First Wedding Interviews
via Satellite
NBC Affiliate TV Stations
(Additional Screen Caps located at the bottom of the page)
During the week of Steve and Kayla’s wedding (1988), Stephen and Mary Beth appeared on various NBC affiliates (via satellite) to talk about their storyline and Steve and Kayla’s nuptials. Below is a transcript of five of those interviews.
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Interview #1: Nashville
Clip of wedding shown.
Anchor Woman: Now live via satellite from Burbank, here are Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans who you know as Patch and Kayla on Days of our Lives. Good morning to you!
Stephen and Mary Beth in unison: Good morning.
Anchor Woman: You two are going to make a lot of people happy, a lot of viewers here in Nashville, on Friday.
Mary Beth: We’re happy…
Stephen: Ya…
Anchor Woman: Do you think it’s about time? How do you feel about it?
Stephen: We do, we’re very happy about it. We think it is about time.
Mary Beth: We’ve had a lot of turmoil. A LOT of things have happened to us.
Stephen: The feeling we both had, right? Was that we…when we actually did tape the wedding, was that it was really time. It was almost real for us, that we actually were getting married.
Mary Beth: We were nervous.
Anchor Woman: Tell us about the wedding.
Mary Beth: It’s outdoors…it’s a surprise; the whole wedding…it was a beautiful day. It was sunny and hot, and it was really a beautiful wedding and I think everyone’s going to be really happy.
Anchor Woman: Was it near the water for a special reason?
Mary Beth: We live by the water, Salem, USA, is by the water. There’s the pier, and the fish market… it is by the water.
Stephen: Plus, it ties with Patch’s past in the Merchant Marines. He was out to sea for a long time. And Kayla growing up there as a child…walked by the ocean and the docks…and it’s symbolic.
Mary Beth: …In many ways.
Anchor Woman: There’s another thing the viewers are wanting to know about. Now on Friday, we still weren’t sure that you could hear after the surgery that Kayla underwent. Now will you be able to hear by the wedding, or can you even tell us?
Stephen: Welllll…..you know, we’ll have to wait and see. You know that’s on Friday…isn’t it?
Mary Beth: What? Airing? Hearing?
Stephen: Hearing, honey, not airing.
Mary Beth: I can’t hear now.
(They laugh).
Stephen: (laughs) Don’ worry.
Anchor Woman: We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.
Stephen: Ya, you’ll have to wait and see. There is sign language involved in the wedding, I’ll tell you that much.
Anchor Woman: Now, you’ve been speaking your lines in sign language for 2 or 3 weeks now…
Mary Beth: I think it’s been longer than that.
Stephen: More than that.
(They laugh)
Mary Beth: …forever.
Anchor Woman: Has that made it more difficult for you as an actor?
Mary Beth: Sure, in a lot of ways. We’ve had to…well, for me in particular, have all the emotions across without any words. For someone like me who likes to talk a lot, it’s difficult, really, but it’s been fun…and having him talk to me. I have to say the one thing that was irritating for me, being able to hear him, is he’d interpret me and I’d be saying something with my signs and in my mind it was a different word than he was saying. And I’d be doing it again, like “you’re not getting it” … when if I could hear, it wouldn’t matter. So, it was aggravating at times, but I think we really pulled it off, or at least it feels that way.
Anchor Woman: Now, your sign language teacher on the show is also your sign language teacher …that’s hard to say. Did she also work with you on the loneliness and the other things you had to feel as an actress?
Mary Beth: She gave me some tips about the isolation, because she herself had been deaf for about 8 months in her life. And just talking to her gave insight.
AnchorWoman: Now the viewers know you as Patch and Kayla, and I hope this is a fair question. Are you anything like your characters, either of you?
Mary Beth: Well, I look more like Kayla than he does Patch, I think.
Stephen: Ya, I believe that for me there is always part of myself in the character that I play. I think that brings the reality to it, you know. You have to blend the reality with the fantasy to create a character.
Anchor Woman: And Mary Beth?
Mary Beth: Ya, I think so. I think more and more, too, as the character grows, and I grow, the two are kind of merging.
Anchor Woman: Thanks so much for being with us this morning, Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans from Days of our Lives.
Mary Beth and Stephen: Thank you.
Anchor Woman: And wedding will be this Friday at 3 o’clock on NBC and channel 4 on Days of our Lives.
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Interview #2: Channel 5 (Mississippi?)
Anchorwoman: …In this case it’s the TV5 lunchroom. But all over the Miss. south, folks are doing the same thing: Watching Days of our Lives.
Clip from wedding.
Anchor Woman: And this is one of the main reasons-Patch and Kayla. For 2 years, the couple has been one of the most popular on daytime television. And this week, their daytime audience will focus on their wedding, finally.
