Broderick

Hopefully one day we'll have the opportunity to review these early Jabot scenes with today's knowledge, and we'll be able to understand exactly what was occurring behind the scenes. My own suspicion is that three things were in play (1) pilot season, (2) the casting of Jack, and (3) Bond's contract status. Back in the 1980s, spring was always identified as "pilot season", and actors were often missing from their roles in the spring because they were auditioning for various nighttime pilots. I believe Brett Halsey was always the designated choice for John Abbott, but he likely had a pilot for a nighttime series (or possibly a movie-of-the-week) on the horizon that was hampering his ability to work on daytime consistently until later in the summer. Just my guess. All kids my age were familiar with Terry Lester from a live-action science-fiction series called "Ark II". He was a younger actor who was somewhat "in demand" in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Yes, he'd allegedly auditioned for Snapper Foster, but he did have a certain popularity factor, and it might have taken some special concessions to get him to sign-on as John Junior. I expect he had some other options besides Y&R, as well. Bond Gideon had likely signed a very short-term contract when she initially took over from Miss Dickson -- 3 months or 13-weeks or something. This would've meant that her deal was expiring in May or June of 1980, and it was probably renegotiation time for her long-term contract. If Bell & Conboy wanted to dump her, this was their chance. If they wanted to keep her, this was Bond Gideon's opportunity to make them ante-up a bigger salary. Evidently, her agent overstepped her popularity (called her "Q-factor" in those days) and as a result she was out the door, with Deborah Adair coming quickly as her replacement. (As y'all could tell from the clips that surfaced a while back, Bond Gideon was a pretty girl, a capable actress, and she seemed to have a fairly good command of the Jill character.) There's always been a theory that she was miscast and then "Shattucked" because of her unpopularity; after watching her clips, I find that doubtful. All of this is just conjecture, but Bell appeared to know where he was going with this particular storyline. He started dropping hints early on about the good-for-nothing, playboy son, the wife who'd abandoned the family years ago, the two daughters (one in boarding school, the other in college), the beloved housekeeper -- all of these things that didn't come to fruition fully until two years down the road. There were very few missteps here on Bill Bell's part, unlike other storylines which seemed to misfire like crazy (Sebastian Crowne & the orphans, the Stevens family who could hop on a plane and disappear from the canvas in a single episode, Kay Chancellor vanishing into thin air for endless months with no explanation at all between her rescue from Felipe's island and her liaison with Jerry Cashman the male escort, Todd Williams the much-discussed young seminarian who never appeared on-screen, Suzanne Lynch who took a job in the Chancellor Industries cafeteria and was never seen or heard from again, Douglas Austin who was a petty thief breaking into a safe in one episode and Victor Newman's dear friend from the mysterious war in the next episode, and so forth and so on). I believe the Jabot storyline was the ONE thing Bell seemed sure about; it just took a couple of months of actor-shuffling to get it rolling by late summer of 1980.

I'm pretty sure it was Brett Halsey, lol. You could tell from Scene One that this "Jabot plot" was going to be Jill's next big storyline, and John Abbott was slated to play a crucial role in it. They pulled out all the stops -- shiny new sets, professionally-designed Jabot logo, an expensive suit from Giorgio's of Beverly Hills for the CEO, the whole she-bang. And remember, this scene came only a few months after Jill divorced Stuart Brooks, so the foreshadowing with the Older Man was pretty obvious. Jill had been working at some lower-income hair salon called "Bob's Beauty Bar" (or something like that), and she hated it. She'd whined about it several times. Steve Williams kept telling her she could do better. Finally, she decided that she'd apply for the job at Jabot. She marched into the new Jabot set (without even a commercial break to mark the time sequence between her resolution and her action) and talked John Abbott into interviewing her, though he specified to her that normally hiring was done by the HR department. She was underqualified for the job, but sold herself well, and he hired her on a trial basis. The scene was a "big deal", and you could tell it was moving toward a specific purpose. It was several weeks later that John became impressed enough with her to say, "I'd like for you to speak with John Junior -- we've always called him Jack -- and help him get his head on straight." Initially it was all about her relationship with John Senior. As for who played John in that initial interview scene -- I remember it as being Halsey. But then again, I was a young teenager, and John Abbott was a 50-year old man, and all 50 year old men tend to look the same to a young kid. The only time I recall laying eyes on Sean Garrison is in the You Tube clip posted by Bond Gideon's real-life husband. But memories from 40+ years ago can be deceiving, I guess. In hindsight, there was a lot of stopping and starting with this particular storyline (much like in the beginning of the Derek Thurston storyline in 1976), but by the time we started seeing Terry Lester, Deborah Adair and Brett Halsey on a regular basis in the fall of 1980, it seemed as though Jabot had existed on the show for a long time, and it seemed as though Jill had been interacting with Abbott Senior and Abbott Junior for eons. The whole show was rather topsy-turvy in 1980 as ya'll know, but the Jabot aspect of it always seemed fairly smooth, self-confident, sophisticated, and Bell-like, while many other aspects of the show in 1980 seemed cobbled together more haphazardly.

