Has SORAS hurt Days' continuity?
I posed a question in another forum concerning the ages of characters of Search for Tomorrow and Steve Frame brought up an excellent point in another thread. He mentioned the de-SORASing of Mike Horton. If you take into account that Mike was an adult in the late 70s, he's surely into his mid-40s by now, however Roark Chritchlow (the last actor to portray Mike) was only in his late 30s (if I'm not mistaken).
My question is this (after a long winded introduction ), do you think the abnormal (even by soap standards) aging of so many characters has hurt Days? If you were to really think about it in the context of all her SORASed decendants, poor Alice Horton must be at least 110! David Banning (Julie's son) got SORASed about the same time as Mike (I think) and was an adult in the late 70s (making him about mid40s today). However, HIS son Scotty Banning (with Trish Clayton) was also SORASed in the early 90s to his early 20s. The calender holding true to form, that would give Julie a grandson who's in his early 30s today (and conceivably being able to make Julie a great-grandmother!).
Has such instances as this (along with the more recent SORASing of Belle, Brady, and Phillip) hurt Days, in your opinion?
TPTB always say that SORASING is needed to make stories more dramatic, but in DAYS' case, it's ridiculous. One day Belle is a 5 year-old at her mom's wedding, the next day she's 15? The same thing with Philip and Brady. I think it's a bit hard to take when you see a very young child actor on the show every day and then overnight they're a teenager. I think what Y&R did with Nicholas was better, having him sent to school and then years later, he shows up older. While it's still far-fetched, I think it's more accepted by the fans. If DAYS had done this with the current teens, it probably wouldn't have been as silly---especially when Sami's son Will and Jack and Jenn's daughter Abby are still age appropriate.
The one SORAS DAYS did that wasn't too bad was Shawn. He was born in 1986 I think, so he would be 15, turning 16 this year. Of course, Hope was SORASED too, so if the show stuck to her true age, she would be just giving birth to him LOL! It just goes to show you SORASING is confusing!!!
Seems as though a memory is hard to find, always on mind...And frustrated days pass without sight...The edge of night.
Re: Has SORAS hurt Days' continuity?
Of course, a lot of the most popular characters in Days history were SORASed.
1. Julie's son David Banning was born in 1967, but he'd run off and was falling in love with Valerie Grant in the late 70s (making him 10 or 11 at the time!)
2. Mike Horton was born in 1968, but he was a teen in a farm accident (which is how everyone found out that Mickey wasn't his father) in 1975 or 1976
3. Melissa Anderson was born in 1971 (make us the same age ), but she returned to Salem in 1982 as a teen-ager
4. Hope Williams was actually born in 1974 (gee, I'm really older than she is! ), but she was about to turn 18 in 1983/1984 (didn't Hope wind up older than Melissa at this point???? Of course, even more curious is that Carrie's stated birthday is now a few months before Hope's real birthday!)
5. Jennifer Horton was born in 1976, but she was a rebel teen in 1985
6. It was said that Nicholas Alamain was born in 1984, but how old was he supposed to be when Victor Webster played the part????? (odder still was that I was always under the impression that Carly and Jennifer were supposed to be the same age because they'd been friends at boarding school. Jennifer sure didn't looked old enough to be Nicholas' mother the last time around!)
7. Sami and Eric Brady were born in 1984, but Sami was about 15 and causing trouble in 1982!
Of course, considering that both Mike Horton and Abby Devereux seem to be getting younger (she should really turn 10 this year, but what is she now? 7 or 8?), you really have to wonder what they've been putting in the water in Salem. Is Stefano behind this, too, like he's behind everything else?
Anyone else curious about Salem's odd age discrepancies should check out the awesome site The Children of Salem. It has information on all the Days' kids and their SORASing over the years.
Re: Has SORAS hurt Days' continuity?
I can genuinely accept SORASing because there are only rare occasions when precocious pre-teens can contribute to storyline (e.g OLTL's Starr) without contracting some life threatening illness.
But one of the worst examples of this ever IMO was bringing in Victor Webster to play Nicholas Alamain. Yes he was good looking and more interesting to watch than say Austin, but why did he have to be an Alamain? It's not as if his history with Vivian was properly addressed on the show.
I think by SORASing Nicholas so drastically, TPTB have made it almost impossible to allow for Carly or Lawrence to return to Salem. No one is going to buy Crystal Chappell as VW's mother.
Another bad example is Phillip who should be younger (?) than Will. Dumb move by writers who were obviously desperate to bring in a large teen group. And boy have they done that.
Re: Has SORAS hurt Days' continuity?
I agree with the comments about Victor Webster's Nicholas. Although I enjoyed the actor (and even got to meet him and have my picture taken with him at a personal appearance), I thought Nicholas was the wrong character to age. He was supposed to be Shawn-D's best friend and the same age! There's no way Chrystal Chappel could be Nicholas' mother now. If they ever were to bring the Alamain family back, they'd have to deSORAS him and remove his and Kate's near relationship from current continuity.
