Taking Their Sweet Time: Days of Our Lives' premiere romantic couple, Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall, first sparked onscreen in 1986. But, crazy as it seems, their characters, John and Marlena, weren't legally married until their third wedding in 2006!

Clash of the Titans: Salem badasses Joseph Mascolo (Stefano) and John Aniston (Victor) shake hands…or are they about to duke it out? Now that's multi-tasking!

Meng Dynasty: Days has flourished under the command of co-executive producer Greg Meng (left), seen here with superdish Arianne Zucker (Nicole), supreme leader Ken Corday, and that fine hunk o' man meat Eric Martsolf (Brady).

They Put the Cream in Scream: Arianne Zucker and Eric Martsolf ladle on some love for their boss Greg Meng.

He Takes the Cake: Hey, Shawn Christian (Daniel), what's your problem? We'd gladly volunteer to be covered in frosting by the sextacular Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe)!

The Gang's All Here: How long does it take to make 12,000 episodes? When Days premiered on Nov. 8, 1965, Lyndon Johnson was in the White House, The Sound of Music was the No. 1 movie in the land and the Beatles were at the top of the charts with their hot new album Help!