Book Review: "The Days of Our Lives"

When I’m not watching TV or writing about TV, I’m reading books about TV. What can I say? I have limited interests…

The latest TV-related book is “The Days of Our Lives: The Untold Story of One Family’s Dream and the True History of Days of Our Lives” by Ken Corday. Corday has been the show’s executive producer since 1985.

Corday has a great writing style and the story of his parents, Ted and Betty Corday, and how they created “Days” is a good read. And the tragic story of Corday’s brother and his battle with mental illness is fascinating and gives great insight into the heart of the Corday family.

But let’s face it. If you’re reading this book, you’re reading it for gossip about “Days.” And unfortunately that’s in short supply here. I know it would be hard to tell every little story from 25 years, but a few juicy ones would be nice. And the juicy ones that Corday does mention, he says so little that he comes off like a tease.

He mentions how the Salem Stalker storyline (in which several longtime characters were killed off and later were revealed to be alive) ended up betraying the viewers’ trust and ultimately leading to lower ratings (an opinion I completely agree with, by the way), but he doesn’t elaborate enough to give us the full picture. And one must wonder why he didn’t fight against his head writer (the late James Reilly) a little harder. He also tells how he was forced to lie to the entire cast about the “deaths,” but he didn’t really share much about their reaction when he revealed the truth.

He praises John Aniston (Victor) as an important part of the cast (which he is), but he gives no insight as to why Reilly wrote him out of the show twice. Perhaps he didn’t want to speak ill of Reilly. But if you’re not going to dish the gossip, why write the book?

He hints that NBC played hardball during every renewal negotiation, but he never elaborates on why or what happened. I’m sure he doesn’t want to step on any toes, but why mention it at all if we’re not going to get the whole story?

And he praises Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall (John and Marlena) for everything they did for the show, but he totally breezes over why he had to let them go. I think we all want to hear the explanation for that one.

Like I said, Corday’s family history is interesting and nice to read, but that’s not why you buy the book…

“The Days of Our Lives: The Untold Story of One Family’s Dream and the True History of Days of Our Lives” is available now…

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