Days of Our Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome, or SORAS

[methodwriter85]

There's speculation that Joey and Theo are going to be SORASed, which has made me think of how generally SORAS-happy Days is. I think the most extreme case has to be EJ, who was born in 1997 and showed up as a guy in his late 20's in 2006, and even played stepfather to Will, who was actually born on-screen two years before he was. Belle and Phillip were aged hard as well, right? And I had a teacher who went on a rant about how Little Hope suddenly showed up as an 18-year old getting married. LOL.

 

The only characters I can think of who are actually close to the right age are Will and Abby. Will's only about three years older than he should be, and Abby is actually the right age. Oh, and Shawn- Shawn was born on-screen in 1987, and his character graduated high school in 2002, making his birth revised to '84 or so. Is there anyone else who is "gently" SORASED- meaning they're less than 5 years older than they should be, or actually the right age?

 

It's kind of a shame they're going to age Theo, but I'm really holding out hope they won't do it to Ciara because I really want Lauren Boles to be the first kid lifer on the show. (Christie Clark gets close, but she was almost a teenager when she started.) I kind of wonder if that's why we really don't seem to see Ciara with Theo anymore. I mean, if the show can have Will as a teenager while EJ is in his 30's, they can have Theo as a teenager while Ciara's still 10 or so.

 

Instead, I want them to age Ali into the blond, hell-raising teenaged bitch she should be.

Edited March 7, 2015 by methodwriter85

[TigerLynx]

Allie, Johnny and Ciara were all born before Joey.  I think Sydney was born around the same time as Joey.  I like the actress who plays Ciara, but I also like the idea of all of these kids being teenagers together.

[Apprentice79]

Is Joey the biological son of Philip? if he is, that means he is a Kiriakis, Johnson and Brady...lol  He is another relative that Sonny and Will have in common...lol

[Rick Kitchen]

No, Joey's biological father is Steve/Patch.

Philip's only biological child is Tyler Kiriakis, AKA Pocket, who was raised by Steve and Kayla but eventually given up to a foster family.

 

If they do age up Joey and make him a rebellious teen, I can't imagine they would go on and on without Steve showing up at some point.

 

I wonder what they would do with an autistic teen Theo?

Edited March 7, 2015 by Rick Kitchen

[Apprentice79]

I want Tyler Kiriakis to come back into the fold..He is Kate and Victor's grandson....Why did Philip give him up? Why would Victor allow that to happen?

[Apprentice79]

If the show is still around in the future, I want the teen scene to consist of Ari, Sonny Jr, Sonny's nieces and nephews via his brothers, Allie, Parker. Sydney, Johnny, Nicole's kids, Eric's kids, Theresa's son, and a whole host of other kids who are not connected to the families in Salem..We need new blood to continue on with the show....

[Rick Kitchen]

Pocket had some kind of genetic disorder, but I'm not really sure why he was given up.

[bobcat1946]

There's speculation that Joey and Theo are going to be SORASed, which has made me think of how generally SORAS-happy Days is. I think the most extreme case has to be EJ, who was born in 1997 and showed up as a guy in his late 20's in 2006, and even played stepfather to Will, who was actually born on-screen two years before he was. Belle and Phillip were aged hard as well, right? And I had a teacher who went on a rant about how Little Hope suddenly showed up as an 18-year old getting married. LOL.

 

The only characters I can think of who are actually close to the right age are Will and Abby. Will's only about three years older than he should be, and Abby is actually the right age. Oh, and Shawn- Shawn was born on-screen in 1987, and his character graduated high school in 2002, making his birth revised to '84 or so. Is there anyone else who is "gently" SORASED- meaning they're less than 5 years older than they should be, or actually the right age?

 

It's kind of a shame they're going to age Theo, but I'm really holding out hope they won't do it to Ciara because I really want Lauren Boles to be the first kid lifer on the show. (Christie Clark gets close, but she was almost a teenager when she started.) I kind of wonder if that's why we really don't seem to see Ciara with Theo anymore. I mean, if the show can have Will as a teenager while EJ is in his 30's, they can have Theo as a teenager while Ciara's still 10 or so.

 

Instead, I want them to age Ali into the blond, hell-raising teenaged bitch she should be.

Ali is a Horton and female Horton has never done anything wrong and never will.  A male sometimes like Nick but never a female. I did learn that much from abifail.

Edited March 8, 2015 by bobcat1946

[jsm1125]

Ali is a Horton and female Horton has never done anything wrong and never will.  A male sometimes like Nick but never a female. I did learn that much for abifail.

