days of our lives

Originally, the show revolved solely around the Horton family, and has since expanded to tell the stories of other families, such as the Alamain, Brady, DiMera, Kiriakis, Black, Deveraux, Johnson, and Lockhart clans. The serial is set in the fictional village of Salem.

The first episode

The first episode revolved around teenager Julie Olson (first played by Charla Doherty; since 1968 the role has been played by Susan Seaforth Hayes) stealing a mink from Bartlett's Department Store. She lied about her last name, telling the store detective that her name was Julie Horton. As a result, her grandfather, Dr. Tom Horton (Macdonald Carey) and his son (Julie's uncle) Mickey (then John Clarke) were called down to the police station to resolve the matter. At home, Dr. Tom's wife Alice (Frances Reid) was lamenting the reality of all her children leaving her; her daughter Marie (at that time played by Maree Cheatham) was going to be married to Tony Merritt (Richard A. Colla).

On November 8, 2005, the cable channel SOAPnet aired the first two episodes of the series. Unlike most daytime programming of the time, all of the Days of our Lives episodes still exist. One notable piece of trivia that comes from the first episode is that apparently, Salem was supposed to be Salem, Massachusetts since Marie mentioned moving to Boston once she got married to Tony.

Storylines

The 1960s

In the beginning, when the story did not revolve around either Tom or Alice, the love lives of their five children were put on display. Their daughter Addie (Patricia Huston, then Patricia Barry), married to Ben Olson, had much trouble raising their rebellious daughter Julie as well as their son Steven. Tom Horton, Jr., presumed killed in Korea, came home with a disfigured face and a new identity. Unknowingly, his sister Marie fell in love with him. When they learned of each other's true identities, Marie was so ashamed that she went to live in a convent. Tom and Alice's other children, Bill (originally played by Paul Carr, then by Edward Mallory) and Mickey, fought over the affections of lovely Laura Spencer, played by Susan Flannery.

Julie had a son by David Martin whom she put up for adoption. The child was adopted by Scott Banning and Susan Martin Banning after Susan got out of jail and her own son died. The baby was living with the widow of his biological father.

The 1970s

"The Bill/Laura/Mickey Love Triangle"

Considered to be one of the most beloved Days storylines and one of the longest running of the show's history, the Bill/Laura/Mickey triangle lasted for nearly a decade and was the first major storyline of the series to gain major attention from casual fans due to its twists, turns, use of dramatic pacing, and the controversial use of rape as a major plot element. The storyline began when a temporarily insane Bill Horton raped Laura and impregnated her as a result. Laura sought to pass the child off as her husband Mickey's son but ultimately, it was revealed that Mickey was sterile and the truth about their son Mike Horton's parentage was revealed. Mickey had a heart attack and a subsequent stroke, which caused him to have amnesia. He checked himself out of the hospital and wandered to a farm, calling himself Marty Hansen. During this time, Mickey would meet a crippled farm girl named Maggie Simmons (Suzanne Rogers) and fall in love with her. Ultimately Mickey regained his memory and returned to Salem with Maggie while Laura and Bill would finally marry and have a second child Jennifer.

The Courtship of Doug Williams and Julie Olson

Another popular storyline/couple on the show during the 1970s was the relationship and marriage of wildchild Julie Olson and lounge singer turned conman Doug Williams (Bill Hayes). The two met after Doug was introduced as Bill Horton's prison cellmate, after Bill was convicted of manslaughter against Tommy Horton's wife Kitty. While in jail, Bill accidentally tipped off Doug to the fact that Susan Hunter (Denise Alexander) had come into a big inheritance as her husband was recently deceased (she had killed him, but was allowed to have the money as it was proven she was temporarily insane). After he was paroled, Doug came to town, intent on wooing Susan and getting his hands on some money. Susan would have no part of it, instead having him date her rival Julie. After some soul-searching, she realized that she could not pay off Doug to date Julie, but he told her that she couldn't back out. In time, however, Doug truly fell in love with her.

Doug and Julie had a rough time getting together, as Doug had once married her mother Addie (at first he was only using her for her money, but then they fell in love, even though he still loved Julie). Addie's bout with leukemia cemented his bond to her, and she bore him a child named Hope while she was in a coma, near death from cancer (Addie was over 40 during her pregnancy; she had assumed that she had started menopause, but found out otherwise). Not long after, Addie died; she was hit by a truck as she pushed her young child's stroller to safety. Even then, Doug and Julie were not free to be a couple. Julie was trapped in a loveless marriage to Bob Anderson, and although she did not want to be wed to him, he gave her security. Eventually, Doug went back to his ex-wife Kim (she had tricked him into coming back to her by saying their divorce was never final). En route, Doug was involved in a car accident and Julie rushed to his side. Julie was divorced quickly and the two were married within weeks (in tune with the viewers' collective clamor to have the characters finally wed). The two remained on the show for several more years before leaving the series during the early 1980s as their characters were being phased out in favor of new characters/relationships, but have since made numerous returns to the show since the early 1990s.

Exit William J. Bell

For its first 20 years on the air, Days was supervised by Betty Corday (her husband Ted Corday created the show but died less than a year after the premiere), with her son Ken taking an increasingly large role in production. The show's initial storylines were co-written by the Cordays and Irna Phillips but the first real success began in the late 60's when William J. Bell took over as head writer, and H. Wesley Kenney was hired to oversee production as well as direct. He created the Bill/Mickey/Laura triangle, a popular rivalry between Julie Olson and Susan Hunter, and was considered such an integral part of the program that when he left the series in the early 70's to create The Young and the Restless, NBC sued him to make him stay. Bell agreed to provide story outlines which would run up to 1975-1976.

Enter Marlena Evans and the Brady Family

The expansion of the show to an hour allowed the writers to expand the focus of the show beyond the Horton family. The writers created a brand new family in the form of the middle-class Irish-Catholic family "The Bradys", who were anchored by Shawn and Caroline Brady and featured an assortment of children including Roman (originally played by Wayne Northrop) and Bo (played by Peter Reckell). Meanwhile the show began to focus more and more on an assortment of doctor characters introduced onto the show, who gained popularity amongst viewers.

By the late 70s, the popular character was Dr. Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall), who was a favorite of then head writer Pat Falken Smith (who took over after the departure of Bill Bell). Marlena quickly became the show's main heroine and started a popular romance with lawyer Don Craig (Jed Allan). They had a son (D.J., who died of SIDS). After her marriage to Don ended, Marlena became the focus of the Salem Strangler, a serial killer whose unwanted attentions caused Roman Brady to move into Marlena's apartment. Proving opposites attract, Marlena and Roman became romantically involved. The romance appeared to be short lived, when the Salem Strangler was seen killing Marlena. Fans picketed NBC studios, but writers quickly revealed that it was Marlena's evil twin sister Samantha (who had been played by Deidre Hall's real-life twin Andrea for five years) who had died instead of Marlena, and the show finally reunited Marlena and Roman, and they became the show's main "supercouple".

The End of Laura and Bill

The show ended the decade with a literal bang as longtime favorites Bill and Laura Horton were written out of the show in a controversial storyline involving mental illness and adultery as Bill began cheating on Laura, whose mind had become horribly unstable due to years of hiding the identity of her son Mike's father from him. Laura began a slow and steady breakdown culminating in a nightmarish sequence where Laura forced her daughter Jennifer on a bus all by herself. After which, Laura attempted to hang herself. Laura was placed in a mental institution and entered into a catatonic state while Bill shamefully left Salem. Jennifer was sent to boarding school.

Bill and Laura's exit was part of a shift in the show that would come to be known as the Valentine's Day Massacre. Over six months, and around Valentine's Day, fourteen characters were written out of the show. They included Bob Anderson, Brooke Hamilton, Margo Horton, Linda Anderson, Phyllis Curtis, and Robert LeClair. As part of new head writer Nina Laemmle's strategy to makeover the show, nine new characters were written in to make up for the absences.

The 1980s

Behind the scenes chaos

By the end of the 1970s, the show had gone through numerous creative changes behind the scenes. Falken Smith left in the late 70's over a contract dispute and through a slow but steady decline in numbers, turmoil gripped the cast and crew. At one point Susan Seaforth Hayes' mother was head writer. Al Rabin, the executive producer at the time began to phase out people he viewed as contributing to an atmosphere of "negativism". In 1979 and 1980, nearly a dozen characters were written out of the series.

To the surprise of the show, fans were not impressed by the characters who took their place. Nearly one million viewers defected between 1980 and 1981, and of the nine characters introduced in that year, only chanteuse Liz Chandler (Gloria Loring) gained a following and stayed around. Falken Smith was again rehired and her Salem Strangler storyline, along with the intense focus on Marlena and Roman, propelled the show to a revival. Falken Smith left again in the early 80's due to another contract dispute. Perhaps the only low point in her era was a storyline where Doug's long-lost wife Lee (Brenda Benet) agonized over her child's extended hospitalization and illness. Falken Smith did not realize Benet's own child had recently died. Benet performed the scenes without complaint, but one day in 1982 she committed suicide. Days dedicated Lee's remaining episodes in memory of Benet, and said Lee left town.

The DiMera and Kiriakis families

Another addition to the show in the 1980s were the DiMera and the Kiriakis families, which both represented actual blood families as well as the criminal organizations they controlled. Both clans were created by show writers who felt that the series was lacking villains for the main characters to struggle against. It was the series of complications caused by this struggle that led to the "action-adventure" element that virtually came to define the show in the mid-to-late 1980s (and was attempted to be duplicated in the late 1990s and early 2000s). Stories involving police mysteries and spy adventures unfolded, including the creation of a fictional spy agency, the International Security Alliance (ISA) to battle the unusually high-level and far-reaching global criminal conspiracies involving the Kiriakis and DiMera families. Several Salem residents, including Roman Brady, Shane and Emma Donovan, Gabrielle Pascal, Gillian and Grace Forrester, John Black, Steve Johnson, Kimberly Brady, Billie Reed, Philip Kiriakis, Bo Brady, and Thomas E. "Tek" Kramer, were revealed to having served at one time or another with the ISA. The ISA itself has held an interesting position on the show; although ostensibly dedicated to crimefighting instead of traditional political intelligence, its agents have often engaged in "covert operations" types of activities, up to and including kidnapping and assassination, both on foreign and American soil. Despite its stated law-enforcement mission, the ISA often found itself vulnerable to corruption from within and without.

