Days of Our Lives fans have been watching the show for more than 50 years, which is more than a little impressive. You know in that amount of time that just about anything could happen, and that’s why we love to see and hear things that we forgot about. You might think you know everything there is to know about the show, but only until you realize there are so many facts that you don’t have the space in your brain to store them all and process them regularly — and we hope that you can wrap your mind around some of these amazing facts about the show. You might not even believe some of them.
It Wasn’t Always An Hour
Days premiered in 1965 as a half hour show on television. It was 30 minutes of fun and excitement, except it had commercials so it was really something like 20 minutes of fun and excitement for people to watch. And that meant that you were left hanging and wanting even more than you are right now with twice the time to watch your favorite characters each day. However, we think that there is one thing that really does make it even more exciting — the fact that it took a staggering 10 years for the show to be extended to an hour. Ten years is a long time to go a half hour without more, and we can’t believe it took executives that long to realize that they needed more.
Susan Hayes is A Record Maker
Do you remember her? She was the beautiful Julie Williams. She is not merely a record breaker, either. She prefers to set the standard for other soap acts, and we don’t even know where to begin with her. Let’s see; she is the only person on the history of the show to act in Days for all five decades of the show. And she was on the cover of Time Magazine in 1976, which is the last time a soap actor was on the cover. She actually shared it with her on-screen husband, Bill Hayes, who is also her real life husband.
The Show Has HUGE Fans
You know soaps. They’re on every day, and you probably watched one or more over the years even if you’re not the biggest fan in the world. You don’t matter as much to the show as someone very specific, though. In fact, it turns out that Julia Roberts is a huge fan of the show, and she’s made it well-known over the years. She asked if she could sit next to the cast during the 2002 People’s Choice Awards, where she promptly said she was super nervous when she was accepting her own award because the entire cast was there.
Another huge fan of the show is Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. It was well-known that the honorable judge would call recess in court every single day at 1 pm to be able to watch the show. If that’s not dedication, then we don’t know what is dedication. You can probably do better at this point, don’t you think?
It Was Almost Cancelled
Did you know that your favorite daytime soap was almost gone in 2008? The show had declining ratings, no one was watching it anymore, and the executives at NBC were not on board with keeping it on the air. It wasn’t bringing in the audience it needed to make it profitable and successful, and that was a huge problem for people. Thankfully, the fans realized their favorite show was in jeopardy, and that meant they had to fix it. They came around, but the show is only renewed a year at a time right now. It’s been that way since the show was scheduled to show it’s last episodes in 2009 and fans protested and begged to keep it around. Now it’s going to be good to go until 2019, and we hope this means it continues to last even longer as fans continue to watch with vigor. If not, the show might not be renewed again for another season. Profits are what it’s all about despite the story lines seeming to be the most important part of this show.
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