Broderick

Regarding Vanessa and Stuart, that really did kinda dissipate without going anywhere at all. My recollection is that Vanessa just sorta sat around and said (to herself) that she was lonely, and she had a lot in common with Stuart Brooks, since both of her sons were involved with two of his daughters. Seems like she may have even flirted with Stuart (in her own rather grotesque manner) a couple of times. But when she found out that he was courting Liz Foster, Vanessa just threw in the towel immediately and never gave Stuart Brooks a second thought. It seemed completely out-of-character for Mrs. Prentiss to EVER give up on anything so easily, lol. We'd seen her hounding, pestering, and worrying the hell out of Lorie Brooks for YEARS relentlessly, and that kinda indicated that Mrs. Prentiss LOVED a battle. She always seemed battle-ready. But when it came to Stuart Brooks, she just inexplicably gave up. I was actually looking forward to seeing poor, sweet, hardworking Elizabeth Foster having to deal with a devious, conniving old wench like Vanessa. I think it could've made an interesting contrast. (In the back of my mind, I kinda wondered if perhaps it eventually occurred to Bill Bell that if he pursued having Vanessa and Liz become "romantic adversaries", it might potentially result in a contentious relationship among Snapper, Greg, and Jill, verus the two Prentiss boys. And Bell always seemed dead-set on having the Foster kids and the Prentiss kids operate in completely separate orbits.) Regarding Carl and Steve Williams, I don't pretend to have a perfect memory about their sudden appearance on the show. It's very likely that Carl Williams did indeed first appear in the investigation of Nikki and Walter Addison in January of 1980. If he did, he played an awfully MINOR role, because I just thought he was Random Cop #1, or whatever. The main "police focus" during that storyline, of course, was on the suspect, the boy named Tony Baker, who'd stolen the expensive watch off Walter Addison's body, and who was unjustly jailed for killing Mr. Addison. Greg Foster was appointed public defender for the Tony Baker kid, and Tony Baker's only real defense was that he'd seen a blonde girl (Nikki) in the alley when Rose DeVille and Vince Holliday dumped Walter Addison's corpse out of the car. Tony Baker felt the mysterious blonde girl (Nikki) could testify that Addison was already dead when Tony found him. Tony Baker provided Greg with a police sketch of the blonde girl, based on Tony's description of her. Greg walked around studying over the sketch all the time, too stupid to realize the girl was his own wife. (That storyline made Wings Hauser look so dense and incompetent, that it was difficult to focus any attention at all on the policeman --- probably Carl Williams --- who was interrogating Tony Baker and relaying information about the case to Greg.) Steve Williams might've popped-up in that storyline as well, as Random Newspaper Reporter #1, but again his appearance, if it did indeed occur, would've been completely overshadowed by Greg's bewildering inability to recognize Nikki in the police sketch, which was basically the SAME Sandy Dvore sketch of Nikki that appeared in each weekday's closing credits, lol. I just didn't become cognizant of Carl and Steve AT ALL until the following month, February of 1980, when they were sticking their noses into Derek Thurston's faux-kidnapping, in a somewhat overbearing manner (given their small roles in the proceedings). Even then, I wasn't 100% sure that they were father and son, and I didn't comprehend that they were in any shape, form, or fashion related to that blond-haired sometimes-boyfriend of Nikki's who went around slouching in doorways and pouting (Paul). In hindsight, what Bill Bell probably should've done, in early 1980, was introduce Steve Williams first, in conjunction with Stuart Brooks, vis-avis the newspaper. It would've been much smoother and more character-driven, in my opinion. There was a studio set already established that served as Stuart's office as the Chronicle --- we'd seen Stuart at his desk on several different occasions. Bell should've set-up a scene or two where Stuart got a phone call (or a visit) at work from Lorie or Chris or whoever, and Stuart having to explain, "I'll be with you in a minute, dear. I'm in a meeting with my new reporter -- Steve Williams." Then Stuart could've gone into a spiel with Lorie or Chris or whoever that Steve was his most promising new hire in quite a while, has great potential, very smart, very conscientious, might make a good match for young Peggy, etc. THIS would've probably gotten our attention better --- that Stuart Brooks thought highly of Steve and was thinking of introducing the boy to Peggy. We'd have subconsciously started expecting Steve to play a bigger role in the storyline. The next step could've been for Stuart to press Steve a little bit about his family life: ("Carl Williams is your father?! -- why, yes, yes, I've known of Carl Williams for years. Works for the police department, has provided me with information on various news stories for many years. A fine man! I've always thought very highly of your father, Steve. As a matter of fact, I was just thinking of calling your father this afternoon to ask if there are any new developments in this Walter Addison murder.") And then in another scene, Steve could've confided in Stuart that he was concerned about his good-for-nothing college drop-out brother Paul, "whom Mom, Dad and I are worried will never amount to much, if he doesn't turn his life around and get back on the right track." The audience would've IMMEDIATELY made the connection that the "good-for-nothing brother named Paul" who "didn't amount to much" was that slouching, blond, long-haired, dead-end boyfriend of Nikki's we'd been seeing sporadically for the past couple of years, and who'd been featured so prominently in the VD storyline. It just seems that establishing a mentor/protege relationship between Stuart Brooks and Steve Williams at work, and then having Stuart introduce the boy to Peggy, could've made the introduction of the entire Williams family seem far more smoother and natural than what we actually ended up getting on-screen. Bell could've even set-up a get-to-know-each-other date between Steve and Peggy at the Allegro, and had Paul come slouching into the restaurant, asking Steve for a loan, to Steve's embarrassment and chagrin. ("I'm so sorry, Peggy. Trust me, he's NOTHING like the rest of my family. My brother Todd is in seminary; my dad works hard at the police station; my mother's very involved with her church work. We don't understand what went wrong with Paul. He just doesn't have any ambition at all. I'm afraid he's setting a terrible example for our younger sister.") Just appears in hindsight that it could've all been handled very seamlessly, instead of the strange, disjointed introduction of the family that we really ended up getting on-screen.

