SoapDope

My Mom watched Y&R from the start too and she loved all the original actors especially William Gray Espy as Snapper.  When I was old enough to remember the show, Dennis Cole was playing Lance. I felt sorry for Lucas because both Brooks sisters obsessed over dull Lance. His mother Vanessa also favored Lance over him.

 I wonder if Victoria Mallory saw or heard those comments about her portrayal of Leslie ? It was interesting that years later she became friends with Janice Lynde.

I don't really recall Howard McGillin as Greg, since I was so young at that time. Did his Greg interact with Nikki ?

In reading synopsis for the 1978-1981 period, it seemed Bells priority was the Leslie/Lorie/Lance/Lucas story. What did you think of the Chris Foster recast of Lynn Topping from Trish Stewart who originated the role ?

I still can't believe someone agreed to cast Wings as Greg. Even in magazine photos it looks like he's come off a bender, went through the dirty clothes to see what smelled fresh to wear to take a photo. I remember seeing a short scene of him and Melody on the show and he had on a filthy gray athletic jacket without a shirt on and it was unzipped to his navel.

Thanks for the answers. I wish more early 70's episodes would show up, especially Kim/Bob/Jennifer/John. I heard about how shocking it was when John raped Kim. I can't remember if it was Laura Horton on DOOL or Kim on ATWT that they showed a pearl necklace break and spill on the floor during the attack. 

LOL.....I remember reading somewhere that Erica would blab storyline spoilers to magazines pissing Bell off. 

What were they thinking when they hired Wings ? He's nasty. It seems that Bill Bell fell in love with the way Melody played Nikki and began to focus writing for her and didn't know what to do with Casey. It sounds like Casey was the focus early on.

Liz was so pretty. She still looked great as she matured.

I have been watching some of the 1979/1980 episodes again on youtube and had a question. Why was Tom Tammi let go as Tom ? I thought he was fine in the role. Deas was playing the part when I started remembering the show. I liked HBS and Greg Marx as Tom & Margo.

Tom got younger as time went on and his history went out the door and the marriages to Carol & Natalie were buried by the time the 80's rolled around.

I remember CZP being interviewed in SOD back in the 90's and she said Deas was her Tom and Colin was her Margo. Which is strange since her first pairing with Tom was Tammi's version.

Thanks for the classic Y&R article. It's strange seeing Erica Hope as Nikki. I wonder if she had been fired from the show when that hit the stands ? Melody started playing Nikki in February 1979. Erica only had the role for about 6 months.

Wings was so gross and miscast as Greg.  I think Tom Tammi who played Tom on ATWT around this time might have made a good recast as Greg or Snapper.

Those are very good questions. I also wonder why they never had Kim have a child by her first husband Jason Reynolds who had died before she arrived on screen.

I wish Marie Masters could see that and comment. I hope someone out there unearths some more vintage material from the late 60's or early 70's, especially Kim/Bob/Jennifer.

I know it was common practice then, but it is so sad that P&G wiped their vintage material. I wonder if the episodes when broadcast new, ever had a "muddy" appearance to them since they kept reusing tape ? I read that Johnny Carson's show looked that way then because of that practice. Kind of like a VCR tape degraded over time with re-recording. They said Johnny wanted to pull some stuff one time and was told what had been done to the early footage and went ape crap.

Strange to see little Wednesday Addams grown up and playing Cricket. Speaking of porny, Lisa Loring (Cricket) married 4 times and one of her husbands was a porn actor. Lisa was 15 when she married her first husband, had a child at 16, and divorced at 17. Her second husband was Doug Stevenson from Search For Tomorrow.

Did Jane House play the scenes when Liz fell up the stairs and died ?

OMG !!!!! Thanks DRW50 for posting this rare 1972 material. I never thought we would see much more from this era. I wish we could have got a glimpse of early Kim with long hair and her lusting after Bob.

It's always interesting to get info on the first airdates for actors. I remember reading years ago that Melody Thomas Scotts first airdate as Nikki was February 16, 1979. So I wonder when Erica Hope last aired ?

Kay Alden's interview with the Archive Of American Television she said something about the actress they first hired for Nikki didn't bother to show up for work one day. I don't know if she was referring to Erica or if they had hired someone before her that didn't make it to air. I have also read stories of how Bill Bell wasn't happy with Erica and she would leak storyline info to the soap press. I think Melody was being considered to play Ben's wife on The Waltons, but was asked to audition for Y&R. I saw Melody's screen test with Beau Kayzer (Brock). Ed Scott said he knew she was going to be their Nikki.

I remember someone posted on a message board that Aaron Spelling seemed to be obsessed with Deborah Adair. He put her in Dynasty and when that failed, he put her in Finders Of Lost Loves. He then had her guest in multiple episodes of Hotel, Love Boat and Matt Houston. Later he cast her in Melrose Place.

