Daytime soap opera Days of our Lives premiered on NBC 49 years ago today (November 8, 1965). Created by Ted and Betty Corday, the show is run by their son, Ken Corday, today.
In the serial's original stories, Tom and Alice Horton (Macdonald Carey and Frances Reid) were almost alone in a house that once brimmed with the activity of five children: twins Tommy and Addie (Patricia Huston), Mickey (John Clarke), Bill (Paul Carr) and Marie (Maree Cheatham). Only Marie, the youngest, remained at home. She was a university student planning her Thanksgiving wedding to Tony Merritt. More than ten years earlier, Tom Jr. had been killed in Korea, but his body had never been recovered. Before shipping out, he had married Kitty, whom he met while in basic training. She bore them a daughter, Sandy.