Victor Kiriakis

The Kiriakis family was headed by Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston), a wealthy Greek-born businessman who had ties to traditional organized crime, especially drugs and prostitution, but also various schemes that leaned toward treason and espionage, such as selling government secrets to the Soviets. It's been hinted over the years that although based in Salem, a heavy amount of Victor's illegal operations took place in Chicago, Miami, Stockholm, Naples, and his native Greece. There has also been some uncertainty over the history of the Kiriakis clan as well; in some instances it has been referred to as a very old and powerful dynasty, while other times it has been hinted that Victor himself grew up in much more impoverished circumstances and that his wealth and power stem primarily from his mob activities. Regardless, Victor routinely found himself in conflict with the Salem police department and the ISA over his illegal activities. Despite his evil, Victor had a secret that ultimately led to his redemption: years earlier Victor carried on an affair with Caroline Brady that resulted in the conception of Bo Brady. The revelation that Bo was Victor's son caused Victor to renounce crime and go legit, but the revelation caused problems for Shawn and Caroline Brady's relationship that would last for several years. Caroline's daughter Kim Brady (Patsy Pease) befriended Victor to find incriminating evidence against him, but he uncovered her true motives and threatened to kill her true love Shane Donovan (Charles Shaughnessy) unless she broke up with Shane and married Victor. She did, but soon reunited with Shane and remained married to him for a number of years.

Victor's schemes also involved other villains, including ex-ISA agent Orpheus, Ernesto Toscano, Lawrence Alamain, Vincent Moroni, the drug-dealing Torres family, and of course, the sinister DiMeras.

Stefano DiMera

While Victor mellowed over the years, the DiMeras remained villainous. The family was headed by Italian-born patriarch Stefano DiMera (Joseph Mascolo), who in the early 1980s relocated to Salem. The seemingly aristocratic Stefano headed a mysterious organization that operated on a global level, and was something of a cross between a crime syndicate and terrorist organization. Unlike Victor, who was more of a "traditional" mobster, Stefano was much more refined and intellectual, more of an Blofeld in contrast to Victor's Don Corleone. On a personal level, Stefano had a burning hatred for the Brady family over some unknown slight that occurred in the distant past in Ireland that somehow involved a young Shawn Brady. Stefano also had an obsession with Marlena that was complicated when it was revealed that Roman had previously been married to Stefano's daughter-in-law Anna (Leann Hunley) with whom he had a daughter named Carrie (notably played by Christie Clark). Marlena and Roman would go on to have twins named Samantha (for her late sister) and Eric (for his late uncle). The struggle to eliminate Roman Brady would ultimately result in a complicated, long-running, and often retconned storyline over the "real" Roman Brady and the identity of John Black.

Enter Drake Hogestyn

Controversy began when Wayne Northrop left the show due to problems with the direction of his character. His character of Roman Brady was killed off in 1984 when he fell off a cliff on a tropical island in the Caribbean after being shot by Stefano. In 1986 it was decided by the writers to recast the role of Roman. Rather than just replace him, it was decided to outright explain why he was now being played by a different actor. It was explained that Roman was recovered by Stefano after his fall from the cliff, given immediate medical attention, brainwashed into believing that he was one of Stefano's assassins, given extensive training in the martial arts, and had plastic surgery to give him a brand new face. Temporarily nicknamed "the Pawn", he was actually "auctioned off" by a DiMera henchman named Petrov during an adventure in Miami, with the primary bidders being corrupt ISA Chief Ogden Vaughn, and Victor Kiriakis. Victor won, and returned to Salem with the Pawn, and set about trying to unravel the mystery of his identity for his own purposes. There was even a brief flirtation with the idea that the Pawn was Stefano himself. But the Pawn escaped Victor, adopted the name "John Black" after seeing it on a war memorial, and set about finding about his past on his own, and with his new friend Marlena. Now played by Drake Hogestyn, the character was eventually revealed to be "Roman", and the "Roman"/Marlena relationship once again became popular amongst viewers and they remarried. Deidre Hall left the show in 1987, and Marlena was presumed dead in a plane explosion. Hogestyn stayed on and John/Roman attempted to start several relationships, including an ill fated romance with Diana Colville (Genie Francis, of General Hospital fame), Peruvian mafia princess Bianca Torres, and French prostitute and con-woman Yvette DuPree. He eventually started a relationship with a new character named Isabella Toscano (Staci Greason) (Side note: Hogestyn complained about being on the backburner in several magazine articles before Hall's triumphant return several years later to bring the ratings back up and in the process, help make him the most popular male on soaps), who was the sickly daughter of crime boss Ernesto Toscano (before being revealed as the illegitimate daughter of Victor Kiriakis). The relationship between John/Roman and Isabella, and their connections to the various characters on the show, would lead to one of the most famous "umbrella stories" of the show's run: The Cruise of Deception.

"The supercouple phenomenon"

Meanwhile on rival network ABC, the intense popularity of the pairing of Luke and Laura on General Hospital in the 1980's, led to Days of our Lives to attempt to cash in on the phenomenon of the "supercouple" by pairing off their assorted characters into various relationships. Among Days roster of supercouples were Bo Brady (Peter Reckell) and Hope Williams (Kristian Alfonso), who quickly became the focal point of the show during the mid-80s and helped the show regain its popularity. The show also gained ground with addition of two new characters, Steve Johnson (aka "Patch", due to the fact that the character wore an eye-patch after losing an eye while a Merchant Marine) (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla Brady (most notably played by Mary Beth Evans), whose courtship became a major storyline for the series in and helped to lead to the introduction of another of the show's most popular characters—Jack Deveraux. Heading into the 90's, Carrie (Christie Clark) and Austin (Austin Peck) would become another supercouple, battling for the sake of their relationship against Carrie's scheming sister Samantha (Alison Sweeney).

Bad boy "Patch"

Bad boy Patch (AKA Steve Johnson) first was seen when he was hired by Emma Donovan (Shane's back from the dead and very psycho wife) after she had kidnapped Andrew Donovan, the child of her not so ex-husband and his new wife Kimberly Brady. She hired Patch to break into Kayla's apartment, believing that Kayla had proof of Andrew's parentage. Patch was also connected to town villain Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston), who was involved in various nefarious activities. All hell broke loose when the Salem gang went to Miami to infiltrate Victor's estate—this story occurred during the popularity of Miami Vice.

At the same time, it was shown that Patch also had a past connection to Bo Brady. Both had once been in love with the same woman—a Russian agent named Britta Englund. In a fight over Britta, Bo put Patch's eye out. Because of this, Patch wanted revenge on Bo. Patch terrorized Bo and Hope for some time. On one occasion, he kidnapped Hope and placed a bucket allegedly filled with acid over her head. If she were to move, the plate would spill on her face. Bo rescued Hope, and they discovered that the bucket was actually filled with water. The immensely popular Bo and Hope reunited and were given a lavish wedding in London.

"Patch" and Kayla

After Patch/Steve terrorized Kayla in Cleveland at Emma's request, he was also hired by Victor Kiriakis to follow her around Salem and pick up on any information that would be relevant to Victor (regarding Bo/Hope, Kimberly's kidnapped baby, etc.). Steve found many excuses to hang around Kayla, and it was clear that he was developing an interest beyond what he was being paid to do. Kayla, meanwhile, was suspicious and frightened of Steve, but fascinated and attracted to him at the same time. Thus began a long period of "push and pull" between the two characters while they got to know each other and eventually fell in love. An ongoing theme in the early stages of their relationship was that Steve did not feel worthy of being loved by anyone, let alone a "good girl" like Kayla. Because of this, she had to work very hard to get him to let down his guard and accept her love. It took around six months before the two characters had their first kiss, and another six months before their relationship was consummated. They finally married in 1988, two years after they first developed an interest in each other. They had daughter Stephanie Kay in February of 1990.

When the character of Steve became a central character of the show and a fan favorite in early 1987, the story of his past was revealed. The impetus of this reveal was the arrival of a young woman named Adrienne, who befriended Kayla and worked at the Emergency Center with her. Eventually it was revealed that Adrienne was the sister of Steve, who had never known he had a sister. As a child Steve and his younger brother Billy had been put up for adoption because his father, Duke, was an alcoholic who abused his mother, him, and his baby brother, Billy. In attempt to protect his family, Steve had set a fire at age 5 in an unsuccessful attempt to kill his father. Adrienne had been born after Steve and Billy were given up for adoption. Her appearance in Steve's life was the source of much turmoil and self-hatred for Steve as he tried to shut out the memories of his past.

When Steve's mother Jo (Joy Garrett) followed Adrienne to Salem and re-entered Steve's life, Steve was forced to deal with the realities of his past, and to share his pain with Kayla. Alcoholic father Duke showed up to force Jo to come home with him, but ended up raping his virginal daughter Adrienne in a drunken rage instead. Adrienne shot and killed her father in self-defense, but then blocked out the traumatic incident. Steve took the rap in order to protect his sister, and almost went to jail for the crime, until Adrienne remembered what happened and cleared him at the last minute.

Adrienne and Steve went on to develop a close relationship despite Steve's initial reluctance to accept her. He even became close to his mother Jo, after struggling to deal with his anger at her for giving him away.

Eventually, while still recovering from the incident with her father, Adrienne met and developed a popular fairytale romance with Justin Kiriakis (Wally Kurth).

Steve and Kayla were brought back and "reunited" in June 2006. It was revealed that Steve had not actually died in the accident that had been assumed to take his life in 1990. His most recent memory is waking up in a hotel room in Cincinnati about 3 years ago and having no idea who he was, and then finding an ID that said he was Nick Stockton. He had been working as a hospital orderly in Cincinnati since that time, having no memory of his past. Meanwhile, Kayla had moved to Los Angeles after Steve's "death" and has spent the past 16 years becoming a doctor and raising their daughter Stephanie. She has never gotten over Steve and did not remarry.

Kayla's first sighting of Steve upon his return was in the cemetery where she was visiting his grave. She was thrilled and shocked to see him, but he had no memory of her. Since that time, they have struggled to find some common ground and have started to investigate the mystery of what happened to Steve during those 16 years.

