kalbir

Nina Arvesen arrived as Cassandra in March 1988. Eileen Davidson departed as Ashley in December 1988. I can't remember if Cassandra and ED's Ashley ever interacted. From watching 1989 episodes, Cassandra felt more like an Ashley replacement than recast Ashley Brenda Epperson did. This was really apparent when Cassandra was in Victor's orbit. Funny thing is, EB actually had more chemistry w/ NA than BE, even though I felt Victor/Cassandra as a couple was initially cat & mouse then later rebound more so than actual feelings for each other.

1986/1987 season Dallas fell out of the Top 10. After that, CBS was a mess in primetime for the most part until Survivor and CSI premiered in 2000. From 1986/1987 to 1999/2000, the CBS shows that finished in the Top 10 were Murder She Wrote (1986/1987-1988/1989, 1991/1992, 1992/1993, 1994/1995), 60 Minutes (1986/1987-1995/1996, 1997/1998-1999/2000), Murphy Brown (1990/1991-1993/1994), Designing Women (1990/1991, 1991/1992), Major Dad (1991/1992), CBS Sunday Movie (1992/1993, 1993/1994, 1997/1998, 1998/1999), Touched by an Angel (1996/1997-1999/2000). From that list, CBS's biggest hits of that era were 60 Minutes and Murder She Wrote. Of course we all know how Murder She Wrote was purposely tanked in it's final season 1995/1996 when it was head-to-head with Friends.

This was around the time Brooke intercepted Caroline's letter to Ridge I think. Bill Bell used the letter intercepting plot with Leslie/Lorie/Brad. Caroline/Brooke rivalry was in many ways a redo of Leslie/Lorie rivalry. Bill Bell had rape storylines on both shows in the late 1980s, Caroline and Cricket. Both were virgins at the time of their rapes. Caroline's rape storyline was a redo of Chris Brooks's rape storyline while Cricket's was a summer social issue on date rape with PSA dialog.

The London concert and ball was timed to cash in on the Charles and Diana wedding hype.

@SoaploversI think Tracey Bregman told Bill Bell in early 1989 she was planning to become pregnant so Bill Bell created the Lauren/Scott pairing to accommodate a future pregnancy. Also notice how TB's hair color changed from platinum blonde in 1988 to her natural color by the end of 1989.

Hahaha, so true. Shari Shattuck not passing the chemistry test w/ EB is maybe what lead to Bill Bell alluding to a potential Victor/Christine pairing. When you look past the obvious ick factor of LLB being Bill Bell's daughter and at the time she was half EB's age and look at where Victor and Christine were as characters on the show, it makes so much more sense. Victor was at a point in his life where he was all alone. His marriage to Hope had ended and she returned to Kansas with baby Adam. Nikki had moved on with Brad. Ashley left town in the aftermath of Blade's death and discovering Rick's deception and when she returned she did not pass the chemistry test with Victor (if the chemistry tests w/ Victor and/or Brad were passed, we might have gotten a Victor/Nikki/Brad/Ashley quad). Christine was also at a turning point in her life. She was in love with Paul but Paul kept pushing her away as he couldn't get past Christine being with Danny just before Paul and Christine were to get married. Meanwhile Danny was desperately trying to win Christine back. Victor and Christine were placed in each other's orbit in a professional capacity, first during Nick's trial and then Christine joined the legal team at Newman Enterprises. Slowly a friendship started to form. In their first social outing (dinner at the Colonnade Room the same night Nikki and Brad celebrated their engagement there), it's clear that Victor was drawn to Christine, not just because she is young and beautiful, but because she is also intelligent and kind-hearted. Fast forward a few episodes to Victor's office where Christine realized her relationship with Paul is over and she took off her engagement ring and Victor comforted her with a hug (Nikki witnessed this and it lead to the Legal Aid confrontation). On those two occasions, Victor could have easily made a move but he didn't. Victor kept himself in the friend zone, and I think that was due to Bill Bell knowing that the audience was aware of Christine's past as a survivor of both date rape and sexual harassment (even though it wasn't mentioned on screen, I'm sure Victor was aware of it too. I doubt he would've hired Christine at Newman Enterprises without having her background checked and since there were trials for the date rape and sexual harassment cases, those would've been discovered in a background check). I also think Victor knew Christine still loved Paul and wouldn't be over Paul that quickly and Christine knew that Victor still loved Nikki, so they weren't going to be each other's rebounds. In the primetime episode it was set up as though something was going to happen between Victor and Christine but as we know nothing did. On a totally shallow note, EB really glowed up in the spring of 1996 🥰. Do we have LLB to thank for that? 🤣

