DRW50

It seems like until recent years the show didn't have a lot of psycho female characters. There were women who calculated and schemed, and caused chaos, like Suzanne (or Katharine, or Jill, or Phyllis), but for a long time the only crazy women were Eve and then Sheila. Generally Bell seemed to put men in that role (Shawn, Derek, Michael, David).

That's interesting - I can see Brenda Dickson Jill replacing Lorie, but Deborah Adair's Jill seems so different, at least in acting styles. When was Julia's first exit? Was this long after she'd had Marc's child?

Thanks. I was watching those clips a few days ago of Julia helping Victor fake his death and Eve/Nikki/Julia having all these screamouts. What did you think of that stuff? I like Meg Bennett's work as Julia. She conveys a real intelligence. I'd go as far as to say she was the start of a certain type of Y&R lady that hadn't been shown before, one who flourished through the 80's - I guess that's not entirely true, as she also reminds me a little of Janice Lynde, but Leslie was never in the corporate world, the way Julia, or later, Ashley were. I was also watching a little of the Vanessa murder clips and Jaime Lyn Bauer was so OTT in some of that. It was kind of jarring. Yet it also reminds me of Melody Thomas Scott, for some reason. Maybe that's why some said Nikki essentially replaced Lorie.

I've asked some of this before, but I am still very interested in the Victor/Julia relationship of the early 80's. She had seen the worst of Victor, but within a few years she seemed to be one of his strongest defenders. There's a very good scene after Eve almost stabs Victor with a butcher knife, and Julia collapses into Victor's shoulder. How long did it take them to go from the low point of her miscarriage/her boyfriend being in a dungeon to becoming so close? This was never written as Julia still pining for Victor, right? Wasn't that just that somewhat nauseating parade of his old loves that Alden or Smith wrote in 2002?

I wonder why Natalie and Joyce never worked together (or did they?). They both had issues with Lisa, didn't they?

This has some more of the Viki DID 1995 story I don't think has been on Youtube yet - this is after Tori burnt down Llanfair. As "Viki," she launches into an increasingly unhinged monologue about how their family was built on a degenerate and how they need to move on with their lives and go their separate ways. It's very good work from Erika, very strong writing. The saddest part of this for me is that Tori was right. We were supposed to see this as Tori being insane, but that truly is what the Lord family was built on and what they have become - to see Jessica, so innocent and so traumatized in this clip, and knowing that she has become nothing more than a soulless poster child for trivializing sexual abuse...for a while now I wanted the show to end with Viki realizing the family needs to split apart for their own sake, with Jessica dead and Natalie moving away with Liam for a new life, and Kevin and Joey away, as usual. It won't happen, but if it ever did, this clip would be a good one to use. You can also see some of Alex/Renee/Asa/Nigel, and some of the Angel Square story. Manzo was much more interesting than any of the later Andie stuff where Carlo pretended to be a priest and Andie was (literally!) clinging to Antonio's legs begging him not to leave her. Matt Servito and Wendie Pratt have some good chemistry in the part when he says you see, I'm a good cop. And Javier and Linda were also great characters. Angel Square lost something without them.

ATWT would have been a very different show if Jennifer had stayed. She was a very popular character - she was supposed to die of a terminal illness but fan outcry made them keep the character longer, until I guess she wanted to leave or they wanted to write the character out. I guess in the long run Kim benefited from Jennifer's absence but I really wish we had more time with the two of them together. I'd also like to see how Jennifer/Bob were as a couple. In time I can see some complex roundelay where Kim married Dan, but still had feelings for Bob, Susan loved Dan but also started to fall for Bob, Bob had a troubled marriage to Jennifer, etc.

That doesn't seem like very much story at all. A "mild breakdown" indeed! Some soap characters were in mental torment for years over less. Perhaps they thought she was burdened by having a young son, but they could have just sent him away to school. Was it in character for Jennifer to have had an illegitimate child? I wish they'd had Gillian Spencer return for some flashbacks at least.

From the July 24, 1979 Digest.

A late July 1979 Digest as Y&R has a sixth birthday.

Patty Weaver's performance of "Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair" is just exquisite. I'm sorry she never had more success as a singer. It's about 3 minutes into the clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-j7wu0g9iU&lc=U5JtN29I1m0-8Rpm5e_h40SEMOwMmIfuxMWNUs9MnXE&feature=inbox

I didn't realize he died so late into the decade. I had assumed it was around 73-74. How old was he? Did this cause any story for Lisa?

You can see him on the DVD for the first season.

So were Ricky and the woman he lived with (Frankie) supposed to be a couple? Or was that a fakeout? Watching that episode where Thomas took Kelly out on a date, I was very drawn in. It reminded me of the days when I used to care about couples on soaps. They had such a good connection. Were they together at the end of the show? I know something happened after her relationship with Trey ended.

By this time Delia was supposed to have money and only wanted to wear the best (although, with budget considerations, she usually just wore simple dresses). Early on Ilene's Delia occasionally wore jeans, but that ended when her backstory became more about how she always had to be the pretty girl who couldn't be natural and down-to-earth like Mary.

That's interesting stuff. I guess there's no real way to tell whether or not an actor is on coke, as you are just seeing a brief fraction of their day, but the few times I've seen him on The Doctors, I never would have known. I wonder if that's one of the reasons he was written out, or if he wanted to leave.

From a late July 1979 Digest.

You have quite a way with words! I didn't know that about Alec Baldwin. I wonder if he was still on it during Knots. That would explain some of the performances.

From a late July 1979 Digest.

From an April 1981 Digest. I still can't believe Derek was supposed to be some kind of stud.

From an April 1981 Digest.

From an April 1981 Soap Opera Digest.

Thank you for the information on Sydney. I'm surprised that she didn't stay in Anne's life, as AMC seemed to keep supporting characters for quite a long time. AMC did seem to have a lot of problems finding the right actors to play the Tylers, with the notable exceptions of Charles and Phoebe. The idea is often that Chuck was not well cast until Richard van Vleet, and he didn't take over until about 3-5 years after the show started.

I'd like to know that too - I didn't recognize the woman. So weird seeing Nicholas Pryor as Linc. I will always think of him as Victor on PC. I believe SMG actually recommended Rudolf Martin for the Buffy role, based on their AMC experience. Rudolf told a story once about when he first started on the show and met Susan Lucci, and how in their first scene together, they had to do another take because she called him Rudolf instead of Anton. He said he took that as a compliment...

This is from an April 1981 issue of SOD.