Like Sand Through an Hourglass: Behind the Scenes of DOOL

[Pearson80]

1 hour ago, DisneyBoy said:

So telling. They punished him as swiftly as Chandler was axed, even though it was decades apart. Clearly, you cannot question the logic of the soap gods.

I assume Victor was being manipulated by Sami at the time...?

Check out this channel's other interviews with him too, there are a couple.

I hated JER but John Aniston initiated the bad blood that JER had for him because he yelled and cursed at JER in front of everybody during the daytime Emmy awards complaining abut how Victor was being made to look like a fool to make Sami look good. Drake recounted this story in a funny way about everybody being shocked by John's candor.  John Aniston was right but  everybody at that time was dumb downed by JER to make his villains Kristen, Peter, Vivian Sami e.tc. powerful but I digress. JER immediately called for rewrites regarding Victor and he had a stroke. 

JER never forgot this slight so every time he came back to write for the show everybody knew that Victor and Jack were going to be thrown under the bus by his poison vindictive pen. 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Pearson80

[DisneyBoy]

Woah...! Juicy.

 

Amazing John has stuck with the show so long, given that.

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, Pearson80 said:

I hated JER but John Aniston initiated the bad blood that JER had for him because he yelled and cursed at JER in front of everybody during the daytime Emmy awards complaining abut how Victor was being made to look like a fool to make Sami look good. Drake recounted this story in a funny way about everybody being shocked by John's candor.  John Aniston was right but  everybody at that time was dumb downed by JER to make his villains Kristen, Peter, Vivian Sami e.tc. powerful but I digress. JER immediately called for rewrites regarding Victor and he had a stroke. 

JER never forgot this slight so every time he came back to write for the show everybody knew that Victor and Jack were going to be thrown under the bus by his poison vindictive pen. 

Maybe it wasn't the best move diplomatically, but I say GO, JOHN ANISTON!

In every interview with Reilly, he struck me as sort of insane and very entrenched in his ideas, etc. For Aniston to confront him took a lot of balls, even knowing the risk to his character.

And IMO, it was Reilly that ruined this show by turning into a glorified cartoon in the long run.

[CanaryFan98]

2 hours ago, DisneyBoy said:

Woah...! Juicy.

 

Amazing John has stuck with the show so long, given that.

I'm sure they would've gotten rid of him if not for his daughter who was on one of the biggest shows if not the biggest show of the network at the time.

[Pearson80]

24 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

Maybe it wasn't the best move diplomatically, but I say GO, JOHN ANISTON!

In every interview with Reilly, he struck me as sort of insane and very entrenched in his ideas, etc. For Aniston to confront him took a lot of balls, even knowing the risk to his character.

And IMO, it was Reilly that ruined this show by turning into a glorified cartoon in the long run.

I agree with you about Reilly, he was a hack of the worst kind.  Reilly was insane in my opinion. He had a policy of never speaking to the actors directly  about their characters. He instead had dolls made of the characters and would act out the scenes with them. I kid you not..  Reilly damaged the show and it has never recovered in my opinion.. He left a stain on Jack/Jennifer and Bo/Hope that has never left them.. My love for them is nostalgic to be honest and what they once were before Reilly did his best to destroy them.  

Edited April 6, 2021 by Pearson80

[WendyCR72]

13 minutes ago, Pearson80 said:

He had a policy of never speaking to the actors directly  about their characters. He instead had dolls made of the characters and would act out the scenes with them. I kid you not.. 

Yeah, that's why I said "insane". I read that, too! (And also read, if I recall, if he did speak with an actor, he'd ALWAYS use their character name.) Hate to speak ill of the dead, but it's quite clear the man had more issues than People magazine.

(And it was during one of his interviews where he was adamantly defending just why Bo could NEVER reunite with Hope, since he took vows with Billie in front of God. As if Bo did not do that with his first marriage.) He only did reunite them [think he was still writing when they did] because NBC stepped in, I think...

[Jaded]

13 minutes ago, Pearson80 said:

I agree with you about Reilly, he was a hack of the worst kind.  Reilly was insane in my opinion. He had a policy of never speaking to the actors directly  about their characters. He instead had dolls made of the characters and would act out the scenes with them. I kid you not..  Reilly damaged the show and it has never recovered in my opinion.. He left a stain on Jack/Jennifer and Bo/Hope that has never left them.. My love for them is nostalgic to be honest and what they once were before Reilly did his best to destroy them.  

