Broderick

I could always buy the concept that Cliff didn't know Rebecca Wentworth.  He was only 4 or 5 when she flew the coop, so he likely wouldn't have recognized her, had he crossed paths with her twenty or thirty years later.  Any business dealings Cliff might've had with the Wentworth family (as an adult) would've likely been with Herbert Wentworth, who'd only been dead a little while when Pam found Rebecca in Houston.  

4 minutes ago, BoldRestless said:

 

Thanks for typing that up! Had no idea her mother wrote for the show!

Her mother, Elizabeth Harrower, not only wrote for the show, but played the old lady (Charlotte Ramsey) who pretended to be Jill's mother.  

3 hours ago, will81 said:

Everything she does feels right as Jill. She had the best and the correct interpretation of the character, even if Jess or Deb were better actors. When Brenda brought her A game, there was no one who could touch her in the part. 

I believe Miss Dickson's problem was that she began "living her role" in the outside world, which made her more of a headache than she was worth.  (I flipped through a Soap Opera Digest in the 1984-era, where they mentioned she had recently purchased a new Mercedes with "Jill" as her personalized license plate.  That probably says a lot about where her mind was.)  Even when her performances were at their strangest and most bizarre, she was -- something to behold.   

Everything Danny did in that episode was fairly dumb.  Traci tells him, "I'm going to visit Serial Cheater Tim and see if there's a 2% chance he still wants me!", and Danny immediately goes running to Faux Patty and gets her hopes up that she can become Mrs. Rock On, without even waiting to see how it went with Tim, while Lauren serves as Head Cheerleader with another "sizzling" cover from her Sergio Mendes repertoire.  

Five minutes in, and Danny's already "fragmented" Traci -- "There's a part of you that still loves Tim Sullivan!", and Jill has already launched into the famous "making INROADS with my husband" spiel.  (We used to call Dina Mergeron "Ole Inroad Dina".)  I swear, they wrote this dialogue in their sleep   

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

'I have been lied to (beat) and manipulated' is often quoted at Chez Raven.

Patty Williams (back in the Lilibet Stern days) was always saying, "A part of me ..." 

"A part of me died when Jack hurt me."

"A part of me wants to believe you." 

"A part of me knows you're being honest right now." 

We've always said that a LOT.  "A part of me is starving right now, and I believe it's my stomach!"  

1 hour ago, yrfan1983 said:

Ok I want to become a member of your family! My family never once in my life has quoted YR!

I'm sure y'all do.  When the doorbell rings, doesn't everyone in the house simultaneously yell, "I'll get it, Miguel!" 

Oh, I don't remember if it was really Vanessa, but Nikki would be selling flowers to some lead character in one storyline, while Paul would be selling to lead characters in another storyline.  

Seems like there was a scene in the park where perhaps Nikki sold flowers to Suzanne Lynch and Derek Thurston, and Paul sold flowers in the restaurant to Vanessa and Lucas.  Cindy Fisher's character and Matthew might pop-up and sell a flower to Lorie Brooks.  

It was just a jumbled-up mess of people who'd never seen one another before, but who were all lead characters in various storylines, colliding over Cult Flowers.  

2 hours ago, yrfan1983 said:

 what's your take on the 1980 cult story?

On one hand - of course I want to see it.

On the other hand... it just sounds kind of lurid (i.e. - Peggy Brooks is swarmed by rats!!) And the character of cult leader Sumiko reads on paper like an awful Dragon Lady stereotype.

Ha, as a kid, I thought it was thrilling, but as I aged I found it sort of absurd. 

When Peggy was in the Rat House, she looked at her captors and said, "You'll never conquer ME!"  (In later years, my siblings and I would recite Peggy's line to one another while winning in Monopoly or Scrabble or tennis -- "You'll never conquer ME!" lol.)

That Asian lady -- Sumeko or whatever -- felt Paul was "sexually alive" and offered to "quench his sexual urges".  She looked him dead in the face and said, "Come to me, for I am your Spiritual Mother."  That line got quoted around my house a lot too.  If I needed my brother to come help me haul out the trash, I'd say, "Come to me, for I am your Spiritual Mother."   

The constant singing of "there's a New World coming and it's just around the bend, coming in peace, coming in joy, coming in love" was annoying as hell.  And it was practically a daily occurrence.   

