Recapturing old loves

[gwyn]

So, if I understand correctly, one half of the most wonderfullest soap couple ever, Steve and Kayla on Days of Our Lives, is coming back to Salem today, and then the other half arrives later. I haven't watched Days in a really long time -- every once in a great while I tune in to see if I recognize anyone, but the last time I did, everyone was getting killed off and that was kind of depressing -- all the old favorites of mine from back in the day. I never cared a lot about Bo and Hope, I had always been partial to the oldsters like Marlena and Roman/John, but things got awfully convoluted on the Roman/John score by the time I was easing off watching, and I never really did find out how that panned out.

I started watching the show back in the beginning, because it had Peter Brown (in the icon, on the right) from Laredo, the one Western my sister and I had been able to sneak past my mom in watching (she hated Westerns and we loved them, and so we had to find clever ways to make sure she wasn't around to snap off that old Sylvania black and white TV we had long after everyone else had color -- color! -- and tell us to get our butts back outside). (Back in those days, kids could range far and wide to play, and we were always outside, playing in totally dangerous places, mind you, but no one thought anything about it. There was certainly no such thing as the ghastly play-date concept.)

Anyway, I digress. Over the years I went in and out as a regular watcher, but it was always my favorite soap, along with The Doctors and Edge of Night, even when General Hospital and All My Children were all that. In large part because of Steve and Kayla. I hate that people still to this day, even though no one on the show called him that after he became a regular character, refer to him as Patch, because he has an eye patch (so dashing!). To me, that's like calling someone Hook if he has a hook for a hand, or referring to anyone by their disability. Sheesh. But I adored their operatic and romantic and doomed storyline. I would still, to this day, pay a large, large sum of money if I could get copies of the original eps where Kayla rescued him and they started to fall in love. OMG. I would watch it at lunch in our little break room on my first real career job, and my boss got so caught up in that that he joined me every day because he was so impressed by Stephen Nichols's acting and by Mary Beth Evans and it was just so amazing.

It was one of the first of what would become my infatuation with epic, against all odds romances, especially when good actors are doing the roles. Nichols has done lots of pilots and such, but he's never really broken out of the soap derby, and I've never figured out why, because he's really an amazing actor. Back then, he came onto the show in a one-time role as a thug hired by evil Victor to terrify pretty nurse Kayla and make her leave town, so that some secret or other would remain safe (that she knew about without knowing she knew). He had already been doing some terrifying of the show's power couple, Hope and Bo, and it turned out that Bo knew him somehow from the past. In his scenes with Hope, I just thought he was amazing, and the producers also noticed what they had, so they kept him around to be menacing, only of course he started to fall for Kayla from afar.

Finally, he told Victor that he wouldn't do it -- because he was falling for her! my kind of guy! -- and Victor sent his thugs to beat poor Steve to within an inch of his life, and Kayla was the one who found him. My heart soared. Even though she was deathly afraid of him, she took him to the little hovel he was living in, and fixed him up. At one point she had to coax him to allow her to take his eye patch off, and he didn't want her to see it, but she pointed out she was a nurse, and so he let her, and she fixed him up and went off to the hospital to get some more stuff. She promised she would return, and he struggled out of bed and went to the mirror with his hand over his eye, and made this stunned comment to himself that she didn't even flinch. My boss and I were sitting there all sniffly and with our mouths hanging open. I had never been so happy in my life.

At the time, I was taping things in case I didn't get to see them at work, and I would tape over each week's eps. I curse myself for not saving that tape, and the subsequent weeks as they got to know each other, scared though she was of him, and the way he felt he had to stay away from her because he was just a bad guy through and through. Gah. Why is hindsight always 20-20? I would have probably rewatched those tapes into oblivion, though.

A long time ago, sherrold sent me this note, which I did keep because it really does hit on what Days of Our Lives did so successfully for me then:

"From a new translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and it describes Ovid thusly:
[he was] obsessed with hopelessly besotted and doomed love in the most intense form imaginable, and lived for the moments where passion has become mythic, has achieved the unendurable intensity that lifts the whole episode onto the supernatural or divine plane.
Well, this immediately reminded me of you, and I think next time someone asks you for your style, you should say new-ovidian, or faux-ovidian, or something cool like that."

