7 hours ago, will81 said:

The bigger issues was 1980.

 

We start with a really silly story. Lance has become a compulsive gambler after being kicked out of Prentiss. Lorie is so concerned for him that she agrees to Vanessa's demands to divorce him, and Vanessa will give him back his position at Prentiss back. Lucas has decided he no longer wants to be with Prentiss and hands it over to Lance, but Vanessa tells Lorie it was her doing and convinces her (somehow) to go through with the divorce. Lance is stunned by the divorce and plans to fight, but instead decides Lorie is better off without him and leaves. This takes place over a month and a half. Lorie gave up everything she had been fighting for so easily. They brought in Michael Scott, but it went nowhere and he was shifted to Julia and Victor. Lorie and Victor become friends, but by this point JLB's pregnancy was showing and the show could do little with her.

 

I said it before, but I really think John McCook may have left suddenly. Maybe he agreed to stay then changed his mind. Apparently they left the door open until the last minute when they were planning to bring Lance back the next year, but McCook had well and truly moved on and Dennis Cole was hired. I believe Troy Donohue may have been in contention too, or maybe it was someone else.

 

When the show went to an hour, All My Children pulled out all the stops to challenge Y&R and won, Y&R dipped to 5th place that month.

 

Leslie's amnesia story also seems like it fell flat, especially with how Lucas finds her and the whole Santa Leandro stuff. There seems to be no tension or build up. Lucas comes back to GC tells Lorie, she visits her sister, realises she has no memory of her past life and that's it until Leslie comes back to GC. Lance returns briefly, dates Lorie and then leaves again. No mention if he and Leslie even saw each other.

 

I know Jon-Michael Reed didn't like the cult story. It does seem a bit weak, by August 1980 the show had dropped to about 12th overall in daytime and around 7th in soaps. This was as the cult story was rolling ahead and abouto climax in early september, August was also when JLB was already on maternity leave. 

 

Brenda Dickson was gone, Bond, even though she was good and Conboy and Bell liked her and Jon-Michael Reed liked her too didn't last long. Audiences didn't seem to warm to her. But as I stated before Bond said her agent was to blame, I am guessing Conboy had no time for any of it and was just being ruthless, since they had a show bleeding ratings. Bell barely got Jill up and running again before Bond was let go for Deborah and whatever happened with Brett Halsey, pushing back the John/Jill/Jack story to Fall. Then Halsey was apparently a dud in the role and was let go six months later, before the story had even gotten off the ground

 

Lyn Topping was pregnant with twins and is MIA from about mid Feb to late April on maternity leave, then appears a handful of times through to Aug and then is gone until Mar 81. The Hoff is around every two months for a brief appearance only.

 

Jaime Lyn Bauer was also pregnant and it was her second pregnancy and just as difficult on her as the first. Again she had to be wheeled to set each day and she left the show early as a result. Wesley Ann Pfenning stepped in for two weeks then Lorie was gone for a month and didn't really come back full time until Nov 80. Basically JLB was sidelined for in total half the year. 

 

Kay/Derek seems to have been pretty boring. After Brenda left the story morphed into Derek trying to take over Chancellor. Jeanne was out with an injury for several weeks, the story picked up more in the summer and got a bit stronger once Kay jumped overboard and was rescued by Felipe

 

All this plus Bell was trying to adapt to a format (1hr) that he didn't like. Characters were coming and going and he didn't have the established cast to fall back on so much. I guess Bell really needed to recover from 1980 and I feel he did start to get back to things in 1981, but it just took another year or so to get really back on track.

Great summary and observations.

Beau Kayzer also departed, short circuiting the Brock/Julia storyline.

Sometimes I wonder why they didn't just cancel the show after losing so many actors and just create a spin-off with selected characters like Lorie, Kay, Jill, etc. That would have given them a fresh start while leaving things open for original cast members from the core families to pop in.

 

9 hours ago, Legacy said:

Yes there is also some that i just discovered as im seeing these 82 episodes for the first time, I'm with you on that I'll take what i can get at this point cause i never thought i would ever see even this.

