50 Years of ‘Days of Our Lives’: Stephen Nichols Picks His Favorite “Patch” Scene

Michael Logan September 9, 2015, 10:00 am

Comments

Beauty wanted to tame the Beast… and she also wanted to take a look under that damn patch! When we asked Days of Our Lives icon Stephen Nichols—aka Steve “Patch” Johnson—to pick his favorite moment from his many years on the NBC soap, he wasted no time mind-tripping through lists. “There are so many scenes I remember fondly and so many great ones I’ve probably forgotten,” Nichols says. “But the one that’s still the most meaningful to me, after all these decades, took place [in 1986] when Steve was badly wounded and Kayla [Mary Beth Evans] took off his famous patch to clean his face.”

But first he put up quite a battle. The setup, recalls Nichols, “had Kayla working down at the riverfront clinic and Steve chasing her around there for months. He was sooo into her! Then he got beaten up and she found him. She wants to take care of him—which means touching his face and taking off that patch—but he’s thinking, ‘Oh, no you don’t! Back off, baby! You’re not looking under there! Nobody looks under there!’ But Kayla was persistent and what she saw didn’t gross her out or make her scream and run. She accepts Steve completely, and there’s nothing more romantic than that.”

Was there ever talk of actually showing what was under the patch? “The producers would never go for anything gory or grisly, or showing the eyelid sewn shut or anything like that,” Nichols says. “After all that mysterious buildup, it would have to be something pretty horrible. Better that we used our imaginations. Besides, that scene was all about Kayla’s reaction to what she was seeing. And Mary Beth’s performance was—as always—absolutely extraordinary.”

Here’s that memorable moment:

[jwplatform 2BLsNa6M]

TV Insider has more favorite 50th anniversary Days clips handpicked by Deidre Hall, Kristian Alfonso, Bryan Dattilo, Melissa Reeves and executive producer Ken Corday. Stay tuned. Lots more to come!