Five Things That Happened On January 18 In Soap History

In 1982, Joseph Mascolo debuted on Days of Our Lives in the iconic role of Stefano DiMera. In his first interview with Soap Opera Digest, he said of the distinctive voice he adopted for the character, "From the minute I walk in the door, I am Stefano DiMera. It makes for a more natural performance and it helps me to actually think in terms of the language. When I first started on the show, some of the actors and most of the crew had wagers on whether the accent was real or not.” He also spoke of how his excitement to join DAYS was in part inspired by the prospect of working with Thaao Penghlis (Tony). “When I heard that Thaao was on the show and that, if I took this role, he’d be playing my son, I thought — wait a minute — this is going to be fun, because I know Thaao from my theater days in New York and I know how serious he is about his work. We’re good friends outside of the show, too."

In 1982, John de Lancie debuted as Eugene Bradford on Days of Our Lives. Eugene kicked off his time on the show as a patient of Marlena's, and while his most popular romantic pairing was ultimately opposite Arleen Sorkin's Calliope, his first love interest on the show was Trista Evans, played by Barbara Crampton. The actor, who brought a comedic touch to the role, remained with DAYS until 1989.

In 2008, Debbi Morgan returned to All My Children in the role of Angela Baxter Hubbard. She had originally played Angie from 1982-90, winning the 1989 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress. She quit the show to assume the role of Chantal Marshall on Generations, then returned to ABC Daytime to play Angie on Loving and The City. When The City was canceled, she joined the original cast of Port Charles, playing Dr. Ellen Burgess from 1997-99. Morgan remained with AMC until its cancellation in 2011, and after a stint as Harmony, Devon's mother, on Young and Restless, she reprised Angie on the short-lived 2013 AMC reboot online. In 2011, Morgan spoke to Soap Opera Digest about how, in creating Angie, she had fought against making her overly sweet. "I made a choice and a decision early on to fight against her going down that path," she explained. "I wanted her to maintain a certain strength about her and stand up for herself and not let people walk all over her just because she was nice and good, good-hearted."

Vincent Irizarry made his Days of Our Lives debut as the villainous Deimos Kiriakis, the half brother of Victor Kiriakis. The actor was already well-known to soap fans for his Daytime Emmy-winning run on All My Children as David Hayward, and his stints on Guiding Light (first as Brandon "Lujack" Luvonaczek, then as Nick McHenry), Santa Barbara (as Scott Clark) and Young and Restless (as David Chow).

In 2024 on General Hospital, TJ Ashford (Tajh Bellow) informed his mother, Jordan Ashford (Tanisha Harper), that Kristina had undergone a procedure that day to have her egg fertilized in order to serve as a surrogate mother for TJ and Molly, who had encountered fertility struggles in their quest to become parents. TJ acknowledged that he had at first had reservations about the wisdom of using Kristina as a surrogate, but had come to believe it was the right decision. Sadly, Kristina wound up losing the baby late in her pregnancy after falling out of a window at the Metro Court Hotel during a heated argument with Ava.