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Welcome to 'Easy on the Eyes', the Men of Days of Our Lives Fanlisting. It is a pleasure to make it available to all the fans of Bo, John, Jack, Shawn, Lucas, Rex and the rest of the men of Days...past, present and future. |
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What is a fanlisting? A fanlisting is a website that devotes itself to a certain subject matter (TV show, actor/ actress, characters, etc.) and asks others from all over to join in and show the world that they're a fan, too! |
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About the show... Days of our Lives is an American soap opera, which has aired nearly every weekday since November 8, 1965 on the NBC network in the United States, and has since been syndicated to many countries around the world. The series was created by husband-and-wife team Ted Corday and Betty Corday, and many of the first stories were written by William J. Bell. The Cordays and Bell combined the "soaps taking place in a hospital" idea with the tradition of centering a series around a family, by making the show about a family of doctors, including one who worked in a mental hospital. Storylines in the show follow the lives of middle and upper-class professionals in Salem, a middle-America town, with the usual threads of love, marriage, divorce, and family life, plus the medical storylines and character studies of individuals with psychological problems. The show writers took pride in the characters' passion, saying that the characters were not shy about "sharing what's in their gut." Critics originally praised the show for its non-reliance on nostalgia (in contrast to shows such as As the World Turns) and its portrayal of "real American contemporary families." By the 1970s, critics deemed Days to be the most daring daytime drama, leading the way in using themes other shows of the period would not dare touch, such as artificial insemination, bulimia, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Days also aired the first interracial romantic pairing seen on daytime television. In the 1990s, the show branched out into supernatural storylines, which critics immediately panned, as it was seen as a departure from more realistic storylines for which the show had originally become known. In 2006, when asked about his character "coming back from the dead" — for the third time — actor Matthew Ashford responded, "It is hard to play that because at a certain point it becomes too unreal...actors look at that and think, 'What is this — the Cartoon Network'?" Days, in addition to receiving critical acclaim in print journalism, has won a number of awards, including a Daytime Emmy for Best Drama in 1978[18] and a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Drama in 2000. Days actors have also won awards: Macdonald Carey (Dr. Tom Horton) won Best Actor in 1974 and 1975, Susan Flannery (Laura Horton) won Best Actress in 1975, Suzanne Rogers (Maggie Horton) and Leann Hunley (Anna DiMera) won Best Supporting Actress for respectively 1979 and 1986, and Billy Warlock (Frankie Brady) won Best Younger Actor for 1988. As with other soap operas, Days ratings have declined since the 1990s. In January 2007 it was announced that the show "is unlikely to continue past 2009." When Days of our Lives premiered in 1965, the show revolved around the tragedies which befell the Horton family. The Hortons were led by patriarch Tom, Chief of Internal Medicine at Salem University Hospital, and his wife, homemaker Alice. Together they had five children: Tom Jr., Addie, Mickey, Bill, and Marie. Over time, additional families, such as the Merritts, Hunters, Bannings, and Andersons were brought to the show to interact with the Hortons and serve as springboards for more dramatic storylines. One of the longest-running storylines involved the rape of Mickey Horton's wife Laura Horton, by Mickey's brother Bill. Laura confided in her father-in-law Dr. Tom, and the two agreed that her husband Mickey should never know. The secret, involving the true parentage of Michael Horton, a product of the rape, and Mickey's subsequent health issues as a result of the revelation, spanned episodes from 1968 to 1975. The storyline was the first to bring the show to prominence, and put it near the top of the Nielsen daytime ratings. Another love triangle, between lounge singer Doug Williams, Tom and Alice's daughter Addie, and Addie's own daughter, Julie, proved to be very popular around the same time. It culminated in the death of Addie in 1974 and the marriage of Doug and Julie in 1976. In the 1980s, the Brady and DiMera families were introduced, and their rivalry