A not-so-funny thing happened to DAYS's Michael Sabatino (Lawrence) on the way to the producer's office--he got fired! on June 28, Co-Exeutive Producer Tom Langan paged him. In a few seconds, the actor's mood went from light-hearted to bleak.

Since Langan was on the phone, Sabatino waited in the outer office, and accidentally got an earful. "I heard Tom call out to his secretary, 'Please connect Thaao to wardrobe,'" Sabatino recalls. "I thought, 'I only know one Thaao--that's Thaao Penghlis [ex-Tony DiMera] and connect him to wardrobe [must] mean this person's coming back. Why would they want to bring back that kind of controversial character?'" Sabatino immediately realized the answer: The count is an elegant, rich European with Gothic overtones -- much like Lawrence Alamain. They must be getting rid of him.

According to Sabatino, once inside Langan's office, "Tom said, 'as you know, we're going to end this character.' I said, 'No, I had no idea.' He said, 'Oh, yeah, we're going to wrap it up. If you can give us another six weeks, we'll give you a happy ending.' Then he said,' Good luck,' shook my hand and I left. I was stunned!"

Sabatino's real-life significant other, Crystal Chappell (Carly), is leaving, too. The duo are planning to play "a sailor and a bar maid" in a new play called Sea Marks.

Editor's Note: A DAYS spokesperson confirms that Langan asked his secretary to transfer Thaao Penghlis to wardrobe, "but only because Thaao and [costume designer] Richard Bloore are friends. We do not have a signed deal with Thaao." The same source confirms that Langan asked Sabatino to extend his stay a bit "to help us wrap up the storyline."

Carly's & Lawrence's Last DAYS

~SOAP OPERA UPDATE: Sept. 7, 1993~

Crystal Chappell Speaks Out!

When Crystal Chappell started on DAYS three years ago, Dr. Carly Manning was a young doctor in Tahiti with a mysterious past. In short order, we learned that she was really heiress Katerina von Leuschner, betrothed to the devious Lawrence Alamain. After a quick marriage to Victor Kiriakis, Carly seemed headed down the aisle with Bo Brady. But the fact that she and Lawrence are the parents of a young boy, Nikki, permanently derailed any future with Bo. Now it seems, to the fans' delight, that Lawrence and Carly will be reunited before heading off into the sunset in October. Were there any more stories about Carly left to tell? Chappell doesn't think so...and now we'll never know.

What I will miss the most...

I'll miss a lot. The security of the paycheck was great. On a personal level, the character; I loved playing her. I'm going to miss seeing faces I've seen for three years, the show itself, and the fans. The whole thing was so much fun. It's been like this really big carnival ride and I'm going to miss that.

My funniest experience....

I've had a lot of light moments. I've been lucky to work with people who have a sense of humor about the material, and people who know how to play. I've laughed a lot. I don't know if the producers really appreciated that, but it was pretty harmless.

My most difficult scene to tape....

I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel for a long time during the whole 'Nikki killing Lisanne' thing. But I think that what I've been doing recently was the most difficult. Being buried alive...the circumstances are just so grotesque. I was lying in that coffin for two weeks. I've seen enough of dead people in coffins for a while.

My favorite storyline....

I loved the whole beginning. It was fun to find out who this character was. Right about that time we did the Cancun remote. Unfortunately, it was just a few months before Peter (Reckell, ex-Bo) left. All of it was starting to gel for me. The character was really cool for me, and I really liked her strength and independence, her sarcasm and dry wit. And it was fun. We had a lot of fun times around Cancun, and of course, very romantic times. And the trip was great. That would probably be my favorite.

On Lawrence and Carly being a couple...

In the past three years, Michael and I discussed this and we never really wanted the characters to get together. We kind of liked having just the animosity between the two and playing that. But when the recast of Bo was made, and it wasn't working out (between Bo and Carly), according to the producers, and they wanted to split these two up, Michael and I started to spin some relationships in our heads and see what we could do with it. So that was a lot of fun, to try and come up with ideas. I had gotten used to the idea of making it work with Lawrence and Carly, and I thought it could be a lot of fun and really interesting. So I am a little disappointed.

On their final exit...

I'm happy for the characters. I'm sorry for Michael. Katerina and Lawrence are not really connected to the Brady and Horton clans, and you really need to be connected somehow and have a family to live long in Salem. I'm biased, but I think Michael's such a talent, and he's so incredibly gorgeous. He's an established villain and the possibilities are endless for that type of character and that type of actor. I'm kind of sorry for DAYS; I think they lost a really great villain in Michael. The characters didn't necessarily need to go off together. Or they could have gone off and Lawrence could return for one last terrorizing event.

What lessons I've learned...

Easy come, easy go. You really have to just live for the moment and love what you do while you're doing it. Sometimes I wish I could go back and not be so tired, and not be so worried about trying to make sense of it all. We had a lot of changes and it got to be very confusing, but I wish I could have just let a lot go a lot easier. What I've learned is to just make the best out of it while you're doing it and loving it.

Regrets that I have...

Regrets? No. Everything that has happened, everything that I've learned, it's all just made my life a lot better; it's made me a lot stronger, a lot more confident and a lot more knowledgeable.

