DeeeDee

I know she always hated Lorie, but what where her feelings towards Leslie?

Vanessa hated them both but saw Leslie as the lesser of two evils.

How exactly did Leslie leave the show?

Leslie left by going on a concert tour in Europe.

Was Jill/Derek/Katherine as somewhat odd as when Rex left Katherine/Marge to marry Jill?

No.

Jill & Rex was based on real feelings (though more from Jill than Rex) whereas Katherine & Derek only remained together via guilt, her neediness & his greed.

Did Katherine ever have feelings for John beyond friendship during the blackmail years of 1984-86?

Nope.

Despite being friends since they were younger they remained platonic (except the skinny dipping)

Jeff wasn't strong enough to Lead (though LaDue wasn't either).

I remember hearing about the meeting, and wasn't there the traech thing. I keep wondering what might have been with characters like Lorie and Jill seriously interacting (of course this was when they were quasi-heroines wasn't it?).

By the time Stuart & Jill married Lorie & Leslie had their own issues as did Chris.

Peggy was NOT happy about Jill & they had a couple of really good scenes together but a lot of that was unfortunately dropped once Katherine "died" & Jill became obsessed with Derek. Again.

It wasn't until JLB left that Jill really became Y&R's Lead vixen though (which she had pretty much grown into by the time she married John).

So was Derek played by other actors or just LaDue?

Briefly by Jeff Cooper then Joe LaDue

I wonder why they didn't have more between Jill and the Brooks sisters when she was married to Stuart.

They did.

One of the best Y&R moments ever was The Brooks girls having a (hilarious) war meeting about Jill after she first married Stuart.

I wonder if they had any other plans to keep this David around or if he was just filling time.

It was a very sweet story but Bill never had plans for it.

At the time he was slowly trying to make Jill a Lead which he did with Derek & Stuart.

Do you think it worked?

Nope.

Beau Kayser (like Earl Hindman) struggled with onscreen romantic relationships.

It's hard to believe Katherine and Jill spent, what, 2-3 years fighting over Derek?

Exactly.

Especially given Joe LaDue was NOT sexy. At all.

Was this just filler to help the audience get more used to Victoria Mallory while easing Brad out?

Yep.

Jill did nails.

Eric looks better with extra weight.

The difference between Jill & Nikki? Agency.

I've always wondered why Beau Kayzer didn't stay permanetly as Brock

Beau is a real sweetie (he basically plays himself) but after his first stint he didn't want to stay with Y&R permanently.

He's never minded guest stints (the very definition of a company guy) & TPTB have a lot of respect for him.

You mean that they wouldn't fit in the new storylines or that they represented a very different Y&R era?

Both.

There's a reason shows like Dynasty & Falcon Crest could exist in the 80's but not the 90's.

a lot of the actors you mentioned were gone.

Yep.

It was for the best though & Bill was extremely lucky with new cast members like Terry Lester, Eric Braeden, Meg Bennett & especially MTS.

Braeden (like Geary) is given most of the credit for Y&R's current success but like Genie it was MTS that really carried things.

Did they pair him up with someone else, or try, after Lorie/Leslie?

He had brief relationships with Casey & Karen but mainly was a shoulder for Leslie & Lorie.

Do you think there were any major cast members from Y&R's first decade who could have adapted to the new format if they'd had the chance?

John McCook, Tom Ligon, Anthony Herrera, Kay Heberle & Donnelly Rhodes.

William Grey Espy & James Houghton could've adapted too had they stayed.

I know she was more in the "new" era, but I thought Meg Bennett was pretty good in that embarrassing cameo she had during Victor's big stud tour.

Meg is a perfect example of adapting (as are Beau Kayzer & Roberta Leighton).

What was it about?

Bill & Dorothy were having problems.

I thought Lorie's return might have worked better if they hadn't had her mooning over Victor. I didn't like that at all. I also felt like Sam Behrens kind of stuck out like a sore thumb for some reason.

JLB is a lot like Brenda Dickson's Jill in that they were fine for what they were but unable to adapt to current Y&R.

Sam Behrens couldn't carry JLB & didn't have any chemistry with MTS.

I wonder if Lorie would have worked without her family?

No.

By the time JLB left Lorie had become obsolete.

Which was painfully apparent when she returned years later.

Do you think it was a mistake to kill off Jennifer Brooks?

Yep.

But that was more about other stuff than the actual story.

Jill definitely loved John. That's always been consistent.

i always found Quinn Redecker a little annoying as Rex

Best Katherine relationship by a mile.

Amy was never officially written out

She was.

Brian Anders

Brian Forbes.

I know she had the stuff with Marc and then with Victor's brother.

Ashley's only serious relationship before Victor was Eric.

Was Matt supposed to be a bigger character?

Yep.

Unfortunately he didn't have any chemistry with Eileen or MTS.

I didn't know Nina or Cricket sang.

They didn't.

But given the ever increasing size of the concerts characters like Nathan & Cricket would be involved in non singing capacities.

Victor respecting a woman's intelligence...you can tell that was a long time ago.

Touche.

Victor has always been chauvinistic but it didn't get really bad until Jack Smith took over.

Prior to that it was kept in (relative) check.

I just can't picture Jill/Victor, because of the way Victor treats women

Victor/Jill was quite a bit different.

He respected her intelligence & she liked his drive.

It was about as equal a friendship (with a woman) Victor would ever have prior to Hope & Diane.

but I wish I could see more of her at Y&R, as Amy seems to be the precursor to Y&R having heroines like Olivia.

Amy was much more fun & definitely less repressed than Olivia.

What was her story with Paul? Just friendship I guess.

She was his Girl Friday (in a cute way not an obsessive stalker way like Laura Birn).

