Broderick

If Jack Smith wanted to alter the dynamics of Jill Foster & Kay Chancellor, there are so many things he could've done other than making them mother and daughter ... Kay could've suffered a stroke (not from a "maternity reveal", but from her years of drinking and smoking), and Jill could've reluctantly become her primary caregiver. To reward Jill for helping her, Kay could've reached the realization that Jill was the obvious person to run Chancellor Industries and offered her the job. Jill could've done some impressive work, and then pissed Kay off either by a bad business decision or personal decision. Kay could've become furious with Jill, but still respected her for helping during her stroke and for doing a successful job at Chancellor. There was so much history that went into their relationship -- WITHOUT them being biologically related -- and their dynamics could've constantly shifted. Jack Smith went for shock value, and it intrinsically ruined the entire canvas.

I'm not much of a list-maker, but for the first 10 years of Y&R's existence, the characters who really "defined" the show and propelled it from the lower tier and into the top three, were Lorie and Snapper. And when those two characters were written-out, Bill Bell completely reimagined his show, so great was the void left by their departure. They were his "little pets". Do Lorie and Snapper have a lasting impact now? Probably not -- except they're the characters who helped build the show's base, and their departures led to the creation of the show most newer viewers are familiar with.

Absolutely true about the "unique identities". The two shows that I routinely followed in the late 1970s -- "The Young and the Restless" and "The Edge of Night" -- had absolutely nothing in common, story-wise. One was a dark, moody, sensual show about family relationships and sexuality. The other was a rapid-fire detective show about lawyers, cops, red herrings, and hidden clues. The only thing they had in common was that they each provided 30-minutes of new content each afternoon. Perceptive writers should've seen that the sci-fi/camp material would burn-out quickly and erode the audience. But somehow they didn't see that, being more focused on the short-term success of General Hospital and the Ice Princess than on the long-term success of the genre as a whole.

I believe viewers will always debate exactly what "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" was. lol. It was most definitely satire, but it was a serialized story built around comedy. It was a pretty bold endeavor, and had it been more successful, I expect it would've been attempted in daytime. But one can see from the reruns how demanding it was to produce thirty minutes of comedy that frequently. The experiment seemed to show daytime writers that comedy within a soap was effective, if it could spring naturally from the characters or from the situation they were in, without the "forcefulness" of "Mary Hartman".

Those variations were attempted. The Edge of Night very successfully mastered the "legal/crime/who done it" for decades (from 1956 till 1984), and I believe an NBC soap ("Somerset") used the same formula in the middle 1970s, utilizing Edge of Night's head writer. In 1976, a late-night, syndicated soap attempted the comedy route ("Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"), with limited success. (The strain of writing comedy daily and perfecting it in the performances are pretty evident if you happen to catch a rerun of the show.) A once-per-week ABC primetime soap (called "Soap") used the comedy formula with much greater success (from 1977 to 1980), as the once-per-week schedule allowed them far more time to perfect the writing and the delivery of each episode.

I'd say the "lack of ironclad rules", the creativity, and the willingness to "push the envelope" made the 1970s a golden period for the unpredictability of the genre, really encouraging more and more people to watch. By the early 1980s, the pop culture aspect was fully evident. As for the decline, it began (for my generation) with the advent of MTV in 1981. In the very early years of MTV, a lot of homes still didn't have cable or dish TV, so MTV wasn't as much of a diversion. Also, MTV was more "niche" in its early years, playing mostly rock and metal, with very little dance music or rhythm & blues. By about 1983-1985, with the increasing popularity of Prince and Michael Jackson, MTV had to change their programming in order to maintain any sort of relevance. MTV gradually evolved into a channel resembling the type of music we were all listening to on the radio, and "dorm viewership" (for lack of a better term) of MTV began increasing among adolescents at a surprising rate, meaning that soap viewership in dorms began declining in a corresponding manner. With the "discovery" of MTV among my generation, there was also an increase in viewership of the two cable "pioneer superstations" -- TBS out of Atlanta and WGN out of Chicagoland. Not to mention ESPN and CNN Headline News. By about 1987, I really noticed much more time was being spent on MTV, TBS, WGN, ESPN, and CNN than on the three traditional networks, at least among my own friends. I believe the Iran Contra scandal in 1987 -- which preempted the soaps (for days or weeks) -- definitely exacerbated the trend away from network viewership during daytime hours among Generation X viewers. The generation older than mine (Boomers) likely still watched the three networks in greater numbers than my own generation (Gen X), and the OJ preemptions were kind of the "last straw" for them, leading them to embrace cable in the manner my own generation had done a decade earlier.

It was a different time. Soaps were more mainstream. Most Americans tended to watch TV when they congregated in a house, or when they were home alone. There were pretty much 3 networks to choose from. If a kid -- or a group of kids -- sat down in the living room during the daytime on summer break, Christmas break, or spring break, your viewing choice was a soap opera, a soap opera, or a soap opera. lol. As a result, they became an integral part of the 1970s/1980s American culture. Some people hated them, some people were connoisseurs of them, and others (probably the majority) had a passing knowledge of them in a casual manner. You might not know who Laura Webber's parents were, or why Amy Vining lived in the house with them, but you probably knew that Luke had raped Laura in a disco, and now they were on some exciting adventure. You might not know exactly why Mrs. Chancellor hated Jill so much, but you knew that if they crossed paths, it was going to be messy. You could turn on the radio in the early 1980s (or go to a dance), and a song would play called "General Hospi-tale" about the storylines on General Hospital. That's just how mainstream the entire experience was. Most of us who were alive then probably thought the cultural significance of soaps would continue far into the future. That wasn't the case.

