Days Of Our Lives
DAYS Ron Carlivati Shares What's Great About Penning A Soap: "One Day You’re Writing Action/Adventure, One Day You’re Writing A Romance …"
Photo Credit: S Bergman/ABC
It’s almost here DAYS fans! We are just about 20 days and counting till new Days of our Lives head writer, Ron Carlivati’s material begins to air when it kicks-off on the July 19th episode of the NBC sudser.
The Daytime Emmy-winning scribe shared his thoughts on his career, and living in his New York City home away from home, the Hamptons where he frequents during a feature for Dan’s Papers
When asked about his new gig at DAYS, Carlivati expressed: “I started (working at Days of Our Lives) in January, which is crazy because nothing I’ve written has been on the air yet. They film six months ahead. My first episode airs in four weeks. It’s very strange, I’ve written five months of material, stories with a beginning, middle and end, and they haven’t even started (airing).”
The head scribe notes his take on soap opera storytelling noting what is paramount and notable in daytime dramas to make it all work: “What’s great about this genre is one day you’re writing action/adventure, one day you’re writing a romance, a comedy …”
Carlivati also discusses his career path from a lawyer to working up the ranks to head writer at One Life to Live, his dream job: “I told everyone I talked to that I wanted to be a soap writer and that my dream show was One Life to Live. Then, I went out for a friend’s birthday and a guy overheard a friend and I talking and he said, ‘Oh, my friend works for a soap opera, One Life to Live, as a writers’ assistant.’” Next thing you know, Ron got a job as an assistant and the rest is OLTL history, and it eventually landed him at GH for four years as head writer, too.
So, what do you think Carlivati has in store for the characters of DAYS? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
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Hope he keeps the Kayla and Steve alive and sweet!
Me too
I wish Ron could have talked Days out of the six (6) months in advance shows; however, I love Ron’s previous work , therefore, I’m looking forward to his work on Days. Isn’t Ron the one responsible for Sonny ‘s imprisonment for shooting A.J. and Michael’s common sense for breaking ties with Sonny? I loved that because Sonny needed consequences. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
You are not wrong. However, Sonny’s penance was short-lived and a big let-down; while Michael is a traitorous wimp.
Ron needs to revisit and “adjust” that indignity by righting a wrong. The same applies to Ava for killing Connie.
There’s no justice on soaps, LOL.
Above reply should have been written in the past tense. Excuse the oversight.
No, you’re right–that was Ron, and I appreciated it too, because for once, someone was calling Sonny on his behavior–which never, ever happens as you know.
Thanks, Michael. It gets confusing sometimes with all these writers playing musical chairs. LOL.
I cannot wait for Ron’s stories to air. He kept us on the edge of our seats at One Life to Live. I am especially looking forward to see what he has in store for Eve (Kassie DePaiva).
“… am especially looking forward to see what he has in store for Eve (Kassie DePaiva). ”
Goddesses’ in this genre.
Kassie DePaiva
Eileen Davidson
which will take awhile.. as they do have 5-6 months in the can… so it seems like November and / or December for both these ladies
as I’ve posted… I just want them to become fast friends… and take over.
I will begin to watch DAYS again when Eileen Davidson returns and does her arc. I absolutely love her on DAYS (and Y&R).
RC; ” I’ve written has been on the air yet. They film six months ahead. My first episode airs in four weeks. It’s very strange, I’ve written five months of material, stories with a beginning, middle and end, and they haven’t even started (airing).”
Look at this!
”stories with a beginning, middle and end, and they haven’t even started (airing).”
He wrote- ”beginning, middle and end” contained in a 6 month run..
AWESOME!! Now that is a plan ..
no time to get bogged down in a boring 1-2 years of the same ol boring story..
DYAM! I miss that man !!!
I want RC back with GH !!!
Ronald David “Ron” Carlivati (born November 25, 1968) 49yrs old
when with GH – 43.. younger yet with OLTL..