The Deverauxs

In a summer 1987 storyline, Patch helped Senator Harper Deveraux (Joseph Campanella) to fake his death in order to better investigate an explosion that was believed to have been caused by Victor Kiriakis's mob connections. However, when Patch fired the gun, there was a real bullet. Harper went into a coma, sending Steve, Kayla, and the other primary characters in search of who had really staged the shooting and the explosion. Earlier that year, a person from Kayla's past had come to town: the senator's son Jack Deveraux (originally played by Joseph Adams, then by James Acheson), whom Kayla had met at an earlier time in Hawaii, when Jack had saved her life. After the senator finally came out of his coma, it was revealed that Jack was suffering from Hodgkin's disease, which was diagnosed as very probably being terminal. The Deverauxs hired Kayla to be Jack's private nurse.

The Deveraux family, including Jack, his father Harper, and step-mother Anjelica (Jane Elliot), moved to Salem permanently after Harper's unsuccessful presidential campaign, and Jo Johnson (Patch and Billy's mother) was hired as the maid. Jack and Jo formed a tight friendship after surprisingly being drawn to each other. One day, Jack (now played by Matthew Ashford) showed Jo a ring that he hoped to give Kayla as an engagement present, telling her that the ring was special to him since it had been a present from "his mother," who had died when he was young. Immediately, Jo recognized it as the one she had given her son Billy—Jack Deveraux was Billy Johnson. However, when Harper discovered that Jo was the mother of his adopted son, he was willing to do anything to hide it and to keep the truth from Jack.

When Jo told Steve the truth, though, he renewed his vow to protect his brother. Now that he found Billy, Billy was dying, and he could not even acknowledge their relationship. Steve/Patch decided to give Kayla up to terminally ill Jack, so that Jack could marry her and live the remaining time he had happily. Devastated by the breakup, Kayla accepted Jack's proposal and married him. Then, thanks to Dr. Mike Horton (Michael T. Weiss), Jack's Hodgkin's Disease went into remission.

Meanwhile, Melissa Anderson (Mickey and Maggie Horton's adopted daughter) developed a crush on Jack and also discovered that Jack is really Billy Johnson. Also, Harper Deveraux's true homicidal nature began to be revealed, as he was willing to commit any crime to keep his image intact. Harper erroneously believed that it was Kayla (not Melissa) who had Jack's adoption papers—and because he never thought that the working-class daughter of people who ran a fish market was a worthy match for his son, he began to poison Kayla.

Despite months of marriage, Jack and Kayla never consummated their relationship, first because Jack was ill and then because of Kayla's mysterious illness. Realizing that Kayla had married him largely because she believed he was dying, and because Steve had rejected her, Jack offered Kayla a divorce so that she could be with Steve. Kayla, still believing that Steve didn't want her, said that she wanted to remain married to Jack. Becoming suspicious of Kayla's lingering illness, Steve kidnapped her from the Deveraux home. Desperate to find his wife, Jack tracked Steve down, only to discover Steve in bed with his wife. Steve and Kayla swore to Jack that things weren't as he believed; actually things were exactly as Jack believed. Steve and Kayla, still in love with one another, began an affair, vowing to tell Jack the truth after he won the election to City Council.

The rape of Kayla

On the night of the election, an unscrupulous reporter (financed by Harper Deveraux) produced photos of Steve and Kayla in bed together. A furious and hurt Jack went home to confront Kayla with the evidence of her infidelity after months of her coming up with excuses not to consummate their marriage. The argument spiraled out of control, and Jack raped Kayla. Kayla left Jack and told Steve what his brother had done. Steve returned to the loft, confronting Jack in a violent fight that ended up with Jack plummeting off the roof of the building. Jack suffered extreme damage to his kidneys, forcing Patch to make the controversial decision to give Jack one of his kidneys.

Jack was loath to accept his rival's kidney, but ended up doing so. It didn't stop him from continuing to harass Patch and Kayla. Even while wounded, he approached Kayla, who was going in for rape counseling and accused her of ruining his reputation. In the aftermath of the marital rape of his wife, Jack lived in denial. He pled guilty only to a domestic assault charge, refusing to believe that it was rape. Soon thereafter, he tried to locate Steve's missing brother Billy in order to torment his rival some more with hidden skeletons in his closet. In doing so, he unearthed his own baby picture at Steve's house and finally discovered that he was actually Billy. Jo and Adrienne tried welcoming him, and even Patch/Steve tried to welcome him as a brother. Jack, devastated by the revelation of his parentage, rejected them all.

The Riverfront Knifer

Later, a serial killer began killing and maiming women in Salem. Both Kayla and Kimberly Brady were attacked. A few women were killed. Jack became the primary suspect for the Riverfront Knifer and was even arrested for the crime, only for Steve to discover that the real killer was Harper Deveraux. Due to the trauma that Kayla had gone through during the Riverfront Knifer attack, she developed hysterical deafness. When Jack saw what had happened to Kayla, whom he claimed to love, he finally let her go and secretly hired a specialist to fly to Salem to treat her for her illness.

At last free of all obstacles, and with Kayla healed from her traumas, Steve and Kayla finally married in a lovely outdoor ceremony on a yacht. The couple hoped to have happiness at last. Not so happy was Jack Deveraux who, trying to save his shattered reputation, struck up a relationship with Melissa Horton. Melissa was in love with Jack, but he was most definitely not in love with her. He only believed that the Horton name could salvage his image. Discovering that he was only using her, Melissa left Jack publicly humiliated at the altar.

Bring back the Hortons´

As the show regained its popularity in the mid 1980s, it was decided to bring the focus back to the Horton family, which had been marginalized in the early 80s in favor of focus on the Bradys.

An outcast in Salem, hated for the villain that he was, left friendless and loathed, Jack purchased publishing rights to the local newspaper "The Spectator." The newspaper became his life, and it was there that he met the future love of his life, Jennifer Horton (Melissa Reeves). Laura and Bill Horton's daughter Jennifer had been brought back as a wild teenager, sent to live with Tom and Alice Horton, so as to provide the young girl with the stable home that her parents were incapable of giving her. Jennifer quickly became a popular figure and began a friendship with another new character, Frankie Brady (Billy Warlock).

Frankie was a teenager who had been legally adopted by Shawn and Caroline Brady. However, Frankie and Jennifer's teen romance suffered due to Jennifer's growing fear of inheriting her mother's mental instability, especially after she witnessed her mother catatonic in an asylum. These problems were exacerbated when Frankie began having a sexual relationship with his college professor. Feeling betrayed by Frankie, Jennifer broke up with him; when Frankie earned a scholarship to Columbia University, he left town. Jennifer went to Salem University and got an internship at the local newspaper, The Spectator. She also became involved with Emilio Ramirez (Billy Hufsey), who she later discovered was having an affair with the married Adrienne. Upset by this, Jennifer broke up with Emilio. Disgusted with romance in general, she wrote "Love Stinks" on her computer monitor at The Spectator. When Jack Deveraux read the bitter sentiment, he couldn't help but agree.

The "new" Jack and the Jack-Jennifer romance

In the aftermath of the Jack/Kayla/Steve triangle, Jack (under the portrayal of Matthew Ashford) had garnered increasing fan interest and had developed into a complex, conflicted character whose dark edge was complemented with a level of existential angst over his identity (after learning of his motley collection of dysfunctional parents) and over his growing realization of his guilt in raping his wife. Instead of whitewashing the rape, the writers exploited it as a source of great angst, guilt, and regret for Jack as he began realizing the enormity of the crime and the fact that he could never take it back no matter how much he wanted to. Realizing that his biological father had abused his wife and children, and that his adoptive father was a serial killer who had preyed on women, in addition to his own crime against Kayla, convinced Jack that he was unworthy of being loved by anyone and that he was most certainly unworthy of any relationship with a woman.

Enter Jennifer Horton and the beginning of one Days' biggest couples, Jack and Jennifer.

Having graduated from college, while working at the Spectator, Jennifer became increasingly aware that Jack wasn't all bad. He did in fact have a conscience. She became aware of the ways that he would surreptitiously help his mother, his sister, and even Steve and Kayla by anonymously donating money, sending gifts, or help even as he openly continued to reject all of his family. Jennifer became aware that his rejection of his family wasn't a rejection of them, but Jack feeling that he was not worthy of anyone's regard. She began to fall for Jack. And Jack began to fall for Jennifer, but he refused to acknowledge it because he didn't believe that a virginal ingenue like Jennifer should ever hook-up with someone like him.

When Emilio returned to Salem, he wanted to win Jennifer back. The uncouth Emilio felt that he didn't have the polish necessary to win a Horton and so he elicited the help of the urbane Jack Deveraux who agreed to play Cyrano De Bergerac to Emillio's Christian, as Jack gave Emilio the words (*his* words) to win Jennifer. The problem came in that it wasn't Emilio that Jennifer loved. It was Jack. Jack, however, was adamant that they couldn't become involved and used the excuse that he was her boss.

Feisty Jennifer wouldn't take no for an answer and pursued Jack for months, finally giving him the ultimatum that if he didn't admit that he was in love with her, she would marry Emilio instead. Faced with the ultimatum, Jack decided to admit to his love, only to arrive too late to stop Jennifer's engagement to Emilio. Haunted by the memory of his father's and their abusive pasts, Jack didn't again work up the resolve to confess his love until Jennifer and Emilio's wedding day when he dressed up as a fireman, pulled the fire alarm and absconded with the bride. Furious about the interrupted wedding, Jennifer was in no mood for Jack's confession of love... which he didn't make until she had fallen asleep anyway.

The 1990s

The Cruise of Deception

The Cruise of Deception was a massive umbrella storyline that resolved many longstanding plotlines and setting up new, more complex stories in its wake. It also saw the return of Bo and Hope and longtime Days of our Lives cast member Julie Williams.

The plot revolved around Ernesto Toscano's scheme to kill off his assorted enemies, most notably Victor Kiriakis and "Roman Brady"(John Black) over their ties to his daughter Isabella, as Victor was Isabella's biological father and that "Roman" was in love with Isabella, much to Ernesto's disapproval.

Also on board for the cruise were Isabella Toscano, Bo Brady (who was involved in an elaborate scheme to trick Ernesto into thinking he was on Ernesto's side), Hope Brady, Jack Deveraux, Jennifer Horton, and Julie Williams. Luring his enemies onto a cruise ship, Ernesto destroyed the vessel, shipwrecking the characters on an island he controlled. Jennifer Horton finally broke down all of Jack Deveraux's emotional walls to convince him to admit that he was in love with her, leading to the two finally making love (with Jennifer losing her virginity) in an abandoned cave.

