Soap Opera Fan is all a
Twitter! Soap Opera Fan Blog's Editor-In-Chief Christine Fix is not only on
Facebook, but she tweets on Twitter as well - just so our readers can get
the latest soap opera news and updates while they're exploring the latest
internet social networking craze! We invite you to
follow Christine @Soap Opera Fan
on Twitter - and you won't believe the stars who are
tweeting as well!
Days Partners with InStyleBelly for
Charity. Days is battling the fashion faux pas of
maternity wear by teaming up with an upscale maternity consignment shop with
a focus on style. Making use of the plethora of pregnancies on the
series for a good cause, the people at the show have begun donating some of
their lightly used maternity wear. Get the full story on
our blog.
Set Sail With Soap Cruise 2010: The
Third Voyage!
Soap Opera Fan Blog has some updates for the upcoming Soap Cruise, which
sails January 28, 2010 to February 1, 2010 aboard the luxurious Celebrity
Century to Cozumel, Mexico and Key West!
One actor has backed out, another has signed on and a list of events has
been posted! Get the full story on
our blog.
Daytime Emmy Host & Nominations Announced!
Days fans have something to celebrate with this year's Emmy nominations! So
far, Days has landed the nom for Outstanding
Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor, and meanwhile, a sexy Emmy host has
been announced. Get the story on
soaps.com, and check out what Matt has to say about our Days noms on
our blog. The Pre-nom list is still posted
here, for those who are interested.
Exclusive
Interview with Rachel Melvin! Many fans were saddened by
the recent news that Rachel Melvin (Chelsea Brady) decided not to renew her
contract with the series. You can
read more about her final air dates here, but if you want a more
personal glimpse into why the talented young actress is leaving Salem behind
for something new, you can get
the story straight from Melvin in soaps.com's
exclusive interview!
SOF's Deanna Cruised with the
Stars! Usually I sit down to write about the stars, but this time I'm the one with
big news: I am off Wednesday the 21st to cover the
Soap Cruise for our
sister site, soaps.com! In addition to
writing full reports upon our return, Julie
Robinson and I will be sending
live notes, videos and photos from sea (or port?), so be sure to check it
out on soaps.com.
Last night,
Days of Our Lives Alison Sweeney (Sami Brady) gave birth to a daughter
in Los Angeles on January 12. Get the scoop
here.
Days' Poll Link Issue
Just a quick note that our Days Poll page has again crashed and has already
been repaired: However some links may still take you to the old, faulty
page. Please just let us know if you find a link that hasn't been updated.
We appreciate your assist here!
Star Sighting: Days Of Our Lives Kristen Renton At The Los Angeles
Mission!
'Tis
the season to give to others... Though the holidays are a very
happy time for most, many less fortunate are in need of our help - and
former Days star Kristen Renton (Morgan Hollingsworth) and
The Young and the Restless
actress Kate Linder (Esther Valentine) were spotted doing just that! Read
more about the big event
here.
Days Stars Help out at Operation Gratitude. This December 13 saw a few Days stars
taking time out of their busy schedules to do some holiday charity work. To
find out what Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans), Jay Kenneth Johnson
(Philip Kiriakis) and Leanne Hunley (Anna DiMera) got into at Operation
Gratitude in Los Angeles, read more
here.
Soap Opera Fan Blog Chats With Days' Sandra Robinson!
Dayswas lucky enough to have landed veteran soap actress, Sandra Robinson
[formerly Sandra Ferguson] to play opposite Drake Hogestyn's John and Deidre
Hall's Marlena! Wanna get Up to Speed on
Salem's new Therapist? Read Candace's interview with Sandra on our
blog!
Days Stars at the Live Positively Holiday
Parade. Getting into the holiday spirit, Days'
Shelley Hennig (Stephanie Johnson), Molly Burnett (Melanie Layton) and
Rachel Melvin (Chelsea Brady) participated in the Live Positively Holiday
Parade on December 13. Check out a photo and read more about the big event
here.
Mary Beth Evans is up for the Holiday Pie Rush. What's better than Days of Our Lives?
How about Days of Our Lives and apple pie!? To find out how Mary
Beth Evans (Kayla Brady Johnson) can help you with your holiday shopping
and/or your holiday feasts, read more
here.
Days' songster Jd Webb releases a new track for the Holidays!
JD Webb, the songwriter behind the sounds of Days' summer romances this
year, has put out a holiday single. Catch a sneak preview
here!
