The TV Zone

"Days of Our Lives," the veteran NBC soap (43 years old and counting), will tackle autism on the June 24 episode, and this one hits close to home -- it's a story based on the experience of head writer, Dena Higley, who raised an autistic child, now 19.

NBC, which will partner with Autism Speaks for this episode, cites a "growing" autism crisis, and that hardly seems to be an overstatement. (Doesn't everyone know someone who has a child with autism?)

From the press release: "In the creative arc to continue through the summer, Dr. Lexie Carver (Renee Jones) and Commissioner Abe Carver (James Reynolds), are told their 3-year-old son, Theo, has autism. The news of Theo's diagnosis is understandably hard for the couple to comprehend, but ...they learn a lot about their family and how to cope with this tremendous, new challenge."

"Days" airs in NYC from 2pm to 3pm weekdays.

Big week in soapland. On Friday, CBS’ “Guiding Light” goes to a new production model of shooting on-location and in more realistic four-walled sets with handheld cameras, trying to freshen the look of the uber-traditional daytime drama genre.

And this Thursday afternoon at 3, ABC’s “General Hospital” starts climaxing its big Text Message Killer story by employing movie-like special effects to portray victims dangling from rooftops and cars plunging off bridges.

“GH” dabbled in these effects in its late-night SOAPnet spinoff “Night Shift,” and now the green-screen/CGI process makes its way to daytime. If it flies with producers and viewers, the low-budget soaps would be able to stretch their production dollars without costly night/location shoots or crashes/explosions.

“GH” is well-positioned to take advantage of Hollywood effects, since it shoots in a sprawling old movie studio there. (“All My Children” and “One Life to Live” work in cramped Manhattan stages.) Helping create the Text Message Killer climax (running over at least the next three episodes) was Stargate Digital, a visual effects company that also works on such high-profile projects as “Heroes,” “ER” and “Nightmares and Dreamscapes.” Stargate also creates "Ugly Betty's" Manhattan and Queens exterior “location” shots on Hollywood soundstages. (Look real, don’t they?)

See “GH” before and after examples below.

And if you catch their work on “GH” this week, let us know what you think.

Daytime drama keeps plugging onward, despite the writers’ strike, and despite controversy in the tightknit soap community about the effect of “scab” scripts on the struggling genre.

So the networks are throwing some stars onto the screen to maintain viewer interest. Mario Van Peebles [in ABC photo above] joins the cast of ABC’s “All My Children” Tuesday (Jan. 29), as Samuel Woods, a prosecutor for whom “sparks fly” when he meets Susan Lucci’s indomitable Erica Kane. (Turns out Van Peebles isn’t new to soaps, either. He played Doc Gilmore on “One Life to Live” back in 1982-83.)

And onetime "Partridge Family" mom (then "Drew Carey" love interest) Shirley Jones [in NBC photo at right] joins “Days of Our Lives” Thursday (Jan. 31), playing matriarch Colleen Brady, who’s supposed to be dead. (Video preview here.)

Also arriving is a big star in the soap firmament -- Sarah Brown, a fan fave on ABC’s “General Hospital” in the late ’90s as the conniving Carly. That role now belongs to the firmly established Laura Wright, so Brown hits town Thursday (Jan. 31) in another one, playing a sexy new lady mobster. (Hey, wasn’t that the title of a Susan Lucci TV movie?)

That’s on top of “AMC’s” big recent return of ’80s supercouple Debbi Morgan and Darnell Williams as Angie and Jesse. He's dead, too. But in soapland, nothing's everlasting.

It’s better than being decked by linebackers.

Former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms guest stars as himself on the longrunning soap “As the World Turns” Monday (Oct. 8) at 2 p.m. on CBS/2. Simms now analyzes the NFL for that network.

The soap story has Simms showing up at the local Oakdale TV station so Katie (Terri Colombino) and Brad (Austin Peck) can surprise J.J. (Daniel Manche).

[CBS photo by George DaSoto/JPI.]

SOAPnet is reconfiguring its weeknight schedule of prime-time repeats.

“The Young and the Restless” moves to weeknights at 7 (and midnight), with “Days of Our Lives” heading to 11 p.m. on SOAPnet, effective today. Both soaps continue in weekend cable marathons.

The channel’s current schedule (with printable version, too) can be found here.

Vanessa Simmons from MTV's "Run's House" starts appearing on CBS’ “Guiding Light” this week as “Lola, a woman with an eye for Remy Boudreau (Lawrence St. Victor),” says the network.

You can watch the daughter of former Run DMC front man Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons on TV weekdays at 10 a.m. on WCBS/2 or online anytime via CBS’ web site.

She’s also online in “Run’s House” episodes here.

[Photo by George DeSota/jpistudios.]

Bye, bye, Asa Buchanan. The cantankerous coot kicks the bucket this Thursday on ABC’s “One Life to Live” daytimer, necessitating a Friday funeral that brings back series grads for the soap’s 10,000th episode. (“OLTL” premiered July 15, 1968, two years before lineup-mate “All My Children” and four years after “General Hospital.”)

On hand for his Friday sendoff will be such ex-“OLTL”ers as “Firefly” star Nathan Fillion (who once played grandson Joey), Dan Gauthier (recently Joey’s brother Kevin), John Loprieno (Asa's son Cord), Tonya Walker (Asa’s ex Alex) and James DePaiva (Asa's “son”-who-wasn’t, Max). [Above in ABC photo: Fillion and Gauthier with "OLTL" star Erika Slezak.]