As the shipwrecked characters tried to escape the island, the plot came to a climax when Ernesto got his hands on Hope and threatened to drop her into a vat of acid (later, it was retconned that Ernesto traded Hope for a decoy named Greta) and when both Shane and Steve arrived to rescue the castaways, Ernesto dropped "Hope" into the vat of acid (which then promptly exploded) as a final act of revenge against the group. The castaways returned to Salem where Hope was mourned by all.

The Alamain family

That fall, a young doctor, Carly Manning (Crystal Chappell), came to town and was instantly attracted to the grieving Bo.

Carly Manning was revealed to be oil heiress Katerina Von Leuschner, who had been Jennifer's best friend in boarding school. The aristocratic Carly had been promised since birth to marry Lawrence Alamain (Michael Sabatino) and claimed that she didn't wish to. Trying to extract her best friend from an unwanted (and forced) engagement, Jennifer impersonate Carly to break the engagement. Unbenownst to Jennifer, Lawrence was aware that she was an impostor, but he didn't care. He needed to marry *a* Katerina Von Leuschner to fulfill the Von Leuschener will and gain their fortune and if the real Katerina wasn't available, he'd take the fake one.

Meanwhile, Steve and Kayla were intending to renew their wedding vows when Harper Deveraux escaped prison intent on murdering them. It was Jack who rushed to save Steve and Kayla, begging his father to spare their lives, and—when Harper wouldn't give up his murderous plan—struggling to pull the rifle from his adoptive father's hands, killing Harper in the process. Steve and Kayla called Jack a hero for his actions, but Jack saw himself as a murderer. Once again Jack pulled away from Jennifer, citing his disfunctional past as a reason the two could never be together. But for Jack, an even greater tragedy was about to happen that would shatter his world.

Bo Brady had found himself at odds with Lawrence Alamain over Lawrence's illegal corporate activities. To silence Bo, Lawrence hired Nick Corelli to blow up Bo's boat. It wasn't Bo, however, that was on the boat when it exploded, but Steve Johnson. Steve survived the initial explosion and with Kayla, Jack, Jo, and Adrienne at his bedside, he rallied. Only Lawrence, fearing that Steve had evidence of his crimes, hired a hospital employee to poison Steve's IV. Steve was pronounced dead but Lawrence's henchmen swapped the Steve's coffin (in order to set up a way to bring back the character at a later date), leaving nothing but an empty grave.

The death of his estranged brother led to Jack finally having the courage to commit to a relationship with Jennifer, but Jennifer was at this point occupied with pretending to be Katerina Von Leuschner and being engaged to Lawrence Alamain. Jennifer stubbornly refused to give up the charade and Jack couldn't figure out why. She never told him that Frankie Brady (now revealed to be Carly Manning's brother Francois Von Leuschner) was being held prisoner in order to blackmail Jennifer into going through with the wedding and fulfilling the terms of the Von Leuschner will. Immediately after the wedding, Lawrence raped Jennifer as a means to punish her for attempting to con him. Jack rescued Jennifer from Lawrence clutches several days later, but she would mention nothing about the rape. In retaliation, Lawrence blew up his villa trapping Alice Horton, Bo Brady, Carly Manning, Jack Deveaux, Jennifer Horton, Frankie Brady, Kayla Brady, and Shane Donovan in the wreckage. It took them days to dig themselves out.

Still grieving Steve's death, Kayla drifted into a relationship with Shane Donovan (whose marriage to Kim had imploded months earlier). The pairing of these two popular characters was anything but popular, however, and when their contracts expired both actors separately left the show in 1992. Nick Corelli was later killed by an emotionally distraught Jo Johnson (Joy Garrett), in retaliation for Steve's death. Pleading temporary insanity, Jo was made to serve her sentence in a mental institution.

Bo (who was eventually recast with Robert Kelker-Kelly) and Carly's burgeoning relationship grew as Jack and Jennifer's fell apart in the wake of the incidents in Lawrence's home country. Lawrence had followed the Salemites back Salem and continued to torment his many enemies. Jennifer, fearing Jack's reaction, kept the secret of what Lawrence had done to her. Unable to understand why she was pulling away, Jack turned the tables on Jennifer and this time it was him pleading with her to be honest about her feelings. In a post-traumatic flashback, Jennifer reacted violently to Jack, hauling off and slapping him and calling him a rapist. Jack recoils when Jennifer desperately tries to apologize telling her that she shouldn't apologize for telling the truth. He is a rapist. He had raped Kayla. He'd always known that he was unworthy of Jennifer, and now Jennifer realized it too. Both heartbroken, Jack and Jennifer called off their own engagement and vowed to go their separate ways.

Lawrence was enjoying his time in Salem, tormenting his enemies as the writers established Lawrence as the new main villain of the series. In particular, Lawrence sought to gain ownership over the Spectator just to spite Jack. In order to stop that from happening, and because he believed Jennifer had fallen back into a relationship with Frankie, a heartbroken Jack married Eve Donovan (Charlotte Ross) so that they could inherit Nick's fortune. This resulted in a brief but widely popular arc where Jack and Eve were forced to pretend to be a loving and utterly devoted couple in spite of their obvious disdain for each other.

After Frankie urging Jennifer to tell Jack the truth about what was really going on, Jennifer finally confessed the truth about Lawrence having raped her, which led to more angst for Jack over whether or not Jennifer would be able to love Jack now that she had been a victim of rape as well. The rape revelation made him view himself as a mirror image to Lawrence; though with Lawrence, Jack saw what he could have been, had Jack never abandoned his evil ways and sought redemption for his villainous misdeeds. This was made clear when Jennifer insisted that she still loved Jack despite his dark past and could no longer imagine life without him by her side.

Eventually, Jennifer pressed charges against Lawrence. This forced Jack to come full circle with what he had done to Kayla as Lawrence discovered and sought to use Jack's own history of rape against him, culminating in a fight between the two in Jennifer's loft. Fearing his own loss of control and desperately seeking that Jennifer receive justice for what had happened to her, Jack committed himself to seeing that Lawrence did not escape punishment for his crime.

This led to Jack and Kayla gaining a level of closure towards their own past together, as Kayla forgave Jack for raping her, though Jack continued to feel guilty over the way he had denied that what had happened was rape. This led to a tense moment on the witness stand, as Lawrence's attorney goaded Jack (called to the stand as a hostile witness for the defense) by saying that Lawrence didn't rape Jennifer, just like Jack didn't rape Kayla - as both couples were married at the time of the incidents. Pushed to the edge, Jack yells out that he did rape Kayla, just like Lawrence raped Jennifer.

As the trial drew to a close, Shane Donovan feared that the jury would acquit Lawrence and controversially took matters into his own hands via recording a conversation between himself and Lawrence with Lawrence admitting to raping Jennifer. While the tape could not be admitted into evidence (as it was illegally obtained), fear of it being leaked to the press was enough to blackmail Lawrence into accepting a plea-bargain for 3rd degree marital rape.

With Lawrence temporarily defeated, Jack and Jennifer reunited in the wake of the trial and finally married in a wild-west rodeo themed wedding.

John Black

Meanwhile Isabella and "Roman" (John) grew closer and Isabella became pregnant just as "Roman's" wife, Marlena Evans returned from the grave. Marlena's death had been faked, and she had been the prisoner of Stefano Dimera. If that twist wasn't enough it was then revealed that Roman Brady (Wayne Northrop) was still alive meaning that the Drake Hogestyn Roman who had been in Salem for the last half of the 1980s wasn't Roman Brady after all. Returning to the name "John Black," John found himself confused as to who he was. Isabella said it didn't matter to her. She knew the man, not the name, and she loved him anyway. On the day that their son, Brady Black, was born, John and Isabella were married. Unfortunately, poor Isabella was soon diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And on the evening that Abigail Deveraux (Jack and Jennifer Deveraux's child) was born, Isabella quietly slipped from life while held cradled in her husband's arms.

The behind the scenes reason for such a massive swerve in story was that the producers had approached Deidre Hall about returning to the show in the role of Marlena. Hall agreed to return only if the producers also brought back her close friend Wayne Northrop in the role he originated, Roman Brady. The producers were interested but knew quite well that Hogestyn was extremely popular with viewers and they couldn't just fire him. However, since Hogestyn's Roman had moved on to Isabella, a compromise was struck: Northrop returned as Roman, who had been held prisoner by arch-villain Stefano DiMera for seven years, and it was revealed that Hogestyn's character, John Black, was one of Stefano's mercenaries who had his memories taken from him and was brainwashed into thinking he was Roman as punishment for betraying Stefano (as well as a means of carrying on Stefano's favorite hobby—the continual torment of the Brady family).

In fairness to the writers and producers, it should be noted that the idea that Hogestyn's character was not the real Roman Brady was nothing new; various magazine articles in 1988 hinted at the idea during a story arc that involved the return of Stefano and explored what really happened to Roman during his 2 years in Stefano's custody. One idea floated in the press at the time centered around the possibility of Hogestyn's character actually being one of Stefano's unknown sons. However, this was never fleshed out and the storyline concluded with a fairly clear resolution that Hogestyn's character was truly Roman Brady who had been captured by Stefano, given a new face via plastic surgery, brainwashed into believing he was one of Stefano's assassins (but not successfully to the point where he actually assassinated anybody), accidentally caused an explosion that caused the deafness of Stefano's son Benji Hawk, and was found by the ISA but abandoned again when its other agents in Stefano's organization were discovered and killed. Roman remained in Stefano's clutches until Stefano went into hiding during one of his faked deaths, and Roman was auctioned off to Victor Kiriakis as "The Pawn".

Nevertheless, the return of the "real" Roman was particularly amusing to fans who paid close attention to the obvious physical differences between Northrop and Hogestyn, and wondered how anyone, particularly Marlena who had been married to (and slept with) both men, would readily accept one in place of the other. Hogestyn was taller, darker, hairier, had straighter hair, and was right-handed, in contrast with the shorter, fairer-skinned, smoother, curly-haired, left-handed Northrop. It was also apparent that Hogestyn was either a few years younger than Northrop, or it was just that being cooped up in Stefano's prison for 7 years had caused Roman not to age quite as well as his Salem-bound counterpart.