I never like SORASing
Especially when characters who I remember being born are aged way past me, or ones who used to be older than me suddenly are way younger!
The Scotty Banning thing always bothers me, because it makes Alice seem so very old! I wonder how Francis Reid feels?
When they switch around relative age (who's older than whom) I get so confused! I agree that Stefano must be behind all this! And sometimes they make the character older by mentioning years of education that we never saw (guess they went to college when everyone else was asleep) or we see them legally drinking when they just celebrated their 18th birthday last year. No age is given, actors aren't changed, but the character ages (like Lucas, Carrie, etc.)
As for anyone younger than 15 being interesting, I think they can be. Writers are lazy, so they make the kids instantly reach whatever is considered the prime age (sometimes 15, sometimes 20.) But by the next year this character is already too old, so they have to age someone else. If they at least aged them to 13, we could have the same kid as a teen for 6 years! Cheaper for them, but then they'd have to get a good actor for us to be able to stand 6 years of the person!
Re: I never like SORASing
I agree, Leslie. IMO, one of the better examples of what you mentioned was the SORASing of Carrie Brady in the late 80s. She was only a small child and then they made her a pre-teen and brought Christie Clark into the role. I thought it was wonderful that they then let her grow up normally (well, at least as normal as Salem can get). True, they fired Clark in the early 90s because they didn't think she looked mature enough (I'm sorry, but Tracy Middendorf NEVER worked for me as Carrie), but IMO Clark is the one, true Carrie Brady. She's still young enough to be viable in a youth storyline, yet we've seen the character and actress grow up enough that she can be considered one of the show's vets. What a novel concept!
I loved Tracy Middendorf!
We differ again! This time primacy didn't affect me, I preferred Tracy's bad girl Carrie to the sappy Christie one. Tracy wore cute hats, tried to seduce Lawrence Alamain, and had the crush on Austin that Christie got to act on fully. She was pretty spunky & not all that much older.
I thought that Sami's aging worked well once they made her 14. Yeah it was over night & they had all this weird back story about Roman & Marlena raising her in this invisible world (I hated that lie!) But she was a very interesting teen. She had Wil when she was 15, celebrated her 16th birthday & ever since has been over 21! At least she's the same actress! How old is Wil (I just love how they never SORAS'd him!) He seems to be about 5 which means she might just be 20-21 now, yet she's written so much older! Even when they keep the same actors, they up the ages gradually. Notice how kids spend 3 years in high school and celebrate their 18th birthdays the year after their 16th if they're lucky!
Will Roberts
I think Will is the only Salem kid that is being allowed to age properly (Abby seems to be de-aging. If they keep on, Jennifer will be pregnant for the first time again!). However, I think this is more because of Allison Sweeney's real age than any desire to be chronologically accurate. The same child is playing Will as has always played Will. They couldn't age him too much because AS is just way too young to believably have a child of pre-teen age let alone older. The only reason that the ages of Phillip, Belle, Brady, and Shawn are even remote acceptible (discounting the continuity issue) is the ages of their parents. Victor, Kate, Marlena, John, Bo, and Hope are all in the right age range to have children that age. Personally, I find it interesting when the actor playing the parent and the actor playing the child are, in reality, quite close in age. Two instances that I can think about off the top of my head are John McCook and Ron Moss (Eric & Ridge, Bold & Beautiful) and Anna Holbrook & Alexandra Wilson (ex-Sharlene & ex-Josie #1). There is actually only a few years difference in the real life ages of parent and child. To quote Alice in Wonderland "curiouser and curiouser".
Re: Lexie & Celeste
Yes! Thank you for reminding me about the age difference between Renee Jones and Tanya Boyd! I'd almost forgotten! I think that's mainly because Ms. Jones is a lot older than most people think she is. IMO, she holds her age very well! (as does Ms. Boyd! She is very stunning. Days needs to find this woman a storyline!)
), do you think the abnormal (even by soap standards) aging of so many characters has hurt Days? If you were to really think about it in the context of all her SORASed decendants, poor Alice Horton must be at least 110! David Banning (Julie's son) got SORASed about the same time as Mike (I think) and was an adult in the late 70s (making him about mid40s today). However, HIS son Scotty Banning (with Trish Clayton) was also SORASed in the early 90s to his early 20s. The calender holding true to form, that would give Julie a grandson who's in his early 30s today (and conceivably being able to make Julie a great-grandmother!).
), but she returned to Salem in 1982 as a teen-ager
), but she was about to turn 18 in 1983/1984 (didn't Hope wind up older than Melissa at this point???? Of course, even more curious is that Carrie's stated birthday is now a few months before Hope's real birthday!)
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