!!

[maylips]

I wrote Peter Reckell (Bo) a fan letter in 6th grade. I got a reply in the mail with a picture and everything. I was convinced he would've loved me except for my age and the Hope-thing (because they were meant for each other and all). My best friend and I even made a fan scrapbook (yes, we had sad lives in middle school)

I watched because my mom watched, and kept up until just a few years ago. I'm trying to remember my tipping point....I think it was a Hope storyline (maybe the Hope/Gina). I barely made it through the Marlena possession and then just couldn't do it anymore. Oh, wait, now I remember - it was the SAME Austin/Sami/Carrie storyline. It was almost the exact repeat of the first storyline of Sami doing anything to get Austin back. I couldn't handle it anymore.

That being said, I heard the other day that my sweet crush Bo is over 50 now! Whoa! So I'm not surprised they had to fire John and Marlena.

[Fairy]

I wrote Peter Reckell (Bo) a fan letter in 6th grade. I got a reply in the mail with a picture and everything. I was convinced he would've loved me except for my age and the Hope-thing (because they were meant for each other and all). My best friend and I even made a fan scrapbook (yes, we had sad lives in middle school)

I watched because my mom watched, and kept up until just a few years ago. I'm trying to remember my tipping point....I think it was a Hope storyline (maybe the Hope/Gina). I barely made it through the Marlena possession and then just couldn't do it anymore. Oh, wait, now I remember - it was the SAME Austin/Sami/Carrie storyline. It was almost the exact repeat of the first storyline of Sami doing anything to get Austin back. I couldn't handle it anymore.

That being said, I heard the other day that my sweet crush Bo is over 50 now! Whoa! So I'm not surprised they had to fire John and Marlena.

50? Honey, he's 52. And he looks AMAZING. And he has a brand new baby daughter. His first. Piece of trivia, he's been married to his wife for years and years and years, and they just had their first.

[DDowning]

I have been watching this pretty consistently since DS was born - its my little bit of guilt pleasure in the afternoon when napping. I was pretty bummed when Jayson Cook (ex-Shawn) left, then they swapped out Belle. Brandon Beamer was too whiny for me to like but Martha Madison grew on me. I'm sorry but I never had a thing for Steve or Kayla. I'm almost amazed as to how skeletal Kristin Alfonso is looking these days. If you look back at her early years she had more roundness to her - Sammy did too. Kristin's face is almost sucken. The one thing that was consistent though was Marlena - its going to be a huge loss if she's off the show. :(

[Twoboos]

I watched from the time I was 4, and when I say "watched," I mean I noticed it as it was on when my mother watched it. But I got hooked all by myself in my own right when I was 11. That was Roman & Marlena's heyday, the Salem Stranger, Bope, it was just the best. Deidre Hall was my idol. But then when Steve & Kayla came on in 1985 (Steve in '85, Kayla in '87), the whole thing changed, they were the whole show for me, and it's been that way ever since. When Steve died, and they did that awful Shayla thing (Kayla & Shane), I wanted to throw up, and when Mary Beth Evans left the show and they burried Carly alive, I left the show, bye bye. Then in 2006, I heard Steve & Kayla were coming back, and I roared back with them. If they go again, I'm gone in a heartbeat. If the show doesn't die on its own first.

Oh man, this is me. Watched w/my mom, watched aaaalllll through high school/college (scheduled my classes to be back home by 1pm!), then picked it back up when DD1 was born. It was my guilty pleasure then (the whole "tropical salem" was hilarious!!), just sitting and nursing and rocking. I swear it was the same story line from 15yrs before... always is.

This probably means I am going to have to start watching again. I noticed something on the cover of Soap Opera Digest about this, but was only reading with one eye - people come and go all the time, I barely paid attention!

For your guilty reading pleasure...
http://www.soapoperafan.com/days/index.html

[DrSally]

Wow, they're really getting rid of core characters. I haven't watched in a really long time, so I don't know what's going on at all. I used to like missing it for a year, turing on the tv and being able to follow it pretty well.

[MartiesMom2B]

I haven't seen Days in a while, but I can't believe they are firing Marlena. Her demon possession was a highlight of my senior year. My roommate and I would watch while saying over and over again "I can't believe we're watching this"

[mrshalco]

I also had a HUGE crush on Peter Reckell (BO) back in the day. I think I was either in HS or beginning of college when I got the chance to meet him. I have to say I wasn't impressed AT ALL! I was so disappointed and still to this day (MANY MANY years later) I still get a bit annoyed when I see him on there.

I was working at a College Fest(ival) in Boston and he showed up while we were all setting up. My coworker went and told him I was a huge fan of his so he came over - and couldn't even take his eye off my coworker. I understand she was beautiful but come on....she brought you over to meet ME!!! LOL Probably sounds pretty petty but I was so hurt by it. He's never been the same to me since then!

