Got Questions?: We've Got Answers!

[Rick Kitchen]

There was a question about Michael Easton's time on Days in the current episodes thread, so I thought I'd post some of the answer here.

 

Michael Easton played Tanner Scofield.  His father Vern and brother Brian lived in town with him.  He got involved with a girl, Molly, who had come to Salem looking to find out who her mother was.  Her mother was Ginger, a dancer and a waitress at the Cheatin' Heart.  Tanner found out the connection, but Ginger begged him not to tell Molly who she was, because Molly's father's family were gangsters who were out to eliminate Molly for something that I don't understand.

 

Anyway, here's a clip with Tanner, Molly, Brian and Ginger.

 

[SanDiegoInExile]

.....The Brady family hated Victor just as much as Stefano....The history between Victor/Kim parallels that of Stefano/Marlena....

 

Much of the history has been conveniently forgotten, but Victor has been on the rehab train since the breathless 1986 (?) Caroline revelation that Victor was Bo's father, just as Bo planned to shoot Victor dead once and for all in the lobby of Blondies.  Stefano is a bit more dastardly, kidnapping and hiding away a half-dozen Brady family members, faking deaths, implanting memory chips, and of course, rising from the dead more than once.  Victor only rose from the dead once (after Nicole and Jan Spears sizzled him in the Kiriakis Bathtub).

 

And clearly Caroline Brady still has the hots for Victor, even as they near the century mark age-wise.  I can't imagine Caroline playing cards, sipping coffee, and sharing a castle suite with Stefano for 6 months, like she did with Victor, post Melaswen. (Hmm, though Hope did a few months stint locked away with Steffie in Princess Gina's tower.)

 

There are some parallels, but Kimberly Brady is no Marlena Evans.

[SanDiegoInExile]

Michael Easton played Tanner Scofield.  His father Vern and brother Brian lived in town with him.

 

And Vern Scofield married Jo Johnson, making him Jack Deveraux's stepfather, and Abigail/JJ's step-grandfather.  Tanner would be the stepbrother to Jack/Steve/Adrienne.

 

I vaguely recall JJ mentioning "Grandma Jo" when he first came to Salem, but I guess he's been too busy bonding with his mother over his sexlife to spend more time with her.

[TigerLynx]

Bo was investigating EJ, and had put a video camera in EJ's apartment.  Sami overheard EJ on the phone talking about Stefano, and that is when Sami and Lucas realized EJ was involved with Stefano somehow.  Marlena and John were tracking down some information on EJ which lead them to one of Stefano's lairs and a picture of Stefano and EJ.  They all ended up converging at the Salem PD where Marlena and John told everyone EJ Wells was Elvis Dimera.

[annabel]

Fun trivia fact, the guy who played Tanner's (ugh, who thought up that name) brother is/was in the Keanu Reeves band Dogstar. If that is even still in fact a thing.

[bannana]

There was a question about Michael Easton's time on Days in the current episodes thread, so I thought I'd post some of the answer here.

 

Michael Easton played Tanner Scofield.  His father Vern and brother Brian lived in town with him.  He got involved with a girl, Molly, who had come to Salem looking to find out who her mother was.  Her mother was Ginger, a dancer and a waitress at the Cheatin' Heart.  Tanner found out the connection, but Ginger begged him not to tell Molly who she was, because Molly's father's family were gangsters who were out to eliminate Molly for something that I don't understand.

 

Anyway, here's a clip with Tanner, Molly, Brian and Ginger.

 

That was hilarious, and I thought the actress playing Ginger looked like Casey on YandR and she sure was. Fun!

[jsm1125]

This is a minor point, but why was essentially the whole town pissed at Chad for exposing Rafe's shady cover-ups while he was on the force? Is it because Chad is a Dimera?

[Apprentice79]

Yes, that  is correct..Chad is not on the same level of evil as Stefano and his many dead siblings. However, we have had members of the Dimera family who were once prominent members of Salem society who turned to the dark side at some point in their lives. We had Kristen, Peter, Tony(turned out it was Andre who had been living as Tony for years, because the real Tony was kept on an island by Stefano) and even Lexie all turned evil to get what they want..The only real good Dimera was Benji, but, he was killed off the show way too soon to turn Evil...Lexie was able to redeem herself, unlike Kristen and Peter who got worst as time went on...

Edited May 30, 2015 by Apprentice79

[oceanblue]

I prefer Victor as a villain - Stephano is more of a cartoon, mustache-twirling villain, Victor seems more real, therefore more interesting.

[Black Knight]

Fun trivia fact, the guy who played Tanner's (ugh, who thought up that name) brother is/was in the Keanu Reeves band Dogstar. If that is even still in fact a thing.

Robert Mailhouse. He's in the Keanu Reeves movie Speed too - he's one of the people trapped in the elevator in the beginning.

 

My tween self just loved the hell out of Tanner, Tanner/Molly, and the Brian/Ginger pairing.

[bybrandy]

The only real good Dimera was Benji, but, he was killed off the show way too soon to turn Evil...Lexie was able to redeem herself, unlike Kristen and Peter who got worst as time went on...

There was so much potential story for poor dead Benjy, too.   Good brother vs evil brother.  The once scene I remember Benjy and EJ shared was really a lot of fun.  But instead of exploring that or Benjy's deafness or Benjy's relationship with any member of his bio or foster family they killed him... and did we even get a reaction from Kayla at all?   Or even a real reaction from Stefano who I know was never close with Benjy but still....

 

Benjy does have a son who could suddenly become Chad's age and come to Salem to raise a little trouble, but seriously I don't see anybody investing in that character now.   

 

But really Benjy had a lot of potential.  Sigh.

[JBC344]

There was so much potential story for poor dead Benjy, too.   Good brother vs evil brother.  The once scene I remember Benjy and EJ shared was really a lot of fun.  But instead of exploring that or Benjy's deafness or Benjy's relationship with any member of his bio or foster family they killed him... and did we even get a reaction from Kayla at all?   Or even a real reaction from Stefano who I know was never close with Benjy but still....

 

Benjy does have a son who could suddenly become Chad's age and come to Salem to raise a little trouble, but seriously I don't see anybody investing in that character now.   

 

But really Benjy had a lot of potential.  Sigh.

We did get this scene, at least.  Really well done.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JMEHNrJf9w

 

One of my favorite Dimera family scenes.  This is when they all weren't particularly getting along, but I love seeing Benjy into the fold, and I love that Tony brings up that he isn't Stefano's biological son.  I couldn't remember if they had retconned that after the late 80's early 90's, but glad to see they left it as cannon.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayhMh6rJaA

Edited June 1, 2015 by JBC344

[Apprentice79]

I loved the scene where Steve reunited with Benji at the hospital and he signed to Steve that "everything I learned about love and commitment i learned from you two"  referring to Steve and Kayla, that was awesome..The same actor who played him as a child, played him as an adult...What a waste to kill him off, so much potential..They could  have paired him off with Stefanie....It would have been good to see a character living with a disability that cannot be cured by soap  opera magic...It could have been fascinating to see if Benji would have eventually  fallen to the dark like all of his siblings did in the past...Killing off legacy children is so dumb and unimaginative..Benji was such an important part of the Steve and Kayla love story....He needed to be on canvas to contrast the evil Dimeras....

Edited June 1, 2015 by Apprentice79

[JBC344]

I love that scene.  It was right before he was killed.  They really did waste Benjy.  To bring him back after all these years with so much potential.

[bybrandy]

That was a nice scene with Steve and Stefano after Benjy's death.  I didn't remember it although I did remember the stuff that came after.  Odd.   

[nextian]

So, I've watched Days for 25 years, off and on, but mostly on. I did miss most of last year but I've figured out what I've missed except for one thing. The one episode I caught a few months ago Hope and Adian were at his cabin and hope found a video from his late wife that made it seem that Aidan had murdered her. It seemed as if Hope was afraid he did too, but now they seem very happy, so how was that storyline resolved? I've been watching regularly again the last three weeks and that's the only thing I haven't been able to figure out yet. Thanks!

