Broderick

Yeah, Nikki and Jill were distinctly different from each other, though they were both "wrong-side-of-the-tracks" types who rose above their circumstances. Jill was constantly plotting with more of a concrete game plan -- get herself a rich husband & a plush life where she isn't required to be a manicurist or a pedicurist. Nikki was in more of a celebrity-seeking dream world, where she wanted public acclamation and applause, whether it came from modeling lingerie, being the star attraction in a seedy strip club, or appearing in perfume ads. She wanted to be a celebrity. That was her little goal.

Under Bell's pen, she seemed to take a few steps forward, and then a few steps back. We watched her stumble stupidly through the "Hot Hips" porno tape escapade, the marriage to gangster Tony DiSalvo, the Rick Daros fiasco, and then she finally married Victor and seemed to gain a small modicum of credibility as a smart young housewife. Then she runs off half-cocked, looking for Cora Miller -- the LAST person Victor ever wanted to see again in his life -- because it never occurred to her that was a bad idea. Another step backwards. It ultimately worked out okay, though, because it united Victor with his mother, the two of them reached a painful understanding, and Nikki finally appeared to have walking-about sense after all. But six months later, she's attempting to strip to raise money at the charity gala, and then she's shacked-up with Terry Lester's Jack in an apartment while she's still married to Victor, then she's "dying" and dragging a casket into the living room of the ranch, telling horror stories about the Wicked Witch to her young daughter --- there was just such an innate DUMBNESS about her, and it was hard to dislike her even when she was at her worst. I guess it was Peter Bergman and the alcoholic pill-popping that matured her the most. (Even then, though, the crux of her problem was supposedly "back pain", but it never crossed her mind to take off those eight-inch tall, high-heeled stilettos to relieve her back pain instead of gulping vodka and popping pain pills, lol.)

Yes, during Erica's tenure -- now I'm speaking as a viewer who was a sweaty-palmed teenage boy -- there was a certain EXCITEMENT in seeing who Nikki would sleep with next, or what disease she might give him. But you could easily tell there was no sustainability in a character like that. With Melody, we watched her hatch a scheme to model PANTIES for Rose Deville and Vince Holliday, because she genuinely thought that was the ideal stepping-stone to become a renowned model. And it was CUTE, because she just seemed so DUMB and so misguided, but so genuine. And poor Greg had no real knowledge that she was signing-up specifically to model lingerie and panties. So she took the cash advance from LaPleu Belle Rose, couldn't repay it, and now she's supposed to start hooking, and she was like, "Uh-oh!" And it was CUTE. Then we watched her wander into a cult that she thought was a "sweet commune", because that's how dumb she and Paul were. Again, it was CUTE. No, it wasn't a good storyline, but it was a natural and realistic progression for those two dead-beat, naïve, not-so-industrious characters. A year or so later, we had her STRIPPING, because that got her some applause. Perfectly fitting for her character. She hadn't learned a damn thing from the "modeling". Then we had Nikki pregnant and lying to Kevin and lying to Victor, and Kay Chancellor was rolling her eyes, waving her jeweled talons in the air, and saying, "Dear Sweet God, Nikki, of all the impulsive, foolish schemes that you have hatched -- and my dear girl, you have hatched your share and THEN some -- but this is one of your dumbest yet," and it all just really CLICKED for the Nikki character. She was a dimwit, and it worked for her.

No offense to Miss Hope, but LORD, I can easily imagine that happened. Erica Hope came across as awfully "low-rent". And there wasn't any warmth or humor in the portrayal. It was just -- well, it was something, lol. Melody was completely different. The character was still a slut, but there was a DIM-WITTED INNOCENCE in Melody's portrayal that we hadn't seen in Erica's. And it worked wonders for making the character's motivations seem less abrasive and grotesque.

I think Nikki just slowly evolved into someone worth keeping. As mentioned earlier, the emphasis (at first) seemed to be on Casey, and Nikki was almost an afterthought -- Patty Minter's lazy sidekick at the Allegro. Erica Hope played Nikki as trashy and slutty, without much depth (which is the way the part was written). When it became evident that Erica Hope wasn't working out -- and I was never sure what happened backstage, but I sorta suspected she was coming to the studio unprepared and hungover, lol -- the recast started things moving in a more long-term direction. Melody Thomas brought a certain "scatter-brained stupidity" to the character that made her sluttiness FUNNY and sort of ENDEARING, instead of just provocative. She still wasn't anything to write home about, until she crossed paths with Victor and Kay. The depth and maturity of Eric Braeden and Jeanne Cooper really HIGHLIGHTED the immaturity, impulsiveness, and air-headed characteristics of Nikki, and that's when I believe she broke-out of the "sidekick" role and truly became an ingenue in her own right.

