trainman

It was funny seeing both Ellen Weston (who played Kay's enemy Suzanne Lynch in the late '70s), and Jeanne Cooper on last night's 1974 rerun of "The Night Stalker", episode "The Devil's Platform" on METV. No scenes together though.

Nice to see a 1982 episode! I recall I really hated the story with Claire. It bored me to tears. It was funny hearing Jill talk about giving the Abbott house a makeover. Here we are about 40 years later and still no makeover. Of course, we've all seen what can happen when TPTB try to makeover an iconic set. The "upgrades" to the Newman and Chancellor sets were pretty disastrous!! I just saw the promo for the Edward story climax, and was surprised I could actually see that clip again. Someone should save that to the vault. I really enjoyed that story because of how well the Edward actor played the part. I recall one part of the story being an on-location shoot of Nikki and Edward going on a picnic, but don't recall the particulars. I also recall his conversations with "mother"... One of the creepier creeps in the history of Y&R! I wish more would turn up about Victor's bomb shelter, Kay haunting Suzanne Lynch, Douglas and Derek's duel, among many others.

Never thought I'd see any of these scenes. What I'd really like to see at some point are the first scenes showing how the Williams family was introduced.

So glad to see this, plus the other small number of complete '70s episodes in the vault.

I'm not a fan of modern-day Y&R. That being said, I'd like to see Y&R switch to airing four new episodes a weeks, with Fridays being classic episodes only, hopefully going back into the half hour eps even, and simply piece them together, like they did with the first two. As for the new eps, speed up the storytelling, and go back to the Bill Bell style of storytelling of moving things along, rather than being stuck in endless loops forever.

The 1980 clips never get old. Wish I could see more from that year, plus late '70s and '81.

If they ever get smart and re-post classics for their subscriber service, I hope they'll be the full un-edited versions. Not holding my breath though.

Any long-time viewers know if Vince (Rose's sidekick) in clips 124 - 126 is the same sidekick (and same actor) she had back in the late '70s?

I think that was a story gimmick that was used from time to time, to redeem certain characters, and then have them get drawn back into their old ways (Victor was redeemed briefly when he went to Kansas / Kay's battle with the bottle and on-off feud with Jill). As for the purge, I don't know if we can include Brock, since he left in late '86, but was basically swapped-out with Phillip Jr. Brock returned in 1988 and stayed through 1992, then returned in 1999 before departing in 2003. He had appeared occasionally since then. Matt Miller was more or less swapped out with the return of Douglas in early '87. Michael Evans (Douglas) was a favorite of Ed Scott's as well as Melody Thomas Scott.

Oh, wow! Deborah Adair briefly appears as Jill in 1986 clip 119. Secondly... Has anyone seen the “Stories Behind the Stories” videos that Doug Davidson posted a little ways back on his Instagram account? The videos are broken into parts, and chronicle a lot of behind the scenes stuff that was going on during Doug's involvement with the Cassandra Rawlins storyline. Interesting stuff. Links below... Episode 1: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAyKR0_AcRG/ Episode 2: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBWO3I1gFlW/ Episode 3: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBn3QQYBZ2T/ Episode 4: https://www.instagram.com/p/CB5-cGNF6Yj/ Episode 5: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCLh0z3hUj-/ Episode 6: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCdiis-Bwna/ Episode 7: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCvhokrh2Gi/ Episode 8: https://www.instagram.com/p/CDBe6hyh9CA/ He also gave some background on the other actors involved in that story, including his TV parents Carolyn Conwell (Mary) and Brett Hadley (Carl). He even posted a recent photo of Hadley, still going strong at 89...

Thanks for the history lesson. I just vaguely remember a lot of it.

Well I see the '86 clips are still rolling along. '86 was a good year for Y&R. I wonder if we'll get into 1987... I don't recall '87 being a particularly exciting year. I just remember that Douglas returns, Matt leaves, Nikki fakes being ill, Rose comes back again, and then there's the whole Nikki & Jack / Victor & Ash story, but I really can't recall what else was going on.

haha. Nice!

I remember Douglas courting Kay, but nothing before that, so this is fun for me to read. I recall the pistol duel between Douglas and Derek on the Chancellor Estate grounds (filmed outdoors, not on set). I think Victor and Kay were there as witnesses. I don't recall the outcome, but obviously both survived.

When Matt showed up in '85, that was at the same time Douglas left Y&R for a couple of years (as well as Jack & Katherine briefly absent). I think Bill Bell brought Matt in because Victor suddenly had very few people in his world to talk to. I always felt that Matt was the "Y&R payroll switch" for Douglas (Michael Evans moved on to a different soap for a while ~ Capitol?), and after Matt left, Douglas returned in '87, minus "Boobsie". IIRC, Douglas and Matt never shared a scene together.

Looks like the uploader went back and corrected a few previous clips that had some bad tracking / interference lines. They look a lot better now. I noticed #070a, 070b, and 071a are new & improved versions. The only problem is that the people who recorded back then are likely in their late 50's to 70's by now, many of which probably know very little about transferring and uploading tapes, but we can always hope. VCR ownership wasn't really all that common until the early '80s too, and add to that, how many of them still own a working VCR, especially the BETA format, but again, miracles do happen. 🙂

Summer '85 is also the time when Brock returned for a while, during a time when Katherine was "out of town" for a while, also when Terry Lester was absent for a bit. Seems I recall they had Brock being friendly with Gina, Ashley & Jill, but they were all just friends. Seems like he disappeared again about a year later, then made several more returns later on, some lengthy, some brief.

Why did they get married in the Brooks house?

Lorie went out on top. Too bad she didn't stay longer.

Even though they both act as though they've met before, I don't recall ever seeing them interact before this point, unless it was something brief from long before this even. It might just be set up that way, like they were already aware of each other in the business world. As far as I know, these are the first scenes together on screen, unless someone recalls something earlier. EDIT... 60b has what I think are probably some of the final scenes of the Foster house, well into late 1984.

So now it looks like we're getting into scenes of the Newman - Abbott worlds colliding for the first time. In 1984 clip 060b, Nikki (substitute Nikki due to illness) is starting to get into it with Jack. As I recall, Victor and Jack scenes came not long after that, and the rest is history.

Also Casey Reed, Brock comes home (loved that scene), and Eve Howard.

It was nice to look back on these photos / articles. Question about Vanessa... What was the deal with her veil, anyway? To hide her scars from some accident or fire? Was she wearing it from the beginning? At some point, she stopped wearing it. Did she supposedly have cosmetic surgery to improve her appearance?

Yeah, that was painfully bad writing with the booby-trapped office. Glad they wrapped that story up in short order.

I know what you mean about "older scenes looking better". Today, with high-def cameras, there is almost way too much detail, for me at least. I guess it's a personal preference. Some sets look beautiful in high-def. Others should maybe be a little less so and more mysterious.