Through many different writing regimes, John's past would change considerably. He is, to date, quite possibly the most continually rewritten character in the history of television. His character has been retconned at least 6 or 7 times over the period 1986-2000. First it was revealed that he was a member of the wealthy Alamain family, and then he was a priest who Stefano's mistress confided in. Eventually it was revealed that John was a mercenary, con artist, and jewel thief who worked with Gina von Amberg, a royal princess who was a con artist like her lover on the side (and who, like Hope Williams, was portrayed by Kristian Alfonso). Years later it was rewritten yet again that John was actually the illegitimate son of Daphne DiMera, Stefano's deceased common law wife and Alamain sister, and an as-yet-unrevealed father (fan speculation continues to center on Shawn Brady, which would make him Roman's half-brother and may explain why he shared enough similarities with Roman to be able to replace him so easily and for so long). Marlena reunited with the real Roman while John and Isabella were together.

Much had changed since Roman was last in town, and he struggled to fit into the canvas. Meanwhile, John and Isabella's happiness was short-lived, as Isabella was given fatal pancreatic cancer to accommodate the exit of Staci Greason when contract talks broke down because the actress demanded too much money. After dealing with his grief, John began a controversial affair with Marlena, which culminated with Marlena and Roman's daughter Sami (Alison Sweeney) catching them having sex on a conference table at Victor Kiriakis's new Titan Industries office building. When she became pregnant as a result of this fling, she believed the child to be Roman's and was aided in this belief by Sami, who altered a paternity test to make it appear that Roman was the father. Ultimately, Sami was exposed after kidnapping and attempting to sell her younger sister Belle (named for the late Isabella Black). Unable to forgive Marlena, Roman fled town in disgrace at being cuckolded by John. The scandal would force Marlena to raise Belle alone while John found comfort with a new arrival in Salem, social worker Kristen Blake (Eileen Davidson). Sami, meanwhile, never forgave Marlena and John (who Sami considered a second father) for betraying Roman like they did, with the incident triggering a serious turn to the dark side for Sami.

The James E. Reilly Era

Buried alive

In 1993, the show began to drift towards more supernatural storylines with the hiring of new head writer James E. Reilly. One of his first major storylines was to have Carly Manning buried alive by John and Lawrence's insane aunt, Vivian Alamain (Louise Sorel). The show shot up in the ratings as NBC heavily promoted the storyline with lurid commercials showing actress Crystal Chappell in a coffin screaming while Louise Sorel laughed like a mad woman while laying on top of Carly's grave. With ratings at a high level, Reilly decided to fire several popular actors who Reilly had disliked; most notably Matthew Ashford, Michael Sabatino, and Crystal Chappell. Carly and Lawrence's complicated and often adversarial relationship ended up turning to love in a rather rushed storyline where they reclaimed Nicholas, the child that they long believed dead from Vivian. The happy family ended up leaving town for a life together in Europe. Jack Deveraux meanwhile would not get a happy send-off; Jack was controversially written out of the series so that Reilly could pair Jennifer up with a newly created character of his named Peter Blake (Jason Brooks), who was a mob boss and Steffano DiMera's adopted son. Jack fled his wife and newborn daughter Abby after Abby recovered from cancer, after it was publicly exposed that Abby's illness was caused by toxic chemicals Jack (while working for his adopted father Harper as a teenager) had ordered dumped near where the couple lived at.

Carrie and Austin and Sami and Lucas

Reilly also began to fill the show with new young actors to help promote the show to younger viewers. Besides Carrie (Christie Clark, who had been a cast member of the show since she was a little girl), there was her half-sister Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney). There were also two dysfunctional half-siblings Lucas Roberts (Bryan Dattilo) and Austin Reed (Patrick Muldoon). Lucas himself was the offspring of a relationship between his mother Kate Roberts (Deborah Adair, Lauren Koslow) and Bill Horton, retroactively inserted into Days canon as the event that caused Laura Horton to have her nervous breakdown. Austin and his sister Billie (Lisa Rinna) were children of a previous marriage of Kate that had ended in Kate having to abandon her children to an abusive father. Austin was a boxer whose budding romance with Carrie suffered after a mobster threw acid in her face (Austin was the intended target).

Reilly quickly created a love "rectangle" between Austin, Carrie, Lucas, and Sami that would borrow from previous love triangles, most notably the Bill/Mickey/Laura triangle from the early 1970s. Carrie was a very attractive young woman who had to endure the manipulation and lukewarm relationship of her jealous sister, Sami. As teenagers, Sami was infatuated with a young man named Alan, who wanted Carrie. Alan raped Sami; she eventually shot him in the testicles, effectively castrating him. This quickly became a town scandal and an already troubled Sami was humiliated, slipping further into manipulative and self-destructive behavior. Austin showed her great kindness and she then became obsessed with him. Sami drugged Austin and seduced him only to run from his house when Austin called her "Carrie". She ran to Lucas's arms, and they slept together in an effort to get over their mutual heartbreak over Carrie and Austin's relationship, as Lucas also wanted Carrie. With help from Vivian, Sami convinced Austin he was her baby's father and attempted to get him to marry her. Meanwhile Lucas used his other half-brother, Mike Horton (now played by Roark Critchlow), to break Austin and Carrie up by having Mike steal Carrie away from Austin. However, the truth about young Will's paternity came out, resulting in a wedding for Carrie and Austin. Lucas declared his undying hatred for Sami for not telling him he was in fact Will's father, as he had longstanding issues with his own absent father. Finally, one of Salem's legendary rivalries was born, as Kate and Sami became mortal enemies due to Sami's manipulations of Kate's two sons.

These new storylines generated much attention. Patrick Muldoon initially played Austin early on but when he left the show, Austin Peck was cast as the new Austin Reed. Viewers generally agreed they liked the casting of Peck as Austin.

The Bo, Hope and Billie love triangle

Then Hope (Kristian Alfonso) returned from the dead, only she had amnesia. While there were lingering questions as to whether Hope was really Hope or Gina, another impostor created by the DiMeras, Bo continued in his relationship with Billie. They married. However, when Robert Kelker-Kelly was fired and replaced by Bo's originator Peter Reckell, there was an emotional shift in the story as the writers decided to reconcile Bo and Hope. Hope was revealed to really be Hope and it was only a matter of time before Bo and Hope reunited and Billie left for Europe. Later, Billie (Krista Allen) returned to the show and made trouble for Bo and Hope. In a convoluted plotline that involved Bo leaving Hope as part of an undercover operation, Bo was forced to make love to Billie, who was captured by drug dealers who rehooked the former addict onto drugs.

Billie became pregnant, but the child, Georgia, was apparently stillborn, ending their relationship as Bo and Hope reconciled again

Return of Tony DiMera

Tony DiMera (Thaao Penghlis) returned under Reilly's pen in 1993 to take care of an ill Stefano and to marry his longtime sweetheart, Kristen. Tony had reconciled his differences with Stefano during their absent years from the show. Tony was now portrayed as a protagonist, who wanted to legitimize the DiMera business. After a few mishaps, Tony was able to marry Kristen but she ultimately left him for John, resulting in Tony faking his own death and making it look like John had murdered him.

Mike Horton: Terrorist?

Meanwhile Mike Horton moved back to Salem and next door to Marlena Evans, having recently returned from the Middle East where he worked for a medical relief agency. Unfortunately, Mike's return came at the same time that the relief agency he worked with was busted for smuggling explosives into the region (Mike wasn't involved in the smuggling plot but due to his high ranking position inside the agency, was terrified that the scandal would ruin both his reputation and that of the Horton family if his involvement in the scandal ever became public). Stefano knew about this and one day showed up at Mike's door and threatened to expose Mike's unwitting involvement in the smuggling ring to disgrace the Horton family name, if Mike didn't give Stefano regular access to his apartment.

Enter Satan and The OJ Simpson Trial

Stefano was now turning to Satanism to try and force Marlena to love him, leading to him casting a spell (one that required Stefano be in close proximity to Marlena) that would brainwash Marlena into loving him. Unfortunately for Stefano, he utterly failed to realize what dangerous forces he was involving himself in and instead of brainwashing Marlena, he instead accidentally offered Marlena up to Satan, who promptly possessed Marlena. Marlena, now under Satan's domination, tormented local churches via mass acts of vandalism and nearly killed Stefano and John Black before being subdued. Afterwards began a lengthy "exorcism" storyline that coincided with the retcon that John Black was a priest, leading to John being forced to perform the lengthy ceremony to save Marlena from Satan's clutches.

The Satanic Possession storyline was extremely controversial, as many fans and critics began to turn against Reilly's writing for taking the show into a direction that was more supernatural-based than reality-based. But the storyline, which gained mainstream attention from the media for its lurid twists (such as Marlena floating in mid-air), was a ratings goldmine for NBC. Adding to this was the fact that the possession storyline ran at the same time as the OJ Simpson murder trial, when the big three networks all preempted their soap line-up so as to devote the time for coverage of the real life trial. The fact that Days, with this controversial storyline, could keep its ratings high while suffering from multiple hiatuses helped solidify Reilly's power base with network executives.

The Jennifer, Jack and Peter love triangle

Writers were not satisfied with the Jennifer Horton and Peter Blake pairing and decided to recast the role of Jack Deveraux and bring him back to Salem to seek to reclaim his family from Peter Blake's grasp. Now played by Mark Valley, Jack's return was added to the metatext-esque storyline of Jennifer's mother Laura's (now sane and played by Jaime Lyn Bauer) utter disapproval of Jennifer's relationship with Peter. Laura was suspicious of Peter and desperately wanted to expose his villainy to her daughter, so Peter had Laura's office painted with toxic chemicals to send her around the bend and make it look like she had suffered another nervous breakdown. Rather than force her mother back into a mental institution, Jennifer sent Laura to a mental health spa where Laura had a one night stand with Jack. They had no idea of the other's identity as Jack had never met Jennifer's mother before. They were using assumed names and in spite of wanting to see Jack and Jennifer reunite, Laura was torn with her own attraction to her former son-in-law.

A monkey wrench was thrown into the now love rectangle story when Melissa Reeves quit the show in the fall of 1995 without advance notice, amid rumors that Melissa Reeves had begun an affair with co-star Jason Brooks and had quit the show in order to try and salvage her marriage.

The result was the recasting of the role of Jennifer with look-alike Stephanie Cameron, along with a brand new recast of Jack (Steve Wilder) when Mark Valley's contract was not renewed. The Jack/Laura relationship was quickly dropped and the writers rushed a quickly reconciliation between Jack and Jennifer, just as Stefano faked Peter's death and framed Jack for the murder (in truth, Peter had gone insane and gained super-strength due to a rare tropical illness he had contracted).

