Harley Quinn (Batman character) was inspired by a Days character

b2curious

b2curious

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Not quite sure where this should go, so I'm putting it here. Who here knew that Harley Quinn was inspired by a Days of Our Lives Character, most specifically a specific scene done by that character? I didn't, and my daughter is a huge Harley fan. (My daughter also hates Joker because he's abusive.)

Anyway, I was poking around and found this article "How Harley Quinn Should Really Look" http://www.looper.com/22521/harley-quinn-really-look/s/image-3168/ On the second page (I haven't gotten past page 2 yet), it talks about Harley's debut in 1992, then it says "The character was inspired by a scene from Days of Our Lives, featuring actress Arleen Sorkin [Calliope Jones] rolling around [on roller skates] in wild harlequin gear and makeup. The producer of the as yet unaired Batman: The Animated Series, and Harley Quinn character creator, Paul Dini was friends with Sorkin from college.

According to this article http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/harley-quinn-dc-comics-suicide-squad.html, she had given him a VHS tape of her favorite Days moments. The court jester bit made it, probably because that scene was her idea. Dini was writing for Batman, and was struggling to come up with a female character to use as a "one-off." One day in 1991, when Dini was home sick, he popped in the tape. "When he saw Sorkin in clown makeup, the pieces fell into place." Dini then did a rough sketch, which he took to the cartoon's lead artist, Bruce Timm, who improved on the very rough sketch. Dini even invited Sorkin voice Harley, and she accepted.

Though they'd just meant to use her for that one episode, "when that first episode she appeared in came back from overseas and we saw her animated, with the combo of the visual and Arleen Sorkin's performance, y'know, it was kind of magical," Timm said. "Paul started immediately planning her return and saying, 'Y'know what? I'm gonna bring that Harley Quinn character back." After a while, she was so popular, that Harley began appearing in the comics as well.
 
Thanks for posting. I didn't know that at the time.
 
redsquirrel said:
Those of us watching back then knew. It was all over the trade papers.
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I didn't start watching Days until 1994, so I missed that news. And I wasn't paying much attention to Batman at the time either. I was in the Army, stationed in Germany. We had the Armed Forces Network, one channel with American shows on it, so we missed a lot of stuff. I even had trouble getting my hands on the comic books that I read, so I wasn't following them any more. But it's good to know that people who were watching Days when Harley was created knew the character's inspiration.
 
That is cool to know. I was watching at the time, but honestly don't remember her as a clown. LOL

Just an aside.....Agatha Christie wrote a series of short stories with a character by the name of Harley Quinn (a male, and no, he did not dress as a clown, but each story had him reflected in a "harlequin like" light....from a lamp, flashlight, street light, all different things...
 
Never, never, never name a child after a literary (comic or real book) or movie/TV character. It's just not a good idea. My oldest daughter knew a guy whose last name was Walker, so his parents had the "brilliant" for his first and middle names to be Luke and Sky. And now, he hates Star Wars.

My youngest daughter managed to save one of her friend's future children from a similar fate. The friend's last name is Black and she's a huge Harry Potter fan. She announced that when she grew up and got married, she was going to make her husband take her last name, and then if they had a son, she was going to name him Sirius. My daughter advised her against that, and relayed the Luke Sky Walker situation to her. The friend looked horrified, and said that she almost ruined her future child's life.
 
LOL, years ago, I was surprised when someone told me of naming their new baby Kayla.....yep, Big Days fan.

I guess in the Entertainment world, some feel it really "cool" to give their newborn some "unique" name. but makes one wonder how the kid feels when grown up.
 
Okay, I should amend my statement about naming a child after a character. If the name is fairly normal, and not obviously a specific character, then you're probably okay. My daughter's friend's parents might, possibly have gotten away with Luke Walker, if they'd not made the middle Sky. So, Kayla is mostly okay. Oh, and distinctive video game characters are out too. The late Robin Williams, named his daughter Zelda after The Legend of Zelda video game. (Zelda is the princess that Link, the main character, has to rescue. I only know this from a Facebook page I follow.)

Poirot said:
That is cool to know. I was watching at the time, but honestly don't remember her as a clown.
Click to expand...

According to the second article that I linked to, it probably aired in 1987, and it was a medieval fairy tale dream sequence that was only in one episode, if that helps any.
 
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