will81

Does no one else remember Dennis Haysbert as the Senator who becomes President on 24?????? What is all this Allstate business, haha ETA: I have seen the Allstate commercials, just to be clear. I just figured he had a much more prominent role in 24

I get the feeling Bill Bell had no intention of Ashley ever having another breakdown after her 87 one. Didn't he get a lot of flak for that one because she had the abortion and then had a breakdown and many saw it as a punishment for the abortion (whether intended or not) Her next breakdown came in 2003/04???? long after Bell had left, and after Jack Smith had come on as co-headwriter. One of the many stories from the period I didn't like.

Bell seemed to soften Victor but not change him. 80 - 81 he was a bit of a monster, abusive to Julia and holding Michael Scott prisoner in a dungeon he built. Victor was selfish. In 1980 Julia was pregnant and Victor is furious as he wanted nothing to intrude on his life with her. He wanted total control of her. He was that way with everyone but Ashley, because Ashley was the one person who would have walked away from him without hesitation if he had treated her the way he did Nikki. He also cheated on Julia with Lorie, though Lorie halted any real affair at that point. So his behaviour in 85 was pretty standard. At one point in 86 he finally confesses his affair to Nikki, then asks her to stay by his side while he figures out whether he wants to stay with Nikki or divorce her for Ashley, lol. He was a piece of work

I am almost certain nothing happened until Victor brought Ashley back to GC after her breakdown in early 85 and she was living at the ranch. At that point Nikki began feeling alienated and eventually assumed Victor and Ashley were having an affair and I think slept with Jack first. I think Bell might have done this to soften Ashley and Victor's affair, so Jack/Nikki may have happened first. Ashley resisted sleeping with Victor, though the pair were definitely in love. Pretty sure they didn't jump into the sack until they got stranded in Corsica in September 1985. This was just as Terry Lester returned from filming his failed pilot for Hong Kong Knights.

Lester was out in 1985 to film a pilot called Hong Kong Knights. Bell left the door open for him in case the pilot wasn't sold, which it wasn't. He returned as Ashley and Victor and Nikki and Jack all ended up in Corsica in September 1985 Agreed. Why on earth did they spend so much time on Ellen talking with the President from 24. It was so not needed. Going from John and Jack talking about her to having her turn up at the house would have been sufficient. Could have then used those several minutes for other things Honestly Thom had no chemistry with Lauralee but did have it with Tricia. I also think if Phillip had been kept he should have taken Ryan's place with Victoria. Having a Phillip/Victoria/Nina triangle would have been amazing. Especially the fireworks between Nikki/Jill/Victor/Kay. Phillip being a recovering alcoholic and Victoria wanting to save him, plus would have put a different spin on Nikki's alcoholism. You could have still had Nina/David, just have Phillip divorce Nina, she grabs half his fortune and Phillip spend the Kimble years mostly drunk.

Cool. I will post soon. Just a few things to add and double check. Also starting 1981, so will have that one done soon as well

Yeah I finally have time to put my synopsis together. Finished the actual synopsis for 1980 and just adding notes and things. I have attached a sample below. I split everything into weekly summaries just for ease. I used Jon-Michael Reed and Lynda Hirsch's weekly recaps as a guide and Soap Digest to fill in gaps. There are other very small recaps that ran in papers so I sometimes take stuff from them as well. I then split each week into storylines, again to make it easier to read and search for certain things. Then bold each character when they first appear in that story. I actually did this more for myself, as I had a hard time reading through synopsis each time I wanted answers to stuff. Plus I wanted to get a good hold on the older storylines. However I am happy to share this once done if anyone is interested in it. It is basic, but was more focused on getting info together I have and can share.

Steve left town shortly after Peggy left him at the altar in Mar 81. He left for Washington D.C the week of Jun 8, 1981. In between that not much was going on with either character. The fall out from the non-wedding was about it. Peggy was on and off with Jack, so maybe she took comfort in his arms for a brief period. Though he seemed to have his hands full with Patty and Jill. At one point around Jul 81, Victor takes an interest in Peggy just as Eve and Peggy become pals. Peggy didn't really date Greg until Aug, and that seems to have been very, very brief. Hauser was out around Sep 81, maybe earlier. In his Sep 27, 1981 column, Jon-Michael Reed announced Pam Peters would be replaced soon, though she may have already stopped appearing by that point. Howard McGillan started around the week of Oct 12, 1981. As a side note: Margaret Mason who played Eve would also exit the show around September 1981. Though this was due to a scheduled open heart surgery. Apparently Mason and the show knew about the surgery well in advance. Mason delayed it so she could attend her daughter's wedding and so the show could write her off temporarily. It seems Eve was always due to return to the show.

