Five Things That Happened On January 29 In Soap History

In 1986, John Black and Marlena Evans (Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall) met for the first time on Days of Our Lives. The future supercouple met under dramatic circumstances, as amnesiac John saved his future wife from an armed robber. They formed a friendship, in time Marlena "discovered" that he was her thought-to-be-dead husband, Roman Brady (which was later disproved). Hogestyn told Digest in 2015, "It was a bulletproof story to start with. She rescued him, she saved him, she believed in him."

In 2008 on Young and Restless, Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle) emerged from a months-long coma. She had been in that state since 2007, when a pregnant Victoria, along with several other Genoa City residents, had found themselves trapped in a collapsed parking structure. Luckily, everyone made it out — but a methane gas explosion caused debris to fall and strike Victoria on the head, rendering her comatose. Eventually, her baby had to be delivered via C-section. When Victoria first regained consciousness, she was understandably panicked to discover that she was no longer pregnant. JT (Thad Luckinbill) was in the room with her with their baby boy, Reed, and he rushed over with the baby. Soon, other members of her family flocked around her, overjoyed that Victoria had survived.

After discovering that the man he knew as Dominic Pirelli was actually an undercover cop that had infiltrated his organization, Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard, r.) shot Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) on General Hospital. Dante's mother, Olivia, burst in on the scene and was horrified to see her son lying in a pool of blood. "My God, Sonny!" she shrieked. "You just shot your own son!" This was, of course, news to Sonny, who had no idea that he had impregnated Olivia when they had slept together as teens back in their native Brooklyn. In 2022, Zamprogna told Soap Opera Digest that he considered the storyline to be Dante's signature plot, noting, "Finding out who his father was, and then having his father shoot him, was pretty big!" In time, Sonny and Dante forged a close father/son relationship.

In 2013, Steve Burton debuted as Dylan McAvoy on Young and Restless, who would ultimately be revealed to be the surprise son of Nikki Newman and Paul Williams, conceived during their long-ago relationship when they were members of a cult. The news that Daytime Emmy-winner Burton had signed on to join Y&R mere months after exiting his long-term role as Jason Morgan on General Hospital was announced on the CBS talk show The Talk, after which the actor (who at the time was based in Nashville) told Soap Opera Digest, "That was crazy! I wasn't expecting anything like that. To say the least, The Talk was an overwhelming and extraordinary welcome to CBS daytime. The ladies could not have been nicer. It was an awesome experience there. I had just come out from Tennessee at that point, so I basically got out of my car and went into The Talk."

In 2016, Ashley Jones made her General Hospital debut as Kristina's one-time Wesleyan professor and love interest, Parker Forsyth. The actress enthused to Soap Opera Digest at the time, "I think Parker is a very interesting character, certainly very different from Bridget [her long-running role on Bold and Beautiful], and I’m really looking forward to seeing where it goes." She praised her on-screen scene partner, Lexi Ainsworth (Kristina), noting, “When I met her in rehearsal, she didn’t have any makeup on and was in her sweats and my first thought was, ‘Oh, my gosh, she is so beautiful and so young!’ That was my very first impression of her. But when we started working together, I was like, ‘She looks really young, but she has so much strength behind her.’ She is really, truly lovely to work with. She made it easy and fun."