Soap Opera
The ‘Days of our Lives’ Love Story That Set the Standard for Salem Supercouples
Bo and Hope from ‘Days of our Lives’ defined the 1980s supercouple era. Explore their epic love story spanning four decades of romance, heartbreak, and reunion.
While Days of our Lives’ Doug and Julie were the first soap couple to appear on the cover of TIME Magazine and General Hospital’s Luke (Anthony Geary) and Laura (Genie Francis) brought the soaps into the mainstream, it was another DAYS couple who defined the Salem supercouple craze of the 1980s. Bo Brady (Peter Reckell) and Hope Williams (Kristian Alfonso) met more than four decades ago and led the way for soap opera romance for years to come.
The Rich Girl and the Rebel
When Bo and Hope first met, he had just returned to Salem from a stint in the Merchant Marines and 17-year-old Hope had just returned from boarding school to finish high school in Salem. Bo tried to resist the young woman he called “Little One,” but agreed to be Hope’s date at her blowout formal 18th birthday party. A dance to Liz Chandler (Gloria Loring) singing “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” and Bo’s confession of love later that same night sent this epic love story on its way.
Over the next year, Bo and Hope battled her disapproving father, the bad guys, and even the district attorney, whom Hope nearly wed. Bo kidnapped Hope on the back of a police motorcycle to stop her from walking down the aisle before an epic adventure on a plantation in New Orleans led them to make love for the very first time.
A wedding in London thrown by (a fictional version of) Queen Elizabeth II followed in 1985, but it was never smooth sailing for “Brady” and “Fancy Face.” Instead, multiple presumed deaths, other lovers, marriages, children, and sadly, the death of their son, Zack, permeated Bo and Hope’s lives for years to come. Hope even believed Bo was gone for nearly 10 years after he allegedly died in her arms in 2015.
But since this is Days of our Lives and most deaths aren’t permanent, Bo and Hope were able to reunite and have their happily ever after. In 2018, Peter Reckell reflected on what made Bo and Hope a phenomenon in an interview with Soap Opera Digest.
“There are a lot of aspects to that chemistry,” he said. “First and foremost, you had two people who worked their butts off and loved the opportunity to act every day. We challenged and tested each other, and worked together to make the best possible scene and show that we could.”