Pretty sure it was the first week, or possibly as late as the second week, of the expansion. Obviously we'd been seeing Paul on/off in a very minor role since 1978, but out of the clear blue sky he was anchoring a family. And maybe Carl had previously appeared as a policeman for a few days, but I hadn't paid him any attention at all, until the "Derek gets kidnapped" storyline, when Carl started sprouting a wife and a houseful of kids that, to my surprise, included Paul. (Again, I may have missed an episode or two.) And then Steve Williams was suddenly branching out into his own storylines and giving pep talks to Jill (who was played by Bond Gideon), and you're looking at Bond Gideon and thinking, "Is that girl supposed to be Jill?" lol. The little girl Patty (played by Tammy Taylor?) didn't have much of a storyline until several months later when the cute Lilibet Stern took over, and by then I was accustomed to seeing the entire family on the show.

It was definitely an awkward period, in just about every respect. If I remember right --- and I may have missed an episode or two, of course --- was that the introduction of the Williams family seemed fairly haphazard and sudden. There was a storyline where Suzanne Lynch pretended to "kidnap" Derek Thurston. While they were in bed together, they decided it would be feasible to hoodwink Kay Thurston in paying a ransom to have Derek returned to the Chancellor mansion. Suzanne and Derek would then split the "ransom", and Derek would go home. Suzanne somehow magically acquired this device that would alter the sound of her voice, and she made all these calls to Kay saying, "Mrs. Chancellor, your husband is still alive. But we will kill him, unless you place $50,000 in unmarked bills, in a shoebox, in a garbage can in the park." The voice was distorted, really deep and metallic, so that Kay wouldn't figure out it was Suzanne speaking. A few months previously, Derek had hired a dayplayer con-man (Douglas Austin) to break into Kay's safe and swap-out an audio tape of Derek and Jill professing their love for each other. Douglas Austin showed-up at the Chancellor house to extort more money out of Derek for the con-job, when Kay started receiving the phone calls from the "kidnappers". Douglas assumed that the kidnapping was a sham, and that Jill was behind it. (He was right that it was a sham, but it was really Suzanne instead of Jill.) There was suddenly ALL this emphasis on Douglas Austin -- a character we'd only seen ONCE before, a few months earlier. Douglas, surmising that the "kidnapping" was a hoax, told Kay Chancellor to turn the matter over to the police, despite the "kidnappers" making all these phone calls to Kay advising her, "If the police are notified of the kidnapping, your husband will be killed." The policeman assigned to handle the case was Inspector Carl Williams. While Kay gave her statement to the police, the camera kept focusing on Carl Williams. At first, I thought he was an ordinary dayplayer policeman, and I couldn't understand why the director kept focusing the camera onto him for close-ups, as though he were a main character. It was just downright bizarre. Then after Kay gave her statment, the camera stayed on the policeman, and his son Steve popped in (whom I'd never seen before), revealed that he worked for the newspaper as a reporter, and he had this l-o-n-g conversation with his father about whether or not Derek Thurston's kidnapping should be reported in the newspaper. Then the policeman's wife, Mary Williams, called and wanted the policeman to come home, because she had something "urgent" to discuss with him. Next thing I knew, we were at the policeman's house, and his wife was telling him that she was pregnant with a change-of-life baby. (I'm sitting there thinking "Who are these people, and why do they have a new living room set?") The son Steve popped in to give his two cents on the pregnancy, despite the fact that the audience didn't know him from Adam's housecat, and then Nikki Reed's old boyfriend Paul popped in to issue his opinion, indicating that he was the policeman's son also. I'd seen Paul before, of course, but had no idea that he was part of a family unit. As I recall, Paul was in favor of his mother having an abortion. Then there turned out to be another kid in the house, a little girl named Patty (whom they called "Pipsqueak"), and she had to offer her own advice and suggestions, as well. Then everyone dispersed, and the three kids sat around and discussed the pregnancy in-depth. Then the dad and the son Steve had to reconvene and discuss how Paul wasn't even going to school, but had dropped out and was evidently going to be a failure. And then the pregnant mother had to give us all this backstory about yet another son (Todd) who was in seminary. I remember being completely bewildered by the whole thing. But I was young enough (and Catholic enough) to be halfway interested in what these strangers were talking about. But if I'd been an adult viewer, who wasn't Catholic, I would've probably just turned it off because I wouldn't have known or cared who any of these folks were.