Agree. Nepotism for sure.

@soapfan770 Shari Shattuck was the worst recast ever. Her first scenes with Victor and Brad felt like chemistry tests which as we saw were not passed. Can't believe Bill Bell didn't realize that during the casting process.

RIP Sidney Poitier. All movie award shows need to give him his own in memoriam segment.

When analyzing a nearly 45 year old sibling quad is more exciting than what's currently on screen, you know things are bad.

@Broderick pointed out in the B&B from the Beginning thread that the Lance/Lucas/Leslie/Lorie quad was influenced by Le Morte d'Arthur. Maybe I'm way off here but it recently occurred to me that there may have been some biblical allusions in the quad with Vanessa in the background. Think about these comparisons: Rebecca/Vanessa Jacob/Lance Esau/Lucas Rachel/Leslie Leah/Lorie Rebecca favored Jacob over the hairy hunter Esau./Vanessa favored Lance over the rugged bearded sailor Lucas. Jacob loved Rachel but was tricked into marrying Leah./Lance was drawn to Leslie but married Lorie. I wonder if the biblical allusions were coincidence or intentional on Bill Bell's part. I don't know how religious Bill Bell was in his personal life, as I never got a religious element from much of his writing.

Maybe Bradley has something big in the works for the 35th anniversary in March. I can't believe Melissa Claire Egan started on Y&R over 10 years ago. I think MAB was still in charge when MCE was hired. We all know MAB loved ABC leftovers and former sitcom stars.

I respect EB's social media game. Remember when he was trending on Twitter?

So Doug Davidson did not appear at all in 2021. No official word from CBS/Sony, and no exit storyline.

RIP Betty White and thank you for your contributions to the entertainment industry.

This month will have a special episode for CLB's 30th anniversary. If we are counting anniversaries from first episodes, April will be Kate Linder's 40th anniversary, and June will be Jess Walton's 35th anniversary, Eileen Davidson's 40th anniversary, and Beth Maitland's 40th anniversary.

January 14 will mark 15 years since Darlene Conley passed away. Of the original B&B characters as written by Bill Bell, Sally Spectra was another one of my favorites. I didn't mention Sally in the B&B from the Beginning thread since her episodes are still a while away on the YT channel. There was nobody else like Sally on daytime and I would say her arrival was a turning point for B&B. Sally breathed new life into the show and Bill Bell smartly built a business and a family around her, eventually replacing the Logans with the Spectra gang by 1991. It was another missed opportunity during last year's classics that we didn't get a week of the best of Sally Spectra.

I think about a month or so from the engagement to the terminated wedding, then their marriage to Caroline's death was 6 months.

@soapfan770 Yes, that one. Thanks for the link to the thread.

Remember that casting call for Sophia which read like a checklist of every stereotype of Black American females? Was that also making the threads back then?

Y&R had two cast purges in the 1980s, it's time for another one.

Expecting lots of garbage time, yuck.

This meme sums up CBS Daytime demographics pretty good.

Why is the YT channel cutting episodes? It's not like they have to make room for commercials, or do they? Queen Stephanie and her bitch slaps are everything and it was a shame that the classics last year did not give us a week of the best of Queen Stephanie.

@Sasha66 I'd say 1984, as that was the year that Y&R became Y&R as we know it today.