Alison Sweeney latest baby shower booty goes to charity.
Ali's (Sami) "Momma Bird/Baby Bird" themed shower included everything
from feather bouquets and pink/yellow/chocolate scrapbook papers to
contemporary white vases and birdhouse decorations.
Read about who attended and what made this a charity event
here!
Terrell Ransom Jr. Walks for Autism. Since he took over the role of Theo Carver on
Days of Our Lives, actor Terrell Ransom Jr. and his mother Katrina have
become active participants in the Autism awareness campaign. To find out
what these two are doing in support of the cause and how you can help, read
more
here!
Salem lives on - thanks to a new deal!
Although Days just celebrated its
43rd anniversary, fans of the soap have been living under the shadow of
near constant speculation that their beloved series would be cancelled in
the near future. Now, they finally have a little light. To read about the
show's new deal with Sony, click
here!
Bryan Dattilo Announces the Winner of the Day of Days
Contest. "The
Bonnie Hunt Show" has chosen it's fan correspondent for the Day of Days
event at Universal CityWalk on Nov 1 and Bryan Datillo was on hand to
deliver the news! Wondering who won the honor of interviewing all of the
Days actors at the big event?
Posting updated
here!
NuBrady Eric Martsolf Answers
His Fans' Questions.
Eric
Martsolf is coming to Days as the new Brady Black starting November 13, so
out sister site
Soaps.com recently talked with Eric about his new role and even gave
their readers an opportunity to ask him a couple of questions themselves! To
hear what Marstolf had to say, read
here.
Play a free
Soap Trivia Game, courtesy of... us! Think you know all there is to know about your favorite soaps? Test
yourself! It's free, after all! How long have you been watching Days? Did
you watch
Passions from start to finish? How much do you think you know about
The Young and The Restless,
Bold and The Beautiful,
General Hospital,
One Life to Live,
As The World Turns,
All My Children and
Guiding Light? Unsure? We
thought we knew all that there was, but when we tried our hand at the Soap
Trivia, a few of us bombed! Watching our soaps for so many years gives us a
step up on competition, but sometimes it makes us forget what happened to
whom, and when!
What to do? You may see links to the
Trivia Game, or banners. All
you have to do is click one, enter in your name - screen name or otherwise -
and you'll see an area that'll teach you how to play! Don't care for the
music? Simply turn it off!
This is what'll happen... In Round One, you'll be asked ten questions –
either multiple choice or fill in the blanks. If you get stuck, skip it and
move on! Answering quickly counts! After you've made it through the first
round, your points earned will appear. You can go through three rounds until
you hit the Bonus Bubble Round! What's that? It's silly, fun and mindless.
Just get your mouse ready and start clicking as many bubbles as quickly as
you can! In Round Five, the last round, you'll have one final question to
answer before receiving your final "soapy score" - you'll see where your
score ranked with others who have played the
game as well!
Anytime you want to quit and try your hand at
another soap, just click the Back to Menu button in the top left-hand
corner. This game is perfect to pass the time while you're waiting for us to
bring you the latest breaking news, spoilers, recaps, bios and while waiting
for your friends to show up on our message boards!
Leave us a comment after you play. Let us know how you fare, and vote on
which game you loved best!
Be Bonnie Hunt's Correspondent at Day of Days!
If you've been wondering why Days stars
have been peppering the guest roster at The Bonnie Hunt Show - not to
mention how you can land a gig as Bonnie's special correspondent
for the Days fan event at
Universal CityWalk on November1 - find your answer
here!
Daytime's Campiest Scribe passes away.
Daytime
soap writer James E. Reilly passed away last weekend at the age of 60, while
in the hospital recovering from cardiac surgery. The Emmy Awards winner was
best known for creating the wild world of Passions,
but he also had a hand in many storylines on Days,
General Hospital,
Guiding Light, "Ryan's Hope,"
"Sunset Beach," and
The Young and the Restless. He also spent time as consulting
producer for Days and Passions, and appeared as a writer on NBC's "Friends."
Read more about James in Soap.com's
goodbye to Passions.
To help fans take
a walk down memory lane, we've posted a handful of
James E Reilly clips here,
including Marlena's possession and
exorcism, Susan's interrupted wedding to John and Passions Timmy and Tabby
moments!
Soap Opera Fans sends James's family and friends our deepest condolences.
Watch Days of Our Lives Through Rogers On Demand!