quickly cemented their places as core families in Salem in addition to the Hortons. Around the same time, with the help of head writers Sheri Anderson, Thom Racina, and Leah Laiman, action/adventure storylines and supercouplings such as Bo and Hope, Shane and Kimberly, and Patch and Kayla reinvigorated the show, long primarily about the Horton family. Since the 1990s, with the introduction of writer James E. Reilly, Days of our Lives has moved from traditional plots to supernatural and science-fiction-themed stories, in conjunction with the rivalry of good vs. evil (Bradys vs. DiMeras). Under the tenure of Reilly, ratings, which were in trouble in the late 1980s and early 1990s, quickly rebounded to second place. Despite shaky footing in the ratings with the introduction of new head writer Hogan Sheffer in 2006, which led the show's producers to hire past fan favorites to stop the ratings hemorrhage, Days has since leveled back to the middle of the daytime ratings, continuing with stories and arcs Reilly originally introduced. In addition to the love triangles of Bill/Mickey/Laura and Doug/Julie/Addie previously mentioned, other storylines which were most remembered by viewers included the 1968 story of amnesiac Tom Horton, Jr., who returned from the Korean War believing he was someone else and then proceeded to romance his younger sister Marie; the twenty-year tragic love triangle between John Black, Marlena Evans, and Roman Brady; the 1982 "Salem Strangler" (Jake Kositchek, who was nicknamed "Jake the Ripper"), who stalked and murdered women; the 1984 Gone with the Wind storyline when Hope Williams and Bo Brady hid out on a Southern plantation and dressed up as Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler (originally devised to keep viewers tuned in despite pre-emptions due to the 1984 Summer Olympics);[26][29] "The Cruise of Deception" in 1990, when madman Ernesto Toscano invited all his enemies aboard a ship, the S.S. Loretta, and held them captive;[26] the 1994–1995 storyline when the town's Christmas tree burned down and Marlena became possessed in Exorcist fashion; and the 2003–2004 "Melaswen", when several characters purportedly died at the hands of a masked psychopath, but were later revealed to have been kidnapped to the secret island of Melaswen (New Salem spelled backwards). When Days of our Lives debuted in 1965 as a 30-minute serial, the cast consisted of 11 actors, nine of whom were permanent fixtures in the storyline. In 1974, the show was planned to expand to an hour in length, and the cast was increased to 27 actors in different storylines. By the 25th anniversary in 1990, 40 actors appeared on the show in contract or recurring roles, which is the approximate number of actors the show has used since. Of all the current cast members, only Frances Reid, who plays Alice Horton, has been on contract with Days of our Lives since it began, appearing since the very first episode in 1965. Original cast member John Clarke, who played Mickey Horton, left the series in 2004 and is as of 2007 too ill to continue in the role; the character is now off-screen. Suzanne Rogers, who plays Maggie Horton, and Deidre Hall, who plays Marlena Evans, have been appearing on the show for over 30 years. Along with many other tenured cast members, Days has also hired many entirely new actors in recent years. Twenty-one of the current cast members have been hired since 2004, and eleven of them are completely new to Days. Many old favorites have returned; starting in 2006, cast members from the 1980s, such as Stephen Nichols (Steve Johnson), Mary Beth Evans (Kayla Brady), Joseph Mascolo (Stefano DiMera) and Thaao Penghlis (Tony DiMera) have been brought back to Days, in an attempt to reach viewers who may have quit watching the series. Throughout all of the modified title sequences over the years, the show has maintained its trademark voiceover, "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." The voice is that of Macdonald Carey (1913–1994), who played Dr. Tom Horton from the show's opening in 1965, until Carey's death from lung cancer in 1994. |
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About The Webmaster My name is Amanda and I live in Brooklyn, NY. I am currently the owner of 2 Days of Our Lives websites, 7 fanlistings, and 3 forums. I've been a viewer of Days since about 2000. My favorite Days men are Bo, Jack, Shawn-D and Patch. My absolute favorite couple is Bo & Hope. You can reach me anytime at Sel416331@aol.com and on AIM. I am the original owner and creator of this list. All images, html, and codes are the property of me! Please visit the credits page for more info on those who helped out. |