Broderick

I guess the Brooks actors and the Chancellor actors did interact to a (very small) extent at different times during the 1970s. There were definitely a few random stray scenes between Lorie Brooks and Phillip Chancellor. (My impression of those scenes was that Bill Bell was "screen-testing" the chemistry of Phillip and Lorie, perhaps contemplating killing-off Kay, establishing Jill and Phillip as a married couple, and then having Lorie subsequently become Jill's rival for Phillip. But it must've become clear to Bill Bell that Donnelly Rhodes was more dispensable than Jeanne Cooper, and far more storyline potential could be generated by having Kay and Jill become long-term rivals, fighting over the legacy of the dead Phillip.) And during the 1970s, all four of the Brooks girls interacted at one time or another with Brock. He debuted as Lorie's friend, became Peggy's friend during the Jack/JoAnna storyline, briefly courted Leslie, and interacted platonically with Chris on and off the whole time. A few years after the death of Jennifer Brooks, a couple of the Brooks girls strayed into scenes with Kay. I'm thinking there was a scene in 1979 where Kay, who was presumed dead from the fire at Fairview Sanitarium and who was hiding out at Liz's house and playing dead, enlisted Lorie Brooks' help in sabotaging some of Jill's divorce and remarriage plans. (Stuart Brooks was about to present Jill with a large property settlement check to finally get rid of her, not realizing that Jill was planning to cash his check and then immediately elope with Derek to cash-in on Kay's inheritance. To stop Stuart from squandering his money on Jill's unnecessary settlement, didn't Kay call Lorie Brooks and get Lorie to tear-up the check Stuart had written before Jill had a chance to cash it? After getting the heads-up from Kay about what was going on, Lorie then sat down with Brock in the Allegro and compared notes, discovering that Jill was playing Stuart and Derek against each other trying to determine which man could benefit Jill the most financially. Lorie's primary goal was keeping Jill away from Mr. Brooks, while Brock's primary goal was freeing Mr. Brooks and also finding out how serious Derek and Jill were about marrying. ) [Edited to include synopsis from SOD about the above scene: "Kay learns from Liz that Jill has asked Stuart Brooks for a quick divorce, but it will cost Stuart. Jill is asking for a $100,000 settlement. Kay turns to Brock and says she can't allow that to happen, and she knows just the way to stop it. Kay calls Lorie Brooks ... Jill signs the papers, and Stuart hands the check over to Jill. Jill suddenly feels the check being torn from her hands. Lorie smiles as she rips the check into little pieces. Lorie says that she won't allow Jill to rob Stuart of $100,000. Lorie tells her father that they're going to call Jill's bluff. Jill doesn't want a long, drawn-out court battle, because she is planning to marry Derek Thurston."] After the show expanded to an hour and was in that weird transition phase, there were definitely a few scenes where Kay, Liz, Lorie and Leslie met with Mr. Blackwell about designing Liz's dress for the trip to London for Leslie's concert. And then of course Kay and Jerry Cashman showed up in London, where Kay was on-hand to see Lorie's entrance to the ball in that dress that was split all the way up to Lorie's hoochie. And there was another scene during that same time frame, where Kay dragged Liz Brooks to the Bayou to watch Cash "dance", which embarrassed Liz half to death, because Liz didn't seem to understand that Cash was a stripper until the two ladies were seated in the Bayou and Cash came prancing out dressed as a policeman or whatever. When Kay delivered Liz back home, Stuart and Peggy were there to taunt Liz about watching male strippers. (Stuart made some teasing comment about buying himself some "sexy bikini briefs" like the ones he presumed Cash had been wearing, which inspired Peggy to make vomit noises.) When Lorie Brooks was tricking Victor Newman into signing over the Prentiss Industries stock proxies to her (in 1982), Nikki Bancroft was jealous that Lorie might be about to marry Victor. I distinctly remember a scene where Kay counseled Nikki that Lorie Brooks could be a "very dangerous adversary" if Nikki really cared about Goat Daddy. Speaking of characters who rarely if ever interacted, I'd forgotten that Snapper Foster ever laid eyes on Vanessa Prentiss. A few months ago, someone posted the vintage episode from 1978, in which Vanessa Prentiss had plotted to shoot Lorie but accidentally popped a cap into her beloved Lance instead. Realizing that Lance had been shot, Lorie immediately called Snapper to hurry out to the lakehouse and treat the bleeding Lance. Once Lance had been stabilized, there was a (very) brief scene during which David Hasselhoff's Snapper acknowledged K.T. Stevens' Vanessa, and said, "Mrs. Prentiss, this could've been a whole lot WORSE than it turned out. All of you are very lucky. Good-night." If I hadn't re-watched this episode when it appeared on YouTube a few months ago, I would've insisted that Snapper never met Vanessa in his life, although Snapper and Lance were brothers-in-law for a LONG period of time while Chris Brooks was married to Snapper, and Lorie Brooks was married to Lance.

