supes81

Deeede do you remember any scenes at all between Brenda and Melody, I sure don't, which seems odd given the storylines in 1979/1980, especially with Liz getting shot. I know Jill was off doing her thing with Derek and Kay at that time.

I don't even really remember Jill reacting to Nikki and Greg getting married, but that shows how bad my memory is, you seem to remember a lot of small detail. Was it just more a reaction at the time that was never followed up, or was it a constant thing on Jill's part.

Apart from being Chris' bridesmaid at her wedding to Snapper, and the Gwen Sherman story, I don't remember Jill having much to say about Greg and Snapper's lives, but again that is just my bad memory I guess.

It is hard to say where it would originate. Though Nikki and Kay became close around 1981 or 1982 when the whole Kevin Bancroft thing was going down, I'd say it was more likely a result of their friendship, Kay never missed an opportunity to fill people in on her version of events from the past.

Though Nikki was around during Jill's marriage to Stuart and I am sure Nikki heard plenty about it and was never a fan, though Nikki certainly wasn't innocent and was too busy covering her tracks from Greg over Addison's death and then joining a cult to worry much about Jill's life.

I did find it odd they never had a scene, I don't even think they shared the screen when Liz got shot by one of the men Rose ordered to kill Greg, can someone remember.

Terry Lester was in the role when Victor took over Jabot. Brad was put in charge or something like that and that is when Jack went on 'vacation' and Terry left.

Yeah John and Kay did not have a history when he was first on the show, that was definitely written in later, though I am pretty sure by the time Dina arrived it was clear she was friends with both Dina and John and that was in 1983.

Also thanks again CarlD2 for the synopsis, great reading this stuff and remembering the show this way seeing as we can't watch it.

This isn't from memory but reading some old newspaper articles. Apparently Derek was introduced in 1976, I have no memory of that. This was when Cooper was playing him and Kay was dating Ralph Olsen. They started the same story that took place a year later but it was dropped, I wish I could find the article because it states there were behind the scenes drama that led to the story being scrapped.

As for Vanessa, in the beginning she only liked Leslie because she wasn't Laurie and she was married and Vanessa felt there was no possibility of her getting together with Lance. The truth is Vanessa didn't want any woman to have Lance, she wanted him all to herself. I think she might have warmed to Leslie and maybe even accepted her in Lance's life, she didn't seem too upset when she realized that Leslie was pregnant with Lance's baby. Although her happiness probably had more to do with ruining Lance and Laurie's marriage.

I'd say if Leslie and Lance really got together Vanessa would have been just as upset.

Oh yes, sorry I hadn't read it, thank you so much for that, just finished reading it now, was so sad when she left the show or was fired as was reported at the time. I really appreciate the effort you go through to put this stuff up.

I admit I was one of the silly ones who wondered if Janice played the piano or if it was someone else. My mother had to point out that they never show the hands if the actor isn't really playing, thanks mom.

Not sure if this was the first transplant/love story as I didn't watch any other soaps, but it was definitely new to me.

David Mallory was a man who received a cornea transplant or something from Bill Foster Sr. Jill was engaged to him but fell for Derek. Jodie and Tom I don't remember.

Thanks for the synopsis. I am pretty sure this is June. It seems when SOD was monthly they were about three months behind.

I don't remember them actually getting together, didn't she get pregnant with Lance's baby shortly after this? I think it was a flirtation that went nowhere, Brock seemed to have a lot of those.

Thanks Paul Raven this is great. I remember very clearly that Ron and Nancy reunited and got custody of Karen and left town, I hated it. Chris fought to keep her, when it was done she was so exhausted emotionally that she left town. I didn't remember Carolyn being on the show before, wow, my memory is bad. I can't imagine her playing a hooker.

Brad I think did just accept defeat with Leslie and left town, maybe there was more to it, but I remember thinking it was a weak ending to a great character.

Yeah DeeeDee it seems that way

Thanks for that Paul Raven, it is great to read the old stuff. I should do a big search on here to see what else I can find.

What did Jill do for her first year on the show?

I can barely remember what was going on in Nov 73, though it makes sense that Jill only got her job with Kay in 1974 as I remember that happening when I was watching.

CarlD2 thanks. Any summaries are welcome. They jog the memory and I don't see a lot of 70's or 80's summaries so that would be great.

I had heard that Bell had wanted to take the show off but CBS refused because they had nothing to replace it with, then the show became a bigger hit. Not sure if that is true or not.

Paul, yeah I miss Y&R of the 70's, I think the first ten years were the best, though I enjoyed it up until around 1999 then I became a casual viewer, by 2003 I stopped watching. Maybe it is just me but I couldn't handle Kay being Jill's mother.