[Bens Momma]

I stopped watching when Marlena got possessed. WTH???

Whoa on the shake up though.

Beth

:yeahthat:

I tune in every once in awile, but Marlena, John, Bo, Hope, Steve, and Kayla are the "old" stand-bys. It won't be the same with some of them gone! Ah the good ole days of Hope playing hard to get and then sailing around on the boat with Bo!

[Fairy]

That happens when you meet actors you really like sometimes. I'm a big Trekkie, and I've met and worked with almost all of the Trek actors from every show (except Enterprise). My good friends were the promotors for many Star Trek conventions, so I would be one of the people managing the actors, getting them in and out for lunch, helping them at their autograph table, etc. They don't remember you one minute after you're done, but while you're there, you really get to see who they are. And let me tell you, I was heart-broken a couple times. Some of these people are not nice. Some, however, are wonderful.

Nicest, most genuine people in Star Trek, period --> George Takei, Armin Shimerman, Wil Wheaton, Robbie McNeil. Leonard Nimoy terrified me. He was amazing and wonderful and genuine and nice, but I was so intimidated by this legendary person (as a Jew, I admired him, too), that I could't see straight to do my job. I did it, but it was hard.

Ok, sorry to hijack. So, anyway, I understand how you feel about Peter. It's a terrible feeling when that happens to you.

I've never worked with Days actors, but I've met most of them at fan events, so just like any other fan, my only real exposure to them is via the fan event, rather than having sat with them for a day and worked with them. But I can tell you that Kristian Alfonso was at Bloomingdales in Chicago recently for a trunk show for her jewelry, and she was nice. She is tiny. But looking at her closeup, I have to say that yes, she's very very thin, but not unhealthy looking. She had an ass, she was not bony, and her hair and nails were healthy (I looked). Peter was not there, but I do know he doesn't like fan events. He's very private and very not into fan togetherness, so he does what he has to do, but he mostly keeps to himself.

[elektra]

Another hijack here, but I have a Star Trek convention story here too about an actor being really cool (just to bring back the positive vibe) ;)
I was staying at a hotel in Michigan, where there happened to be a Star Trek convention going on. It was crazy seeing clingons just walking around the hotel, eating breakfast, at the bar, wherever, in their FULL cling-on, star trek get ups! My friends and I happened to get into the elevator with and actor that looked really familiar but I still don't know his name. He was African-American and wasn't on Star Trek but I think on a similar show like Battlestar Gallactica or one of those other ones. (This was in 1997 or so). He had his costume on too so we were kind of like, "well I guess you have to be here, huh?" It was only us in the elevator and he could have totally been like, "yah these people are freaks huh?" But he was super respectful and said how great it was to have such enthusiastic fans.

[Fairy]

Another hijack here, but I have a Star Trek convention story here too about an actor being really cool (just to bring back the positive vibe) ;)
I was staying at a hotel in Michigan, where there happened to be a Star Trek convention going on. It was crazy seeing clingons just walking around the hotel, eating breakfast, at the bar, wherever, in their FULL cling-on, star trek get ups! My friends and I happened to get into the elevator with and actor that looked really familiar but I still don't know his name. He was African-American and wasn't on Star Trek but I think on a similar show like Battlestar Gallactica or one of those other ones. (This was in 1997 or so). He had his costume on too so we were kind of like, "well I guess you have to be here, huh?" It was only us in the elevator and he could have totally been like, "yah these people are freaks huh?" But he was super respectful and said how great it was to have such enthusiastic fans.

Black? Could it have been Richard Biggs? New Battlestar wasn't on then, but Babylon 5 was HUGE at cons then, even STar Trek cons, and let me tell you, Rick Biggs was THE nicest man in all of Science Fiction. PERIOD. He died a few years ago leaving two very young children, and I worked with him several times, and when he died, I cried real tears. He was the best as human beings come. However ... you would know if it were Rick Biggs, as he played Marcus on Days of our Lives back in the day! So ... maybe you mean the guy who played Boomer on original Battlestar; that's Herbert Jefferson, Jr., and sometimes he wore aspects of his costume to cons. Rick was younger, Herb is older. I didn't have a good experience with him, but he's not a bad guy. That's a nice story! See, when you have good experiences like that, it really sticks with you :-)

[elektra]

I just looked up those names and it was Richard Biggs from Babylon 5. I didn't know that he had passed away. :(
Days of Our Lives must have been what I recognized him from! How weird that this was a Days thread???
That experience did stick with me about how nice he was. And we weren't even part of the Star Trek group, and he wasn't just being flirtatious with girls in an elevator. He just seemed genuinely nice.