Note on soap magazine publication dates and content of articles/interviews regarding multiple soap stars: Many of the monthly or every other month (and sometimes quarterly) magazines back in the 1980's would be on the newsstands a long time before the date on the actual magazine. We've noticed, for instance, that DAYTIME TV magazine did an interview with Drake in late 1986 about his upcoming wedding, which was scheduled for December 1986, yet the interview didn't appear until the July 1987 issue several months later. Therefore, it might be a bit confusing to read about his "upcoming" wedding in an interview dated July 1987 when you happen to know he was married in December 1986. We've tried to date the articles to match the date on the magazine, regardless of when the events talked about took place. Hopefully it will make sense as you go along!
We've also edited some of the articles/interviews to just include John's storyline, since this is a Drake/John website. We've left out comments and sections about other actors or storylines unless they're involved with John's storyline. This too should be very apparent and clear when we've done that so it makes sense and you don't have to skim through a long article to find the "John parts."
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♥ Daytime's Sexiest Men Twenty-Five Page Booklet Of Hot Pics And Pecs...
The SOAP OPERA NEWS Extra - Daytime's Twenty-Five Sexiest Men:
Introducing a feature you'll find in no other magazine - every issue, an in-depth exploration of one soap topic. It's a special section you'll want to save!
A rogues gallery of guys who take your breath away. Do you agree with our lusty list?
Tune into any soap on any given day and within seconds, you'll see a gorgeous guy. There's no scarcity of chiseled faces, fab abs and perfect pecs on daytime - which means picking daytime's sexiest guys isn't a difficult task. What's hard is narrowing it down to twenty-five.
All of our favorites are handsome beyond belief. But one quality sets these twenty-five men apart - animal magnetism. It's what makes all of them so irresistible. These are the men that millions of women fantasize about dragging off to some desert island or lonely lakeside cabin - and the ones who keep us tuning in.
Drake Hogestyn (John, DAYS):
Tall, dark, handsome, sexy, funny…there are so many adjectives that describe Drake that we could go on all day. On DAYS OF OUR LIVES, he's been known as Roman Brady, Father John and John Black, but Drake's favorite roles to date are that of doting husband and father. He and his wife, Victoria, are the proud parents of four children.
Karen Wolitzer, SOAP OPERA NEWS, 3/25/97
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♥ Special Section The Fifteen Most Popular Soap Stars
7. Biggest Leading Man - Drake Hogestyn, DAYS' John:
Hogestyn's first line on film was, "Hey, what the hell is going on here?" in a remake of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. It must have been a harbinger of things to come: He's had to play some pretty bizarre stuff on DAYS - exorcism and imprisonment by "little people," for starters. No matter how bizarre the script, this former professional athlete always turns in a polished performance.
Hogestyn never gives less than one hundred percent, and the soap world loves him for it. Invite him to a personal appearance - fans show up. Put him on a magazine cover - it sells. Ask him to host an awards show and he'll not only charm the audience, more than likely he'll bring home a statue, too.
SOAP OPERA UPDATE, 4/15/97
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♥ Editors' Choice SOAP OPERA DIGEST Salutes The Best In Daytime And The Winner Is... Kristen's Plan Backfires! DAYS OF OUR LIVES
Even the most impatient DAYS OF OUR LIVES viewer knew that eventually, Kristen's nasty schemes would catch up with her. And during the month of May, they certainly did.
It was the beginning of the end for the DiMera daughter when Susan started seeing Marlena for therapy. Unbeknownst to Kristen, nutty Susan spilled all the details of getting married, giving up her baby and being threatened by an evil woman (or vampire, according to Ms. Banks). To help calm her troubled patient, Marlena gave Susan a rock to rub when things went wrong.
The rock. Here's where things started unraveling. Marlena moved in with John and Kristen, so it was only a matter of time before Marlena met the baby nurse and put two and two together. Sure enough, while Kristen was putting the finishing touches on a secret room to imprison Susan, Marlena discovered the telltale rock. In a matter of minutes, the clever Doc figured it all out. A heated battle between Salem's most formidable rivals ensued, during which Marlena finally read Kristen the riot act. And she didn't leave anything out, from John and Kristen's invalid marriage to Jack's wrongful imprisonment. Deidre Hall really made us feel Marlena's rage and frustration at being duped.