Well, I'd say it was more of a "mixed bag". Some things were wretched; some things were pretty good. I guess there were about four different things working AGAINST Bill Bell during that period: (1) he and Alden had difficulties adapting to writing an hour-long show (and Bell had actively resisted expanding the show to an hour for that very reason); (2) the actors had contracts to appear on a half-hour show, and they could exercise an option to exit when the show expanded to an hour (which several -- including John McCook, Brenda Dickson, and Beau Kayzer did opt to exercise); (3) there was a writer's strike during the transition period, which meant scab writers had to excessively drag-out certain plots from Bell's outlines, since no new outlines would be forthcoming until the strike ended; (4) during a writer's strike, you count on the executive producer to keep things running smoothly, but in Y&R's case John Conboy was creating his own show for CBS (Capitol) and wasn't really studying Y&R. The ratings dropped from about 3rd place to about 6th place during the transition period, showing viewers' bewilderment with what they were seeing on their screens. The show was pretty good in early 1980 when it expanded to an hour, and it was in pretty good shape again by early 1983. But that three-year transition period --- we used to laugh at my house that a better name for the show would've been "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", because you definitely got all three of those things in every episode. lol.

Lord --- she was a doctor?! I was thinking she was a nurse. How sexist of me, lol. You're right, though, she was a doctor, because she tried ultimately to seduce him in the doctor's quarters at the hospital, I think. She was spouting lines like, "Your wife -- I have to wonder if she's giving you everything that you need." Snapper told her to take a hike, and Chris heard him rebuffing the vixen. I didn't get much out of the Kidney Kid storyline, either, until that very last episode when Chuckie was saying, "We're buds aren't we, Dr. Foster! When I get big, I want to be a doctor just like you! You're my hero, Dr. Foster." I remember sitting there sniffling and whimpering during that entire good-bye. lol.

Yes, the Famous Furniture Fable was stupid as hell. It was about the way you described it. Snapper came in, and there was all this high-end early 1980s furniture all over the apartment. He was like, "Wow, Babe! You must've gotten some really terrific buys! I've got the smartest, most incredible wife in the whole world! I'm tripping, man!" He'd take Chris into his arms, and the camera would focus on her stricken face, as she wondered whether or not to admit she'd raided Ethan Allen. The thing with the nurse was also extremely hokey. I can't even remember the nurse's name. Might've been "Jane". Snapper would breeze through the hospital with a chart and say, "Nurse Jane, please check on Mrs. Cummings in 402," and then he'd go breezing away. The nurse would step up dramatically to the nurse's station and say, "My, my, my, I can see myself having an affair with Dr. Foster. This affair --- I will make it happen. Mark my words. It will happen. It will indeed." Cue the ominous music. Just hokey as hell.

