Y&R: Old Articles

[will81]

Bond also said this in response to one of my posts. She stated Conboy and Bell were very happy with her and so her agent made some moves that got her shown the door. It was 1980, everything was in a state of flux and Conboy didn't have the time for negotiations. 

Yes Jill got the job in May but the $1M question is who was playing John. Halsey is announced in Aug 1980 along with Deborah and no mention that he played the role andwent on leave and came back. Sean is not mentioned at all anywhere. I would think this would have made the soap press and especially Jon-Michael Reed's column, but nothing. 

Some people on FB group state they are sure Sean was John first and Halsey took over, others elsewhere are certain Halsey was on for a couple episodes, disappeared and was replaced with Sean before coming back. I can't find anything pre Aug 1980 about John Abbott and who played him.

In synopsis Jill gets hired, then is aimless for two weeks until John returns from a business trip. That would be roughly June when we have that ep of Sean Garrison. Then the pair are on and off for the next month and off again until Deborah, Brett and Terry are all on board the week of July 21 1980. In other words, John and Jill barely appear between the time he hires her in May and the recasts in July

Edited January 8, 2022 by will81

[will81]

For the record here is the announcement from Aug 10, 1980

 

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[Khan]

Frankly, if she hadn't been Ronn Moss' spouse at the time, I doubt she would have gotten the audition, much less the role.

[Paul Raven]

Thanks for that.

So it looks like Sean Garrison was John Abbott #1.

Maybe that didn't get mentioned because originally John was not going to be a major player. 

Although we did see him in that scene with Bond. Perhaps the plan was for John to be a stumbling block in the Jill/Jack romance and not another older man Jill was attracted to.

 

As for Bond and the negotiations, surely contracts would have been signed off before she joined the show.

Unless Bond started off as recurring? Maybe they agreed to that and then Bond's agent thought he had the upper hand?

Though that seems unlikely as Y&R didn't seem to do that, especially with major roles.

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by Paul Raven

[kalbir]

Agree. Nepotism for sure.

[Broderick]

I'm pretty sure it was Brett Halsey, lol.  

You could tell from Scene One that this "Jabot plot" was going to be Jill's next big storyline, and John Abbott was slated to play a crucial role in it.  They pulled out all the stops -- shiny new sets, professionally-designed Jabot logo, an expensive suit from Giorgio's of Beverly Hills for the CEO, the whole she-bang.  And remember, this scene came only a few months after Jill divorced Stuart Brooks, so the foreshadowing with the Older Man was pretty obvious.  

Jill had been working at some lower-income hair salon called "Bob's Beauty Bar" (or something like that), and she hated it.  She'd whined about it several times.  Steve Williams kept telling her she could do better.  Finally, she decided that she'd apply for the job at Jabot.  She marched into the new Jabot set (without even a commercial break to mark the time sequence between her resolution and her action) and talked John Abbott into interviewing her, though he specified to her that normally hiring was done by the HR department.  She was underqualified for the job, but sold herself well, and he hired her on a trial basis.    The scene was a "big deal", and you could tell it was moving toward a specific purpose.

It was several weeks later that John became impressed enough with her to say, "I'd like for you to speak with John Junior -- we've always called him Jack -- and help him get his head on straight."  Initially it was all about her relationship with John Senior. 

As for who played John in that initial interview scene -- I remember it as being Halsey.  But then again, I was a young teenager, and John Abbott was a 50-year old man, and all 50 year old men tend to look the same to a young kid.  The only time I recall laying eyes on Sean Garrison is in the You Tube clip posted by Bond Gideon's real-life husband.  But memories from 40+ years ago can be deceiving, I guess. 

In hindsight, there was a lot of stopping and starting with this particular storyline (much like in the beginning of the Derek Thurston storyline in 1976), but by the time we started seeing Terry Lester, Deborah Adair and Brett Halsey on a regular basis in the fall of 1980, it seemed as though Jabot had existed on the show for a long time, and it seemed as though Jill had been interacting with Abbott Senior and Abbott Junior for eons.   The whole show was rather topsy-turvy in 1980 as ya'll know, but the Jabot aspect of it always seemed fairly smooth, self-confident, sophisticated, and Bell-like, while many other aspects of the show in 1980 seemed cobbled together more haphazardly.    