Exactly! Mrs. Kay Chancellor essentially "inherited" both of those storyline threads that were (allegedly) planned for Mrs. Regina Henderson. The high school boy turned into "Jeff the Stable Boy" at the Chancellor house, played by Rod Arrants, who was in his late 20s at the time, but looked even younger, and who "serviced" Kay Chancellor when Phillip wouldn't sleep with her. And the car-crash caused by the drunken socialite was re-formatted into Kay Chancellor driving her beloved Phillip off the cliff to keep him away from young Jill.

Some folks who've read the show's original bible (I've never seen it) say that Mrs. Regina Henderson was slated to have a sexual relationship with a high school boy, go on a drunken bender, and drive-off a cliff with the boy in her car, leading to the boy's death. (After the Henderson family was downgraded substantially in the actual televised show, the "cliff event" was actually utilitized, of course, with Kay Chancellor as the driver and Phillip as the victim.)

Yeah, some daytime magazine from the period (can't remember which one) did a spread on Y&R and announced that the Hendersons were supposed to be a vital core family. Supposedly, John Conboy and Bill Bell were casting "Ma Henderson" -- the mother of Liz Foster and Bruce Henderson; Bruce Henderson; Bruce's wife Regina; their son Mark; and another son whose name I can't remember (may have been "Russell"). Evidently, Bill Bell pretty much dropped this whole idea of featuring the Hendersons as a third core family for the time being. We basically just got Bruce & Mark, with a few appearances from Regina and the grandmother. I always felt that Bill Bell re-tooled the "mother-and-her-two-sons-concept" in 1977 with Vanessa Prentiss, Lance and Lucas; rather than utilizing it earlier with Regina, Mark, and Russell. (And then of course he revisited the idea later with Stephanie, Ridge and Thorne on B&B.)

I completely agree about the music and the lighting. And remember, back in 1975, most of the soaps (specifically the P&G soaps) were still utilizing strains of organ music to punctuate scenes --- yet here Y&R is with its lush "modern" instrumentation, not intruding into the storyline, but completely setting the tone and the mood. And the LIGHTING --- not the flat, harsh overhead lighting that other shows of the 70s were still using then, but real film noir Hollywood lighting that can even make a hospital room look moody and appealing. And yes, the hair, make-up and wardrobe people went above and beyond with Trish Stewart in this episode, and you can't help but notice how she's showcased in three entirely different types of lighting --- first in the shadowy gloom of Stuart Brooks' early morning living room, then in the flickering sunlight of the hospital room, and then in the hospital corridor where the lighting is more "normalized". And she looks absolutely stunning in each of the close-ups. I agree. Plus, it seems that Bill Bell deliberately placed Jennifer Brooks and Kay Chancellor in separate "orbits", because, after all, they were esentially the same prototype of character, being used in two completely different storylines. With Jennifer Brooks, we get the vain, shallow, needy, blonde, non-working, middle-aged society lady (with fading beauty) who is placed in a "matriarch" role of an upper-middle-class family, with her entire world revolving around her daughters and her husband, while she carelessly seeks outside attention to affirm that she's still attractive and desirable to men. With Kay Chancellor, we get the vain, shallow, needy, blonde, non-working, middle-aged society lady (with fading beauty) who is placed in a more upper-crust/millionaire environment, with no children except an estranged son, and her entire world revolves around her addictions and out-of-control desires and her need to be reigned back into a more wholesome and productive life. It's almost as if Bill Bell looked at the Jennifer Brooks character after a few months of storytelling, and said, "Let's see what happens if we take this character, give her even MORE money, take away the children, give her a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of vodka, a husband who neglects her, a stableboy who bangs her, and let's see how LITTLE JILL would deal with this woman." To put Jennifer and Kay in the same "universe" would make it pretty obvious that Bell was perhaps overusing this prototype, although his use of the character certainly differed in the context of Jennifer's storyline and Kay's storyline.

