Y&R's opening: what's taking them so long?!

[YRBB]

^^^ Thanks

[DaytimeFan]

Those are pretty good ideas.

The ones that I would change would be the ones with Walton and Cooper.

I would sub Linder, Walton and Cooper into Reel 2: Bergman, Case,

,

, Linder, Walton, Cooper and put Diamont and Sursok into Reel 3. My reasoning behind that is Walton was ALWAYS in the Abbott reel and is ALWAYS with Katherine, just as Esther is.

[lmfan]

Ted Shackelford and now Eyal Podell and the new Noah are also recurring.

I really think they should make an exception for Tracey Bregman. I mean she has paid her dues for both shows, started as a teen with the show 26 yrs ago, was in the last big budget wedding the show had and has been nominated for an emmy the last two out of three years. She isn't your typical recurring actor so deserves a spot on a Baldwin/Fisher opening if they ever update. They can do it if they want to. Lauralee Bell was on recurring for about a year and still was in an opening.

I remember when they had an outside company do this opening (the same people also did West Wing) they said it would be easy to update, but alas they seldom do. Maybe it is a budget issue. They certainly have cut down on sets and the extras lately.

[MarkH]

Great post. I didn't really Shackelford was recurring! I need to watch the credits more.

I totally agree on Bregman. Patrick Duffy--recurring--is in the opening credits on B&B. So was Dan McVicar at times.

Lastly, I remember that subcontracted Y&R opening credits. Maybe they have to pay that firm to do updates (licensing), even if they do them in house? I agree that opening credits are pretty trivial, but still it doesn't feel good when they are not attended to.

I disagree with short/quick credits (like ATWT has now). Go back over old TV (primetime, daytime), and see how long the credits are. They establish a brand and a FEELING. Decades after a show ends, the theme song still can invoke that feeling. Rerunning long opening sequences daily reduces the amount of new scripted drama you have to produce, and gives fans their consistent opening feeling.

I wish primetime shows would have themes with lyrics again too . ("Now sit right back...", "Now listen to a tale..."). But, I also liked the fact that Star Trek: Enterprise had a song with lyrics .

[y&r_fan]

I really hate the thought of that happening. I love the openings with cast members.

That needs to change. If B&B, which presumably has a much smaller budget than Y&R, can update its opening every time someone leaves or debuts, there is no excuse for Y&R not to do the same. Hell, I'd do it for them - for free!

[boldfan01]

And so was William deVry by the time they added Storm. They didn't add him immediately when he was hired, and he had been dropped to recurring by the time they added Storm. And Mackenzie Mauzy (Phoebe) was dropped to recurring recently but is still there, too.

The funny thing is that I seem to remember Shaughnessy saying they hired that company because they wanted someone who specialized in credits, to make it easier when they had to update. And in the first couple of years under him and Smith, there were at least some updates. It's only since the Latham era that updates ground to a halt. I seem to remember them making a big deal about the amounts Latham spent on sets during her tenure, like redoing Newman to a set with real halls that people could walk in, or building the Clear Springs set on the American Idol soundstage for "Out of the Ashes." Since ratings, and thus ad dollars and license fees, dropped since then to the record lows under the current regime, maybe they are still recouping dollars spent by Latham before they pay that firm to update the credits?

I like what B&B has done as a happy medium, where they have the long credits with all the head shots, but they have the two short versions for days when they can use those extra few minutes to their advantage. Some prime time series do this for syndication as well, like Law and Order. If you watch the L&O episodes on TNT, they often have a shorter version that still has the key elements (the "In the criminal justice system" opening and the head shots) but has less music and is faster paced - although in that case, it's so TNT can sell more ad time. But in Y&R's case, showing those head shots (even when they were sketches in the early days) has become such a staple that it would take some adjusting for me if they went to a short version.

I wish prime time shows would have themes again, period. So many have adopted just title cards with the cast run during the opening credits in the episodes themselves. Lyrics are good when appropriate (like your Gilligan example), but then there were other shows that had no lyrics but it fit the style of the show. The best themes evoke what their show is about, so it's a shame that this tradition has been dropped for a lot of shows today.

[dm.]

I love 'em too, but this one is too old. It's a disgrace that the #1 soap (I can't stress this enough) can't update it.

I'd do it for free too.

[AddictedToSoaps]

The thing that really surprised me is that LML never changed the opening. She screwed up so many other parts of the show, but left the opening alone.

[y&r_fan]

Yeah. I'm surprised she didn't replace it with a rap video.

[Matt P.]

I don't remember this opening at all. What year was it? 1999 or 2000? I thought that David Tom and Ashley B. were added during the 2000 porn openining??

If you guys are interested the new SON Insider promo has a faux Y&R opening.

[DeeeDee]

99.

[detroitpiston]

It was the last update to that opening, and like DeeeDee said it first aired in 1999.

[Manny]

I did not like that white opening. But I loooved the porn opening. It was so soapy and sexy...

[DavidEvanSmith]

My God, it really WAS the sexiest opening ever. Thanks to shots like Jess Walton's. And that music! And the red satin backdrop! It invoked everything I think they intended it to.

[DeeeDee]

The red opening was horrid.