The disgusting and abhorrent things that happened on Passions continuously cemented the fact that JER was a deeply disturbed individual. I'd say at least he's not around to ruin anymore shows except RC has some of JER's worst fetishes. 

[CanaryFan98]

22 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

Yeah, that's why I said "insane". I read that, too! (And also read, if I recall, if he did speak with an actor, he'd ALWAYS use their character name.) Hate to speak ill of the dead, but it's quite clear the man had more issues than People magazine.

(And it was during one of his interviews where he was adamantly defending just why Bo could NEVER reunite with Hope, since he took vows with Billie in front of God. As if Bo did not do that with his first marriage.) He only did reunite them [think he was still writing when they did] because NBC stepped in, I think...

I guess he ignored Bo/Carly's Mayan Wedding(granted it wasn't legal) in between... 

[WendyCR72]

18 minutes ago, CanaryFan98 said:

I guess he ignored Bo/Carly's Mayan Wedding(granted it wasn't legal) in between... 

That was a gorgeous [non-legal] wedding. Ah, back when soaps had big budgets and could do real location shoots! Chichen Itza was also where Isabella told John that she was pregnant with Brady, too. And I loved Bo telling Roman and John that he had TWO brothers and wanted them both to stand up for him. (Guess he forgot about poor Frankie and Max, though! LOL!)

[TenaciousWarrior]

1 hour ago, Pearson80 said:

I agree with you about Reilly, he was a hack of the worst kind.  Reilly was insane in my opinion. He had a policy of never speaking to the actors directly  about their characters. He instead had dolls made of the characters and would act out the scenes with them. I kid you not..  Reilly damaged the show and it has never recovered in my opinion.. He left a stain on Jack/Jennifer and Bo/Hope that has never left them.. My love for them is nostalgic to be honest and what they once were before Reilly did his best to destroy them.  

While Reilly was crappy with J/J and B/H, he is the one who got John and Marlena onto super couple status. And they are my favorites. 

[Pearson80]

14 minutes ago, TenaciousWarrior said:

While Reilly was crappy with J/J and B/H, he is the one who got John and Marlena onto super couple status. And they are my favorites. 

That honor goes to Sherry Anderson who created the original supercouple Roman/Marlena that became Rojohn/Marlena and then John/Marlena.  She wrote for all three couples.  She wrote the affair as well that led to Evil Sami and Belle's conception. The possession storyline was all him..

Edited April 7, 2021 by Pearson80

[TenaciousWarrior]

41 minutes ago, Pearson80 said:

That honor goes to Sherry Anderson who created the original supercouple Roman/Marlena that became Rojohn/Marlena and then John/Marlena.  She wrote for all three couples.  She wrote the affair as well that led to Evil Sami and Belle's conception. The possession storyline was all him..

Sheri Anderson was co-head writer with Reilly during the Affair storyline. Reilly was the one who wanted John/Marlena to go all the way....Sheri wanted Marlena to pull back on the plane. Sheri was gone by the time Reilly made Marlena pregnant and did evil Sami. Reilly was the one who had John/Marlena’s psychic bond with Belle’s birth, Aremid, the Posession, evil Kristen, the Birdcage, the Letter, Kristen/Susan, and John/Marlena’s 97 reunion. Then he left to write Passions. While Bo/Hope was getting screwed over with Bo choosing Billie over Hope, John and Marlena were getting Supercouple writing with John admitting that he was only with Kristen because he thought Marlena didn’t want him anymore. Both Sheri and Reilly were great writers for Jarlena. Now if you want to talk about Reilly’s second stint....he was crap. Lol

Edited April 7, 2021 by TenaciousWarrior

[CanaryFan98]

4 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

That was a gorgeous [non-legal] wedding. Ah, back when soaps had big budgets and could do real location shoots! Chichen Itza was also where Isabella told John that she was pregnant with Brady, too. And I loved Bo telling Roman and John that he had TWO brothers and wanted them both to stand up for him. (Guess he forgot about poor Frankie and Max, though! LOL!)

It was I can only imagine how that would be done in today's budget. Probably get married in the middle of HTS or something. I wasn't even a fan of theirs but the location shots were beautiful and I wished I could go to Mexico to see that for myself...  that was the payoff for Bo/Carly fans back then who had to wait a year and a half for their couple to get together where a couple got to go on location topped off with a wedding/honeymoon. I was more interested in John/Isabella back then though.

Edited April 7, 2021 by CanaryFan98

[DisneyBoy]

Enjoying all this Reilly tea....