What I was noticing was how aesthetically pleasing this episode was, despite being staged (out of necessity) in a fairly sterile, bland hospital environment. Yes, during this particular episode we were "deprived" of the lush sets that we often saw on Y&R during the John Conboy era, but even with the fairly drab hospital set, you could see John Conboy's fingerprints all over it. When Jennifer awoke, the hospital widow blinds were positioned in such a manner that sunlight was filtering into the room and making flickering daybreak-shadows fall across the table and lamp in front of the window. And there in front of the window stood three breathtakingly beautiful young girls --- all impeccably dressed in their Southern California casual pantsuits, thoughtfully provided to Columbia Pictures by Giorgio's of Beverly Hills. John Conboy made sure that the whoever directed the episode (Bill Dunlap, probably) zoomed in to get close-ups of the flawless complexions and carefully-styled hair of Lorie, Leslie, and Chris, without ever distracting from the very modern (even controversial, for the time) storyline Bill Bell was telling about a woman having a breast removed. This was VERY unusual at the time --- telling a ground-breaking storyline about a masectomy, discussing breasts so frankly on daytime television, focusing the viewer's attention on three beautiful young women instead of on the patient herself, showcasing innovative Hollywood lighting techniques in a hospital room, of all places -- and presenting all of this in the context of very traditional, soap-based family drama. This is the period when Y&R was really shaking-up the daytime world, and this particular episode goes a long way toward showing how Bill Bell and John Conboy were accomplishing this transformation. It may seem bland to us now, but at the time I bet this seemed very riveting and modern, but at the same time soapy enough not to drive away the more traditional daytime audience.

Thanks for posting this one, BoldRestless! 1984 is among my favorite years for Y&R. Most of the emphasis here is on characters in their early 20s -- Traci, Lauren, Danny, Amy. Each of them was a very well-developed character, and I was interested in all of them at the time (even Danny, lol). Obviously the Jazz/Tyrone mob storyline was fairly stupid, but old Mr. Anthony (Logan Ramsey?) was a good actor, and he did his best to make the storyline interesting. And Jazz Jackson (Jon St. Elwood) was such a unique and interesting character. Bonus treat here --- during Amy and Ty's bedroom scene, the languid tune playing in the background is the instrumental "Down the Line" from the soundtrack "Bless the Beasts and the Children", one of Y&R's original tracks. Loved hearing it again, especially while looking at that cute Stephanie E. Williams and her amazing smile.

Yes, Victor Newman had been on the show for months and months, before he ever crossed paths with Kay Chancellor. In February of 1980, Victor and Julia Newman's Rolls Royce was stolen and taken for a joyride by Cathy Bruder, a girl that Brock Reynolds was assigned by the court system to defend. Brock met the Newmans when it was time to take their depositions. Julia wanted Cathy Bruder to be tried as a minor, while Victor wanted the girl to be tried as an adult. There was no suggestion that the Newmans were new arrivals in Genoa City. It was presumed they'd lived on their ranch for many years. (We found out a year or two later, in backstory, that the Newman ranch had once belonged to Kay Chancellor and her first husband, Gary Reynolds, and that Kay had sold the property to Victor without ever having met him personally.) With Victor having a Rolls-Royce, Bill Bell seemed to be hinting that Victor Newman was extremely wealthy, possibly a billionaire or at least a multi-millionaire. Kay Chancellor had always been portrayed as being very upper-crust, but certainly not a billionaire. I thought it was absurd when Kay died, and her estate was divided up, and they were talking about Devon getting two billion dollars or whatever. That's not how Mrs. Chancellor had been written in the past. She was just a wealthy lady --- presumably far wealthier than the upper-class Brooks family, but certainly not an internationally known billionaire.