I loved that note (we had been discussing, on a list, what we thought our "styles" were in writing fic), and it was so true, and honestly, Days had a lot to do with that, Steve and Kayla had a lot to do with it. I think I'd honestly always felt that way, but it was seeing it portrayed there that I finally became aware of this love of the operatic (and it would also help explain why I love those really OTT operas!). Also, Steve was just hot, period, so... But everything I've been really fannish about since then has needed that quality -- it's one reason slash appeals to me in a lot of respects, because it's more of a difficult struggle for same sex couples even in today's era, but the het couples have all had this doomed quality -- Michael and Nikita, Buffy and Angel and Buffy and Spike, Mulder and Scully... I guess it explains why a lot of the major fandoms do nothing for me -- there's no struggle there.

So, yeah, this is a really loooong way of saying that Days is finally going to be back in rotation for me. I doubt there's any way they can recapture that magic (even before they left, their storyline was less engaging to me), but I'm more than willing to watch them, even just for the memories.

Comments

[batdina.livejournal.com]

are nichols and evans returning to do those roles? because if they are, I am so willing to go back to watching days again.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yes, they are going to be Steven and Kayla, back in town! I don't even remember what the sitch was when they left, though, if they were still married or what. I know they had a baby, but that's all I really remember.

[batdina.livejournal.com]

I just made the partner chick program the TIVO for me. I can't believe I'm going to try watching Days again after more than a decade!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Can I just tell you how gleefully, squeefully excited I am that you and Merrikat even seem to know what I'm talking about and that you have the same love for Steve and Kayla? Someone else who knows what I'm so crazy about! yay! It's a fandom!

Really, I am just so excited to see them again. I know that anyone over 30 doesn't have much storyline these days on soaps, and that it's all about the tweens and teens, and the parents always just have to be interacting about their kids, but... I'm just happy to see them again. Both Nichols and Evans were on GH for a while but played different, unlikeable characters, and I couldn't keep my interest in that.

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

Pat would be so happy about this! Days was her show, right from the very beginning, & she loved Steve & Kayla.

Last year, when they were supposedly killing off the main characters, she was so upset about it, & after they'd killed the 3d or so one off, I said, "They're not dead." She kept saying they were, & I kept saying they were not going to kill off the whole blanking cast! so stop worrying about it.

Of course they weren't dead, they were...on an island? She was gone by then, & I wasn't watching.

The day she died, the VCR got unplugged when they took her body out, & I didn't plug it back in right away, & Days didn't tape. I *still* think, oh, fuck, I missed taping her show! It's so weird

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

No, it's not weird at all. I mean, the last few moments I had with my sister was me telling her what was happening on Alias, because when they woke her up, it was on. Fangirls to the end...

I didn't realize they were on an island. Hm. I guess that means when I tune in today a lot of the oldsters will still be there, I hope... though I'd read that Marlena was the murderer, so now I don't know what to expect!

I'm sorry I've been such a lousy correspondent lately. I've been only sporadically reading LJ because between the class and all the crap I'm doing, I'm so tired, and work's been pretty bad recently. I hope it'll be over by end of month, after our new design goes live and I get the travel out of the way. I hope you are doing okay, and I hope this didn't dredge up bad feelings.

I wish more and more that I'd had the chance to meet you and Pat before, you know?

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

Um, clearly it wasn't last year. It was 2 years ago. My brain just won't know that.

Neo-Ovidian

[alexfandra.livejournal.com]

You are totally neo-Ovidian! Have you read the Rolfe Humphries translation of Metamorphosis? It's astonishing. Here is my favorite DOOMED LOVE passage.

[Ceyx has begged her husband not to go on a sea voyage, for she has had a premonition of DOOM, but he goes anyway, and of course he is shipwrecked and drowned. At the time of the storm, a thousand miles away, Ceyx is woken by a nightmare, and sees a vision of her drowned husband standing by her bed. She screams, a servant runs in to try to calm her, and this is how Ceyx replies.]

"Give me no comfort, he is dead,
Shipwrecked and dead. I saw him and I knew him,
I reached my hands out to him, but he vanished.
I would have held him back. It was a ghost,
My husband's ghost; it could not be mistaken,
Though it looked different, and the light was gone
He used to wear. I saw him, pale and naked,
His hair still dripping. Oh, I know I saw him!
He stood just there--" and she broke off, to see
If there were any footprints. "This I knew,
This I could see, when you went sailing from me.
I begged you not to leave me, and you might have
Taken me with you. That would have been better,
To be with you in life, and in our death
Not to have been divided. I have perished
Far from myself; far from myself I am flung
Tossed on the cruel waves, and the sea holds me
Where I am not. My heart would be more cruel
Than ever the sea was to me, if I tried
To keep on living, to survive my sorrow.
I shall not try; I shall not leave you, husband,
And now at least I shall come to you, be with you.
The tomb may never join us together,
But the letter on the stone will be more kindly:
Bones may not lie with bones, but name and name
Will touch each other."

