Transcript:
The Regis and Kathie Lee Show
~ 1990 ~
Regis: Here he is one of the most popular soap stars of them all, he plays Patch on the Days of our Lives, started in 1985. It was about a 5 1/2 year run, and he’s about to leave that show now for other challenges.
Kathie Lee: Good for him.
Regis: And…but he really was one of the most popular and mysterious guys on daytime TV. Of course he’s the one with the patch, he was called Patch.
Kathie Lee: Henceforth his name.
Regis: Will be Patch.
Regis: But he was of course Stephen Nichols.
Kathie Lee: He still is.
Cheers from the audience as Stephen walks out, microphone in hand, smiling
Waves at the audience
Regis: Hi, Stephen.
Stephen: How are you doing Regis?
Kathie Lee: Nice to see you again.
Stephen: Nice to see you.
Regis: Have a seat, welcome to the show. Nice to see you out here in LA.
Stephen sits down.
Regis: Look at the psychic effect you have on the audience.
Camera pans the audience, everyone is wearing patches.
Stephen: Oh, God…
Regis: As soon as he walks out, all of a sudden people start wearing patches.
Stephen: That’s very scary.
Regis: And more patches over here.
Stephen: Oh, my God.
Regis: Everybody’s a Patch in the audience.
Stephen: Wait! That little guy doesn’t have one on. He knows better. I taught him not to do that.
Camera goes to Stephen’s son, Aaron, in the audience. Aaron covers his eye with his hand.
Regis: So you’re leaving the show?
Stephen: Ya, I’m leaving. I’m leaving at the end of this week actually.
Regis: You wanted to leave, right?
Stephen: Yes, yes it was my decision. Five years, for me, on a soap, was enough. That’s basically it. I really feel that I have to move on.
Kathie Lee: The character had been explored as far as he could go?
Stephen: Ya, you know the kind of character that I played…I came on as a day player and they gave me a patch, and they said this guy, he’s a bad guy. Here, just say the lines and he’s probably going to be killed off in a couple of months. Well, you know I was taught when you have a character, you develop it. You find out where you come from and who you are, and that’s what I did. So they kind of picked up on that and they offered me a contract. But that character was so unique because he was developed sort of in a backdoor fashion, that you can’t plug that character into a formula, which is what happened. I got married, had the baby, and now I’m plugged into a soap formula and in the last two years the writing, for me…
Kathie Lee: … challenging.
Stephen: …has not been that good…Not challenging.
Regis: So you asked to get off. What’s going to happen, are they going to kill you off, or are you going to fade into the distance? What’s going to happen to Patch?
Stephen: Let’s see, it’s going to air near the end of October. I guess I can say I’m getting killed. But, you know how those things are. They bring people back from the dead. They do that all the time. So don’t be worried. It’s a soap opera.
Kathie Lee: Just take a shower, you can come back anytime.
(laughs)
Stephen: Or go upstairs…
Regis: So what’s going to happen to your love interest then, Mary ….
Kathie Lee: Poor Kayla.
Stephen: Mary Beth Evans, my sweet Kayla. Ya, she has some more time left in her contract. I threatened to …
Kathie Lee (laughs): So she gets to live a little longer.
Stephen: Ya, she can live longer, and I threatened that if they get her a new love interest, I’m going to come on the set one day, during taping, and drag her off and they’ll never see her again. So that’s a gag.
Regis: You’re married to an actress aren’t you Stephen?
Stephen: Yes, and a writer, Lisa Nichols.
Regis: She’s…I was going to say two people he’s married to? She’s an actress slash writer.
Stephen (laughs): Actress slash writer.
Regis: Very talented lady. First time you saw her was up on stage?
Stephen: Ya, I was on stage playing a really flipped out kind of character, Jerry in The Zoo Story, and she fell in love with that sociopath, you know, and we met backstage.
Kathie Lee: Love at first sight though, for her.
Stephen: Ya, pretty much, except I had to chase her for about 3 months. She wouldn’t have anything to do with me. So, if you call that love at first sight…
Regis: Fascination, it sounds like.
Stephen: It was in a way.
Regis: Now, when you’re out in the crowds like this, and there’s so many soap fans today, is there much of a reaction, or response, to when they see you walking in the park or in the street?
Stephen: In Los Angeles, people recognize you and they sort of acknowledge, but they don’t really come up to you. When you come to an amusement park like this, you have to come in disguise pretty much, because if you’re with your family, there’s a lot of pictures and can I have your autograph, and ‘what are you here for?’
Regis: In LA itself, they’re very cool.
Stephen: They’re cool, ya. Everybody’s too cool to come up and say can I have your autograph.
Regis: New York’s a little more boisterous, isn’t it?
Kathie Lee: Yo, Patch!
Stephen: New York …I was just in New York over the weekend, as a matter of fact, and man they’re just…I had a guy come up to me who said, “You know you are the coolest Caucasian on television.”
(laughs)
Kathie Lee: That’s a tremendous compliment.
Stephen: That’s one of the most beautiful things anybody ever said to me, I loved that.
Regis: Now, before you leave The Days of our Lives, your son is going to portray you as a young man.
Kathie Lee: In flashbacks.
Stephen: He’s going to reprise his role as little Steve.
Regis: Come on up here, Aaron.
Stephen: Aaron, come here buddy.
Regis: Here’s Stephen’s son, Aaron.
Kathie Lee: His daughter also plays his daughter.
Regis: Oh, is that right?
Kathie Lee: Ya.
Aaron comes up to the stage, stands next to Stephen and smiles
Stephen: This is my boy.
Kathie Lee: Hi, Aaron.
Aaron: Hello.
Regis: He’s going to play a young Patch?
Stephen: That’s right. He started that role when he was about 6 years old, when Patch was having flashbacks of his childhood and his family, dysfunctional family and the orphanage and all that. Now he’s come back as 10 year old Patch in a flashback with Patch’s best friend Marcus. They were in the orphanage together.
Regis: Oh, that’s going to be fun.
Stephen: My daughter is working as well tomorrow. She’s playing my daughter at the age of 16, Stephanie at the age of 16.
Kathie Lee: So, tomorrow you’re going to be taping your last episode.
Stephen: No, not quite, but it’s close.
Regis: Did you want to say goodbye to your sick pal, who you spent so much time with over the years?
Stephen: Yes, I wanted to say to Daniel (name edited out), hello, and to anybody out there who will please go into your local Red Cross and be tested to be a donor for Leukemia patients, please do that, because a lot of people out there are dying because there aren’t enough donors.
Regis: Alright Stephen, thanks so much. Good luck to you, and to Days of our Lives, for your final Days, your final week. Good luck in the future, too.
Regis shakes Stephen’s hand
Regis: Thanks, Aaron!
Kathie Lee and Stephen shake hands
Kathie Lee and Regis say goodbye to Aaron and wave
(Transcript and pictures courtesy of nicholsevansfan)
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