will81

Looking at the 1991 episode, I was amazed at just how beautiful it looked. This really never came across anywhere near as well in the oirginal airing and makes me want to see more, haha. It also got me thinking........ Do you think Sony has digitized all episodes of Y&R or they only did this for the episodes they planned to re-broadcast? The lockdown happened pretty quickly, all things considered, and they managed to get these newly edited and digital broadcasts going pretty quickly, so I wonder if Sony has already archived all the eps to a digital format. I know production companies often scan and archive material regardless of whether or not it is going to see the light of day. So was curious about this. I assume if someone had to edit these down for re-broadcast and possibly worked remotely, then all episodes might be digitally archived.

Deborah, especially, had to go through the rough 80 - 82 period too and continued to keep Jill in the mix when she could have been scrapped like so many others. In fact just before Deborah left she had negotiated a big contract with a promise for some juicy storylines. They all seemed to go to Brenda though.

He started Jan/Feb 1987. He was really just Jill's assistant, doing her bidding. Then he made a move on her, but it didn't go well. I think they did date for a bit before she tried to get back together with Michael Crawford. That was when David began working for Jack to try to oust Jill from Jabot by spying for him.

Yeah the second divorce from John felt like the end of Jill. There were many stories from 1995 - 1997 I wasn't fond of at all. I'd say the 2nd golden age of Y&R really was 1983 - 1994 for me. I love 98/99 but not as much. I'd call 1995 - 1999 the silver age, haha

Yeah I never saved the version with Deborah in it. From the story bits and pieces I have, I think Brenda was out sick with a real medical issue, but due to previous dramas Bell and others thought she was grandstanding and replaced her with Jess, this may have been where the story from E! True Hollywood story came from, that Brenda turned up for work one day to find another actress in her dressing room. Though they show a picture of Deborah in reference to the story, I wonder if it actually happened when Jess came on. Hence why they kept announcing Jess until Brenda was officially fired. Brenda had lost most of the subtlety to her performance by around the time or just after Who Shot Jill? played out. She always had some high melodrama in her performance, but it was much more grounded in 83/84. Once Jill was kicked out of the Abbott home, Brenda really let loose. I still like her through most of 1986 though. Jess brought the grounded aspect back and balanced it with some of Brenda's camp. I really liked Jess until the late 90's, when Jill just seemed like a gumpus all the time. Brenda, no matter how flawed her performances were, was the only Jill to carry the history of the character with her. You could feel her hatred of Katherine and still see sometimes the young girl she was at the beginning of the show. If Brenda had toned it down more instead of going full camp, she would be the only Jill for me.

I guess she had two Jun 19 and Jun 24, though I guess Brenda technically never came back once Jess was hired.

@allmc2008 Here is the video. I put this together quickly using the few clips I have found online over the years. I am pretty sure Jess subbed the day Jill went to Kay's and argued with Phillip about his birthday, as Brenda's Jill mentions at the beginning Here is an article about Brenda's departure and Jess' arrival

Yeah they actually wrote it into the show. In 1986 John has his eyes done. It is in the German episodes posted.

Jess actually got announced several times in her first week. Her first appearance was in the white suit at the Jabot office, they announce her again when she turns up to Kay's for Phillip's birthday and again in this clip above. She also had temped for Brenda the Friday before her first week. I have it somewhere "I hope he needs the money, who else on God's green earth would take this assignment" I guess this was, at the very least, one of Brenda's last lines on the show since it got repeated the next day. I'll see if I can find it and post it. I remember this, it was online many years ago. She has shoulder length hair. John visits her in her hotel suite, I think due to Jill's testimony in Jack's case or something like that. John comes over to thank her.

True, I felt like Brenda really always carried the history of Jill with her in almost every scene. I would even be happy if they just put up all the 30min episodes from 73 - 80. Though would love 73 - 94, my absolute favourite period, even with the less than stellar 80 - 82 era

Thanks, yeah I wasn't sure, but I definitely will keep pushing the issue.