While many have been enjoying "Days" and
"The Young and the Restless" online through the
GlobalTV.com and
Eonline.com, those who
subscribe to Rogers Digital Cable will now be able to watch the show without
even turning on their computers! On October 15, Rogers Digital Cable
subscribers will be able to pick up both shows for free, through your cable
package, as Global and E! will be bringing the fans same-day episodes for
their viewing pleasure!
Of course, sometimes real life gets so hectic there's just no time to tune
in, but SOF will always keep you in the loop with our Days daily recaps! In
addition, weekly summaries are posted every Friday for
The Bold and the Beautiful,
General Hospital and
The Young and the Restless.
Still Not Seeing Page Updates? We are still getting reports that SOF pages aren't updated, when in
fact, we are updating daily, five days a week! The likely problem is that
your web browser is pulling a cached update off your hard drive, rather than
the latest version from the server. There are several ways to fix this
issue:
For an immediate fix, simply hold down CTRL on your keyboard
and hit your browsers refresh/reload button OR hold down CTRL + SHIFT + r,
which force your browser to refresh the page without using its own cached
version.
For a long term solutions: The easiest way to fix the
problem is to make sure whatever browser you are using (IE, Netscape,
Firefox, Opera) is the most current and up to date version. The newer
browsers are much better at correcting this issue than older browsers
are. You can also try changing the settings/options of your browser. How to
do this will vary depending on the browser. One option to look for is how
the browser checks for new versions of the pages you visit. Options usually
include: once per session, once per day, every time I connect to a website.
This option is usually found somewhere near the cache/temporary files
settings (Firefox seems to not have this option).
If all else fails and the page isn't updating, go into your
options and choose to clear/empty your temporary internet files/browser
cache.
Check out Days' Double Pregnancy Promo!
Infertile Nicole was shocked to learn she's
knocked up, but she may be less excited about the other baby news on the
way! We're sure you can guess who the other mommy-to-be is, but check out
this Days
promo to see if you're right!
Become friends with Angry Angel (aka Chelsea)
& Blog-Out with Portrayer Rachel Melvin!
As previously reported,
Chelsea's started her own online blog and video
diary on the show, and not only can you visit
Chelsea's blog on MySpace, you can make her your MySpace pal,
in real life! To keep up with her teen angst and
machinations, just add 'Angry Angel' to your friends list. UPDATE:
Even better, portrayer Rachel Melvin occasionally gets to blogging herself!
She's been known to get into everything from onscreen mom Julie Pinson
leaving the Days to what show's she's addicted to in real life, not to
mention a rant against the societal perceptions of "skinny."
Check her out!
What's Dena Higley got to say for herself?
If you're wondering what the Days' head
scribe is thinking, visit her
blog. Dena's
slacked off since the Emmy, but she's back at it again and while much of her
chatter is about family, you may also catch some raves, rants or teases
about the show.
Exclusive interview with Kristian
Alfonso! If you've noticed the beautiful jewelry Kristian Alfonso (Hope)
wears on Days, the pieces are more than likely from the actress' very own
collection, Hope Faith Miracles. For the past couple of years, Kristian has
been hard at work designing and promoting her collection, which most
recently brought her to the Bloomingdales in Chicago. Soaps.com reporter
Lori (of Lori's Last Word) was able to grab
a few moments with Kristian in the Windy City to talk jewelry, clothes and
of course Salem! Click
here to read more!
Christopher Whitesell signs on as Days' new Co-Head Writer!
Gary Tomlin is already shaking the trees at Days and one of his first moves
was to bring back Emmy award winning writer Christopher Whitesell, who was a
Days scribe from 2000-2001. In fact, Christopher has done stints all over
daytime. To see if he worked on your other fave show(s) and learn a bit more
about him, click
here.
Exec Producer
Shake-up: Gary Tomlin in / Ed Scott out!
Daytime vet Gary
Tomlin has signed on as Days new Co-Executive Producer, replacing Ed Scott!
"I have decided that it's in the best interest of the show's future to make
this change in order to improve ‘Days’ both visually and emotionally,” said
Ken Corday, Executive Producer. “We at ‘Days’ are grateful to Ed Scott
for all of his contributions and amazing energy over the past year. Gary
Tomlin brings a long successful history of being an actor's producer and a
writer's producer to our cast and crew and I know the viewers will see the
immediate results of this change for the better."