He is indeed the youngest writer..
and—
Sunday, February 19, 2017 (started writing for Days-
Ron Carlivati Wants ‘Days of our Lives’ Fans to Laugh, Cry and Yearn for Couples
Posted by Roger Newcomb
It may not be the latest “Plan to Save Days of our Lives” but in the current issue of Soap Opera Digest, executive producer Ken Corday previews what to expect under new head writer Ron Carlivati.
“He will bring to the show things that the show hasn’t had for quite a while,” says Corday. “What he said to me is that he wants the show to make you laugh again and he wants the show to make you cry again and he wants the show to make you yearn for certain couples again as opposed to, ‘Why are they doing this? Why are they doing that?’ So he will resolidify shortly after his tenure starts. We will see couples that I’m a big fan of and that I think viewers are big fans of, as well.”
Opinion
Carlivati was able to deliver wonderful humor as head writer for both One Life to Live and General Hospital, so we can expect the same on Days. It will honestly be a nice change from the current state of the show.
I don’t watch Days and I don’t care for Ron’s particular style of writing.
I am only here for the cheese & crackers and to read SUO’s comments.
su0000, I was just about to say, a story with a beginning, middle, and end! Who wouldah thunk, huh?
su0000, I should have added, I wasn’t a fan of Ron’s writing on General Hospital; however, given the state of DAYS, things can only go up. The show is a train wreck right now! The teen scene is running (and ruining) the show, and those “actors” need to be shown the door! #cleanhouse
One of my favorite things that Ron did at GH was to finally stop making Sonny and Jason the ‘heroes’ of the show, and made their stories share equal air time with others. Jason was no longer the one to always be the savior – John McBain actually beat Jason to some saving. Sonny was no longer the grand master, untouchable center of the show as Todd Manning actually came in and didn’t give a damn who Sonny Corinthos was. There was more than the mob and mob related stories for a change (yeah it was dopplegangers and masks and people who thought they were vampires, but that was so welcome after years of a mob-centric show).
Yep Mike you have that right I respect him for one thing he did not kiss the ring of MB the biggest cue card reader in the industry . Myiggest wish is to be named EP over at GH and bring a big broom and sweep out the mess ! Sigh!!
Agreed, Mike; although, I could have done without the masks and vampires, lol.
K/Kay, laughing over, “did not kiss the ring..” haha!
This is clearly a desperate, last ditch attempt to save Days from going under. This man is highly overrated as a writer, IMO. He nearly destroyed GH with his usual ridiculous, campy nonsense and was fired from that show not even two years ago! Even worse, he has a gigantic ego and cannot take even the slightest constructive criticism, lashing out at fans on social media. That’s disgraceful. These shows have to stop recycling the same old, same old hacks once and for all. How about a young, humble, up-and coming person who actually has fresh ideas on how to bring this genre into the 21st century already?
If I were a Days loyalist, I’d be very worried that my soap’s fate is hanging in the balance with this arrogant man given the keys to the car. Looking at the ratings, Days has to be thisclose to cancellation. And it’s utterly ridiculous that the show STILL films six months ahead.
Yes, Nick, I agee–“highly overrated.” I don’t like his “campy nonsense” either! Yes, “how about a young, humble, up-and-coming person with fresh ideas”? What a “fresh” and “refreshing” idea!
But Days isn’t like the other soaps. Days is silly and campy and that’s what its viewers enjoy. If they wanted what is classified as a “normal” soap they would watch one of the other three.
For whatever reason Days fans like the low budget, cheap looking, poor lighting campy, and to say that they’re wrong isn’t for others to say.
If they like it then more power to ’em.
Thanks for your comment, Nick. After reading previous comments, I was wondering if Ron C. is so great, why didn’t General Hospital keep him?
I am a long time Days viewer. (Started watching in 1966-1967.) However I am not at all excited about having Ron C as the new head writer. I think they should have kept Dena H. I know the show suffered when Hope shot Stefano, but Dena wrote that show out of a deep hole. It took time to come out of the mess that Josh G. had made. I think she was judged too soon. The recent storylines have been interesting and increasingly more so. I am sorry to see Dena’s writing come to an end. I would like to have seen what she would have done AFTER writing Days out of that deep pit.