 

[WendyCR72]

29 minutes ago, CanaryFan98 said:

I was more interested in John/Isabella back then though.

Same here. I LOVED them. (Still do.) But I did also really like Bo/Carly (Version #1, anyway; Version #2 was just a complete wreck!).

[Pearson80]

22 hours ago, TenaciousWarrior said:

Sheri Anderson was co-head writer with Reilly during the Affair storyline. Reilly was the one who wanted John/Marlena to go all the way....Sheri wanted Marlena to pull back on the plane. Sheri was gone by the time Reilly made Marlena pregnant and did evil Sami. Reilly was the one who had John/Marlena’s psychic bond with Belle’s birth, Aremid, the Posession, evil Kristen, the Birdcage, the Letter, Kristen/Susan, and John/Marlena’s 97 reunion. Then he left to write Passions. While Bo/Hope was getting screwed over with Bo choosing Billie over Hope, John and Marlena were getting Supercouple writing with John admitting that he was only with Kristen because he thought Marlena didn’t want him anymore. Both Sheri and Reilly were great writers for Jarlena. Now if you want to talk about Reilly’s second stint....he was crap. Lol

That is right so it makes sense why Roman was removed from the dynamic and it became John/Marlena with Kristen being put in his place.  The show had so much history to mine with Roman/Marlena and JER just put Roman to the side like he was nothing.  I adored Roman whether he was played by Wayne or Drake.  Sherri did want the affair though, she had said that even if Isabella had not died, John and Marlena were going to have their affair but she wanted it to build a little more whereas JER just wanted them to jump in the sac.  Sherry likes to germinate her plots with emotional beats and let them grow.   

Sherri and JER did clash and it was why she left. I thought that as a duo they were damn awesome together she tempered his tendencies to overdo it.  The pit storyline was just classic Sherry Anderson from the beginning to the end., just wonderful storytelling with Marlena driving it all.  Stella Lombard was a fascinating villainess who lost her mind due to losing a child and how that pain fractured her whole family.. That kind of grief never leaves a parent and it is why Marlena became the vehicle for Stella to take out her anger and pain.  

Edited April 7, 2021 by Pearson80

[CanaryFan98]

18 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Same here. I LOVED them. (Still do.) But I did also really like Bo/Carly (Version #1, anyway; Version #2 was just a complete wreck!).

I do think Bo/Carly first time around worked because Hope wasn't around and it was an interesting storyline. Then FF years later with Hope around and it wasn't the same anymore despite the same actors. Writing does matter in these stories.

Although I have to admit I was surprised CC ever returned to Days considering she didn't leave on the best of terms but RKK wasn't Bo anymore so that helped.

Edited April 8, 2021 by CanaryFan98

[CanaryFan98]

 

I strangely remember him best on Full House as Jesse/Joey's boss when they worked for that ad agency writing jingles.

 

[DisneyBoy]

Why is there an exclamation point in that announcement?

We happy about this, SON..?

🤦‍♂️

[KnotsLanding]

I have a question about the renewal. To my knowledge the show hasn't been renewed. I saw Ryan Qwan had posted they're keeping their fingers crossed. With them filming ahead I believe they're almost to the end of their order which I believe runs through August with the new season starting in September. I guess if they keep filming that means it'll be renewed, but it definitely worries me that we're so close and don't have a renewal announcement yet. If the show does end up going off the air they deserve a chance to properly wrap things up.

[CanaryFan98]

Apparently they're filming August now and the last day of production is on Friday. If they get cancelled. They would be able to film most likely a couple more weeks to wrap up the show.

 

I think they'll be renewed only because I can't think of a better replacement for the show at the moment.

 

Then again the fact they're waiting till the 11th hour isn't a good sign either.

[DanaMB]

On 4/7/2021 at 12:47 AM, DisneyBoy said:

Enjoying all this Reilly tea....

 

Me too. I always referred to him as JERk for what he did to the show, but I didn’t realize how batshit crazy he was. 

[KnotsLanding]

7 hours ago, CanaryFan98 said:

Apparently they're filming August now and the last day of production is on Friday. If they get cancelled. They would be able to film most likely a couple more weeks to wrap up the show.

 

I think they'll be renewed only because I can't think of a better replacement for the show at the moment.

 

Then again the fact they're waiting till the 11th hour isn't a good sign either.

Thank you. It’s frustrating the way they do soaps. I wish they’d tell them in advance so you can plan out the end properly. I wonder if they’ll try to move it to Peacock and if that’s why they’re so quiet on it. It would be similar to how they used Passions to launch DirecTV. 

