Y&R Let's recall past characters.

[Paul Raven]

Re Derek-the problem was he had NO charm or sex appeal.

I always found Bobby Marsiono sleazy in the extreme.

In the most forgettable - another Adam,this one played by Grant Cramer ,who about 10 years earlier had played psycho Shawn. He was a chemist at Jabot and was brought on to romance nu Ashley(Shari Shattuck).The main story was Ashley getting him to shave off his creepy moustache.He was gone thankfully,after a few weeks.

Grant Cramer was the son of 50's starlet Terry Moore.I read that she was a friend of the Bells,so maybe that explains Grant getting a second chance on the show.

We must mention that dynamic duo Lynne Bassett and her good friend Marissa.

[Cashton]

Mamie, Mamie, Mamie! Veronica Redd where are you??

I'll be the only on here to say this, but I'd take Sheila back anyday with KB in the role. Haters - feel fre

I miss the Colonel too! A character like VN needs a colorful confidante and he was Victor's match.

Cassandra Rollins - one of the most beautiful actresses ever.

I also miss David Kimble! He was such a fun villain.

Of course there's Dru and I also want little (now big) Nate back. it's SO time...

And

[y&r_fan]

And let's not forget David Chow. *shudders*

[Khan]

In his own way, however, Bill Bell did a lot for feminism on soaps. He proved over and over again that women - or at least, the female characters on daytime - could be as shallow, as narcissistic, and as driven as men. Very rarely, in fact, would he employ an earth mother-type or "round-heeled" heroine in his stories; and when he did, there always was a quality or two about them that made them...ugly.

If I had been around for the first ten-or-so years of Y&R, I think I would have loved watching Lorie Brooks. To me, she's the quintessential "Y&R heroine": someone who could be dreadfully selfish and self-obssessed, yet compelling and even empathetic at the same time.

[SteveFrame]

Snapper Foster when played by William Gray Espy was not bland at all. He lost a lot of his appeal - more in the writing - than the portrayer when David Hasselhoff took over. Espy was an edgier actor and even if he was written with an edge Espy gave Snapper an edge. Bell wrote Snapper a lot like he wrote Bill Horton on Days except with a lot more sexiness. You would never hear Bill Horton talk about sex the way Snapper Foster did. Snapper in the early days had to be the horniest character on daytime.

Brad Eliot was a fairly good leading man too - not as good as Snapper Foster - but still good.

When Paul Williams first came to town and came into his own with the story where he went undercover to prove his Dad was innocent - he was not bland at all. Later he did become more bland. His stories got less interesting esp. when he got tied to Crickett.

Lance Prentiss was one of the best leading men that the show ever had. He was the most interesting of Bell's good guys.

As to Lorie Brooks when the show first came on and for several years Lorie was not a heroine at all. She was more of a antagonist. She wasn't an outright villian but she was not a heroine at all. She in many ways was alot like Julie Olson when she was written by William J. Bell too. She was selfish. She acted out just to embarrass her family who she felt had neglected her. One particular instance was when she posed nude for a Playboy type magazine. She worked to ruin Leslie's relationship with Brad. She had an affair with a married man - something that was a big no no in that day and time. She then fell in love with Lance - a man that loved her sister Leslie first - but he became Lorie's man and her true love. And then Lance's mother arrived. Lorie had already begun to change when she lost her mother to cancer (another similarity to Julie who started to grow up when her mother died). But the love of Lance and then Vanessa Prentiss' torture of Lorie really turned Lorie into the full heroine.

She was a wonderful character. Leslie was too and so was Chris. But sadly when Lorie really came into her own and grew up - Bell didn't pay as much attention to Leslie and Chris as he once did. Chris in particular got very boring. For the first 3 years, Chris and Leslie were really the stars of the show, but they got backburnered at first to give people a chance to get used to the recasts. But even after they did, Bell never did return either one of them fully to the front as they once were.

