In conjunction with Daytime Confidential's recent podcast interview with Thom Racina, I have stumbled across a Thom Racina inspired video with a compilation of vintage Days of Our Lives footage which was taken from the years 1984 to 1986. During this era, Thom Racina worked in close circles with other Days writers Leah Laiman and Sheri Anderson. For many die hard Days fans, these years were highly regarded as Days' best ever scripted. With some terrific epic storytelling, Thom Racina stirred the hearts of many and brought to life many of our favourite loved characters. During this clip, you visit stories that you can only hope the current Days hierarchy are witnessing. It's a mixture of inspirational drama, on location adventure, traditional romance, sadness and most of all, classic Days at it's prime. Three cheers to Thom Racina for bringing us such magic and creating a powerful daytime drama with it's rich history and poised with soap opera glory.

Music - American Pie by Don McLean.

Since the Writers Strike is unofficially, officially over I thought it might be fun to reflect about what we all consider to be the Best & Worst of the Writers Strike for our favorite soaps. What are the things that were better during the Writers Strike and what are the things that were worse during the Writers Strike.

Here is my list.

Best

1. Spreading the acting wealth around at General Hospital. We've seen a lot more people than we are accustomed to.
2. One Life to Live staying the awesome soap it was thanks to Ron's soap bible.
3. Debbie Morgan, Darnell Williams, and Rebecca Budig returning to daytime.
4. Slight improvements over at Young & Restless.
5. Guiding Light reportedly having the foresight of having scripts through February.
6. General Hospital proving that ratings can go up without Guza at the helm.

Worst

1. Days of Our Lives behind the scenes saga.
2. Sloppy dialogue at several soaps.
3. Choppy editing at General Hospital. Some days you'd tune in and think you missed a day and hadn't.
4. The Head Writers of All My Children accepting Fi-Core. Why couldn't we had a break from them?
5. The possibility that the Scrubs pregnancy storyline wouldn't be told right on General Hospital.
6. As the World Turns not using the strike as an opportunity to bring Luke & Noah more front and center on the show.

What is on your list of Best & Worst?

Breaking News! For all intents and purposes the Writers Strike is over! Here are a few of the headlines and info we found across the web. Be sure to check out the articles in their entirety.

Variety

For the first time in more than three months, TV showrunners are heading back to the office on Monday with the rest of the scribe tribe due back Wednesday.

The development came with the ruling boards of the Writers Guild of America unanimously approving the tentative deal with the majors, triggering a vote by members that will conclude Tuesday night on whether to lift the strike order. Ballots to ratify the new three-year deal will also go out in the next few days with a 10- to 12-day return period.

Nikke Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily

At the WGA's news conference today, union leaders declared the new contract is "a huge victory for us". Trumpeted WGAW President Patric Verrone, "This is the first time we actually got a better deal in a new media than previously." Verrone credited News Corp. No. 2 Peter Chernin and Disney chief Bob Iger, and also CBS boss Les Moonves, with "being instrumental in making this deal happen" after the WGA spent 3 months "getting nowhere" with the AMPTP negotiators and lawyers. WGA negotiating committee chief John Bowman added that, "What happened to the Golden Globes was instrumental in getting the CEOs to this table. It was a huge symbol."

USAToday

It's a deal similar to one reached last month by the Directors Guild of America, including a provision that compensation for ad-supported streaming doesn't kick in until after a window of between 17 to 24 days deemed "promotional" by the studios.Writers would get a maximum $1,200 flat fee for streamed programs in the deal's first two years and then get a percentage of a distributor's gross in year three — the latter an improvement on the directors deal, which remains at the flat payment rate.

"The precedent that we can participate in new media, that's great," said Diane Frolov, another Sopranos writer. "There was mostly cheering" among the L.A. contingent, she added. 

This just in! Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily fame is reporting the following from the WGA meeting today in New York.

"Melissa Salmons said, 'For years, I have lived in fear of that DVD formula, that it would be with me for my life. Now we have a deal that have movement in it.' (Later on, she told a daytime writer that the staff of Days of Our Lives, who had all been fired last week, were getting their jobs back. And that a striking writer, if fired, had to be replaced by a striking writer. Not a scab, and not a fi-core member."

So what does this mean? To be honest I'm not sure. As I understand it (and I could be wrong) TV networks and shows such as Days of Our Lives can't fire striking writers during the course of a strike without suffering the consequences. Obviously only time will tell what those consequences may be.

Potentially extremely good news! USA Today is reporting "that lawyers could complete a draft copy of a proposed deal with Hollywood studios by Friday." If this happens the proposal would still need to go to the membership and according to the same article "The outcome of the membership meetings could determine if TV networks will be able to salvage the remainder of the 2007-08 season and if the Feb. 24 Academy Awards ceremony can proceed without pickets."

If this turns out be true be prepared to buckle up for a bumpy ride on many of your favorite soaps. Free of the Writers Strike the networks and executives will be free to fire and hire writing staff at will.

Looks like the end is near as the Writer's Guild of America and the Hollywood Studios may have a deal done by this coming week according to MSNBC.

Although work remains to be done on elements of the agreement, prospects for a deal appeared solid, said those close to the situation. The tentative agreement would have to be approved by a majority of guild members. The two sides breached the gap Friday on the thorniest issues, those concerning compensation for projects distributed via the Internet, said the person, who requested anonymity because he were not authorized to speak publicly.

A second person familiar with the talks, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to comment publicly, said that significant progress had been made and a deal might be announced within a week. The people did not provide specific details on the possible agreement. Major points of contention include how much and when writers are paid for projects delivered online after they've been broadcast on TV.

The guild, whose 3-month-old strike has brought the entertainment industry to a standstill, began informal talks with top media company executives Jan. 23 in an attempt to reach a new deal covering governing work for film, TV and digital media.  Negotiations between the guild and alliance negotiators collapsed Dec. 7 after the alliance demanded that proposals for unionization of animation and reality shows be taken off the table. The guild refused.

This may just be in time for the Academy Awards to proceed on February 24 with the full, star-studded ceremony. And it looks like Cindy Adams may have been right after all. However it now remains to be seen what will happen to the soaps once the strike ends. Days of Our Lives has already fired its writing staff so it will be interesting to see what happens with the rest of the daytime dramas.