I wonder about all of that, too. It appeared the same treatment had been given to Kristoff St. John, Christian LeBlanc, Kate Linder and Doug Davidson, all at the same time. Kristoff, of course, passed away soon after. Doug Davidson began airing his grievances publicly, and soon after he spoke out, he was listed as recurring, rather than contract. (Before he opened his mouth, he was listed as contract.) Then his appearances plummeted, and he hasn't been seen at all since back in late 2020. LeBlanc and Linder have remained quiet about their deals, and are still listed as contract, though their appearances are minimal. (LeBlanc is actually on the other side of the country, doing "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in New York currently.)

Maybe Nicholas? The whole thing is kind of a blur to me, as there weren't any real "surprises" in it. The Gary Dawson character was pretty quiet and assuming, and Victoria was at her LOUDEST and most STRIDENT then. I'd kind of hoped that Gary wouldn't turn out to be the stalker, that he and Victoria would develop a relationship, and he'd teach her to be a little quieter and less bossy. But nope, he was the stalker. When the duct tape came out, that was the highlight of the storyline, lol.

I remember Gary putting some duct tape over her loud, screeching mouth (a much appreciated gesture!), but I don't recall him raping her.

I know the show is still pretending that Christian LeBlanc and Kate Linder are on contract, but I'm guessing they're not. They look awfully recurring.

Yes, and go another step -- look at how they handled David Tom's Billy Abbott a few years later, and they were still pumping stories at his less those less-than-charismatic replacements that came between David Tom and Billy Miller. They were just determined to make Billy a central character. Nate -- nothing at all. Devon -- very little after that initial storyline of foster care (which I believe was actually proposed to the writers by Victoria Rowell).

Yeah, and to my knowledge that's not "expensive" directing, or "time-consuming" directing -- it's just creativity, preparation on the director's part, and then execution of what you'd thought of and planned. We've all seen low-budget films and TV shows that are well-directed and some that are poorly directed. Lately, Y&R has fallen into the second category.

Perhaps I'm blaming the wrong people. But I believe a lot of the problem is LAZINESS on the part of today's directors. Even with a much shorter shooting day, the director still receives his/her script several days in advance and has ample time to mentally block the scenes and visualize which shots can be used to make each scene more effective and dramatic. When you get to the studio, it's just a matter of quickly executing what you'd planned in advance for the scenes. No, the cameras themselves probably can't move as much today as they did in the 1980s, (due to the time constraints) but there are STILL three cameras, and the director should already have a clear idea of the episode's look and feel before he/she ever shows up at the studio, and which of the three cameras will be used to capture each shot in the final print. I'm sure we all share a common view of today's absent (or subpar) music choices.

Liz's whole world was falling apart -- Jill giving her a fright wig to wear, the grotesque Wings Hauser suddenly popping up as her son, Maestro Faustch shoving strudel down her throat, and her vodka-swilling, cigarette-smoking, 49-year-old gal-pal trying to get pregnant. 😆 Nonetheless, it's wonderful to read these old summaries. Thanks so much, French Fan!

And they're standing in front of one of the best backdrops on daytime TV (in my opinion).

I would've asked those questions, too. She also mentioned that she's "always nervous that I'll mess it up". Alan Locher responded, "Wow that's crazy" (or something along those lines). He seemed to find it difficult to believe that she might "mess it up", since she'd learned her lines. Obviously, she wasn't worried about forgetting her lines, but rather about how she might potentially stray in her acting choices. This could've turned into a fairly in-depth look into her craft, but he just brushed it aside with no real interest in her response.

She's spoken about Brenda before. If I remember right, she met Brenda at some type of "celebrity waiter" event, and recommended that Brenda audition for the role, as she'd already told Bill Bell that she was leaving in late 1988. Alan Locher is a babbling fool. I'm sure somewhere out there, a WORSE interviewer exists, but I've never actually seen a poorer one before. 🤣 If the nitwit planned to ask about Eileen's co-stars (Michael Tylo, lol), why on earth didn't he ask about Don Diamont? That's who Eileen was paired with for several years from the late 1990s through the early 2000s, was the character who raised Abby Carlton (mysteriously known now as Abby Newman-Abbott, which makes no sense at all), and was married to Ashley during the breast cancer storyline. Also, he'd previously been Eileen's boyfriend in real life during the late 1980s. Instead he asks about Michael Tylo (who she never met) and J Eddie Peck (who she worked with for about a week). He's a complete ninny.

That's two vampires going out for a festive New Years Eve bash 😆 Really, it's Margaret Colin playing Paige Madison on "Edge" in costume as the ingenue in "Mansion of the Damned", being seduced by Lee Godart playing Eliot Dorn on "Edge" in costume as Satan in "Mansion of the Damned".