[will81]

Thanks for that. I agree Bell was pulling out all the stops, but somewhere along the way Bond's agent did something to get her fired. Between May - July Jill and John are scarcely around. It may have been Bell slowly integrating the story/characters or maybe they were using that time to hunt for new actors / wait for Halsey to return (if he was indeed in the role in May). 

It is hard to tell. Jill and John would be on one week, then seemingly vanish the next. As far as I can tell Jill and John appear the week of June 30 1980 and then vanish until the week of July 21, 1980. That's a big gap and seems to be the point at which Deb Adair took over and Brett either took over or came back. 

It sounds like the Jabot ball gets rolling (It is also a part of the Julia/Michael/Victor story and Jill works on the Julia campaign) but the triangle seems to be a non starter that barely goes anywhere until it is resolved a few months later. 

 

In fairness I have assumed things. Bond never said what her agent did, and I never pushed the subject. It was implied he asked for more money, but she never said that. She just said he made moves that got her fired. You would think that means money, money, money, but I have no idea. Bond was adamant that Bell and Conboy were happy with her and she was getting great feedback.

[Paul Raven]

OK, thanks Broderick for that perspective.

So maybe another problem (among all the other 1980 goings on) was the casting of Jack?

Terry Lester had tested for Snapper I think when Espy left.

How long b/w Bond's last appearance and Deborah's arrival? Edit Just read Will's response so maybe a month or so.

Perhaps her sudden departure put a hold on the story progressing.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Paul Raven

[will81]

I wonder, is it also possible Bond had a 13 week deal, her agent kicks up a fuss at the end of it for a bigger more ironclad contract. Conboy and Bell aren't having it, but they keep Bond until they can find a new Jill?

[Broderick]

Hopefully one day we'll have the opportunity to review these early Jabot scenes with today's knowledge, and we'll be able to understand exactly what was occurring behind the scenes.  My own suspicion is that three things were in play (1) pilot season, (2) the casting of Jack, and (3) Bond's contract status.  

Back in the 1980s, spring was always identified as "pilot season", and actors were often missing from their roles in the spring because they were auditioning for various nighttime pilots.   I believe Brett Halsey was always the designated choice for John Abbott, but he likely had a pilot for a nighttime series (or possibly a movie-of-the-week) on the horizon that was hampering his ability to work on daytime consistently until later in the summer.  Just my guess.  

All kids my age were familiar with Terry Lester from a live-action science-fiction series called "Ark II".  He was a younger actor who was somewhat "in demand" in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Yes, he'd allegedly auditioned for Snapper Foster, but he did have a certain popularity factor, and it might have taken some special concessions to get him to sign-on as John Junior.  I expect he had some other options besides Y&R, as well.  

Bond Gideon had likely signed a very short-term contract when she initially took over from Miss Dickson -- 3 months or 13-weeks or something.   This would've meant that her deal was expiring in May or June of 1980, and it was probably renegotiation time for her long-term contract.  If Bell & Conboy wanted to dump her, this was their chance.  If they wanted to keep her, this was Bond Gideon's opportunity to make them ante-up a bigger salary.  Evidently, her agent overstepped her popularity (called her "Q-factor" in those days) and as a result she was out the door, with Deborah Adair coming quickly as her replacement.  (As y'all could tell from the clips that surfaced a while back, Bond Gideon was a pretty girl, a capable actress, and she seemed to have a fairly good command of the Jill character.)  There's always been a theory that she was miscast and then "Shattucked" because of her unpopularity; after watching her clips, I find that doubtful.    

