Browsing: Greg Meng

If you feel like your memory has gone bad after hearing earlier this year that former “One Life to Live” star Kassie DePaiva (ex-Blair Cramer) had joined the cast of NBC’s “Days of our Lives,” you’re not alone. The actress, who began filming at the soap in early February, will begin airing on Wednesday, June 18 in the contract role of Eve Donovan (previously portrayed by Charlotte Ross), when the character comes face-to-face with Dr. Daniel Jonas (Shawn Christian).

While Prospect Park’s The OnLine Network (TOLN) failed to re-launch “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” to a brand new audience via the internet last year, Corday Productions, which produces NBC’s “Days of our Lives,” has joined with All Screens Media, an international interactive digital media company founded by former Comcast digital media executive Peter Heumiller, to form a new online network dedicated to the soap opera and telenovela format. Per Variety, the production entities have joined together to form NetSoaps Net Novelas LLC (NSNN), which will strive to develop domestic (Net Soaps) and international (Net Novelas) online soap operas for a new generation of soap fans. Net Soaps will be geared toward American and English speaking audiences while Net Novelas will be targeted toward Latin American and Brazilian audiences.

The Great White North is currently experiencing quite a “dramatic” invasion: Several stars from NBC’s “Days of our Lives” have crashed into Canada for an exciting promotional tour!

After fans began speculating on her possibly joining a soap following a January 8 posting on her website, which said, “Good things are ahead this year and I hope to have more to report very soon,” NBC’s “Days of our Lives” made it official: Soap veteran actress Kassie DePaiva is joining the series in the contract role of Eve Donovan (originated by Charlotte Ross).

Recasting pivotal roles always comes with a rollercoaster of equal parts praise and equal parts critique, but “Days of our Lives’” decision to recast the role of Will in what seemed like mere moments after the announcement that Chandler Massey was departing the role has seen rumblings closer to an earthquake than a mere thrill ride. Viewers have questioned whether the show’s decision to bring Guy Wilson in was a way to stick it to Massey for leaving the role he’d made popular over the last three years, and some even questioned why Massey was leaving the show in the first place. The Backlot, an online publication that calls itself the corner of Hollywood and gay, managed to snag an interview with “DAYS” co-executive producer, Greg Meng, to get the inside scoop!

It seems everyone is hopping aboard the healthy living train these days, and the cast of “Days of our Lives” isn’t excluded: Several of the sudser’s stars have opened up and shared their secrets on how to live a healthier and more balanced life for the show’s newest book, Better Living: Cast Secrets for a Healthier Balanced Life, which hits newsstands on Tuesday, September 24! And with just 19 more days to go until the big day, several of the stars featured are gearing up for a national tour to promote the book that they’re hoping will change your lives forever!

Shortly after winning his second consecutive Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series last month, “Days of our Lives” star, Chandler Massey, announced plans to depart the NBC Daytime drama series after portraying the role of Will Horton for the past four years. The actor stated he wants to go back to school and he wouldn’t be able to do that while under contract with the soap.

“Days of our Lives” Co-Executive Producer, Greg Meng, chats with Soap Opera Network on the renewed success of the soap, how the show has been able to sustain itself for so long with its storytelling, the possibility of slowing down the filming schedule (currently four months ahead of airdate!), a new “DAYS” book (“Days of our Lives Better Living: Cast Secrets for a Healthier, Balanced Life”) and much, much more.

Since it was first announced that Prospect Park’s The OnLine Network was looking to once again revive “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” after they were canceled by ABC in 2011, it has been said that the company planned to take the shows into a sexier and edgier environment. In a recent teaser released by iTunes for its launch of the two soaps, Erika Slezak (Victoria Lord, “OLTL”) is heard saying, “My agent said, ‘What do you want in this contract?’ I said, ‘No nudity!” Fans shouldn’t expect anything too racy on either show as Prospect Park co-founder Rich Frank admitted to Michael Maloney, Contributing Editor at Bauer Publishing for Soaps In Depth, in an interview with Variety. “We are going to be a little hotter and sexier,” said Frank. He added, “That doesn’t mean we’ll be doing anything that’s offensive. We’re trying to be contemporary and have storylines that are relevant to people’s lives.”

Although Soap Opera Digest has since “confirmed” their story on the ouster of several “Days of our Lives” stars with a show representative, according to its website, one actress appears to not have been told as the magazine stated. In fact, it looks like if the firings do hold, actress Sarah Brown (Madison James) has not been told by her bossess of any change to her status with the NBC daytime soap.

In an interview posted earlier today by TV Guide’s Michael Logan, it looked like Co-Executive Producer Greg Meng was alluding to the possible ouster of actress Sarah Brown when he stated “we also brought in the wonderful Sarah Brown [Madison James] and threw her into a lot of material very quickly. Maybe too much too quickly.” Sadly, it looks like he was indeed commenting on Brown’s character on the show in past tense.

TV Guide’s Michael Logan got the first real interview with “Days of our Lives” Co-Executive Producer Greg Meng, just days after the soap fired its head writing team and replaced them with the team of Gary Tomlin and Christopher Whitesell. In the interview, Meng promises some epic firings in the coming months!

Editor’s Note: The information is clearly outdated at this point, but “Days of our Lives” issued the following statement to Soap Opera Network just a short time ago announcing (what we’ve already previously reported), that Gary Tomlin and Christopher Whitesell are now heading up the shows writing team effective immediately.

With news of Gary Tomlin and Christopher Whitesell’s ascension to the top of the “Days of our Lives” writing team after the NBC daytime soap let go Marlene McPherson and Darrell Ray Thomas, Jr., less than a year after the two were hired to replace Dena Higley, Soap Opera Digest in its newest issue (issue dated April 16, 2012) is reporting that Tomlin and Whitesell has added the multiple Emmy award winning talents of veteran writer Lorraine Broderick to its new regime.

As Soap Opera Network first reported yesterday evening, Lisa De Cazotte has been hired to fill the shoes of the departing Noel Maxam as Co-Executive Producer of NBC’s “Days of our Lives.” In a statement issued earlier today to the press, Co-EP Greg Meng confirmed that De Cazotte will be joining him as Co-Executive Producer and that, “[Executive Producer] Ken Corday is excited to have Lisa join the ‘Days of our Lives’ family.”

Earlier today, Soap Opera Digest shocked the soap world when it reported that after five years on “Days of our Lives,” actor James Scott (EJ DiMera) would soon be vacating Salem after a contract dispute with show producers Corday Productions and Sony Pictures Television hit a snag, now hours later like sands through the hourglass, Scott’s “DAYS” have changed.

NBC’s “Days of our Lives” has released what fans have been clamoring for since the May announcement of new head writers and June’s reveal of behind the scenes changes, your first look at the “New DAYS” that begins on Monday, September 26 with the debut of Marlene McPherson and Darrell Ray Thomas’ material and Greg Meng and Noel Maxam Co-Executing Producing.