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What Was Days of Our Lives Originally About? The Soap Opera Had Unusual Beginnings
Which family was once at the center of Days of Our Lives when it premiered in 1965?
It’s been nearly 60 years since Days of Our Lives first began in 1965 with its iconic line, “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”
Since then, the residents of the fictional Midwestern town of Salem have been the victims of possession, baby swaps, torrid love triangles, secret identities, the resurrected dead, and a few ominous serial killers stalking the town’s most well-loved residents.
The sensational plots often centered on the members of the Horton, Brady, Kiriakis, Black, and DiMera clans, as they loved, lied, cheated, stole, rescued, and plotted their way into the hearts of millions of Americans each day on NBC and now Peacock.
But just how did all the deliciously addictive drama begin? Learn more about it as the 60th season of the soap opera airs today.
What was the first episode of Days of Our Lives about?
When Days of Our Lives premiered on Nov. 8, 1965, it originally centered on the lives of the Horton family.
Designed to be a mix of a family-focused serial and medical melodrama, the then half-hour daytime drama focused on the lives of Dr. Tom Horton (Macdonald Carey), his wife, Alice (Frances Reid), and their five children and grandchildren, according to Soaphub.
It was Carey — a veteran actor of television and film — who delivered that famous opening line, still used nearly 60 years later to start each and every episode of the soap as sand pours through an hourglass.
The very first episode began, according to Entertainment Weekly, with the Hortons’ granddaughter Julie and some friends getting caught for trying to steal a fur coat.
The action then turned to the home of Dr. Tom Horton, where a sentimental Alice lamented that all her children, with the exception of youngest daughter Marie, were grown and had left the house.
“All grown up, on their own. Marie will be the last to go,” Alice told Tom as she glanced at the photographs on the mantel, before adding, “I’ll miss them. I miss them already.”
Who were the Hortons on Days of Our Lives?
The Hortons may have looked like an all-American family, but fans would soon realize there was nothing average about this dysfunctional brood.
Some of the earliest plotlines involved their oldest son, Tommy, presumed dead in the Korean War, returning to Salem in 1968 with a new face and name. As Dr. Mark Brooks, he nearly married his own sister Marie before his true identity was revealed, traumatizing Marie so deeply she headed straight to the nunnery (and who can blame her?), according to Soaps.
Then there was the Hortons’ youngest son, Bill, who raped his brother Mickey’s wife Laura in a drunken fit of jealousy. Years later, he and Laura actually fell in love and got married in a disturbing twist few saw coming.
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The Hortons’ daughter Addie had issues of her own. After her own husband, Ben Olson, died, she fell for her daughter Julie’s boyfriend, Doug Williams, and convinced him to marry her, giving birth to popular Salem resident Hope Williams. Addie later died after she was hit by a car and Doug resumed his romance with Julie, turning Julie into both Hope’s stepmother and half-sister.
Although clearly the Horton family had plenty of drama to fuel the long-running soap, which switched to a one-hour format in 1975, on their own, by the early 1980s other families like the working-class Bradys and the villainous DiMera families were introduced to add even more juicy storylines.
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What happened to Tom and Alice Horton?
The focus of the show may have widened to include the heartstopping heroics, sensual love scenes, and dark deeds of characters beyond the Horton clan, but Tom and Alice Horton remained beloved fixtures on the show for decades to come.
Tom died off-screen in 1994 after Carey passed away earlier that year from lung cancer, according to The List.
Alice was Salem’s longest-running resident until her character died offscreen in 2010, shortly after Reid passed away herself at the age of 95. Reid’s final time to appear on screen was in December 2007.
“She’s the one who's holding the family together and they like her for it,” Reid told the Television Academy Foundation in a wide-reaching interview about her career before her death. “She was always there.”
Today, Tom and Alice may no longer be in Salem, but some of their descendants still are and continue to ensure the Horton legacy won’t be forgotten.
