OzFrog

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.

48 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Lee Phillip (Bell) interview from 1982.

 

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.

31 minutes ago, Broderick said:

At the time, I absolutely hated Andrea Evans as Patty, but now,  in retrospect, I think she does a FINE job with the material.   As someone said above, it was an unfortunate time for a recast to stray into the storyline, and that probably colored our (lack of) tolerance of Andrea Evans in 1983.   But watching the clips now, and knowing that the "new Patty" will be playing the shooting scenes, there's no letdown at all.  I can completely appreciate the qualities Andrea Evans brought to the role.

 

Another character that I really appreciate in the clips is the "liberated Julia Newman" of 1983.   In her first incarnation of 1980-1981, she was a rather dull, drippy, insecure character that didn't generate much interest.  But once she returns from Europe more sophisticated and worldly, I find her hilarious, especially when she's brushing Nikki aside and rolling her eyes at Douglas Austin and Victor.  Her character growth while she was out of town completely changed her dynamic with Victor. 

 

I'd forgotten how much storyline Nikki was working all at once --- divorcing Kevin, being courted by Rick, marrying Tony DiSalvo to get the master copy of "Hot Hips", being in love with Victor.   It's funny when the characters in Nikki's orbit are bewildered by Rick Daros, and just as soon as they get accustomed to him, they're suddenly confronted with "now who the hell is this Tony DiSalvo?"   

 

Enjoyed the awkward and tentative steps that Stuart Brooks and Liz Foster took towards a reconciliation in the spring of 1983.  I'd honestly forgotten those scenes entirely; I was thinking that their separation (and interaction) had fizzled-out long before then.   Bill Bell was clearly still interested in writing for the two characters (and exploring their relationship fully) as a B-storyline, until Robert Colbert bolted.   

 

The Golden Touch/Sleazy's Bar/Tony DiSalvo storyline is utterly DREADFUL, but it's fun to watch Paul and Andy mature into likable heroic characters, outside of the stupidity of the situation.  Also fun to watch Jazz Jackson evolve, despite his ridiculously bad dialogue (combined with other characters referring to him as a "gorilla" and an "ape".  Yikes.)    

 

Chris Holder does such a good job of making his dimwitted yuppie Kevin Bancroft character sympathetic and endearing.  

 

With the reintroduction of Brenda Dickson as Jill --- poof! --- all of Deborah Adair's insecurity and warmth go sailing out the window.  Works out fine though, as I don't believe Brenda Dickson's vampy Jill could've ever snared John Abbott into a marriage, and I don't believe Deborah Adair's earthy Jill would've ever divorced him so easily.  

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  

Biden and Harris live now on PBS News Hour.

13 minutes ago, BoldRestless said:

 

I like her too, even better than Stern, and I wasn't a fan of AE as Tawny and never watched her on OLTL.

If/when you ever get a chance, look at some of AE’s post-1985 OLTL stuff on Youtube. There is a reason why she is considered by most to be the one and only Tina Clayton Lord despite the various 90s recasts of the role. And a far cry from how she played Patty on Y&R as well.

Just been watching more of the 1983 clips, and I am gonna go against the grain here somewhat - I actually like Andrea Evans playing Patty, especially seeing as she was the one playing the role when Patty shot Jack. Yes I also think Lilibet Stern would have done it just as much justice, but AE does it really well here. I have to remind myself a lot that this was prior to her return to OLTL, so we hadn’t yet seen the over-the-top stuff she would eventually do as Tina Lord.

One thing I found captivating about the shooting episode was that I had a preconception in my head that it would be melodramatic with lots of screaming and wails and gnashing of teeth, etc. But the actual scene was almost the exact opposite - very understated by both her and Terry Lester, yet playing exactly the right beats, and AE conveyed that psychotic break chilledness exceptionally well before pulling the trigger.

The scenes where they re-enacted the shooting to jog Patty’s memory were also well done. It’s been actually rather refreshing watching AE play something other than devious, and I’ve loved every moment of it.

3 hours ago, kalbir said:

I've been enjoying 1983 clips more than the return episodes.