For those not familiar with the
name, Tomlin first hit daytime in 1973, when he was cast on NBC’s "Search
for Tomorrow"as Bruce Carson. He went behind the scenes, landing on
Days as
Co-Head Writer from 1980-1981,
followed by stints as head scribe at "Another World" and "One Life to
Live." In 1997 Tomlin rose to Exec Producer of NBC's "Sunset Beach",
then on to "One Life to Live" in 2001, where the series received its first
ever Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Series for the 2002 season.
"I'm very happy to be back at
'Days' where I began behind the scenes in the early 80's," said Tomlin.
"It's wonderful to be given the opportunity to work with Ken Corday."
Welcome back!
Alison
Sweeny and other celeb moms auction maternity clothes off their bellies!
Like
this dress? It could be yours for the right price! Ali Sweeny has signed and
donated the raspberry
Isabella Oliver Ruffle Wrap
to the Isabella Oliver
Celebrity Maternity Fashion Auction on the Clothes Off Our Back
website.
If pink isn't your color, other
Isabella Oliver maternity items were donated
and/or signed by actress Minnie Driver, singer Lisa Marie Presley, actress
Teri Hatcher (from her character's "Desperate Housewives" wardrobe), boxer
Laila Ali, singer Gwen Stefani and many others. Proceeds from the auction will
benefit Clothes Off Our Back'schildren's charities, including America's
Second Harvest, The Art of Elysium, Hope North and H.E.L.P. Malawi.
You have until August 27 to win
one of the lovely Isabella Oliver designed maternity items signed by your
favorite celebrity mom, so go to
clothesoffourback.org and put
your bid in now!
Double Duty for Deidre Hall!
Marlena's
twin sister, Samantha, is heading back to Salem and Deidre Hall has agreed
to play the dual role for one day. During the '70s and 80s, the role was
played by Deidra's real life twin, Andrea Hall, until the character fell
victim to the Salem Strangler. (One can only imagine this is a dreamy of
ghostly return!) Andrea was back in the fold again in 2001 to play Hattie,
the familiar stranger who became one of Stefano's pawns and underwent
surgery to look even more like Marlena, but apparently wasn't available or
wasn't asked this time around.
No Olympic Interruption! In the past, Olympic action has been bad news for NBC's Days,
which was preempted during the competitions the last go round, but not this
year! It's confirmed that the show will air "great story" through the
Olympic season, but best to keep an eye on your DVR/VCR schedule for any
changes as the show may occasional air at alternate times.
Alison
Sweeny expecting - It's a girl!
SoapOperaFan.com and our readers want to send out a big congrats to Alison
Sweeny (Sami) and her husband Dave who are expecting their second child!
Word is Ben can expect to be a big
brother to a baby sister around January 20, 2009. While word is the
expectant mom has been having some rough morning sickness, she looked
gorgeous when we spotted her at an NBC party in mid-July.
Hottest of
the Hotties! The
ladies and gentlemen of daytime are all hot, but TV Guide channel
recently gave a shout out to the
sexiest of them all in "Soaps' Sexiest Women," hosted by Y&R hottie Kristoff St. John,
and "Soaps' Sexiest Men," hosted by Kelly Monaco. We've listed the winners
below, but you can catch portions of both TV Guide specials on YouTube. Just
search for "Soaps' Sexiest Women" and "Soaps' Sexiest Men."
Top 25 Men
The Young and the Restless'
Daniel Goddard (Cain) came in at number 1!
2. Days of Our Lives James Scott (E.J.)
3. General Hospital's Greg Vaughan (Lucky)
4. All My Children's Cameron Mathison (Ryan)
5. Y&R's Joshua Morrow (Nick)
6. One Life to Live's David Fumero (Christian)
7. The Bold and The Beautiful's Jack Wagner (Nick)
8. Y&R's Kristoff St. John (Neil)
9. As the World Turns' Austin Peck (Brad, Days ex-Austin)
10. Days Jay Kenneth Johnson (Philip)
11. GH's Jason Thompson (Patrick)
12. Y&R's Thad Luckinbill (J.T.)
13. ATWT's Agim Kaba (Aaron)
General Hospital's Kelly Monaco (Sam) came in at number 1!
2.
