LYNDA HIRSCH ON SOAPS -- Q&A by Lynda Hirsch on Creators.com

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LYNDA HIRSCH ON SOAPS -- Q&A

Q: I felt awful when I heard that the actress who played Alice on "Days of our Lives" died. Are they going to mention the actress's death on the show? If they do, will the character die? — Martine, Las Vegas

A: Ken Corday, the executive producer of "Days," has known Frances Reid, who died at the age of 95, since he was a teenager. His parents, Ted and Betty Corday, created the show.

"Just like the viewers, I have so many fond memories of Frances," he relates. Corday also knew that she was one to speak her mind. "If you wanted the truth … Frances always (had) it."

He says it is very important that the show honor the actress, who was on the program's first episode. He tells Soap Opera Digest: "The way we're going to deal with her death on screen is we're not going to one day walk downstairs, as it was with Mickey, and say, 'Oh, Grandma's dead' and then have a day or two where everyone comes to the show and we have a funeral and you cut to Marie for one line and Doug and Julie for one line and it really becomes 'lip service' to such a great character. So, what we've decided to do is we will play her as being ill and the end is coming and one by one, characters who loved her dearly or are related to her, from the past, will come to the show and 'visit' with her.

You can start to imagine the list. I don't know what we're going to do with Bill Horton, because the last person who played him was not Ed Mallory, it was Chris Stone, who is gone, too, so that will be a little tricky. We're working that out. And unfortunately, because we're so far ahead into writing the show, it won't air really until the end of May sweeps. But I believe it's far better to do it that way (than) to just have a day or two of she's gone, here's the funeral and on we go. It's too important and there are too many individual relationships that needed to be remembered and have flashbacks as opposed to a flashback show. I think it's an honest and sensitive way to deal with something like this. It will give the audience time to prepare, even though many of our fans know this has happened. We will put a bumper up at the end of the show on February with a picture and her dates, but it's impossible to stop the machine now, write a show or two in the next week and bring everyone in. It was just not the right thing to do."

We will let you know who is going to be on the guest list. While there is no official word, Melissa Reeves (Jennifer) has to be coming home to visit the grandmother who raised her. Now that Reeves' real-life husband, Scott Reeves, has signed a four-year contract to play Steven Webber on "General Hospital," perhaps she will stay at "Days" for more than a visit.

To find out more about Lynda Hirsch and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.