Y&R History and character growth

[classicmoment]

I have a question. I am a relatively new viewer and before I started watching consistently I was on and off. I was familiar with many characters and a few character dynamics before I started watching consistently a few years ago. Before consistent Y&R, I watched GH from about 1996 to 1999 (Loved that era though the quality of my experience started to decrease in the end of my viewership) the one thing I must say about many if not a few of the characters @ the time on GH was that there was an attempt to show character growth and also self recognition among individual characters. I love that now while MAB is at the helm there is a bit more logic and drive to each character. That self recognition among certain characters is a tool used in explaining certain character's drive (very few and inbetween). I realize a successful approach to telling character driven stories on soap is never to have the character change too much however as a viewer I'm curious as to whether or not I'll ever see character growth on a bell soap. Has history ever shown (on Bell soaps) a character having grown in some form without being regressed? I mean Kay/Jill dynamic, the Nikki-Victor-Ashlye dynamic which seems like it's about to rub off on the Newman offspring Nick with Sharon and Phyllis. These characters do the same things expect different results it seems, whereas the other soap I mentioned the characters sometimes learned from their mistakes or felt compelled to repeat them even though they know they are bad anyway. In that logic one can dedeuced that they feel or felt the end justified the means.....

[MarkH]

Very astute. While there has been growth, I'd say that it was very slow...and with lots of regressions ("two steps forward, one back"). Probably the only characters who seem to have shown real growth (i.e., no reversion lately) are Michael and Lauren. I guess Paul grew (from his sex-addicted younger self), but he's been in stasis for the last 20 years. Until his recent break from reality, Kevin had probably shown the most growth.

And there is Kay. Now the big hearted grande dame of Genoa City, there was a time when she was far more self-involved and narcissistic, seldom leaving her living room or the liquor bottle. It was Brock who encouraged her to do more with charity, as a way of breaking her cycle of self-involvement.

Victor did progress from the very hard hearted, untrusting soul he was when he first came on (with Julia). But again, in the LML era and since, I perceive a regression.

Nikki, ironically, showed the most growth through LML's era (early on, when she was a rock for Victor during his epilepsy) and later (when she was a rock for her family during Victoria's coma)...but again, she keeps reverting. I'm not sure of what to make of her today.

Again, during LML's era, I felt Nick made serious growth. He got over his paralyzing grief, and once he dissolved his marriage, he then FULLY committed to Phyllis, to honesty, to his family. He was also a rock for his father during the epilespy, putting the pain of the past behind. Alas, that has all been undone now....he's back to the same selfish rich kid he always was, IMO.

In Jack (and Victor) we see a lot of Wile E. Coyote/Roadrunner....permanent circularity of battle...zero growth. In the fact that Ashley is still hooked on Victor...very little growth.

So, yes, I'd say that in general absence of growth or reversion is a hallmark of this show (and B&B too).

[classicmoment]

Hmmm.... Extremly grey characters indeed!

[DRW50]

Whenever I hear that a current soap is "honoring its history", I take pause, because in today's soap world, that often means character regression and recycled stories. The character regression for Victor, Ashley, Nikki, and Jill is one of the aspects of the current Y&R I hope they can improve upon. It reminds me of when Hogan was praised for "taking Craig back to his roots" on ATWT, which meant making him an unrepentant murderer and cruel bully who was permanently ruined.

[Darlotto99]

no show honours it's history quite like the Y&R and that is one reason why the show has stayed at #1 for so long when all the other soaps are trying to distance it self from it's history by getting rid of characters who help built the show. GH for example drives me nuts every time I turn the show on it seems like a differnt cast or the same character with a different face. Y&R is consistant and I love it for that reason. MAB has returned the show to it's roots.