Days of our Lives Continues to Bleed Actors Dry

[Fairy]

The latest casualties of the worst writing team in the history of man are Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans as Steve & Kayla Johnson. As of right now, they are getting no exit story; one day, they will simply no longer be there. It's the worst kind of treatment.

This after Thaao Penglis was let go last week; he'll be murdered.

Then there's Dee & Drake, who were let go for financial reasons, which I get. But they at least got an exit storyline.

Days is circling the drain, guys. Fair warning.

[maestramommy]

Will anyone be left? Will it become a kids soap? THAT would be freaky.

[Fairy]

The fury of press on the SK firing is coming fast and furious, and I'm having a hard time keeping up. Some intersting things to note:

* Head Writer Dena Higley's blog has been taken down
* There is unofficial talk that can't be substantiated that Higley's been fired or quit. Trying to confirm this.
* The Daytime bloggers are all over NBC, Corday, Higley, Tomlin -- all TIIC -- that SK are the last straw and that the show should just be cancelled now.
* The SK fanbase, which is enormous, is crying foul and flooding NBC with faxes, phone calls, and postcards/letters.

We'll see how it all ends up.

[DrSally]

Wow, that show has been on so long, it's sad to see it go this way.

[AnnieW625]

The scuttlebutt over on Soap Central is that Days has been on the chopping block with NBC for years. Actually a lot of soaps are hurting these days but somehow staying afloat. Days was the first soap I ever watched when I was 14. I stopped watching after the whole Marlena gets posessed by the devil story in 1995 or 1996, I think. I do think it's sad if it goes down the drain when all of the good old leads are gone.

[elektra]

Days is the only soap I ever watched too.
I spent way too much time back in the day thinking about Stefano, Marlena, John/Roman, Bo, Hope/Billie, Sami, Carrie, Austin, etc. I would totally watch a farewell episode though.
It's weird too because I have run into a few of the actors in real life throughout the years- Austin, Lucas, Marcus?(Babylon 5 guy- Fairy you know who I mean). :)

[DebbieJ]

This was the first soap I ever watched too. I haven't watched it in YEARS, though.

[Fairy]

So, here's the thing (I'm deep into Days fandom, specifically Steve & Kayla fandom. It's insane). The writers strike was serious. After James E. Reilly was fired (he's since passed away a few months ago), they brought on Hogan Sheffer, who tried very hard to do his job, which was to write the frakkin' show. But owner Ken Corday kept getting in the way. Alot of politics here that I don't pretend to understand. Add to that the fact that Sony Pictures Entertainment owns Days of our Lilves and, therefore, Corday. It runs on NBC who has final say of everything. There are alot of hands in this pot. Hogan didn't write the show while he was gone, Corday didn't like him, he used alot of the strike to get rid of Hogan, who is now writing for Y&R.

Now. SOMEONE had to write the show. Everyone from the actual writers writing in secret to scabs to producers to directors to script coordinators to the actors THEMSELVES were doing it. To keep the damned lights on. Dena Higley was hand picked by Corday to replace Hogan after the strike, only she was writing before the strike was over, and that's a big no no, and it caused alot of problems. When the strike was over, she came on officially, and began destroying legacy characters who make up the fabric of the show immediately. Why? Cuz she wants to create her OWN characters or change the ones there into her OWN vision so that she can say MINE MINE MINE.

Example? She gave Abe & Lexie's son autism. Why is that bad? It wouldn't be. If only that character was the perfect age. But he is six years old at least and they de-SORAS'd him (Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome; de-SORAS means they made him younger) to age 3 or 4. Again, oh well, that's fine ...except Bo & Hope (Bope)'s daughter, Ciara, WAS 3. It was PERFECT. They didn't give HER autism becasue they're cowards. They didn't want to give a permanent, life-changing, developmental disability that would preclude certain kinds of behavior and storylines to the child of veteran, legacy, beloved characters whose child was the right age. They gave it to the black, throwaway characters whose child was too old for them not to have had him diagnosed already and made him fit the storyline rather than the storyline fit the character. I was none too happy.

Dena Higley has done this before. She killed perfctly wonderful characters on ATWT. We were wanred by Erika Slezak that this would happen, and it did.

So, she lets go compelling, wonderful actors playing characters we love and care about, and keep the new characters that have zero redeaming qualities but are wonderful hair models who give good porn.

Stepping Off.