Broderick

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.

Lauren & Mrs. Manning are both being terribly selfish and immature in their conversation. With Lauren, it's understandable, as she's just a self-absorbed 19 or 20 year-old girl. But Joanna -- Lord, she was just awful sometimes. She acts like Lauren should love her to death, even though she'd announced when she left Neil Fenmore that she wished she'd aborted Lauren.

Fen blew something (else) today -- his credibility. "I've seen videos of your concerts! Mom! You were seriously GOOD!" He must not have seen her Sergio Mendes numbers.

They probably couldn't afford Susan Seaforth-Hays for the day; they'd given too many lines to Fen's boyfriend. Killed the budget. lol.

Yes, there's a decent clip of Lauren and Joanna. It's centered around what made Lauren such a "mean girl" (abandoned by her mother, spoiled by her father).

Right I don't think anyone specifically "said" he was at the office; they just didn't mention him at all, until his "tragic death." But for those of us who occasionally wondered where he was, I believe we were to assume he was "at the office". Of course we assumed Carl Williams was "at the office" for 7 or 8 years, and lo and behold, he was presumed dead, had been adequately grieved by his loved ones, and was living in Norfolk. Probably. Bill Bell seemed to like the actor, but the Gina/Neil/Joanna storyline wasn't very riveting, and it was mainly about Lauren. Bell probably figured Neil Fenmore had outlived his usefulness and dropped him to recurring, with no offense to Jim Storm.

He got the Carl Williams treatment. Stopped appearing without an explanation. He was just "at the office".

After watching it, I thought it was a letdown. The selection of flashbacks seemed pretty obvious and didn't require much thought (although thankfully they weren't just hastily harvested off You Tube). Regarding Fen, I feel like the writers took a potentially thoughtful storyline that should be told with a young male legacy character (Noah Newman) and squandered it on a "lesser important" character who's rarely mentioned (Fen), had it occur entirely off-camera, advanced the boy right into a typical soap opera committed relationship with a random dayplayer we'll never see again, had everyone act all "woke" about it -- "so glad to finally meet you in person, Trey"; "I'd like to know all about the woman who raised the man I love", and now they can quietly ship Fen away until he's "cured". Ugh.