Snapper was too highly-principled to cash his paycheck, lol. No, seriously, most of the time he worked at a free clinic, where he was paid a nominal salary. He was on-staff at GC Memorial (remember, he was terminated from his hospital position wrongly when Liz unplugged Bill Foster's respirator, and Snapper took the fall for it.) But a lot of the time, he worked at a free clinic. It was explained that he and Greg, having grown up poor, wanted to give back to the community in which they grew-up by doing volunteer work (the free medical clinic for Snapper, and legal-aid for Greg). I always thought this was actually sorta SELFISH of them. Liz had worked her tail off in a factory to educate them, and Jill contributed to the family's expenses by cutting hair for old drunk sluts (Kay Chancellor). You'd think that Snapper and Greg would've taken decent-paying jobs in order to pay back their mama and sister for the sacrifices the two women had made for them. After Liz and Jill were repaid, Snapper and Greg could've spent the rest of their lives being poor if they wanted to.

Yeah, I remember it, but not very well because it wasn't very interesting, lol. Seems like Stuart and Liz offered to downsize into a smaller house and give the Brooks house to Snapper and Chris. Snapper, of course, rejected the offer because "with my salary, I couldn't afford a house like that, Mr. Brooks. That's where I'm coming from." Chris got all bent out of shape over Snapper hard-headedness, and Snapper offered to let her redecorate their apartment, following a strict budget. She actually took her dad's credit card and bought some expensive furniture, then told Snapper she'd purchased it from thrift stores, keeping with the budget. They had a dinner party for some doctor, whose wife turned out to be an interior decorator (or something), and she immediately started commenting on the value of the furniture (which was pretty tasteless on her part, lol). Chris had to fess up that she'd used Stuart's credit card to buy the stuff, and then she returned it. I don't remember finding any of that terribly thrilling. lol.

I always got the impression that it was important to Mr. Bell that Chris and Snapper stay married. They were kinda his "golden couple" in Y&R's early years. When you think about it, it's kinda astonishing that they stayed married on the show from 1974 till their exits in 1982. How many soap couples on-screen stay together for 8 years? Not many probably. And now, counting their off-screen time, they've theoretically been together for 45 years.

Some of the dialogue was honestly wretched, and we sometimes forget how bad it truly was. "This divorce -- I have to wonder if it's what you truly want. A part of me died the night we signed those papers." "What are you getting at? Are you playing some kind of mind games with me?" "My God. I'm telling you how I feel inside!" "But why? I have to wonder why you're laying all of this on me right now." lol. Yeah, most of Lynn Topping and David Hasselhoff's storylines from about 1980 till 1982 were hit-and-runs, because of Lynn's maternity leave and the "out-clauses" in David's contract. They were more like mini-storylines. Chris has been exposed to German measles! Will the baby be deformed?! No! Thank heavens, everything is ok!! End of storyline. A nurse at Memorial has a crush on Snapper!! Will he sleep with her?! No! Thank heavens, he rebuffed her, everything is ok!! End of storyline. Chris has bought some expensive furniture and pretended she got it at a thrift store!! Will Snapper leave her?! No! Thank heavens, he forgave her when she returned the overpriced furniture, everything is ok!! End of storyline. About the only genuine storyline they shared together was the return of Sally McGuire with the Kidney Kid, and that seemed designed to serve as David Hasselhoff's swan song.

LOL!!! "I've got something really HEAVY to lay on you, Chris. But you seem so OUT OF IT right now."

Yeah, the first time I remember seeing Rose DeVille was in the summer of 1979(?) when she was operating her little antique shop, "Second-Hand Rose's Antiques and Pretty Things", which was really a front for a slavery ring. She was driven out of business by Snapper and Brock after she attempted to abduct Chris and that girl Sharon. Rose disappeared for a few months, then quietly reappeared with a little modeling agency called "La Plus Belle Rose", which is French for "the most beautiful Rose". That one turned out to be a prostitution ring. The stupid Nikki Reed stumbled right into that, of course. Rose DeVille gave Nikki a contract, then advanced her some cash, and when Greg Foster told Nikki to void the contract, Nikki had already spent the cash advance, was too stupid and embarrassed to admit it to Greg, and ended up modeling lingerie and then going to meet a client named Walter Addison who was really expecting more than modeling. Walter Addison had a heart attack and croaked while chasing Nikki around a hotel room, which inspired Nikki, Rose and Vince to dump Mr. Addison's corpse in an alley. A little boy named Tony Baker came wandering along, stole a watch off Mr. Addison's corpse, and was arrested for murdering Mr. Addison. Naturally, Greg Foster was assigned by the courts as public defender for Tony Baker, which led to Nikki's whole role in the ordeal being exposed. Rose then disappeared for several years, till about 1986, then quietly reappeared running a home for unwed mothers, which was really a black-market baby ring. Nina Webster (and an annoying little twit named Mollie) were residents of Rose's home for unwed mothers.

