vetsoapfan

This is dreadful. I have not had access to the series for a long time, so I cannot watch it any longer. The "older characters," therefore, remain forefront in my mind. Killing off an iconic character like Annie, the original hub of the wheel, may be inevitable, but NOW? When a respectful and full-blown tribute to the actress and the character will be basically impossible. What a bitter disappointment.

I have two VHS tapes of this...somewhere. Unfortunately, they were not among the tons of material I sent to a friend, which he later digitized for internet purposes. If I find the tapes, and if they are still playable, I'll let you know.

She was there at the beginning of the story, and then sort of "petered out" (yikes, bad pun!) as it went on. It was weird. Chris and Snapper were on a vendetta to get rapist Ron Becker, and they became a focal part of the action. Several weeks went by without anyone in the family even saying Peggy's name. That "someone" might have been me, LOL. Peggy put in a brief appearance on the day that the Brooks sisters gathered at their parents' house when Jennifer died. As the other three sisters were comforting each other, we saw Peggy running out of the living room. That was at the end of one episode. At the beginning of the next one, Chris asked, "Where's Peg?" Lorie replied that Peggy was unable to handle the situation, and had left. It was quite...glaring that the actress/character was not used throughout the saga surrounding her mother's death. All the other sisters were featured prominently. (Pam Peters had appeared on another episode a while earlier, on the day of Stuart's and Jennifer's 30th wedding anniversary, however.) She appeared at the beginning of the trial, but was glaringly absent later on as the story unfolded. I always wondered if TPTB gave her another chance in later years because SO MANY of the original actors were leaving, and the show needed familiar faces on board. Patricia Everly was a dud. (Aside from Jess Walton, Y&R did not have a lot of success recasting core characters.) Actually, another thing that bothered me about Peggy's rape trial: the courtroom was basically empty. Chris was there one day when she came to testify, but in general, none of Peggy's family attended. I was used to the P&G soaps, which always had the courthouse benches packed with familiar characters whenever there was a trial. I wondered if it was a budget consideration for Y&R; if the show did not want to pay for leading actors just to sit silently in the background.

Pam Peters was gone a great deal of the time in 1976 and 1977. Anthony Herrera said that at one point, while filming, she looked directly into the camera, announced, "I don't understand this scene!" and simply walked out. Her absence during Peggy's rape trial (!!!) and during important moments regarding Jennifer Brooks' death suggested to me that the actress had issues on set.

I have read more than one interview in which Bell confirmed that saving all the episodes was mandated in his original contract when he created the show. My memory bank is too clogged with data to remember the specific titles or dates of those interviews, however.

Right. It is only NOW that many of my decades-old videotapes and audiotapes are being digitized and shared on the internet, by technology-savvy people who know how to do it. Had it been left up to me, all my vintage material would probably have withered away and remained unseen by other fans, because I just did not have the equipment and the know-how to share it on-line. Thank heavens for hardworking friends who do! As soap fans, we all win when we share rare or long-lost videos!

That's why the revisited Steve and Alice story bombed. (To be fair, even though the writing was weak, David Canary was a fine actor, and had he been paired with Jacquie Courtney, there might have been some sparks there. But with bad writing, a "new" Steve, a tepid Alice, and careless misuse of history, it was all doomed to fail.)

I think TPTB tried, but there were issues with the actress.

UGH, two of the worst writers to hit daytime TV.

I have uploaded the first four years' worth of story synopses (as well as lots of other early Y&R goodies) in my Vetsoapfan's Treasure Trove: Vintage Soap Material. They are on page three. And just for clarification purposes: the sleazy photographer who tried to lure Jill and Chris into "erotic" modelling was Michael Gregory, the first Rick Webber on GH, not Chris Robinson (who was Rick Webber number two). I remember that episode soooooo well. I was shocked when Chris strode out of his office in indignant rage, but Jill hung around and went back in, offering her services to him. I thought, "Liz Foster would have a STROKE! And Snapper would be MURDEROUS!" Another memorable episode was when Jill accompanied one of her clients, Gwen Sherman, to the "cathouse" on the edge of town where Gwen worked. Wouldn't you know it, while Jill was checking out the establishment, Snapper arrived at the front door to hook up with a prostitute. He took one look at Jill, became enraged, and smacked his sister right across the face. (Of course, his hypocrisy was glaring!)

The Chris/Snapper romance, Chris' rape, etc., were stories told during the show's first few months, and Bell was justifiably proud of the excellent work he was doing. I understand him being discouraged at not having stellar ratings instantly, but as a writer who had been working on soaps since the 1950s, he should have known to be patient. ATWT, AW and DAYS (series he had written prior to Y&R) ALL took a year or two before their ratings began to climb significantly. How dumb to talk about cancelling a show that was making him money and was less than a year old. He's lucky the network showed more patience than Bell did. Yikes!

Oh yes, I remember Bell saying that the initial ratings disappointed him, but CBS was satisfied because they knew that every new soap opera takes a while to build up its audience. Bell remarked that all the shows he had ever written had become highly successful in the ratings and he expected the same for Y&R. IIRC, by 1975, it had already ascended to the top three (behind ratings powerhouses ATWT and AW), which was remarkable. The writers' strike saw most soaps' writing take a nose-dive, but when Bill Bell was at the helm, Y&R was amazing. Soap fans were so fortunate to have him and other master writers (Agnes Nixon, Harding Lemay, Henry Slesar, Claire Labine, Pat Falken Smith, Douglas Marland, etc.) at the top of their game in the 1970s. Today, none of the remaining soaps has a truly talented headwriter.