And then she cheerfully tosses herself off a cliff. Ovid is chock full of similar tales. Doomed, I tell you, they're all doomed! I'm especially fond of the line I have perished far from myself...and the sea holds me where I am. This is an incredibly poetic and readable translation.

You can borrow my copy if you like.

Re: Neo-Ovidian

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Now THAT is some good writin'! Mmm-hmmm. Just what I likee.

I think it would behoove me to read some Ovid at some point in my existence. It was weird -- when Sandy sent that to me, I was actually reading a Wall Street Journal article about that very translation and how excellent it was. Could very well be the one you're talking about.

Coincidence? I wonder...

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

Wow. I did not know that! I *loved* Kayla and Steve! It's my type of pairing. I grew up watching Days. I saw Mary Beth and Stephen on a special Soap Talk (?) that ran on the Soap Network last fall -- they also brought Charles (Shane) back, and the Bo/Hope John/Marlena actors were there as well as Alice Horton, and they all reminiced about Tom and the early days of the show. They were adorable together and still look great. I watched them for awhile on GH in the mid-90s.

My cable gets SoapNet, so I will check it out tonight.

I occasionally see bits of DOOL -- I happened to see the day they "killed" Alice and I cried. It was awful. I'm not sure if anybody actually stayed dead or not.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Steve!!! I saw him!!! It was so cool. Jack is apparently dying... I totally forgot that Steve is Jack's brother. Whoa. Blast from a lot of pasts. But the big problem is that I do not recognize or know anything about around 90% of the cast now. I have no idea who these characters are. But... STEVE!!!!!11!!eleventy!

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

Jack thought he was going to die for sure, so he disappeared, "nobly" leaving Jennifer and their daughter behind-- also leaving a tape behind basically telling Jennifer to go marry Frankie.

Of course, now Jack may live-- if he can have some really obscure and difficult operation-- but Jennifer is with Frankie. Oh, the WOE!

I get Soap Net, so I'm absolutely going to watch for Steve and Kayla (and yes, I often call him Patch even though it bothers me-- can't help it) but you'll be surprised at how really, really bad Days has gotten. Or else I've just gotten more critical. But the sheer volume of people talking to themselves in order to over-explain Already Incredibly Obvious Plot Points to the Incredibly Stupid Audience... oh, it burns.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I saw Frankie and I was like, OMG, he's still around!? Though I confess at first I thought I remembered him being called Billy. ;-)

Is Soap Net a channel or a web site? If it's a channel, do they ever run old Days eps? Because when I was at my sister's sometmes, she had an old soap channel on her lineup, but they never played anything except ABC soaps, it seemed... I might go to extreme lengths to see those eps again. Wah.

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

Soap Net is a channel-- I'm sure some cable systems get it, but I get it through dish. They started with just ABC but now run Days and Y&R. Sadly, it's all current eps. Every weeknight they run that weekday's episodes, then all weekend they run an entire week's worth of one show's episodes in a chunk. PERFECT for VCR taping.

They run old Melrose Places and stuff like that to fill time during the day.

Very handy.

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

The head writer just got canned (James Reilly) and he is the one responsible for some of the mess. I think the show jumped the shark, as it were, with the Marlena devil possession storyline and haven't been a regular watcher since. That was one of his first big storylines (he's also headwriter on Passions).

I'm hoping that the show either gets better or at least gives Stephen and Mary Beth some good scenes!

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! Do you remember when Steve came and rescued Kayla from the house Jack had trapped her in? He carried her down the stairs and OMG my little heart just died of lurve for the two of them. I think Jack was drugging her to keep her away from Her True Love.

::sigh::

And their wedding! When she was mute due to some tragedy I no longer remember, but of course she got her voice back just as it was time to say her vows! I think I cried for days. And I saved the tape that was on for, literally, years.

Check out ropo-- she posted some S/K icons.

(Of course, now when I see S/K, I think "Scully/Krycek." Heh.)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for the link! I definitely went and grabbed a couple. I have no idea when I'll be able to use them after this post, but hey! I have them! I think Mary Beth looks fantastic, and I like this cut on Nichols -- it's a lot better than what he's had.