Y&R'
Michelle Stafford (Phyllis)
3. Days'
Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe)
4. B&B's
Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke)
5. AMC's
Rebecca Budig (Greenlee)
6. GL's
Gina Tognoni (Dinah)
7. GH's Sarah Brown (Claudia)
8. Days' Arianne Zuker (Nicole)
9. Y&R's Sharon Case (Sharon)
10. ATWT's
Terri Colombino (Katie)
11. Days' Kristian Alfonso (Hope)
12. ATWT's Julie Pinson (Janet)
13. One Life to Live's
Bree Williamson (Jessica)
14. AMC's Alicia Minshew (Kendall)
15. Y&R's Christel Khalil (Lily, Y&R)
16. GH's Kirsten Storms (Maxie)
17. B&B's Lesli Kay (Felicia)
18. ATWT's Marie Wilson (Meg)
19. Y&R's Eva Marcille (Tyra)
20. ATWT's Marnie Schulenburg (Alison)
21. Days' Shelley Hennig (Stephanie)
22. GL's Michelle Ray Smith (Ava)
23. B&B's Ashley Jones (Bridget)
24. ATWT's Maura West (Carly)
25 GH's Rebecca Herbst (Liz)
FAN REPORT: Our
family at the 2008 DOOL Basketball Game,
by Shari Gamson
I have been watching DOOL since the day it started on television in 1965. My
daughter, Teri, was three years old when she first started watching with me
and she became a lifelong fan. Later, her son, Arik, now 26, also got
hooked.
For
the past several years, we have attended the annual
DOL Celebrity Basketball Game in South Pasadena. This year, we again had
the opportunity to join in the fun of watching the game, talking to the cast
members and taking pictures with them. Teri asked several of them to
autograph the DOOL tee-shirt she was wearing, and they did. During half
time, she was asked by Jed Reynolds (James' son) to join in their practice
and shoot a couple of baskets. She actually got one in! Last year, Arik
convinced James Scott (E.J.) to come over and meet his Mom. This year, he
wasn't there but, Arik brought
a miniature surf board for Shawn Christian (Dr. Jonas) and he seemed really
pleased to get it. When I met Bryan Datillo, (Lucas), I reminded him that I
had asked to be his adopted grandmother. He said his real grandmother gives
him a special birthday gift each year, but I didn't think I should copy her
special gift. My husband, Sherman, isn't a big fan of the show, but he takes
pictures for us and enjoys the game. He did miss seeing one cast member he
really likes - Alison Sweeney (Sami), who was out of town.
I
was fortunate to win one of the silent auction items, which included gift
cards for three restaurants and a great autographed picture of James
Reynolds (Abe)! All of the team players and other cast members were friendly
and gracious to all the fans and, although still sweaty and tired from
playing the game, most stayed as long as needed to satisfy their fans.
Teri, Bryan Dattilo & Shari Shawn Christian & Arik
Teri & Nadia Bjorlin
We thank Shari for sharing her experiences with meeting
some of the DOOL cast! If you'd like to read another fan's BB game
experience, check out the event
blog from the Trivia Contest
winner
here! If you have you have met a daytimer and would like to send us
your story, along with photos, please contact us.
(Our contact info is on our main page
Days Page.)
Renee Jones
Talks! To read what the woman behind Lexie has to say about coming, going and
sticking around Salem, not to mention her current storylines, click
here.
If you missed the Days of our Lives Celebrity Basketball Game, never fear.
You can get the score from Lori
here. Not only does she dish game highlights and rubbing shoulders with
the stars, but she also caught some
spoilers and scoop from Salem locals and expats like Jason Cook and Brandon Beemer, who relocated to
General Hospital and Bold and the Beautiful, respectively.
Read Nadia
Bjorlin's exclusive interview about Soap Cruise 2009 and being back in
the Days fold
here!
The Daytime Emmy Nominations are
out! To find out which 6 nods Days received, click
here.
As previously reported, Joseph Mascolo
(Stefano) was proud to be on hand as his parents celebrated 80 years of
marriage on April 23. We've learned that just nine days later, on May 2,
Mascolo's father Peter passed away at 106 years of age, in Newington,
Connecticut. Soap Opera Fan extends
heartfelt condolences to Joseph and his family.
Nadia Bjorlin and her brothers release a Four Song EP! She is beautiful, she can act, and she can sing! On her website, she explains the type of music she sings... "The music is best described as classical crossover, in the likes of Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli. We recorded these four songs because of the beautiful three part harmonies and of course it is accompanied by my brother Jean Paul on piano." Congrats to her! Find her music on Amazon or iTunes!