Please do try and find that interview. I've read and watched many interviews with him over the decades, and only heard him sing the show's praises. It would be fascinating to read an article in which he hoped his own show and money-making machine would get axed. (I'm not being snarky or sarcastic; I'd really like to see that.)

Yep, that certainly is true: the internet can be awash with...((ahem))...interesting people. 🤣

I have literally never heard any rumors about Bill Bell being unhappy with the first year of the show. Indeed, the only comments I have ever read and heard from him were about how proud he was of Y&R during its debut season and how successful it was. When the show was not instantly at the top of the ratings, some fans wrote into the soap magazines wondering if it might be cancelled, but Bell was quoted as saying that CBS was happy with the show's steadily-increasing ratings and there was no concern about cancellation. I DO recall Bell saying that if he could do the early years over again, with a significantly higher budget and all the advantages of modern technology, he would love to see what it would look like. As for the Bell/Conboy feud, I do believe it's well documented that Bill and Conboy had issues working together. Particularly after Conboy wanted Bell replaced, LOL. But their differences aside, what the two men produced together on-screen during the 1970s was soap magic. Who claims Bill Bell hated his own show? That contradicts all the print and video interviews I've ever read and seen with him discussing and praising its first years. I've only ever read that he would have liked to see what those early episodes would look like if they could have been done on a much-higher budget and using more modern filming techniques. The show did not move at a glacial pace in 1973 at all. Indeed, part of its appeal was that viewers applauded how fast the stories moved, and that you HAD to watch every day to keep up (which was a genius move on the show's part; forcing viewers to watch more regularly and therefore become more attached). It only took Chris and Snapper nine months to make it down the aisle. Contrast that that Bell's Days of Our Lives, in which it took Laura and Bill Horton...nine YEARS, LOL). Yes, during the 1970s, the show was really on fire and it revolutionized the soap opera genre. Today it is bland, listless and generic (admittedly, like all the other soaps still on the air). What a shame.

But if another youtuber has his very own copy of the same episode, and shares that on-line, it has nothing to do with the original uploader at all.

I agree: Dwyer was the matriarch of the show and an original cast member; killing off Mary Matthews was a huge mistake and forever damaged the core and structure of the show. I have a feeling Hugh Marlowe was starting to have memory problems in the mid-1970s. He was fine when he first began on AW, but as time passed, he started flubbing his lines more and more, looking lost in the middle of scenes, and generally giving weak performances. He allegedly blamed Virginia Dwyer for his on-set problems (or so Lemay claims), but to viewers it was clear that something was going on with Marlowe himself.

Yep. In its early years, I was interested in every single actor and character on the show. When I look at the four remaining soaps today, I'd be happy to axe 2/3 of the actors/characters.

As a longtime fan of William J. Bell, I was eager to see the launch of his new show in 1973. I knew the writing would be good. But besides the writing, I was amazed at everything else too: the cast, the direction, the sets, the BACKGROUND MUSIC...everything. The show clicked right off the bat, and had none of the difficult growing pains that challenge almost all new soap operas. Of the debut cast, Brenda Dickson seemed to be the greenest at first, but she melded well with her cast mates and didn't exhibit the campiness that she later became known for. Janice Lynde was not the first actress hired to play Leslie Brooks. The show had originally cast a singer/actress named Mary Grover in the role. But after a few weeks, shortly before the show debuted on television, Bill Bell felt an emergency recast was necessary. Lynde was hired at the last minute and had two weeks' worth of episodes to film in just a few days. That must have been a nightmare, but she pulled it off, and Lynde went on to be mesmerizing in the role. Mary Grover: That early cast of Y&R was just...on fire.

Because I am so totally hopeless with anything to do with technology, I have foolishly gone far too long without transferring all my ancient videotapes and audiotapes to modern formats. Fortunately, by my sending stuff to Eddie Drueding and @billbauer, those fine gentlemen have done the "heavy lifting" and been good enough to share many of my vintage soap episodes on-line with other fans. A huge chunk of the credit goes to them. And yes: contrary to what a petulant Harding Lemay contended, Jacqueline Courtney was great on AW. It's my pleasure, although the majority of the credit must go to Eddie Drueding, who agreed to digitize my tape and then share it on his excellent AW page!

If anyone is interested, I recently sent Eddie Drueding of the AW Homepage my ancient tape of the tenth anniversary of AW, the first hour-long episode which featured the second marriage of Alice Matthews and Steven Frame. It was broadcast on May 3, 1974. I had no way to digitize the tape, myself, but Eddie managed to make a pretty decent transfer, which he has uploaded to his website. http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/tenthanniversary.html

Apparently, some folks feel that if they upload an episode first and put their personal watermark on it, the episode become theirs. I know. 🤔 I makes no sense to me, either.🙄

Thank you very much. I appreciate the heads up!

ITA. Where rare vintage episodes are concerned, I am always grateful to uploaders for offering us the material in any way they can, but it's always more enjoyable to watch the episodes in full, rather than in chopped-up, sequential segments. A youtube host does not acquire the rights to episodes simply by uploading them to the internet first, or even by putting his personal "watermark" on them. If another fan has a higher-quality (or a complete) copy of a specific episode, posting that one on-line as well only benefits soap viewers as a whole. Why would it even be a "problem" that two copies of the same video existed on youtube? Right, the problem with making youtube videos "private" is that you can only allow a maximum of 50 (I believe) people to view them. Those 50 people must have youtube accounts of their own and be authorized individually by the uploader. It's unnecessary work and inconvenience for a generous uploader whose goal was simply to share "soap goodness" with other fans.

Can some kind soul please DM me the link to the first two episodes from 1973? This is the first time in a decade that I am kicking myself for not having cable TV!