Photo Credit: JPI Studios Days of Our Lives’ Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans highlight the deaf storyline as a bold, groundbreaking moment for the show.

Steve and Kayla aren’t just another soap couple — they are the embodiment of Days of our Lives. When they show up, it feels like the show is remembering what it’s made of. So when Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans popped up on social media to talk about their years together, it wasn’t some polished promo. It felt easy. Familiar. Like two people who’ve been doing this for a long time and still love it.

Key Takeaways

• Evans reflected on how different production was back in the day, with multiple rehearsals before taping.
• Nichols compared the old DAYS filming process to doing live theater.
• Evans said their long history together is “embedded” in them, even with today’s fast pace.
• Evans lit up, recalling the Emily and Gideon storyline and how it became a personal memory for her.
• Nichols pointed to the deaf storyline as groundbreaking for its time.
• Evans explained how learning sign language for the scenes made the story feel authentic.

A Look Back at How the Show Was Made

On the official Days of our Lives Instagram page, the caption read, “The ‘90s and early 2000s brought love, adventure, and unforgettable moments. 💕 Mary Beth Evans and Stephen Nichols take us back to the DAYS decade that captured hearts everywhere.” Attached was a video of the two talking.

Evans kicked things off by stating how much the behind-the-scenes process has changed. “The show was done so differently,” she said. “You went through the show three, four times. You had a basic blocking thing, then you’d meet for the cameras, and then you’d have a dress rehearsal, and then you would go shoot the whole show.”

She explained how back then, a lot of time was spent running lines over and over and practically living there. Nichols jumped in to add, “It was like doing theater. It was like maybe doing like 24-hour plays where we didn’t have to write it, but we had to learn the lines the day before and be ready to go.”

Evans further noted that nowadays everything happens super fast, with barely any time to prepare before taping. “What we really have in our favor is that history, because it’s now it’s just embedded in us,” she said.

She then lit up when the Emily and Gideon storyline came up, in which Evans and Nichols played the Civil War characters. “That was my favorite story I’ve ever done,” she said, smiling. She described the costumes, the harpsichord, and how the whole thing felt like stepping into another world. She remembered how Nichols’ character played the harpsichord and sang “Down in the Valley” and how she ended up singing it to her baby daughter at home in Pasadena.

Nichols later shifted to one of their most memorable storylines, the one where Kayla went deaf. “I think the deaf storyline really pushed the boundaries,” he said, pointing out how rare it was to see anything like that at the time. He noted how far things have come since then, with deaf actors winning awards and more representation on screen. Then he asked, “How often did you see actors signing the dialogue and having to say it at the same time?”

Evans noted that a woman came in to teach them the exact sign language for the scenes. When they had trouble with it, she remarked that the lady explained, “I think it’s great that you’re struggling through it because you would struggle through it.”