Christine Fix writes her newest wardrobe Q&A for DAYS fans! Congrats. It's her 1 year anniversary, writing these pieces. Fans, if you love the DAYS fashions, feel free to write to Christine here to ask if she can find out where a specific piece comes from and who it's created by! Read the newest article right here
Matt Cedeno Interview! Read it here! Find out what "Brandon Walker" has been up to recently and what he had to say to Soaps.com/Soap Opera Fan's Lori Wilson, about a return to DAYS!
Samantha's Friends Bradenton, Florida: Once a year, several top soap actors gather for
Samantha's
Friends charity Fundraiser gala brunch and show and this year the event
raised $20K to help young people challenged by a catastrophic illness gain
their independence with the assistance of a service canine. To read more
about the event and see photos, follow this link to
soaps.com.
Hello!
Some of you are noticing that we're currently under a little construction and I wanted to give all of you a heads up as to what's happening with Soap Opera Fan these days! Dustin has sold Soap Opera Fan, in order for him to concentrate on his studies! In a statement on the message board, Dustin says he has been maintaining this site for almost 14 years and decided to sell the site for various factors, one of which is to focus on graduate school! To quote Dustin: "So all these factors contributed in my decisions to give up the page, and I truly hope you can understand. Again this wasn't an easy choice for me, but essentially for so long I feel I have put the page first and now it was time to put me first."
Dustin has stayed with us through the transition for a few months but at this point, he's no longer maintaining the site in any capacity. We've agreed that we both would like to see him posting from time to time as a "guest writer", depending on how much time he has available! We wish him all the best in his future endeavours, knowing that it is never easy to leave a huge part of your life that you've put all your love and hard work into.
A little about us! The company who purchased the site is called She Knows LLC. They own and operate various sites on the web including She Knows.com. My name is Christine Fix, I'm Canadian, reside in Toronto Ontario and work as a writer, reporter, senior producer and editor-in-chief of Soaps.com, Reality TV Magazine.com and now, Soap Opera Fan. My writers reside both in Canada and the US and are a wonderful and very talented team.
If you've any questions or feedback about the site, myself or my staff, we've got an open door policy. Feel free to contact us at
. Our staff will try to get back to everyone but we do ask that you allow our staff time to answer!
Thank- you for your patience regarding the delay in our updates. Friday March 28th, we've started posting the spoilers and comings and goings and you can find our updates posted Monday March 31, 2008, for Passions and Days Of Our Lives!
Please feel free to read the updates, spoilers and comings and goings on Soaps.com and we'll be linking to our sister site with any interviews or major news that we feel you want and need to know about!
Cheers and thank- you!
Daytime Emmy Pre-Nominations Released The 2007 Daytime Emmy Pre-Nominations list has been released. These are
the actors that the show puts in for consideration for the final
nominations. The final list of who
will be up for the award is selected at a later date. For now, here are the
actors "Days" put in to be considered. For the list of all soap
nominations, head over to Soaps.com.
Lead Actor - Stephen Nichols (Steve)
James Scott (EJ)
Thaao Penghlis (Tony)
Peter Reckell (Bo)
Lead Actress - Deidre Hall (Marlena)
Alison Sweeney (Sami)
Supporting Actor - Bryan Datillo (Lucas)
Jay Kenneth Johnson (Phillip)
Joseph Mascolo (Stefano)
Supporting Actress - Judi Evans (Bonnie/Adrienne)
Martha Madison (Belle)
Mary Beth Evans (Kayla)
Leading Younger Actor - Blake Berris (Nick)
Darin Brooks (Max)
Matthew Florida (Ford)
Leading Younger Actress - Kristen Renton (Morgan)
Shelley Hennig (Stephanie)
Rachel Melvin (Chelsea)
Update! Days Writers Re-Hired? Deadline Hollywood
Daily is reporting that at the WGA East's meeting this weekend on the
resolution to the writers strike, that it was announced that the fired
"Days" writers would all be getting their jobs back, because of technicalities
that a fired striking writer must be replaced by another striking writer,
not scab writers.
Days Writers Fired Hogan Scheffer, who was brought in last year to take over as head
writer, has been fired along with many to most of the writers under him, who
have been on strike since November. Currently the show is being written by
"scab" writers, writers which will cross the picket lines.
Recently Hogan Scheffer's name along with the other writer's names fell off
the credits for the show.
Tom Cassiello, one of the writers who was fired, has been
posting about the drama on his myspace page. You can read his official
"Goodbye Letter" on his Myspace page.