I guess the best way to describe Lynne Topping's version of Chris would be to compare her with Brenda Epperson's version of Ashley Abbott, if you know what I mean. Lynne Topping was PRETTY, and she seemed SWEET, and she wasn't a bad actress AT ALL, but she just wasn't ever Chris to me. I think most of us who saw the original actors in the roles of Chris and Leslie just never warmed-up very much to Lynne Topping and Victoria Mallory. There wasn't anything "wrong" with either girl; but they just didn't have the vulnerability and fundamental likability of Trish Stewart and Janice Lynde. Bill Bell tried his best with Lynne Topping. He kinda carefully constructed a friendship (and flirting relationship) between Snapper Foster and Casey Reed while Chris was gone, so that when Lynne Topping stepped into the role, she could be the "victim", which would earn her the audience's immediate sympathy. Naturally, Snapper chose Chris over Casey, and we were all supposed to breathe a big sigh of relief that True Love Has Triumphed, and Snapper has chosen Chris!!! I didn't feel that way at all; I kinda wanted to see Snapper throw Casey Reed down on the floor and pork her brains out. lol. Bell's next attempt at making us like the New Chris was to put her in physical jeopardy. This weird woman named Rose DeVille popped up in town running a shop called "Second Hand Rose's Antiques & Pretty Things", which was really a white slavery ring. Rose and her henchman Vince were intending to round-up some "pretty things" and ship them off to South America as sex slaves. This dimwitted random teenager named Sharon stepped right into the trap, like a rat heading for the cheese in a mousetrap. Chris had sorta befriended Sharon, followed her to Rose's shop, and was also captured by the evil Rose and the evil Vince. Snapper and Brock showed-up at the last second and saved the two girls. We were supposed to breathe a big sigh of relief and say, "Oh thank God!! Chris is safe!!" Instead, with Lynne Topping in the role, I was kinda hoping she'd get shipped-off to South America so that Snapper could bang Casey Reed without having to feel guilty about it. (There wasn't much to like or dislike about that replacement Peggy. I wasn't ever a huge fan of the FIRST Peggy, but the second one was just a window decoration, pretty much. By the time the character became relevant again, during the cult storyline in 1980, the real Peggy --- Pam Peters -- was back.)

I don't remember Chris ever commenting on (or being involved with) the business between Jill Foster and Kay Chancellor. Snapper and Greg were involved in it, of course, but I don't recall Chris ever being dragged into it. When that wedding clip (Chris and Snapper) first started circulating on the web, it caused a lively debate on another message board. In the clip, the minister can clearly be heard referring to Chris as "Kristen". ("Do you, Kristen, take this man William to be your lawfully wedded husband ... ") Several viewers insisted that was a mistake in the script, that the character's name was "Christobel", not "Kristen". Several other viewers insisted Chris's name was "Kristen", because that was clearly what the minister had called her. (I stayed out of the discussion entirely.) Do any of y'all remember what her name was? I can just about swear that when Trish Stewart left the show and was replaced a few months later by Lynne Topping, the character's name began appearing in the closing credits as "Christobel Brooks Foster", although no one ever called her anything except "Chris". (Just as Lorie's name was listed in the closing credits for years as "Lauralee Brooks Prentiss", although no one ever called her anything but Lorie, except for Vanessa Prentiss when she was being all Eddie Haskell-ish, and she would start a conversation by hissing, "I have something to discuss with you, Lauralee ...."

