Back on April 14, 1983, Kristian Alfonso made her debut as Hope Williams on Days of Our Lives. Today, the actress revealed that after 37 years, she will no longer be calling Salem home.
Days of Our Lives has been a vital part of both my personal and professional journey. I am forever grateful to NBC and the late Betty Corday, who took a chance on me many years ago and changed my life. I have built some lifelong friendships with my extraordinarily talented castmates. Days has one of the hardest working crews in all of television, many of whom have become part of my extended family. I feel blessed and honored to have been invited into people’s homes for over three decades. However, it is now time for me to write my next chapter. I will not be returning to Days when it resumes production in September. I’ve already filmed my last episode several months ago. Finally —to the incredibly loyal fans of Days — many of you have been with me on this journey from the beginning. I cannot thank you enough for your generosity, love and support. I could not have done it without YOU!!!
No word if they will be writing her off or recasting the role. I am assuming by what she wrote, they are killing off the beloved character. As we know in Salem, no one stays dead including Hope. The actress has left the show before and came back, so I would not be surprised if we see her again on the Daytime Drama at some point.
Alfonso did not say what she will be doing next. Since she is 56, she still has plenty of good acting years ahead of her. Who knows, maybe she can share the camera with Lisa Rinna again on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Just like the two of them shared Bo on DOOL. Sadly, it was Robert Kelker Kelly for some of it. Why did anyone think he could replace Peter Reckell?
That is neither here nor there. Are you going to miss Hope?
A week and a half ago, The Bold and the Beautiful went back into production after being on hiatus for three months because of the coronavirus pandemic. They had a successful first day, but they had to take a few days off because the testing facility they used gave them inaccurate COVID-19 results. Once that problem was resolved, they have been back nonstop since last week.
Since they seem to have gotten the kinks worked out, its companion show, The Young and the Restless is going back to work next Monday.
Now that the two CBS Soap Operas are back on the job, General Hospital is getting ready to do the same. According to Deadline, they are hoping to start filming again in mid-July.
Unlike the other Daytime Dramas, Days of Our Live still has a few more months of new episodes in the bank. Therefore, we don’t know when they will get back to work. The other three shows have been without new episodes on the air for over a month. In the Soap world, that is an eternity to a Soap fan.
Last week, The Bold and the Beautiful was the first scripted show to go back to work after the coronavirus shut down in March. At the end of the first day that they resumed shooting, the Soap announced that they were taking a break. However, they did not say why.
Now we know why. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the testing lab that they used sent the Soap Opera back several false positives for COVID-19. They switched labs, and no one tested positive.
The show wants to make sure that “our testing protocols were at the highest standard.” Now they are.
Since all of that has been squared away, they are set to resume filming today. Hopefully, all the kinks are worked out.
It stinks being the guinea pig, but we are grateful someone volunteered for the job.
If today is successful and all goes according to plan, then its sister daytime drama The Young and the Restless will be back at on July 6th. Then, I am sure the rest will follow.
The Bold and the Beautiful finally went back to work today, one of the first on-camera programs to do so, after being on a forced hiatus for three months due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the momentum did not last long.
According to Variety, the daytime drama will be taking a few days off starting tomorrow. A spokesperson for the Soap Opera explained to the trade, “We have paused very briefly to modify our testing protocol to better accommodate the large volume of testing needed. Safety remains our top priority as we continue to move forward with the production of the Bold and the Beautiful. B&B filmed with cast and crew today and it was a successful first day back at work.”
B&B is expected to resume filming on Tuesday with new episodes airing as early as next month.
I applaud the show for being the guinea pig. Other productions are going to learn from them. This way, when the other shows are ready to go back to work, they will know how to deal with COVID-19 properly.
Someone had to be first, and I am happy it was a Soap. A lot of people put them down, but it is the best learning experience anyone can get in show business. If you can survive working on one, then you can do anything in Hollywood. Don’t knock them. They work really hard, and they put out a great final product in a short amount of time.
Hopefully, B&B can work out these kinks and go uninterrupted until they have a planned time off.
Once they get it down, I foresee a lot of other shows getting back to the grind. Just like during the early days of HIV, when the porn industry had to learn to adapt what is now their new normal, so will the mainstream entertainment industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuqZHJyWXTk
Ever since late March, television production has been halted because of the coronavirus pandemic. While most shows can wait to get back to work a little while longer, soap operas cannot. Now that Governor Gavin Newsom has given Hollywood permission the literal green light to go back to work, The Bold and the Beautiful is going to begin filming tomorrow. They will be the first US broadcast show to do that.
According to Deadline, the cast and crew were all tested for COVID-19 yesterday. They will continue to be tested from now on to make sure they do not have it. Everyone will be required to wear masks when they are not on camera or in makeup.
To make sure they are following the rules, CBS hired a COVID-19 coordinator to monitor the staff. (Where can I get that job? I have become a terror when it comes to making sure everyone is wearing masks in stores.)
Back to the show, the CBS soap operas, B&B and The Young and the Restless, were the first daytime dramas to run out of new episodes back in April, so it makes sense that they would be the first to go back to work. B&B is also the only half-hour show in the genre, so it is probably easiest for them to return.
However, they will not be returning to normal. Writers are reworking the scripts to have smaller amounts of the cast members on the set at any given time. They will also be working shorter hours so that they will have less interaction with each other.
Hopefully, things will go smoothly for them because everyone will be watching them to see how everything turns out. If they f*ck it up, everyone else will be f*cked. No pressure at all.
No word when their new episodes will start to air, but it could be as early as next month.
We do not know when the other soaps will go back into production, but Days of our Lives still has a few months of new shows in their stockpile. They should be last, since they are a well-oiled machine.