I also read a synopsis in an old newspaper that stated that when the show first started the Henderson's were to be the other core family and the Fosters a third family of minor characters. Since Bruce was a doctor it would mean you would have had two wealthy or well to do families and one struggling family, though this conflicts with Bell's assertion that he had the class struggle in mind from the beginning. Though Bruce did turn up in the first year. Though I didn't start watching until Nov of that year.

That begs the question, are there any monthly summaries of the first year? I know Bryna Laub was the only one doing that sort of thing and I read somewhere that she didn't get Y&R straight away in her area.

Hey guys here is an interview with Bill Bell from 1976.

Enjoy

Yeah, never was a big fan of the musical aspects of the show, not too bad in the 70's but the rock concert stuff was a bit much. Not being a teenager "ahem" at the time I wonder what teen fans of the show thought?

In terms of Dorothy Green, I heard she didn't know she was being written off the show until she bugged some BTS people on the show because she had a suspicion about it.

Yeah I agree Jill always loved John, I find it hard to explain that aspect of Jill's character. I guess, she may have loved him but she was manipulative as hell and was always in survival mode both times she was married to him.

One thing I always hated about Y&R was the way it painted Jill as the devil when she clearly wasn't always at fault. When she had the affair with Jack, he seduced her, she had crashed her car and was in shock and vulnerable and he seduced her. Then when the truth came out everyone acted like Jack was her victim. Though John blamed both Jill and Jack and fair enough, he seemed to be the only one to do so. Also Nikki did a lot of things Jill did and yet her kids didn't hate her and she didn't have Kay constantly telling her what a bad mother she is. I guess the show wanted Jill to be an Alexis Carrington type.

Does anyone know if Brenda was even partly true about Bill Bell and producers not seeing eye to eye about her character as she stated some years ago in an interview, I know Brenda can be melodramatic, but hearing certain tings about the show recently has made me wonder if there isn't some truth to her story.

Here are the clips just posted on youtube the quality isn't great though.

Ashley in the beginning went from one man to the next, or so I remember it that way. She was with Brian, then that ended but she had already met Eric, though I don't think she like him straight away, then I remember her going to Europe and meeting Marc and I swear she called off her marriage to Eric and dated Marc, is that right? Something along those lines. Was Eric the guy who had a relationship with Dina? I am sure that was him.

Also When she first appeared Jack was trying to get her to help him undermine Jill and John's relationship and she also battled Jack at Jabot. Someone just posted some old clips of Ashley confronting Dina when she first turned up in Genoa City and Jill (then Deborah Adair) telling her to get out of her house. Also one scene where Ashley is lying on Traci in a hospital bed and yelling at Dina to leave them alone, it looked like Traci was dead, was this a dream? I don't remember this happening.

Yeah Amy was great, sorry she didn't get more to do. She was friends with Traci and hated Lauren if I remember, also stuck up for Traci where Lauren was concerned. I thought Amy had better chemistry with Steve Ford who played Andy and Doug had more chemistry with Colleen Casey who played Faren.

Jill and Victor worked chemistry wise, but Jill became such a little girl when she thought Victor was going to propose and was crushed when he didn't, that annoyed me, Jill was never like that with any man but Phillip Sr. I always liked that she never loved another man like him, that she had hardened herself after that, when Brenda was playing the role you could never be sure if she loved John or not, she would have these scenes when she was fighting for her marriage after the miscarriage and when Dina and John's divorce was declared invalid, where she would cry and strongly state she loved John and wanted their marriage to work, then she would be on the phone to Liz acting like it was all a game.

I remember my favorite scene was when Jill was being kicked out of the Abbott home in 1985 and she gave this heartfelt speech to John about how much she loved him and wanted him to be okay and happy, then walked out the door and said if it's a divorce you want, it's a divorce you'll get. Gee when Brenda was good, she was amazing in that role, sorry it ended the way it did.

Wanted to add Terry Lester was definitely leaving the role in 1985, or at least the rags at the time were stating it that way, then the show Paul Raven mentioned didn't get picked up he was back. I don't remember his replacement, but then I didn't remember Melinda O. Fee filling in for Brenda in 1984 either until I saw it on youtube, so glad that is around and thankful you guys write up the synopsis you have and have these discussions, I have such a bad memory, I blame childbirth

I honestly only remember 1981 being a year Jeanne had no story for a period of time, which is when the rumors started. All the men in her life had left and Jill was busy with Jack and Jabot which had nothing to do with Kay. Then she met Cash, then started becoming a confidante to Nikki and the whole Earl/Alison thing in 1982, also Kay and Jill's storylines intertwined again by the end of the year.

Though I guess after Rex there wasn't anything major besides Jill and John's second divorce, what did Kay do between 1996-1998? maybe that was another quiet period.