There has been no official announcement from Days about the
following news yet. The writers strike is possibly ending this week, as
contracts have been drawn up and are expected to be approved.
Writers Strike Could Hurt Soaps!
Writers Now Set To
Strike!
Writers Strike Begins!
New Negotiations Scheduled!
Negations Stalled!
Last week the Writers Guild of America voted to strike come midnight, October 31st if new contracts are not agreed upon. Their current contracts expire at midnight on Halloween. At the heart of the strike is the fact that networks are now making more money from the shows through DVD sales, online plays and download sales through iTunes, cellphones, etc . . . In 2001 a strike was averted at the final hours of the night, which could happen again tonight. The last time the writers went on strike was in 1988, and it lasted for 5 months.
Should writers strike again, a lengthy strike could be disastrous for the soaps. Soaps usually only tape 3 weeks in advance, with the final scripts of the show not being delivered too much ahead of the taping of the shows. Should the strike happen and not be resolved quickly, we could see the soaps running out of new episodes by the end of November or early December. The spots would most likely be filled with old reruns of other syndicated shows, news programs or infomercials. Current primetime TV shows would run out of new episodes in early 08. Movies too would be affected as the studios would not meet projected dates for some of their upcoming blockbusters.
Even though several deals were
offered, and a professional mediator was brought in, contract talks with the
Writers Guild of America broke off last night. Today. November 1st, the
guild is set to vote again on whether to strike or continue working without
contracts in hopes of negotiating a deal. If they vote to strike, the strike
could begin as early as tomorrow, November 2nd.
On Thursday the Writers Guild of America voted to
strike, but as of yet no announcement has been made to when the strike will
begin. Some news reports indicate it could happen at any moment, others say
it will most likely be delayed until Sunday or Monday to allow last minute
attempts to resolve the contracts before striking.
Last minute negotiations fell through, and the writers
strike began at 12:01am this morning, Monday November 5th.
The soaps are currently without their writers, but
have enough scripts and episodes to get through January, maybe into
February. However there may be no interruption as negations to end the strike are set to begin again on November 26th.
In early December, a week after starting talks again,
the WGA ceased talks and rejected deals presented to them. There have
been no new talks since and the strike has gone on.
NBC Acquires Oxygen Media Thanks to Christopher for the heads up
NBC Universal is acquiring Oxygen Media, one of the nation's leading female-focused cable television networks, thus expanding its highly successful cable portfolio. The announcement was made
on October 9th by Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC Universal.
Zucker said: "In just seven short years, Oxygen has become the crown jewel of independent networks. It's a terrific property with a clear mission, strong brand, and desirable audience. This acquisition increases our foothold in the advertiser-coveted young, upscale, female demographic, and perfectly complements our current roster of cable channels and plays to our strength of running and operating cable networks."
Oxygen was founded by current Chairman and CEO Geraldine Laybourne along
with talk show host Oprah Winfrey and television producers Marcy Carsey, Tom
Werner and Caryn Mandabach.
With all the rumors swirling about for almost a year now
that "Days of Our Lives" could be canceled by NBC come 2009, and
with "Passions" already having been dropped and picked up by
DirecTV and NBC.com for online play, the acquisition of the Oxygen Channel
is good news for soap fans as it very well could become the home of NBC
soaps in the near future as more and more network soaps will probably find
themselves on cable channels down the road.
Behind The Scenes
"Days" on TivoCast! Thanks to Bex for the heads up!
Hey Tivo users, you can now get a special program all about
"Days" on your Tivos! Curious what goes on backstage in Salem?
Catch exclusive behind-the-scenes looks from your favorite soap opera, Days
of our Lives, delivered right to your TiVo box every week via TiVoCast. To
download this program, simply open up your Tivo menu. Select "Find
Pograms" from the main menu, followed by "Download TV and
Movies." "Days of Our Lives" should be an option on the list
that appears. You can select to download the most current episode or have a
season pass which automatically sends a new show to your Tivo every
Wednesday. Please note that in order to download the program you will need
to have a broadband connection and have your Tivo hooked up to the
connection.
The End Of Days on iTunes? NBC Goes to Amazon's Unbox The
New York Times and other sources are reporting that a fallout between
NBC and Apple over the pricing of NBC shows for sale on iTunes has lead to
the announcement by Apple that no new NBC shows will be added to iTunes for
sale! None of the new shows debuting this fall will be added, but whether
new episodes of current shows will be added is unknown. NBC says Apple must
sell them, Apple says they will not. There is no information yet on whether
this will affect Days of Our Lives.
