Y&R: Old Articles

[Paul Raven]

Was that something that all CBS soaps adopted at some point for consistency, or was it a show by show thing?

 

I remember Mal introduced the 'previously on Y&R' . How long did that last?

Edited November 30, 2019 by Paul Raven

[DramatistDreamer]

It's been something of a Barbara Crampton weekend for me the past few days, watching her on 1993 episodes of Guiding Light and here.  Crampton's acting range is underrated. 

Sure, sometimes the characterization of Leanna Love could be overwrought (I'm not sure whether this was on account of the writing or the direction or acting choices) but seeing how slippery a character Leanna (or whichever name she'd go by), gives me an appreciation for the complexity in the character, a complexity that is sorely missing on today's soaps. Today's characters are so damn basic!

It's really twisted how complicated characters like Leanna once were.

Leanna was basically a misandrist who had an odd friendship with Jack, who was in essence, a chauvinistic playboy. Leanna, despite her misandry, clearly still wanted to be seen as desirable by men, as evidenced by those scenes after the wedding to Victor in Las Vegas.  Those exchanges between Douglas, Victor and Leanna were hilarious. 

 

Poor Lynn Harbough's hair.  The hair stylists on 1980s soaps were so unkind to women with long curly hair! All Ashley Crow and Lynn Harbough ever needed was a good leave in conditioner and some curl cream!  Those stylish brushed the life out of curly hair in the '80s!

 

Another painfully obvious fact is how different the details of business are handled now in contrast to classic Y&R and other soaps.  Brad's pitch to Lauren about advertising strategies was specific and actually sounded like something you'd hear in an office.  No wandering into coffee shops of athletic club bars making vague "business-y" comments before eliding into idle repetitive chit-chat. What a difference a few decades makes!

[ltm1997]

 

 

Thank you so much!! I so appreciate this!!

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[BoldRestless]

 

You're very welcome

[NeilDru4ever]

Does anyone have any links from April 2006-December 2006? I’ve looked all over the place and I can never find any. Since Kristoff passed away I’ve been watching a lot of his older episodes of Y&R. I can’t get myself to watch the show now. It’s cringeworthy.

[OzFrog]

I echo the sentiments made about Barbara Crampton in relation to those 1988 episodes posted by @BoldRestless (thank you so so much). Her characterisation of Leanna Love is beyond this world, particularly those fantasy scenes in her room where she dreams of killing Victor. And comparing those to the somewhat composed scenes of her and Victor in his office - she nails the juxtaposition amazingly.

[Planet Soap]

Awesome 1988!!! Lol, Those Leanna & Victor fantasy scenes were awfully Days of our Livesish. 

[YRfan23]

Haha, I get the feeling even if only in Fantasy form, Leanna was Victor's karma for locking Michael Scott in the Dungeon when he first came on.

[Planet Soap]

Another y&r channel, casey gibeaut, has surfaced on youtube, this one with disguised titles. Im seeing alot of content from 2012 when Sharon married Victor and took over Newman Enterprises, and Phyllis Tim Reid 2.0. I remember when those scenes aired, cannot believe it's been 7 going on 8 years already!

 

In seeing those clips, I'd say again that 2012 was Y&R's last barely palatable year. In thinking of the show as the Titanic (pardon the cheesy metaphor), it went off course but still afloat somewhere around 2005. Lynn Marie Latham was the iceberg, Maria Bell was the sinking, and Jill Farren Phelps was the cap size. Anything after 2013 has just been

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 Mal Young was just insult to injury.

 

Hopefully this channel doesn't get shut down as quickly as the other ill fated ones have. There are a couple of scenes on YouTube from y&r that have thankfully evaded Sony. 

Edited December 2, 2019 by ironlion

[Planet Soap]

(intended to be combined with my post above)

Edited December 1, 2019 by ironlion

[DramatistDreamer]

At random, I came across this interesting interview with Jennifer Gatti where she mentions a bit about how she got cast to play Keesha as well as some interesting thoughts on acting on a soap opera.

 

Interview: Jennifer Gatti on Bon Jovi, Star Trek, and Leaving L.A.

[OzFrog]

 

Having watched her on both GL as Dinah, and Y&R as Keesha, I’m really glad to see that she is still making a name for herself even today. Very talented actress on many levels!

[Aback]

Thanks! That was interesting. I have literally just realized that ‘Keesha’ was GL’s first Dinah Marler?! Not to be controversial but I thought Keesha was black or mixed... am I missing something?

[kalbir]

Keesha's race was never stated, but I'm sure it was implied that she was African-American, even though the actresses that portrayed her were of Puerto Rican and Italian heritage respectively.

[beebs]

Yeah, I thought when watching the story initially that Keesha was at least mixed, but I think they just gave her some...fairly heavy bronzer. In retrospect, it's cringeworthy, but I didn't even think twice about it at the time. It was only when I saw her on an old SFT episode that I realized how light her skin really is.