[tylerbo20]

i started watching years and years ago but i cannot remember who shot victor it was a prime time special right before the emmys was it mari jo? and who are jack's kids and why are they not on part of the abbot take over ?

[boldfan01]

Yes, Mari Jo shot Victor.

Jack has two children, neither of whom lives in Genoa City, and he hasn't seen either one in years. His older son, Keemo, was born out of a relationship he had in Viet Nam with a woman named Mai Yun. She and Jack were separated when the US pulled out of 'Nam. 20 years later, she came to Genoa City and opened a restaurant. Now going by the name Luan, Mai Yun befriended Paul and Christine (who ate at her restaurant) and told them of a son she had left behind in Viet Nam. Paul and Chris went in search of Luan's son and brought him back to GC. Eventually, Jack was reunited with Luan and met the son he never knew he had. Luan died of one of those mystery soap diseases, but Keemo remained in Genoa City for a while. Keemo got involved with Mari Jo at one point and got her to show her true colors as a schemer, and he soon after went back to Viet Nam. The last time we really heard from him was when he sent a fax from Viet Nam to Victor asking Victor to warn Jack (who worked for Victor at the time) about Mari Jo's duplicity. It was to keep Victor from showing Jack that fax that Mari Jo shot him.

Jack's other son is Kyle, with Diane Jenkins. Diane had tried to impregnate herself with Victor's frozen sperm sample and initially named her child Christian, after Victor's middle name, but when paternity tests showed Vic was not the father, she changed his name to Kyle. We later learned that Nikki paid the fertility lab to swap Vic's sample with someone else when Diane's egg was fertilized, and it just happened that the sample they picked was Jack's. Jack won custody from Diane when it came out that she framed Phyllis for setting fire to the Abbott poolhouse, but Jack gave Kyle to Diane when he and Phyllis were having marital problems over the Jabot/Newman cosmetics war that erupted around Victor's bribery scheme. Kyle's somewhere off with Diane and is hardly mentioned, and lord knows how old he'll be when he finally makes his way back to Genoa City.

As for why Keemo or Kyle were not involved in the takeover: aside from the fact that neither is in Genoa City and Kyle is probably still a minor, none of the Abbott grandchildren has a stake in Jabot. Presumably, they will inherit from their parents someday, but until that happens, Keemo, Kyle, Colleen and Abby don't have anything to be part of other than, as Colleen did by attending the stockholders meeting, sitting on the sidelines and watching.

[tylerbo20]

thhanks sooo much merry christmas, now i can watcy yr w/o all these questions in my head...

[SteveFrame]

On the subject of Bell's leading men on Y&R being dull and stuff - for the most part that has always been a plague on soaps. For years soaps have been written for women. The viewers were women and I guess the writers felt that most women wanted strong women and whipped men.

It was rare to see a strong man in soaps for years - they were all whipped puppies that a woman could easily manipulate and lead around by his balls. Even the villians could easily be brought down by a woman.

The one thing that I can agree with Hogan Sheffer on is what he said about the men on Days of Our Lives having their penises cut off. I take if further in that men on soaps for years had their penises cut off.

That is why I can't get all worked up into a frenzy over the female viewers getting all angry over what they perceive as mysoginistic writings these days. I was just at another board this morning where there were long posts about how mysoginistic the writers of ATWT are by letting Lucinda be deceived by a younger man. They were calling Jean Passanante a woman hater for writing that type of story.

I just can't get worked over about stuff like that. I mean for one it happens in real life. Are soaps supposed to ignore every bad thing that happens in life and just write a total fantasy world where everyone loves everyone and nothing bad ever happens to women and men.

I'm just glad that writers finally came around and wrote men stronger and it not always being the men who were deceived all the time. It has gotten old for years to have the Lance Prentiss', the Bob Hughes', the Steve Frame's be constantly deceived by the women in their life. And stand up for themselves.

[kalbir]

Characters I miss:

Drucilla

John Abbott

Malcolm

Mamie

Douglas (RIP Michael Evans)