spookyseason

BB actually did a great job portraying a multi-layered villain on General Hospital. His name was Johnny Zacchara.

Sometimes TBTBs has this obscure tendency to tread lightly in handling complex and sensitive topics, like some flavour of the month. For instance, they randomly brought up some ex-Nazi Doctor who killed Robin's grandmother in concentration camp and some KGB agents to harass the pawn and Marlena only for a few episode with no build up. If they truly are groundbreaking and progressive, why don't choose to write a story for a refugee family from Gaza? Greg Vaughan, despite his Eric's notoriety as a sappy and sancticmous person, could come across as a sexy and charming guy with some ladies on screen. He was like that with Holly Marie Combs, Kelly McCullough, Linsey Godfrey and now Jessica Serfaty. Somehow the writers feel the necessity to deprive him the opportunity to be happy and cheerful and ground him in moral superiority and ethics all the time. I think Sloan hit the nail with her description. Dedire Hall comes across as affable and funny in real life but Marlena has been more lifeless than an inanimate object. She seems to belong to the Maurice Bernard and Roger Howarth School of chemistry and acting. I am currently on the episodes after Marlena was "killed" in the explosion set up by Orpheus, Roman/John came to life without her. Days used to instill complexity and empathy and balance into female characters (not always the "main ones"). For instance, Gillian developed feelings after working with Shane for months, but they didn't turn it into a petty triangle with Kimberly; Olivia struck a chord with both Roman/John and Carrie and wasn't some tool of Orpheus being obsessed with taking Rojohn down. Male and female friendships were allowed as well.

Aging doesn't necessarily diminish the importance of a character. Tom Horton was the voice of reason and understanding that everybody adored while doing tap dance with Calliope in his late 70s. DH/John is in good shapes and can either do sports of some kind in spare time or exercise the role of Salem's grandfather. Heck they even can try to give Genie Francis and Staci Greason a call or get any other actress at his age range or with no significant age gap between them. I couldn't have said it better myself! The writers are beating a dead horse. They want to recreate the 80's magic but their hands are pretty much tied at this point. I think they should honestly do a study on storyline feasibility and have a thorough discussion with Drake and Stephen to work out a solution for John and Steve.

The writers' affinity for eternally recycling and repackaging stories is dull and nauseating. Are they utterly deprived of creativity and imagination or just sleepwalk through script writing?

Little Max looked so cute with Steve and Kayla. Dose anyone know what happened to Robin's portrayer? She hasn't done anything since Days and no trace of any information related to her could be found either. Rob Estes began his career on Days, What a pleasant discovery! MR was such a lucky lady to work with him and a lot of other attractive actors. P.S. He also made a guest appearance on My Sister Sam of which co-starred the young and primising Rebecca Schaeffer. She died tragically at the hands of a deranged fan because according to him, appearing in a love scene destroyed the "good girl" image in his mind.

I don't think these two worked together before. She tweeted he grabbed her bottom in an event years ago.

This is why Hunter Tylo's claim of SN hitting on her sound ludicrous to my ear. Both of MBE and SN's spouses never had problem with the nature of their work. MBE's husband even attend the SOD award show with a pic of Steve's headshot to cover his face lol. Didn't Stephen also personally stopped portrayer of first Jack from harassing MBE with Drake? That being said, there were some other cases of well-respect soap icons were accused by fellow colleagues. Cady McClain called John McCook out for groping her. Brenda Dickson accused Bill Bell Sr. for sexual misconduct. It really depends on the person, I guess. Yes Matt is a personality/character actor. I remeber someone posted vids of his Tom with Felicia in General Hospital, almost unrecognizable. Staci Greason takes her craft more seriously than Deidre Hall. I am currently on episodes of 86, romance with John/Roman taking precedence over everything else and decline in Dee's acting ruins Marlena imo. At times, it felt like the writers tasked Drake to carry her and make things work. He wasn't like this with other onscreen love intrests.

Been watching 1986 episodes all this time. Sometimes before, I caught the story arc where Bo and Hope and Steve teamed up to search for Britta and saved the Englund siblings who were Soviet defectors from KGB etc. Perhaps this was the writers' attemp to emulate the popularity of James Bond or Tom Clancy's series in the Cold War environment, but Days seemd to be not very effective at telling a story that involved politics. Convincing or not, they couldn't even find actors who could at least try to imitate an accent. The potrayers of Britta and Lars were native English speaker with no hints of Russian accent at all lol. It's beyond predictable that the writers continues to force Britta and Lars into Melissa and Steve and Bo's lives in order to boost the relevance of their existence. Could hardly wait to see both of them gone by 1987. The reunion of Roman and Marlena in 86 felt rushed and anticlimatic. They spent tiny effort on characterization and re-connection while one part of the couple was recast. The entirety of John/Roman's purpose in the year so far is to dog Marlena every step. The two had nothing in common and hardly doing things that couple normally enjoy... All in all, the writers failed to emphasize why this pairing are so special and should be put on pedestal in soap world. Also, I find Deidre's style somewhat similar to Maurice Bernard and Roger Howarth, who heavily rely on their scene-partners to carry the pairing. Maybe this is the main explanation for Drake being stuck with Jarlena. If I don't know SN being a method actor and really nice person behind the scene and MBE trust him dearly, Steve's early interaction with Kayla (constant touching her face and hair) could be easily mistaken as inappropriate or harassment.

