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Poirot

Poirot

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Most of us pay no attention to names of writers, except we might become familiar with the headwriters' names. Days really has gone through so many head writers, it makes it difficult to actually critique the show. Some have written excellent stories, which were executed poorly. Some wrote lousy stories, that were ......well, let's just say the fabulous acting made lemonade from the lemons.

It bugs the blazes out of me that Corday really pays no attention to the show, thus when it gets into trouble, instead of taking care of it within a year, he lets it go on for 2-3 years before making changes. Now, I truly understand that you cannot please everyone, no matter what you do. Some will grumble, some will be happy, some will turn away in a snit. As the old saying goes, you can please some people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but never all of the people ALL of the time. Days has had some wonderful headwriters, and some that did not deserve that title.

The last several years, Days has gone thru some writing upheavals, like a revolving door. With all the writing talent available after the cancellation of 6 soaps, hard to believe that Days has been unable to attract anyone who could deliver what the viewers expected. Good story, umbrella ones, using the excellent characters/actors already on board, plus good story for new characters. The 3 years of Gary Tomlin & Christopher Whitesell were not good, & I am being very polite here. The news that Dena Higley & Josh Griffith were coming aboard was so welcome. Higley had written previously, was familiar with characters, history, while Josh Griffith had been a huge fan, and watched Days for years. High hopes! Initially it went well, but evidently there was a disagreement on something, a big one, and Higley took a leave of absence. Griffith wrote and loved dark, dangerous, misery, despair sorts of stories, which fell flat overall. Character assassination was not as bad as under Tomlin/Whitesell, but it was apparent. And thus the viewers/fans are left with "who is this person?"

And so, Griffith gets his walking papers, Higley is returning, Ryan Quan promoted to headwriter, and it remains to be seen if Days can get back on track.

See, I don't understand why Corday could not see that putting Rafe in a coma for almost a year, while bringing on a therapist (Jordan) who had nothing to do since Rafe was in a coma, was a good thing. Or why he could not see that he had gold in Eric returning, but let him be dragged through the mud. Did he honestly think that Serena & her elephant story was fascinating? Or that Xander was an interesting character? Or that Paige was a good fit with JJ. Or that Kassie dePaiva was the right choice to play Eve, when she would have been SOOOO much better as just Paige's mom. Oh, he wanted vets back for the 50th, but how misused were they? Did he honestly think that having Sami return for the 1 year anniv. of EJ's death was a good time to have her son be murdered? And then for her to barely grieve before very happily running off to take all of Stefano's liquid assets, and being absolutely giddy about doing it, before running back to L.A. And when someone finally got him to realize what Griffith was doing with the teen set, Aiden, Hope, Jennifer, Joey, and all the rest, Griffith was out the door.

What is it that headwriters are missing? Why can't any remember the cast is an ensemble? That not a single character is the "star". Days is not "The Days of Sami's Lives", The Days of Daniel's lives", The Days of Hope's lives, The Days of Ciara's Lives. "OUR" encompasses everyone.

Guess I ranted enough, but I want the Days back, the one that is Salem, that tells us what goes on in the lives of it's citizens.........all of them, not a select few, who get personality changes every 6 mos -year or so.
 
All well said comments Poirot. I guess where I am at with this show is, I would appreciate some normalcy and every day things that viewers are going through.

Treat the viewers as though they have a brain. Do your research into the show and into the characters. When people die, they die. They do not come back. There are NO exact duplicates of anyone.
 
For the first time since I've started watching in 1989, I can honestly say that I think the end may be imminent. I don't know what is going on behind the scenes nor do I think we will ever know the real story but I know that Dena Higley and her blatant favoritism of certain characters and lazy writing style is not the answer.

Allowing the 20 and 30 something and to an extent the 40 something crowd to dwindle is a colossal mistake. You can't have an entire show built around characters over 50 and that is increasing by the day. Whether TPTB want to admit it or not, Hope is over 50 and has 2 adult children and a granddaughter. She is not a 40 something looking to have more children or anything like that. If this show is sticking around, it needs to focus on younger characters like Belle/Shawn, Gabi/JJ, Chad/Abby, Nicole/Rafe, Philip/Chloe, Blanca/Lucas. These we characters who can still grow their families while at the same time carrying on adult storylines professionally and serving as a bridge between the teens and over 50 generation. I still love the over 50 crowd but the show shouldn't be centered around them everyday.