Also, the show was very disjointed in 1980, which enabled a lot of bizarre crossovers.  The New World Kidz sold flowers to raise money for the commune.  That mean Paul and Nikki might be dispatched to the Allegro or Jonas's or whatever it was called at the time to sell flowers.  Mister Bell would have Nikki walk up to someone like Vanessa Prentiss and sell her a flower.  Meanwhile, Paul might be selling a flower to Lucas Prentiss or Derek Thurston or someone.  It just highlighted the show was comprised of various "pools" of characters who'd never even SEEN one another before.  

You don't wanna watch it

14 minutes ago, yrfan1983 said:

It is! There was a short-lived plot in '84-85 where Traci attempted her own singing career, so BM sang on the show quite a bit, but I think that story got dropped.

Yeah, Traci was singing solo at the Torchlight Club (I think it was called) which was owned by the blind husband of Mary Ingalls on "Little House on the Prairie".  

Lauren Fenmore & Shawn Garrett sabotaged her solo career by telling customers the show was cancelled, etc., confusing the nights she was performing, and so forth.  It was mainly a storyline about how low Lauren and Shawn would stoop to keep her from having a successful career. 

Seems like Ashley had watched Traci perform the night Brent Davis accosted Ashley in the garage.   

25 minutes ago, yrfan1983 said:

(Cricket did perform a god-awful choreographed dance during Danny's '90 concert, which highlighted LLB's lack of musicality)

After Cricket's awkward dance, Danny said, "Wow! I've never seen moves like that in my life!" 

(I don't think ANY of us had seen anything quite like that before, lol.)  

Sometimes when Lauren is singing with Gina & Traci, you start noticing how much "depth" Patty Weaver and Beth Maitland have in their voices, and how extensive their ranges are and Lauren is just kinda "there" for the ride.  

I agree with you, though -- she and Michael Damian sounded horrible on the Survivor cover.  Just awful.  

(Evidently, Lauralee Bell must sound like a frawg, or Daddy would've had her singing daily, lol.)   

22 minutes ago, yrfan1983 said:

Agreed… TEB sounds better on Alibis than MD!
I wonder if TEB ever took singing lessons after the show insisted she sing…

So there’s so many reasons why Traci might have been crying…

-    She’s in love with Danny and is jealous that Lauren is sharing this special experience with him

-    She’s professionally jealous of Lauren as Traci also wants to be a singer but feels she doesn’t measure up

-    She’s traumatized that Lauren just basically admitted to trying to manipulate Traci’s relationships, for unknown reasons

-    She’s still in love with Tim, and the lyrics to Alibis are flashing her back to when she walked in on Tim sleeping with another woman

This is the type of layered writing from Bill Bell that I love and makes YR so special!
 

I felt like it was *mainly* a combination of Tim's lies and deceptions (with his "alibis" always being "watertight"), her pregnancy by a man who was disloyal, her love for Danny who was always so helpful to her, and Lauren's inexplicable hatefulness.  But you make a great point -- it was likely even more than that.  

13 minutes ago, YRfan23 said:

I think Lauren’s worst vocals was when she and Danny sang a cover of Survivors “I can’t hold back” from that December 1984 episode.

That was horrific!  lol.  And when she "left" Paul and went to San Francisco with Shawn Garrett, she recorded a cover of Kenny Loggins' "Forever", which the show played a zillion times over a three week period, and it was plumb terrible too.  

3 hours ago, yrfan1983 said:

Question - why do you think Traci is crying as she watches Danny and Lauren's performance?

(and no, I don't mean b/c their singing makes Traci's ears hurt )

At first the answer seems simple, but the more I thought about it (while I was out exercising, my favorite time to ponder YR ), the answer seems more complex...

Probably crying because Lauren had actually IMPROVED some

I know Tracey Bregman isn't "trained" as a singer, and normally you could tell it, because her vocals sounded hollow and flat.  But she doesn't sound half-bad in this particular clip.  

22 minutes ago, kalbir said:

@Broderick Yes, that was Frank Benard. Another miniseries he was in was Bare Essence.

Thanks .... thought it was, although in the credits he was shown as "Francois Marie", or something equally French-like.  

27 minutes ago, kalbir said:

I always point out that Marc Mergeron was way too Dynasty, but I had totally forgotten that Frank Benard guest starred on Dynasty during its 3rd season. He also guest starred on Falcon Crest during its 5th season.

I believe he also played that lil French weenie in the 1980 CBS miniseries "Scruples" (based on the novel by Judith Krantz).  There was a little Frenchman who boinked the heroine, then found out she was poverty-stricken and dumped her.  The actor was clearly cast based on his debonair mumbling of "mon cheri" while shirtless.  Pretty sure it was the debut of Frank Benard.   

