Y&R: Old Articles

[vetsoapfan]

 

Right, there was a bit of "testing out" John and Gina, but never (to my knowledge) Stuart and Gina.

 

William J. Bell had an annoying habit of simply dropping characters (even important, beloved, core characters) from the canvas without any on-screen justification. I mean, Peggy ceased to exist (for all intents and purposes) and went unmentioned by everyone three separate times. Stuart, Liz, Tommy Horton on DAYS. the list goes on.

[yrfan1983]

Yep... I think maybe Bill B had good intentions, to keep a character around on recurring, but then that robs the character of a proper goodbye.

 

A perfect example is Marla Adams. She was taken off contract in fall '85, and was put to good recurring use in spring '86 during John and Jill's divorce. But then, poof - the mother of Jack, Ashley and Traci just disappeared.

[SoapDope]

Tom Hallick who played Brad Elliott said rival networks would scout around and see who was popular on soaps and try to lure them over with the promise of more money, Primetime TV deals etc....He said he left Y&R in 1978 because NBC signed him to an exclusive TV deal which never amounted to anything. He said it was the biggest mistake he had ever made and wished he had stayed on Y&R. He said he was unhappy on Days when they put him on there as a consolation for his crappy contract. He left Days eventually. 

Edited March 31, 2019 by SoapDope

[vetsoapfan]

 

Tom Hallick was hugely popular on Y&R, but he's right: leaving the show was the biggest blunder of his professional career. 

[Albert]

IIRCI there was a scene at Jonas’ where Stuart was in the process of selling it to Gina. Kay contacted Jill (Deborah Adair) to meet her there to discuss bringing Stuart and Elizabeth back together. Jill spotted Gina and referred to her as a cute dish.

[SoapDope]

 Patty Weaver who had been popular on Days was lured to Y&R by Wes Kenney and Bill Bell when she left that show. On Y&R she had very few storylines that amounted to much and then pretty much faded into the background. She was mainly used during scenes at her place saying " Table for two" and letting people stay or have sex in that room upstairs. After they foolishly burned her place to the ground, she soon disappeared from the show. At one point they were toying with a Brock/Gina pairing and later a John/Gina pairing, but that was quickly scrapped. 

[Paul Raven]

After the aborted romance with Neil Fenmore, Gina was backburnered. She was there to hostess at Gina's and be a talk to, support Danny and Rex etc.

She got a bit of story through her marriage to sleazy Clint, but it wasn't given an A story treatment.

I believe in latter years Patty had some health problems which limited her appearances.

Also she married Jerry Birn, part of Bill Bell's old guard so was pretty much guaranteed a place on the show, i guess.

[SoapDope]

Here is an interesting photo from 1976 featuring Jeanne Cooper and her soap actress lunch group. The photo includes Rachel Ames (GH), Judy Lewis (GH), Emily McLaughlin (GH), Dorothy Green (Y&R), and Patty Weaver (Days and later Y&R).

 

Yes she was pretty much recurring most of her run. Birn's daughter played Paul's secretary Lynn for years. 

Edited April 1, 2019 by SoapDope

[Soaplovers]

Gina climbing over the prison visitor wall to strangle and punch Clint when she went to visit him in prison earned her a memorable place in Y & R history.. I think I recall Gina crediting Leanna Love's 'I hate men' chant she started for the inspiration to give it but good to Clint.

[sheilaforever]

Neil Fenmore was also one of those "gone characters", I think. He disappeared sometime in 1985 and was never heard of again. Until Jim Storm showed up on B&B as Bill Spencer Sr. and Lauren got news in GC that Neil died and left her Fenmore Department Stores. Therefore, in 1987 Neil's fate was resolved.

Edited April 1, 2019 by sheilaforever

[Broderick]

Wasn't Carl Williams another Unneeded Father Figure who just vanished like Stuart Brooks and Neil Fenmore?    (In about 1999, Bell & Alden went through that whole agonizing harangue of Cricket running into Carl in the Norfolk airport, and Paul and Mary revealed that they'd been "grieving" over Carl's "death" for many, many years.   But I don't remember Carl Williams ever dying or any grieving.  I was thinking he just vanished in a puff of smoke sometime after the Cassandra Rawlins storyline ended and wasn't mentioned again until the Norfolk storyline.)

[SoapDope]

Yes. Viewers were led to believe Carl was sill in GC, but off camera till that storyline. They also re-wrote Patty Williams history by having her run off and go psycho.  

[BoldRestless]

How was Patty shooting Jack addressed? That was a pretty crazy thing to do, but then the next episodes I saw were her hanging out with the teen scene (Danny, Lauren, Traci). How did they gloss over the shooting, and how was she written off the show at that point? And wasn't there originally a third Williams brother?

[Soaplovers]

 

Patty accidentally caused Traci's miscarriage after a jealous fueled argument..and seeing that Danny blamed her..she decided to leave town and start a new.  She was not in perfect mental health when she left.

 

She also was the one against Paul/Lauren being a couple..more so than mary was...I think after Patty left in late 1984...Bell made Mary into the busybody we all loved and remembered lol

[yrfan1983]

Patty had total amnesia of the entire shooting. I know she had some therapy sessions in the 2nd half of 1983... not sure if she ever did recall the shooting. There used to be YT scenes of Jack and Patty negotiating their divorce, and they both admitted to "making mistakes".

Honestly, I have a feeling the story kinda petered out when Andrea Evans proved to be a "lesser Patty" than Lilibet Stern.