 

I think Cricket's first appearance from summer 1983 is in there. It's so odd to see Terry Lester's Jack actually liking Cricket's modelling shoot, knowing what was to happen by the end of the decade.

 

The mob story is way too General Hospital/Days. Jazz is serving up some Mr. T vibes, I wonder if CBS was trying to cash in on Mr. T's popularity. That reminds me of another Bill Bell element, the educated professional with a troublemaking sibling: Casey/Nikki, Tyrone/Jazz, Olivia/Dru, Neil/Malcolm.

 

1982/1983 Y&R finished 4th, becoming CBS's #1 daytime drama, with the ABC big three finishing in the top 3. 1983/1984 Y&R moved past One Life to Live to finish 3rd.

 

Hopefully we'll get to 1984 as that's when Y&R became Y&R as we know it today.

 

That scene of Jack watching Cricket model was creepy as hell to watch. I was half expecting him to flop it out and fap off as she was in front of the camera. It was like “did you not learn ANYTHING from being shot by Patty?”

It’s official!

I’ve been watching a lot of early 1980s Y&R recently, and it was the first time I had ever seen the character of Julia Newman, played of course by Meg Bennett. And I am absolutely enamoured by just how strong and independent she is (in fact she is fast becoming one of my all-time favourite characters).

My question is about how MB played Liza Walton back in the 1970s. Was she written as strong-willed as Julia Newman was? It’s a shame that there aren’t any ideas around of Meg Bennett playing Liza. 

I could honestly see Alex Donnelly and Stacy Haiduk matching each other up really well. If we really wanted to resurrect some old Y&R, bring back Michael Damian as well and restart the Diane/Jack/Patty/Danny quad (ok maybe I have been just a tiny bit inspired by the old Y&R clips in the vault). It’s a great use of old history.

2 minutes ago, yrfan1983 said:

Here's the scene from Sept or Oct 83 with Jill and Liz at the Foster home, at 44:00 https://youtu.be/SmSVKiPr6kQ

You're right, Liz did live with Kay in '84, in fact during this scene I think Jill is convincing Liz to be Katherine's maid so Liz can spy on her.

Not positive if we see the Foster house in early '85 but in the 1/29/85 SOD recap, it says "Since she can't get the money from Jack, Jill tries her mother. But Liz refuses to mortgage her home"

You see it in a January 1985 episode that’s on the vault. Basically Esther (at Kay’s behest) has blackmailed Jill for $10,000 re the picture. John won’t give it to her without a reason, so Jill goes to visit Liz at the Foster house, and tries to convince Liz to refinance the house.

I hope there is some way possible that it was a doppelgänger Diane who was murdered, and Alex Donnelly comes back one of these days. Especially if Patty came back as well.

Found this gem on Youtube. The only time Alex Donnelly’s Diane ever interacted with Phyllis. And it is *delicious*.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but 1983 Y&R was gothic AF.

1 hour ago, FrenchFan said:

I love seeing the scenes between Kay, Liz and Stuart. Kay's meddling is so fascinating. So grateful to have been able to watch some of Stuart's last storyline !

Yes I have enjoyed watching those too, and other scenes showing the genuine friendship between Kay and Liz (despite Kay’s animosity towards Liz’s daughter).

OMG someone just uploaded the FULL Patty shoots Jack EPISODE into the vault!!

22 minutes ago, crc said:

Joel Mchale would have a field day with this show right now.

“And now here’s a segment we like to call... Brooke’s Va-Jay-Jay!”

I went on a watching binge of the vault late last night, looking at some of the episodes I hadn’t managed to catch yet. And boy was it a goldmine.

I watched the January 1985 episode, and the stuff you see in there with the benefit of hindsight is mesmerising. Victor had just acquired Mergeron, and Jack hightailed it to the ranch to confront Victor about it.

Again the thing I love about Y&R is the psychological dialogue, and Victor was definitely reading Jack like a book, especially when he called Jack out on the real reason that Jack was upset - Jack had wanted to take over Mergeron for himself. You could sense that this is where some of the conflict between the two actually started.

This was also around the time that Nikki had started doing some modelling for Jabot, and she had been called in to see Ashley and Joe Blair about setting up another photo shoot. But it was the conversation between Nikki and Ashley at the tail end of that scene that really caught my attention...