Panicked that Marlena would spill the beans to John, Kristen lured her down into the cellar and locked her in the secret room. Meanwhile, Kristen still had to deal with Laura (who Stefano brain-zapped with the help of Nurse Lynn) and her returning memory. The walls were closing in fast and Kristen knew it. To make matters worse, Laura decided to have Peter's body exhumed to prove he wasn't really dead. Faster than you could say Hamlet, Kristen was in the graveyard with aides-de-camp Viv and Ivan, digging up the body and sending it to the crematorium before the guilty secret was revealed. (Kudos, as always, to Louise Sorel and Ivan G'Vera for their incredible comic timing.)
Just when it looked like Kristen was in control again, she became the victim of the most poetic justice: Susan locked her in the room with Marlena to keep them both away from John, her dream man. Scheming makes strange bedfellows indeed. It was a fitting twist for a character who spent the last year-and-a-half manipulating half of the town.
Throughout this spell of inspired storytelling by Headwriter James E. Reilly, Eileen Davidson's performances have kept us riveted. Whether she's playing Susan, Kristen, Susan pretending to be Kristen or Susan's twin, Mary, she is fully committed to the character - dentures, nun's habit and all. Through Susan's lunacy and Kristen's gritty determination, Davidson knew when to pull just short of being over the top.
Now we're on the edges of our seats waiting for Drake Hogestyn's John to finally get his chance to shine when he learns the truth.
SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 6/24/97
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♥ Thumbs Up! And Down! Best Of Show Or Worse For Wear? SOAP OPERA DIGEST Hands Out Blue Ribbons And Booby Prizes
Thumbs Up! DAYS OF OUR LIVES - That's Entertainment:
We love when a tender soap story makes us cry, but many writers forget that we also enjoy a good laugh. The genre may be called "daytime drama," but it doesn't preclude fun.
Thankfully, DAYS OF OUR LIVES knows how to counterbalance all that heavy drama. Certainly, there's no levity in Hope agonizing over Bo's marriage to Billie, or Jennifer trying to spring Jack from prison, but consider the oh-so-entertaining Kristen/Marlena/John saga.
While Kristen did wreak havoc (putting poor Laura in that drug-induced coma), there were wonderfully campy plot turns. Kristen enlisted the aid of the ever-amusing Vivian and Ivan. First, they dug up a grave (you had to see it). Later, the duo mistakenly tried to kidnap Sister Mary Moira and a distraught Ivan moaned, "This is great. We're not just going to jail - we're going to hell right after."
The best twist? A suddenly not-so-stupid Susan locking Kristen in the secret room with Marlena. The roommates from hell drove each other nuts. Kristen downed pork rinds and complained about Marlena hogging the bathroom. When Susan delivered a meal that included a salad, Marlena grabbed it and chewed on each green with obvious relish so Kristen would be green with envy. But both women lost it when they watched the closed circuit television monitor and observed John and Susan in bed.
Comedy and drama? Now that's entertainment.
SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 7/15/97
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♥ Editors' Choice SOAP OPERA DIGEST Salutes The Best In Daytime And The Winner Is... Payoff! DAYS OF OUR LIVES
Rarely do we laugh out loud at a soap. Rarer still do we do it day after day. But the week of June 23-27 on DAYS OF OUR LIVES was positively sidesplitting - as well as being a hundred percent payoff to a full year of riveting story.
The week began with "Kristen's" wedding to John. Viewers knew the bride was Susan posing as Kristen, but none of the other participants did (including a skulking Stefano). As Kristen and Marlena bickered with each other and tried to escape the secret room, preparations began. Kristen watched in horror as groom John, best man Abe, and attendants Vivian and Ivan donned the Elvis-inspired outfits chosen for them by the "bride." (Abe as Colonel Tom Parker was particularly amusing.) Marlena, of course, howled.
Susan's wedding attire was a tribute to Priscilla Presley on her own wedding day, complete with big hair, bigger headdress and blue eye shadow. The bride primed for her wedding by chatting with her little doll, Lisa Marie. Of course, a human companion might have warned Susan against drinking too much champagne - because that proved to be her undoing.
