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John Oliver has officially made it to Salem, and Days of Our Lives<\/em> went unusually far to make sure viewers did not have to wait until next year to see him. The Last Week Tonight<\/em> host begins a three-episode guest arc on the Peacock soap on August 11.<\/p>\n Oliver plays Devlin St. John, Salem’s chief water inspector, whose work puts him into scenes with Julie Williams, Paulina Price and EJ DiMera. His transformation includes an aggressively formal hairstyle that did not come out of the Days<\/em> wardrobe department. Oliver brought the wig to the set himself.<\/p>\n Getting him onto the show quickly required more than finding a guest role. Because Days of Our Lives<\/em> normally tapes close to a year ahead, producers revisited material that had already been produced and found places where Devlin could be inserted, executive producer Ken Corday explained to Vulture<\/a>.<\/p>\n The cameo continues a soap-opera campaign Oliver launched on Last Week Tonight<\/em> in March, when he publicly asked daytime dramas to give him a juicy role. He has now landed two: his Days<\/em> stint follows a three-episode appearance on General Hospital<\/em> in July.<\/p>\n Corday said Oliver filmed material for three episodes over just two days and had roughly 60 pages to handle. \u201cHe had about 60 pages that he’s in, and he knew it cold,\u201d the executive producer told Vulture.<\/p>\n Rather than wait for the normal production cycle to catch up, the writing team searched through already-taped storylines for places where a new character could be added without disrupting material completed much earlier. \u201cWe didn’t want until next year for these shows to air, so we lifted (already produced) shows and put him in,\u201d Corday said.<\/p>\n The production then had to make Oliver’s newly filmed scenes match episodes that had been shot months before. New music was also added as the team integrated his material into those existing episodes.<\/p>\n Oliver’s team had input on his dialogue as well. Corday said the show’s writers retained control of the storyline, but Oliver and one of his producers helped adjust his lines to better fit his rapid delivery. \u201cJohn and his producer had a lot of input in making the words fit the way he talks,\u201d Corday said. \u201cHe’s very machine-gun in how he speaks, so that took a little work.\u201d<\/p>\n\u2018Days\u2019 Had to Find a Way Around Its Unusual Production Schedule<\/h2>\n
The Wig Was Oliver\u2019s Idea and So Were Some Classic Soap Clich\u00e9s<\/h2>\n