What killed me about the 1986 episode (which I thoroughly enjoyed) was that Bill Bell seemed to continuously toy with the idea of creating some kind of love triangle among Paul, Faren, and Andy. (Paul was always running to the Rendevous and pouring out his heart to Faren, who was supposed to be Andy's girlfriend. In this episode, he went to the Rendevous to whine to Faren about ending his marriage to Lauren Fenmore.) It was pretty clear that Paul's BEST chemistry was with Stephanie E. Williams, but I guess you just couldn't go there in 1986.

Yeah, the Brooks & Foster families desperately needed to bite the dust, and Bill Bell knew it. By 1982, after all the recasting, there were only TWO of the characters that Bell truly seemed to be interested in --- Snapper Foster, played by David Hasselhoff, and Lorie Brooks, played by Jaime Lyn Bauer. And unfortunately, both of those actors had been expressing readiness for quite some time to move on from the show. Plus they were "aging out" of the early to mid-20s age range that Bell preferred writing for in those days. David Hasselhoff was about to turn 30, and Jaime Lyn Bauer was already 32. Bell didn't seem interested in writing for a bunch of characters in their 30s, especially when he was about to lose his favorite two. It just made MUCH better sense to shift the storyline to focus on the younger and charismatic Melody Thomas, Doug Davidson, Terry Lester, Eileen Davidson, Lilibet Stern, Stephanie Williams, Steven Ford, and even Michael Damian. They seemed to offer a fresh start to Bell, and he evidently couldn't WAIT to sweep out all those bland recasts in tiresome stories and reboot his show. It was a very risky decision -- one that nobody would have the guts to do today -- but it paid off for Bell. Within a year of rebooting, he was winning an Emmy for best show, and within a few more years, he was at number one in the ratings.

Seems like there was an image in the credits of "Fame" of Stephanie E. Williams jumping up in the air with her legs wide open, lol. Is that the one we're talking about?

Yeah, Susan Walters really "toned down" the quirks of Diane, just as Aunt Jack muted the spoiled brattiness and quirky explosiveness of Terry Lester's Jack.

Definitely. I really learned to appreciate Brenda Epperson's sweet, soft-spoken soap heroine called "Ashley", but she was never the same character as that aloof, ballsy, assertive, take-charge, eye-rolling, exasperated Daddy's Beauty that Eileen had played.

I think that's the main reason it was hard to pair Eileen Davidson's Ashley with a leading man. (Fanning herself, rolling her eyes, gun-to-the-head thing). There was always SO MUCH going on with the subtext of her acting that she tended to overshadow almost everyone else in her scenes, with the notable exceptions of Terry Lester and Eric Braeden.

Terry and Eileen. They could look more affectionate (and more exasperated) with each other than any two people I've ever seen. I believe Bill Bell told about all the story he wanted to tell with Traci in her first five years on the show. He had her shed some of her "chubette" poundage, be praised and appreciated for her singing, marry her big crush (Danny) platonically, spar with a shrew (Lauren), and ultimately land a handsome husband (Brad). When he'd accomplished all those things, Bell sent her packing back to college to work on her master's degree. After that, he only seemed interested in using her sporadically or in a recurring capacity when she was needed in the storyline. And I tend to agree that she works best in that matter.