God, I totally didn't remember the stairs thing, but in my memory somewhere, I see to remember my heart soaring when he was carrying her down stairs at some point, so I know I've seen it. My memory is just so hazy on some things. But he was always just so damn sexay. And my favorite one, besides when she rescued him and he was so gobsmacked by her kindness, was when he was going to go see her on a real 'date" and he talked himself out of it at her doorstep, and she was waiting for him, and he left and they played some piece of music that in those damn pre-Internet days I could never find the name of, and I was actually crying (and so was my male boss!) over it. He was convinced he wasn't in her league, that he would only bring her trouble.... augh, I love that kind of story SO MUCH.

Man if I had old eps, I would totally totally make a Lord King Bad Vid for this. They were freaking EPIC. They deserved a bad vid.

How cool that you loved them too!!!! This makes me deliriously happy that there were others out there.

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

Man if I had old eps, I would totally totally make a Lord King Bad Vid for this. They were freaking EPIC. They deserved a bad vid.

And I would watch it and CRY, then humiliate myself by cheering loudly...

They were my late 80s soapy OTP. Loved them. I grew up on ABC soaps (GH in particular) but then watched Days in college and after.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Hey, do you by any chance remember why the characters left (not why MBE and SN left, but what the plot points were they created for the characters to leave)? For the life of me I can't. I remember they had a daughter, I think, but for some reason I have it in my head that one of them left before the other, but I can't remember any details.

Paravion found me a site that sells old tapes with just S&K edited onto them. I am beside myself, i tell you.

[tir.livejournal.com]

The Patch/Kayla storyline was just starting (he was still more creepy stalker than romantic hero) when I really watched Days religiously, back in the day, and it was one of my favorites. Days is my grandmother's favorite soap, and I picked up the habit from her when I was in junior high, but let it slide when life got busier. I haven't really followed it in years.

I started tivoing it again a few months back, though, when, while visiting my grandmother, I discovered that the best Jack and Jennifer were on the show again. I've found that if I skim for only the storylines I'm interested in and watch just the first and last five minutes otherwise, I can keep up quite well without losing too much time to it. I was getting bored and considering giving it up again when Friday's episode rolled around. I was vaguely ashamed that I (unspoiled as I was) still recognized Steve from just the back of his head, but my joy at seeing him return overwhelmed the shame. There was much squealing in my living room.

Anyway, I immediately looked online to find out if they were bringing back Kayla, too, and now that I know they are, no way am I giving up the show again anytime soon.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I loved his early bad boy days. Before he became a regular character and he was just hanging around terrorizing everyone. You could totally tell that he had something magical, that he had real talent, and I wasn't surprised when they turned a one-shot role into a regular one and gave him a name and all that. From stalking terrorizer to heartthrob antihero!

I'd actually been traveling when he first appeared -- I missed his actual kidnapping of Hope, and came in when he was holding her prisoner and they were having that weird bonding thing despite him... you know, having kidnapped her and terrorizing her. He had such chemistry with her, and with Kayla, and with Bo... I was watching it, not knowing exactly what had happened or where he came from, and thinking, "wow, this is a really cool character and actor." So I was smitten even in the creepy early days -- he was a very attractive creep. ;-)

I adored the stuff with Hope later, too -- that it was him with her when she miscarried, not Bo, and that his heart of tin turned out to have a soft gooey center of gold. Sigh.

Ah, good times.

And I wondered about Jack and Jennifer -- I didn't remember it being either of those original actors the last time I tuned it, but that was very long ago. I am doing what you suggested -- so far, I've managed to ff through a lot of the stuff I don't know or care much about, and it's saving time. God, TiVo is a great thing!

[tir.livejournal.com]

He was great, and I'm looking forward to the inevitable Steve/Kayla reunion. I'm sure they'll drag it out as long as humanly possible just to keep us waiting.

Although I keep wondering why they just don't use his tattoo (the one that was a clue to something, in combination with a couple of other guys' tattoos, I think?) to prove his identity. There's no way Jack could know about it if he didn't know him. Or did he get the tattoo removed at some point? I don't remember. Ah, well.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah! And you know, today they had the whole DNA test results and Steve doesn't want to believe it, but I kept wondering why the hell Jack didn't just say, where did you get that tattoo, or tell me about your childhood, or most important of all, HOW DID YOU LOSE YOUR EYE? Because then Steve would have to admit he doesn't have the memories! And that nothing he knows or believes he knows is correct. But they don't do the obvious! Grrr. Well, anyway. It's all about getting them together and of course Kayla said nothing would stand in her way, so we know now that something will. ;-)