Good ol' Days

ralf

ralf

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When it was good writing, like when Sami was blackmailing Lucas, and Austin was right outside the door and he blew her up right before the "I do's." LOL haha.

Or where Stefano forced out those tears when Marlena was being mean to him. When she drugged him. How could she be so vile? LOL

Celeste's wardrobe malfunction at the funeral. How could they have missed that? LOL
 
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The thing is, in the past, there was dumb, stupid stuff, or stories one just could not believe were going on. There were complaints, grumblings, etc. But over all, mostly good stuff came out of the 80s/early 90s. But then many of Days' actors have the ability to make lemonade out of the sourest of lemons.......and then again, no matter how good they are, it just doesn't always work.

Ah, yes, the twins brought up by Dr. Rolf as an experiment, who arrive in a space craft, thought to be aliens. The horrible story which shall not be named, around the time of the coronation and then massacre.

But then, the love story of Gideon & Emily, the Civil War couple (played by Patch & Kayla) was my absolute favorite. Jennifer's determination to break through the self loathing wall Jack had built around himself, after his rape of Kayla. Took several years. But the characters were fun, dramatic, bring you to tears, make you chuckle, and yep, roll your eyes at times. LOL

Some of the Last Blast Teen stuff was pretty good, some of it was asinine, but the group, as a whole, were all good actors.
 
I really liked teen Belle even though I stopped watching (it was unfathomable to me that a character born when I was in high school was a teen when I was 20) regularly around that time. I loved her interactions with the first adult Brady, too. I missed most of the teen-focused stories around that time.

I look back at 1993 as the pinnacle of storytelling on Days - stories were intertwined, characters were fleshed out, and stories didn't draaaag. Then again the Curtis Brown murder was divided into 130 parts on YouTube, so my memory may be rosy.

But even back in 2011 when I got pulled back into the show there were umbrella stories (Parker's paternity, EJ's shooting) and rootable characters as well as underdogs you could sympathise with (in my case, Stephanie Johnson, who deserved better than that grafted schlub Nathan). The attempt at the Orwell story was just dismal, with nobody to root for. And the characters were acting like themselves.

Nowadays it seems that when they try umbrella stories, they have to change people around to make them fit (badly) in the story (CEO Sonny in the saga of Deimos/Titan springs to mind). And they abandon (and start) stories so quickly, or drag them out forever (Stefano's death story should have been over two weeks after his commemorative episode). The beats are all wrong.
 
Days was good, I thought, until towards the end of 1994. I lasted about a year year and a half after that time and then focused solely on Another World. Didn't come back until March 2013.
 
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The 90's were truly the best:

Cruise of Deception
Jack/Jennifer/Alamania/Katarina/Carly/Bo
Return of Marlena & Roman (real Roman)/Mexico
Marlena in the pit/Stella
Marlena and John's affair
Vivian and Carly buried alive
Stefano returned /Tony and Kristen/Peter
Sami kidnaps Belle
Sami/Austin/Lucas/Carrie quadrangle
Bo and Billie romance/Curtis Brown murder
Maison Blanche/New Orleans story
Marlena's devil possession and exorcism
Aremid story/Tony frames John for his murder
Stefano holds Marlena prisoner in cage
Kristen fakes her pregnancy
Kristen and Susan/birth of John Jr (Elvis)
Franco murdered/Sami on death row
Gas lighting of Laura by Peter
Murder of "Kristen"/Penelope
Princess Gina/Hope story
Last blast teens introduced (Belle, Brady, Philip, Chloe, Mimi)

The 2000's did not have much to offer. Although I enjoyed the Salem Stalker story. There was a lot of suspense as to whom was the killer. The whole Melaswen story was a little crazy. And the Greta/Austin/Garden of Eden story was the worse.

Stories are definitely told differently these days. Too much rushing and trying to shock the audience. Not enough building up and showing characters really develop a connection and chemistry with one another.
 
That was some good listing. Real good and a lot of them I do remember. Nicole tried to fry Victor back then too. What a world.
 
In the 80s and 90s we had supercouples who went through a lot to be together and then they had their families. Most of those kids were SORASed and we watched those kids as teens and then young adults. Now we still have most or part of the supercouples but hardly any kids on canvas. That's a HUGE gap in storytelling and the 25-45 set.

We still have Brady but he never acknowledges his parents or siblings. Or his niece. Rafe, Chloe and Nicole are not part of core families. To make us care about these characters, they need to be connected to core families. And not thrown into instant, chemistry-free romances either. I will never understand why the show let Shawn, Belle and Philip go again. Just makes no sense whatsoever.

The show needs to get back to understanding chemistry and slow build romances. Just because 2 people are single, that doesn't mean they should automatically be a couple. I don't mind age differences but it shouldn't be the case with multiple couples. It also shouldn't be ignored--it should be part of the angst that couples have to deal with in coming together.

I miss the way stories would impact multiple characters on canvas. When the Last Blast crew were teens and then young adults, you still had their parents involved. At the same time the parents had their own stories as well. Now everyone is too isolated and limited to one story.

I miss seeing the sets from various companies and other professions on the show. I'm tired of seeing the same blue office or people working in their living rooms. I guess I should be thankful we got the police station set back.
 
Catching bits and pieces of shows on YouTube, the one thing I really miss are longer scenes. It's amazing how the fast cuts can take a 4 minute scene last an entire week. Where in the 90's it would have been shown intact.
 
I also agree with Heather4cu. Any storyline needs good, or even great, drama so a fan can get caught up in it. Any type of soap, movie or show must have believable characters and great drama. If its going to be a mini saga, then the story has to build with more mystery and keep building. This is where good writing comes into play and imagination.
 
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