 

Also I loved the scenes where Lorie came to nikki and Kevin's engagement party, and to finally see Katherine and Lorie in the same room was 👍 pure gold, and Lorie certainly never backed down to any of them which made it awesome.

 

I know we always Katherine and jill going back and forth but i would love to see Katherine and Lorie face off!!

 

Also i was very shocked to even hear Katherine bring up Vanessa prentiss, so clearly katherine and Vanessa must have shared a scene one time cause why did Katherine make it seem like she only knows Lorie because of vanessa, she could have added she knew her from long when she use to flirt with her husband.

I would love to see that scene and because it's soo random im sure the chemistry was there but they scrapped that.

 

I still wanna see that scene i heard of i think it's 1980 when Peggy was held captive and when Paul or carl or Steve came in to save her and she was covered in rats... That's a scene i would love to see basically the whole cult storyline.

 

It was Paul who found her. I'm surprised after all the trauma of being raped, being in love with a married man, kidnapped by a cult, breaking off an engagement to Steve Williams, that Peggy did not become an alcoholic. That may have given some meaty storyline to Pamela Peters in 1980-82. Maybe with Peggy drinking she becomes a bit of a bad girl and goes out to the Bayou etc...

I found this summary of an episode on IMDB dated February 26, 1979. They list Pamela Peters as Peggy, but I read Patricia Everly was Peggy in 79. 

 

Casey remembers that her father molested her as a child. Leslie names her son Brooks Lucas Prentiss. Vanessa plans to travel to Switzerland but wants Lance to go so he will realise the baby's been born and that the baby is his, not Lucas'. Lorie continues to try and lure Lance to a warm climate vacation. Nikki and Casey's father is scheming for the $10,000 which Nikki inherited from her mother. Peggy loves her work at the newspaper. Jill admits to Derek she still loves him but plans to make her marriage to Stuart work.

 

 

33 minutes ago, Forever8 said:

 

 

Yes, another episode from my favourite era! Sidebar: I'm glad that they appreciate the classic episodes but this Antonio guy needs to chill with the comments lol. It's borderline spam on the classic Y&R clips on YouTube haha.

 

3 minutes ago, ChickenNuggetz92 said:

 

Yes, another episode from my favourite era! Sidebar: I'm glad that they appreciate the classic episodes but this Antonio guy needs to chill with the comments lol. It's borderline spam on the classic Y&R clips on YouTube haha.

 

I was thinking the same thing! It's a little too much! LOL

1 hour ago, SoapDope said:

 

It was Paul who found her. I'm surprised after all the trauma of being raped, being in love with a married man, kidnapped by a cult, breaking off an engagement to Steve Williams, that Peggy did not become an alcoholic. That may have given some meaty storyline to Pamela Peters in 1980-82. Maybe with Peggy drinking she becomes a bit of a bad girl and goes out to the Bayou etc...

What an interesting take on her character, that could have been really juicy for her to tackle and it could have definitely added more of a presence to her.

 

Does anyone know how long the bayou was apart of the show i assumed from 81-83 if im wrong im sure someone will correct me.

19 minutes ago, Legacy said:

What an interesting take on her character, that could have been really juicy for her to tackle and it could have definitely added more of a presence to her.

 

Does anyone know how long the bayou was apart of the show i assumed from 81-83 if im wrong im sure someone will correct me.

I think the Bayou did last till 1983. Roy who worked there was a guest at Nikki's wedding in 1984. 

I agree about Peggy. I wish Bell had done more with her instead of letting her linger and disappear into oblivion. I don't think she made into to 1982. 

I'm really enjoying seeing glimpses of Charlie the Butler at the Newman Ranch. He had been mentioned so much but not seen that I wondered if he was an actual character. I wish the show had let us get to know him better, as they eventually did with Esther.

Does anyone know the Charlie actor's name?