Yes, it does look sort of like a ghoulish holiday 😁 Eliot Dorn, Paige Madison and Nola Patterson were all major characters on "Edge", in addition to playing characters in the "Mansion of the Damned" movie. So Kim Hunter was given the job of playing Nola on "Edge", Hester Atherton in "Mansion of the Damned", the old witch in "Mansion of the Damned", and Mrs. Corey (Deborah Saxon's neighbor), who was a mash-up of a lady who ran a news stand and the witch role she'd played in the film. It was an interesting and fairly complex storyline.

That appears to be a "cast photo" of Mansion of the Damned, the horror movie that was shot in Monticello circa 1979. Seated are Paige Madison (the ingenue in the film) and Eliot Dorn (the devil in the film). Standing are the old flamboyant creepy guy in the film, the young leading man in the film, and Nola Patterson (the witch in the film).

Stuart Brooks didn't carry a cane, lol. I guess the main difference is that Stuart had four daughters to focus on, while Bill Spencer only had one. In the first episode of Y&R, we saw Stuart Brooks making an unexpectedly kind gesture toward a stranger (buying the mysterious, destitute young man's lunch at Pierre's) while also badgering and grilling another young man (Snapper). So while we immediately thought of Stuart as overprotective toward Chris (and suspicious of Snapper), we also saw him as open and trusting of Brad, who would ultimately become the beau of Leslie. We were seeing multiple sides of Stuart Brooks from Day One, unlike Bill Spencer, who seemed fixated only on one object (Caroline) in the first episode of B&B. That situation never changed much.

Bill's only real "offense" was that he inadvertently hurt his own daughter. And I guess that's what makes him somewhat villainous -- he damaged his own child's confidence and future plans in order to hurt Ridge. But in Bill's mind, he was just saving Caroline from future heartache.

Strangely, I'm finding that to be the case as I re-watch some of the old episodes. I find myself thinking, "Get him, Mr. Spencer! Kill him!" 😆

I'd say he was more of a "Ridge Antagonist", to make the (fairly shallow) Ridge character seem somewhat more sympathetic to the audience. In the early episodes, Ridge is no one we'd be tempted to sympathize with -- proposes to Caroline to spite her father, cheats on her, gets photographed cheating, gets exposed, gets miffed because she dumps him, criticizes his father's designs, basically just acts like a whining brat. He's not very easy to like. But since Bill Spencer sits around plotting against him, it makes him slightly more sympathetic. I'd say that was the initial purpose of Bill.

Regardless of what he'd been told by the producers, it was pretty clear that KSJ was being phased-out at the time of his death (along with Christian LeBlanc, Doug Davidson & Kate Linder). He could clearly see the writing on the wall. I wish Alan Locher could see the two interviews above and learn how people can converse without saying, "Wow, that's crazy", and have a beneficial conversation.

I'm always amazed that Rey has lasted as long as he has.

Seems like Katherine Kelly Lang would've made a pretty good Patty recast. I know she'd been Gretchen, but we didn't see that much of Gretchen, and it would've been easy to accept her as Patty. Probably would've extended the character's shelf life as well. Andrea Evans may have been a *wonderful* actress -- I couldn't tell, because she just wasn't anything like the Patty we'd gotten accustomed to seeing. Badly miscast.

Sometimes they panned-out, I guess. But only rarely. Weren't Nikki Reed & Patty Minter our Troubled Teens of 1978? Patty Minter took the predicted Labor Day nosedive into obscurity, but Nikki Reed hung around for a few more years, lol. I guess April Stevens was sort of our Troubled Teen for 1980 (though I believe she was introduced in a small capacity in late 1979 or early 1980), and she stuck around for a pretty good while, until she took Wes Kenney's fateful spur-of-the-moment plane trip into obscurity. (But she did have to share the summer of 1980 with our cultist friends Nikki, Paul, Rebekkah, and Matthew.) Seems like Danny Romalotti was our 1981 Summer Project, pining away for Patty Williams, waiting tables at Jonas's, crooning Eric Carmen songs, and pretending that he was from a happy family instead of sired by a jailbird daddy. He lasted a few more years. And then I guess Traci Abbott and Angela Laurence were our Tortured Teens of 1982, one wolfing down brownies and the other whining about her comatose mommy. Seems like 1983 was Traci Abbott Part Two, and by 1984 we had the wicked vixen Lauren who loved to throw a pool party and parade around in a bikini to remind the fat girls what truly matters in life -- a perky booty and jostling hooters. 1985 gave us the 22-year-old virgin Alana Anthony who didn't notice her beau was whitewashed with talcum powder, and I guess for 1986 we got Pregnant Nina and Wise Cricket.

I always got the impression that he LIKED Lynne Topping and would've written for her, had the opportunity been there to write for her and Snapper as a couple. In the summer of 1979 (I think it was, anyway), Lynne got the "big story", which was that business with Rose DeVille, Vince Holliday, Sharon the Runaway, Second Hand Rose's Antiques and Pretty Things, and the "South American slavery ring". That (silly) storyline was an everyday deal for most of that summer.