Given that Ali is the daughter of Sami (pretty despised) and Lucas (not considered a 'true' Horton as he is Kate's son), I wouldn't count on Ali getting that special treatment.

Edited March 8, 2015 by jsm1125

[bobcat1946]

She just might imo because her name is Alice Caroline Horton.  I do not see a child named after Alice Horton not getting special treatment but that is just me.

[rustyspigot]

How about being De-SORASed? I'm looking at you, Mike Horton.

[Rick Kitchen]

I think Abigail was in college for about ten years, wasn't she?

[boes]

I think Abigail was in college for about ten years, wasn't she?

 

And look how little good it did.

[bobcat1946]

what kind of college did abifail attend, and what did she major and minor in?  I think surely her major was sex.

[boes]

what kind of college did abifail attend, and what did she major and minor in?  I think surely her major was sex.

 

She did a double major in sneering and self-love, with a minor in self-delusion.  Not that she'd brag or anything, but she did honors in all three.

 

In sports she played center in backbiting, and was considered for the Olympic Team of Shower Sex Jumping.  Oh, HOW she took those hurdles!!

[Rick Kitchen]

Until she had sex with Chad, Abigail was a member of the Virginity Club.  No, seriously.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Rick Kitchen

[methodwriter85]

I think Abigail was in college for about ten years, wasn't she?

 

Abigail's an interesting case. They gently SORASed her with Ashley Benson, but then her age kind of froze in the late teens/early 20's, until Abi's real age caught up with her SORAS age and she was a peer with Will like she always should have been.

 

I always assumed the reason Will has been so gently SORASed is because of Alison's age. Otherwise, Will probably would have been a heartthrob 16-year old and part of the Salem High Class of '02 group...weren't Belle, Brady, and Phillip supposed to be his peers?

 

It would have been hilarious to see a 25-year old Ali Sweeney in 2001 having a hunky teenage son that looked suspiciously 25 himself, though. Oh, my god, I wish the show would have done that. Then again, there's absolutely no way Days in 2001 would have done a teen gay storyline. The closest they got was Jan Spears basically calling a tom boy a big ol' dyke and making jokes about Boys Don't Cry.

 

On average, it seems like the show does an SORAS of about 7 to 10 years, with EJ as the extreme case and Will as the gentle case. It does make sense they'd start doing it to the kids who were born on the show in the mid/late 2000's.

 

It's still fucking weird to me that I watched EJ being passed off as John's baby when I was 11 years old in 1997 until Susan ran off with the hot British nerd, and when I was 20 he came back as a guy in his mid/late 20's.

Edited March 8, 2015 by methodwriter85

[boes]

Until she had sex with Chad, Abigail was a member of the Virginity Club.  No, seriously.

 

Poor Abs thought the Virginity club had something to do with cooking with olive oil.  She kept giving Jenn palpitations every time she cooked because she was could never remember where they kept the imported virginity.  

 

Which is why she always screamed out "ABBONDONZA!!!!" at the climax of every session with EJ.

[bobcat1946]

A virgin when she returned.  I do not believe that.  She has been known to lie.

[methodwriter85]

I know that I was a 19-year old in Spain, surrounded by exotic men with sexy accents and great tans, I'd sure retain my virginity, too. Not.

[Tiger]

Whoops, put that in the wrong thread but great news!

Anyway, as for soras' ing, were Sonny and/or any of his brothers born on-creen, and regardless how severe was Sonny's soras?

[methodwriter85]

According to good ol' Wikipedia, Jackson was born off-screen in 1991, and his brothers are twins born to a housekeeper that Justin and Adrienne adopted, as well as a son named Alex that Justin had by another woman.

 

So Sonny wasn't actually SORASed, as a 1991 birth is about right for someone just a year or two out of college. If his brothers come back, they should be somewhere around their early-to-mid 20's.

[methodwriter85]

Bumped up. I'm kind of bitter that they got rid of Lauren Boles to have Suddenly Teen Ciara anchor a new teen scene.

 

It's weird they got a guy playing Chase who really does look like an average 16-year old kid. I'm used to 20-year old underwear models playing the teenager.

[Rick Kitchen]

I went looking to see how old Jonathon McClendon (Chase) is, and I found this video, uploaded to YouTube on May 2014, where he said he was 17, so I guess that would make him 18 right now.

 

 

I can't find how old Vivian Jovanni (Ciara) is.

[buffynut]

I can't find how old Vivian Jovanni (Ciara) is.

 

19 per:  http://soaps.sheknows.com/days-of-our-lives/comings-and-goings/752/20150825-days-of-our-lives

[DisneyBoy]

The just watched an old clip where EJ says he thinks of Will as a step-son....and my head exploded.