I had no idea there were talks about ATWT. That would have been interesting. I can't imagine her in it, though I know Jeanne is a strong enough actor to do it, it would have been very fascinating to watch.

Thanks CarlD2, summaries would be great. I have such a bad memory of these things. I guess because they don't repeat episodes you really have to go on what you saw then, plus I have no daytime mags other then that 70's one that I partially posted and will add some stuff later.

It really does seem like Bell was going to keep certain characters longer and changed his mind or Wes may have helped change his mind. Chris definitely looked like she was being set to move into a new storyline as a Jabot model and possible antagonist for Jack, then she suddenly did an about face and left.

Peter Brown's story really should have ended with the trial. The Leslie/Robert stuff wasn't great in my memory, I don't remember there being a lot of chemistry, once that story wrapped up Leslie had nothing to do and left on tour.

Added after your post:

Lauren came in well after the Stevens and wasn't immediately paired with Paul, she was a rival for Traci who had a thing for Danny.

No the triangle for Kay was weak, nothing really happened. There were rumors all the time that Jeanne Cooper was going to be fired from the show. After Derek/Douglas/Felipe/Brock all left town and Jill had her own thing going on Kay had nothing to do for the longest time. I think the triangle was created for that purpose.

No never watched Days, I might have caught an ep here and there though. Y&R was the only soap I watched. The Earl/Allison/Kay thing, if I remember Alison and Earl were Kevin's parents. When he announced he was marrying Nikki they showed up. It turns out Earl and Kay had been an item in College or something and I think there was a triangle formed, but not entirely sure. I am pretty sure Earl left Alison, though I don't think it was for Kay and I can't remember how that ended. Alison got Nikki involved with Rick and tried to distribute a porno movie allegedly starring Nikki, but used Boobsie Caswell, I think she also kidnapped Victoria at some point. Sorry going off my memory which is fuzzy. Summaries would help if they are out there.

Not sure why Leslie left in December, her story whimpered out after the failed romance with Robert Laurence, I think she left on a tour and never came back. David Hasselhoff was planning to leave for a while, maybe they thought they could pair Chris with Jack and have her at Jabot, but it was felt she didn't fit in. When did Wes actually start on the show, that may explain the sudden shift. They had Chris sign a long term contract with Jabot as a model just as Snapper got a job in London, I think he even left with Jennifer (their daughter). I know Chris and Jack had a flirtation and he was interested (did Jackie boy ever meet a woman he didn't want to bed) so I think that may have been where Chris was headed.

Yeah the Stevens left pretty quickly and all together, the first two years of Y&R in the 80's was a big adjustment, not just because people were coming and going, it felt like Bill Bell wasn't quite comfortable with the hour format, though by 83 it seemed to be back on track. Though I was happy with the show it was still not as stable a show during that period.

Thanks for the great article CarlD2. Yeah the Abbott's were introduced in 1980 with John (Brett Halsey) and Jack (Terry Lester) around the spring summer of that year. John left around Jan/Feb of 1981 and returned around April 1982 with Jerry Douglas in the role, shortly after that, also around spring/summer Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and Traci (Beth Maitland) turned up, then Mamie (Marguerite Ray) was added in Nov (I consider her an honorary Abbott).

Jaime left in Aug or at least her last scenes aired in Aug. I think Lucas (Tom Ligon) left around that time, with Chris (Lynn Topping) shortly after, I think in September and Leslie (Victoria Mallory) I think in Dec.

Dina was added around in the first half of 1983. I wish there was a database of start and end dates for actors on this show. I know most of the months but not actual dates. Though there are a few cases where I have managed to find the actual dates for some actors.

What's interesting is that at the time most of the actors were said to be leaving because they wanted to become stars of primetime and movies. I wonder if the conditions had a lot more to do with it. None of the actors that I remember ever trashed the show itself or daytime. Though maybe someone else knows.

Yeah back then they were live to tape. Basically taped in sequence and only stopped if absolutely necessary, if you messed up, but it wasn't bad enough to warrant stopping, then you kept going. I also heard that by the 80's when they could edit and had more money if you messed up enough times your scene got shelved to the end of the day and they made all the actors in your scene wait around until they finished the rest of the taping.

The other thing I heard is that all the actors that were around in the 70's on Y&R had an escape clause that stated if the show ever went to an hour they had the option not to continue, that is the clause Brenda Dickson took, which is why her last episodes were literally just before the show went to an hour.

Here is an article on the making of Y&R

Some color photos, will post more in the next few days

Here is an interview with Jaime Lynn Bauer, Lance McCook and K.T Stevens

More from the same interview

There is another pic of the same photoshoot as the one above, but the cast is all spread out in a living room, possibly one of the sets, maybe Kay's place. Also a cast pic from 1974 which I will post.