Which was better? 70s,80s, or 90s?
With the recent ouster of exec. producer/head writer Tom Langan and comments from Ken Corday about returning the show to its roots, a lot of debate has been going around about which point in the shows history was the best. Most of the younger Days viewers insists that it was the Reilly era of the early to mid-90. Older fans would have to say it was the supercouple 80s (with the likes of Bo & Hope, Shane & Kim, Patch & Kayla, etc.). Still, even older fans have a devout love for the 70s with the Bill/Laura/Mickey triangle, Julie's antics (and the triangle with Bill & Addie), and Neil/Amanda/Greg.
Personally, I have to pick the 80s since that is when I started watching and got hooked. I've heard wonderful things about the Bill Bell/Pat Falken Smith era of Days in the 70s and everything I've read looks quite interesting, but I never saw it first hand so I can't really be partial to it. Also, although Reilly brought much ratings success to Days in the 90s, I never really warmed to his over the top supernatural/sci-fi antics.
I started watching in 1981, so I would say the 80s. Although I would have loved to have seen the Who is Mike's Daddy story, and the early dramas of the Hortons, nothing can compare to the supercouples and the adventures. Many of the stories back then were a bit reaching, but at least they didn't butcher history or completely alter the characters to suit the plots. And there was so much more romance back then. DAYS, under TL's reign, was filled with insults, pettiness, and fighting between characters. Everyone was in misery. Also, the teen boom hurt the show. People who were watching for years, and fans who want to see adults in viable storylines were alienated when the show focused on Chloe and her friends/enemies. DAYS definitely took a wrong turn, and I hope Corday makes good on his promise to attempt to inject some more family-oriented storylines in the show. I'm not saying they should be all realistic, but the teen focus has got to go.
I enjoyed Reilly's work on DAYS, but I think the soaps should give the supernatural a break for a while.
Seems as though a memory is hard to find, always on mind...And frustrated days pass without sight...The edge of night.
Re: Which was better? 70s,80s, or 90s?
The 70's were the best, the 80's were good, but the 90's are the pits.
The 1970's on Days of Our Lives was so well rounded. You had so many age differences in characters getting air time. The stories were so neatly told and kept you coming back for more. You had great couples that you cared about: Julie and Doug, Tom and Alice, Don and Marlena, Chris and Mary, Mickey and Maggie. You had the young triangle of David, Trish, and Mike. (Matt I saw your post about the deSORAS of Patti Tate -- well Mike has been deSORAS'd too). The 1970's were just just great. It is so sad to see the great performers from that day either gone or relegated to nothing today.
I too love the teens of today. They are well-rounded but they are not enought to keep my attention. It has just been recently with the emphasis on Bo, Hope, John, Marlena, Abe, and Lexxie that I have really gotten back to where I want to watch daily. Before taht I might watch every once in awhile but now I'm tuned in everyday.
I started watching
DOOL in 1986 right after everyone returned home from Stockholm. The show was so amazing then. Steve & Kayla immediately hooked me! I think there were plenty of bad plots back then, now, & in between. Plus tons of great plots. If I were to see it all on a time line I'd probably find something I hated & something I loved from just about every year (same for all the shows I watch, if there wasn't something good I'd have quit.) I don't know if I'd want to go back & watch all the late 80's stuff or 90's stuff again (unless I could see the entire run of DOOL re-run from the beginning!) Sometimes memories are better than the actual show. I wish I had gotten to see the earlier stuff & hope some day we'll all be able to watch all the soaps from the beginning. I just wouldn't want to choose a decade because my memories are too tainted by sentiment.
Re: I started watching
Ahhh...very good points, Leslie. Time has a way a frosting over memories into nice little treasures that make things better in retrospect than they really were. And I agree with you that there were some turkeys in the 80s storylines along with the gems. I, for one, never really enjoyed them trying to put Melissa together with Lars. I loathed every scene they were in together. IMO, she always belonged with Pete. (I still believe that, too!). I also never really got the point of Savannah Wilder. And what was Deidre Hall thinking for letting them put her in that statue of liberty get up for her wedding to John/faux-Ro? And I hated it when they brought back Bill Horton with Christopher Stone in the role. That never worked for me. Of course, they brought back the real Bill (Edward Mallory) for Jack and Jennifer's wedding, but then Christopher Stone was back again later! Maybe they thought Ed Mallory was too old to deal with Jaime Lyn Bauer's Laura? Anyway, I digress.
It's good to see you here, Leslie! Now get over to the ATWT forum and do what you do best!
That's so funny!
