Great Moments in Soap Opera History, Part I
I have made no secret of my affection for the long running soap opera Days of Our Lives. More specifically, I'm a big fan of actor Drake Hogestyn, who is pretty much the most bad-ass actor ever to appear on daytime television. Hogestyn's John Black character was devoted to Marlena, played by Electra Woman herself Deidre Hall, and the super couple endured many ups and downs over the years.
It must be a) hard and b) fun to work as a writer on a soap opera, continually cooking up plots to keep lovers apart. After a while you run out of earthly challenges and you just have to throw some crazy shit into the mix. The nadir (or apex) of crazy shit on Days of Our Lives was the infamous possession storyline, which played out over the course of weeks. Months, even.
Without getting into boring detail, Marlena became possessed by The Devil. It was HILARIOUS.
Thanks to my pal David Gutierrez for forwarding me this video compilation of the possession storyline. In just a few minutes you can get up to speed on the wonder and magic of one of the most infamous plotlines in soap opera history.
If you don't feel like slogging through the whole thing, skip ahead to the 7:55 mark for a truly HOLY SHIT moment involving projectile vomit, heat vision (for reals), slow flying, and a self-censoring demon who uses PG swear words.
Watch now, thank me later. You'll be glad you did.
I've never been able to divine the reasoning behind this storyline on Days. What were the writers and producers thinking? Surely they were aware of the demographic make up of their audience, so how did they ever think a prolonged demonic possession story would go over well with loyal soap opera viewers? It's baffling.
I still think they should have made Marlena a time traveling cyborg who was sent back in time by lizard aliens to seduce and destroy John Black because his pure awesomeness posed a threat to their plans for global domination. It couldn't have been worse...
It must be a) hard and b) fun to work as a writer on a soap opera, continually cooking up plots to keep lovers apart. After a while you run out of earthly challenges and you just have to throw some crazy shit into the mix. The nadir (or apex) of crazy shit on Days of Our Lives was the infamous possession storyline, which played out over the course of weeks. Months, even.
Without getting into boring detail, Marlena became possessed by The Devil. It was HILARIOUS.
Thanks to my pal David Gutierrez for forwarding me this video compilation of the possession storyline. In just a few minutes you can get up to speed on the wonder and magic of one of the most infamous plotlines in soap opera history.
If you don't feel like slogging through the whole thing, skip ahead to the 7:55 mark for a truly HOLY SHIT moment involving projectile vomit, heat vision (for reals), slow flying, and a self-censoring demon who uses PG swear words.
Watch now, thank me later. You'll be glad you did.
I've never been able to divine the reasoning behind this storyline on Days. What were the writers and producers thinking? Surely they were aware of the demographic make up of their audience, so how did they ever think a prolonged demonic possession story would go over well with loyal soap opera viewers? It's baffling.
I still think they should have made Marlena a time traveling cyborg who was sent back in time by lizard aliens to seduce and destroy John Black because his pure awesomeness posed a threat to their plans for global domination. It couldn't have been worse...
This entry was posted by David Campbell, on
Saturday, March 14, 2009.
You can leave your response.
March 14, 2009 12:11 PM
Here's something weird: neither this post nor the previous one is showing up in your RSS feed. I wonder what's up with that.
Probably it has to do with Mike Sterling being possessed by the devil.
March 15, 2009 7:09 AM
Ah. RSS is working now.
March 15, 2009 7:31 AM
When I was much younger, I would watch Days every afternoon with my mother after I came home from school.
I saw the entire devil possession plotline the first time around. This brings back some fond memories. Thanks!
March 15, 2009 8:45 PM
Man, I'm old, the Marlena possession storyline occurred during my freshman year of college. I remember catching a glimpse of it every so often, but no one would ever watch the whole thing because it was so campy. The Incredible Hulk contact lenses, the Marvin the Martian processed voice, what was not to love?
March 16, 2009 8:54 AM
I'm with sdevet -- I watched Days everyday when I was a kid, first because of my mom and then out of habit (seriously, even up to my junior year of HS I would come home just in time to watch Days).
But it definitely jumped the shark for me with the possession stuff. For me, the show reached its peak with the LOST storyline (you know what I'm talking 'bout, Willis!)
March 16, 2009 8:55 AM
Oh, and Drake Hogestyn IS badass. I based the lead character in a comic book I'm writing on him.
March 17, 2009 8:13 AM
I really want to go out and buy Soap on DVD now. I think their possession arc was a little better done but not quite as funny.
March 18, 2009 10:50 AM
I grew up on "Guiding Light" myself, not to mention a ton of telenovelas. My favorite so far is one that I can never remember the name of, but it ends with the bad guy dying in his burning mansion, held there by the GHOST OF HIS FIRST WIFE, WHOM HE MURDERED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SERIES!
March 21, 2009 3:08 PM
You've inspired me to try and watch Days of Our Lives on the Soap Opera Channel. Maybe eve DVR it.
My favorite storyline from Days of Our Lives was the one where John De Lancie (the dude who played Q on Star Trek TNG) played a crazy inventor who was always trying to build a time machine. After awhile of his craziness, his girlfriend Calliope goes to his house only discover that Eugene is missing--and so is the time machine. Yeah--I'd like to think that Eugene catapulted himself into the future and became Q, that the ideology of the entire Q Continuum is based in great part off of a lone time traveller's inability to return to the past to have a normal relationship with the ditzy 80's-perm wearing girlfriend, but I kinda doubt that there is any deliberate continuity between the two shows.
And you know all about Passions, the one where the witch routinely conjured demonspawn from Hell to interfere with the young folks' budding romances, right?