lol, I guess it's a matter of opinion what's the "A-story", the "B-story", and the "C-story", but in Bill Bell's case, the dialogue and the music cues typically showed you what he felt most invested in. And he clearly LOVED anything involving Lorie and Lance, which is why I consider that his "A-story". The "B-stories" at that time were probably the doomed marriage of Jill and Stuart, the gaslighting of Kay Thurston by Suzanne Lynch, and Chris Brooks getting caught up with Sharon & Julie (or whatever their names were) -- that evolved into the "White Slavery" storyline where Brock and Snapper had to save Chris from Rose Deville's backroom at Second Hand Rose's Antiques & Pretty Things. The whole storyline with Nick and Nikki played-out on random, non-consecutive days almost as an afterthought (which is why I called it a "C-story").

Will, in the scene you're speaking of, I believe that Stuart Brooks was deliberately downplaying his wealth and social prominence (as was his nature pretty consistently throughout his run from 1973-1983.) A few pages back, someone posted an outline from late March 1973 that Bill Bell had typed for Kay Lenard (one of his early script writers) to utilize in crafting dialogue. One of Bell's reminders in the outline to Kay Lenard was, "Forget about the Brooks' money and affluence; they should emerge in this episode as pretty identifiable people." We see the same thing in an earlier episode written entirely by Bill Bell (I believe it's Episode 2) where Jennifer Brooks, in her pearls, is tearing lettuce for the salad while her roast is in the oven; they all sit down and eat in the kitchen, and the younger two daughters tease each other about dessert. (Chris is on a diet.) While they eat, they speak matter-of-factly about Lorie studying in Paris, as though they believe every family in America sends their kids to Europe to college. (This is juxtaposed with Jill and Snapper in the dowdy Foster living room, where Snapper is sort of lecturing Jill about skipping work with menstrual cramps, because they need the money.) What Bell seemed to be striving for here with the Brooks is a family that NEVER has to worry about money, never even THINKS about money, but have no social pretensions whatsoever. And I believe Bell was doing that deliberately to set the stage for Lorie to breeze in a few months later with a snotty, entitled attitude that wasn't present in any of the other girls. He was also setting-up Jennifer as a somewhat bored, vain housewife who had no qualms about sleeping around.

Right, Leslie owned the Allegro, but I don't recall her ever consistently being a hands-on manager. Janice Lynde's Leslie was such an *introverted* person that it wouldn't have made much sense for her to pass out menus, serve drinks, and chit-chat with customers. But it did make sense for her to sing a Broadway showtune in the Allegro, receive a round of applause, and then duck away behind the potted plants. Brock was the type of person who needed to be in the Allegro on a daily basis, and Bill Bell seemed to realize that fairly quickly. That's really where your 1970s "unity" arose. Brock could stand at the bar and counsel Chris about the Beckers in the prologue, then give Jack or Joanne Curtis a pep-talk in Act II, and then encourage Kay to forgive Jill for some wrongdoing in Act III -- all in the same set. The central characters in each separate storyline could stay in their own individual orbits, never crossing paths or even seeing one another, but Brock could speak with any or all of them at the bar or at a table, and it seemed completely natural and organic. Those interactions didn't happen as often once Jonas was running the place, because Jonas lacked the history with the other characters (and the knowledge of their predicaments) that Brock had possessed, by virtue of Brock being Kay's son, friends with all of the Foster kids, and friends with all of the Brooks girls.