[annabel]

Aidan's wife was off her rocker and very unhappy and trying to make it seem like she was afraid of Aidan and that he might kill her. The night she died (I think, someone correct me) she was threatening to shoot herself and somehow their son was the one that actually pulled the trigger. He has blocked it out entirely. This all came out over the course of a few days when Hope and Aidan were stuck in the cabin because the bridge was out. I was pretty worried for Hope for awhile there, because even though I didn't think he was going to hurt her, it just seemed that it would be better to be confronting all of this back in Salem where she would have had backup and not when she was stranded in a remote cabin with a man who seemed a little unhinged.

[nextian]

Great, thanks Annabel. I think I'm all caught up then!

[mariah23]

I was watching some old Patch/Kayla videos on YouTube. What is the meaning of the song "The Rose"? How did it become their song?

[oceanblue]

It was one of their songs - I remember it was played a lot around the time when Kayla married Steve's brother Jack.  Steve and Kayla then realized they still loved each other and were waiting until Jack was well before they told him.  Their love was the seed that with the sun's love in the spring would become the rose.  (the spring being either when she broke Jack's heart or he died of leukemia).  This was considered very romantic.  

[MrsMommy]

Where does the name jarjar come from and what does it mean?

[plurie]

Where does the name jarjar come from and what does it mean?

I'm pretty sure it's a reference to Jar Jar Binks, of the second (prequel) STAR WARS trilogy. A character universally hated by fans.

[MrsMommy]

Well then that's why I had no idea what it ment lol. Thanks for replying so quick

[buffynut]

I've seen it mentioned before that Melissa Reeves had to step in to help with the acting when Abilgail was confronted about EJ.  Can someone explain what she had to do?  And how do we (fans) know this?  Thanks.

[jsm1125]

I've seen it mentioned before that Melissa Reeves had to step in to help with the acting when Abilgail was confronted about EJ.  Can someone explain what she had to do?  And how do we (fans) know this?  Thanks.

Sami confronted Abigail about the affair in Jennifer's home in an episode that aired in July. Jennifer happened to be there and found out about the affair for the first time during that scene. IIRC, Abigail barely said or did anything but cry poorly and stare at nothing in that scene, while Jennifer tried to defend Abigail, kick Sami out of her house, and looked like she aged 5 years every couple of minutes during the scene. I especially liked the pained look on her face when she asked "You thought you were pregnant with EJ Dimera?"

[Black Knight]

Yes, exactly. Those should have been KM's big scenes, and instead it was MR who was given all the heavy lifting and went toe-to-toe with AS. Embarrassing for KM.

[buffynut]

Thanks for the explanation.  I only started watching again in August, so I missed all that.

[minirth]

From the epidsode thread:

The writers were even willing to throw Sami under the bus along with her 20 year history of not cheating, all in order to make Sami the bad guy when Rafe/Carrie were sneaking around behind Sami and Austin's backs.

How on earth did Carrie get through that unscathed? Wasn't she actually married to Austin at the time? I've only seen one clip from that time period -- Sami finds out Carrie is pregnant and Marlena is a horrible mother as always -- and Carrie's halo seemed untarnished. Thanks, guys!

[TigerLynx]

Carrie got a free pass every time she cheated on Austin.  When Carrie cheated with Mike, and left Salem with him, it was Sami's fault because Austin was helping Sami escape death row.

 

When Carrie cheated on Lucas with Austin, it was Sami's fault because she blackmailed Lexie into telling Carrie if Austin/Carrie had children they would be deformed.

 

When Carrie cheated on Austin with Rafe, it was Sami's fault because Sami had cheated with EJ, even though Carrie and Rafe had no idea Sami had cheated when they were sneaking around and cheating on Sami and Austin.

