Y&R John Conboy Interview

[Paul Raven]

"Youth is still the key to staying on top",declares Y&R executive producer John Conboy.

In his plush new CBS office,John talks to us about his show.Asked about the transition to the hour,John said:

A.Number#1,I love it. Once the shakedown cruise is over,and we've all had that,going into the hour. It will be even better. I like the flow of the show better as an hour;it gives us a little more opportunity to get into characters and things like that. It's an enormous amount of work. swe don't dole it out like some of the other shows do,because Bill Bell,Head Writer,keeps a very tight rein on it - and the writers.But the quality of the work maintains in the hour.

Q. Do you need more storylines?

A. We have many more characters on the show now.The number of stories on each hour is up to Bill and how he constructs it.I love the flow.It's an enormous operation but I have a lot of wonderful people.We have many new actors and yes,they are young,and they're pretty,and they fit right into the show and they care a lot about the show.Everybody had to rethink their time during the day(with the hour)and I'm very excited about the new people because I think it's one of the things that has given new life to the show.

i think one of the reasons we were successful initially,was that we were one of the first shows to do that,you know,telling the story with very young,very pretty people who hadn't been on the other shows.

Q. One important facet-that's keeping the Brooks and Foster families going,too.Don't you agree?

A. Very important to the scheme of things,and adding new families has,or eventually will strengthen the Fosters and the Brooks,rather than doing it the other way around.You have to be careful not to plot characters out of business.The show has taken a lot of new directions since it has gone to an hour:initially it takes awhile to get the audience used to rethinking the show. And they're beginning to do that now,and it's almost like starting a new show.

Q. The timeslot is a problem,in parts of the country,our readers tell us.

A. The decision of the time and where to put it,is not up to me.They have to write to their local stations.

Pictures accompanying this article

1.John Conboy

2.Jeanne Cooper(Kay) and Victor Mohica(Felipe)with SOD publisher and editor Frederick Klein and Ruth Gordon.

3.Victor(Felipe) and a day player (a doctor)run lines on a hospital set,while Jeanne explains Kay will "die" once more.

4. Paul Greiner (audio boom operator)explains his job to Ruth and Frederick.

5. Doug Davidson(Paul)has attracted a great deal of female attention.

6.Pam Peters(Peggy Brooks)sports a new short haircut and admits she and her character have grown up.

7. Julianna McCarthy(Liz)poses with new cast member Terry Lester(Jack).julianna admits Liz still has growing to do.

Hope this interests Y&R fans,old and new.

[SFK]

I really want to like John Conboy. I love pretty things too. My heart belongs to anyone responsible for a glamour soap set in Washington. But damn if he doesn't sound shallow as hell in interviews. May I be so bold as to say that he isn't a great executive producer? I never thought I'd say that. I think he's a very gifted creative consultant at best. He knows how to wow you visually, he is a soap opera pioneer in that respect. (And maybe the emphasis on beauty that he ushered in did more harm than good to soaps, but I suppose that's another discussion...) I think the key to Conboy's success at Y&R and subsequent career growth was his partnership with a super talented head writer like Bill Bell. Perhaps the same could be said for Paul Rauch and Harding Lemay, but Rauch seems better suited as the autocrat. Quality writing like Bell's deserved the Conboy treatment, Conboy elevated the material in an aesthetic way, but Conboy's tastes did little for a show like Capitol that seemed to flop and flounder under some uneven writing.

"Youth is still the key to staying on top."

A thousand lashes in public for that one.

[juniorz1]

Can't stand that asshat. He began the destruction of Santa Barbara. Screw his production skills- his shows never have any substance.

[Cat]

To put his statement about youth in context, the interview coincides with the Luke & Laura youthquake, when teens and college kids tuned in to watch the GH phenomenon. Soaps were desperate to get some a taste of that viewership. I mean, GH was getting, like, a 11.0 share in HHs! Y&R, around 7 or 8. Days, around 5.0.

It is a testament to Bill Bell's mastery of the genre that he came through the expansion of Y&R to one hour without succumbing to Days and GH's supercouple template. While a lot of characters had to be written out because the actors playing them did not renew their contracts, Bell took a chance with a new family (the Abbotts) mixed with existing characters and a wide and representative range of ages interacting each other.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Conboy is a dumbass who would rather blow an entire show's budget on sets and lighting than actually putting on a quality show story-wise.