I am pretty sure Hauser left sometime around Sep/Oct 81. I think Pam Peters might have left at the same time, so was most likely Hauser was in the role.

Not sure why Vanessa hated Casey and Lucas. Maybe she wanted Leslie and Lucas together to keep Brooks away from Lorie. Not sure, none of the synopsis makes it clear. Jonas is with Leslie from late 79 when she wonders into his bar with amnesia. They then recycle the Brad/Leslie stuff from the first year, where Brad helped a shy, introverted Leslie open up more. Jonas does the same with the amnesiac Leslie now calling herself Priscilla. This pairing starts to fizzle out when they return to GC around June. They tested Casey and Jonas shortly after this, when it looks like Leslie and Lucas might reunite, then Jonas/Casey is put on hold until Christmas. Jonas heads to Italy in October to try to win Leslie back, but seems to give up eventually. I believe he and Casey dated until she left town in early 81 and this might have been when Jonas and Nikki were paired. He was part of the stalker/Edward story. Steve was Paul's brother, he dated Jill briefly and there seemed to be a triangle in the works with Peggy, but it goes nowhere. Peggy and Steve worked at the Chronicle and on the cult story which gets Steve fired from Stuart's paper when Peggy almost dies. Peggy asks Stu to rehire him, but Steve's pride pushes him to refuse the offer and he plans to move to Washington. Peggy is so upset at Steve that she hooks up with Jack, lol. Then Steve changes his tune and stays, but he can't get over that she had a one night stand with some dude (she doesn't tell him it was Jack) so they break up, but then slowly reconcile and he proposes to her on Christmas Day. Peggy plans to marry him, but gets cold feet and ditches him, Steve leaves town and Peggy stopped appearing shortly after when Pamela Peters quit. The initial plan was to recast, but that obviously never happened

I am doing a synopsis guide for 1980 that combines all of the Jon-Michael Reed/Lynda Hirsch recaps plus soap digest as well. As well as various notes from soap columnists from that year. Robert didn't rock up until Lorie was charged with Vanessa's death in 1981. In 1980 John McCook suddenly left the show, it was reported he was simply taking a break to film a movie, but then a couple weeks later it was reported he was leaving for good. The story was, Lance out of nowhere develops a gambling problem. Lorie is so worried about him, she begs Vanessa to reinstate him to Prentiss. Vanessa will only do this if Lorie divorces Lance. Lorie agrees to push him away and initially uses Michael to do this. Lorie gets the divorce and Lance blames himself for the failure of the marriage and takes off to Paris. He returns briefly a few months later but decides Lorie is better without him and takes off again. This story seemingly comes out of nowhere, and I wonder if John was initially planning to stay with the show, but changed his mind and exercised his out clause. Bell does seem to be slightly blind sided by his departure. Lorie and MIchael goes nowhere and Lorie almost begins an affair with Victor around April, but backs off. This was also when it was announced that JLB was pregnant and that the show could no longer film her below the chest. By July her pregnancy turned complicated and she could barely come to the set anymore and was put on early maternity leave, thus all her stories were slowed and ground to a halt. Wesley Ann Pfenning subbed in August and Lorie was sent to New York on a book tour. JLB was off screen for about 10 weeks. When she returned in October, Lorie wanted to keep Brooks and began trying to spark up something with Lucas. Leslie didn't care at first, then she too tried to win over Lucas as well. So the remainder of the year was a Leslie/Lucas/Lorie triangle. Jonas and Casey are mostly MIA during this time. Jonas and Casey had a fling when Lucas and Leslie attempted a reconciliation earlier, but so far no word on either of them. I am about to get into 1981. So will see what occurs there. ETA: Lance returns in early 1981. So I assume Bell was still wanting to keep the 4 L's going. He has already established the triangle and by this point he probably had already decided to bring Lance back.