They were a great match (visually as well as chemistry) with Doug in his pastel jackets & Stephanie with her ponytails.

I can't remember if they played up the Nathan/Paul friendship later on or not.

They did.

All the way up until Nathan died.

By the end it was, what, Gina, Danny, Lauren, Traci...? I guess probably Faren too?

At various times it was Danny, Gina, Lauren, Traci, Amy, Nathan, Cricket, Paul & Faren.

I think the idea is interesting but she's definitely not Victor's type.

Which is what made it awesome given they had quite a bit of chemistry.

Bill dropped them too quick & unfortunately softened Jill too much toward the end.

I was going to ask what you all thought of the rock concert stuff in the 80s

Annoying.

Mainly because the concerts were SUCH involved processes (in terms of production) they would last entire weeks.

It wasn't so bad initially when just Michael Damian & Patty Weaver would sing but by the time EVERYONE got into the act with increasingly elaborate concerts it was just overkill.

And also what you thought of the character Stephanie Williams played. Do you wish she'd been used more?

Amy was adorable.

Stephanie Williams was (and still is) beautiful & had a LOT of personality.

Amy actually had more chemistry with Doug Davidson than Nathan Purdee but given interracial relationships were rare back then (the more things change) she never got a chance like her co stars to really grow.

By the time she actually did start to get more to do Y&R let her go.

I never knew until I read some Digests from 1986 that Terry Lester quit the show for a while. Did you miss him? Do you think that decreased his standing at the show and was a reason why he was given less to do after his return?

Terry was AMAZING.

Like Jeanne he was able to do horrible things yet the audience loved him so much more for it.

He also never cheated (like say Judith Chapman) to get unearned sympathy.

He just played the beats & it worked.

While there were definitely rough times Terry as an actor didn't really hit a wall until the very end of his run.

By the time Brenda left & Lauralee grew really popular it became clear he was over it which is a shame cause he was easily every bit as good as actors like Larry Bryggman, Justin Deas, David Canary, Charles Keating & Michael Zaslow.

Just curious, but what were Ashley's early stories between 1982-1985?

Working at Jabot, fighting with Jack & Traci, dealing with Dina (and Brent) & her relationship with Eric.

but it didn't seem she had much story until she got involved with Victor

Ashley was very popular & had quite a bit of story before Victor.

Nikki/Victor/Ashley was the climax (which unfortunately has never ended).

how was Raphael exactly related to Ashley?

Stepsiblings.

how sinister Katherine is in these clips as opposed to her sainthood nowadays

Katherine became a saint after the horrible Mother/Daughter "twist.

It's been all downhill since then.

although growing a bit stretched

Not really.

It wasn't until the end of Victor being shot that Jill & Katherine noticeably slowed down in terms of story.

A that only really lasted about a year & a half (which in reality isn't much overall).

I guess I was thinking of most of the 90s...it seemed like from about 93-97 or so. Rex was killed, which was a brief story, then she just had stuff like Kurt's intro, getting another facelift, and the brawl with Jill in the courthouse after she testified in favor of John in the custody fight.

That was all fairly heavy.

She had Esther's love life, Rex's death, a breast cancer scare, then was a heavy part of John & Jill's marriage/eventual custody battle as well as Danny/Cricket/Paul/Giggly/Gina's issues in addition to her side stories (facelift, Dina/John, Nikki, Kurt/Ashley Nina/Ryan/Phillip).

It wasn't only after Who Shot Victor climaxed that Katherine struggled & that was only cause Bill was busy trying to make Jill/Keith work which led directly into their house fight.

I wish I could see this Allison. She seems like a rare character for the older group - usually the older women on the show, aside from Flo, were more long-suffering.

Alison was interesting cause she was a cross between Tammy Grimes & Stephanie Beacham's Sable Colby.

The irony is (much like with Jill/Nina/Chloe) a lot of the things Nikki has said to Sharon are things Alison said about (and to) Nikki.

Flo is who Gloria should be (and was to a certain extent with JVA).

I guess that wasn't much of a triangle then with Katherine/Earl/Allison. This must have been one of those times they weren't sure where to take Katherine.

The triangle wasn't bad it was just that Alison was much more fun alone (especially with Nikki) than in a relationship.

Plus Mark Tapscott wasn't strong enough to be paired with Jeanne.

It was like watching Clint Howard & Eileen Heckart.

Katherine has had so many long runs without story

Not really.

Katherine is one of the few characters in soap history to ALWAYS have story.

She hasn't always had the best relationships but beyond one particular period (and even then she had a fairly healthy amounts of story) she's basically been frontburner.

Did they bring Lauren in right after the Stevens were written out or was it still a while before she was with Paul?

It was awhile.

And Lauren was with Danny & Traci way before she was with Paul.

even though it doesn't sound very exciting

It wasn't.

It mainly consisted of Angela whining & Peter Brown looking bored.

I wonder if Earl was mostly created just to give Mark Tapscott a job.

Somewhat.

Though Tammy Grimes like Alison being the best.

Were they not sure about whether they should keep her around?

Bill was going to keep them both then changed his mind.

I wonder why.

To free up Paul.

What was this story with Katherine/Earl/Allison?

Earl & Alison were married (and Kevin's parents).

Earl & Katherine had a thing in the past.

Alison asked Katherine for make over tips then used Katherine's help to win Earl back.

I also wondered if anyone knew why they didn't keep Kevin around.

Victor/Nikki became insanely popular.

Once they got together there wasn't much need for him (shame though since he was cute).

I know Jaime Lyn Bauer had a lot of issue with what the actors had to go through at that time

Jamie felt as the de facto star she was entitled to "speak out".

A lot of her co stars had their issues too but they also had a lot of respect for Bill to be overly critical in the press unlike now.