How did they write such a radical SORAS into the show??

[jlrd2000]

The just watched an old clip where EJ says he thinks of Will as a step-son....and my head exploded.

How did they write such a radical SORAS into the show??

That was the craziest SORAS I have ever witnessed!

[Apprentice79]

Chad should have been Ej. It would fit in with him being the same age as Will. James Scott should have been a different character that is not connected with anybody. Perhaps he went to boarding school with Andrew Donovan.

[DisneyBoy]

Well at least they cast a Brit as EJ. It wouldn't have made any sense otherwise, considering how British Edmund Crumb was.

[methodwriter85]

I just realized that they SORASED the teen group to 18 instead of the usual 16 because they're obviously going to have Ciara bang Chad.

In other news...JJ has to be like 25 or something now, right? They made him a contemporary with Gabi once they got rid of Paige. That is what we call "quiet" SORAS, where nobody really says it, but it's obvious that they're gotten older. He can't be playing 19 at this point.

No one ever seems to actually graduate from college. They stay there for a year or two, and then they're ready to run corporations or be doctors.

[JBC344]

Actually the teen group was SORASED to 16 first, then a few months later they made them all 18 and graduating from high school.  Actually JJ was slightly SORASED to 21/22.  After Paige died they moved him up to 21 and had all these scenes with him drinking.  So he is still a little younger than Gabi but only by a couple of years now.  A couple of weeks ago I did a list of the under 50 characters with all the ages. 

Ciara/Joey/Theo/Claire were SORASED to 16 originally, now it seems like they are all 18 now.

Below is how I think the ages shake out for the under 50 groups.  Between all the SORASING and changes.

Sami/Lucas/Nicole/Brady: 39-42 age range

Chloe/Phillip/Shawn/Belle: 33-35 age range

Chelsea/Stefanie/Nick/Abby: 28-30 age range

Chad/Gabi/Will/Sonny: 23-26 age range.

JJ: 21-22 age

Ciara/Joey/Theo/Claire:  18 years old.

[Apprentice79]

Max and Carrie should be together age wise..Theo was born before JJ...Shawn, Jeremy Horton, Sarah Horton, Andrew should be with Sami,Eric and Lucas...Stefanie, Sonny, Abigail, his brothers and Theresa should be older than Belle.....I have always felt that they should age them in the chronological order that they were born onscreen....Philip, EJ, Belle and Will should have been contemporaries..Claire,JJ, Theo,Joey and Ciara should have remained children...

Edited July 27, 2016 by Apprentice79

[methodwriter85]

EJ is still a mindfuck. I watched him as a BABY on-screen the summer of 1997 when I was 11 years old, and nine years later, I'm 20 and he's somewhere in his mid/late 20's, possibly even his 30's.  What the hell?

I'm pretty sure they decided to make the new teen group 18 because they want to hook-up Chad and Ciara, which is kind of stupid, but whatever.

Edited July 28, 2016 by methodwriter85

[neuromom]

On July 28, 2016 at 0:59 PM, methodwriter85 said:

EJ is still a mindfuck. I watched him as a BABY on-screen the summer of 1997 when I was 11 years old, and nine years later, I'm 20 and he's somewhere in his mid/late 20's, possibly even his 30's.  What the hell?

I'm pretty sure they decided to make the new teen group 18 because they want to hook-up Chad and Ciara, which is kind of stupid, but whatever.

I'm right there with you! EJ was really bizarre...but I'm sitting here with my son, who just started middle school, and he was born the same year as JJ. And what's even more funny is that my older son, who turns 15 next month (older than JJ) wants to be a cop, and JJ already IS one!

[methodwriter85]

So now that Ciara's gone, can we just de-SORAS her and bring back Lauren Boles, please? Hell, just retcon everything. The only characters from that teen scene that are left are Joey, Claire, and Theo so it's not like we're going to need for Ciara to stay an 18-year old.

[methodwriter85]

Did they age-vague Tripp? Because originally, he was supposed to be a few years older than Claire/Ciara/Joey, but now it kind of seems like he's the same age. I wonder if they are just freezing his age at 21 for awhile.

Melanie also seemed to be age-vague, where they kind of kept her going back and forth between teen scenes and adult scenes.

I did feel like Tripp probably should have been in the group with JJ, but then JJ's group cohort dissolved and he was basically turned into a peer with Gabby, Chad,  Will, Abby, etc etc. And the Salem U cohort (which seems to be 19/20) desperately needed a male anchor, so Tripp is now basically close to Joey's age.

