Ron Carlivarti is out at Days of Our Lives as head writer after seven years with the soap.
While change is always difficult, this could be good news.
Carlivarti deserves credit for righting the ship after the previous writing team’s disastrous storylines. However, his stories have grown stale and repetitive, so a change is long overdue.
(Peacock/Todd Williamson)
Ron Carlivarti Corrected Some Major Wrongs
He Resurrected Will Horton And Made Salem Far More LGBTQ+-Friendly
When Ron Carlivarti first joined Days of Our Lives, many fans were fuming over the death of Will Horton.
Related: With Representation Declining Industry-Wide, Is TV Failing Its LGBTQ+ Viewers?
Will was one half of Salem’s first male-male couple, and he was strangled to death in an unnecessary serial killer storyline that claimed several characters’ lives for no good reason.
Some fans felt Will’s death was blatantly homophobic, especially because Gabi returned soon afterward and was given custody of Ari over Sonny despite having been in jail for murder.
(Peacock (Screenshot))
Fans weren’t the only ones disgusted; according to Soap Opera Digest, Alison Sweeney refused to return to set until Will’s death was undone.
Carlivarti set about doing that almost immediately upon taking the reins.
He also introduced more LGBTQ+ characters and gave Days of Our Lives its first bisexual storyline when Allie questioned her sexual orientation after becoming attracted to Chanel.
Unfortunately, Days of Our LIves’ Ron Carlivarti corrected the Will situation via a silly story in which Will had been given a resurrection drug that brought him to life but zapped his memories so that he thought he was EJ — his stepfather.
The resurrection drug became an overused plot device, with many characters coming back from seemingly certain death.
(Peacock / Days of Our Lives)
Carlivarti’s Most Controversial Storyline Became A Repeated Beat
Abigail’s DID Was A Problematic Storyline That Fed The Writer’s Obsession With Doppelgangers
Early on, Carlivarti wrote a story involving Abigail having Dissociative Identity Disorder that left fans divided.
Related: 19 Most Moving Mental Health Stories On TV
It was bad enough that Carlivarti’s story bore little resemblance to real-life DID. Abigail had no history of sexual abuse and named her alternate personalities after people she knew in her life.
Worse, the story featured a scene in which Stefan deliberately provoked Abigail’s dissociative state so that he could ask an alternate personality, Gabby, to have sex with him despite knowing that Abigail’s main personality did not consent.
(NBC / XJJohnson (JPIStudios.com))
Days of Our Lives writer Ron Carlivarti rightly had Chad and Abigail label this as rape, but Stefan never faced any consequences for it, and in later episodes, it was referred to as an affair.
It also didn’t help that it led to a story in which Abigail wasn’t sure which man was the father of her baby, leading the story down the path of tired TV tropes.
Abigail was shipped off to Florida for treatment and came back integrated in a matter of months, which wasn’t realistic.
This was par for the course with Carlivarti, who didn’t always write mental health stories appropriately.
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JJ’s Suicide Attempt Was The Strongest Of These Stories
It Was Controversial Despite Being One Of The Few Stories To Fully Utilize Casey Moss’ Talents
One of Carlivarti’s most memorable storylines attempted to address racial bias in policing.
Nobody expects a soap opera to be nearly as realistic as a show like Blue Bloods, which is dedicated to showing the NYPD in a fair light, but Carlivarti tried his best.
Related: Holly’s Overdose Is The Perfect Opportunity for This Days Of Our Lives Character to Return
The story had a lot going for it. JJ shot Theo, whose family he’d been close with forever, after mistaking a handheld scanner for a gun.
(NBC)
JJ felt so guilty that eventually, he attempted suicide, while Abe sat vigil at Theo’s bedside and swore he’d never forgive JJ.
These were important feelings to address, and the storyline was full of family drama, with Jennifer taking JJ’s side while Abe took Theo’s.
However, these kinds of stories work best when they are more morally ambiguous so that the audience can debate who is right or wrong.
Instead, when JJ caught Theo breaking into a warehouse, instead of following directions, Theo turned and pointed a gun-shaped object at JJ, making it seem like anyone who claimed racial bias was being ridiculous.
This led many fans to feel that the issue wasn’t being explored fairly and that the only emphasis was on JJ’s guilt.