After a year of sporadic appearances while working with a traveling circus, Jack and Jennifer cleared Jack's name and exposed Peter as being alive. Peter was promptly arrested at long last and the characters of Jack, Jennifer, and Abby left the show for Africa in 1998.

The Gina/John Black storyline

As the 1990s ended, the writers finally ended up resolving the mystery of Hope's missing years with it revealed that Stefano had brainwashed Hope into thinking she was the famous art-thief Princess Gina Von Amberg. In one of John's many retconned pasts before he arrived in Salem, he had been a co-hort of the evil Princess Gina, travelling with her under the guise of being a priest (removing that particular aspect of John's background) and stealing valuable artwork for Stefano.

Needing Gina and John for one last score, Stefano restored their brainwashed personas just as John and Marlena were married again. In a controversial storyline that would devastate the show's ratings, a brainwashed Hope (now calling herself "Gina") stole John from Marlena on her honeymoon, helped Stefano brainwash John, and then made love to him on a submarine. The "Sub-Sex", as it was called by fans, created an outcry as many saw it as being a massive betrayal of the characters and their respective marriages, even though both John and Hope were under mental control when they had sex. Furthermore "Gina" seduced Stefano and had Bo kidnapped and brainwashed into thinking he was a mime and left to wander the streets of Paris, his mind conditioned to prevent Bo from remembering who he was or from even being able to speak.

The storyline was horribly controversial and reached even further heights of anger when Hope became pregnant and the writers ran a fan contest to decide if Stefano or John was the father, with Bo not being offered up as a possible father.

This proved to be a bad move ratings wise as ratings fell precipitously even as the real Princess Gina surfaced, determined to claim John from her doppelganger. Bo was rescued and freed from being forced to spend the rest of his life as a mute amnesiac and exposed the real Princess Gina (now pretending to be Hope, after locking Hope and Stefano up in her European castle dungeon) as she laid dying after her scheme was exposed. Hope and stefano were rescued and Hope gave birth to a child who was revealed to be John's.

The storyline was horribly unpopular and when the writers changed in 2001, the new writers created a hastily conceived retcon where it was revealed that the brainwashed Hope slipped out from Stefano's sight one night after they brainwashed Bo and decided to have a little "fun" with him, in terms of "Gina" having sex with the mute, amnesiac, mime-cladded Bo, resulting in Bo being the father of Hope's child after all.

2000 and beyond

The Salem teenagers

The show continued on with plotlines that focused upon new teenage characters including Belle Black (originally Kirsten Storms, then briefly Charity Rahmer, now played by Martha Madison), Brady Black (Kyle Lowder), Shawn Douglas Brady (Jason Cook), and Philip Kiriakis (originated by Brandon Tyler, then almost immediately recast with Jay Kenneth Johnson, and now played by Kyle Brandt, formerly of MTV's The Real World). They were soon joined by Cassie (Alexis Thorpe) and Rex (Eric Winter), who were ultimately revealed to be the offspring of Kate and Roman, who Marlena gave birth to while she was believed to be dead, and Mimi Lockhart (Farah Fath), Belle's best friend, whose father lost his job and abandoned his family.

The main storyline of the time involved the relationship between Shawn and Belle, who vowed to remain virgins until they married and exchanged "purity rings" as a sign of love. (The motives for this wasn't to promote abstinence but a plot consession brought about due to the fact that actress Kirsten Storms had a multiple picture TV-movie deal with Disney at the time she was hired to play Belle, which included a "morals clause" preventing her from taking any roles which involved the character playing sexually active characters).

The other big teen stories of the time were Brady and Philip's rivalry over Chloe (Nadia Bjorlin), daughter of conniving Nancy and Dr. Craig Wesley (Patrika Darbo and Kevin Spirtas). Chloe initially wore all black ensembles and big glasses. After many taunts as "Ghoul Girl" she shocked the students at the Last Blast Dance by throwing off her cloak to reveal a sexy red dress. Philip had originally dated her only as a prank (he planned to dump her and break her heart), but he soon fell in love with her. Brady was alienated from his family because of his hatred of Marlena, and confided in Chloe. Eventually Brady and Chloe became a couple, but his grandfather, Victor, felt that Chloe was not good enough for him and got her an overseas job singing opera.

Many fans consider the excessive focus on the "teen scene" under Tom Langan to be responsible for a marked deterioration in the quality of the show, with a corresponding decline in ratings. While the Chloe/Phillip/Brady love triangle was deemed by many to be the only "bright spot" of this time period, the pairing of Belle and Shawn was heavily criticized not only for the way that their relationship dominated all other storylines at the time, but also because of the utter lack of chemistry between the two actors, a factor that led to the popularity of the later Shawn/Mimi pairing years later as many fans of the show believed that Jason Cook and Farah Faith possessed the chemistry that was utterly lacking in the Cook/Storm pairing.

Return of Tony DiMera

Tony DiMera (Thaao Penghlis) returned to steal Marlena away from John. His motives remained unclear for many months as he put subtle plans into motion and worked at creating tension among many characters. Stefano had left him a blue key that he said would unlock the secrets to his past and future, and John and Tony spent many months racing to learn the secrets of the key first. It turns out that the key unlocked the bracelets of the Gemini Twins, mind-controlled teenage-aged pawns of Stefano. Tony's fugue states led him to a DiMera island compound on a string of islands shaped like the Gemini constellation. On the island, he used the blue key to open a box containing Stefano's diary. The diary contained all of the information pertaining to the Brady / DiMera feud, revealed that John was the son of Daphne DiMera and therefore Tony's half-brother, and further solidified Tony as the new antagonist of the show. He also served as a catalyst for Sami and Lucas to finally acknowledge their feelings for each other, when Sami was nearly killed by Tony when she confronted him over his helping Lexie ruining her relationship with Lexie's stepson Brandon Walker (Matt Cedeno). Finally, the new struggles against Tony resulted in the sudden, surprise revelation that John Black, rather than just being a semi-amnesiac former mercenary, thief, and priest-turned-wealthy local businessman, was in fact Salem's resident ISA agent-in-place, and naturally his #1 assignment was to wage the ongoing battle against the DiMera clan (the exact timing of his employment by the spy agency was never revealed; it was just sprung on the audience out of the blue one day with a brief return by Shane Donovan).

Nicole Walker

Finally, the writers eagerly exploited the show's newest (at that time) character, Nicole Walker (Arianne Zuker). Originally a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Nicole was hired as a model by one time Titan Industries employee Sami, and Kate later paid her a large sum of money to marry Lucas, to help Lucas win custody of his son. Through the Robertses, Nicole discovered the power of money and quickly manipulated her way into the bed of Victor Kiriakis, much to Kate's horror. As her marriage to Lucas ended, she married Victor and found herself rich and powerful, though Nicole found herself outmatched when she crossed swords with Victor. Having survived a near fatal stroke that left him paralyzed for several years, Victor was determined to never be helpless again and used the fact that Nicole murdered rogue doctor Colin Murphy (Justin Melvey) when he tried to blackmail her to keep her under his thumb. Much to Victor's horror, Nicole became involved with Brady. Victor was soon presumed dead and was therefore unable to prevent Nicole from seducing Brady.

The Salem Stalker

With ratings at an all time low and NBC threatening to cancel the series, James Reilly was brought back as head writer in the summer of 2003 and given carte blanche to "fix" the show. His major storyline to save Days was the ultra-controversial Salem Stalker storyline. The storyline began with the shooting of Abe Carver (James Reynolds), which stunned the city of Salem. Even more stunning was that he pointed to Maggie Horton (Suzanne Rogers) as he lay dying, though she was never considered a suspect in his murder. Jack Deveraux (Matthew Ashford) was killed by a brick to the head, since he had been working with Abe on a story. Maggie, who had seen Abe's death but mentally blocked it out, found herself a victim of the serial killer, who bludgeoned the recovering alcoholic with a liquor bottle. Caroline Brady (Peggy McCay) was poisoned at church during a memorial service, and her granddaughter Cassie (Alexis Thorpe) was stabbed to death and placed in a pinata on Thanksgiving. Roman's (Josh Taylor) throat was slashed at his wedding to Kate Roberts, and Tony DiMera was mauled by a tiger the killer let loose at a fundraiser where he had promised to reveal the Salem Stalker's identity. Tony survived the attack, but was given a lethal dose of medicine by the murderer who was revealed to be none other than Marlena Evans.

In the meantime, an insane Jan Spears (Heather Lauren Olson, then Heather Lindell) electrocuted Victor Kiriakis in a convoluted attempt to win the heart of Shawn Brady. The death was at first attributed to the Salem Stalker, but later the police became unsure. Doug Williams (Bill Hayes) discovered Marlena's treachery and was stabbed to death in the cemetery. He left a note that was found by Alice Horton. Marlena confronted Alice, who despite heavenly interventions by Abe, Maggie, Caroline, and Roman, was suffocated by one of her homemade donuts. Alice, however, was able to call John Black and warn him that Marlena was the killer. After a nasty fight, Marlena ended up in the hospital, where under the influence of truth serum admitted that she killed everyone because Abe had discovered that she intended to stop Roman from marrying Kate, though a non-drugged Marlena apparently didn't remember any of the crimes. The storyline was extremely controversial as many of the victims were longtime fan favorites. In the midst of this original cast member John Clarke (Mickey) left, ratings when the shock of the killings wore off and it had been revealed that Marlena had been the killer, ratings began to fall. Faced with angry fans, the show re-hired all of the fired actors and claimed that the resurrection of all the characters had been the plan all along (though apparently none of the characters who had been fired were aware of any such plan). In the wake of Jack's death, Jennifer discovered that she was pregnant. Dr. Lexie Carver advised her to abort the child claiming that it had a serious birth defect.

It was during this time that a curious phenomenon appeared on the show—for several months, no matter what time of day the action was occurring, any clock shown onscreen showed the time as "4:20". Rumors spread like wildfire among fans and on internet blogs that this was a clue to the storyline's resolution, especially those in-the-know of the various meanings of the time and/or number. It eventually got around that this was merely a gag being perpetrated by the props department and had no relevance to the show's storyline.

