Ken Corday on Days of our Lives
If it seems we’ve written about this a few times before, it’s because we have. Since 2015, we’ve been talking about Days of Our Lives reboots and the soap getting back to basics, but so far, that’s yet to happen.
In 2015, Dena Higley and Josh Griffith took over the head writing reigns from Chris Whitsell and immediately gave us The Necktie Killer story. The plot seemed to move full-speed along at a fast pace.
After that, Will Horton was killed, Abby spent a month in labor in a dark cabin, Bo died as soon as he returned to town, and Ciara was raped on Alice Horton’s couch by her step-brother. That dark cloud set up camp over Salem and we thought it would leave a year later.
By this past summer, scenes began airing written by Higley and Ryan Quan, giving us the fast-paced but absolutely inane story of the Terrible Trio who escaped from prison. Last month, we learned Higley and Quan had been replaced by former General Hospital head writer Ron Carlivati and fans breathed a sigh of relief.
Aside from the aforementioned darkness, during Higley’s latest reign at the helm, Deimos Kiriakis took over the town, Jennifer turned into a (now-recovered) drug addict, Eric turned into a drunk, Hope killed Stefano and seems to have gotten away with it (if he’s dead), Abigail lost her mind and faked her own death, teenage Joey smothered a helpless Ava with a pillow (and got away with it), Theresa took off with a Mexican drug lord, and Chloe gave birth to Nicole’s baby and then essentially stole her. And fans have been saying, “MAKE IT STOP!”
What happened to Days of Our Lives? It’s become an almost unrecognizable show and the ratings are proof of just how far this show has strayed.
One major problem is taping six months in advance, meaning the soap can’t fix a story once it’s not working for half a year, and perhaps the other problem was a writer with a different vision from the fans.
Well, the production schedule is staying the same, but the writer is changing once again. Longtime Executive Producer Ken Corday has high hopes that Carlivati will bring the change DAYS needs, but admits he’s anxious for it to happen already.
“I wish [the changes] could happen faster,” Corday said in the February 27 issue of Soap Opera Digest. “I’m not impulsive, but I’m a little impatient. We have to kind of pull the show out of where it’s been. It’s going to take us four to six weeks [after new scripts start airing] to get where I’m talking about. Let’s say, beginning of July to mid-August/September, and that’s a long time to ask the viewers to hang in there.”
Yes, we may have to wait, but Corday promises the dark clouds will part and happiness could actually return to Salem.
“The thing we’ll be getting away from the most is the onerous, ‘I can’t watch this anymore’ kind of darkness,” Corday…continue reading on the next page —>
“The thing we’ll be getting away from the most is the onerous, ‘I can’t watch this anymore’ kind of darkness,” Corday said. “I’ll just say at a time when there’s enough bad news on the air, we don’t need to see it reflected on Days of Our Lives.
We don’t need to see people doing the wrong thing with the wrong people. People want to come to this show for a safe haven. They want to be entertained, and warmed, and you know, cuddle up with DAYS again.”
We all do need our safe space in this ever-changing world, and hopefully Corday is correct and Salem can become our safe space and eternal escape from harsh realities into the fantastical world of soaps.
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