Seems like it was SALLY who sold Pierre's to Leslie Brooks, but it might've been Marianne Roulland. The reason I'm thinking it was Sally was that Sally and Brad Eliot were friends. (Brad and Sally both had rooms above Pierre's for a while.) It was Brad who talked Leslie into buying it. The rationale was that Leslie could perform in Pierre's without having to travel to Chicago or Detroit and book a venue. Leslie named it the Allegro. Brock was sort of the "pivotal character" who knew everyone on the show. Got a problem? -- Go talk to Brock. Bill Bell seemed to like the idea of having Brock in the Allegro where he could routinely consult with Snapper, Greg, Jill, all four of the Brooks girls, Kay, and random runaway teenagers without ever having to leave the counter. He could also belt-out a song when the show was running short. Then of course it went to Jonas after Brock left the show, but Jonas couldn't exactly offer spiritual advice and pepper everyone with 20 questions the way Brock did. After Jonas left, Gina bought the club, of course, with some financing from Jack Abbott, and she continued Brock's tradition of nosing into everyone's business while seating them. My recollection is that Gina said, after the burn-down, "Too many memories here. Time to start over. Time to move on." The REAL behind-the-scenes motivation behind the switch from Gina's to the Athletic Club seemed to be the SALAD BAR. At some point circa 2002, the set decorators decided to place a gigantic, oversized SALAD BAR in the middle of the floor in Gina's. They made a big production of having all the characters discuss how WONDERFUL the salad bar was. But of course the problem was inevitable -- the salad bar was in the middle of the room, and there was no way in the world to move the cameras around the damn salad bar. I've never been able to understand how such a critical set-design mistake could be made by seasoned professionals. But the salad bar made all the camera angles impossible to achieve. It would've been absurd to ditch the salad bar immediately, after writing pages of dialogue about how wonderful the salad bar was. Instead, the directors and camera guys had to work around the salad bar, which you could tell was a nightmare for everyone involved. About that time, the place went up in smoke -- salad bar and all. If it hadn't been for the salad bar, we'd have likely never laid eyes on the Genoa City Athletic Club.

I'm not sure that he was even there for the handing over of the restaurant. Memory's bad, but it sorta seems that most of the changeover was assigned to Stuart Brooks and Leslie. "Now that Jonas is gone, I'm not sure what I'll do with the club." "Why don't you sell it, honey?" "Would you handle it for me, Dad?" Maybe Jonas had a big tearful good-bye, but it wasn't very memorable if he did. Some of the Wes Kenney rejects got GRAND GOOD-BYES, like Cash with the champagne glass in the hospital bed. Others got the bum's rush out the door, like the Stevens family. "Mom, Dad, I'm a zillionaire, and I'm moving to New York in five minutes. Why don't you guys come too? Oh, and let's invite April. Be sure to tell her we're leaving four minutes from now." (Looking back at the late 1981/early 1982 synopses for clarity, it looks as though Jonas's primary role was "life coach" for that wretched Karen Richards, during his final few weeks on the show. This was occurring during the equally-wretched Lorie Overacts All Her Scenes About Vanessa's Death storyline. Sometime during all that dragged-out mess, Jonas left town with Sebastian Crowne, and as y'all pointed-out above, Leslie told Lucas to run the club for a while, which put Lucas (sadly) in the sights of Karen Richards, as most of her scenes were set in the Allegro. Then of course Jill inherited Karen for a spell.)

Seems like it. He was all up in the middle of that story. (And that's about ALL they could find for him to do at the time.) I believe the WGA writers strike might've hastened his exit. Most of that stalker mess occurred during the strike, which caused everything to be dragged-out pretty agonizingly.

Never got a last name, and I honestly don't know where he went. He was around for PART of that "stalker storyline". In one episode, there was a split-screen showing Jonas, Andy Richards, Cash, and someone else (Greg Foster, maybe?) and we were supposed to sit there wondering, "Which one of them is Nikki's stalker??" Of course it turned out to be NONE of em, and Jonas vanished into thin air soon afterwards, like Bogey & Bacall sailing away to Key Largo.

Ha! It definitely seemed like 3-5 years, after all that foolishness with Sebastian Crowne and the Orphans of San Leandro! And then to make matters worse, Jonas fell through a time doorway and landed in the Allegro. None of it made much sense, and it ended with a complete fizzle. I didn't even realize Jonas was gone till Gina was buying his (latest) club. Gotta hand it to Gina -- at least she was a character who sort of made sense, unlike Jonas. Guess Jonas went on back to Casablanca, or wherever he'd come from.

It really seemed that way. A Chronicle arrived with a headline about Leslie's disappearance, but Jonas's concubine (Gloria, or whatever her name was) threw it out without reading it. And Leslie managed to get there with no identification or money. Those two things seemed to indicate it was "two towns over". But when Lorie, Lucas, and Stuart "discovered" Leslie and started making trips to visit her to check on her condition, they acted like she was WAY off somewhere in never, neverland.

Sometimes he seemed to take a rather "fluid" approach to time and space. He'd have Lorie and Lance eating lunch, and a few scenes later it would be dark and they'd still be lingering over their food, then dancing the night away and entertaining the crowd with an impromptu midnight concert, indicating their lunch had turned into dinner without them ever taking a break from the table. And I never figured out where the hell Jonas and "Pris" were supposed to be. In some scenes, they appeared to be on the outskirts of Genoa City, receiving the Chronicle with pleas about Leslie's whereabouts ("Have you seen this woman??"), and in other scenes they seemed to be a million miles away somewhere, and Lucas would have to board the Prentiss jet to visit Jonas's club.