 

First off, Sami never would have cheated.  That was the one line Sami never crossed, and the writers shouldn't have taken away a character trait Sami had had for over 20 years.

 

Second, Sami was wrong for the things she did, and she got called on it.  Sami didn't get a free pass.  Sami lost Rafe, she lost Will and Lucas, she lost Austin.  When Sami screwed up, made a mistake, did something wrong she lost, and the things Sami did don't make Carrie's cheating Sami's fault.  Ken Corday and the writers still fail to understand this.  Sami's wrongs don't make Carrie, Marlena, Slappy's or anyone else's wrongs right.

Edited June 24, 2015 by TigerLynx

[JBC344]

Well, I wouldn't say that Carrie got a free pass, I would probably say that she wasn't judged as harshly as Sami was.  Quite honestly I'm tired of the Sami vs Carrie war.  It was a one-sided feud for twenty years that became a two-sided feud for 3 months.

[ASpring1900]

The Chloe hooker storyline-- there was a pimp who was blackmailing her, then he owned the spa in town... I remember the actor was really good looking. Then, I suppose with new writers, his character disappeared. Anyone remember his name or the actor who played him? Chloe's brief appearance this week has me remembering this story...

[LeftPhalange]

The Chloe hooker storyline-- there was a pimp who was blackmailing her, then he owned the spa in town... I remember the actor was really good looking. Then, I suppose with new writers, his character disappeared. Anyone remember his name or the actor who played him? Chloe's brief appearance this week has me remembering this story...

 

The character was Quinn Hudson played by Bren Foster.

[salvame]

Is there no source for "Deconstructing DOOL" anymore?  That was what I lived for all week, then they closed down Dustin's site and started messing with everything, finally moving everything over to Soaps.com, and now I can't find my weekly snark.

Edited August 5, 2015 by salvame

[Happytobehere]

Can someone please tell me where Stephanie, Joey and Kimberly are. Kayla needs someone other than Abby in her life.

[Rick Kitchen]

Kimberly shows up from time to time to be attacked by Theresa.  And Joey is being SORASed and will show up as a troubled teen sometime later this month.

[Happytobehere]

Thanks Rick Kitchen.

[DisneyBoy]

Aidan's wife was off her rocker and very unhappy and trying to make it seem like she was afraid of Aidan and that he might kill her. The night she died (I think, someone correct me) she was threatening to shoot herself and somehow their son was the one that actually pulled the trigger. He has blocked it out entirely. This all came out over the course of a few days when Hope and Aidan were stuck in the cabin because the bridge was out. I was pretty worried for Hope for awhile there, because even though I didn't think he was going to hurt her, it just seemed that it would be better to be confronting all of this back in Salem where she would have had backup and not when she was stranded in a remote cabin with a man who seemed a little unhinged.

 

Woah - thanks for this recap! I, too, missed the whole explanation. That's a messed-up backstory, though. Did we get to see any of it, or was it all Aidan telling Hope how it went down, without any flashbacks? And how/why did the son shoot her? And how wasn't it reported?

[bannana]

Woah - thanks for this recap! I, too, missed the whole explanation. That's a messed-up backstory, though. Did we get to see any of it, or was it all Aidan telling Hope how it went down, without any flashbacks? And how/why did the son shoot her? And how wasn't it reported?

Aiden told Hope the story.  I think the wife was drunk and the gun was sort of laying around and Chase found it and was playing with it.  She tried to take it away from him and it went off.  Aiden covered it up by making it look like a suicide.  I think he even hid Chase's bloody clothes behind a wall.  

 

Although, they could rewrite this to make Aiden the killer after all.

 

I have a question:  I think I heard Will say Ari has nieces and nephews older than her.  Who was he talking about?

[Apprentice79]

Ari does not have any nieces and nephews older than her. Ari is the only child of Wilson and Gabi...Perhaps he meant Johnny, Allie and Sydney who are Will's siblings and they are not that much older than Ari..Since they will  probably be sorased soon as the series goes on...They will be much older than her...