Stephen: A lot of guys are saying to me, ‘If you don’t want her I’ll take her’, you know, ‘Get on with it, are you going to marry the girl or what?’
Anchor Woman: I talked to Patch and Kayla, who are actually Mary Beth Evans and Stephen Nichols, via satellite today, about their lives on Days of our Lives.
Mary Beth Evans: Well, a little over two years we’ve been together. And we’re very good friends and love each other as friends, so I think that really comes across. I think if we didn’t like each other, maybe that would show. But we really try to tune in to each other and pay attention, and we run our lines all day long, go to lunch together… I’m trying to get him to go to the gym with me, but he’s always, uh, doing something else (laughs).
Stephen: Aw, that’s not true, I’ll go with you.
Anchor Woman: As for Steve and Kayla, the big day of their lives will be at 12:30, this Friday.
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Interview #3 (unknown location)
Anchor Woman: Mary Beth Evans and Stephen Nichols of Days of our Lives are with us today. I understand that congratulations are in order. Patch and Kayla are getting married. Does that mean they’ll live happily ever after?
Mary Beth: We hope so.
Stephen: Ya, we want them to live happily ever after. This daytime thing, they want us always to have conflict. People say they don’t like it, but that’s why they keep watching, to see the couples and the characters get out of the conflict, get through it. But we’re getting married today, without fail.
Mary Beth: And I have to go get my nails done, get ready.
Stephen: No problems…we’re going to get married, it’s a wonderful wedding.
Anchor Woman: I heard it was the most beautiful on daytime TV.
Mary Beth: It’s very pretty.
Stephen: Well, that’s what we heard. We got reports that it was the best, most beautiful, most romantic wedding they had ever seen on daytime television.
Mary Beth: Who said that?
Stephen: Some of the people at NBC, the big wigs.
Mary Beth: That’s exciting.
Anchor Woman: That sounds great. Why do you think Patch and Kayla are so popular?
Mary Beth: Well, I think because we care about each other so much. I think that’s probably why I think that we’ve always had a good chemistry, and we tune in and we’re there for each other. We run it all day long, go to lunch together, and we just work hard at it.
Stephen: Plus the characters aren’t your typical soap opera characters. Patch, right of the bat, the guy with one eye…he’s not your typical pretty boy soap hunk, and he’s an underdog. People love him because they see all of his problems and some people relate to those problems and then seeing him overcome them. I think that’s why they like Patch. And women love the fact that he’s kind of forbidden love…the whole time I was chasing her, and she was chasing me…it’s kind of a forbidden love situation there. You know, somebody you’d be with but you wouldn’t tell your friends? (Laughs)
Mary Beth: In the closet? (Laughs)
Stephen: That’s what one of the producers told me anyway. (Laughs)
Mary Beth: Did they tell you that? (Laughs)
Stephen: Ya. (Smiling)
Anchor Woman: You mentioned that you two get along so well, and of course, the past few weeks you really have had to, because you’ve had to learn sign language. How were you able to do that?
Mary Beth: A lot of hard work…
Stephen: We had to do it, we had no choice, and it was very hard in the beginning. After a while, we got a basic vocabulary going and we started really enjoying it. And it’s a thrill to be able to communicate with hearing impaired people and especially the children that come on the show. We’ve worked with a few kids now, and have conversations with them and their parents. It’s fantastic; it’s a whole new world.
Mary Beth: It’s something we’ll keep our whole lives now.
Anchor Woman: What kind of impact do you think that had on the hearing impaired community?
Mary Beth: I think quite a bit. They’re so isolated. There aren’t that many close captioned shows. I don’t think there are any soaps that are close captioned. It’s just a very isolating situation, and this gave them a chance to tune in and feel more excited about our show, too.
Stephen: They’re enjoying the storyline…being able to actually follow what we’re saying and what we’re doing in our story at least.
Anchor Woman: Do you think this is something that will be carried even further? Will Kayla work more in the community?
Stephen: It will, Yes
Mary Beth: Ya, we know it will be, yes.
Anchor Woman: Tell me a little bit about your dress, Mary Beth.
Mary Beth: It’s a blush color… (Stephen is interrupting and she smiles. He’s upset that no one asks about his tux)….and it’s a blush color. Lee Smith our costume designer had it made, he made it for me. And sewed the little pieces of fabric…
Stephen: Sewed it to your body and it’s still there.
Mary Beth: Sewed it to my body (laughs). And so…then, he took it from there, and it’s hand beaded. It’s really beautiful. It’s a little poky under the arms, but it’s really pretty.
(Stephen laughs at the “poky” comment)
Anchor Woman: Would you like some time to talk about your outfit, Steve?