I wouldn't mind seeing Carrie/Austin and their kid, Andrew, Stephanie, Allie, Sonny, Sonny's brothers back as well. Bring back the Wesley family too to support Chloe and Parker.

I also want to see families interacting as they are supposed to. Hope and her childREN/grandchild. Hope and Jen. Brady and his real parents. Belle and Brady. Shawn, Ciara and Jeannie T, Joey. Too much to have a scene with Caroline and all of her grandchildren at the Pub? Not rocket science.
 
And a huge problem that affects the writing is the far ahead filming schedule. When a storyline or character is just hitting all the wrong notes, turning off the audience, causing a great deal of FF with those who tape, etc., there is just no way to change the focus elsewhere. The filming is done, the story ended before the audience even sees it. So, they lose their bored or unhappy viewers. For instance, although actors may be a couple in real life, sometimes their pairing on screen just doesn't go over well. I don't know why, it might be the dialogue, writing, or maybe not. It could the the audience likes one character, not the other. But thus the pairing is forced on an audience no happy with it, and the show has no clue it won't go over, because the audience has not even seen the beginning of it yet.

I really don't understand how the show can take a 5 week hiatus a couple months ago, be shut for 3 weeks currently, and still be 6 mos. ahead in filming. That totals 8 weeks, the show should be only 4 mos. ahead. But, this is July, and they are filming Dec., Jan. ????? .
 
I concur with previous posters. Poirot, you make a good point about not being able to please everyone all the time but there comes a point where the viewers are just bored or apathetic. That seems to be where they are now. Obviously, it doesn't help that there's been a steady rotation of writers for the show for the past 10 years as well including bringing former writers/producers back. I thought new blood with Josh Griffith would help (and it did for a short time last fall) but it has gone into a nosedive since January.

And of course, like you also pointed out, the taping schedule is the number one impediment to the success and future of Days. I firmly believe that. The other 3 soaps all have a 6-8 week taping schedule and while they don't cater to every whim of the viewing audience to change story, viewers can kind of tell when there's been a change of direction with the storytelling. From what I understand, the show has no interest in changing their taping schedule. Sure, there was a rumor 6 months ago when they got their renewal that they were supposed to change but it has not and likely will not happen. They take these breaks but they're still taping 7-8 episodes a week when they are not dark. That's how they stay 6 months ahead. And this being an Olympic year adds two weeks to how far ahead they are although I think they are taking off those weeks from taping as well but I'm not completely certain of that. It doesn't really matter at this point. They would literally need to take about 3 months off of taping and then go down to shooting one episode per day as well as taking a week off per month for 6 months to get to a 6 week taping schedule. In other words, that would take 9 months from now to get to 6 weeks ahead of schedule. Ain't gonna happen.
 
Another 'yay' in the chorus, hear hear to all that's been said.

I hate to say it but I don't think Days will last beyond its current contract cycle by more than a year. I think if NBC found something cheap and tacky like The Chew, the show would be a goner.

And...for the first time in a long, long time...that would be a relief to me.

Like Sheldon said on Big Bang Theory, he didn't care when Heroes was cancelled...he was just relieved because the quality had dipped so low.
 
I just have a sinking feeling that it probably is near the end of the show. We have already seen that a change in the writing regime does not help the ratings or make the show better except for a short while. In order to fix the taping schedule, they would almost have to literally jump ahead and skip a lot of what has already been taped to clear up the mess. That will not happen because it would cost too much money.

I also think Sony might be done with trying to work with NBC and Corday to reboot the show. When there was a shake up at Sony a few weeks ago and the executive producer was fired from the Young and the Restless, nothing was done to fix the mess that Days is in. They might have felt that the Young and the Restless might be worth saving as it receives the highest ratings of the four soaps. Sony might be going to let the contract run out at NBC for Days and that be it for the show.
 