Yeah, only a few days lapsed between the introduction of Ashley and the subsequent introduction of Traci. If I remember right (and it's only been 37 years ago, lol), seems like we saw John Abbott pop into Ashley's sorority house for a visit and let her know he'd be in attendance at her college graduation that evening. A few days later, we saw John pop into the boarding school where Traci was matriculating and tell her that he'd be in attendance for Traci's high school graduation that evening. Both girls went home to Genoa City following their graduations, because their older brother Jack was about to marry Patty Williams, and they were participating in the wedding. Of course Ashley stayed in town and went to work at Jabot under the name Suzanne Ashley. All summer, we were told that Traci was only in town temporarily and would be "going away to college" in the fall. But when fall rolled around, Traci decided to enroll in GCU, because she'd made friends with Danny Romalotti, had reconnected with her old friend from boarding school Angela Laurence, and was enjoying spending time with her family rather than being constantly *away* at school.

It would be interesting to see some episode counts from 1989, to find out whether or not Terry Lester's role was really "dwindling" or whether he maybe just felt that way about it. (My feeling is that there was probably some justification to his grievances. The "real Jill" had departed in 1987, and the "real Ashley" in 1988. While the recasts for Jill and Ashley got their footing on the show, I think the Abbotts probably DID take a backseat to Cricket, Nina, Phillip, and Danny to a larger extent than previously. If I remember right, 1989 was also the year that Phillip III died, which propelled Cricket even further to the forefront.)

They could spell "Di Salvo" correctly, but Mergeron, Dina, Traci, Kay, and Jabot were just too tough for 'em!

I don't recall any shortage of Cricket scenes in the summers of 1983 and 1984. I believe that she started modeling in the summer of 1983, and Ashley and Jack would have to pop into the photography studio periodically to assure her that she was the loveliest, most beautiful and most brilliant girl on the entire planet. By the summer of 1984, Jabot had built an entire modeling campaign around Cricket (the "Jabot Junior" line), which resulted in many more ghastly montages of Cricket frolicking with a beach ball during corny photo shoots. To reward the little model for being so incredibly beautiful and brilliant, Jack introduced Cricket to Danny Romalotti, who was her favorite singer (naturally). Traci, meanwhile, had gotten knocked-up by Tim Sullivan, and had decided to stick her head in the gas stove to kill herself. Cricket came bouncing along and saved Traci's life, and also offered her some health and beauty tips. This led to a whole storyline where Lauren was SEETHING with jealousy that Danny had married the pregnant Traci. (Lauren was afraid that Danny would start singing with Traci instead of with her, since Traci was a decent singer and Lauren wasn't, lol.) Amy Lewis, Gina Roma, and little Cricket were always on-hand to push the pregnant Traci out on stage to sing with Danny, which annoyed Lauren to no end and led to lots of catty lines from Lauren such as, "I doubt the public wants to see a fat frumpy wife singing with a hot guy like Danny!"