I hope at some point in the future Dena will have an opportunity to return to Salem. I read she has no plans to do so, but I am hoping over time and if the opportunity arises, she will have a change of heart.
Nick, I agree with you, I was not a fan of Ron’s writing. I thought his writing was very campy and immature; however, DAYS is basically in the toilet right now. It’s unwatchable, IMO. I am one of the very few who is not social media, so I can’t speak for his comments/reactions.
Sadly, while I like him, I feel that in order to get the soaps back on track – we need NEW BLOOD! (Pun intended #vampirestoryline) When I’m watching the shows and know more about how a character would react or speak and could craft a storyline way better than what I’ve seen on the television in front of me, something is indeed wrong with the picture. Across the board, the usual “Who Dun It’s?” are as flat as warm ginger ale. When’s the last time we had a good murder mystery on any of the surviving soaps and one that had a BIG payoff? Character reveals (Nell on GH) make no sense whatsoever as if the storyline changed mid way through.
“Flat as warm gingerale”–an apt description indeed.
The Nelle “reveal” was just so stupid. It made absolutely no sense for anyone (Jax) to think to contact Nelle’s father for a black market kidney. Also, there was a rewrite in the middle of the story. The story was flat and stupid from the beginning and the writers lost their focus and didn’t know how to gain control of the story.
My hope is that we will have our core characters stay true to who they have been for years. I can tune into DAYS and don’t even recognize some of my favorites anymore. It has been ridiculous the last several years. I would like to see John and Marlena become THE core couple as once was Tom and Alice Horton. Have stories of their own but with others coming to them for help and advice. And I would love to see characters have more than a one minute conversation. I’m having some great faith in Ron. Hoping he can bring back some magic to DAYS.
And don’t touch Kayla and Steve! Hands off!!
He’s so cute
Ron Carlivati is the best in the business right now along with maria arena bell , Scott Hamner ( son of the late earl hamner ) . These are the only ones who can write decent stories with some creativity and imagination . Charles Pratt jr is burned out at least for now . Very disappointed in his writing of Young and restless , after the years he spent writing the soap santa barbara during its golden years and how great the writing was i was stunned to see he wasn’t able to elevate young and restless to that quality and standard . What’s for sure is that a good soap needs all these ingredients : love , romance , action , adventure , tragedy , triumph , excitement , all kinds of accidents and perilous situations , a good murder mystery every now and then , occasional serial killer , a villain or psycho every now and then , humor , some socially relevant stories from time to time . But a soap doesn’t need the same boring triangles , marriages that end after 6 months , characters constantly coming back from the dead ( sick of the magic drug , he / she was in fact in a coma , magic doctor who performed a resurrection miracle ) , the show must not be boring , can’t have characters constantly talking over drinks or coffee .
Sorry, but no, especially to Maria Arena being one of the best. She was, and still is, one of the worst in the business. And, in truth, Ron is far from the best in the business. He has his good, but he also has a lot of bad.
i love the type of writing that maria bell and ron carlivati deliver where there is action and excitement . i am not a fan of sally sussman , dena higley , altman and pssanante type of writing that is very slow , boring with characters sitting down in bars and restaurants drinking coffee in full introspection . I was a fan of the daytime soap Santa Barbara , the Dobsons with other writers wrote amazing stuff , one life to live in the 1980’s was great too and so was Guiding light through the decades . This is the type of writing , type of style in storytelling that i like . I am not saying that maria or ron are prefect but in an industry where so many great writers have passed : william j bell , douglas marland , agnes nixon , claire labine , james e reilly to name these few or have left the industry such as the dobsons ( a shame in my opinion ) or have lost their writing skills such as charles pratt jr or josh griffith i do see only maria bell and ron carlivati capable of making daytime soaps exciting , fun to watch with interesting stories .