Comparatively speaking, John didn't move really fast to Diana. Both had met 10 months after Marlena's death due to the nature of their profession and didn't blosoom into love right away. The build-up was organic, whereas It took roughly 2 to 3 months to reveal John was indeed Roman and boom his love with Marlena was fully back on track. This wouldn't a problem with WN because for example those memories of their supercoupling romance could be shown in montages which was an every effective tool to rekindle old loves. But DH was literally a recast and they had to start from scrach to fit everything into "Roman and Marlena" mode in such a short period of time. So the storytelling and exuection for John and Marlena felt rather rushed and weak as a result.

Thank goodness Melissa from Daytime Royalty has uploaded 1984-86 episodes in full on G-Drive so viewers could rejoice in the memories of glorious days or take the opportunity to see this awesome blast from the past. Personally speaking, I find the character of Robin to be suprisingly refreshing. A female doctor who is dedicated and career-driven, not preoccupied with men and cosmetics 24/7. Females or no females, Soaps honestly need more characters like her today. Kristen Alfonso's able to emote convincingly back in these classic episodes from the 80s. Josh Taylor was awesome as Chris, what a wonderful suprise! Did Deidre Hall lose enthusiasm in acting before her departure in 86? Marlena seemed to be emotionally drained and rather aloof which made John stiff.

I always think Nadia Bjorlin is underrated and Xander/Chloe (and Gwen/Xander to a certain extent) is refreshing in comparison to the melodramatic Xander/Sarah. Even Paul Telfer had pointed out a while ago that his character and Sarah didn't fit. The writers obviously didn't listen. I also agree with those who think PT steps up in acting game. NB and EOB are capable scene-partners and he seemingly benefits working with them more so than LG. Xander/Sarah is a lost cause. I for one would not want to see this tiresome couple getting back together for the Nth time. How many times can you say "Nah, been there done that"?

I had a distant memory of John himself took the blame for Brady's troubled upbrining and cited his neglectful parenting and overinvolvement in other things to be the root causes. He also complained that he had trouble reaching out to Brady due to generation gap. But he was never the "too busy" type who prioritized his spouse over his kids or had difficulties connecting with them. Not sure if this was the writers' funny ways of unveiling the selfishness of Jarlena love or demonstrating the effects of maternal absence on children development. It does make me wonder how Brady's life would turn out had Isabella remaind alive. Then again, I shurdder to think the fallouts of infidelity down the road if Jarlena remained to be the ultimate plan. The wounds could stay there for a long time and he simply ended up like Sami. Possibly the worst outcome of all, Isabella became another Kristen and used her own son as a weapon to plot against his father and Marlena. and ED and KL's characters were romantically linked in Y&R. You know what they say, stepmother by Salem and lover by Genoa City lol. So both Brady, in a way had been together with both Kristen.

I honestly think they made a mistake of keeping Alex and Sarah on the show. It's a waste of money and time to invest in these two whom has little use or depth and saddle them with others and storyline so both could stay relevant. RSW and LG bring nothing to the table. Instead, TPTBs could take a page out of General Hospital's book and save some bucks to bring back well-connected veterns like Pasty. It's not like soaps haven't done this before. Thorsten Kaye, the current Ridge from Bold & Beautiful resides in Connecticut with his family. Kassie DePavia lived in New York when they brought back Eve.

A friend of mine who was a long-time Days viewer persuaded me to watch the show for the great John/Marlena in the late 90s. I became a casual viewer ever since, but the couple never really impressed me. It wasn't until when I saw both characters outside of Jarlena which made me see them in a different light. Deidre appeared to be a lovely person offscreen but Marlena somehow resembled an ice-cold that de-energized John. Drake, like Vanessa Marcil and Michael Easton, was sex on a stick who could have hot chemistry with an inanimate object. He looked young, sexy, funny and just comfortable around other female co-stars. Deidre was like that with the original Roman too. John and Marlena however struke me more as two companions who stuck together all these years because of familiarity and family moreso than love and passion and similar interests.

Thanks for sharing the info, this is kinda uneasy to digest. They must have preferred their partners to be young and fresh as Stone Cates might say.