Y&R: Old Articles

[Liberty City]

LOVEEE! Mike was excellent and Edward J. Scott was awesome as executive producer.

[Broderick]

Yeah, and to my knowledge that's not "expensive" directing, or "time-consuming" directing -- it's just creativity, preparation on the director's part, and then execution of what you'd thought of and planned.   We've all seen low-budget films and TV shows that are well-directed and some that are poorly directed.  Lately, Y&R has fallen into the second category.  

[Paul Raven]

Thanks for that clip.It really illustrates how the directing was part of the story telling.

We even had that 'soap' shot where both face the camera, so one is actually talking to the others back. I think, (wrongly) that has been deemed as old fashioned.

My point is that once upon a time, there was dry blocking and dress rehearsal etc so the actors/camera people had time to co-ordinate all these moves and make changes etc.

Whereas now I think they only have a quick run through and then tape, so there isn't the time available to execute the director's vision.

Occasionally there are some interesting angles used but overall nothing of this level.

[YRfan23]

I’ve chosen my top 2 years by decade. Granted most the 70s is mostly by the few episodes that surfaced or from summaries I’ve read for those years (same with some of the 80s)

70s: 1975, 1979

80s: 1984, 1989

90s: 1991, 1993 

00s: 2001, 2003

i can’t and won’t name any of the 2010s because most of those years were awful!

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even if I found some enjoyable things from those years tbh. 

[Soapsuds]

I enjoyed 1986. It had the Shawn and Lauren story plus Nina's baby stolen by Rose and sold on the black market.

[yrfan1983]

I agree with the majority of your picks, but I’m curious - why 2003?

[soapfan770]

If I recall right I believe SOD named Y&R as Best Show for 1986 and I can completely agree see why from what I have seen and read. Only ATWT was on the same level both soaps were powerhouses that year. 
 

Great picks! 

Not speaking for YRfan23 but just agreeing with them but in own personal opinion what made 2003 great was the whole Tuvia vs Safra umbrella storyline which involved most of the cast and had significant consequences and development all the way around from Victor blackmailing Michael into doing his bidding, Ashley losing the baby, Victor & Nikki vs. Nick & Sharon, Jack & Phyllis marriage hitting the rocks over it while it Neil and Dru strengthened their relationship over it to Diane bailing out Jabot with the money she had got from Victor from their divorce years beforehand. 
 

There was certainly other intriguing storylines such as Albert Miller, the early stuff of Kevin the psycho, a 13 year old Cassie being the sanest and most reasonable Newman, Danny’s return  Brittany the stripper, JT & Colleen’s blossoming relationship  along with JT’s affair with Brittany’s mom. 
 

Now there was some pretty rough stuff ie the end of Diego’s story, Olivia and Brad then Olivia and Wes, Victor and Sharon and then Sharon in Denver, Christine pretending to be Kelly Simmons (yuck!) but it was watchable. Unfortunately the worst thing was Jill & Katherine becoming mother and daughter. While it made for juicy drama at the time it was also nonsensical. Losing Heather Tom at the end of the year was irresponsible. And I don’t think killing off baby Robert was a good idea either as it was excessive in retrospect. Having Robert struggle in the NICU for a month or so with the Abotts worried about him either dying or facing future disability while Ashley going into catatonic shock for a few months would have been just been effective as crazy Ashley and the blanket.

It’s sad because in a perfect world JT & Colleen should still be on this show, Billy & Mac should still be together with Mac being the actual mother of Johnny and Katie. Victoria could easily have reunited with Cole and or met either Prentiss Brooks or some sexy hot shot executive type. Maybe an Ashland Locke type under different writers? And in the end Victor sees Cassie as his true successor for Newman Enterprises. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by soapfan770

[Soapsuds]

I forgot that 1986 also had Jill shooting and the mystery of who shot her.

[FrenchBug82]

Man, ain't that the truth. I don't want to be too negative on Amelia Heinle because I don't think all the problems with current-day Victoria are only on her but I watched the following scene two hours ago out of a random YT suggestion and I swear that HT is giving me in three minutes more range of acting that AH has given me throughout 2021. And for a storyline that didn't even revolve around her character

 

[ChickenNuggetz92]

I also compiled this a while back as a style guide for a video project I wanted to start a while back, obviously taking cues from Y&R's direction back then.

 

[YRfan23]

@yrfan1983 @soapfan770  Honestly, while I have a better understanding and knowledge of  all  that went down in 2003, It's kind of like what I said about the 70's and 80's where I'm just going by reading up on what happen, and the samples of full episodes or clips I've seen, Also how most people say this was the final year the show truly felt like Y&R (though to me that ends at 2005).  A lot of what @soapfan770 said I do agree with, and obviously the good outweighs the bad like Jill/Katherine as mother/daughter, Losing Gina's and Heather Tom's leaving.....I guess I would also add the Foster family reunion with the original actors (SANS Jill) and other returns like Andy, Matt (even if they didn't amount to anything) are what also made the year stick out. of course I gotta add the show putting Victor through some misery that he definitely had coming for a few years, is what made it all enjoyable. 2003 was probably the most he had been slapped or punched onscreen!

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[soapfan770]

After being stuck with Heinle and Khalil for so long now I can pinpoint what went so wrong lol.

Looking back Heinle enjoyed a solid first year under decent writing as the old crew were still writing for her as if she was HT Victoria. She was was adequate in the role but since she wasn’t anything close to being a force like HT Latham, MAB etc chose to write towards more Heinle’s more alleged romantic heroine strengths in the past on other soaps and also appeased to AH’s ego. It flopped miserably all around because the reality is AH has always done better as an icy bitchy Victoria rather than some romantic heroine, and AH’s ego was punctured when after her getting David Tom dismissed she got paired with Burgess Jenkins instead. Nice guy from all accounts but so wrong for Billy. AH was embarrassed and really has had zero chemistry with Jason Thompson.

 

[soapfan770]

And thanks @YRfan23 didn’t mean to overstep just wanted to inject my own opinion about 2003.

I still have bitterness towards Jack Smith and how a lot Y&R’s problems go back to him directly. Given how Smith was fresh off B&B with so many shocking yet inconsequential plot twists like Ridge & Morgan and  Ridge is Massimo’s son he assumed Y&R would be the same with stuff like Paul rapes Christine and Katherine/Jill. Yikes. It did not work at all.   Yet after Sony fired him he eventually slithered back in silence as a script writer for B&B for a number of years before retiring. A shame we have no post Y&R interview for him although I did hear his son’s passing around the time he was fired from Y&R  has endlessly haunted him. And I don’t really care to hear from him via an Alan Locher interview lol.

[Aback]

I was in YR-geek-heaven. Thanks! Great work

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[yrfan1983]

I 100% agree that making Jill the daughter of Katherine was an awful idea.

But - is there anyone besides me who enjoyed the story itself? 

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I thought it had lots of great beats:

- The return of the Fosters, especially beloved Liz

- The incredible character of Charlotte, alcoholic fake Jill birth-mother, played indelibly by Elizabeth Harrower soon before her passing. Every line she spoke was just gold.

- Katherine’s stroke, which led to some great tense scenes as she knew Billy and Mac were cousins but couldn’t communicate it

- On that note, finally an interesting story for the beige and boring Billy and Mac recasts. I was just starting to warm up to them, when in the course of a week in June ‘03, they went from getting married, to breaking up and leaving town separately.

All that said, I’m quite happy the Jill/Katherine blood-relation was later retconned. I can’t keep track - is Jill still considered a Fenmore or was that also (hopefully) retconned?