Nicholas, you must be the person who enjoys plot-driven stories instead of character-driven ones, which is exactly what Maria Arena and Ron Carlivati tell. A constant re-telling of past and retconning to fit their own liking, and then ignoring their own retconning. And to compare them both to the legends that came before them is insulting to those who have passed, and I am sure that they are turning in their retrospective graves. And if you were a fan of those that came before our time, then you’d be enjoying Sally Sussman’s work on The Young and the Restless, as she is someone who trained and worked under William J. Bell, and her ways of telling story are very classic soap opera, but in a modern take. Yes, she could put a bit more POW! in her writing, but she’s doing a fantastic job as making it character-driven for the first time in 10+ years.
i didn’t compare them to the legends , these legends were legends and i sure do respect them . We obviously don’t see things the same way , that ‘s o.k with me . While i respected and admired the effort that was the late soap ” Generations ” that sally sussman created and wrote i did not find it all that great and exciting and it was cancelled after 2 years . The soaps that i liked and was a fan of were santa barbara ( my favourite ) , guiding light , one life to live , another world , all my children , bold and the beautiful ( first decade ) . that ‘s my taste in soaps . I will not include as the world turns because i never watched it : doesn’t mean obvously that it was a bad soap . Yep i am from the santa barbara , guiding light , one life to live soap school . That’s the future scott if we want this medium to survive .
Happy to see that Days of our lives greatly improved this week . You can tune back in , the soap is worth watching again . You need to watch all of this weeks episodes . Deimos was punished , won’t tell you how but Days is finally back in business . I managed to watch all these episodes without turning it off , it was that great .
DAYS really did improve, nicholas! There was plenty to love, but what stood out to me was when the party guests were feeling the effects of the “Halo” Deimos spiked their drinks with.
Ron’s work will defintely put a smile on my face.Kish and Brucas were awesome.Can ‘t wait to see Sami,Will,Kristen.Days is a disaster hopefully all the couples can have a good love story.
Looking forward to seeing Ron’s stories air. Maybe I’ll start watching DOOL again on a regular basis instead of just once in a while.
Ron C., will do just fine. He will bring humor, drama, romance and action to DAYS, which it so desperately needs. To be perfectly honest the show is too stiff in acting, writing and directing and Ron is the guy to give the show life. Hopefully, Ted the reboot Corday and NBC will give him time to do it. The show has good acting talent that needs to be challenged.
Days Of Our Lives
WATCH: ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ Cold Open: ‘Days of our Impeachment’
In a week that saw Days of our Lives make the mainstream news media, Saturday Night Live decided to spoof the current President Trump impeachment hearings and turn them into its own amped up soap opera, with special guest star, Jon Hamm. The hearings are also currently upsetting many a soap fan its pre-emptions of their network daytime dramas.
Courtesy/NBC
In the SNL cold open; Mad Men alum Jon Hamm took on the role of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor. Kate McKinnon reprised her portrayal of President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, while Heidi Gardner played a fainting soapy impeachment hearing attendee.
Meanwhile, SNL’s Alex Moffat played House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and Mikey Day served as “cross-examiner” Republican Rep. Jim Jordan. Cecily Strong took on the role of former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and Pete Davidson portrayed attorney Michael Avenatti. Then, Kenan Thompson stopped by as suspended NFL player Myles Garrett and Melissa Villaseñor played “telenovela sensation,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
As “AOC”, Melissa says: “This hearing is lacking one thing — a star!” . She then let her hair down and makes out with Taylor played by Hamm.
Now below watch Days of our Impeachment and let us know what you thought of the send-up via the comment section below!
Days Of Our Lives
DAYS Brock Kelly and Y&R’s Donny Boaz Make Debuts: What Were Your First Impressions?
This week saw the arrival on the soap scene of two characters who look to figure heavily into story in the towns of Salem and Genoa City. First, over at Days of our Lives during their first week of episodes with their time-jump, Brock Kelly appeared in his first scenes as Evan, the manny, to little David.
