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DRW50

By DRW50
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Chris B Mentor

Chris B

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I'm watching the available episodes from 1989 and I'm at the end of April right now. It's such an interesting bunch of episodes. I thought of jumping ahead to 1990 when Dru and Neil arrived, but decided to check these out first and I was sold. I started around 1997 so this is fresh to me beyond a couple episodes here and there and researching. What I love about this era is that you can truly see the lush production values. They haven't gone on location that I remember, but the sets look so nice. You also have the classic music and directing that makes it look less like your typical daytime soap. I feel these episodes have aged really well.

 

The big storylines are the George Rawlins murder mystery, Jill's desperation to keep Nina away from Phillip (I think he dies next month), Traci deciding what to do with newly returned Brad after his kidnapping and you have Leanne pulling one over on Victor and Ashley and Nikki teaming up to stop it. One of my earliest memories of Nikki is how she rarely left the ranch so I screamed when she told Nikki how sick she was of being cooped up on the ranch lol. 

 

Other things that have caught my eye:

 

- Kay and Rex were cute. She's mellowed a bit except in the scenes with Jill. It's nice to see her in this stage. Also, Jess Walton officially owns the role at this point.

- Christine *does* appear a lot, but she isn't always the center of her storylines. I wonder if this annoyed Terry Lester because of her connection to Jessica (who was married to John) which may have caused him to film with her often which led him to think she had taken over the show. Of course I could just be watching a period where she isn't so dominate. So far I see her supporting everybody elses stories.

- Speaking of Terry Lester, he is still amazing even towards the end of his run. Whenever I see an episode with him it's a treat. He has sparkling chemistry with Brenda Epperson who remains a solid Ashley recast. She's different, but you don't doubt she's Ashley. I also love seeing Beth Maitland's Traci chased after by two men and her family actually being invested in her love life. It's sad contrasting it with the 80 year old bitty they write her as now. 

- A huge loss to the show are the supporting staff. Mamie, Douglas, Mitchell Sherman, Lynn, Esther, etc are all well drawn characters and they pop up just enough. Despite focusing on many of the same families and characters, everything seems more rich and realistic than it does now. It's weird seeing a Newman ranch with STAFF and actually difficult to get on. You'd think in 2019 it would have state of the art security, but 1989 is putting them to shame. 

 

ETA:

 

I also wanted to mention the myth (IMO) that Y&R moved like molasses when Bill Bell wrote it. Yes it's true there are certain story threads that took years or decades to come to fruition, but that's true to life. It's not like he'd harp on something forever and then it would end on a whimper. Right now my biggest problem with the show isn't the cast or storylines, but the pacing. You have two major stories (Adam's return and Kyle/Lola) and everything else is lucky to muster one or two episodes a week. In these episodes he uses so much of the cast that I feel the plot moves along. I haven't yet seen one week where its the same story all week with no progression. Depending on the week Nina/Phillip/Jill/Kay may be featured more or the Rawlins murder or John/Jessica or Victor/Ashley/Leanne/Nikki. The show would benefit from this style of storytelling now.

Edited by Chris B
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allmc2008 Rising Star

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I am basically doing what you are doing. I downloaded all of the episodes that were posted over the years and now I'm in 1988. I noticed that the show had a lesser amount of stories going on between 1983-1987 then it suddenly started taking root again. I think it started around the introduction of Nina. Then, Leanna kinda accelerated the growth. Currently, I am on the episodes were Jessica and John Marry.

 

I agree about the pacing. The stories lasted a long time but there was constant movement. A lot was going on. It is War and Peace as opposed to Gone With the Wind.

There is a difference between dragging out a story and a long story. He told long stories.

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vetsoapfan Mentor

vetsoapfan

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Well, to be honest, that is the decade I am most interested in, but it's always a treat to see episodes from the soap's golden era under William J. Bell.

 

And we are VERY FORTUNATE to have access to ANY material at all from Y&R's first decade. I'll always be thrilled to see more episodes if they ever pop up, but I am totally appreciative for the ones we already have.

 

I'm more likely to re-watch material from the 1970s than to endure new episodes produced in 2019, LOL.

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