Tue, 18 November 2008
Mouths around the soap world collectively dropped this weekend as the
unthinkable happened. The recently-renewed Days of Our Lives, fired its biggest
supercouple Deidre Hall (Dr. Marlena Evans) and Drake Hogestyn (John Black). In
this special episode of the DC podcast Luke, Mike and Jamey invite veteran soap
journalist Nelson Branco (TV Guide Canada's The Suds Report) and former Days
writer Tom Casiello to weigh in from the perspective of industry
insiders.
Reactions to the shocking news are gauged from the panel, including: Branco, who reveals Days of Our Lives was the first soap he ever watched and how he first fell in love with the ravishing Hall even before discovering Andrea Evans and One Life to Live; and Casiello, who during his last few months on the soap before the Writers' Strike, was part of a team under Hogan Sheffer that was forced to script out the soap's "Big Four" (Hall, Hogestyn, Kristian Alfonso and Peter Reckell) due to their reported astronomical salaries and ultimately made the decision to kill of the wildly-popular character of John Black— since they were prohibited from using Hogestyn— only to see executive producer Ken Corday panic about fan response and order them to bring the character and actor back. The DC gang also give their perspective based on their varying histories with the show. Jamey, who has been watching the show for the better part of three decades, reveals his dismay that lower level stars like Molly Burnett, Shelly Hennig, Josh Taylor, Thaao Penghlis, Leanne Hunley and Shawn Christian weren't cut first before the show even considered touching the Big Four; Mike, who watched in the early 80's and only recently tuned back in, conveys he still can't believe the show hired Josh Taylor, who once played Roman and Marlena's pal Chris Kositchek as a recast for Wayne Northrop's Roman, with Branco adding that move was a "Jump The Shark" moment for him as well before noting that Taylor is good friends with Corday; Luke, who has watched Days sine the 90's, speculates the brass could be moving to strategically weed out most of the show's veteran performers to repackage Days for an eventual sale to ABC or SOAPnet. The discussion then moves to what this means for the future of Days of Our Lives and the genre as a whole. If an international superstar like Hall isn't safe, who could be next? Reckell? Alfonso? Sweeney? Taking it a step further, will other soaps start to think their top stars are expendable? Could we see a day when the headline is "Susan Lucci Out", or "Eric Braeden Axed"? This is an episode of Daytime Confidential you don't want to miss. |
Mon, 17 November 2008
On today's ABC episode of Daytime Confidential Luke, Tina, Belinda and Regan discuss the latest in ABC soap news including...
All My Children's 10,000th episode. Where has Carmen disappeared to? Adam and Erica Susan Haskell and Trevor St. John's performances on One Life to Live. Should Marty get all of her memory back at once or only a little bit over time? Who would you put Marty with now? Once her memory is entirely back could she be with Todd or someone else? Shouldn't an autopsy prove that its obvious that Bess's baby isn't her own? Regan shares some of the latest General Hospital spoilers and we discuss the burning of Kelly's. Nikolas, Nadine and Raylene. Scrubs in the mob or Robin as the next mob doctor? Jax and Kate sleep together. |