On November 8, 1965, Days of Our Lives made its debut on NBC. The daytime drama was only thirty minutes in length and consisted of only five or six scenes per episode. It is amazing to think about how times have changed. Days of our Lives is now a one hour soap opera and contains probably twelve scenes per episode. Scenes in 1965 were taken in one shot as technology to edit film was not readily available at that time. Actors were frequently seen making mistakes in dialogue and in timing.

While times have changed, soap opera themes have not. True, storylines were far more tamer in the good ol' days of television. Producers and writers left more to the viewers imaginations than what was actually shown on the screen. Today, we are offered detailed tutorials on the how-to's of sex, drugs, and violence.

Two things have remained constant: Days of Our Lives has been in the Corday family since its inception. It is truly a labor of love, and Frances Reid matriarch of the show, is still making appearances as Alice Horton.

Congratulations to Days of Our Lives, and may you have 40 more beautiful years!

Days Trivia
* Frances Reid was not originally cast as Alice Horton. The Walton's, Mary Jackson, was cast as Alice in the unaired pilot in 1965.
* Days of Our Lives is the longest running soap opera on television.
* Days and Passions were the first soaps to offer Spanish closed-captioning for the hearing impaired.

What was going on in 1965?
* World Population: 3,334,874,000
* Cartoon Debut: Tom and Jerry & A Charlie Brown Christmas
* #1 Song: "All I Really Want To Do" - The Byrds
* Top Films: The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins

Consumer Prices:
* New house $13,600.00
* Income per year $6,450.00
* Gas/gal. 31 cents
* New car $2,650.00
* Loaf of bread 21 cents
* Rent/month $118.00

News:
* Racing driver Jim Clark wins the Indianapolis 500, and later wins the Formula One world driving championship in the same year.
* Malcolm X shot in New York
* Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for his own full term as U.S. President.
* Winston Churchill dies at the age of 90, as the result of a stroke he suffered on January 15.


You can read more tributes to Days of Our Lives 40th Anniversary at the links below:
Days of Our Lives: 40 Years on NBC
Alice's Family Tree