I was just talking to my brother about how we loved the late Chris Stone as Bill & hated Ed Malloy (although we saw Stone first & primacy is everything with soaps!) We were saying that Bill needs to return some day, it's silly how he ignores Lucas & Mike and when Jen returned she said her break up with Jack involved Bill (who did something so bad she couldn't tell Julie because it could affect Julie's relationship with Uncle Bill!) Yet another clue to a story we'll probably never see.
Re: That's so funny!
Well, all of that was some silly Langanism. If we're lucky, maybe they'll just wipe out Langan's entire head writing tenure from Days' continuity (like they wiped out faux Jack and Jennifer) and never mention any of it again.
I'd have to say...
I'd have to say the 80's were the best, even though I didn't start watching daily until the 90's. I've seen old tapes of some of the 80's storylines, and just by reading summaries of those years, it's obvious to me that the show was so much better before Langan came on board in '91 (?). That's when it started going downhill. Even though Jack & Jenn are my favorites, and they were most popular in the early 90's, I'd have to say their best stuff was in 1989-1990.
From what I've heard of the 70's, stories dragged out even slower than they do now, and flashbacks of events that happened only a couple days before were frequent, although I'm sure none were as horrendous as the JOPE or Jan's rape flashbacks we've had to endure (or FF through).
Re: I'd have to say...
Sarah, I'd have to agree with you that the 80s were the best, but since that's when I started watching Days, that would be a natural opinion on my part. However, don't short change the 70s Days either. True, there was much recap and drawn out plots, but that was the nature of the genre at the time. Days was at its highest critical success during the 70s and was near the top of the ratings. In fact, in 1973-74, Days, ATWT, and AW were in a 3 way tie for 1st place in the end of season rankings. If I'm not mistaken, this is the only time Days has ranked #1 for the yearly averages. Days was so popular and lauded during the 70s that they warrented the first ever cover of Time magazine devoted to soaps (it was Doug and Julie who graced the cover) and was called daytime's "most daring drama".
P.S. Welcome! It's good to have you here. Feel free to stop by the Introductions forum and official introduce yourself (gee that sounded redundant! lol). I hope you stop by often and jump into any conversation. I hope there is always something here to learn and enjoy.
I'd have to say the '80s too, even though I've only seen the mid-late '90s and early '00s (what DO you call this decade anyways, hehe).
More specifically, I'd have to say the late '80s and the year 1990 (because of the Cruise of Deception storyline which I would have loved to have seen). I read about couples like Steve "Patch" Johnson and Kayla Brady and even Bo and Hope (mind you, this is the '80s) and Tony and Anna and...well, the list goes on. This was DOOL at its peak, with some awesome adventures mixed with romance. The only thing I can see was missing (and do correct me if I'm wrong, for this is coming from reading monthly/yearly recaps) was the family stuff from the '70s. Other than that, DOOL 1980s forever!
The 80's - definitely.
The 80's Days - especially 84-88 were Days best ever- there was a mix of adventure, suspense, emotional storytelling, character development, FUN, charismatic characters, incredible actors, heartwrenching drama, comedic storylines, and best of all- classic and memorable romances.
Steve and Kayla and Bo and Hope. Those were the best Days ever...IMO.
80's Days forever!
The early 1980's were by far the best!! I started watching when I was 6 years old in 1983. I loved the show like crazy, and I still love it - the show back then, that is. You couldn't pay me to watch it now. They've absolutely destroyed the show's history now and in my opinion there's no way to undo that bastardization of such a warm, family-oriented, well written show. And I have to defend the 70's as well, even though I didn't watch back then (I have a few tapes) - Pat Falken Smith is a gem of a writer and the performances back then by such seasoned pros as Susan Seaforth Hayes and Bill Hayes, not to mention the entire Horton clan (plus so many others)...the writing was phenomenal in the little bits that I've had the priviledge to see. But in 1982, with the inroduction of Roman Brady (Wayne Northrop - the REAL Roman Brady), and the Strangler case, the show was so amazingly written by Falken-Smith and then Maggie DePriest (who is a master writer, and never receives the praise she so rightly deserves!), and the show just kept getting better and better! The Tony/Anna/David/Renee quadrangle love story is alone one of the greatest examples of this spectacular time for superior storytelling. And no one ever seems to remember all of this. Not to mention Roman and Marlena, and then, of course, Bo and Hope in their younger years. Then we had the Slasher murders, and this, imo, was the greatest peek in Days history. There was a wonderful balance of family, love, mystery, and adventure woven together seemlessly by DePriest. And just think, Stefano, before he was recycled 50 times, actually had some punch to him. Ah, yes, I loved the early 80s.
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies