will81

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.

Janice did get a primetime vehicle, Norman Lear's Roxie, but the pilot was never picked up. I believe it was done around 75/76. Not sure why she never got anything more after that. I really like Jance's portrayal now that we have seen a few episodes. She really balanced Leslie's shy, introverted personality with her newfound freedom and strength. I think Janice in real life was a fireball, you can see her infuse that element into Leslie in the 1975 episodes we have, such as when she and Laurie are arguing about Brad at the hospital (when Jennifer is having her mastectomy) but then she can revert back to the softer, slightly weaker Leslie such as when she and Laurie argue about Laurie no longer wanting to work for her. A scene I have watched over and over as I think both JLB and JL are so amazing in that scene together. I agree, Victoria's Leslie was more internalised and had Victoria originated the role, I might have really loved that, but now seeing a bit more of both, it often feels like Leslie was muted quite a bit after Janice left. The growth Janice brought to Leslie was almost reversed. I also wonder if Janice's departure pushed Bell's focus onto JLB's Laurie. I think they were a lot more equal initially, maybe with Leslie being more central. It feels after Victoria took over that Bell made Leslie more a supporting character in Laurie's story.

I was just watching the Nov 20, 1987 episode where Eileen's Ashley got so fed up of Jack she laid back in her chair and started fanning herself and rolling her eyes. Terry/Jack was being more annoying than usual about Brad. At the end Jack leaves and Ashley does the gun to the head thing. It is these moments that were lost with recasts, the shading of things. I also liked in the same scene when Jack makes a quip about Brad, Ashley's demeanour gets darker, I think more so for Traci than Brad. Ashley was pretty much a surrogate mother to Traci and whenever something about her life came up, Ashley was immediately defensive. Especially with Dina and Jack.

Yeah I'd say Terry/Eileen. They just seemed like real brother and sister. You can see the genuine moments between them. Those little moments were lost when they recast.

So we have Quinn Redeker's first airdate, this article is from Wed Jul 1, 1987. So his first airdate was Jul 2, 1987. Interesting they only intended for him to be on for a couple weeks.

Lol it gets worse. They call Traci a Chubette and apparently the producers had her put weight back on and off and on for storyline purposes. Beth apparently taped her last show May 20, 1987. This article is from May 23, 1987

Traci is first mentioned in synopsis for Jun 14 - 18, 1982 John’s other daughter, Traci, fretted about her battle with the bulge. So Traci came on the week after Ashley. I am guessing Mamie was also introduced around this time as well

Here are a couple of articles on Eileen's arrival and departure. No concrete first air date, that article comes from Jun 27, 1982. The second article lists her last day as Fri Dec 2, 1988 with Brenda taking over Mon Dec 5, 1988 Also notice Marguerite Ray was added in June 1982, probably around the same time as Eileen

I think Lester hadn't been happy for a while. That's why he left in 1985 to do a tv movie. I think it was a movie of the week that had the potential to be turned into a series called Blade in Hong Kong. He was off Y&R for about six months, he definitely wasn't starved for story back then. I am guessing it was a multitude of things, but I feel Lester would have quit regardless of if he had story, I think he was just over it.

More cast info, this time for Terry Lester. First article is from Thursday Jul 24, 1980. States Lester started as Jack on Tue, so his start date was Jul 22, 1980 The second states his end date as Sep 1, 1989, and Lester's start on SB as Sep 25, 1989

Yes in late July 1981 Victor asked Eve to help him, but Eve pretty much disappeared 2 months after that and didn't return until Oct 1982 in Paris with Julia Newman. Actually Victor recommended Eve to Stuart in 1980, he knew her already, it wasn't until after Eve got her job with Stuart that she demanded Victor pay child support. So Bell had set up the Victor story early, I assume the Stuart/Liz thing was only ever supposed to be temporary.

Here we go Jun 29 - Jul 3, 1981 Victor cast a bedroom eye on Peggy. Eve and Peggy became chums So she did interact with Peggy, but it seems not about Stuart

Eve was Jill's housemate, I think they bonded because they both had sons. Eve was in the Stuart/Liz story, but Bell established her fling with Victor pretty quickly, I think within a few months she had shifted to Victor's story. Eve was only on for a year (80-81), then returned about a year later (1982) I guess after that she was really more a guest star. Chris was pretty much not appearing by June 1980, apart from Lynn giving birth to twins, David Hassellhoff wanted off the show to pursue primetime, instead he agreed to a new contract, but one where he would only appear sporadically and very rarely. Lynn Topping refused to sign that contract, so she was dismissed and the original plan was to recast. Snapper and Chris didn't appear again until Mar 1981 and Lynn Topping returned with David, who had no luck in the primetime game. JLB was pregnant that year and wasn't really appearing much either and had a temp recast when she went on maternity leave (around the time Eve first showed up) Leslie still had amnesia, sort of. Peggy was around, but was fighting with her father over Steve Williams. Logistically it seems the Brooks sisters were kinda scattered or not really around as much during the time Eve was going after Stuart.

Eve and Rick Daros were shown around summer 84 meeting up in a sanatarium, they end up escaping together but that's where it ends and Eve doesn't return until the 90's

Here is some stuff for Patty. First is the announcement that Lilibet Stern signed a 5 year contract with Y&R from Nov 6, 1980. Patty was absent from any synopsis from Jul - Dec. So maybe Tammy Taylor left in Jul and Lilibet first aired in Dec. Next is the announcement that Lilibet was leaving and Andrea Evans was taking over, from May 22, 1983 Last is a few questions from soap fans who don't seem too happy with the recast