Yeah there were a few pairings that went nowhere around that time like Lorie and Michael (I think maybe due to JLB's pregnancy) Greg and April, Jonas and Casey, Brock and Julia (I guess Beau leaving) Vanessa definitely wasn't happy with Lucas dating Casey, so maybe there was something more there. Not sure. Was Leslie and Jonas supposed to be a thing? They kind of fizzeled out too once she returned to GC

Don't remember, may have happened after Ashley returned to Genoa City. I thought Ashley was told by Brent and then lost her mind and took off before saying anything to anyone. Yeah, when Leslie took off and had amnesia, Lucas and Casey started seeing one another. It pretty much fell apart when Leslie returned and Lucas and Leslie almost reconciled. Casey also sort of dated Jonas as well. Roberta Leighton left about six months after this promo, her last story was the Edward stalker storyline, which switched to Nikki, once Casey left town.

Pretty sure she never knew. I do believe Steven was about to tell her and Victor just before he got shot though I have always wondered if Leanna was supposed to be the one who shot Steven. She was much psychotic when she first came on and Steven and Leanna's other doctor were extremely concerned when they first found her in Genoa City. Maybe that was the plan initially and Barbara worked out so well Bell changed course. I always thought it would have been great if Leanna had turned on Victor during their brief marriage and made his life hell, but again, I guess Bell was trying to shift Leanna from psycho to more eccentric.

Yeah I think that's why I loved the show when certain characters would not even meet or share scenes with others. It sounds like they had no idea what to do with Sharon, so they just married her off, divorced her, mental breakdown. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Spermgate, lol. Hated it. This was all Kay Alden. She threw three great women under the bus to prop Victor. 2000 was also the year Y&R lost a full ratings point and I think it eventually lead to Trent Jones and Jack Smith coming on board. After 2000 Kay never wrote the show alone again. Was it a huge misfire, well compared to others, no, but I will never like it. If we did get reruns of Y&R from the beginning I would definitely call it quits in 1999, when the Abbotts reunited to reclaim Jabot. Also It is unclear how much of the show from 2002 was Kay and what was Jack. So maybe some of the stuff I mentioned above was her as well. Unsure.

I actually feel like Sharon's descent really started when she and Victor kissed back in 02/03 or thereabouts. Was so wrong and uneccessary. This was the same time Paul consensually raped Christine, another horrible story and of course Kay/Jill being mother/daughter. No surprise this all seem to happen once Jack Smith was made co-head writer. Though Kay made a few mistakes I really have issues with too. I stopped watching daily around 2000ish and stopped all together in 2005/06 so never saw MAB, but I remember people online being excited for storylines that were announced, then upset with the way those storylines played out. Pretty much everytime. Y&R is easier for the first 30 years as there was really only Bill Bell and Kay Alden for the most part. Then you have the reigns of people who helped destroy the show, so I definitely was paying attention as Y&R was being ripped apart, even if I wasn't watching the show

Yeah that's a big change to me. The first one intrigues because it contradicts what is happening. The scene plays out like two star crossed lovers, but the haunting music makes you realise something isn't right, and the cue during the kiss, really punctuates that. The second scene makes you think they really are two people who want to be together but can't. The tension is gone.

Thanks for sharing that. Although I saw it when it first aired, my memory was vague. So it was nice to at least hear it again

Yeah you are probably right about that, in the September 87 episode posted Victor did seem like he was going to string it out a bit, haha.

It would be awesome if it is Victor confronting Nikki about her lying.

I think so, though I guess we will have to see how the full week(s) of reruns will do

I'm hoping if these classic episodes get decent ratings, Sony might see the value in getting the back catalogue out there in some way. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but this is a pretty rare opportunity for them to see if there is interest in these older episodes.

They may have been going by contract dates. She is still in the opening credits as late as Mar 1993, she may have been in the opening longer than that, I haven't checked. I think Barbara didn't join Guiding Light until August 1993 or thereabouts. Maybe she was on contract or recurring and just didn't appear past Mar 1992. Whoops just saw you mentioned that

I read in a soap column that she was last seen stressing over a ideas for her next advice column. Does it say in that recap she was stressed over her work before Jack shows up?