Phil Carey, the movie veteran who essayed Asa for nearly 20 years, refused the show’s move from regular to recurring status, so off his character gets bumped. Too bad -- his Texan trouble-making was always a welcome shot of adrenaline, even when the 82-year-old New Jersey-born actor was acting from a wheelchair after health woes. The soap benefited hugely from having a presence of his magnitude. Asa’s absence has already been felt, and the character’s official death (though nothing is ever “official” in soapland, is it?) can only dig a deeper hole.

"One Life to Live" airs locally at 2 p.m. weekdays on WABC/7. Repeats can be found on cable's SOAPnet weeknights at 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., and the following weekday at 8 a.m. Weekly marathons air Sunday 6-11 a.m.

CBS just started streaming three of its soaps in same-day web offerings. “Guiding Light,” “As the World Turns” and “The Young and the Restless” can now be viewed at CBS’ innertube site after 6 p.m. ET the day of airing. (Click the “All Shows” option, then “Daytime.”) The network says the episodes will stay online free for a week.

Handy to have ’em available anytime -- there’s even the “boss button” used on sports streams to call up cover when the supervisor strolls by -- but it’s hardly the same as watching them on TV. Even on broadband connections, you can see jumpy video, buffering time and other online artifacts. You still get commercials, too. (That’s why they’re free.) But there’s a full-screen option, and you can pause, rewind and fast-forward.

Already posted here: Monday-Wednesday episodes.

[Right: "GL" star Rob Bogue in CBS photo.]

OK, not quite outer space. Just that Earth orbit where satellites live.

NBC’s “Passions” becomes DirecTV’s “Passions” this September when the satellite service rescues the daytime drama the peacock network is cutting loose.

Can “Days of Our Lives” be far behind?

Daytime -- which the networks used to fill with soaps and game shows so their affiliate stations would have a pre-programmed slate -- has become valuable real estate recently as syndicated talk shows have mushroomed. Local stations would rather contract to run the likes of Oprah/Maury/Dr. Phil, where they keep the ad money, than something like soaps, where the networks suck up the bucks.

Meanwhile, daytime dramas haven’t been doing themselves any favors, failing to find ways to modernize plots for new young viewers, while disappointing older devotees by dumping all over established stars and storylines. Ratings for the stick-in-the-mud soaps keep falling, which makes sense, because, really, how entertaining can the same old scripted who’s-the-daddy antics be in a day of “Maury’s” real-world DNA?

So after NBC said in January it wouldn’t be renewing “Passions” (DirecTV announced its acquisition last week), that put “Days” in danger as the network’s sole remaining sudser. Plus, “Days” is produced by an outside studio, and today’s deregulated networks would rather run shows they own. (ABC, for instance, makes all its own soaps.)

DirecTV’s pickup of “Passions” -- to air on its original programming channel, The 101 -- is designed to lure over some of the show’s 2 million viewers, a piddly number for networks but a big ’un for satellite originals. The soap’s run on NBC (which, ironically, produces “Passions” through its owned NBC Universal studio) ends Sept. 7. The show then re-premieres from orbit Sept. 17. (How much of the existing cast/crew will make the move hasn’t been announced.) It’ll air weekdays in the same 2 p.m. time slot, and DirecTV throws in weekend encores, a la cable’s SOAPnet.

Which is where one might expect “Days” to land if NBC and/or the producer files for divorce. SOAPnet -- created by ABC in 2000 for nighttime encores of its daytime dramas -- has struggled to create signature programming to take it to the next level. The channel ended up canceling originals like “SoapTalk,” leaving it dependent on nightly repeats of that day’s “Days” and other soaps. An original soap of SOAPnet’s own -- well, not exactly “original,” but well-established already and airing fresh episodes rather than repeats -- might just do the trick. And NBC shows all the signs of giving up on soaps completely. “Days” daytime broadcast ratings have been falling like a rock. Yet they’re still a level up from “Passions,” which might now entice SOAPnet. Besides, “Days” has a much more invested audience, after 40 years on the air and some serious seasons of glory in there.

But none of this seems to address the central crisis afflicting soaps today: How to create 21st century excitement in shows behaving in 20th century ways? Plotting is recycled from decades back. Gender roles and cultural values are too often dated. The shows are low-tech relics in a high-tech universe, in terms of both their Luddite conduct (it took forever for characters to get cell phones, learn to IM, et al) and also their cheesy low-definition videotape look. Daytime dramas simply feel like your mother’s genre -- if not your grandmother’s -- which isn’t exactly the prescription for attracting a new generation of fans.

“Passions” making the satellite move doesn’t by itself change that. But it does shake up the status quo. And that’s a start.

[Top: Adrian Bellani and Heidi Mueller of "Passions." Above: Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans of "Days." Both NBC photos by Mitchell Haaseth.]

Big soaps news this week:

BETTY WHITE is joining the cast of CBS’ “The Bold and the Beautiful” on Dec. 1 for a limited run as Susan Flannery’s mother. (Who knew she even existed?) Inside word is the cool tube veteran -- White starred in her first series in 1954! -- will hit the show like a typhoon. Read more at the CBS soaps site.

“PASSIONS” episodes just started streaming online after their broadcast debut. They’ve been available for download purchase at iTunes, but now you can watch ’em for free at nbc.com.

PASSIONS -- Pictured: (l-r) top row: Eric Martsolf, Adrian Bellani; bottom row: Charles Divins, Galen Gering, Mark Wystrach -- NBC Photo: Chris Haston