will81

Speaking of Y&R 1979. I just went through the ratings for that year in the ratings thread. Y&R was #1 for a big chunk of that year if you look at it as the calendar year, it seems 1979 to early 1980 Y&R had the chance of being the #1 soap all up, it really was big competition for GH and AMC. I thought Y&R only hit #1 in late 79 and early 80, but it was #1 multiple times throughout 1979. I wonder what would have happened if they hadn't had the cast exodus and expansion to an hour. Does anyone feel it may have hit the top 3 or was ABC Daytime too tough to beat.

Y&R was doing pretty well in the ratings during that time, and in 1979/80 managed to get to #1 for a few weeks. So I would suggest people were taping it. Whether or not those people can be bothered to transfer them to digital or even sell them is another story, also Sony is so quick to pull stuff offline that maybe many just don't want the hassle.

I also feel like they don't seem to care about character anymore. Soaps should always be character driven and story comes out of that. I think this is why I don't recognise many of the vet characters anymore (outside of the actors trying to maintain continuity for them) and I don't care about the new ones.

Oh yeah definitely, they ruined her and just as bad made her nothing more than an obstacle for Brooke/Thorne

I've noticed though that Bell didn't always stick to convention with such things. He often used those on recurring as almost contract players and vice versa. I believe Roberta Leighton was on recurring in 1986, but seemed to be right in the thick of it almost like a contract player as a result of the Nikki/Victor/Ashley triangle. Joy may have been on contract in 1983 and just not used. I think this happened to Beth Maitland as well. She was brought back on contract at certain points, but was almost recurring in terms of her appearances and story. Pretty sure he had run ins with Betty Corday (I think) over this same issue on Days in the 60's. Maybe I am wrong, but that's what it seemed like anyway.

Yeah I always wondered if Bell was planning to keep Leslie on canvas, but maybe her story with Robert Laurence fizzeled and Bell cut her loose. She left town within a week or so of the Laurence family leaving, but was on canvas for 4 months after Laurie left town. Jill had been successfully intergrated into the Abbott family by this point so makes sense he kept her on.

For me Brooke was such a pivotal part of the show and she was basically decimated as a character post 1998. I know a lot of people liked her with Thorne, but I hated it, having her act the exact same with Thorne as she did with Ridge was ridiculous, they were meant to be apparently, even though she had never shown the slightest bit of interest in him before, Eric made sense. He was still reeling from losing Beth and she from losing Ridge, they found each other in a desperately lonely time and she got pregnant, which turned what would have been a brief affair into a marriage that was doomed from the start. I also hated how violent Stephanie started becoming, then of course Brooke getting pregnant by Deacon was just the end. This was when "The Slut from the Valley" was born. Around the time Shiela took off I started cooling off. 1999 was okay (except the Brooke/Thorne pairing) but was not that invested in many of the stories and new characters. I was on and off the show and gave up around the time Taylor died again.

Just watching episode 416. Lilyan Chauvin playing a police officer. Had no idea she appeared on B&B

Brandon Denson is on the FB group The Young and the Restless - The Classic Years. He is posting some clips there. I recommend everyone here join. Janice Lynde is a member, so is Tracy Bregman and Brenda Epperson. Not sure who else. I know Brenda Dickson was on there a few years ago, but got banned. Janice actually posts on the group here and there and they even got Jess Walton to send a video for the Fake Jill day (where they celebrate all the Jill's, lol) The group can be busy sometimes and quiet others.

The 1986 episodes are great thanks @BoldRestless for sharing. What a blast to see Sandra Nelson as the flight attendant. I guess we could add that to the double duty thread.

Ryan always seemed like a little weasal. I do find it interesting that Victoria and Tricia both lost their virginity to him and both were more than underwhelmed by the sex, lol Yeah Ashley was really thrown under the bus for Victor's sperm, imagine playing a supporting role to sperm. That's what it felt like. The women weren't even really fighting over a man anymore, they were fighting over his body fluid. This has to be as close as Y&R got to the JER/Melrose style that so many soaps were trying to imitate in the mid to late 90's. One of the things that really ruined soaps for me.

It may have been Katherine was the richer one intially, around 1980. Older money and all, but Newman Enterprises had a habit of swallowing up companies and either selling them on for profit or holding on to them as lucrative subsidies. So I would say by the 90's Newman was worth much more. ETA: George Packard ran Chancellor when Victor got to town, Victor wasn't there to take over, George was tasked by Katherine to show Derek the ropes. Derek was a lousy worker (He only wanted Kay's wealth, thanks to Jill), he began an affair with Judy Wilson, who I think was George's second in command or something, they began to conspire to takeover the company, George found out but had a heart attack and went into a coma (not sure if he died). Derek got more and more greedy and Kay suspected, when he asked her to go on a cruise, that he intended to do away with her. She went reluctantly and asked Victor to take care of Chancellor while she was gone (she thought for good).

These must be a few months behind as I have several newspaper articles citing Y&R as the #1 soap in January 1980. So the April issue must have been January's ratings.

I still can't accept that these ladies were fighting over sperm and Diane saying sperm twice and the fact it was Victor's that they were fighting over. Lol, I will never be okay with this storyline, haha

This is why Traci annoyed the hell out of me during this period of time. She seemed to be so entitled about Brad, if any woman even looked at him, she was on the enemies list, which included her own sister. Traci not wanting Ashley as the Godmother was just a spiteful decision on Traci's part. Ashley did nothing wrong except date Brad after Traci had dumped him, divorced him and moved out of town. Her behaviour from her return in 1990 through the rest of Brenda's run as Ashley was ridiculous. What made even less sense was that Ashley always supported and backed Brad and Traci's relationship, while Jack actively tried to destroy it. Yet Traci had no issue with Jack. She held a grudge against Ash for years but forgave Jack almost every time.

I remember here we were 4 years behind and I thought she looked so fresh compared to the mass of hair we were still getting on screen. It was very 1998 though.

Speaking of the Rawlins murder, I was reading some soap press, apparently the Rawlins Murder Mystery was suppposed to wrap after 6 months, but the audience reaction was so strong they kept it going. That would explain the ups and downs in that storyline. Yeah, around the time they made Kay and Jill mother and daughter was around the time the show fell apart. I didn't mind 2003-2005 and didn't even mind the Phick story, but it wasn't the same Y&R at that point. I would say 2002 was the end and 2005 was really the point where I stopped watching.

Thanks BoldRestless, these are great. I notice the WIN logo, so I assume the 1995 eps came from Australia.

That's awesome, thank you so much YRfan23

Hey YRfan23 any chance you could repost all your playlists. I seemed to have lost some links. If it isn't too much trouble

I haven't seen much of Wings, but he does not seem like Greg at all. Greg always seemed like a soft soul, probably a lot like Clayton Norcross' Thorne on B&B. Wings seems like a brute. Angry, gritty and almost violent in a way. It must have been odd to go from him to Howard McGillin, though I have never seen Howard, he seems like he was probably more like Greg was under James Houghton.

I'm not sure he had much choice. The only character he was able to intergrate into the new show was Jill. Lucas was pointless once the four L's split, and honestly once Leslie left town with amnesia and Vanessa was dead, Lucas seemed driftless. Once David/Snapper left, it made little sense for Chris to stay, though why would he have Chris sign a solid contract with Jabot at the same time Snapper was about to leave town, other than to give the character a reason to stay. He also tested Chris out with Jack, so it seems potentially he was going to try to keep her on canvas. Greg was a failed recast. Hauser, though totally wrong as Greg, made the character his own, Howard McGillin seems more like Houghton's Greg, but how do you regress a character like that. I think Bell attempted to revive the Greg/Chris dynamic when Howard first came on, but that seems to have been a bust and Greg pretty much was done. I don't even need to see Howard and Lynn together to know they probably had zero chemistry together. Leslie is the one I am most intrigued by. She stayed in town long after Laurie left and was given a storyline with the Laurence family, I am assuming it fizzeled, once that family was shipped off, Leslie followed soon after. Oddly, Brooks basically vanishes once Lance left town. He is never mentioned again. Laurie seems to skip town on her own and Leslie heads off on tour with Maestro. I am curious as to whether Bell even acknowledged the boy. I don't believe he is mentioned in 1984 when the Brooks sisters returned for the Victor/Nikki wedding. So my guess is Bell may have tried to keep certain characters on canvas, but just couldn't get them to work. Basically he followed the show's natural evolution, rather than stubbornly try to hold on to the past.

Oh yeah I totally forgot my own post from previous. David had pretty much left the show in 1980. Made probably a few appearances. Lynn was definitely off the show that year. So Chris and Snapper were MIA during most of 1980. I'd say though the Brooks were pretty split by 1978-79. Peggy was mostly gone (besides the short stint by Pat Everly) Leslie and Laurie were married to the Prentiss boys and most of their story was more part of that family. Chris was off screen for a big chunk of 78 and it seems Chris and Snapper were fairly isolated by that point. Stuart was having his fling with Liz and Jill. By 1980, after they married, both Stuart and Liz were basically recurring. As a viewer it must have been very odd to deal with this transition. I also have an article from Jon-Michael Reed who didn't have kind things to say about either the cult storyline or the Edward Nikki storyline.

Not sure but I think Jack Smith might have come on a bit earlier, like 78-79. I do believe Sally Sussman came on about 82-83. The interesting thing is Y&R was battling AMC for the #1 spot in late 79 into early 80. It was hitting #1 constantly. Within 6 months of the shift to an hour AMC was #1 and Y&R had dropped to #5. Considering Bell hated the move to an hour and the show he was writing was #1 and dropped to #5, he must have been pissed off about it all. Not to confuse people as I know GH hit #1 that year, I am talking about a very brief period from about Dec 79 - Feb 80. GH was a definite 3rd for this period, but I guess once Y&R faultered it was a battle between GH and AMC for the remainder of the year

I think this mostly happened due to the recasts. William Gray Espy left in 1975, then James Houghton in 1976, Janice Lynde in 1977, Pamela Peters pretty much left the same year around the time Jennifer died, Trish Stewart left in 1978 and Brenda Dickson left in 1980. I believe JLB wanted out in 1980 but agreed to stay. I think Bell lost some interest in those characters once the original actors left, I feel he tried to make the recasts work, but whether the newer actors were popular or not, he wasn't really writing the same characters anymore. You can kinda tell those characters became less important to the show once they were recast, again even if the actors were popular with audiences, hence why JLB became almost the main star and once she left he fired everyone else. In terms of the Abbotts, maybe he liked the recasts of Ashley and Jack enough to maintain that family. No doubt he changed Jack the most to fit Peter's acting style more, but maybe he was happy with that change.