Edited April 17, 2018 by methodwriter85

[JBC344]

I think Tripp is still supposed to be a few years older than Claire and Ciara.  He is more JJ's age or a year or two older, not discounting JJ's slight re-SORAS a couple of years ago.

Melanie was a weird case because the character was always older but she was often paired with the Will, Abby, Chad, Gabi scene.  I think that had more to do with the "child like" way the actress portrayed Melanie.  When they did put her with age appropriate Phillip, it came across as Phillip babysitting her.

[RachelKM]

8 hours ago, JBC344 said:

I think Tripp is still supposed to be a few years older than Claire and Ciara.  He is more JJ's age or a year or two older, not discounting JJ's slight re-SORAS a couple of years ago.

Melanie was a weird case because the character was always older but she was often paired with the Will, Abby, Chad, Gabi scene.  I think that had more to do with the "child like" way the actress portrayed Melanie.  When they did put her with age appropriate Phillip, it came across as Phillip babysitting her.

Melanie wasn't actually older than the Will/Abby/Chad/Gabi set. It was pairing her with the Phillip/Brady group that was out of place.   It was always a bit weird because Melanie was brought on as a teenager, but interacted almost exclusively with the early to mid 20s set of Phillip/Stephanie/Nathan/Chelsea/Max... and Brady - whose own age is hella confusing since he should be just a bit older than Belle, but is has also paired with Eric/Sami/Nicole/Daniel group leading to the Melanie/Brady pairing creating a situation wherein Brady was engaged to his best friend's daughter who had been previously married to his uncle Philip and was also the stepdaughter of his ex-wife.

Melanie had her 18th birthday on screen in November of 2008, making her birth year 1990 (nevermind that Carly had just arrived in Salem in 1990).  Chad was originally supposed to be a year older than Will/Gabi/Mia, but it later turned out he was another year older due to his mother falsifying his birth certificate so he is 2 years older than them.  He was born in 1990 as well.

Will and Gabi were the same age and Will's last stated birth year was 1992 (only a 3 year SORAS).  Abby was SORASd to make her about the same as Stephanie and Chelsea for the 2005-07 college set. But then she was De-SORASd when she returned in 2011 (she left town a 19yo and returned 4 years later still 19). 

Basically, Melanie and Brady have both floated through age groups.  But Melanie was never age-vagued so much as age-ignored when the story dictated  - (mostly to pair her with Kiriakis men). 

[peachmangosteen]

12 hours ago, RachelKM said:

Brady was engaged to his best friend's daughter who had been previously married to his uncle Philip and was also the stepdaughter of his ex-wife.

LMAO!

[JBC344]

17 hours ago, RachelKM said:

Melanie wasn't actually older than the Will/Abby/Chad/Gabi set. It was pairing her with the Phillip/Brady group that was out of place.   It was always a bit weird because Melanie was brought on as a teenager, but interacted almost exclusively with the early to mid 20s set of Phillip/Stephanie/Nathan/Chelsea/Max... and Brady - whose own age is hella confusing since he should be just a bit older than Belle, but is has also paired with Eric/Sami/Nicole/Daniel group leading to the Melanie/Brady pairing creating a situation wherein Brady was engaged to his best friend's daughter who had been previously married to his uncle Philip and was also the stepdaughter of his ex-wife.

Melanie had her 18th birthday on screen in November of 2008, making her birth year 1990 (nevermind that Carly had just arrived in Salem in 1990).  Chad was originally supposed to be a year older than Will/Gabi/Mia, but it later turned out he was another year older due to his mother falsifying his birth certificate so he is 2 years older than them.  He was born in 1990 as well.

Will and Gabi were the same age and Will's last stated birth year was 1992 (only a 3 year SORAS).  Abby was SORASd to make her about the same as Stephanie and Chelsea for the 2005-07 college set. But then she was De-SORASd when she returned in 2011 (she left town a 19yo and returned 4 years later still 19). 

Basically, Melanie and Brady have both floated through age groups.  But Melanie was never age-vagued so much as age-ignored when the story dictated  - (mostly to pair her with Kiriakis men). 

Thank you for this.  I wasn't watching when her character was first introduced, but I thought her backstory was that she was a grifter/con artist from her childhood of being raised by Trent (Max's biological father) who came to Salem.  When I picked up she was already a nurse at that point, I always assumed that she was older than the Will/Gabby/Chad scene but always paired with them since her own age group had been depleted. 

The Brady/Melanie relationship has never made any sense to me.  95% of her time in Salem she was a surrogate little sister to Brady and they always had a sweet sibling bond and looked out for each other.  There was never a hint of romance.  Pairing them together made no sense, especially since nothing came out of it. 