Stephen: (laughs) He taped a little piece of muslin to my belly and….No, it’s a beautiful tux, and it’s very unique and very Patch-like. And it was all hand done. One fitting, they brought it back to me, it fit me perfectly, the tailor was fantastic. Lee Smith designed it and picked the fabric. Great costume designer…
Mary Beth: So, if nothing else, we’ll look good, you know? (Jokes)
Anchor Woman: You look gorgeous saying it. Thank you so much for joining us.
Mary Beth: Thanks for having us.
Stephen: Thank you.
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Interview #4: Detroit
“Star Notes”
(Anchor Woman voice over as clips of Steve and Kayla are shown):
“Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans, who play the popular couple, have had a particularly stormy soap opera relationship. Their most recent tragedy has left Kayla without her hearing; a storyline forced the two to learn sign language.”
Mary Beth: We had never studied it before and we wanted to be correct with this, so it was a lot of work, but very rewarding to both of us, I think.
Anchor Woman: As actors, it’s added to the challenge of performing.
Stephen: For example, Patch has a conversation with two other people in the room that doesn’t really involve Kayla. Well, I try to at least throw in …give her a gist of what was being talked about even if it didn’t involve her, because people often just forget that the deaf person needs to know what’s going on.
Anchor Woman (we learn her name is Sylvia Glover): Fans are anticipating the big event this Friday, when the two are planning to be married, but we have a sneak preview of the wedding couple. (Clip from Days wedding).
Stephen talks as the wedding clips are shown: Patch actually cooked up a surprise for Kayla …a beautiful ceremony, a beautiful setting. Something that he found was one of her childhood dreams that she wanted to have. It’s really beautiful. It’s very well done. And we were very happy with our job that we did, and we stuck together and helped each other through it, and the fans won’t be disappointed. It’s going to be a gorgeous, beautiful wedding.
Anchor Woman: For Star Notes, Sylvia Glover, News 4, Detroit
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Interview #5: WJAC TV6 Johnston
Male voice over before commercials: “The wedding of the year, the one that soap addicts have been waiting for. Kayla and Steve are tying the knot. We’ll talk to them about the writers strike effect on their romance.”
Anchor Woman: “Soap operas…they’ve got love and lust, romance and runaways…but do they have any socially redeeming values? Viewers of Days of our Lives would say yes. NBC’s #1 rated daytime show has picked up the storyline of deafness, and some of the characters have had to learn sign language. I recently talked with Mary Beth Evans and Stephen Nichols about how it’s changed their characters. They said it’s been a real challenge for them, and a boost for the hearing impaired audience.
Clips with voiceover: Kayla Brady, played by Mary Beth Evans, was injured in a fire which left her deaf and dumb. Kayla and her fiancé, Steve Johnson, played by Stephen Nichols, have had to learn sign language to communicate.
Stephen: You have to rely on other parts of yourself, your instrument, to express yourself …and it’s really, we really enjoy it.
Mary Beth: I was surprised, because I thought, without words, especially me, because I am one who likes to talk a lot, right? I was just kind of worried because, how am I going to pull this off without speaking at all? But then when I had to go back to speaking, which I really haven’t done yet, it was kind of difficult and felt weird to start speaking again because I was getting so used to expressing myself in other ways. Also, sign language is something that is conceptually correct, but not necessarily correct in how we speak English. So it’s confusing to learn our lines as they’re written and translate them to sign language, because we leave out a lot of words …and then try to remember your lines, but then switch it.
Anchor Woman: Have you had much reaction from the deaf community?
Mary Beth nods.
Stephen: Ya, they’re really enjoying it. Apparently there’s something like 11% of the audience is hearing impaired. It’s become a big hit with them, for sure. Because we are staying true to the sign language, and we’re not leaving anything out that should be there. We’re learning all of our lines correctly in sign language. We have a great teacher who is helping us with that.
Anchor Woman: And is the wedding going to be signed?
Mary Beth (laughs): Maybe.
Stephen: We’ll see. There is sign language in the wedding. We can tell you that much.
Anchor Woman: Is the wedding actually going to come off, or is there going to be a big disaster in the middle?
Stephen: Well, you know, there’s always that lurking something in the background.
Mary Beth: Did you lurk yet?
Stephen: Oh, I lurked at your wedding, my dear. (Stephen is talking about Kayla’s wedding to Jack)
Mary Beth: No, there was another one I thought?
Stephen: No, I don’t think so.
Mary Beth: Well anyway, ya, he lurked at mine.
Stephen: There’s always something boiling underneath, but it should be a happy time for both of us.
Clip from the wedding: Steve saying, “We made it Sweetness, Happy Wedding Day.”
Anchor Woman: The wedding won’t be the end of the signing for Days of our Lives.
Mary Beth: We actually have a new little boy coming on our show, Darrell, who is really terrific, and he will kind of let the story continue a while, I think.
Gallery: Click on a picture to view a larger version. Click on the picture again to close the large view screen.
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