Y&R: Jill/Mother - Mother/Daughter reloaded

[ian]

Sorry I snapped at you, we just have different visions as to what Y&R really is. I'm much more history oriented and would like a well-written history-using story over the poor plot, full-of-holes stuff that Lynn Marie Latham writes... and to say John doesn't have a place on that show is to say that Alice Horton doesn't have a place on Days of our Lives, or Nancy Wagner on ATWT. He's the patriarch and the head of a prominent family, and it was a shame John Abbott went to his grave not knowing a lot of stuff (the whole thing with Gloria, Ashley's actual paternity, Ashley stealing Victor's sperm to get prego) etc. John really was the glue that kept the Abbotts together, and now the once-great family (and foil to the omnipotent Newmans) is really disjointed and disappearing, and that only REALLY started with John's death, IMO. He was glue for the show, or for a part of the show I (and many long time fans) find very important.

"parochial old bastards who hate young people and the modern world" - LMAO... if I've become that already (at 20) then I have a serious problem.

[MarkH]

I fear you'll never get the details from this source. Sometimes the brief and declarative statements convey as authority something that really is a matter of opinion.

It is true that in the mid-80s all three Abbott children, and John, had front burner storylines. I would say that Jack and Ashley were always a little more prominent than Traci, who nonetheless had front burner stories for at least a decade. Traci kind of fizzled out after the Brad in a cage story.

For quite a while, with Jill front burner, John was front burner with her. His appearances became less frequent in the 90s, after his second divorce from Jill. Indeed, after Jack PREVIOUSLY lost Jabot (in the 90s), John was written off for a while.

That served long-story, though, because he was sent to New York to work in the Jabot office there and be with Traci and Colleen. So, years later, after John had returned, when the writers wanted "troubled" Colleen to live with her grandfather in GC (to straighten her out), they could play the backstory of a relationship in New York.

But, I'm going to give y&R_fan SOME acknowledgment here. Jack was on the show before the rest of the Abbotts...he was the lever used to introduce them. And, he was more consistently in story. Traci and Ashley left...(well, Ashley didn't leave for long...she was mostly recast), but Jack stayed through. There was a little lag time between Terry Lester and Peter Bergman, but otherwise Jack was driving story. So, I'd say Jack has been the most CONSISTENTLY AVAILABLE AND FRONT-BURNER Abgott.

The exception was toward the end of Terry Lester's reign, when he went to the press complaining about how much time Lauralee Bell was getting in the story. :-). Jack was kinda backburned right about then :-).

[brimike]

I don't know about MAB (who does? The woman's an enigma. Seriously is she ever going to give an interview?) but numerous writers have stated on the record that HS does indeed write a long-term bible for the shows he's worked at. One of the last of the current head writer-ish people who still do that and don't just make verbal pitches to the network execs.

Whether or not fans will LIKE the bible is another question entirely. :lol: But he definitely does write out a long-term story document.

[DeeeDee]

Pot. Kettle. Black.

Also?

Sometimes those that "have watched since 1973" have been doing anything but.

Eh.

No. He wasn't.

Eh. No.

[Khan]

True, lol, but I, for one, feel more confident when there is a long-term bible at work. Has a story ever played out exactly as written in the original, long-term document? Probably not. There's a big difference between what plays on the page and what plays on the stage. But at least there is a road map of sorts, and we're not throwing in plot points arbitrarily.

If Y&R is working on a long-term bible, then I think they are taking a step in the right direction. Like brimike says, it's not a guarantee the stories they come up with will be acceptable to the show's audience, but just about anything has to be better than whatever whims they come up with these days (or what LML came up with when she was still the boss). Also, it might be more "predictable" that way, but who says soaps can't be "predictable"?

[MTSRocks]

I wish Charlotte Ramsey could make an appearance, but unfortunately the actress passed away. Hopefully, they'll bring back Liz Foster though.