On DAYS, Evan looks to being taking an interest in a grieving and distraught Sonny (Freddie Smith), who is dealing with the anniversary of his mother’s death and that his husband, Will (Chandler Massey) is in prison for the crime that killed her (whatever that is has yet to be revealed).
For Brock Kelly this is not his first time on DAYS, having last been on the show back in 2005 as Abigail’s (then played by Ashley Benson) first boyfriend, Josh.
Over at Y&R, the much talked about Chance Chancellor finally arrived in Genoa City, and already had a confrontation with Cane (Daniel Goddard), helped save the day in a hostage crisis, and more.
Actor Donny Boaz has already mixed things up with many a resident of the town and shared scenes with Michelle Stafford (Phyllis), Mark Grossman (Adam), and more. This is Boaz’s first daytime soap. The last time Chance was in Genoa City he was played by John Driscoll.
From the looks of it, Y&R has major plans for the character of Chance and it appears that the series will soon reveal some of the layers of his connection to Adam, and figuring out who is behind the new will that emerged out of nowhere of the late Katherine Chancellor that has caused turmoil for so many.
If you caught Brock or Danny’s debuts; what were your first impressions? Let us know via the comment section below. (more…)
Days Of Our Lives
Melissa Reeves Talks On DAYS Time-Jump; Paul Telfer & Eric Martsolf Chat Between Their Scenes On ‘Inside Salem’ Podcast
On the latest episode of NBC’s Inside Salem: Days of our Lives Podcast, the special guest is enduring DAYS star, Melissa Reeves (Jennifer), who found herself as the catalyst for the year time-jump and flash-forward that fans are now watching play out on the daytime drama series.
Last week, Jennifer was pushed off a balcony following her wedding to Jack by Princess Gina. And on last Friday’s cliffhanger, Jennifer woke up out of a coma to learn from Jack that she has been asleep for a year.
Now with a year having passed in Salem, Jennifer learns bits of information of what has happened to her loved ones. Meanwhile, Eve is in lock-up for the crime against Jennifer, and it appears Jennifer cannot put the pieces together of who pushed her on that fateful night to clear Eve.
In addition during the podcast, Melissa chats with host Michael Fairman on the passing of John Clarke (Ex-Mickey), and being one of the core characters tied to the legacy of the Hortons – the first family of Salem.
As to the initial reaction to the time-jump, Melissa reveals that the entire cast was very excited, but all the pressure of the attention to detail was discussed with make-up, hair, and in the writing and production.
Reeves shares the entire DAYS team was up for the challenge. Melissa also reveals during the dramatic scenes where Jennifer’s family was acting emotional circles around her, that she fell asleep during her scenes while she was playing Jennifer in a coma.
Later, Paul Telfer and Eric Martsolf have a little hang out discussion in between scenes, that is often hilarious when you can imagine getting Xander and Brady, and their real-life portrayers, Paul and Eric, in the same room in front of a microphone.
To listen to the latest podcast go to iTunes and download here, or head on over to NBC.com/InsideSalem.
Now below, let us know your thoughts on what Melissa shared regarding the latest developments one-year later for Jennifer Horton Deveraux, and the DAYS time-jump in the comment section below.
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Days Of Our LivesNovember 12, 2019Clarification on Days of our Lives Rumors
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Breaking NewsNovember 10, 2019Networks To Preempt Daytime Programming For Donald Trump Impeachment Hearing Coverage
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Days Of Our LivesNovember 10, 2019Days of our Lives Blockbuster Flash-Forward Promo: Where Are Your Favorites One-Year Later?
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Breaking NewsNovember 13, 2019Former DAYS and GH Star Tyler Christopher Arrested
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Days Of Our LivesNovember 11, 2019Days of our Lives Celebrates 54th Anniversary (Photos)
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General HospitalNovember 12, 2019Anna to the Rescue As Finola Hughes Returns To General Hospital
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Breaking NewsNovember 11, 2019Amanda Setton Cast As GH’s New Brook Lynn Ashton
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NewsNovember 13, 2019Tristan Rogers Making A Return To Y&R