[Apprentice79]

18 hours ago, RachelKM said:

Will and Gabi were the same age and Will's last stated birth year was 1992 (only a 3 year SORAS).  Abby was SORASd to make her about the same as Stephanie and Chelsea for the 2005-07 college set. But then she was De-SORASd when she returned in 2011 (she left town a 19yo and returned 4 years later still 19). 

Will was born in 1997. So, he was aged by 5 years, at the time of his death. Sonny was born in 1991. Brady and Abigail in 1992.  Belle in 1993.  Stefanie in 1989. Alex Kiriakis in 1988..  Theresa  and the Kiriakis twins were born in 1990.

[RachelKM]

For some reason, I had it my head that Will was born in 1995 when Sami was 18.  I'll defer. :) 

[Silver Raven]

Wikipedia says Will was born in 1995.

[Apprentice79]

1 hour ago, Silver Raven said:

Wikipedia says Will was born in 1995.

You are right, his paternity was revealed in 1997..

[methodwriter85]

On 4/18/2018 at 3:33 PM, Apprentice79 said:

Will and Gabi were the same age and Will's last stated birth year was 1992 (only a 3 year SORAS).  Abby was SORASd to make her about the same as Stephanie and Chelsea for the 2005-07 college set. But then she was De-SORASd when she returned in 2011 (she left town a 19yo and returned 4 years later still 19). 

Abby and Will have to be the least SORASed characters, especially because her character "paused" until she became a contemporary for Chad/Will/Gabi's group. Will stayed close to his real age because of how young Ali was, I think. 1992 still seems to be Will's revised birth year, while 1989 seems to be for Abby, but I'm not if that's still canon because she seems to be getting treated like she's Will, Chad, and Gabby's age. Again, that's also only a 3-year gap, because her actual birth is 1992. They might be going with her real age now, which is rarity for this show when it comes to character that were born on this show and actually grew up on it.

Is there anything more extreme than EJ? I think most of the characters who get SORASed tend to be aged up between 5 to 10 years. It was still interesting to learn that Hope should have been born in 1975. (I'm guessing Kristen Alfonso wants to pretend that Hope was given that this show refuses to acknowledge her having a 19-year old granddaughter.)

Edited April 25, 2018 by methodwriter85

[WendyCR72]

6 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Is there anything more extreme than EJ?

EJ's aging was the worst. But Brady isn't far behind: By rights, he should actually (if keeping things uniform) be in Abby's age range since Brady and Abby were born the same year, which was originally 1992. And Eric Martsolf is a long way from 26! Just saying...

[Silver Raven]

3 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

EJ's aging was the worst. But Brady isn't far behind: By rights, he should actually (if keeping things uniform) be in Abby's age range since Brady and Abby were born the same year, which was originally 1992. And Eric Martsolf is a long way from 26! Just saying...

Eric Martsolf is also older than Brady, by several years.

[WendyCR72]

21 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Eric Martsolf is also older than Brady, by several years.

Hence my saying Brady's aging is almost as bad as EJ's.  ;-)

[RachelKM]

On 4/18/2018 at 12:11 PM, JBC344 said:

The Brady/Melanie relationship has never made any sense to me.  95% of her time in Salem she was a surrogate little sister to Brady and they always had a sweet sibling bond and looked out for each other.  There was never a hint of romance.  Pairing them together made no sense, especially since nothing came out of it. 

Though I too always preferred their friendship, there was actually some hinting of romantic interest between Melanie and Brady back in 2011.  Just prior to Melanie and Dario getting together, Brady kissed Melanie.  It was also sort of implied that party of Brady's motivation for sending Dario to Argentina to run a division of Titan to get him away from Melanie.  But after that, the show went with Melanie & Chad and Brady & Madison.  So there was some history.  But pairing them in 2014/2015 was too sudden and stupid, in my opinion, since Melanie wasn't staying and almost no one, even Brady and Melanie fans, was clamoring for a romantic pairing. 

Edited May 29, 2018 by RachelKM

[methodwriter85]

People have commented that it seems like Ben is getting de-SORASED to fit in more with Ciara's group, but according to the Wiki page he's still about 29/30. Hmm. Tripp is supposed to be 22, and Ciara/Claire are listed as 20/21.

I do think the fact that he's walking around in jeans and a shirt pretty much 90 percent of of the time makes him seem younger.  And RSW's playing Ben more childlike because Ben is essentially starting over from scratch.

Edited November 14, 2018 by methodwriter85