After Laura burst into the ceremony to try and stop the evil "Kristen" from marrying John, Susan got all shook up. As she fought to maintain control, Laura grabbed "Kristen" and Susan's false teeth went flying across the wedding party, landing appropriately in Vivian's champagne glass. Uh-oh.
As the guests wondered aloud about what was going on, poor Laura was finally able to convince John that Marlena was in the house. Vivian and Ivan led John to the secret room, where Marlena and Kristen had succumbed to gas fumes. Kristen came to first, and in a last-ditch effort to get John to legally marry her, requested the ceremony start immediately. A confused John agreed. Just then, Marlena burst in, with Laura in hot pursuit.
As Marlena detailed crime after crime (after crime!) committed by her archenemy, Kristen's wide-eyed protestations of innocence were probably the funniest of all. "John, I hate to say it, but is it possible she could be possessed again?" wondered Kristen in that woe-is-me persecuted tone she has perfected after lying all these months.
John stood there, baffled. In one corner was his former wife and true love, Marlena, citing chapter and verse about how evil Kristen is. In the other was the woman he believed to be his current wife and the mother of his new baby. Not even a seasoned former cop like John could have figured out the countless stunts Kristen had pulled to hold on to him.
And this is where we must laud Drake Hogestyn for his believable portrayal of good guy John. Yes, there were telltale warnings, like a pregnant wife who wouldn't let him touch her for the last four months of her pregnancy. But John's charm derives from the fact that he always sees the best in people. We have praised Eileen Davidson before for effortlessly mastering this triple role, and given kudos to Deidre Hall for her believable portrayal of a heroine who is not always heroic. But the only reason this storyline worked as well as it did - for as long as it did - is because Hogestyn made us believe that despite all the signs, John is generous, not stupid, which is what we loved about this character in the first place.
In the end, Susan told the truth, John chose Marlena, Kristen pulled a gun and the cops hauled her away. This was the ultimate payoff. Only a hound dog would disagree.
SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 7/29/97
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♥ The Best And Worst 1997 Hits And Misses...
The Best And Worst Of 1997:
The past twelve months on the soap calendar have seen the sensational (DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Kristen weaving her web of deceit), the shocking (Abby gunning down her attacker on GUIDING LIGHT) and the downright sick (PORT CHARLES' interns drilling a hole in poor Audrey's head).
In 1997, soaps devised all manner of stories and stunts to attract lost viewers. Who scored? What made us snore?
Most Tortured Couple: John And Marlena, DAYS OF OUR LIVES
The race wasn't even close this year. Brave, noble and so achingly unselfish that we wanted to toss our remote at the television. John and Marlena have earned the title of soaps' most put-upon pair.
Crazy Kristen, her fake pregnancy and faux son separated them for the first half of the year. How could John desert his "wife" and baby to be with his love? After Marlena finally revealed Kristen's lies, she and John reunited in an evening of passion that was so perfect, we knew there was trouble ahead. Big trouble. It arrived in the form of Marlena's not-so-dead (but dying) ex, Roman. How could she not be at his bedside?
Well, Roman's better now, but he's still fragile. How can Marlena confess she only agreed to marry him because he was about to kick the bucket? So here we are again (sigh!), waiting for John and Marlena to be together, truly together. It just ain't fair.
Best Stories: Kristen's Web Of Deceit, DAYS OF OUR LIVES
The DAYS writers are experts at setting up a fall. So when Kristen Blake finally took a tumble this year, it was a doozy.
We knew Kristen's cockamamie scheme to have a pregnant Susan (who was one Elvis impersonator short of a lounge act) assume her identity would eventually unravel. And sure enough, quicker than you could say "Blue Suede Shoes," Susan was spreading her special blend of...er...charm around the DiMera mansion, caring for John, Jr (AKA Elvis) and taking her role as Kristen's fill-in a little too seriously. In the meantime, Marlena was on the verge of uncovering Kristen's web of lies and wound up imprisoned in the secret room. When Kristen landed in there, too, loose-cannon Susan (and her active libido) was unleashed in the manse. The stage was set for the fall.
But nothing prepared us for the Susan-style wedding (Vivian dubbed it "Nightmare at Graceland") that ultimately revealed Kristen's machinations, exposed Susan's impersonation and served to reunite the year's most tortured duo, John and Marlena. The memory of Susan's teeth flying into Viv's martini glass still makes us smile, six months later.