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A 1986 episode was just shared on the Y&R thread that had Sandra Nelson as a flight attendent, she returned 11 years later in 1997 to play Phyllis Summers-Romalotti

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.

Maybe I read this wrong but I assume Eileen Davidson would own this topic. How many characters did she play on Days. Kristen, Susan, the Nun (Can't remember her name), there was the male character (Thomas? or something) and Penelope (I think). 

Quinn Redeker played Nikki's father on Y&R around 1979 and then returned as Rex in 1987

Probably doesn't count but pretty sure Katherine Kelly Lang played a minor role on Y&R at some point, Gretchen or something in 1981 then returned as her B&B character Brooke in a small cross over in 1998

Brenda Epperson did a dayplayer role on Y&R shortly before she took over as Ashley on Y&R

Carolyn Conwell most famous for playing Mary Williams on Y&R also played two smaller roles. I believe she was Ron Becker's mother somewhere around 76/77 and then played a prostitute on the show as well

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.

10 hours ago, Dax7000 said:

I have a question that may seem dumb or silly. I was curious if Katherine was supposed to be as wealthy as Victor? I know the character originally came to GC to run Chancellor for her, which suggests to me that his company was formed after Chancellor already existed. Jack once said Chancellor was the one company that could take on Newman; however, I always had the feeling Victor was supposed to be the richest character on the show. 

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). 

On 7/22/2019 at 3:36 AM, VanessaReardon said:

I realize that these ratings are from the end of 1979, but I’m putting these in the 80’s thread based on the Daytime TV issue date. The magazine did not specify which weeks these ratings represent. 

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. 

4 hours ago, Khan said:

Lauralee Bell's haircut in those clips was so painfully '90's, lol.

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.

7 hours ago, Chris B said:

I've just reached Peter Bergman's entrance and it's so interesting seeing him do his best Terry Lester impersonation. This is a completely different Jack. Very masculine and to the point. Nothing like he grew to play him. Also interesting as I enter December is how often they rotate the main story to allow others (like the Rawlins murder mystery) to simmer while others take center stage. I've seen Nina/Phillip as the A story, the Rawlins mystery, Cricket's rape and now Marge/Kay's switch. Even characters without a star turn get meaningful scenes that keep them involved in the action for when their time comes. There's a true rotation and everybody seems to matter. The use of relationships and supporting characters keep the scenes from becoming boring or repetitive. Characters like Douglas, Esther, Lynne, David, Miguel and Farren add a lot. 

 

Also interesting considering what she's become is how vital Traci is to the Abbott family. For this year she is easily the Abbott getting the bulk of the story. Yes John has Jessica and then the Jabot takeover, but as Traci is romanced by two men you have Jack, Ashley, Mamie and John bending over backwards to not only make sure she's okay but plotting go ensure that. She's such a vital and central character that it makes me sad she became just a talk to. Beth Maitland is a great leading lady and has a lot of range. 

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.

On 6/27/2019 at 11:25 PM, BetterForgotten said:

I loved MS up until around 2005, when it seemed like she gave up and stopped trying to add nuance to her work. She had a great run in the 90’s and early 00’s. Once the tics, her alleged storyline demands, and poor writing started to take over, I was ready for her to go. Gina seemed like a breath of fresh air because she was very committed to playing the material no matter how terrible it could be. She never tried to phone it in like MS did later in her last stint.

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

5 minutes ago, YRfan23 said:

Yes!   sorry, these were from an old playlist before I  just merged everything into one list.

I'll just post the full 1991 playlist where you can see those episodes plus ones that I have uploaded thus far!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFukuXXHudGg8k7-dc-DI-tShR7mgDMkN

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

2 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

Looking back on it, we were blessed to get so many gifted, charismatic, fine actors among the original cast. I grew to appreciate them even more as the recasts rolled in. Brenda Dickson was successfully replaced as Jill Foster,  but all the other replacements ranged from bland (Brian Kerwin) to downright awful. Wings Hauser. UGH. Need I say more?

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.

