Y&R John Conboy Interview

[Dan]

I'll go one further. Why the HELL did they ever get rid of "Hold on to Love!" It was so recognizable as the theme because it had been with us for about TEN YEARS. They should have just brought back the original lengthened opening, which IMO still holds up as acceptable production even today.

Of course, compared with today's opening theme, I'd almost gladly take Conboy's rotten theme any day.

[SteveFrame]

Both John Conboy and William J. Bell both did realize that young stories was where it was at but at the same time they didn't leave it to the young to carry everything.

John Conboy was the first producer to really go with the young movement on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. Alot of the stuff he used there he later brought to Young & the Restless. He used young beautiful girls and attractive men there but he and the writers also gave older characters stories too. And they didn't concentrate on the teens but on the 20-somethings as has already been stated.

They made all their characters real. The 40 somethings and older were just as fleshed out and defined as the younger characters and played a pivotal role. They weren't the full focus but they were there and vital.

Oh and as to Bell and Conboy - they did not get along at the end. I think until then it was pretty amicable. It all started when Conboy tried to get Bell fired. I don't remember all of the issues, but Conboy went to CBS and tried to get Bell off the show.

[kalbir]

Bill Bell got his revenge, so to speak, when CBS canceled Capitol and replaced it with B&B. I don't know how true this is, but I read elsewhere that Bill Bell started working on the bible for B&B as soon as John Conboy left Y&R for Capitol, and that he also did not have a good relationship with John Conboy's successor H. Wesley Kenney.

[SFK]

I read that it all soured when Conboy wanted to leave Bell for Capitol. But maybe there's more to the story? Maybe Capitol wasn't Conboy's from the get go and he got it as some sort of contractual agreement with CBS as things were getting uncomfortable at Y&R?? I know it was produced by JC's production company...

He counted folks like Donna Mills, Beverlee McKinsey (both from LIAMST), and Liberace as friends. Conboy wanted to launch yet ANOTHER glamour soap that didn't pan out called Casino set in Vegas... okay, can you IMAGINE what that would have looked like?? Maybe that's why he brought Lola Falana to Capitol, and set so much of the action at the casino in Atlantic City.