I didn’t care about the “super couples” - I think that was just a girl thing - but I think everything else about the show from 1981-85 was great. I got into the show because my mother and especially my maternal grandmother watched it religiously. I really believe that it could had a significant male audience had it aired at a time when more men were home. “The Edge of Night” is probably the only daytime soap opera ever to have a large male audience, in part because it aired at 4 PM and more men were exposed to it. I believe the same could have happened with “Days of Our Lives.”

@@leczorn The 4 pm slot got replaced bt Talk shows..Did you like Eddie Benton as Gwen Davies ?? XD

Yes, at its best, “Days of Our Lives” was prime time caliber.

Hej, kul att träffas! Jag är amerikansk av svenska härkomst! Jag talar lite svenska! Yes, they had some outstanding actors back then; which made the stories even more powerful!

Hej på dig! Kul att se dig här. Jag bor i Sverige Yes Days was phenomenal back then. Bigger budgets, better stories and better producers.

True!

I first started watching in 1981, and in my opinion, 1985 or maybe 1986 was the last great year. I thought it was decent after that, but no longer great.

I did feel very sad for Kevin, the son.

And I’m glad the show managed to make it all the way to Australia! I hope to visit there someday!

With the current days of our lives episodes about drugs coming into Salem 2023 - 2024 & Abe still his memory isn’t back, he was mayor & now Paulina is, this would be the perfect time for Abe to get his memory back & flash back to this scene & remember everything. Wouldn’t that be like “wow” this scene is so intense & iconic & we still have Marlena. Have people forgotten when Days was the best which was 70s - early 2000s????

There is if you are still interested you can purchase it on a website I recently found and they are good quality episodes it’s mediafind5.com I wouldn’t waste your time on any of the years before 1984 because it’s bad quality and you don’t get all of it but 1984 and on is amazing quality and so worth every cent please let me know if you check it out!

Did you ever get to watch the episodes?

He definitely did, but man, that speech he gave to Abe right before getting shot is very powerful. I love it when we learn the torment behind the bad guys; why they became bad guys, and that they are often very miserable people. Clearly from that speech, he realized what he’d become, and decided he’d rather die than accept responsibility for his failures.

+DarkChamber What I really liked about these old clip is that Abe was actually featured in a major storyline not the typical supporting actor.

James Reynolds is a great, underrated actor. And Abe Carver is the longest running black character ever on TV.

I started watching in 1981 and only saw episodes on days I was home from school, until we got a VCR in 1984/85 and I started watching a tape of each episode after school.

MLC they are available on mediafind5.com

The storyline was that Richard Cates (Rod Arrants) took over as chief of police in May of 1985, six months after Roman’s supposed death. If I remember correctly, Cates was said to be an old friend of Roman’s. At first Cates seemed like a good guy, and there was even a little sympathy for him as he was divorced and his ex-wife, who was mentioned but never seen, denied him access to their son, Kevin (Eric Schiff). Cates and Marlena quickly became romantically involved, even though Roman’s “death” was only about seven or eight months earlier. That Summer, however, a lot of drug dealing started happening in Salem, and some cops were revealed to be involved in the , including McBride (Terrence O. Goodman). It was eventually revealed that Cates was behind the drug dealing, and he ended up killing several people, or having them killed, including McBride, when Cates feared they would implicate him. My memory of this next part is hazy, but somehow Bo and Hope got into a car accident during their pursuit of Cates. But I remember clearly in the aftermath that Hope stumbled into a monastery where she was given protection. There, in one of my favorite subplots ever on the show, built a close friendship with a monk named Brother Francis) a former professional football player who had retired from playing and become a monk shortly after he and his girlfriend were in a car accident that killed her. The first of two weakness I remember from the story line is that in the aftermath of the accident, Cates took Bo to some kind of institution where he had no access to a lawyer or any outside communication. However, while being attended to by a nurse, he asked her to give a letter to Alice, explaining the situation. The nurse did so. Around the same time, Kevin saw Bo’s and Hope’s wrecked car in the garage of his father’s house. Kevin did not recognize it and, mistakenly thought his father had bought it, planning to fix it up and give it to his son. Seeing Hope’s name on the registration, but apparently not knowing who she was, Kevin jokingly thought it would take a lot of hope to fix the car. Shortly afterward, he innocently told the whole story to Marlena, who was suddenly disturbed upon hearing that Hope was the name on the registration, as Bo and Hope had been missing for a few weeks. The new information learned by Alice and Marlena led to Abe being contacted, I don’t remember the exact details. But Cates, correctly believing that Abe was about to enter Cates’ office and arrest him, pretending to by on the phone with someone saying that Hope had been found. Abe believed it and listened to the locations where she supposedly was. I don’t remember whose house it was, but Cates went there and attached a gun to the door so it would fire when the door was opened. I doubt that would’ve worked in real life, but Abe’s younger brother, Theo, who was also a cop, opened the door and was shot and killed. Cates fled and somehow and ended up in the same monastery as Hope, where he disguised himself as a priest. I don’t remember what happened next, but he ended up back at the house, where he and Abe met face to face. An angry Abe asked Cates why. He gave a very long, sad speech about the hardships in his life, and said he couldn’t get by on a cop’s salary, and therefore the lure of easy money of drug dealing so luring to him. Then, apparently deciding he’d rather die than go to jail and face his son - who Cates did sincerely seem to love - he ran, and was shot and killed by Abe. Keep in mind, I’m trying to remember all this from 35 years ago, so anyone with any additions/corrections, please post them here!

One other addition, shortly after everything wound down, Brother Francis visited Hope, saying he’d left the monastery as being around her made him realize he wasn’t ready to commit to a life of celibacy.

If you are interested I now have 1984-2019 available for purchase so if you want 1985 on discs I can help you please contact me at katsoapshop@gmail.com or comment back thank you

@@LifewithKat2002 man I would like to have the years when John is Roman and when they find out he is not, great years. my email.com is rein3477@gmail.com. Let me know how much you want per disc and will buy a few at a time. Thanks!!

What kind of song was it? Anyway, I don’t remember that scene, but Marty Davich did so many great songs for the show. He had a song for every mood, and the music was such a great enhancement and to so many scenes. My favorite use of music on the show - in West Virginia, when Marlena opened the envelope containing John’s pre-surgery picture and realized he was Roman, who she thought was dead. The music was a beautiful piano piece, which was featured regularly on the show for several years, but this time, combined with Diedre Hall’s amazing performance, it was an extraordinarily powerful scene. Diedre actually acted like she just found out her husband was alive, and the music fit perfectly.

I probably did, too. I hated the guy, but as I mention elsewhere in these comments, his speech to Abe was very powerful. Rod Arrants did an outstanding job with that very complex character in just five months on the show.