[DisneyBoy]

How well did that go?

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, DisneyBoy said:

How well did that go?

According to Wikipedia, it ran from Sep. 2007-March 2008.  It was the highest rated show on Direct TV's original TV show but it didn't get the number of subscribers DirectTV wanted. 

One thing that changed that we might see if DOOL moves is a lower number of episodes per week.

[buffynut]

As much as I complain about the show, I'm not ready for it to be cancelled yet.  Especially not if the final shows are taped during Covid restrictions, with limits on the number of people allowed on set at a time, and where older actors such as JA and SR might not even want to risk coming in to film. Not to mention no time to convince MR and KA to come back.  So hopefully we get another renewal, and hear about it soon.

[DisneyBoy]

Is that why we haven't seen Maggie in a bit?

[buffynut]

5 hours ago, DisneyBoy said:

Is that why we haven't seen Maggie in a bit?

I don't think there's been anything official posted, but over at DR there's been talk of her having been ill or having health issues.  Also no word on JA, but they speculated that he was supposed to be in the scenes yesterday with Ciara, and that his absence was unexpected or sudden.

[DisneyBoy]

☹

[boes]

9 hours ago, DisneyBoy said:

Is that why we haven't seen Maggie in a bit?

 

4 hours ago, buffynut said:

I don't think there's been anything official posted, but over at DR there's been talk of her having been ill or having health issues.  Also no word on JA, but they speculated that he was supposed to be in the scenes yesterday with Ciara, and that his absence was unexpected or sudden.

Well, she's 77 and has diverticulitis and myesthenia gravis, which can just sap the energy right out of you and even make it almost impossible to walk or even lift things at times.  And, she's got her mother who was living with her who has dementia.  She has a lot on her plate.

Edited April 15, 2021 by boes

[Pearson80]

22 hours ago, buffynut said:

As much as I complain about the show, I'm not ready for it to be cancelled yet.  Especially not if the final shows are taped during Covid restrictions, with limits on the number of people allowed on set at a time, and where older actors such as JA and SR might not even want to risk coming in to film. Not to mention no time to convince MR and KA to come back.  So hopefully we get another renewal, and hear about it soon.

I don't want the show to be cancelled, I do want Ron to be cancelled as the headwriter though. 

[buffynut]

1 hour ago, Pearson80 said:

I don't want the show to be cancelled, I do want Ron to be cancelled as the headwriter though. 

But who (not Dena) would be better?   And some of the issues are beyond his control, like Covid.  not to mention budgetary and casting issues, as well as interference from TPTB.   

I'm not really a fan of Ron's storylines, but the guy (can't be bothered to look up his name) who made Joey a murderer and Chase a rapist, wasn't great either.  And I hated most of what Dena wrote before her most recent firing. 

Too bad Shari Anderson isn't interested, though even she probably wouldn't be able to recreate the magic of the 80's.  

[CanaryFan98]

Josh Griffith(although I thought that was Dena) oddly enough I liked how Josh wrote Chabby back then that its hard to believe I once liked this couple.

[Irlandesa]

34 minutes ago, buffynut said:

Too bad Shari Anderson isn't interested, though even she probably wouldn't be able to recreate the magic of the 80's.

No.  The money isn't there for the magic of the 80's, especially since a lot of that magic was related to responsiveness to the audience, comprehensive sets (as opposed to the bare boned theatrical sets we have today) and location shoots.

What Shari would bring is character-based storytelling and a knowledge of history. 

[Pearson80]

38 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

No.  The money isn't there for the magic of the 80's, especially since a lot of that magic was related to responsiveness to the audience, comprehensive sets (as opposed to the bare boned theatrical sets we have today) and location shoots.

What Shari would bring is character-based storytelling and a knowledge of history. 

Not to mention all of the supercouples and popular secondary couples have Sherry's fingerprints all over them..  She wrote Isabella's beautiful peaceful death so that is the type of magic she is capable of writing..

Edited April 15, 2021 by Pearson80

[TenaciousWarrior]

I’m all for Sheri Anderson taking the HW job away from Ron. I’m tired of him.

[CanaryFan98]

 

[WendyCR72]

I hope an ending was taped as a contingency. With Ron, one can never tell. It's rather curious that no decision has been made yet.

[CanaryFan98]

The fact that none of the cast are seeming hopeful or hoping for renewal publically(unless I missed something) is making me wonder tbh.