It's hard to get an idea of what kind of "writer" Maria Arena Bell really was. According to her biography, she's a novelist. How many of her novels have you ever read? How many of her novels have you ever even seen?! lol. I'm assuming that she's actually an "unpublished novelist", which puts her in the same basket with most of us --- nowhere. I always got the impression (perhaps mistakenly) that Maria Bell is merely a Beverly Hills socialite, a girl who breezes into occasional board meetings at the Museum of Contemporary Art, provided she's not in Paris shoe-shopping. (She's also billed as a "fashion consultant".) She never struck me as someone who's organized, disciplined, grounded, devoted to sitting in front of a word processor, thinking deep thoughts, and determining the best way to execute those ideas. She lacks the "introverted awkwardness" of a really good writer, who's normally preoccupied with his/her craft. She seemed more interested in globe-trotting, granting high-handed interviews, and appearing at red carpet events in hideously trendy shoes. Obviously Mrs. Bell (or someone on her staff) had visited various message boards or had read letters to the show, and she could clearly articulate what we (the fans) disliked most about Lynn Marie Latham's reign of terror. Mrs. Bell (or someone on her staff) knew what problems needed to be reversed, although the day-to-day execution itself of the writing was often bungled terribly. After a year or so of coasting along correcting problems, suddenly Mrs. Bell and her staff found themselves in WAY over their heads. I blamed Hogan Sheffer. It appeared to me that Mrs. Bell was an absentee dictator, a "name-only" writer/executive producer who stormed into the studio when her hectic schedule of board meetings, shoe-shopping, and overseas travel allowed, and screamed at everyone about what they were doing wrong. (Sort of a sado-masochistic dominatrix who didn't really know how to edit a script or turn on a computer.) Hogan Sheffer seemed like her overweight toadie, a man who sat under flourescent lights all day, cranking out ten zillion ideas, of which ONE might be decent and the remainder might be garbage. Mrs. Bell probably stood over his desk five minutes per week, reading through an exhausting summary of his lousy storyline ideas, and then finally just circling a few at random and then sighing heavily and muttering, "Follow through with the ones I've circled. I don't have time to think about it. I'm hosting a luncheon for Queen Noor at noon, and I'll be on Rodeo Drive this afternoon shopping for a cute but professional lavender blouse to wear to my next Museum board meeting." Whatever the circumstances were, she was a TERRIBLE show-runner, and her assistants didn't seem equipped to deal with her style of leadership. In my opinion, she was even worse than Lynn Marie Latham and Chuck Pratt --- simply because she KNEW what the fans wanted, but didn't have the time or the motivation or the talent to deliver it, and she couldn't be bothered to hire people who could.

Yeah, Kay Alden and Jack Smith pretty carefully created a need for Jabot to require some extra cash and to turn towards Nikki and Brad for the funding. It was all kind of integral to the storyline. Plus it gave Nikki a good opportunity to interact with Jill, and gave them some great lines that drew on their history. Jill: You only have a position here because you BOUGHT yourself a position. Nikki: And YOU only have a position here because you SLEPT your way into it. And then all of that got thrown away later in favor of NVP, Crystal Springs, and a stupid senate race.

I don't remember Victor showing any interest in Casey. I recall that they had some scenes together, where he was telling Casey that Julia needed a female friend. But Casey quickly overstepped and encouraged Julia to get a job, which annoyed Goat Daddy.

If you watch Lisa, Craig, and Betsy's scene with the volume off, it looks as though you're fast-forwarding, because Eileen Fulton's arms and hands and eyes are all moving at such break-neck speed.

Yep, Kay Chancellor rendered Casey obsolete in Nikki's life. And while Roberta Leighton obviously had more chemistry with David Hasselhoff than Lynn Topping (the new Chris) did, Snapper and Chris were sacred to Bill Bell, and he didn't wanna break them up. Like Eileen Davidson later on, Roberta Leighton was just one of those girls who sorta overpowered most of her male co-stars, which I felt was why she didn't work with Brock Reynolds, Lucas Prentiss, and Jonas NoName. She COULD have been an interesting character because the past abuse she suffered from her father, but after the initial revelation of Nick's abuse, Bell seemed shy about digging too deeply into that. And without that being explored, what the heck could you do with her, except just have her walk through a hospital room with a stethescope around her neck announcing, "She's holding her own for the moment, but she's not out of the woods yet." lol.

To be honest, Bill Bell couldn't think of anything to do with Casey Reed even in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when she was young and cute. I always liked Roberta Leighton and thought she was an interesting and sorta unusual actress, but Bell seemed to have a really difficult time writing for her. He brought her on the show basically to be an obstacle for NewSnapper & NewChris, but then decided he couldn't have Snapper boink anyone besides Chris. So then he sorta tossed Casey to Brock (didn't work), to Lucas Prentiss (didn't work), to Jonas (didn't work), and then out the door. There was a LOT that could've been done with Casey (specifically the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father Nick and her resulting iciness towards men), but Bell was a whole lot more interested in showing us Nikki being boinked by college professors to increase her GPA and boinked by drop-outs to up her self-esteem and getting VD. He just didn't seemed invested in Casey. Then Roberta Leighton botoxed & collagened herself half to death, and that was about the end of that, lol.