I believe you'll discover Nikki's killing of Nick Reed is handled in an especially disjointed fashion. My recollection is that she killed him on some random day -- a Thursday, I think -- and the episode concluded with Nikki standing horrified that he was dead. The following day's episode didn't address the storyline AT ALL. There may have been one more "reprieve day" as well, such as a Friday and Monday. Then the next Tuesday or whatever picked right back up with the aftermath of Nick's death. I remember being awfully confused as a kid as to whether I'd missed a scene or an episode, I called one of my friends, asked him "Have you seen Nikki or Casey since the daddy got hit with the lamp?", and he said, "Nope! I don't believe they've been on a single time since then." It was strange. (But it was the C-level storyline, and Bell was only addressing it when he didn't have something important going on with Lorie/Lance/Lucas/Leslie). Thanks to the poster who added the script from "Young and Restless Years", along with the awkward line of dialogue, "How awful being stuck in Genoa City during our young and restless years." I'm sure the girl playing Sally McGuire was relieved the line was changed before taping, lol.

I never really thought Drucilla was intended to be Amy's sister, but I *did* believe that Amy Lewis was intended to be the young upwardly mobile character in a triangle with Nathan and the street-wise Dru. When Stephanie E. Williams opted to sign a contract with "General Hospital", it seemed that Olivia was created fairly quickly as the Dru rival. Which worked out fine, of course.

These were fun to re-watch. I enjoyed seeing KT Stevens again, and Lorie's okay when she's not overemphasizing her words and making such long, grandiose dramatic pauses.

Oh yeah, Nina Arvesen was aloof & elusive enough to be Ashley Abbott, no doubt about it. Always thought Lauren Koslow would make a good Jill.

In 1988 (?), Y&R hired Brenda Epperson to play Ashley Abbott immediately following the departure of Eileen Davidson. At almost the same time, Jabot's books were being audited by George Rawlins's bossy, assertive, sarcastic niece Brittany Norman, played by Melissa Morgan. Although Brenda Epperson LOOKED like Ashley, Melissa Morgan was imbued with more of Ashley's personality. At the time, I felt that those two actresses should've swapped roles.

You know, the original setup was a complete knock-off of Tennessee Williams's play from the 1950s, "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof". Jock & Miss Ellie were mirror images of Big Daddy and Big Mama; JR and Sue Ellen were Gooper & Mae; Bobby and Pam represented Brick & Maggie of course; and Lucy was the no-neck monster. I remember seeing the first episode of "Dallas" when I was a little kid, and thinking that Tennessee Williams should have litigated. But I reckon he was just glad to see someone so anxious to copy him. There's a novel by Lee Raintree that was published in conjunction with the airing of the 5-episode miniseries that gives a long, detailed history of the Jock, Digger, and Miss Ellie triangle, as well as the boyhoods of JR, Gary, and Bobby. The novel was based off the original script outlines for the miniseries, not necessarily what aired on television. It's really a pretty decent read, if you're interested in Southworth and Ewing history. The novel captures what David Jacobs originally conceived for the series, some of which was subsequently altered for television.

Good! I've been afraid it would be someone completely predictable and yawnish. Sharon, for instance. lol.

Yeah, Terry Lester was given a "mellow storyline" with the Ellen Winters character and the "shelter" to "redeem him" after he boinked Jill & caused his father to have a heart attack. But it was a brief interlude, and Terry Lester shrugged it off. With the Saigon Shack storyline, Peter Bergman was expected to simply wallow in "mellowness" for months & months. He clearly resented it. I don't think he ever indicated a racial component was factored in, just felt it was an out-of-character sappy mess that, at the time, seemed unending. His subsequent comments about disliking the story evidently led the writers to avoid revisiting it. Probably time to re-address it now, but hopefully without all the sappiness that plagued it the first time.

Same here. I can understand why Peter Bergman disliked the original storyline (it was sappy as hell, and the actor who played Keemo was practically as old as Peter Bergman). But there's certainly still an opportunity to revisit the mess and pull out some grandchildren or in-laws or someone who could shake things up a lil bit.

Y&R was "first", although the stories were vastly different. By 1975, Phillip Chancellor was dead, and Kay Chancellor and Jill Foster each blamed the other for his death. Raven appeared in 1976. Geraldine never hated her, though. Geraldine was often OUTDONE with Raven, due to Raven's immature antics.