My plans for the future...

It's kind of an exciting time, but I think I need some downtime to recover. I need some time to just rest. Soap operas are brutal. Now that I see an end to it, my whole emotional and physical systems are just slowing down and I'm feeling the weight of the past three years. And the pace that I have been living has just caught up with me. I'm going to take some time off because I want to be fresh when I go out again. I want to really be ready to start auditioning and pounding the pavement again. I'm going to try and do some comedy and do some stage work and see where it goes. And I like daytime. I would do another soap.

A message to my fans...

You've been really great friends to me and very supportive and I've learned a lot from you. And I've learned a lot about myself from you. I can't thank you enough. You're really the reason why this character is as popular as she is, and the reason I've been given so much work to do the past three years. I'm very grateful for that.

Michael Sabatino Speaks Out!

Michael Sabatino didn't think there was much of a future for a character like Lawrence Alamain on DAYS. After all, the royal heir was responsible for the death of the beloved Patch, and raped the even more beloved Jennifer. But only in daytime (with some standout acting!) could something so vile be overcome. Three years later, Lawrence has become the classic soap villain -- feared, pitied and revered all at the same time. All of his life, Lawrence has pursued the one woman that he could never have, Katerina (Carly), and now with Chappell's departure, it appears that the bad guy will indeed win the girl before the final credits roll. Sabatino never expected to stick around Salem, but now that he's been asked to leave, the actor's sad to see Lawrence, happy or not, come to an end.

What I will miss the most...

I really had a good time playing this crazy, eccentric, emotional villain. I'll miss that because it was such a delicious role and there were so many dimensions to it. I really enjoyed Lawrence Alamain. I'll miss him.

My funniest experience...

The first week I worked, I worked with Matt (Ashford, Jack) and Missy (Reeves, Jennifer) and the director was talking to us over the loudspeaker on stage and said, 'We've got a cut coming up.' Everyone got their pens out and he said, 'Page eight is out.' Matt tore page eight out of his script and threw it away, and I was waiting there for them to explain how we got from page seven to nine. And no one said a thing, we just went on. I realized it made just as much sense to go from seven to nine as it did to go from seven to eight.

My most difficult scene to tape...

I knew, going in, there was going to be the rape of Jennifer, and even though nothing was really shown on camera, it was just so violent I had a tough time with that. And when that day came and went, it was a very important day for me because I felt it was a big indication that I would just be there for a short time.

Why I'm surprised Lawrence lasted as long as he has...

The told me coming in that I would be killing one of their most beloved leading men, Patch, and then around week 10 or 11 I would be raping the ingenue, so I figured this was a short stint. But when it kept going, they said, 'We're going to try to redeem you.' Suddenly I looked up and it was three years. The audience just loved to hate this guy. The DAYS fans were so supportive and they were so great. I'm going to miss them, too. They were so vocal and they really communicated a lot to me about what they liked and what they didn't like about this character.

My favorite storyline...

We spent over a year with the Nikki storyline, and at times if just seemed so long, and it just didn't seem to have a lot of dimension to it. It seemed like a nine-year-old kid manipulating a couple of adults. But finally, when we got into this very bizarre world of Vivian and herbs, and burying Carly alive, they started giving me a whole lot of stuff to play: basically, the loss of Carly for this guy. I really enjoyed that and really had a good time with that. There was a lot of meaty stuff there and it was really fun to play that.

Regrets that I have...

It was a very difficult time for DAYS the last three years. When I first came in, the show was in transition. In the first two years of my deal we had seven headwriters, and four different producing teams in three years. The stability was very difficult because my character was a villain.

What lessons I've learned...

I have incredible respect for daytime actors and writers. it's an amazing volume of work people have to put out every week. It's just so different from primetime, and it's just incredible the energy people put out. I think it's the hardest work an actor can do. I really enjoyed it and I'd love to continue in it. I hope that I'm considered for other shows, because I'd love to be able to get into a new story and churn this thing out for the next couple years.

My plans for the future...

Working as an actor is a great privilege...but I'm really tired. After we wrap the story up, I just want to take off a couple weeks, maybe three or four, and just kind of recover from it, because it has been such a great output of energy. But I'm open to anything. I'm looking forward to going back to my theater company and doing some work on the stage. Anything's possible.

On the rumors about joining THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS or THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL...

When this whole thing came down a few weeks ago, it was incredible to so many that a lot of people were calling and saying, 'Is this true?' So that kind of led to that kind of conversation. I personally don't know of any kind of role coming up on either of (executive producer) Mr. Bell's shows that would be right for me. But I certainly would not say no.

A message for my fans...

Certainly, I lost my job and I don't feel good about that; but in going out and meeting the fans and seeing the reaction and how supportive you are, it made my job worthwhile and a lot of fun. Of course the fans would ask. 'How long will you be there?' and say, 'Don't ever leave.' I feel badly because I had another year left on my deal, and I told them I would probably be there until August of '94, if not longer. I felt this kind of character could work as long as they wanted him to. I would just like to say that I'm sorry I'm not going to be there. I sincerely thank you for being so supportive of this character with all of its baggage, pro and con. I think you are the reason that my character lived for three years.