1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

Do we think Bell kept the right characters to mix with his new families? I think it would be hard to say what Y&R would have been like if he hadn’t kept people like Nikki, Victor, Jill and Katherine once the purge began and he moved towards characters that had little if any ties to the original families.

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.

16 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Snapper and Chris were his golden couple - they had stayed together for 6 years by 1980 and then you had Hasselhoff taking time off and Lynne topping as a fairly bland recast.

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. 

5 hours ago, Eboneece said:

Kay Alden has never minced words about how traumatic that early 1980s transition was. I can only imagine the pressure of going to an hour plus having to reboot the cast at the same time. This was also the period in which Bell brought on Jack Smith and Sally Sussman right? Other 1970s writers like Elizabeth Harrower left around then too.

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

21 minutes ago, BillBauer said:

 

I always thought it strange how Bill Bell decimated the families he created (the Brooks and Fosters). It was, sadly, common for new writers to do that to families past head writers had created, but I don’t know if any other writer besides Bell who did it to his own families. Why he got rid of the Brooks and Fosters and created the Abbots to refocus on them, I’ll never know. 

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. 

9 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I finally watched the two 1975 and 1978 episodes I'd saved up. Thank you to @YRfan23 and @ltm1997 !!

 

I wonder if these are from a hardcore Leslie fan as many of those that pop up seem to heavily involve her. 

 

The two episodes were the strongest contrast between Janice and Victoria that we could have possibly gotten. Janice seems so alive, even as we also know how much Leslie struggles, while Victoria's work is so much more internalized. I wonder if that pushed JLB to become more over the top, as she seems restrained in that episode, even in fantasy scenes she could have easily hammed up. 

 

Always enjoy seeing Janice get to perform. Why she never got a vehicle in primetime I'm not sure. Unfortunately her attempts to do this on AW just weren't as effective. 

 

I laughed out loud at the ludicrousness of that "fan" of Leslie's showing up at her concert brandishing a hate memoir that drove her to a breakdown. This was just so Bill Bell.  Of course some "fans" are bitches from hell, so it's not entirely far off, especially these days. Ahead of his time, Bell was. 

 

I thought Victoria Thompson, while not as good in the role as Jaime, was, oddly, a good contrast to Victoria Mallory's version of Leslie. 

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.

20 hours ago, Darn said:

 

Soaps don't do weddings people care about anymore. Remember when they were week long events the show had been building to for months? Couples you were rooting for and their wedding was the pay off? Now we have two millionaires having a commitment ceremony in a restaurant/bar.

Yeah you are right, they don't even get close. They barely have the budgets that allow all the actors on contract to be in the same room, let alone a big event of any kind.

15 hours ago, Gray Bunny said:

Is/Was it just me, or could you sometimes get certain background music cues stuck in your end?  I'm currently watching clips of DAYS circa '94 and '95 when they had some spectacular, well-remembered background cues and I find myself getting them stuck in my head, just as I did some 24 years years ago when I originally watched it.  I attribute this to my eventual habit of listening to classical music anytime I'd study for school, to give myself actual background music instead of the melodies stuck in my head (or perhaps I was just going crazy) 

Yes. Y&R cues get in my head all the time. The funny thing is, I could watch classic Y&R on mute and know exactly what music cue they would be using

Not entirely sure why, but weddings on soaps would always get me. The bigger ones felt like a holiday or like that feeling you get when summer is about to start. Just something special in the air.

On 5/25/2019 at 10:59 AM, Broderick said:

Terry and Eileen.   They could look more affectionate (and more exasperated) with each other than any two people I've ever seen.

 

I believe Bill Bell told about all the story he wanted to tell with Traci in her first five years on the show.  He had her shed some of her "chubette" poundage, be praised and appreciated for her singing, marry her big crush (Danny) platonically, spar with a shrew (Lauren), and ultimately land a handsome husband (Brad).  When he'd accomplished all those things, Bell sent her packing back to college to work on her master's degree.  After that, he only seemed interested in using her sporadically or in a recurring capacity when she was needed in the storyline.  And I tend to agree that she works best in that matter. 

 

 

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.

5 hours ago, YRBB said:

 

Excuse me?! 

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