Melissa Reeves Made Her Days of Our Lives Debut as Jennifer and Other Big Moments From October 9

In 1985, Melissa Reeves (then known as Melissa Brennan) debuted on Days of Our Lives as Jennifer Rose Horton. In 2015, she recalled to Soap Opera Digest that when trying out for the role, "I tested with Michael T. Weiss [ex-Mike Horton, Jennifer's brother]. He was so nice, sweet and helpful. In the test, we had to have a big fight. I remember him saying, ‘You can really hit me and push me around.’ ” Of starting work on the show, she confessed, "I had just turned 18. I worked with Michael on my first day. I had such a crush on him. He was playing my brother and I thought, ‘How am I even going to talk to him?’ ”

In 2012, General Hospital's Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco) was overjoyed to learn that her son, Danny, was alive, months after being led to believe that he had died. In truth, the baby had been switched by Heather Webber and Todd Manning with the child Téa Delgado had birthed; that little boy did not survive. It took a little more time, but eventually Sam was reunited with her child and learned that the baby's father was actually Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) and not, as she had been falsely led to believe, that of psycho artist Franco.

In 2015, Ben Weston (Robert Scott Wilson) “murdered” Will Horton, who was played at the time by Guy Wilson. Though at the time, it was established that Ben, the Necktie Killer, had strangled Will to death, that storyline move was overturned in 2017, and per a rewrite Will (once again played by Chandler Massey) actually survived. In 2020, when asked by Soap Opera Digest what stood out to him the most about the Necktie Killer storyline, Wilson responded, "Strangling Will, because it was his friend. It was the first moment that Ben was conscious about what he was doing. He knew he had to do it. It wasn’t something where he blacked out. And everybody liked it, because we did [the scene] again with another actor. We re-created it as best we could. Guy Wilson was playing Will, and he was fantastic. Playing Ben at that moment may have been some of the darkest [work I’ve ever done], for sure."

In 2023 on Bold and Beautiful, Finn (Tanner Novlan, r.) was left reeling when his biological mother, Sheila (Kimberlin Brown), and Deacon (Sean Kanan) told him that they were in love. Deacon vouched for how their love had transformed Sheila, but Finn wasn't readily buying it. He shot down Sheila's overture to give him the love she had to share and barked that if she truly loved him, she would leave Los Angeles, as it was Sheila's presence in town that had caused his beloved wife, Steffy, to head overseas with the children. Sheila sadly excused herself, and Deacon implored Finn to have an open mind where his mother's possible redemption was concerned. He was unimpressed when Deacon assured him that he could control Sheila, referencing his black belt in karate, and reminded Deacon that his daughter, Hope, was likely going to be as unhappy about him taking up with Sheila as he was.

In 2023 on Young and Restless, Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and Diane Jenkins Abbott (Susan Walters) renewed their vows in a ceremony presided over by their son, Kyle Abbott (Michael Mealor), who had been ordained on the Internet as an officiant. The vow renewal was staged at the family home, with relatives and close friends in attendance, including a visiting Mamie Johnson. At the reception following the exchange of vows, two guests showed up who were decidedly not invited: Tucker McCall and Audra Charles.