After Marlena was "killed" in a prison riot arranged by Nicole, Marlena found herself alive in a seemingly deserted Salem. As she explored the town she met Alice Horton, who was alive after all. Alice was later joined by Roman and Abe, who revealed that the entire charade had been faked by an unknown enemy, though most believed it to be Stefano or Tony (who was the only victim not to be found on the island). Victor, though not a victim of the Salem Stalker, was also on the island of Melaswen, or New Salem spelled backwards. Tony eventually revealed himself to the survivors, though he claimed to be a victim as well. However, Tony was responsible for everything, and had done so to destroy Salem's greatest love stories and prove that he was more powerful than his father Stefano ever had been. The plan was part of his revenge against his half-brother John Black, who he could never surpass, or forgive for his betrayal with Kristen. The seemingly dead Colin Murphy was also a prisoner on Tony's island, as was Billie Reed, now played by Julie Pinson. Bo, Hope, Jennifer, John, and Patrick all made it to the island, and were reunited with their lost love ones. Jennifer gave birth to hers and Jack's healthy baby son who was eventually named Jack Patrick Deveraux.

Tony and John had a final duel to the death in Tony's faux Zen chamber, resulting in Tony's apparent demise. The captives ultimately were rescued from Melaswen, but Tony triggered a volcanic explosion resulting in a tidal wave. Marlena, Roman, Jack, Cassie, Victor, Caroline, and Colin were presumed dead.

The remaining islanders returned to Salem to attempt to regain the lives they had lost. Maggie found that Mickey, now played by veteran actor John Ingle, had remarried, while Abe began to suffer from migraine headaches that led to blindness. Eventually, it was revealed that the six victims were in fact being held by a very much alive Tony in a European castle (the fate of Colin Murphy is unknown, though he is believed to be dead). Victor and Caroline became close again, while a segregated Jack and Cassie began to scheme to escape. Roman and Marlena were thrust together in yet another part of the castle, though they weren't seen often, and began to fall in love again. Devastated at losing her parents and her new found love with Lucas Roberts, Sami began to act out again, and disguised herself as a man named Stan (while Alison Sweeney was on maternity leave). She caused John to be wracked by excruciating pain and got him hooked on drugs. While battling his addiction, John became involved with Kate Roberts. Marlena and Roman saw John and Kate having sex and, out of grief and desperation, had sex, too.

After a fire in the castle, Jack, Cassie, Roman, and Marlena escaped and returned to Salem. Victor and Caroline were spirited away yet again by Tony, who was later apprehended, and Victor and Caroline were allowed to return to Salem. Immediately after his reunion with his family in Salem, Jack was diagnosed by Lexie Carver with a fatal illness. A couple of months later he "died" again after a car wreck on a bridge. Fulfilling Jack's dying wish that when he died, Jennifer would turn to Frankie Brady, Jennifer and Frankie grew closer and became engaged.

As 2004 progressed, the slow-paced storylines continued, and ratings fell to ever new 'all-time lows'.

In a homage of Marlena's many visits to the prison cages of Stefano, Shawn was kidnapped by his insane childhood friend, Jan Spears (Heather Lindell), and kept in a cage for months while she attempted to trick him into having sex with her. Meanwhile Belle (who Shawn had left on bad terms when her refusal to give vital information about her mother being the serial killer resulted in the "deaths" of Shawn's maternal grandfather Doug and his maternal great-grandmother Alice) and Phillip found themselves forced together by Kate, who spent time manipulating the love lives of her children. She also did damage to Lucas and Sami's relationship by having Sami drugged and placed with her ex-boyfriend Brandon, resulting in Lucas canceling their planned wedding. Another more controversial storyline was Mimi's decision to have an abortion after becoming pregnant with Rex's child on the basis that Rex would not want a child due to the couple's poor financial status. The truth was kept from Rex for many months as fans were forced to watch Rex and Mimi perform the same scene of Mimi trying to tell the truth to Rex only have something interrupt her before she could tell Rex the truth. Meanwhile, Jan found out about the abortion and blackmailed Mimi, culminating in Mimi accidentally putting Jan into a coma, then pleading guilty so she would receive a lengthy jail term and never have to face Rex again. Ultimately, Mimi was released from jail when it was proven that Jan's coma was an accident but Belle revealed to Rex the truth about Mimi's abortion and Rex dumped Mimi as a result of her lies. Many fans complained that rather than using the storyline as a discussion on the pros or cons of abortion, viewers watched as Mimi was 'punished' for her choice by developing an infection which rendered her barren and losing Rex's love. Actress Heather Tom wrote an op-ed in Soap Opera Digest criticizing the story as inaccurate and irresponsible.

While Victor was presumed dead (actually bonding with old love Caroline on Melaswen), Nicole seduced Brady. Chloe was disfigured in a limo accident and faked her death rather than meet Brady without her beautiful face. Eventually, Nicole found out Chloe was alive and through a convoluted series of events, was mistaken for a doctor and had to perform plastic surgery on Chloe's face. Nicole permanently scarred Chloe but when Brady found Chloe, he told her the scars didn't matter.

After escaping Jan's cage, Shawn crashed his motorcycle into a wall and forgot everything that Jan had done to him and he thought that he loved Jan and not Belle. After months of being with Jan he realized that he loved Belle and drove his motorcycle into a window at the church in a failed attempt to stop the wedding of Belle Black (now played by Martha Madison) and Philip Kiriakis (played by The Real World alumnus Kyle Brandt) as his obsession with Belle caused him to stalk her and to drink heavily. While Philip tolerated Shawn's obsession with his wife for the sake of Belle, Philip soon found his life irreversibly altered when Philip (who was a Marine) was sent on a mission to a war zone—which many fans assumed to be Iraq, although the war zone was never named as such. He was promptly captured and tortured by Tony, who had assembled a group of highly trained mercenaries to infiltrate the war zone and spirit Philip away. Meanwhile Shawn, having slept with Belle during a snowstorm shortly before Philip was deployed, was filled with guilt and sought to make amends by going over to the war zone and rescuing Philip from the encampment where Tony's army of European mercenaries were situated.

Aiding him in the mission was Philip's half-nephew, Brady, his half-brothers, Lucas and Rex, and Sami, who was in disguised as a male reporter named Stan (in truth, Alison Sweeney was on maternity leave and Dan Wells was hired to play her in drag) who proceeded to play the four rescuers and Tony against each other before helping the men rescue Philip. Tony meanwhile escaped capture though the guys' attempt to bring Philip home was rejected by Philip, who opted to stay behind to help his fellow troops in combat, believing it was his military duty. It was during his first mission after his rescue that Philip lost his leg to a landmine, sending him home as a result. Although the war zone was never labeled as Iraq, many were not comfortable with the depiction of a fake war while the Iraq war was going on, where many real soldiers had suffered and died, as well as the controversial decision to have Philip lose his leg.

Meanwhile, Marlena discovered she was pregnant with Roman's child, though she kept this from John because he was going through withdrawal from the painkillers to which he had become addicted to while Marlena was presumed dead. However, the truth came out as John and Marlena and Roman and Kate tried to mend their troubled marriages. Roman and Kate separated, but mostly due to her constant interference in Sami's life. Marlena lost her baby after a tumble down the stairs, due to the high risk pregnancy and the stress involved in her marriage. She awoke in the hospital to find she had amnesia, and John was convinced to call in a specialist named Alex North. In a twist, Alex North was played by none other than Wayne Northrop the original Roman Brady. Dr. North had been using hypnosis on Marlena and trying to help her recover her past—a yet-another-retconned past in which the two of them were married!

Recent history

In recent months the show's producers have begun to focus more on the past, as they've shifted focus back onto Jack and Jennifer as well as restocking the Horton family tree by way of SORAS. Abby was rapidly aged to a teenager. Abby (Ashley Benson)'s best friend Chelsea Benson (Mandy Musgrave, then Rachel Melvin), lost her parents in a car accident and was taken in by Patrick and Billie. She was later revealed to be Bo and Billie's presumed-dead daughter, Georgia Brady. Chelsea was a key figure in a major plot line that opened 2006, as she accidentally killed Bo and Hope's little boy Zack while playing with her cell phone behind the wheel of Bo's SUV. Matters grew even worse when Hope found out that Bo had not only lied to cover up what Chelsea did (when Billie insisted on taking the fall, Bo let her), he also had just that night signed a new temporary driver's license to Chelsea, then handed her the keys to his truck. He believed that he was actually responsible for Zack's death, and Hope agreed, throwing him out of their house.

By the summer and fall of 2005, the soap brought back some of its fan favorites from the 1980s and 1990s including Austin Peck (Austin Reed), Billy Warlock (Frankie Brady) and most recently Christie Clark (Carrie Brady).

In February 2006, Arleen Sorkin, who played the show's comedic relief (and fan favorite) Calliope Jones-Bradford from 1984 to 1990 (including brief visits in 1992 and 2001) returned for a pair of storylines involving Mimi and Shawn and Marlena and Alex as a wedding designer. Given Calliope's history of "Anything that goes wrong, will definitely go wrong," viewers expected that saying to apply to the two couples after they had reach the chapel this past spring, resulting in Marlena having regained her memory, but not before learning the truth about Alex, who would later die falling off a cliff after a fight with John, while Shawn's future with Mimi (along with that of Belle and Phillip) may have some implications, thanks in part to a mysterious individual who secretly switched the donor eggs of both Mimi and Belle, who already has a daughter, Claire, by Shawn, who didn't know about it until September 2006; Mimi already knew about Belle's secret, as does Kate, and Mimi's mother Bonnie and brother Patrick, and Chelsea, who used that information to her advantage.

The presence of the aforementioned mysterious individual, who can only be seen on camera by a black glove and peeking through the windows, will also play a part in the lives of Sami, Carrie, Lucas, Austin, and Lexie in their storylines as well, as all roads point to a DiMera minion who is very chummy with Patrick Lockhart.

Facing record low ratings for the show with the threat of cancellation looming, rumors arose that James Reilly had been let go and ex-As The World Turns scribe Hogan Sheffer had been hired to revamp the show. The Alex story was quickly shuffled off canvas. Jack Deveraux was resurrected and faced with his long-dead brother Steve "Patch" Johnson. Jack (currently being healed with an experimental medicine), urged his amnesiac brother to return to Salem to reunite with his wife Kayla and daughter Stephanie. Patch agreed to go meet these people that he didn't know under the stipulation that Jack would go with him.

Dr. Kayla Brady Johnson returned to Salem, still grieving her late husband after all these years. A young adult Stephanie Johnson was cast. A new character named EJ Wells played by ex-All My Children star James Scott was added to the canvas as a new love interest to Sami Brady, with rumors circulating that EJ Wells maybe the SORAS Benjy DiMera, come to claim Sami as his personal "Queen of the Night", much in the same way his father Stefano sought to claim Sami's mother.

