Dena Higley
RUMOR REPORT: Is Dena Higley FINALLY on Her Way OUT at DAYS?
By Jamey Giddens on May 19, 2011
Okay, now this is something I can get excited about. Mad rumblings have lamented soap scribe Dena Higley on her way out at Days of Our Lives. Apparently there was major backstage drama on the set yesterday. Stay tuned!
Update: Soap Opera Network is reporting it is indeed true, Higley is OUT!
Soap Stars Shine at Ken Corday’s Book Launch
By Daytime Confidential on April 30, 2010
Alison Sweeney and Kristian Alfonso (pictured above) were among the many Days of our Lives stars who lit up the red carpet at the book launch for Ken Corday’s new book, The Days of our Lives: The True Story of One Family's Dream and the Untold History of Days of our Lives. See photos of your favorite Salemites after the jump, and go pick up your copy of Corday's book, which hits bookstores today!
DAYS Scribe Dena Higley on Hope's Story Twist
By Jillian Bowe on April 28, 2010
As a viewer, I had one of those,”Wait, what the heck?” moments when Hope’s new storyline about her double life started last week. What is going on with her?All my favorite storylines come out of just waking up in the middle of the night and going, “I know what I want to do.” It’s not doing research or trying to read books or watch movies. It’s just I woke up and I knew I wanted to tell that Hope storyline and it just fell into place. I picked up the phone, called [Co-Executive Producer] Gary Tomlin, and said, “This is what I want to do.” He’s like,”That’s the craziest idea you’ve ever had, and I love it.” So it came out of the blue. It just hit me that we would have so much fun with Hope because it’s coming out of the kidnapping and the drama with Bo. I think that’s all very relatable to women. You have trouble with your husband and you get angry and what do you do with that anger? What if all of your anger in your life took on a life of its own? What would that look like? I wanted it to be kind of a fun “woo woo” story and at the same time I wanted it to be a relatable woman’s story. I think we’re all going to be cheering because we all can relate, I think. I’ve been angry at a few men in my time.
Do the pills that Hope is taking have anything to do with her double life?
Yes, absolutely. That’s where we’re going. Right before I went to bed I watched something on TV that was talking about that kind of medicinal thing. READ MORE
Great Scott?: TV Guide Magazine Wonders if Ousted Producer Saved Salem
By Jamey Giddens on June 23, 2009
TV Guide Magazine's Michael Logan has a new feature up begging the question did Ed Scott, former co-executive producer of The Young and the Restless, and for a time, Days of Our Lives, save the soap opera, crediting Scott with turning DAYS around and helping it to secure 13 Emmy nods. Here's what Scott, who Logan reports has three feature films in the works, has to say:
“It’s proof a show can turn around in these difficult times, a soap can be saved,” Scott says. “There needs to be leadership, drive, positive energy and a respect for the audience—but that’s nothing new. It’s old-school stuff. Of course, you don’t have all the time in the world. You need to work hard and work fast.”
An Open Letter to Christopher Goutman
By J Bernard Jones on May 22, 2009
Dear Mr. Goutman,
If ever I was convinced there is a real world application of the phrase "an exercise in futility", this letter might qualify as proof of that concept. After all, you have been quoted in at least one now infamous interview that you do not listen to what fans have to say and that you follow your gut instincts about what you feel is best for As the World Turns as its executive producer. In many respects I applaud you for it. Vision, however forward thinking or flawed, indicates what might be called passion, which itself implies a belief in something. I think, in your own way, you really do believe in your show.
Savvy viewers (including those of moderate intelligence like myself) more than appreciate the fact that Procter & Gamble/TeleNext soap executive producers like yourself arguably have tougher rows to hoe than their counterparts. You have your corporate bosses at P&G to answer to, as well as another set of head honchos at CBS. Reports from the war front regarding the recent cancellation of ATWT's sister show Guiding Light exposed that often these two factions have differing agendas, which can only make your job that much harder to do in a climate of increasingly draconian budget cuts and free falling ratings amidst an ever shrinking — some openly say dying — genre with roots that can be traced back to Charles Dickens and beyond. No wonder you tune out the noise, if I may, to concentrate on one of the hardest jobs in all of television: producing 350+ hours of television every year. READ MORE
What DAYS Needs to Do If It Wants to Stay on Past 2010 Pt. I: The Hortons and Bradys Generation Next
By Jamey Giddens on March 27, 2009
It's no secret Days of Our Lives is my heart. Like Tara to Scarlett, Llanfair to Viki and the Promises Treatment Center in Malibu to Lindsay Lohan, DAYS is home to me, which is why it pains me to find the land of my childhood, fanboy dreams war-ravaged, and overrun with some strange cow wandering about chewing cud.
I wrote last week how the show was actually watchable again, well, watchable won't keep DAYS on the air past 2010. In years past I never worried about whether NBC-U-Later-Soaps would kill Days of Our Lives, because I knew CBS or ABC would readily fight to the death grab up the most buzzed about soap in the last 20 years of daytime television. Thanks to the woeful state of the U.S. economy, coupled with DAYS being written by someone who would make the top brass at AIG shake their heads and go "tsk, tsk, tsk", I no longer have the quiet comfort that Frons or Bloom will pick up DAYS once it's cut by NBC. Hell, Mickey Mouse and Tiffany are having a hard enough times keeping the soaps already on their network lineups afloat, why would they consider bringing DAYS to the table in the shape its in? READ MORE