My mother is over 60 and has diabetes, on top of that she works for Child Protection Services and has to do home visits. I am very paranoid about her coming into contact with children, since they can carry the virus but not necessarily show symptoms. I have asked her to stop home visits and ask her boss to give those to someone else. I try not to worry, but she is too high risk. On top of that my father just went into remission for luekemia a few months ago and is also 60+, though retired and stays home mostly, but I know if either of them got the virus the chances would be against them. My mother doesn't want to worry too much and wants to take the advice of her boss, I want her to be extra cautious and tell him to go f&*k himself. I do feel guilty as I feel like I am scaring her into doing what I want. So I can understand some fear, but I think many just go overboard, they care only about themselves and very little about others. As for hoarding, I was, and still am, following general advice. Just add a few extra items each time you shop. That is getting harder to do when the shelves are empty almost every day I go. Yes there have been idiots here in Australia too, being awful to almost anyone Asian. I was in class with one guy from Vietnam and he was literally afraid to cough around people. Even though Vietnam has had an extremely low rate of infection, though most bigots just assume all Asian people are from China and deliberately spread the virus.

So far Australia has put a stop to gatherings of people over 500 and finally put in some tighter travel restrictions/protocols. I mean 70% of our initial cases came from overseas travellers, so I am not sure why it took so long. Also the issue in Australia isn't just poor leadership, but also Rupert Murdoch's media (he owns way too much here) Sky News Australia is like FOX News, they are literally acting like it is end times. No wonder people are panic buying. I went to the store the other day. No toilet paper, no hand soaps/sanitisers, no flour, no olive oil (what the Fu&* you gonna do with olive oil????) No bread. I tired doing an online order, takes 5 days. The supermarkets here are struggling and having to basically put rationing in place to deal with it. Now people who were not panic buying are starting to worry, simply because of the morons who keep taking everything. My University just cancelled almost all my classes this week. I have one still on....for now. I might as well be in lockdown for this week anyway. So even with the Government protocols, some schools are just doing what they feel is best. My University does/did have a lot of international students who have quit their course and gone home as well. Even if we don't go into lockdown I have a feeling many of the Universities here will pretty much start to close or restrict classes. I will say our Government has two multi billion dollar packages in place. One to stimulate the economy in case of lockdown. The other to aid health care. So they are doing something at least.

Yeah I did think the whole "We must be married, you can't be a mother to your own son, he doesn't know you" and his almost defense of Sheila was so out of character. It almost felt like they were making him act out of guilt about what happened to Sheila, but never really made that clear. His treatment of Lauren was bizarre to me. It felt too much like they changed him to move the plot along.

Thanks for the promo. I am obssessed with 80 - 82. I know it is considered a mess, and I think that is why I want to see it so much, haha.

Agreed. There was much more balance in the 90's with the Newman's. I would say Nick being aged up was where things changed, but no too much. He did become more of a focal point, but not so much at the expense of the rest of the show. The fact that in the 90's you still had Sheila/Lauren and Nina/David as well as Jill having her stories and bringing in the Winters/Barbers. There was still a lot going on that had nothing or little to do with either The Abbott's or Newman's. I always got the feeling Bill Bell learned his lesson from making JLB's Lorie too important and too much the star of the show. He seemed to never do that again, even if he did have favourite characters he liked front and centre. I do agree though. The mob stories in 83 and 85 were okay but not spectacular. The whole reason I love Y&R is the pscyhology of the characters, it was fascinating to see what they would do next, how they would react to certain situations etc... There is a great scene when John had a heart attack after an arguement with Victor. Nikki rips through him for what has happened, but you can tell Nikki is really raging about so many other things under the surface that she hasn't been able to express. Add to that Victor refuses to back down, but you can tell Nikki is making him feel guilty, an emotion he would rarely if ever admit to. This was always the beauty of Y&R, so much going on beneath the surface.

True, I also wish the scene on the pier with Turk and Shawn hadn't been so quick. They find Shawn and then boom over within a few seconds. More of a fight and even chase would have been good. I will say though, the March episodes where we have a mix of the climax of both Lauren/Shawn and the Jill/John stories was pretty awesome to watch. Just from a production stand point. The fire sequence was great and I was surprised they went all the way with it.