I would be surprised if got cancelled only because I don't know what they are going to replace Days with not because NBC believes in the show. If that were true they wouldn't let it look like a HS play with those production values.

[Katy M]

 

25 minutes ago, CanaryFan98 said:

The fact that none of the cast are seeming hopeful or hoping for renewal publically(unless I missed something) is making me wonder tbh.

I would be surprised if got cancelled only because I don't know what they are going to replace Days with not because NBC believes in the show. If that were true they wouldn't let it look like a HS play with those production values.

they'll either replace it with a talk show or give up the time slot to syndication.

[WendyCR72]

38 minutes ago, CanaryFan98 said:

The fact that none of the cast are seeming hopeful or hoping for renewal publically(unless I missed something) is making me wonder tbh.

I would be surprised if got cancelled only because I don't know what they are going to replace Days with not because NBC believes in the show. If that were true they wouldn't let it look like a HS play with those production values.

Like Katy said, either a cheap talk show or ceding that hour back to local affiliates would be my guess.

[DisneyBoy]

Lord, I hope this isn't the end. Things are not in good shape. I shudder to think where storylines would end up given the current flow....

 

Obviously, too much Ben Ciara crap would be pushed to the forefront...plus Sarah and Xander having a quicky reunion. Lucas getting passed over in favor of EJ, most likely, since Sami can't quit him. No time for Chloe and Philip to have an actual romance. Possibly Eric and Hope still AWOL...maybe Jennifer too.

Here's hoping there's a renewal.

 

 

[peachmangosteen]

I personally can't see them not giving TPTB a heads-up if they were actually cancelling it so there could be a somewhat proper ending. I don't really know why I think that though lol. I mean, it's not like NBC really gives a shit about this show. But still, it's been on for so long, it would just feel like such a slap in the face to the audience to just cancel it with no lead-up.

[CanaryFan98]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I personally can't see them not giving TPTB a heads-up if they were actually cancelling it so there could be a somewhat proper ending. I don't really know why I think that though lol. I mean, it's not like NBC really gives a shit about this show. But still, it's been on for so long, it would just feel like such a slap in the face to the audience to just cancel it with no lead-up.

If it were to get cancelled they would be given a couple weeks to wrap up storylines I think that's what happened with GL. They were cancelled in April but wrapped up the show afterwards which aired in September.

[Irlandesa]

14 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Like Katy said, either a cheap talk show or ceding that hour back to local affiliates would be my guess

Isn't that something networks try to avoid?  I can't remember where I read that but I think they like to have "ownership" of those time slots. 

I think that's where "the "they don't have anything to replace it with" comes in.  Not that they won't--just that I would think they might try something else in the slot.  But that could just be another hour of The Today Show for all we know.

39 minutes ago, CanaryFan98 said:

If it were to get cancelled they would be given a couple weeks to wrap up storylines I think that's what happened with GL. They were cancelled in April but wrapped up the show afterwards which aired in September.

GL was cancelled in April but GL wasn't filming six or seven months ahead. They just continued filming and they started writing the stories for a wrap up.

That said, the current production schedule, according to Jason at Daytime Royalty, has them having filmed up to Aug. 27.  The show's season ends/new season begins in mid September.  This current season started on Sep. 21.  That leaves about three weeks of show yet to be produced.  Those will be the wrap up weeks or setting things in motion to continue to another season.

2 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I personally can't see them not giving TPTB a heads-up if they were actually cancelling it so there could be a somewhat proper ending.

IMO, they're deciding if the show is going to continue on NBC or Peacock. 

[howmanywords]

As much as I bitch and complain, the idea of it ending is seriously depressing. This past week marked exactly 10 years ABC announced AMC and OLTL were getting canceled. I've been getting that uneasy feeling for a few days now.

[WendyCR72]

I think it is highly likely this may be ending on NBC but will be booted to Peacock. Seems like a fair compromise.

[DisneyBoy]

Staying on the televised network broadcast is the only real way for this show to reach its aging audience. I mean, how many 60+ year olds do you know who pay for streaming services?

[Pearson80]

6 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

I think it is highly likely this may be ending on NBC but will be booted to Peacock. Seems like a fair compromise.

I hope you are wrong.  Are we going to be subjected to another talk show if they cancel it?

[WendyCR72]

Just now, Pearson80 said:

I hope you are wrong.  Are we going to be subjected to another talk show if they cancel it?

That's probably the plan. And like or hate them, talk shows are A LOT cheaper to produce. No actors to pay, etc. One set versus several, etc.