Y&R: Jabot Cosmetics

[Adamski]

Slightly random question, but I'm mulling over a project set in the cosmetics industry and would appreciate the thoughts of Y&R viewers:

Do you think that decent story lines have arisen by having cosmetics as the industry that Jabot and Newman Cosmetics worked in over the years? Or has it made no difference and they could they have been selling wallpaper? 

I guess what I'm asking is - does the cosmetics industry lend itself to drama? 

Any feedback would be appreciated! Thank you.

[LondonScribe]

I immediately think back to the (famous?) cosmetics Jabot (Tuvia) v Newman (Safra) storyline in 2003. It drew in about half the cast (in various forms, causing business, professional and personal issues) and lasted a good chunk of the year.

Yet it never lost sight of the fact it was about two cosmetics rivals fighting over the consumer. And getting one over the other.

I've probably just completely misinterpreted what it was. Lol

[titan1978]

Back in the day it mattered because it wasn't just a boardroom.  You had John running it.  You had Ashley in the lab.  They hired models.  They created partnerships with other businesses.  The fact that Newman took it over as a successful part of their portfolio. Reinvented the brand with younger lines and perfumes has added storylines over the years.    I think the type of business that Jabot is added to the story in a way that Chancellor, or ELQ, or even Newman did not.

[cassadine1991]

do you think they'll bring a story like that back?

[Paul Raven]

Would love to see Jabot back as the lead business on the show. Mal Young take note.

At least with Jabot we had a sense of what the business was about and how it provided the framework for business,family and romance stories,unlike other soap businesses like Newman,Chancellor etc where you have no idea what they actually produce.

[Adamski]

This is really useful, thanks guys. 

[Fevuh]

And if you think about it they pretty much copied the formula over to B&B with 2 warring fashion houses.  Early on there, Brooke was the one in the lab, there were stories at least once a year of Spectra trying to 'steal the Forrester designs'....which got tiresome...but it was very similar.  Brooke's romances with the various Forresters, battling Stephanie (which I always said was the same story for the most part of Jill Vs. Katherine -- Brooke eventually swiped Stephanie's husband), various romances between people from the 2 fashion houses....Macy and Thorne, later Thorne and Darla, and there were others.

[edgeofnik]

The introduction of Jabot and the Abbott family was one of the most amazing repositioning of a soap in history. Jabot brought real business, glamour (remember Jill wearing EVENING gowns to the office!) and intriguing characters to the show. It fit the era, but honestly today it seems quaint. 

I wish they'd just revive John - it would help because Jack - even though he's far older than John was when he first appeared - has never been able to fulfill the patriarch role of John. Expand the Abbott mansion and get everyone under the same roof. Same with pool house, etc. OR burn it down and move them to Channcellor mansion. 

[ajsp35801]

I think they could have been selling anything for story purposes. But cosmetics does lend itself to more glamour if that's what you're after. Building cars is a dirty business. Manufacturing lipstick, not so much. With each you'll have to do the same business to sell it. 

 

 I really dislike that the show got away from business to have folks just going around town randomly bumping into each other. No one has a real reason to interact anymore and there aren't any tangible  stakes. That's probably why adam stays about to lose his life to jail. His freedom is all he's got your lose.

 

Every character should stand to lose something or fight for something that viewers care about. Most characters don't have that. Take Neil after Hevon's affair was outed. He had nothing to take from Devon to punish him but his love. Had Neil owned a company that Devon had worked his ass off at for years then things would have been far more interesting.   

 

Victor has something but he rarely uses it to control his kids these days. And sadly, Victoria just doesn't seem to fit there anymore and the show hasn't played business stories in so long so that when she leaves Newman, who cares. 

 

I'm veering off into a tangent here. Back on track. Whatever the company sells, the characters connected to it must care for it and have legitimate reason to. 

[YRBB]

In terms of the cosmetics business being great fodder for storylines, yes, absolutely. Y&R's business stories are legendary. But the cosmetics industry also worked well for drama/on screen. The show often wrote in Ashley working on formulas in the lab, or business meetings about naming or packaging, they went over designs, argued about scents, and later on, campaign strategies, product placement, etc. The cosmetics industry, especially when it comes to perfumes, can get very creative with its bottles and all that, and that allows for a lot of material to mine.   

[Adamski]

That's great, thanks so much. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Even a well written board meeting can be an extension of tensions that exist between two characters. I remember when Ashley and Jack would low-key undercut each other in meetings (usually due to a spilling over of some personal conflict or disagreement) all while maintaining professional decorum. Or when Jill broke decorum to interject (sometimes raising her voice) because she felt as if she were being cut out of the process somehow, with John trying to hear what everyone has to say while keeping order and restraint during the meeting. Remember those scenes?  Those boardroom meetings, at their best, were never just about business. 

 

I had hoped that when Y&R brought Ashley back for the 50,000th time that they would've made a genuine effort to revive stories centered around aspects of Jabot business, they had ample opportunity. When Newman stole Jabot's latest creation, it was a good oppportunity to have Ashley turn the tables on Victor and Jabot by having the product turn back in Newman hands and have a blowback but since Victor must always appear to come out on top, Y&R wasted an opportunity.

 

In Y&R's heyday, the business storylines, Jabot in particular, were so effective and entertaining because there was a human element behind it. The decisions made, whether they ended up in success or failure (and they had both), revealed the character traits and personalities of the people involved. Who was methodical and practical, who was a risk-taker, who was reckless and the myriad ways these traits would conflict and play themselves out in a story about creating, testing, promoting and putting a product on the market. 

 

Jack often thought that his father was too careful, John often thought Jack was too capricious. Ashley often sided with John, which put her into conflict with Jack. Jill, who was confident in her abilities and thought her contributions were being undercut by Ashley and Jack, always aimed to claim her stake.  Then you had the introduction of characters like Brad who was looked at as an interloper by Jack which, of course meant that Jill saw a potentially good partnership (and buffer) in the company. 

It was great drama and the business storylines gave Y&R a great tangible way to play out all these human conflicts and ties on a daily (5 days per week) basis.

[DaytimeFan]

I cannot add a single word. Your description is perfect.

[DramatistDreamer]

Thank you @DaytimeFan. No matter how much time has passed, good storytelling remains so memorable!