In early November 2015, a special proclamation arrived at the Burbank, California, offices where Days of our Lives is filmed five days a week for two out of every three weeks. As Ken Corday, longtime producer of the series, and son of the show’s two creators, recalled, a “key to the city” was presented to the show from the town of Salem, Illinois — the actual city which matches the name of the fictional town where the show is set. “Salem honored us for our 50th anniversary,” Corday said. “There are, I think, nine [other] cities in the United States named Salem, and we got the keys to those nine cities that day, too.”
Ten more years have passed, and they still take Days very seriously in towns named Salem, but they take it seriously everywhere else as well. The daytime drama, which aired for nearly 57 years on NBC before moving to Peacock in September 2022, is one of the longest-running scripted programs in the history of the world. Characters with the last names of Brady, Horton, DiMera, Kiriakis and Hernandez have fascinated, irritated and captivated generations of fans. That its legacy is now approaching the 60-year mark is a testament to the enduring power of three things: story, family and loyalty.
“Days of Our Lives is kind of like the Christmas tree ornament that you hand down through the generations,” said Emmy winner Eric Martsolf, who has played the role of Brady Black since 2008. “It’s just amazing to see the impact.” Added Susan Seaforth Hayes, who began playing Julie Williams on the soap opera in 1968: “The excellence of the show and the devotion of the fans who've fallen in love with it is what’s kept it on the air, and what has led us to streaming. It was a jewel that was not cast aside.”
Family Matters
Days was the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Ted and Betty Corday, and it premiered Nov. 8, 1965. Its uniqueness was not limited to that iconic hourglass opening shot and its title that makes a nod to the 23rd Psalm. “When my father and mother created the show, all of daytime was, for lack of a better word, vertical,” Corday said. “The shows took place in cities with big buildings — the penthouse on top down to the tenements at the bottom, and what happened in that building and in these cities.” His parents preferred a series that stressed the hominess of a small middle-class town where everyone knows everybody else and anything can happen. A hospital element was later added, with the series concerning families of doctors.
Ted Corday passed away before the show’s first anniversary, and Betty then ran the ship for years. Ken grew up wanting to be a composer but, as he recalls, “In 1975 the show was 10, and I walked through an airport and saw it on the cover of Time magazine, and I went, ‘Well, gee, Mom and Dad’s little idea seems to have gained some traction here.’” That’s about when Days grew from 30 to 60 minutes. He joined the staff and by 1986 was in charge of production.
The Plots Thickened
Ken Corday learned well how to keep fans present. “Story is all that matters,” he said. “My mother used to call that the big bass drum that beats underneath the show.”
That beat has been a loud and amazing one. Days broke social barriers and kept fans’ necks strained toward the TV for years with enduring, astounding plots, from paternity and custody battles to love triangles, and from the first gay marriage in daytime to strange supernatural themes. We were all bedeviled in 1993 when Marlena Evans (played by Deidre Hall for over 45 years) was possessed by Satan, then relieved when her then-priestly husband John Black (Drake Hogestyn) helped cast him out. Said Corday, “That story really set us apart.”
Like the best of families, the show has also faced death with great compassion. Hogestyn insisted that the show film his character’s funeral even as he was succumbing last September to pancreatic cancer. Longtime star Bill Hayes received a touching tribute upon his January 2024 death, and Seaforth Hayes—his wife on and off screen—was able to embrace final moments that brought fans in. “When we have a loss,” she said, “everybody feels it.”
Indeed, fans continue to be very involved as the show preps to move past its 60th anniversary date on Nov. 8. (Two of Corday’s adult children are already on board, learning the ropes in the hopes that Days has much more life.) Martsolf remembers an incident a couple of years ago when a woman threw an avocado at his head in a grocery store.
“She was not happy about how I was handling my current marriage on the show,” he said with a laugh. He introduced himself as Eric, but the woman knew him only as Brady. “‘You’d better get your act together,’ she told me. I’ll never forget it. This woman was living and breathing the show. I took it as the ultimate compliment.”