One thing I noticed about Nikki’s party at the ranch is how naturally Lorie fits in with everyone there! It’s so amazing to finally see her interact with Katherine and the cattiness between the 3 women is Hysterical! JLB really could fit in with the new Y&R if she had wanted to stay on. 
 

I wish so many Jill/John and the Abbott scenes weren't edited out.

7 minutes ago, yrfan1983 said:

I'm really enjoying seeing glimpses of Charlie the Butler at the Newman Ranch. He had been mentioned so much but not seen that I wondered if he was an actual character. I wish the show had let us get to know him better, as they eventually did with Esther.

Does anyone know the Charlie actor's name?

 

No, but I recall the character was known as Charlie Wong.  I was a bit let down when he was replaced with Miguel, even though he didn't have much of a part.

Had Victor/Lorie become the end game couple, would Bill Bell still have placed Victor in the Abbott's orbit and created the eternal quadrangle and eternal feud? Lorie strikes me as too smart to fall for playboy Jack, but I could see a Lorie/Victor/Ashley triangle unfold. Lorie being threatened by Victor spending time with a young, beautiful business associate.

1 hour ago, SoapDope said:

I think the Bayou did last till 1983. Roy who worked there was a guest at Nikki's wedding in 1984. 

I agree about Peggy. I wish Bell had done more with her instead of letting her linger and disappear into oblivion. I don't think she made into to 1982. 

You mean Leroy ? I didn't notice him at the wedding. I should have watched more carefully.

 

I had a look on the openings with so many old goodies appearing lately. This is what I got :

 

version 1: 1973 – early 1976

> Chris & Snapper / Stuart & Jennifer / Brad / Liz, Jill & Greg

 

version 2 : 1976 - late 1977 ?

> Brad & Leslie / Chris / Snapper (Hasselhoff) / Lorie / Brock / Liz & Jill / Peggy, Jennifer & Stuart

 

version 3 : late 1977 or early 1978 - 1979

> Brad & Leslie (Mallory) / Chris / Snapper / Lorie / Brock / Liz & Jill / Kay, Stuart & Lance

 

version 4: around 1979-1981

> Lorie, Leslie & Stuart / Lance & Lucas / Liz / Kay, Brock & Derek / Snapper & Greg

 

version 5: 1981 ? -August 1982

> Leslie & Lorie / Lance (Cole) & Lucas / Stuart & Liz / Snapper & Chris / Nikki & Victor / Paul & Patty

 

version 6: August 1982 - 1983 (with the clips on the vault, we can see the opening change)

> Leslie & Robert / Kay, Nikki & Kevin / John & Jill / Paul, Andy & Danny / Jack & Patty / Carl & Mary / Stuart & Liz

 

version 7: 1983

> same as above with Leslie & Robert removed at the beginning

 

version 8: Late 1983 or early 1984 (before February) - 1985. 

Starting with this version, they rotate 3 different openings

> 1 : Jack & John / Jill / Eric & Dina / Ashley / Traci / Amy / Gina / Lauren / Danny

> 2: Paul / Mary / Carl / Patty / Frank / Diane / Andy

> 3: Nikki / Victor / Julia / Kevin / Allison / Liz / Kay

 

version 9: Late 1985 - ... 

> Lauren / Paul / Mary / JoAnna / Andy / Carol / Danny

> Nikki / Victor / Matt / ?? / Jazz / Amy / Frank / ?? (only saw it once in a very bad quality so didn't identify two  )

> John & Jack / Ashley / Traci / Brad / Mamie / Jill / Kay

 

I stopped at 1985. If some have information that could fill in, I would love to hear.

Edited July 31, 20205 yr by FrenchFan

1 hour ago, trainman said:

 

No, but I recall the character was known as Charlie Wong.  I was a bit let down when he was replaced with Miguel, even though he didn't have much of a part.

From synopses, I think Charlie was sent on an "extended vacation" in spring '83, never to be seen or heard from again,  as Eve was initiating her murder plot.

Edited July 31, 20205 yr by yrfan1983