Controversially, Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn were shuffled off canvas for the summer with rumors of massive budget cuts in the offing due to NBC's stipulation that they'd renew the show, but only if the show cost less. Staff cuts and possible cast changes loom.

In June 2006, Days was renewed for three more years and Hogan Sheffer was named as the new head writer for the show. The first air date for the interim head writer Beth Millstein was August, 10th 2006.

Hogestyn and Hall returned on August 10, however, Matthew Ashford (Jack) and Melissa Reeves (Jennifer) will leave the series in September. It was also announced that both Kyle Brandt (Phillip) and Farah Fath (Mimi) will also leave the show, after both stars agreed to a short-term deal in the wake of the changes, and in the case of Faith, was asked to be let go early. Another cast member, Jason Cook (Shawn), is also leaving the series, on September 21, as his contract expires soon (But the producers have already replaced him with Brandon Beemer). According to TV Guide the list of actors leaving also includes Billy Warlock (Frankie) who will leave sometime in the fall, Brody Hutzler (Patrick) who will leave in February of 2007, Austin Peck (Austin), and Christie Clark (Carrie) who will both leave in October. Rumors are circulatng that there will be more focus on African American characters with the current storyline involving Abe Carver and his estranged wife Dr. Lexie Carver, who Abe is divorcing due to Abe discovering that Lexie has been carrying on a passionate affair with another African American character, Patrol Officer Thomas E. Kramer, known as Tek. Rumors are also circulating that Joseph Mascolo (Stefano DiMera) will be returning in November, which should be interesting given the 2005 "Melaswen" storyline that had Tony claiming that he killed his father. This news comes after TV Guide reported his return.

Friends

The series was satirized on the hit sitcom Friends when one of the principals, Joey Tribbiani (played by Matt LeBlanc), got a job as Dr. Drake Ramoray on the show. All storylines shown on Friends (with guest shots by actual Days of our Lives stars) were fictional and did not represent what was really going on in the soap opera itself. Joey's fictional stint on the show ended when he angered its writers and his character was killed after falling down an elevator shaft. Later, his character was brought back to life in a further spoof on the show (no fewer than thirty-six characters have been "brought back" from the dead on Days). Joey was brought back as a man with a brain transplant. His new brain was from the character Jessica Lockhart, played by Susan Sarandon. Lockhart died from a horseback riding injury. The Lockharts are also the last names of Bonnie, Mimi and Patrick on Days, but the Jessica character is not a relation to any of the three. In the spinoff sitcom Joey, Joey was nominated for "best death scene" in which he was stabbed while performing surgery.

The connection between Days of our Lives and Friends is attributed to the fact that John Aniston (Victor Kiriakis) is the real-life father of Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green).

"Friends" is set in New York City, while Days is filmed in Los Angeles.

Ratings/Scheduling history

Not long after its introduction in 1965, Days of our Lives became a successful part of NBC's attempt to dethrone daytime powerhouse CBS. By 1973 the show, pitted against CBS' "Guiding Light"), had matched the first place ratings of As The World Turns and Another World. NBC capitilized on this success with the decision to expand to one hour on April 21, 1975. This expansion had followed the lead of Another World, which became TV's first-ever hourlong soap on January 6, three and a half months earlier. However, this first golden period for "Days" and NBC daytime proved to be short-lived as ratings began to decline in 1977. Much of the decline was due to ABC's expansion of the popular soap "All My Children". On January 1979, the network decided to jump headlong against "AMC" and moved the show ahead to the same 1 p.m./12 Noon time slot.

By the early 1980s "Days" had displaced Another World as NBC's highest-rated soap. However, the entire NBC soap lineup was in ratings trouble. In fact, by 1982, all of its shows were rated above only one ABC soap (The Edge of Night) and below all four CBS soaps. The supercouple era of the 1980s, however, helped bring about a ratings revival, and the 1983-1984 season saw "Days" experience a surge in ratings, jumping from eighth place and a 5.7 to seventh place and a 7.1. It held onto its strong numbers (and fifth place on the ratings chart) for most of that decade, only to go into decline again by 1990, eventually falling back into eighth place.

The arrival of James E. Reilly as head writer saw intriguingly creative, though sometimes controversial, storylines which polarized viewers, but also brought the program back to second place in the ratings by 1996. "Days'" ratings performance remained strong for the rest of the decade, but since 2000 have declined. However, this may be due to increased viewing options from cable and satellite programming, which has cut significantly into network shows of all genres.

With the addition of past cast members, Days has seen a surge in viewership. As of July 2006, Days has been sitting in 3rd place in the ratings for several weeks in a row. As of July 24, 2006, the ratings for Days are placed at a 2.7, meaning about 3.5 million households are tuning in each day. For the 2005-2006 season, Days currently ranks fourth, tied with "All My Children", "One Life to Live", and "As The World Turns." Even though Days household ratings are average, the show does exceptionally well in important demographic categories. Days is the top soap among women aged 18-34 and has held that title for over 10 years. For the 2005-2006 season, Days is the top soap among women aged 18-34, as well as women aged 18-24 (tied with "Passions", the only other remaining daytime drama on NBC's schedule). It is also sitting at third for the season among women aged 18-49, and second among teens aged 12-17. While most daytime dramas have declined in audience since last year, Days is one of only three soaps to have gained viewers during the 2005-2006 season.

Highest Rated Week In Daytime History (Week Of November 16, 1981) (Household Ratings)

• General Hospital- 16.0 (3-4pm) ABC
• All My Children- 10.2 (1-2pm) ABC
• One Life To Live- 10.2 (2-3pm) ABC
• Guiding Light- 7.9 (3-4pm) CBS
• The Young And The Restless- 7.3 (12:30-1:30pm) CBS
• Ryan's Hope- 7.0 (12:30-1pm) ABC
• As The World Turns- 6.9 (2-3pm) CBS
• Search For Tomorrow- 6.3 (11am-noon) CBS
• The Edge Of Night- 5.0 (4-4:30pm) ABC
• Days Of Our Lives- 4.8 (1-2pm) NBC
• Another World- 4.0 (2-3pm) NBC
• The Doctors- 1.8 NBC
• Texas- 1.7 NBC

Random Week: Week Of May 30- June 3, 1988 (Household Ratings)YR- 7.2; AMC- 7.0; OLTL- 6.9; GH- 6.7; DAYS- 6.4; ATWT- 6.2; The Price Is Right 2- 6.1; GL- 5.7; BB- 5.1; The Price Is Right 1- 4.7; AW- 4.7; Santa Barbara- 4.0; Loving- 3.7; Ryan's Hope- 2.1

1995 Ratings (Millions of Viewers)

• The Young And The Restless- 7.155
• All My Children- 5.891
• General Hospital- 5.343
• The Bold And The Beautiful- 5.247
• One Life To Live- 5.152
• Days Of Our Lives- 5.056
• As The World Turns- 4.865
• Guiding Light- 4.198
• Another World (*about 3.9)
• Loving (*about 3)
• The City (*about 2.9)

Theme song and opening title sequences

Almost completely unchanged since the show's debut in 1965, the titles show an hourglass, as sand slowly trickles to the bottom. In 1966, the focus moved from the entire hourglass to the bottom, with the sand trickling away as the theme played. In 1972, the current title lettering was introduced, a condensed version of the Times New Roman typeface in yellow coloring (before then, the show's title was in generic caps).

In 1993, a computerized version of the visual was made, with completely redone sound effects and rearranged music composed by Charles Albertine, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. In this version the hourglass, now slowly spinning clockwise, starts focus at the bottom-half, overlooking the dawn. As the sun rises, the focus is zoomed out, and the audience sees the entire hourglass and the show's title "flourishes" on to the screen as the music flourishes. While the entire hourglass is revealed, the clouds in the sky change formations.

A portion of this open is also used as a mid-show break bumper, starting after the hourglass has zoomed out and title has appeared with Macdonald Carey announcing "We will return with the second half of Days of our Lives in just a moment."

A shortened version of this open exists, which was used in the summer of 2004 as the show's time period was shortened due to coverage of the Martha Stewart trial. It is still used from time to time when episodes run over the allotted time, most recently on the August 10, 2006 episode, in which John and Marlena returned after a summer's absence.

From its debut in 1965 until March of 1966, announcer Ed Prentiss spoke the words now made famous by MacDonald Carey. Since April 1966, the late Macdonald Carey has intoned the legendary epigram "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." From 1966 to 1994, he would also say, "This is Macdonald Carey, and these are the days of our lives." After Carey's passing, the decision was made to remove the second part of the opening, out of respect for Carey and his family.

In the summer of 2004, the show's theme song was changed to give the tune a more majestic feel. As this coincided with the height (or depth) of the Serial Killer storyline, many viewers speculated that the change in theme was signaling a profound change in the nature of the show (and perhaps a clue to the outcome of the plot itself). Both versions (the 1993 theme and the new theme) were alternated by every other day, but was scrapped after only being used in eight episodes with the 1993 theme the only one used since; the 1993 theme tune was reinstated with no comment from Days publicists.

Days of our Lives 's 1993 open is currently the longest used open among the current soaps, most of which have changed their opening sequences more frequently than Days. What's unusual about Days and NBC's other soap Passions 's (whose opening has been used since it premiered in 1999) opening sequences have yet to change their opening sequences. They are also the only American soaps not to feature their main cast members in the opening sequence.

Cast

Current cast members

Recurring cast members

Comings and Goings

Deceased cast members

• Brenda Benet (Lee DuMonde), April 7, 1982
• Richard Biggs (Dr. Marcus Hunter, MD), 22 May 2004
• Macdonald Carey (Dr. Tom Horton, MD) Original Cast Member, 21 March 1994
• Paul Carr (Bill Horton) Original Cast Member, 17 February 2006
• Joy Garrett (Jo Johnson), 15 February 1993
• Terry O'Sullivan (Richard Hunter), 14 September 2006
• Christopher Stone (Bill Horton), 20 October 1995

Broadcasters

• Australia - Nine Network

External links

• NBC.com Site
• Soapcity Site
• DaysCafe Site
• Dustin's Days of our Lives Page
• Days of our Lives Fodder
• Days of our Lives Fans
• DiMeraDays - Days of our Lives Spoilers
• Beth's Days of our Lives Page
• Days of our Lives at the Internet Movie Database
• Soapdom.com's Days of our Lives Site
• Days of our Lives Column