Days of Our Lives fans are not strangers to controversial things going on. There is so much that happens in Salem that it would be next to impossible to do anything without it being controversial. But this is about more than people coming back from the dead, or people making bad decisions. This is about things that the world feels are not entirely appropriate. Are there moments when the writers take it too far? You tell us. We will share with you a few of the most controversial moments on the show that have gone down in the history of all things “What??” and you tell us if you think that they are too much, just enough, or if it was right for the show to bring attention to the matter.
Brother and Sister Love
We all remember that time in the last 60s when a brother and a sister fell in love. Just kidding. Most of us don’t remember that at all since we were not even born yet, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t heard it. It was a big controversy in that time, and that’s something we cannot even believe was allowed on television back then. Marie Horton fell hard for Dr. Mark Brooks and they were very much in love. They met, fell in love with one another, and they had a lot to say to one another about their love. They were very happy with one another, and then it came out that they were actually brother and sister. And that was where incest was introduced and very much shocking to fans.
PTSD
In that very same episode, Days writers also made the decision to touch on something else that wasn’t really talked about at that time. PTSD in the 60s was not as commonly discussed or diagnosed as it is today. In that time, it was thought to be something more like a cop-out in which people used it to make excuses for their behavior. We all know better now, and it is not uncommon for soldiers to come home from war with this very real problem, and it relates to the same storyline mentioned above. When Dr. Mark Brooks came into Salem, he wasn’t who he thought he was. He was, in fact, Tommy Horton. He was a veteran of the war who suffered from PTSD. His family did not recognize him after his return because he’d had his face reconstructed from what we think was an injury that caused him to forget who he was and change his life to help him get over what he went through and what he was experiencing. It was not a good situation, but we do like it so much.
Transgender Sami
While she was working as a drug dealer — which, by the way, is not something people consider all that controversial believe it or not — Sami was dressing up like a man. She was actually portrayed by a man who did a stellar job of learning her ways, and actually reproduced them in a way that was beyond unbelievable in our opinion. She was not someone who did a bad job of anything, but she was someone who was crossing lines dressing as a man. Some thought she wanted to be a man, but we just think it was a genius way for her to turn around and sell drugs without anyone knowing it was her. While it might not be something that was considered controversial, selling drugs is not exactly legal — and she’s good about looking out for herself.
SIDS
It’s a common conversation these days now that doctors and medical professionals want new parents to be aware of this horrible situation. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is a terrible situation, and it happens more than people think it does. It happened on national television in the mid-70s when Marlena gave birth to a baby who died at only 3 months of age. That baby died of SIDS, and it was considered difficult by those who watched the show. It was the first time a soap ever talked about something like this. It was also the first time that this happened on television. And many people were horrified by it. Many new parents and people with small children or one on the way had a hard time watching this. It’s not like it’s uncommon to find yourself struggling when you watch a parent lose a baby on television, but this is something that can happen to anyone — and you don’t know, can’t prevent it, and can’t do anything about it. This episode helped to raise awareness for that conversation, though it would still be a long time before it was considered something people talked about more regularly with their medical doctors and others in the business.
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