DeeeDee

They were fine.

Nothing offensive or patronizing.

That didn't really occur until Brenda.

Not really.

It was a character based story.

Bill fell in love with Victor.

Backstage drama. Long story.

She wasn't bad she just wasn't Jill.

Not even that long.

Lillibet. But the whole thing was dropped due to drama.

Very close.

Patty was pretty much an extra.

No Cole wouldn't have & Eve dying was fine.

Both.

Disgusting agendas are the reason Keemo is & remains MIA.

Billy/Mackenzie should've stayed together. Chloe should've been paired with Phillip.

If Bill Bell were still writing The Abbotts would still be frontburner & The Newmans wouldn't be ruined.

They were as different as Sofia & Leslie.

Nope. Bill was fond of some actors so it wasn't really a surprise.

He was fine but not enough for a return

Pretty much.

Cramer was a character actor not a leading man.

and that they banked so much on Shari.

She was youngish & Y&R wanted to SEX Ashley up so the show kept propping her until it became readily apparent she wasn't going to work.

Was it because she was married to Ronn Moss?

Mainly. It also was easier for them to write Ashley as a perpetual teenager (which really began the ruination of the character) with her in the part.

Do you know what the story was supposed to be with the short-lived Grant Cramer character, the lab guy, they first threw Shari at?

They were supposed to have a sparring to love relationship but it was dropped (thankfully).

Did the Kurt Costner story play out as planned or was it cut short?

It was cut very short. He was meant to be a lead but because Shari didn't have chemistry with him (or anyone else) he was paired with Hope & eventually banished. Which was sad cause Leigh brought some much needed normalcy to Y&R.

Do you think that the writing for it was good, however? Meaning, bad premise/story, but at least the writing was solid? And did the characters ever recover from it?

The writing had moments but not enough to mitigate the bus all three women went under for Victor. From a technical standpoint it was a fairly structurally sound umbrella story that went on for years but it also damaged so many characters so thoroughly it wasn't worth it. Plus now that Kyle & Abby aren't even the same age it renders the original whole story even more irrelevant.

This has probably already been addressed, but how seriously did Bill Bell consider curing Hope's blindness?

Very seriously. Her disability was always treated with the utmost respect. Except when she & Victor were fighting about if she should have Adam.

Did they write her out because they decided not to do the story?

No. She was written out because Bill decided (stupidly) to focus on Shari more than her. So Shari was propped while Signy was let go.

I was annoyed at how casually they killed off poor Cliff,

Indeed.

He was a genuine good guy.

Yep.

I believe she was kind of a replacement to the character Amy

Not at all.

So who was that "mysterious" woman who bought Cole/Nina/Ryan/Victoria to dinner?

Nobody. It was dropped.

Kyle Brandt on Passions?

[Katherine Chancellor] Dear God In Heaven [/Katherine Chancellor]

That was also one of the first stories I saw ED's Ashley then, so it kind of tainted her version of the character for me.

Eileen's return from B&B was the exact same thing. She's the definitive Ashley but her popularity is wasted by being forced to constantly prop Grambo.

I wish Bill Bell had had a chance to lay out, in detail, what the plan for Blade and Blade/Ashley was.

The original plan for them was a new start for Ashley. Blade was someone who didn't lie to her like Victor but still had an edge.

The problem with Blade/Ashley was Micheal Tylo (an actor like Peter Reckell would've been great in the part). Also while Blade was fairly interesting Brenda's Ashley was too soft for that relationship hence constant Mari Jo. He was solid with Jill (Jess has chemistry with EVERYONE) but with Brenda's Ashley Tylo was out of place. By the time Brenda went on maternity leave they were basically done.

I just hated the idea of women fighting over being pregnant by him, and I thought it made Ashley look incredibly pathetic. I see that story as the start of the Victor worship that went on to devour the show.

Amen.

That story nearly ruined EVERYONE involved. The only story on any soap that comes close to how much damage it did to a show as a whole & all characters involved is the Bianca/Babe babyswitch on AMC.

Cole & Ashley didn't divorce until the fall.

Again though Cole & Ashley could've worked if a competent actress was playing Ashley.

It's like Sofia now. A lot of the reason the character is unsuccessful is because Julia Pace is not believable as high powered corporate businesswoman.

The funny thing is at the time I didn't mind Shari Ashley and Cole. I think it might have been because she was so horrible with everyone that he at least calmed her down.

The thing that made them intolerable was it was COMPLETELY out of character for Cole to fall for her. Had a competent actress been playing Ashley the pairing might've been tolerable but the whole thing just made Cole into a massive jerk & made her look totally desperate.

I remember just hating her when she was yapping about Jack and Diane, and Dina, and such. She was so unsympathetic.

She would bulldoze scenes like a schnauzer with rabies. Then she would start smacking her lips & trying to look sexy while poor JEP stood there like a statue. [Katherine Chancellor] Dear God In Heaven [/Katherine Chancellor] it was disgusting.

It's hard to imagine a man like Cole ever being on Y&R today.

Going from JEP to Daniel Goddard is just so much fail.