I remember reading that during the Stu/Jill marriage in 1979, Jill decided they would have Greg and Nikki's wedding the Brooks home so she could rub her marriage to Stu in her mother Liz's face. Stu & Liz were in love, but Jill seduced him and faked pregnancy to trap him into marriage so she would have financial security.

I wish the complete Greg & Nikki wedding episode would surface. I have seen clips of it and the reception where everyone is drinking champagne. I wonder what everyone thought when Nikki walked down the stairs in that white wedding gown that Chris loaned her ? I bet they could hardly keep a straight face. Nikki wore white again for her Victor's 1984 nuptials.....LOL

Making Jill adopted also took away Jill's sentimental reason for naming Billy (William Foster Abbott) after her late father William Foster.

Another huge screw up was forcing viewers to accept Steve Burton by making his character Paul & Nikki's son in a history rewrite. Nikki was married to Greg Foster when she joined the cult and there is no way she could have had a child. They probably think the people watching back then no longer do or are dead/senile.

Julia Newman was a character they wasted. I don't know why they didn't pair her with Matt or Jack at some point. She had a daughter with Eric Garrison.

Michael Crawford was another character that dropped off the canvas without explanation.

That would have been awesome. Imagine Jill going ape crap over her brother Greg sleeping with Nina.

Great. I hope to see them. I wish they had kept some of the Fosters/Brooks/Prentiss on after 1982. Jill was kept because she and Katherine's feud was the core of the show.  Stuart disappeared in 1984 and Liz only appeared now and then till she was gone.

The photo of Roberta Leighton and Melody is nice, but RL has clearly had some bad plastic surgery.

That 1982 upload was awesome to look at. Is there more ? It puts todays Y&R to shame. I was a small kid at that time and remember bits of these storylines. Allison Bancroft was a piece of work. Nikki treated poor Kevin like crap and pined for old prune face. I always wished that Kevin would come back and reveal since DNA test were not around at that time that the blood test performed was botched and he was really the father of Victoria. The scenes with Leslie, Lance, and Brooks was touching. I felt sorry for Lucas having the boy he felt was like his own son being ripped from him and loving Lorie who only had eyes for his brother.

Here is a current photo and page for Christopher Holder who played Kevin. He teaches acting. http://christopherholder.net/contact.html

I read that Brock was supposed to of been the one Victor locked in the basement instead of Michael Scott. Julia was going to be the love of Brock's life, but Beau left the show shortly after Y&R expanded to an hour because he had signed on to do a half hour and didn't want to commit. All the actors who had signed on before the expansion had voided contracts. Brenda Dickson and John McCook also left in 1980.

THANK YOU YRfan23 for the classic 1982 upload.

I agree. When I saw pictures of Howard McGillian, it looks like they wanted Greg to return to looking like Houghton's version. I wonder if Y&R considered asking Espy back in 1982 or since Hasselhoff was by then so associated with the role they didn't even bother ? 

Wings said in a blurb that soaps were "Hair Shows" and that actors who talked about how hard the work is was pretty much full of crap. He also said something about he only got to go shirtless a few times on Y&R and figured the producers etc...did not like what they seen......LOL

Casey, Brock, Matt, and Peggy seemed to be characters Bill Bell didn't quite know what to do with them and they faded in and out.

I agree about David. He is considered a hammy actor much like Ted McGinley. It would be nice to see Roberta Leighton as Casey again. I saw a Q&A from a few years ago with Melody Thomas Scott and Roberta stood up and asked why doesn't Nikki call her sister surprising her. MTS said she was close to RL like real sisters when they were on the show together. Somewhere I have a photo of them together from around 1979 and they had the Farrah hair going on.

Wings Hauser was always creepy in everything he played in. James Houghton and MTS would have made a stunning looking couple if they had worked together. Tom Tammi who played Tom on ATWT briefly 1979-1980 might have been a good recast as Greg or Snapper.

It might just be me, but David doesn't come off well in that interview. He pretty much says he's just sticking with crap like Y&R till something else better comes along he feels is worthy of his talent. He has always been a mediocre actor and should be thanking Bill Bell everyday for giving him a career. His return to the show a few years ago was a joke. I can imagine what that 1979 album sounds like.

He and Wings Hauser were miscast  as the Foster brothers. Maybe Greg would have had more of a shelf life if James Houghton had stuck around to be paired with Melody Thomas Scott. Wings also speaks ill of Y&R.

I wonder how well the Callie character would have taken off if Michelle Thomas hadn't passed away and gotten to play the role for a long run ? I was not impressed with Callie # 2.