As far as I know, this was pre-triangle, so Ashley and Victor had no involvement with each other at that point, but yet it was fascinating to watch Nikki attempt to pry some sort of information from Ashley (no idea what, exactly) while Ashley is confused as to what she is talking about, saying as much to herself after Nikki has left the room.

I also watched the 1984 V&N wedding for the first time (I know, I’m a bad fan). It was unintentionally funny to watch Eve’s schemes fail one by one. But the thing that captured my attention the most in that episode was Lorie - that exchange and dance with Marc Mergeron - they should have done SO MUCH MORE with that! I would have also loved to see if anything went further with the project that Lorie mentioned to Ashley. Why oh why did they ever let go of Jaime Lyn Bauer? *tears hair out*

So the latest 1983 clip that was uploaded has a very striking scene in it...

It cuts in at the Abbott dining room just after Jill has said a nasty remark to Traci causing her to storm off (John is apparently sick upstairs). And Ashley all of a sudden just lashes out at Jill - not over the top, but very controlled and almost menacing. You could see the pent-up rage in Ashley’s face. It is such a shame that the clips have cut out a large chunk of the Abbott storyline, because it seems riveting.

Although, one more scene that was left in re the Abbotts had me wondering - Jill and Jack seem to be plotting against John about something, but it is not mentioned what exactly. Now Patty’s shooting Jack hasn’t happened yet, so I’m curious as to what is going on. Can anyone fill in any blanks here?

19 hours ago, trainman said:

 

$$$$$$.  Money talks.

Yep, and we see the exact reason right there why Nikki hates Sharon’s guts so much - they’re actually so much alike in so many ways.

10 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

In regards to the crime story of 1982/3...I recall the climax involved Mary Williams kicking butt in a barn or something.  Am I remembering right?

Yes it is in the recent clips from 1983 that were uploaded to the vault. She certainly made a contribution, as did everybody in that scene.

22 hours ago, Faulkner said:

Lol I don’t know why, but this cracks me up.

“Nobody comes near me and my va-jay-jay... NOBODY!”

8 hours ago, Vee said:

I was watching a GH '95 episode with a fascinating therapy session with Bobbie and Tony Jones (spearheaded by Kevin Collins), and this led me down the rabbit hole of comparing and contrasting - I remember the therapy sessions Viki had with Susannah Hanen pretty well in '95, but most of what I recall or have reviewed of them are super dramatic, with the alters popping out and big reveals and so on. Those scenes were excellent, but I was curious about more quiet, thoughtful stuff. This led me to one of the more polarizing elements of Claire Labine's run on OLTL - Maude Hayes, the sex therapist played by the legendary Helen Gallagher. I knew these scenes existed but I don't think I've ever seen them. I'm not going to say all Labine's OLTL stories were genius because they most certainly weren't, but this stuff is fascinating. You would never see scenes like these (or the ones with the Joneses on GH) on modern daytime. And that's really what the daily medium should be for.

 

 

Thank you for finding this. That kinda psychological based exploratory dialogue is what I love about soaps. Y&R did it beautifully for so many decades. And additionally, Erin Torpey is so cute as Jessica in those clips. She and Erika Slezak did mother and daughter so well.

1 minute ago, SoapDope said:

Nikki treats Kevin like crap and doesn't care. She complains he's too nice of a guy, like that is a huge character flaw. I wonder why Bell did not put Kevin with Julia at some point ? Victor thinks a lot of him and may have approved after he and Nikki married. 

I think as someone said earlier in this thread, it is literally the story of Dimwit & Dimwit.

Just catching up on the recent 1983 clips that were uploaded.

Julia and Nikki’s chat at the penthouse = . My god Nikki was almost possessive of Victor even back then. But Julia handled her like a pro. Although I have to ask - what was this “trip” all about that Julia and Victor are going on?

Alison Bancroft is *evil* AF. And now I see how Rick Darros was introduced.

Question = wasn’t Tony DiSalvo involved in one of Eve’s later schemes? I’m sure I’d seen his name mentioned in connection with her somewhere.