I have watched the show since Robert Kelker Kelly was playing Bo. I was thinking of quitting last spring but decided to wait seeing the returnees and new writers. For about 4 months I found the writing better so I had hope. Then right after the new year it got bad again. Today for example I deleted the show half way through and I have been doing that a lot lately. (I also have watched GH for over 20 years and just started Y&R.). I think pure stubbornness keeps me watching Days
 
I actually think a change in writing can change the show for the better but it has to be done properly. I'm not sure that giving the head writers 100% creative control is any better than having NBC/Sony interfere. I think Ken Corday. Greg Meng, and Albert Alarr need to have ultimate control over what airs and they also need to keep the head writers and higher ups in check. It's become clear that Dena Higley and Josh Griffith had creative control over the past year. At times both, at others times one or the other.

I have a hard time believing Ken Corday and Greg Meng approved some of these recent directions and upcoming spoilers after the whole "Plan to Save Days" thing last Fall. The show is just as unrecognizable as it was then the only difference is now it's unrecognizable with recognizable characters. I feel like they've given up too much control and are just kind of on the sidelines. If that is the case, that needs to change.

The reason people like The Young & The Restless so much is because it's multi-faceted. You see multiple generations of families interacting regularly and recognizing one another as family. There are multiple storylines centered around different businesses and other workplaces. There is romance between couples who actually have chemistry and are not forced together by a selfish writer's agenda. And the show has balance. If you tune in for a full week, you do not see the same characters focused on everyday or over thcourse of the week. Days needs to take note.

I am curious to see what Ryan Quan brings to the table for Days. If yesterday's episode had his influence, then that was a step in the right direction.
 
Writing can definitely save this show if they can just find the right writing team.

Concentration on the core families and their children and grandchildren would help. deleted spoiler info in non-spoiler forum - JS

I'd like them to focus on the other Bradys (Kayla and Steve and Joey) and Shawn and Belle (I hope they keep them on). These are great actors and when given good writing and story, the ratings will go up.

Brady Black can be a great character and take over as one of the leading men if they keep him sober and away from these unstable crazy women. They need to pair him with a strong leading woman (I recommend Nicole).

It would be nice to see more people of color brought in, too. Abe is such a great character. He brings a patriarch type feel to his character. Strong, wise, caring, protective. They should use him more than they do on the show. I recently saw a commercial that had the actor who played Abe's brother, Jonah Carver. I think they should try to bring him back. If not the same actor, they can recast the role and have more members of the Carver family on screen. So far I like the work of the young actor that plays Theo Carver.

I always enjoy when the Hortons all get together. They should have them together more often. When is the last time Hope has been shown with Maggie? Or with Doug and Julie? Maggie has been in a wheelchair for how many months? I don't think I have seen her nieces, Hope or Jennifer, visit her once. Sad. And I think the viewers would appreciate it if her daughters, Melissa and Sarah, would come to visit and help their mother. Viewers like when they see the core families help each other and act like families. Unfortunately the characters are so splintered off and don't interact much with one another.

I have hope things can get better. That's probably why I still watch. I am hanging in there in hopes they will get a writer who "gets" what Days fans love to watch.
 
There is a way to fix the 6-month ahead issue. Trash the crap that's already been filmed. Re-edit what's there. Take the 6 months of potential garbage, and edit it down to 2-3 months of decent daytime drama. Finish up the horrible storylines without repeating the same things over and over, and then let the writers start on something new and fresh.

It's not impossible, it's just drastic, and in essence is a big waste of money since everything filmed won't be used. But so much of it isn't necessary or watchable. It solves a lot of problems all at once, but it's quite drastic and they won't have the nerve to do it.
 
Poirot said:
" hard to believe that Days has been unable to attract anyone who could deliver what the viewers expected.
Click to expand...

The writers from the other shows probably hear a lot more of what is going on behind the scenes from people who work / have worked on the show, and don't want to work for Days' dysfunctional organization.
 
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