OzFrog

The 1984 clips in the vault just keep getting better and better. 59b in particular is unbelievable: Victor & Nikki starting their plan against Jabot and Mergeron. Victor & Ashley officially meeting and having dinner for the first time (part of Victor’s aforementioned plan) Nikki chatting it up with Marc Mergeron. Jack marrying Lindsay for the negatives (although we all know where they actually ended up) Brent Davis showing up on Kay’s doorstep. Kay about to tell Dina about Brent. And it looks like all of this happened within 1-2 consecutive episodes between August and October 1984. I’m in awe of Bill Bell for knowing what he was doing here in terms of setting up the longer-term story.

How old is Diana if you don’t mind my asking? I know first hand how it can feel to be manipulated by other people in the way Diana seems to have been in this case, and I’m very sorry about the predicament she’s found herself in (if she even realises she is in a predicament), as well as how you and your hubby have become involved. Could it be that maybe you both need to set up some boundaries at this point regarding her behaviour towards you? If she is supposedly a mature independent woman, then any decisions she makes will ultimately need to made on her own. It’s hard though when there’s brainwashing involved. Have you also done any more research or investigation into Carlo himself? I know you mentioned a couple of 2018 arrests, but curious if anything more has surfaced. I really hope that something happens sooner rather than later to push this along. I was reading it and thinking “this is miles more intriguing than anything the 4 soaps could put together combined”.

57a is up, and it is a treat - Melinda Fee is subbing for Brenda Dickson as Jill!

😭😭😭

Just been watching the latest 1984 clips in the vault (56a). So much Victor and Cora stuff that is just beautiful to watch. This is one of those rare times where you do see a completely different side of Victor, and Eric Braeden plays it so well. You also get to see Cora hold Victoria for the first time, and that is simply heart melting. Also there is a little bit of Paul and Patty, and I will say right now - Andrea Evans has fully grown on me in that role. It’s a shame they couldn’t have brought her back initially when Patty returned in 2009 (but obviously wouldn’t have made sense with all the backstory that was involved in her return).

And that must be why Danny and Lauren went to Kay for funding. I love it when these pieces of info just surface up that join the dots together.

Oh wow, thanks FrenchFan. I didn’t realise he was so heavily involved in the mix of things. It’s a shame we never hear about him, nor do we hear about Julia’s daughter Jaime. Might give Ashley something to focus on of he came back for whatever reason.

Another history question on the back of the vintage clips popping up recently. What was the deal with Eric Garrison? I know he was in a bit of a triangle with Ashley and Marc Mergeron, but there wasn’t much other information available about his character, apart from something involving fathering a child with Julia (?!). Can anyone shed any light on the character history here?

Yes! AND 51a just got uploaded, and it is a gold mine. Derek & Kay, Lorie & Leslie, Lorie & Nikki, all the Brooks sisters... But the highlight for me is a damn good scene with Brock and Jill at the Abbott mansion. And this was Jill being refreshingly honest with Brock, in a different way to how she is with Jack. I wish we had seen more of this Jill from Brenda Dickson in her later years instead of the Alexis-clone we had to put up with.

Good article by Ezra Klein about the GOP strategy...

Most recent 1984 clip (50b) is now up in the vault, and it’s still lead-up to the V&N wedding. It contains a really beautiful and well-written scene between Victor and Lorie, as well as some lovely Lorie and Julia scenes.

Thanks so much for that recap. I do wonder if that scene is somewhere up on Youtube. Would be nice to watch.

I’ve said this before, but bloody hell Lauren’s hatred for Traci ran *deep*. And all seemingly because Lauren was jealous of her. I wish they had delved into that a bit more instead of just having Lauren constantly being a bitch all the time. There were occasions where it almost amounted to bullying of Traci. But I will say that to Traci’s credit she eventually grew up from that shy reserved teenager into someone confident with her own life and her own identity away from the main Abbott drama. And it’s fitting that she is back on the show as the glue that is keeping the Abbotts together in the absence of John. By the way, I read somewhere that Lauren and Traci did finally bury the hatchet about a decade ago or something, but haven’t found any scenes on Youtube that would indicate that. Could someone confirm for me either way?