Yeah, the girls didn't actively HATE Jill until she tricked their dad into marriage (by pretending she was pregnant), when he was supposed to be marrying Liz. That's when the girls (justifiably) turned against her. They could see a pattern developing whereby she seduced men 20+ years older than she was, then married them, had a baby, then fought for a settlement. She'd already done that with Phillip Chancellor, and now her next victim appeared to be their own father. (Victim #3, of course, would be John Abbott a few years later, lol.) The girls had a big "family meeting" --- seems like Lorie was the instigator of the convention --- to discuss how to get rid of her. The other girls dragged Peggy back from San Fransisco (or wherever she was) to make her participate. Seems like that's when the brief Peggy Recast (Patricia Everly?) joined the show.

I can only remember one ocassion when Jill interacted with a Prentiss. Around 1979, Leslie Brooks disappeared off the face of the earth for a while. (She was with Jonas at his nightclub.) Lance Prentiss was concerned that perhaps Leslie had another nervous breakdown or whatever, when he wasn't able to locate her anywhere. He called Stuart Brooks' house (of course) to see if Leslie's father had any knowledge of Leslie's whereabouts. I guess Stuart wasn't on the show that day, so Jill answered the phone. It was like a 30-second conversation. "Hi, this is Lance Prentiss. Who is this?" "This is Jill." "Oh. Is Mr. Brooks there?" "No." "I was wondering if maybe Leslie was there ...." "No, haven't seen her." "Has Leslie been by there at all today, or yesterday, or the day before?" "No." That was about the extent of it, lol.

I believe that the constant repetition of NAMES was something that Irna Phillips developed in the 1950s, and then passed along to Bill Bell. The idea of repetition initially stemmed from the realization that viewers might wander into the kitchen or the utility room during the show, but if the names were being repeated during each line of dialogue, viewers would know who was speaking even if the viewer was merely listening (like the old radio shows), rather than actually watching. (Plus, as y'all said, it also reinforces to newer viewers who the characters are.) Bell was a master of "stylizing" his dialogue. For instance, a scene would start with, "What brings YOU by?" And the answer would be, "I think you have SOME IDEA why I'm here." The first character would then say, "No, I can't imagine what YOU could POSSIBLY have to say to ME." And the answer would be, "Oh, I think you KNOW what I'm here to discuss with you." "Well, I'm not interested in anything YOU have to say." "Oh, you'll be interested in THIS -- very interested, indeed!" (lol. Who the hell talks that way in real life?! But it slowly develops the tension of whether or not *the secret* that frames the scene is about to be revealed to the other character and to the audience.) Bell's characters were also very STYLIZED in their stage movements, though this was probably a joint effort between Bell and John Conboy. We saw this type of stylization VIVIDLY in the 1975 episode where Jennifer Brooks was being wheeled into the operating room for her mastectomy. There were six characters present for Jennifer's surgery --- Stuart, the four daughters, and Bruce Henderson. At the end of the episode, as the orchestrated music swelled to its climax, all six of the "surgery witnesses" strode into the hospital corridor and struck stylized, non-realistic, magazine-type poses that would linger in the viewer's mind long after the closing credits rolled. Peggy threw herself into Stuart's arms, carefully projecting her profile toward the camera. Bruce Henderson stood against the wall and struck a GQ pose, with his arms folded across his chest. Lorie, Chris, and Leslie positioned themselves directly in front of the operating room doors like Charlie's Angels, with the blonde girl in the middle, and the two girls with darker hair flanking her on either side. They all placed their arms around each other, with Lorie and Leslie gazing toward the camera, while Chris raised her face and looked toward the ceiling, allowing the lighting to gently carress her beautiful blonde hair. The girls' outfits were carefully selected in advance from Giorgio's of Beverly Hills so that the girls would look color-coordinated with each other, and none of them would clash with the operating doors that they would be posing in front of at the conclusion of the episode. THAT'S the kind of stylized posing, posturing and voguing that made Y&R look so strange and so astonishingly unique.

Yep, in those early years, it didn't even RESEMBLE anything else on television. The content was relatively old-fashioned (people talking about romance and relationships, mostly), but it was so slick and lush and moody, featured so much SKIN and sensuality, moved in such a free-flowing and liquid manner, didn't seem to play by the rules of other shows. One scene might show Snapper stepping out of the shower and taking Chris to bed; the next scene might show Brock strumming a hymn on his guitar while Kay frantically chain-smoked cigarettes. It had a such a strange and stylized look -- not like "real people", but like someone's IDEA of real people. You just never knew what you were gonna see on Y&R.

lol. I wish. I was just an impressionable little kid who watched it every day, because it was such a strange-looking show. My parents always watched "World Turns" after they ate lunch. This stuff of Bill Bell's was something ENTIRELY different from what they watched, lol.

