Comings & Goings

Days of our Lives

It has been three weeks since Ken Corday, Executive Producer and owner of NBC’s “Days of our Lives,” made his first move to save the soap from near oblivion with the firing of Head Writer Dena Higley and replacing her with former “Passions” scribes Marlene McPherson and Darrell Ray Thomas. In the weeks that followed, soap stars Crystal Chappell (Carly Manning), Louise Sorel (Vivian Alamain), Bren Foster (Quinn Hudson), Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe Lane), Tamara Braun (Taylor Walker), and Francisco San Martin (Dario Hernandez) were all out of jobs. If those changes weren’t enough to signal a revolution heading toward Salem, it was definitely made clear with the firing of Co-Executive Producer Gary Tomlin along with the expected returns of Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans), Drake Hogestyn (John Black), and Matthew Ashford (Jack Deveraux) and the rumored returns of several former cast members including Mark Hapka (Nathan Horton) and Bryan Dattilo (Lucas Horton).

With the news that “Days of our Lives” has let Gary Tomlin go as co-executive producer and Soap Opera Network unable to confirm who is replacing him at this time, rumors began swirling that actor Mark Hapka would be returning to the daytime drama series just days after reportedly stating that someone in particular (possibly Tomlin) was in the way of his employment with the show.

Days of our Lives

After a week of unconfirmed (by the show) firings of numerous actors, NBC’s “Days of our Lives” has now fired its co-executive producer, Gary Tomlin. The news was first reported by TV Guide Canada’s Nelson Branco on Twitter. News of Tomlin’s firing comes on the heals of last months firing of head writer Dena Higley and the recent firings of actors Crystal Chappell (Carly Manning), Louise Sorel (Vivian Alamain), Bren Foster (Quinn Hudson), Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe Lane), and Tamara Braun (Taylor Walker).

On Monday, May 23, three days after news broke that Ingo Rademacher (Jasper ‘Jax’ Jacks) had been fired by ABC’s “General Hospital,” Soap Opera Network tweeted that we had exclusively learned that Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo (Brenda Barrett Corinthos) would be the next actor leaving the daytime drama series. On Thursday, May 26, just before the long Memorial Day Weekend, the actress confirmed our report when she revealed that her days with the soap were numbered via her Twitter page. Interestingly, the actress has been tweeting up a storm since revealing the news while keeping mum for nearly 3 months on her twitter account (it had previously been crickets since February of this year). Marcil Giovinazzo’s confirmation follows months of rumors since she revealed in an interview with Access Hollywood Live back in March that she was on her way out.

A few weeks back I reported on my personal Twitter page that two actors would be let go by summer’s end and it wouldn’t be by their own choosing despite how it would be presented by the show. The firing of Ingo Rademacher was not one of those people I alluded to. In an official statement released to ABC Soaps In Depth on their website, the actor said “After 15 years on ‘GH’ portraying Jax I must say goodbye. I’m fired.”

Days of our Lives

NBC’s “Days of our Lives” has cast newcomer Bren Foster in the contract role of Quinn, a character previously known as Fletcher in a recent casting call according to Soap Opera Digest. The character is described as being a “charming businessman with an edge. He can be clean cut or not. He is sexy, mysterious and savvy, has an easy way with the ladies but can be formidable if crossed.” The World Tae Kwon Do Champion’s first airdate will be in May and he’ll share his first scenes with Nadia Bjorlin’s Chloe Lane.

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The Tuesday, February 22 episode of “One Life to Live” will not only give viewers their first glimpse of Andrew Trischitta as a recast Jack Manning, but it will also be the day that the ABC soap begins telling the story of bullying in America. The topic, of course, especially hits home with many children as they prepare to go to school each weekday not knowing if they will be thrown into their lockers with a wedgie or hanging upside down waiting for their lunch money to be stolen by someone bigger than them. Some of them even contemplate the prospect of suicide, which is rumored to be where the show may eventually take the storyline down the road. Wherever the show takes the story, Soap Opera Network of course will be following them every step of the way.

As previously reported, “Days of our Lives” has cast daytime newcomer Francisco San Martin in the role of Dario Hernandez, Rafe (Galen Gering) and Gabi’s (Camila Banus) brother. Interestingly, the actor previously appeared on “DAYS” in mid-November in the role of Javier Rodriguez, a sick patient that died as he was causing a deadly outbreak at Salem University Hospital while in the presence of Melanie (Molly Burnett) and Nathan (Mark Hapka).