All of this is just conjecture, but Bell appeared to know where he was going with this particular storyline.   He started dropping hints early on about the good-for-nothing, playboy son, the wife who'd abandoned the family years ago, the two daughters (one in boarding school, the other in college), the beloved housekeeper -- all of these things that didn't come to fruition fully until two years down the road.  There were very few missteps here on Bill Bell's part, unlike other storylines which seemed to misfire like crazy (Sebastian Crowne & the orphans, the Stevens family who could hop on a plane and disappear from the canvas in a single episode, Kay Chancellor vanishing into thin air for endless months with no explanation at all between her rescue from Felipe's island and her liaison with Jerry Cashman the male escort, Todd Williams the much-discussed young seminarian who never appeared on-screen, Suzanne Lynch who took a job in the Chancellor Industries cafeteria and was never seen or heard from again, Douglas Austin who was a petty thief breaking into a safe in one episode and Victor Newman's dear friend from the mysterious war in the next episode, and so forth and so on).  I believe the Jabot storyline was the ONE thing Bell seemed sure about; it just took a couple of months of actor-shuffling to get it rolling by late summer of 1980.     

[will81]

This is why I am obssessed with the 80 - 82 period. Y&R is always so together and orderly for the most part during Bell's run, but this period was rather messy by Y&R standards.

I think with Kay, Jeanne mentioned she was to be fired and Kay killed off when she took the jump off the cruise ship, but Bell changed his mind (I think she happened to get some favourable viewer mail around the time) I assume he decied to keep Kay but had no idea what to do with her after the Felipe story ended. Through most of 1981 she has little to do, she certainly appeared but mostly as a side character, until Bell pairs her with Nikki and Cash. I dare say it wasn't really until 1982 that Kay became more pivotal to the canvas again though. 

I agree, though I didn't watch like you did, even in synopsis you can tell what was working and what wasn't and what Bell seemed to be on top of. Though Halsey reportedly was let go due to lack of chemistry, Bell was able to still maintain focus on Jabot through Jack taking over. Bell didn't just abandon Jabot. I'd say the chemistry with Deb and Terry helped and Lilibet coming on as well, plus Terry in general must have inspired Bell to keep things going. Within a year John came back along with Mamie and shortly after Ashley and Traci. As you say all characters mentioned long before they appeared. I do believe he had a vision for Jabot and the Abbotts and held on to it because even without John, he kept Jack/Jill and Jabot going through 1981 when he easily could have junked it. So many other things were being thrown out when they didn't work. 

[Paul Raven]

Hard to believe that Bell would get rid of Jeanne, but if that's what she said...Wasn't this one of the times she needed time off? So maybe it was a case of 'take the time and we'll see how things go' Maybe Jeanne saw this as pretty much getting the boot,especially if it was a low time in her personal life.

 

I  recall Traci and 'Tiffany' being mentioned but only in the Jerry Douglas era. How much earlier were the family mentioned?

Agree, this is a fascinating time in the show's history.

Messy for sure and that's without getting into the Victor/Julia/Brock/Michael story or the Derek/Judy Chancellor mess .

[Cruising Soaps]

I read Jeanne Cooper's book.  This is also the time that Jeanne went to Rehab in real life.  That might be the reason why we didn't see her as much.

[Planet Soap]

I've never seen the episodes surrounding this, what exactly lead to Victor & Nikki's divorce in 2008?

[soapfan770]

@kalbir @KhanNothing like saying “Hey guys my wife is this prominent D-list actress who needs a permanent gig she would be great as Ashley and no need to audition!” Years later around the 40th anniversary someone interviewed all three actresses in a podcast and I recall Shattuck herself admitted she was out of her league in retrospect. 
 

 

A mess that is difficult to explain but I’ll try lol.

Jack was secretly the owner of Jabot even though he legally could not own Jabot after the tainted  face cream fallout if I recall right. Victor found out about this and decided to take down Jack so he convinced Jack to run for the Wisconsin state Senator seat. Victor and Nikki had been at odds over the Clear Springs project so Nikki decided to be independent of Victor, run against Jack for state senator  and save the town of Clear Springs much to Victor’s chagrin. Then Nick was presumed dead in a plane crash and Victor left town for weeks. Nikki and her campaign manager  David got close and fell for each other. Victor returned, discovered this and was pissed. He also discovered Jack secretly sold Jabot to Katherine and that Jack sold NVP to Nikki so then Victor was mad over being outwitted and not having control so he inexplicably blamed Nikki and became increasingly irascible. David convinced Nikki she could thrive without Victor. Then the Clear Springs disaster occurred, and when Victor’s company’s operations where to blame that was the straw that broke the camel’s back and they separated for good.