Vee, have a look at this. I’ve linked the playlist (it’s all of 1989). The takeover storyline begins around May/June, if I recall correctly.

As we speak, our mysterious benefactor has started to upload 1984 clips. They’re up to February-May at the moment. If they continue as they are now, I believe we will eventually see those scenes surface (the confrontation happened in November 1984).

From what I recall, Jack had just been fired from Jabot for his role in John and Jill’s ongoing divorce (the hookup he and Jill had a couple of years earlier). I think Jill was shot around this time if not a little later. And also, Nikki and Jack had been having an on-off again affair due to Nikki’s insecurities with Victor and Ashley.

Isn’t that how we all get into soaps though? 😏😜

I highly recommend people watch the last 1983 clip that’s been uploaded. Some scenes from January 1984 where Kay is starting to consider her facelift. There is some amazing dialogue that Kay has with Dina and with Liz about it. It really does start to put a lot of context on that whole storyline and the motivators for Kay going ahead with the surgery.

We’re starting to get 1984 clips coming up as we speak. But watching the last of the 1983 ones, I’m surprised by how Paul & Lauren actually started - by Paul wanting to break up Lauren and Danny’s engagement so that Danny could go back to Patty (this was all before Traci’s pregnancy of course). And now it makes sense why Patty hated Lauren so much during 1984. I wonder if that’s something the writers could bring back with Patty next time she comes on. Incidentally, I’m shocked by just how visceral Lauren’s hatred of Traci was back then. Everything Lauren did back then arose out of her dislike for Traci. And you have most of these characters on screen even today - Lauren, Traci, Paul. Bring back Patty *and* Danny, and you would have dynamite for years. Michael Damian has stated on Twitter that he would love to come back to Y&R at some point, and this would be the perfect way to bring him back in.

That interview was amazing, and it says so much about what gave Y&R its strong social roots. In the more recent 1983 uploads I’ve watched, Victor is going incognito to go find a standard job (as part of a bet with Douglas). But it is SO good in terms of the social commentary it provides about people in working-class society and the issues they face day-to-day. It’s an eye opener not just for Victor, but for a viewer like myself, as it helps us to empathise more with the plight of working class people. I would not be surprised if Lee Phillip herself actually pushed that storyline, because it is so informative. I also wanna know what the planned story for Nikki was before MTS got pregnant and everything had to change! I wonder if they kept any notes somewhere in their estate. Like I was saying earlier, the stuff with Andrea Evans as Patty was her prior to her reincarnation as outlandish Tina Lord, so it was a great reminder of what she was actually capable of as an actress. I’ve said it in another thread, but watching these clips in the vault, this is the first time I’ve seen Julia Newman. And I was captivated from the moment she came back into town in the 1982 clips to see Lorie. Meg Bennett is one hell of an actress, and I greatly admire the strong-willed, independent facets of what she brings to the role of Julia, so much so that the character is rapidly becoming one of my all-time favourites. Her stoushes with Nikki are hilarious, I completely agree. 1983 Nikki was all over the shop. Sometimes I watch more recent clips of Nikki on youtube just to compare what she was like back then against how she is today. I’ll also say that 1983 Nikki is worlds apart even from 1980 Nikki, and I wonder if that was the Victor effect at play. I have such a crush on Kevin 😊. Yes he and Nikki were Mr & Mrs Dimwit, but both Chris Holder and MTS brought such energy and realism to the story that you couldn’t help but get caught up. Funnily enough, I watched Chris Holder months ago in old Another World clips when he played the first Peter Love (he went to AW almost straight after leaving Y&R in 1984). Completely different character, but still somewhat sympathetic. I disagree to an extent about Brenda Dickson’s return. She still had many many elements of her 1973-1980 run and hadn’t completely metamorphosised into wannabe-Alexis at that point. The clips I’ve seen with BD’s Jill interacting with Jack, John, even Patty, show a very strong mix of insecurity and bitchiness, very similar to what Deborah Adair had towards the end of her run as Jill. I especially liked how she stood by John as he was telling the rest of the family what went down with Patty shooting Jack, and it was nice to see a united front. All in all, 1982-3 Y&R has been a treasure trove to watch thus far - and our mysterious benefactor is STILL uploading clips as we speak. So THANK YOU 🙏

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