Even though I'd seen her as Diana on the show, I could've easily bought her as a New Betsy.

This promo highlights exactly why they need new material.

I think he's a horrible excuse for Billy. Not saying he's a bad actor -- he's good -- but he ain't Billy. In my opinion, the Billy character is due for a rest. A lot of folks don't like a certain actor with a cheshire cat grin who once played Billy, I believe but he embodied the character as an adult better than anyone else has.

😂 Sometimes he does better than others. But you can always count on some platitude like, "E. Cavalier from Eugene, Oregon says, 'Thank you for coming into my house every day for the past 40 years. You're like a part of my family.' Wow! I love that! That says SO MUCH! I really love that."

They touched on some interesting things -- Wes Kenney's arrival in her driveway to pursue her for the "summertime role of Lauren", although she was really auditioning for Patty Williams which she didn't get, and Bill Bell creating Lauren since she didn't get Patty (and all of that was fairly confusing, but Locher didn't ask for any clarification at all), bringing the baby to work and Jeanne Cooper giving him the bottle, the rabid fans of Cane & Lily, her 40-year friendship with Beth Maitland. But there were a million things that might've been interesting that weren't asked -- Jim Storm, Colleen Casey, Steven Ford, and Jon St. Elwood, to name a few ... Instead, we got that long harangue about "pot roast makes cracklings, and cracklings are used in candy -- isn't that right?" while poor Alan just sat there blinking his eyes with his customary dunce-like expression on his bewildered face.

He was too busy saying, "I love that. Wow. I love that", which is what he's recently substituted for, "Crazy. Wow. That's crazy."

The Williams family kinda "morphed" into the Detective Agency Family. In one of his reviews during the 1980s, John Kelly Genovese remarked (wisely) that Y&R had basically three structural components -- the Jabot/Abbott storyline, the Victor/Nikki/Kevin/Kay storyline, and the Young Detectives storyline (which was comprised of Paul, Andy, Amy, Jazz, and Kong). Paul Williams still had parents of course, and he still had a sister until about 1984, but his storyline was most often centered around his "work crew" with Andy, Amy, Jazz, Tyrone, and Nathan.

Guess Doug Davidson got tied-up in traffic that day. lol.

The most *awful* example of this I remember was circa 1975. Brock Reynolds was working at the Allegro. He hopped up from his table to entertain the crowd with a pop song. But after the first few notes, he whispered to the pianist to play a hymn instead. The pianist launched into "I Know Jesus is My Redeemer" or something, and Brock belted it out with absolute sincerity, accompanied by mood lighting, bell bottoms, an open-neck shirt, and a gold chain. When the hymn was complete, the diners rose in unison and gave Brock a resounding ovation, clapping like it was the final performance of Luciano Pavarotti. Based on the reaction of the crowd, Brock decided he should become a full-time evangelist and gospel performer. "I just felt the Power of the Holy Spirit in an incredible way. It was a really heavy moment," Brock sincerely explained to us. I was sitting there wondering, Where is Mister Bell going with THIS?! About that time, Lorie Brooks came slinking in, without a bra on, having just been dumped by Mark Henderson, and asked Brock to pork her please. Naturally, he couldn't oblige, as the Holy Spirit had just laid something really heavy on him. Then it became clear -- in Bill Bell's world, Lorie needed to be rejected TWICE -- first by Mark Henderson, and then by Brock Reynolds. The whole *musical interlude* was a device to get Brock on a "spiritual plane" so that he would reject Lorie's breathless sighs and jiggling headlights. That was Bill Bell for you!

I've always wondered -- was that guy Ken supposed to be "cool"? He always came across as so DORKY, even in the 1980s. "Super HOT, guys! Really HOT, Danny. Sounding GREAT, Lauren. Wow! HOT!" Clearly, he was zonked out of his head on drugs, but still ...

Lauren's facial expression during the announcement was pretty muted -- possibly from Botox. Michael seemed to know all about Trey, though, and had been looking forward to meeting him. Looked as though they hadn't shared the news with Gloria.

Someone wrote on Doug Davidson's Twitter account -- "You're an interval part of the show!!" I guess they meant "integral", but they accidently got the correct word exactly right. lol.

I always figured it was swollen adenoids that she eventually got fixed.

As cheesy as the music video is, just think how it'd look if they shot it in 2023. They'd have to film it in the empty lobby of the Grimy Phallus, and the preview screening would be in Crimson Lights. The director would be mute, so they wouldn't have to pay him for speaking.

I felt like not mentioning her relationship with Brad Carlton was a pretty serious oversight (especially since they highlighted her taking control of her daddy's stores after his death).

Unless it's the always present Budget Crisis, I'm not sure why Mrs. Manning didn't pop in. Gloria was there, so instant dramatic possibilities would have ensued. Fen quietly "turned gay" off-screen, without a shred of conflict, so we'll probably never see him again.

I got the impression Lauren & Michael knew all about Fen's beau, but simply hadn't met him in person yet, just by phone. Didn't Michael say something like, "Trey! We're so happy to finally meet you in person!"

"Can you feel me tremble when we touch? Screech --- squawk!" Fen missed that one, obviously, when he was filing his glowing report about her performances.