Edited August 8, 2015 by Apprentice79

[bannana]

Thanks Apprentice79, I was racking my brain trying figure out what nieces and nephew Ari would have. I think they did mean J/A/S, who would actually be her aunts and uncle.   Weird mistake for the writers/actors to make.

[Apprentice79]

You welcome! I think it was an error and since they do not get to do retakes anymore, they left it in..I think the show being 6 months in advance hurts the show..They need to cut down the number of episodes that they do in a week......It would help with the performances of the show....

Edited August 9, 2015 by Apprentice79

[JBC344]

What is worse is that even if Will said the phrase "aunts and uncles" it still wouldn't make sense.  Most aunts and uncles are older than their nieces and nephews so why would there need to be a special mention of that.

 

Unless the phrase was that Ari has aunts and uncles who are close to her in age.

[Wowzer]

Since Victor and Caroline had scenes, I've been thinking about Victor's relationship with Bo and his family. Did Bo know that Victor was his father when he named Shawn Douglas? Also, did Shawn D have a relationship with Victor growing up? I've been trying to think if Victor and Shawn D had any scenes together when Claire's paternity came out and I can't remember.  

[Apprentice79]

Bo was traumatized to learn that Victor was his biological father, especially when Victor was terrorizing the Brady family because of Kim...At one point Kim was believed to be Victor's daughter after she slept with him to save Shane's life...Bo was horrified to learn of his true paternity..It validated his feelings of self-loathing and feelings of worthlessness and why he always had a tough time connecting with Shawn Brady and his brother Roman...Shawn Brady always favored Roman and Kim over kayla and Bo..Bo and Kayla had a strong bond because of that..Bo was always the black sheep of the Brady family before Sami..He never accepted Victor and always rejected him...Shawn was always his father and he never wavered on that..He has never called Victor dad, father, daddy...It has always been Victor..

 

.He offered to become Victor's son in exchange for him to let Andrew  go back to Kim..Andrew was Kim and Shane's son and he was believed to be Victor's due to Shane's crazy ex Emma who made everybody believe that Andrew was Victor's by switching the blood test..Victor won sole custody of Andrew, after revealing Kim's past as a prostitute..Bo has mellowed over the years when it comes to Victor, it was due to Billie, when kate and Victor were married and living at the Kiriakis mansion...They have never had a real father/son relationship..Shawn was his dad and named his first son after him..If anything Bo and Shawn became even closer after Victor was revealed to be his biological father. They were able mend their fences before his death in 2008..Victor has always resented Shawn for Caroline and Bo.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Apprentice79

[JBC344]

Apprentice79, your right in that Bo's relationship with Billie was a really big catalyst for Victor and Bo to get closer.  Bo was actually apart of the Kiriakis family during that time.

 

One of my favorite Victor and Bo father/son scenes is when the real Princess Gina was impersonating Hope and died.  Bo was still under the assumption that she was Hope, so he went to Victor as his father and asked him to kill Stefano.  Victor happily obliged.  That scene had so much history in it, and at the same time could be reduced to a son asking his dad to borrow the car for the night.

[QuelleC]

I dunno I remember lots of times of Bo going over to see Victor.  He always called him Victor but seemed to give him some conflicted respect (he was a cop after all).  I swear I remember one instance of him bringing Shawn with him.  Grandpa Shawn had a great death scene on the plane.  It was pre-internet for me and I wasn't spoiled even after getting the hint that all the dead people weren't really dead.

 

None of the veterans are staying.  So they'd better step up the writing. 

Edited August 12, 2015 by QuelleC

[Apprentice79]

The Victor/Bo dynamic was never in the same league as Shawn/Bo in my opinion..If anything Bo used his biological tie with Victor when it suited him...Too often on soaps, we see a character reject their parent in favor of their biological parent..That is not the case in real life....Shawn was his dad period and not Victor. I remember when the Kiriakis and the Dimeras were having a mob war and I remember Victor lambasting Bo for never treating him like a father and Bo did nothing to reassure of his love; Bo just looked at him like he was crazy..lol I loved that scene because it encapsulated their relationship, it was never a relationship about love on Bo's part, but out of necessity. I know alot of people on here dislike Will, but it really bothered me how Victor went after him. Bo and Kim would have lost their mind, if they had witnessed that... I hate the fact that Ciara calls Victor granddad, it is so disrespectful to Shawn Brady. 