Yeah I would love to get the 1987 eps as well, even the German dubs, they were online many years ago, but I couldn't save them. The production values for the Lauren/Shawn story were great. They really pumped some money into that story. I'll admit it wasn't as exciting as I think it was supposed to be, but I still enjoyed it. It is quite frustrating though to see a triangle between Nathan/Amy/Tryone, but have those characters barely on together. They seem to get about one episode a month, even though Amy is featured, she is mostly supporting Lauren/Paul. Also interesting how Dina and Lindsey disappeared once the Abbott Divorce story ended. Neither seemed to get a send off. In fact it feels like Bell only kept Lindsey on for that long to wrap up the divorce story. Brock also vanishes once Phillip goes to stay with Kay (which makes sense)

True, which is a shame. I think much of the show was lost because after Bell left, Victor started eating the show up. Bell had always used Victor very sparing in the 80's, a little more so in the 90's, but never so much that it became the Newman Family Show. Jill really did get lost in the 2000's. As so many others did. Has anyone seen these German dubbed episodes. Unless you know German or are a good lip reader, it is difficult to fully know what is being said, but you can generally still make stuff out. I am surprised how Victor is sometimes only on a couple days a week or is on a few days but isn't the sole focus (La Dickson was more front and centre back then, and Lauren and Paul were being used heaps) Here are the vids. Episodes start from around Jan 10, 1986 and go to around Aug 29, 1986 with a few missing eps here and there. I know they showed through to 1988 in Germany, but can't find those. At the very least you can see what the main focus was and who was on and who wasn't really being used (Amy, Tyrone, Nathan etc...) https://5c8781a5aaab4.site123.me

Yeah even though I have said I always liked/preferred Eileen in the role, and even though I am not watching the current show anymore. I would love Brenda Epperson returning. Eileen has made it pretty clear she isn't staying on full time, so why not? I would tune in at least to see Brenda again. I always felt Bill Bell was going to make Jill into Kay. Even back in 1983 when Dina would point out Jill had started drinking during the day, and Jill's heart getting harder and her demeanour getting colder, plus her hatred of Nina and her meddelling in her sons lives. It just feels like she was on her way there. It would have been great if that is where the show took her, especially after Jeanne Cooper's passing. Having a scene after that where Jill looked into the mirror like Kay had back in 1974 and seen what her life had become, the transformation being complete, then have an All About Eve style story that was reminiscent of Jill coming to work for Kay, would have been brilliant.

Very true. I felt like Bill Bell did this with Brenda too, but at some point around 1986 Brenda just decided to play Jill in a certain way and lost a lot of the complexity of the character. Jess initially brought it all back, but then eventually after the second divorce from John, I feel like Jill just became mostly angry and bitter all the time.

@YRfan23 Thanks so much for sharing all these. Brings back so many memories watching the show back then.

Thanks, yeah I will definitely keep going to the end. I think the fact that there were barely any characters left from season one besides Michael and Amanda made me too harsh on season seven. I also had well and truly given up on the show by then. ETA I forgot Jane also returns

Brad and Cricket. Both worked for Jabot at one point, but barely shared a scene unless it was work related, which was scarce. Cricket was also Traci's step-sister but Cricket and Brad still barely, if ever, interacted, same with Traci. Bell could have pushed it more if he wanted, it would have made sense for Traci and Cricket to build a friendship, Cricket was also dating Danny at the time. But as far as I am aware, it never happened. Just a scene here and there. Bell pretty much ignored Cricket's connection to the Abbott family.

@DRW50 Thanks so much for posting. I like the fact that Lynda knows all these soaps so well. She doesn't come across as just reciting synopsis, but can refer to character details and previous plot points. I actually sent her message at one point on her FB page, which has been dormant for a while (so I don't expect a response) asking how she did her recaps each week. Did she actually watch all the shows? Did she have staff who watched? Especially back when she first started in the 70's and probably didn't have much help. I don't think I will get a response but I am very curious about it.