If any show were to hire him, he needs to be hired for production ALONE and someone else has to be over him to oversee budget.

[juniorz1]

***channels DeeeDee*** AMEN!

[Mitch]

He not the infamous Ellen Wheeler were the final nail in GL's coffin. If he didn't blow the budget on a dumb ass baseball diamond, and putting on the most ridiculous looking fashion show in history (Alex in day glo???) we might still have JVD and others on the show.

Dumb ass!!!

[JONNYSBRO]

The thing is John Conboy has always been a style, glitz and glamour producer with ZERO SUBSTANCE. That was his GL tenure for a year and he put GL in such a bad place budget wise. The show looked very expensive and very good but man did he blow the budget bigtime. The show could not afford what he was doing to it and then when Wheeler came on she was in a budget nightmare crunch. Conboy was fired from CBS because of the budget and then Wheeler took over. If you want to find another reason for why GL is in the current production model, it started with Conboy.

[SFK]

For a man with such good taste, he owed us a better opening sequence for GL.

[bellcurve]

No Kidding! What was that, a step up from a powerpoint presentation?!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It looked like something they whipped up using Microsoft Video Maker...

I never saw the point in getting rid of Rauch's "Lifesavers" opening in the first place.

[MarkH]

In her joint autobiography with Bill Hayes, Susan Seaforth Hayes quotes Bill Bell as saying something like (paraphrase from memory) "the heat off a young girl's brow will drive a show for years". Hayes cited Julie Olson as an example...but Hope Williams and Sami Brady too.

So, really, Bill Bell understood that youth (reckless youth, to be exact) was the engine of daytime. I buy that. It seems in Conboy, he found a kindred spirit for a time.

Now, Bell's early philosophy would seem to be in counterpoint to today's Y&R and B&B...which are largely built around "old people". (I am not being ageist...I love my veterans). But, if there is any critique of the Bell shows, it is that they have had a hard time building a viable younger generation. I'd say Y&R is on track for this, but B&B really isn't. (I do not count Marcus, Steffy, Rick or Bridget as viable...and the latter two aren't particularly young).

Again, I love my Y&R...but I worry that the creative team continues to let the young side of the equation be under-developed. While some soaps seem to go too far on the youth-quake dimension (DOOL?), I think Y&R and especially B&B might be very wise to listen to this old wisdom from Mr. Conboy... Get a few more hot young brows in there, well integrated with the mature cast, and driving lots of story.

[alphanguy74]

He DOES come off as shallow in itnerviews, doens't he? I love his work on sets and lighting, he just needs to concentrate on that, and be limited in his power. At the time, the "youth" he was referring to on Y&R was Paul, Nikki, Casey, Patty, and Traci and Lauren were soon to follow. When he says youth, he's not talking about 14 year olds. I think he's referring more to the 18-24 age bracket. When Y&R started, your youngest character was Peggy, at 16, then Jill at 18... eveyone else was early 20's... Snapper, Greg, Lorie, Leslie, Chris, Sally. Back then, the younger set and the older characters were involved in the same SL... you didn't have these "teens" who revolved in their own sphere, like you do today. Lauren/Traci/Danny tended to do that to some extent, but the caliber of actors you ahd in the parts made it work. Lackluster actresses such as Christel Kahlil make today's teen SL not work too well. the last teen SL that worked good was Mac and Billy, and look how mcuh Mac was involved with Kay? And you had an actress who could really create depth to a character (AB). Alot of it is casting.

[Paul Raven]

Am I correct in stating that Conboy and Bell did not get along?

I don't know if this was true from the outset or developed along the way.

As an EP working with Bell,Conboy was perhaps in a difficult position in that Bell had the ultimate say,unlike the P&G shows where the EP wielded alot more power and influence.

it is true that Y&R has changed its focus,due to the staying power of the vets.

When the show began,only Stuart& Jennifer Brooks.Liz Foster and Pierre were over 40.Everyone else was in their 20's.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

They didn't get along too well by the end. Bill Bell refused to speak about Conboy in his interview with the Archieve of American Television. He said something to the effect that if he didn't have anything good to say, he wouldn't say anything at all, regarding Conboy.