Edited August 12, 2015 by Apprentice79

[Happytobehere]

I remember a comment Kimberly made to Caroline after the paternity reveal when Caroline was telling Kim about how she was always afraid Shawn would realize the truth about Bo and leave her. Kimberly posited that both Shawn and Bo subconsciously sensed her anxiety and that she was inadvertently the cause of the tension between the two. There was no really follow-up on what Kim said, but I thought it was an interesting thing on a psychological level. I would have loved an honest conversation where Shawn and Bo really got to hash out the source of their disconnect when Bo was growing up.

But yes, the comments that Victor has basically represented someone Bo felt obligated to interact with in some marginal way are correct and was further demonstrated at Shawn's funeral when Bo spoke of Shawn being his real Pop and the only father he ever wanted.

As for why Kimmy was Shawn's "best and brightest" and Kayla was just there, I can't even begin to posit a theory for it other than Kimberly holding to role as first daughter. I can't recall off-hand how Caroline treated Kayla in relation to Kimberly since the focus was on how differently Shawn treated the kids.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Happytobehere

[Apprentice79]

I think Caroline loved her children equally, but I think she doted more on Bo because she knew he was Victor's and not accepted by Shawn..What I loved about the Brady family was the psychological component in their dynamic..You had Roman who was the oldest and the favorite son of Shawn..You had Kim who was called the best and brightest, who suffered for years from being sexually abused by her uncle Eric. You had Bo who was the black sheep of the family and the baby, plus, you had Kayla the dutiful daughter who never made any waves..What I loved about Kayla was that she never resented kim, if anything she admired and loved her big sister..I find it incongruous that she has no relationship with Theresa. She would have gone over to the Kiriakis mansion and dragged Theresa and Tate out of there yesterday!  I always felt that Caroline both loved and feared her husband Shawn..She felt oppressed by him, Victor allowed her to be free and passionate, which lead to their affair..Shawn Brady was at times a very hard man with high expectations from his children which lead to his contentious relationship  with Bo.  The Bo/Shawn/Roman dynamic was great to watch....I hope the new writers go back to the roots and explore the relationships between the characters...

Edited August 12, 2015 by Apprentice79

[Happytobehere]

Yes, I always wondered how the twins felt upon discovering they were named after a child molester (Eric) and a deranged attempted murderer (Samantha) who also happened to be their relatives. Not setting those kids up for trauma with those names, although in Roman's defense, the truth about Uncle Eric was not known until RomaJohn was in place.

As for the family dynamic, with Shawn dead and plastic face Roman (let's pretend that I'm not the guy who used to be Chris Kosichek) not being either original recipe Roman or RomaJohn, both of whom had great scenes with Bo and Shawn, we can't really get too many flashbacks. They can use scenes from the RomaJohn days, but not the original recipe days. Such is the problem of recasts.

I always found it interesting that as much as the siblings, Bo included (which is why I think so many people, idiot writers included keep forgetting that Kayla is o,dear than Bo) treated Kayla as if she was this naive innocent who was raised in a bubble, it was always Kayla who was the driving force to bring the family together. Like when Shawn dumped Caroline, when RomaJohn wanted to speak with Bo, etc. Kayla strangely seemed to serve as the middle-child peacemaker in the Brady Family.

I wonder how or even if the aging of Joey will be addressed. Will they age Stephanie accordingly, which creates problems with the rest of the younger cast, or will they pretend Steve wasn't gone as long as he was when presumed dead, which means any flashbacks from his return would have to be used very selectively so not as to draw attention to it.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Happytobehere