After seeing how Eileen Davidson's acting choices completely neutered Brian Forbes and Eric Garrison, Bell probably thought, "I'll pair her with a FRENCHMAN, and his suave accent will counteract some of her mannerisms."  Didn't work at all.  She overshadowed him, too.  Victor Newman and Jack Abbott were really the only males on the show who could keep up with her.  

As an American who enjoys history, I watched it all (of course).  The American media makes it difficult to watch, though, by always focusing on the "drama" of Harry and Meghan, which is of little interest to me and takes away from the significance of the event itself.  

Calling others who offer a different viewpoint "hateful, hateful people" or "bitter nobody's" (sic) typically doesn't enhance one's credibility or underscore one's mission to be helpful.  

Back about 1980, Liz was getting cold feet about marrying Stuart Brooks, because she thought the Brooks family was so high-falutin' and socially prominent. 

Lorie sat down with her and basically said, "Don't worry about not measuring up to my mother's *sterling reputation*, because she was FAR from perfect. In fact, she had an affair that resulted in my birth." But I don't recall she mentioned that Liz's brother Bruce was the co-adulterer, although he obviously was. 

That story didn't benefit anyone involved.  Nikki was like, "Josh is dead.  Oh well!", Victor puffed-up and said, "Being married to ME should give ANYONE the will to live," everyone was too self-involved to notice that the lunatic maid looked just like Miguel's fiancée, but with a mop on her head and some eyeglasses she won at the carnival.  

It was all pretty terrible.  

When Sarah/Veronica finally impaled herself on a pitchfork, everyone at my house said, "Put a fork in this mess.  It's done!"  lol.  

8 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

That changed over time as Kay softened. Her relationship with Nikki was part of that, as she never manipulated Nikki or made demands on her. In terms of longevity it was probably wise to make Katherine a more sympathetic character.

Beau Kayzer's pilot 'Hardcase' began filming March 31st 1980 so he must have been offscreen around that time, unless some arrangement was made to juggle both roles. Can anyone recall if Brock disappeared around that time?

 

I think previous to the Nikki storyline, Kay's vulnerability (or lack thereof) was more attributable to Jeanne Cooper's tics than to the writing.  

Brock seemed to be one of the few consistent characters during that weird "switch to the hour format".  I don't recall any long absences from him until he bailed-out for good in late summer or early fall of 1980.  Maybe he scaled-back to once or twice a week during the pilot filming, but I don't believe he disappeared from the show for an extended period.  

Venomous Viper Kay Chancellor Never Vacillates

Memphis Press-Scimitar

July 1978

"I need to be needed," is Kay Chancellor's favorite explanation on The Young and the Restless, after every cruel and thoughtless act.

Wealthy, self-pitying Kay, a widow with a weakness for the bottle and a powerful urge to get her way, is always a top contender for Witch of the Week. 

Self-centered Kay can give lessons in how to stomp on others without evoking a shred of remorse.  She's a remarkable character because she's so predictable.  Bad Kay will always surface, defeating Good Kay.  If Kay is ever witnessed considering others for a moment, viewers will know her career is finished. 

 Being so awful makes Kay a legend in the world of soap.  As played by Jeanne Cooper, Kay has been transformed into a weird and flamboyant character, a lady inhabiting another world.  

"I've made her bigger than life," Jeanne says, gesturing dramatically with her hands.  "I'm the weakest sister playing the strongest character, yet I've never won an award."

Told awards don't mean anything, Jeanne throws her arms up high and tosses her head in agreement.  She was brought in by creator and writer Bill Bell to bolster a sagging show -- to play the asp among the beautiful people. 

By this time Jeanne knows exactly what viewers want in Kay, and whenever she feels the widow turning the other cheek, she gets on the phone to Bell in Chicago.  "You're making me sympathetic, Bill," says Jeanne.  "We can't have Kay turning sweet for a second."  

Playing the grand, warped, melodramatic, rich, witch for so many years inevitably engenders illusions.  That's the way you play Kay Chancellor -- with a flair.  

"She's smarter than Snapper (a doctor), or Greg (a lawyer), or Brock (an attorney and Kay's son)," notes Jeanne.  "Smarter than anybody else in Genoa City, and richer and more misunderstood.  It's always that way with the elite, you know, and then comes the old chestnut, 'I need to be needed.'"  

It's only "valuable" if it's proven to be accurate.  (And no, SONY hasn't put any Y&R "out there"; in fact, old episodes of Y&R, uploaded by fans who have recordings, are frequently removed from internet channels due to "copyright infringement". )