JJ’s suicide scenes were among the best that Days of Our Lives had to offer. JJ wrote letters to his loved ones and had newly-created flashbacks of times he felt he’d let them down before being saved at the last minute by Gabi’s arrival.
(NBC / Days of Our Lives)
This was a perfect setup for a moving story in which JJ explored his past through therapy and took time to heal, but Carlivarti didn’t follow up on it appropriately.
JJ had one therapy session, if you can even call it that, over breakfast with Eric and left as soon as the conversation became uncomfortable.
Related: 7 Ways Days of Our Lives Could (and Should!) Be Using JJ Deveraux
Soon, he was fine and dealing with his girlfriend Lani’s belief that he was cheating on her with Gabi because she saw them hug.
When Lani became pregnant, she pretended JJ was the father so that he wouldn’t become suicidal again, which made a mockery out of a serious issue.
When the truth came out, even highly moral Abe was supportive of Lani’s lies, further perpetuating the myth that people with mental illness should be treated as if they can’t handle life’s stresses at all.
(Peacock (Screenshot))
These Storylines Point To Bigger Weaknesses That Need To Be Addressed
Carlivarti Wrote Too Many Similar Stories By The Time His Run Ended
Carlivarti often started mental health storylines and didn’t finish them properly. He did the same thing with physical health stories.
He loved doppelganger stories a little too much, and that’s why so many stories ended up being ridiculous. For example, a moving story about Marlena having a DNR turned into Hattie pretending to be her so the real Marlena could be hidden in the hospital basement and continue to get treatment.
Bonnie switched places with Adrienne, Kristen kept forcing Susan to switch, and an utterly ridiculous story had Kristen wandering around town with magic masks that turned her into a perfect double of any character she wanted to pretend to be.
These stories gave Days of Our Lives opportunities for meta humor, but come on! How many doppelganger stories did we need?
(NBC / XJJohnson (JPIStudios.com))
An Infamous Time Jump That Was Just As Quickly Forgotten
This Unnecessary Story Was Done Just To Be First
One thing the new writing team can’t easily correct is the time jump that Carlivarti inserted into Days of Our Lives.
Carlivarti had Jennifer wake up from a coma and learn it was a year later. It was an interesting concept that no American soap had done before, and for months, viewers were left guessing how to fill in the blanks in various stories.
Time jumps are great if they’re needed. Neighbours used a similar concept after its 2023 reboot, complete with a flashback week in which characters and viewers learned everything they’d missed.
In Carlivarti’s case, however, it seemed like he did the time jump to create something novel and then quickly dropped it. The new writing team needs to avoid this; it cheapens the show and makes it less enjoyable.
(Peacock Screenshot)
One Of The New Writers Has Been The Showrunner Before
Paula Cwikly Wrote For Days of Our Lives In 2002
With seven years’ worth of material, Carlivarti had many strong stories and many ridiculous ones, and it would be impossible to list them all.
Related: The Age of Nostalgia: Why Young Audiences Are Seeking Out Old TV
His stories have grown stale because he keeps repeating beats and doing things that are completely over-the-top and ridiculous, like bringing Orpheus back as part of a story in which Marlena, Kayla, and Kate all spent three weeks in Heaven before turning out to not be quite as dead as reported.
A new writing team can help breathe new life into Days of Our Lives by giving viewers different stories than what we’ve seen before.
In this case, it helps that Paula Cwilky was the showrunner before.
She wrote stories that were more sensitive to issues related to sexual assault and abuse, such as Nicole’s original storyline, without sacrificing drama.
(NBC / XJJohnson (JPIStudios.com))
We can expect that she’ll take the series in a different direction along with her new writing partner, Jeanne Marie Ford.
Ford worked under Carlivarti on One Life to Live, but that doesn’t mean she won’t rein in the more ridiculous aspects of his stories.
It’s also a smart decision to hire two women to head the writing team, considering the behind-the-scenes scandals and the allegations actress Arianne Zucker has made against Days of Our Lives.
Over to you, Days of Our Lives fanatics! How did you feel about Carlivarti’s storylines? Do you think Days of Our Lives will be better off or worse off once the new writers’ material begins airing next April?
Hit the comments and let us know!
Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekday mornings at 6/5c.
