Y&R: Old Articles

[will81]

Snapper didn't technically go on trial. The charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, but the hospital board had a hearing to determine if Snapper could keep his job. They wanted him to admit to wrong doing, Greg and Snapper presented a case for euthanasia instead. The board dismissed him from the hospital, that's when he opened his own clinic.

Bill died Nov 76 and Jennifer Sep 77.

[will81]

Thanks Alphanguy74 thanks so much for the Lorie clips. I can see why JLB was so important to the show, she really had a presence and great chemistry with the cast. Victoria Mallory's performances have so much quiet dignity and strength when it is needed.

KT Stevens was so evil as Vanessa. I can't imagine watching Vanessa and Lorie go at it for 5 + years and then have it end that way. Watching Vanessa think about destroying Lorie was amazing, her hatred for Lorie was so intense.

JLB sometimes went OTT, I think it worked well in the first clip with Stuart (btw those scenes were from around Nov 76) but I found it too much in the scenes with Leslie when Lorie discovers her sister is carrying her husbands baby.

JLB's 2002 return always annoyed me. I hadn't seen any of her Lorie but something felt off, now I see what it is. They completely stripped the character of her dignity to prop Victor. You can see Lorie enjoyed Victor's company but she also threw him under a bus to help the man she always truly loved, Lance Prentiss. Victor was a means to an end. The balance of power was always with Lorie, even in 1984 for the short scenes she had with him.

[amybrickwallace]

A woman being stripped of her dignity to prop Victor? NO!!!!!

[will81]

Haha, crazy but true. I guess after seeing all these Lorie clips it is particularly painful to see it happen to Lorie.

[DRW50]

That's it, really.

Even here, I wouldn't say so much that Lorie had the power, as much as there was a mutual respect. Kay Alden and Jack Smith would not write Victor as having any genuine respect for women, and the narrative backed that up.

I greatly enjoyed that Victor/Lorie scene because it was two adults who flirted and tested each other a little, but understood the reality. There was nothing like what we'd get today, where Victor would call Lorie a two-timing slut and fans would cheer him on.

Victoria Mallory looked stunning here and she does play Leslie with so much dignity and class. I can understand why Bill Bell cut Leslie once JLB left, because she seems to work best with Lorie and not as much on her own, but she truly is a very special lady.

The styling was just great here - I think the show had good styling overall until things went a little nuts in the mid-late '80s, but then, that happened everywhere.

I feel like Lorie was still such a vibrant character at this point and JLB seemed to have found a certain groove in her performances. I guess she left when she was on top, but I miss what never was.

[amybrickwallace]

Yeah, and it's a shame DAYS never gave her material to shine.

[will81]

Totally agree.

Power was the wrong word, she seemed like his equal not some sad woman pinning away for him. It was mature and respectful.

Yes the styling on most shows in the late 70's and early to mid eighties was great. A good mixture of understated class, the 70's had this slight nod to 40's style with a modern twist which I like and seemed to disappear around 1984. Even Dynasty had better styling in its first couple of years.

JLB wanted to leave Y&R since 79/80, she stayed longer than she intended and I don't think anything was going to keep her from leaving. She really was a main focal point and it must have been exhausting once the show went to an hour. Even during her pregnancy in 1980 she was still featured quite a bit.

I do wonder if Bell wanted to keep Leslie/Victoria. She was on until Dec 1982 (I think possibly her last air date was the very last week of the year) and had that story with Robert after JLB left, though she seemed totally isolated to that story, he seem to make no real effort to integrate her into the rest of the evolving show. Was Bell testing the waters or was Victoria on contract until Dec and he had to write something for her and needed some way to use Robert as well. Hard to tell. Greg, Lucas, Lorie and Chris were all off by Aug/Sep why did he keep Leslie on a few months longer?

Edited October 5, 2014 by will81

[SoapDope]

I don't understand why they didn't keep Tom Ligon on the show. He could have been a rival for Victor. When did Peggy Brooks get written out ? I don't think she lasted into 1982. Bill Bell seemed to be at a loss as what to do with her or Greg Foster.

That Brian Forbes/Ashley pairing was an odd short lived storyline. They brought him on, then he was gone within a year. He went to make a phone call and never came back. Jay Kerr who played the role did an interview for a website for another series he was on and he said he hated doing Y&R and that he stank at soap opera. He said surprisingly people still recognize him from Y&R and that's what they ask about most. He even made the crack about disappearing never to be seen again.

[will81]

Peggy was on until maybe Sep/Oct 1981. After the cult story she was to wed Steve Williams but stood him up, she had a flirtation with Jack (not sure if they hit the sheets) Not sure if she got a proper send off but after Steve left town Peggy didn't do much. Jerry Lacy was similar the character just stopped airing, he said his last air date was Dec 15th 1981 but his character never had a send off.

Greg seemed to be most active under Wings Hauser, odd they replaced him with Howard McGillan, not only was he the youngest to play Greg and Wings was the oldest, but Wings looked much older than the other Greg's and Howard looked too young, would be curious to see the switch as apparently Wings was off the show by Oct/Nov 81 and Howard was on within the month, must have been a big shock to viewers to have Greg change so much physically.

[will81]

I also wanted to know if anyone else was aware that Eve Howard and Rick Daros met in 1984. After Nikki and Victor's wedding. Rick was brought to the mental institution Eve was committed to, he had been found with amnesia. They broke out and headed to Victor's, they stole credit cards and left for Germany to find her son. Apparently Nikki saw Rick at the airport on her way back from her honeymoon to Victor and freaked but he convinced her it was just someone who looked like him.

I wonder if Bell remembered doing this when Eve returned years later. There was no mention of him when she returned with Cole I don't think.

[YRfan23]

I feel like Eve's 93 return in general made her seem like she was "unknown" character we didn't see onscreen like before Victor even came to town....the way they wrote it made it seem like they had forgotten what she had tried to do to Nikki before she was committed, and Nikki didn't seem to realize that she was the same Eve Howard who tried to kill her at her wedding...

[SoapDope]

I wonder if Nikki interacted much if at all with Howard McGillin's Greg onscreen. I have an old 1982 Soap Digest that has a pic of Howard & Melody posing together at a cast party. It appears that HG was a throwback to resemble James Houghton.

I seem to remember (as a 4/5 year old) by the time Nikki hooked up with Victor, they didn't talk about Nikki's first marriage to Greg.

[SoapDope]

Here are some 1983 pics of Eileen Davidson & Jay Kerr who soon fizzled when Jay's character Brian Forbes vanished onscreen.

[Aback]

That's pure 80s greatness!

[DRW50]

Oddly enough all of Eileen's Y&R covers from this era seemed to be with very short-lived love interests.