Soaps used to reflect real life, and they took risks; they obviously don't even try anymore. The scene where Brock quoted scripture to Lorie, only to have her roll her eyes and say "what a waste!" is VERY memorable, because it established so much about the two characters. It showed that Brock had completely transformed his views toward being "holy" and "spiritually helpful to his fellow humans", and it showed the extent of Lorie's grief over her break-up with Mark. As you said, we just don't see things like that anymore.

It was described (in typical 1970s fashion) as "tripping on drugs and sex". lol. So I'd assume they got high pretty often, and he porked her regularly. By the time Brock showed up in Genoa City, he'd "found the Lort", so he wasn't much into the weed, coke, and LSD. Also, he didn't do much porking. But after Mark Henderson ditched Lorie in about 1975, she went to the Allegro and begged Brock to take her home and bang her brains out. He didn't. Instead, he delivered a brief sermon and serenaded her with a hymn. She rolled her eyes and said, "What a waste!" lol.

Nikki was kinda unique in that she interacted at various times with all four of the Brooks sisters, though never as a family unit. As you pointed out, Nikki and Chris were "friends" when they were each married to a Foster brother. Then later, Nikki was in the New World cult with Peggy, but didn't seem to realize that Peggy was Chris's little sister. A year or so after that, Nikki took piano lessons from Leslie, but never quite seemed to make the connection that Leslie was an older sister of Chris and Peggy. And of course finally, in 1982, Lorie became Nikki's rival for Goat Daddy's ancient love & affection, but again Nikki didn't seem to notice a connection with any of the other Brooks girls. It was only when they showed up as a group in 1984 at the Goat Wedding that Nikki saw them all at once. Yeah, the only time I saw Kay cross paths with a Prentiss was when Kay and Lance were both guests at the concert in London.

That sounds more like "fan fiction", lol. Jennifer Brooks definitely had some reconstructive surgery after her mastectomy (circa 1975?), and Mrs. Prentiss had scar tissue from the burns removed from her face (circa 1977?). Kay toyed with the idea of having a face-lift from about 1980 till she finally did it in 1984. But I sure don't remember any of those three surgical procedures ever "colliding" in a plastic surgeon's office. The only ocassion where I remember Kay consulting with a doctor, surprisingly, in the 1970s was when she was married to Derek Thurston, and Derek decided that he wanted a kid. Kay went to her OB/GYN who told her that she could still get pregnant if she wanted to, but he advised against it because of all her drinking and smoking. He assured her that she hadn't begun menopause yet. I remember being sorta STUNNED by that revelation, because Kay looked to be 60+ years old. In reality, Jeanne Cooper was about 48 at the time. (The problem was eventually solved of course by Kay tracking down Suzanne Lynch, who was theoretically gonna return the little boy Jamie to Derek, but that didn't ever happen because the boy was in an institution or something.) But don't trust anything that I say, because I've already freely admitted that I'd completely forgotten about the scene between Snapper Foster and Vanessa Prentiss, lol.

Josh is OK, I guess. We've certainly had far worse writers than Josh Griffith in the past sixteen years. Josh seems to catch most of the "beats", makes some smart decisions (bringing back the Adam character), but he also makes some strange decisions (his 2013 "reboot"). What I liked most about Sally Sussman is that she took the debris left by Chuck Pratt and moved forward with it rather carefully, without really compromising any history, no matter how absurd Pratt's history actually was. Josh seems determined to move backwards towards his last stint, even if it's kinda jarring at times. But like I said, we've certainly had worse than him. I'll take his character-based writing over "plot" writing any day of the week.

Maybe it was included in the "edit tapes". I just remember being surprised by the scene between Snapper and Vanessa at the lakehouse after the shooting, because I'd completely forgotten that Snapper and Vanessa ever crossed paths. The show definitely took a turn for the worse when Jack Smith was added as headwriter about 2002. Just got worse and worse from there on, specifically with that whole stupid business of Kay and Jill being "mother and daughter". Then of course Latham came along about 2005, and the show was even more unrecognizable. (I'm one of the five peope in the United States who liked Sally Sussman's writing a couple of years ago.)