NBC
announced that they have stuck a deal with Amazon to distribute their
shows online through Amazon's Unbox service, which allows users to watch
shows online, download them to their computer or mobile devices or to have
programs sent to user's Tivos. New shows for the fall 07 season will
actually premier on Unbox before their television debut, and users can
currently get episodes of older shows such as "Heroes" and
"The Office." Head over to http://unbox.amazon.com
to learn more.
How the drama between NBC and iTunes will
affect "Days" status on iTunes has yet to be mentioned in any of
these articles. Given the original deal was actually announced by Sony and
Columbia Tri-star Television, which own "Days," it may not be
affected at all. Currently though "Days" is categorized by iTunes
as an NBC show.
Thanks to Maureen for the heads up
on the amazon deal.
Days Moving Time In Many Markets! Many have been emailing me about commercials indicating Martha Stewart's
show is taking "Days'" time slot at 1pm. Beginning in September,
Days is moving in many markets to either noon or 2pm! Please check your
local listings to find the new time slot for "Days!"
Staff Changes At Days! Days has named a new co-executive producer and casting director. Ed
Scott, formerly from "The Young and the Restless" replaces Steve
Wyman as co-executive producer at the show. Additionally Roy Steinberg,
supervising producer, is leaving. Marnie Saitta, who also worked on
"Y&R" replaces Fran Bascom as casting director.
Days To Be Sold Through iTunes! Variety.com
is reporting that beginning tomorrow, Tuesday June 12th, "Days of Our
Lives" will be available for download through the iTunes store.
Episodes will cost $1.99 a piece, though 20 episode passes can be ordered
for $9.99.
Not Seeing Page Updates? I often get emails that the page doesn't appear to have been updated in
days, or when trying to get the latest summary one gets the summary from
last week. The problem is that your web browser is pulling a cached update
off your hard drive rather than the latest update from my server. There are
several ways to fix this issue.
The easiest way to fix the problem is to make sure whatever
browser you are using (IE, Netscape, Firefox, Opera) is the most current and
up to date version. The newer browsers are much better at correcting this
issue than older browsers are.
Other ways to correct
the issue are to change the settings/options of your browser. How to do this
will vary depending on the browser. One option to look for is how the
browser checks for new versions of the pages you visit. Options usually
include: once per session, once per day, every time I connect to a website.
This option is usually found somewhere near the cache/temporary files
settings (Firefox seems to not have this option).
If all else
fails and the page isn't updating, go into your options and choose to
clear/empty your temporary internet files/browser cache. Another
option is to simply hold down CTRL on your keyboard and hit your browsers
refresh/reload button, which forces an update.
Get Rid of Spyware, Protect from Viruses, Protect from
Hackers! If you are getting excessive pop-ups from this site (more than 2 a day)
or any other site, especially pop-ups that make it past your pop-up blockers
then you most likely have spyware on your PC! Please take the time to read
through the following, I have links to completely free spyware and virus
software that you can install on your PC in minutes!
Two
great spyware removal tools are Ad-Aware
and Spybot.
Spybot actually includes a download blocker in it that stops a lot of stuff
from being downloaded automatically in Internet Explorer. Spyware
Blaster is another program that blocks spyware from downloading onto
your PC. Unlike Spybot, it supports all types of browsers. I recommend using
ALL THREE programs! If you are running Internet Explorer as your browser
than you are more vulnerable to spyware than say users of FireFox, Netscape or Opera.
If you have no
ant-virus program on your PC, a good free one to use is AVG
Anti-Virus
If your online a lot, or have a cable modem
and do NOT have any type of firewall installed, your vulnerable to hackers.
I recommend using ZoneAlarm.
If you have an up-to-date Windows XP system running Windows Service Pack 2
then you should have Windows Firewall running. Still, Zone Alarm is a good
alternative and FREE!
Finally,
if you haven't already, give
Firefox a try. Most spyware makes its way onto your computer through
loopholes in Internet Explorer. Firefox stops a lot of spyware from getting
through. Additionally it is a heck of a lot faster than Internet Explorer! There is a
third browser I highly recommend, and that is Opera.
The best thing about Opera is that it is fast, really
fast. It's also now FREE. Netscape
is another browser you can try.