trainman

There are sooooooooo many early ( / earlier) episodes better than this one from '86. Ugh....

If they don't show this stuff now, when exactly will they ever? Answer... Likely never. If they would just start putting their library of very old episodes up on CBS Streaming, I bet they would get a whole lot more subscribers, but I'm not holding my breath that I'm going to see that anytime in my lifetime.

Nice to see a 1986 ep. coming up, but it's still not early enough. I want to see a creepy Edward episode, one of Victor's bomb shelter prison, crazy Suzanne Lynch, early Brock, the Pete Walker mob, and a few others. All very good stuff and much better than some of the more recent yawners they've been showing.

If they're going to keep ignoring the older eps, then I'm gone. I don't need to see stuff that I've already seen. Paul, Nikki, Katherine, Victor, and various portrayals of Jill go way back, but it doesn't even matter if anyone from today is tied to the older eps or not. It's still all a part of Y&R history, and if good material, then worth watching.

Today's US episode is pretty decent for showing rarely seen parts of the expanded Newman Ranch set (the old one) hosting a gala, and then Kevin as he's about to light Gina's on fire, which used to be Jonas' and Pierre's prior to that, dating back to the start of Y&R.

Anyone hoping to see some really early Y&R should check out the three videos from 1980 this YouTube user posted... https://www.youtube.com/user/togatx/videos. This was around the time that I started watching if not a bit sooner. Another noteworthy one, but from 1974... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d-qh1wYJHo

I can think of a whole slew of early episodes that are far more entertaining than what they've been giving us so far, with a few exceptions. Just give me access to the archives, CBS, and I'll start throwing them together... "'70s flashback", "Best of the '80s", "Climatic endings", "Paul's early days", "Nikki's early days", "Lost loves", etc. So I may have to edit for time, but it can be done. 🙂

I really hope they aren't going to ignore the '70s & '80s episodes completely (except for the Victor & Nikki one) before regular eps resume. Once in a lifetime chance to see the best of the early stuff.

I really miss Beau Kazer (Brock) and of course Jeanne Cooper.

LOL. Good to know. There is so much I missed from the early years, or would love to see again. An episode or two of Victor's bomb shelter basement being one of them.

I wonder how much of Y&R from the '70s was actually saved by CBS? All of it? Some of it? I've never heard one way or the other, but have heard that certain other soaps, especially from the early days, have been lost forever.

Thank you. From what I saw, the 1981 episode is the the 2nd highest rated repeat thus far, in terms of the week-long repeats. They should take that as a clue to dig deeper into the archives, rather than just sit on them forever. Late 1970's through early '80s were some of my favorites.

Where can I find the ratings for repeat episodes? How well did the 1981 ep do compared with the others thus far?

It's pretty sad. Even in the 1981 episode description on CBS streaming, it only mentioned Victor & Nikki, not even bothering to say that Lorie, Lance, Vanessa, and April & Barbara's family were even in the episode.

No, I've never heard that version. It may have been specially made for a certain episode(s), or an episode(s) with extended end credits if they had extra time to kill. Hard to say. That version is not in the released "Bless the Beasts and Children" movie soundtrack, but maybe still in the movie? I wouldn't know.

Hopefully they go back further in time to the early '80s again or earlier. The show had a lot of great stuff back then. The '90s and '00s gets old fast. I loved the attention to detail in the attic, over the top as it was. Now that they totally screwed-up the downstairs set (present-day), the house has completely lost it's feel of Kay's history there.

Many thanks for guiding me in the direction of those episodes, YRfan23, especially the Kansas ones. Never thought I'd see them again. Thanks also for the kind words on the review. Glad I could help. I was told by someone that TPTB cleaned house of those old music cues years ago, and they were bought by an interested party, who remains a mystery. I just wish I could figure out what the name of the old western movie is, where SOME old the old cues came from... Oh, well.

Going back to the 1981 episode a minute (Vanessa, Barbara, April, etc.), the thing that made it work for me was the music, as this was back before they started replacing the classic music cues, which started in earnest in early 1982 (and it's all been downhill from there). While the creepy / Gothic cues used for Vanessa weren't originally from Y&R (borrowed from CBS TV series "Ghost Story" a.k.a. "Circle of Fear"), I still consider them to be classic Y&R cues, as they worked so well, and they worked their way through almost the entire library of those evil cues for Vanessa in that single episode. Incidentally, I wrote a review on Amazon one time where I presented my research on where most of the "classic" music cues originated from. You can read that here... https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RFOVS391L6X4L/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00000663I Another thing I liked about this early episode was that it focused on some of the more "real life" down-on-their-luck characters (Barbara, April, their folks), who a lot of regular working class viewers could relate to, something the show doesn't really do much of anymore. All of the rest of the week's "Vic & Nik" episodes I didn't care for, because those were from the days after Y&R had drastically changed. Old episodes I would like to see again... The one where Victor is walking lost through the Kansas countryside, stops at a little bridge over a creek to reflect upon life, then eventually finds his way down a dirt road to Hope's farm. Paul & Carl following Cassandra and lover to some island resort. Paul, Andy & Carl taking down Pete Walker & mob at a farmhouse, and maybe some of what led up to that. Jack (Terry Lester) and Carl trying to set up Patti after she shot Jack. ...and then especially episodes prior to 1982... Victor holding Michael Scott in the basement bomb shelter. Derek Thurston's pistol duel with Douglas. Katherine in a veil, revealing to Brock that she's still alive after fire at the mansion. Nikki vs. creepy neighbor Edward. ...among others. I wasn't watching much sooner than that, but am sure I missed a lot of great stuff.

The 1981 episode was back when Y&R was still in it's prime, with all of the classic music cues still in play. In 1982, they started to introduce some music which just didn't seem to mingle well, and it's all been slowly downhill from there.