Y&R: Old Articles

[soapfan770]

Thanks for sharing I remember that was a great twist especially with Diane using the money from her divorce settlement with Victor. It also provided a new layers of tension to the already shaky Jack/Phyllis marriage especially when Diane wanted joint custody of Kyle back. 

[will81]

Jonas' Club was both two towns over from GC and at the same time somewhere in New York, haha. 

[Broderick]

It really seemed that way.  A Chronicle arrived with a headline about Leslie's disappearance, but Jonas's concubine (Gloria, or whatever her name was) threw it out without reading it.  And Leslie managed to get there with no identification or money.  Those two things seemed to indicate it was "two towns over".  But when Lorie, Lucas, and Stuart "discovered" Leslie and started making trips to visit her to check on her condition, they acted like she was WAY off somewhere in never, neverland.   

[will81]

She travelled through time at some point too. By 1981 Leslie went from missing for 6 months to being gone for 3 - 5 years. 

[Broderick]

Ha!  It definitely seemed like 3-5 years, after all that foolishness with Sebastian Crowne and the Orphans of San Leandro!  And then to make matters worse, Jonas fell through a time doorway and landed in the Allegro.  None of it made much sense, and it ended with a complete fizzle.  I didn't even realize Jonas was gone till Gina was buying his (latest) club.  Gotta hand it to Gina -- at least she was a character who sort of made sense, unlike Jonas.  Guess Jonas went on back to Casablanca, or wherever he'd come from.    

[Paul Raven]

Did Jonas even get a last name?

Jerry Lacey had been popular on Love of Life I guess, but Jonas was a complete washout. There was no chemistry with Leslie/Pris and he was never fleshed out. He hung around for a few years and I think disappeared w/o trace.

[kalbir]

1980-1982 was a messy era. Thankfully things stabilized by 1983 and we had that amazing run through the first half of 1986.

[Broderick]

Never got a last name, and I honestly don't know where he went.  He was around for PART of that "stalker storyline".   In one episode, there was a split-screen showing Jonas, Andy Richards, Cash, and someone else (Greg Foster, maybe?) and we were supposed to sit there wondering, "Which one of them is Nikki's stalker??"  Of course it turned out to be NONE of em, and Jonas vanished into thin air soon afterwards, like Bogey & Bacall sailing away to Key Largo.  

[YRfan23]

Didn't Jonas help Paul and Andy rescue Nikki from Crazy Edward? 

[Broderick]

Seems like it.  He was all up in the middle of that story.  (And that's about ALL they could find for him to do at the time.)  I believe the WGA writers strike might've hastened his exit.  Most of that stalker mess occurred during the strike, which caused everything to be dragged-out pretty agonizingly.  

[YRfan23]

He exited the show very early in January 82 Also. I’m guessing he Wes Kenney wanted him gone post haste like Cash! Lol

[will81]

The Edward story ended in Sep 81 and Jonas was there and by New Year of 82 I think Leslie went to Lucas and told him to get his sh*t together and run Jonas'/Allegro because Jonas had left town or something. I am sure I remember reading a quote from Jerry Lacy that he hadn't been on screen much before they let him go, so his last appearance was probably sometime before Jan 82. 

Lol writing at the same time. Synopsis is confusing. He may have been there in Jan 82 to hand over the club, but it also reads as if Jonas is already gone.

[Broderick]

I'm not sure that he was even there for the handing over of the restaurant.   Memory's bad, but it sorta seems that most of the changeover was assigned to Stuart Brooks and Leslie.  "Now that Jonas is gone, I'm not sure what I'll do with the club."  "Why don't you sell it, honey?"  "Would you handle it for me, Dad?"   Maybe Jonas had a big tearful good-bye, but it wasn't very memorable if he did.  Some of the Wes Kenney rejects got GRAND GOOD-BYES, like Cash with the champagne glass in the hospital bed.  Others got the bum's rush out the door, like the Stevens family.  "Mom, Dad, I'm a zillionaire, and I'm moving to New York in five minutes.  Why don't you guys come too?  Oh, and let's invite April.  Be sure to tell her we're leaving four minutes from now."     

(Looking back at the late 1981/early 1982 synopses for clarity, it looks as though Jonas's primary role was "life coach" for that wretched Karen Richards, during his final few weeks on the show.  This was occurring during the equally-wretched Lorie Overacts All Her Scenes About Vanessa's Death storyline.  Sometime during all that dragged-out mess, Jonas left town with Sebastian Crowne, and as y'all pointed-out above, Leslie told Lucas to run the club for a while, which put Lucas (sadly) in the sights of Karen Richards, as most of her scenes were set in the Allegro.  Then of course Jill inherited Karen for a spell.)   

Edited April 1, 2022 by Broderick

[Paul Raven]

Y&R created a set for Jonas' club located in Wherever USA.

Up until then the meeting spot in GC was The Allegro (formerly Pierre's) When Pierre died in 74, did Leslie buy the restaurant from Sally or Pierre's sister?

Les was an up and coming concert pianist, how could she afford to buy it?

Was Leslie's plan to be hands on, or was it  merely an investment?

Anyhoo, Brock started working there at some point.

Back to Jonas' club. Leslie decided to revamp The Allegro by magically redecorating it identically to his wherever venue.

So the set for Jonas' lived on in GC. Did he sell the other club?

Jonas' got renamed Gina's and lived on until it was burned down.

Gina then shifted to GCAC. Why didn't she rebuild her old club?

So many questions but I'm sure we can piece together some answers.

[Broderick]

Seems like it was SALLY who sold Pierre's to Leslie Brooks, but it might've been Marianne Roulland.   The reason I'm thinking it was Sally was that Sally and Brad Eliot were friends.  (Brad and Sally both had rooms above Pierre's for a while.) 

It was Brad who talked Leslie into buying it.  The rationale was that Leslie could perform in Pierre's without having to travel to Chicago or Detroit and book a venue.   Leslie named it the Allegro. 

Brock was sort of the "pivotal character" who knew everyone on the show.  Got a problem? -- Go talk to Brock.  Bill Bell seemed to like the idea of having Brock in the Allegro where he could routinely consult with Snapper, Greg, Jill, all four of the Brooks girls, Kay, and random runaway teenagers without ever having to leave the counter.  He could also belt-out a song when the show was running short.   

Then of course it went to Jonas after Brock left the show, but Jonas couldn't exactly offer spiritual advice and pepper everyone with 20 questions the way Brock did.  After Jonas left, Gina bought the club, of course, with some financing from Jack Abbott, and she continued Brock's tradition of nosing into everyone's business while seating them. 

My recollection is that Gina said, after the burn-down, "Too many memories here.  Time to start over. Time to move on." 

The REAL behind-the-scenes motivation behind the switch from Gina's to the Athletic Club seemed to be the SALAD BAR.  At some point circa 2002, the set decorators decided to place a gigantic, oversized SALAD BAR in the middle of the floor in Gina's.  They made a big production of having all the characters discuss how WONDERFUL the salad bar was.  But of course the problem was inevitable -- the salad bar was in the middle of the room, and there was no way in the world to move the cameras around the damn salad bar.  I've never been able to understand how such a critical set-design mistake could be made by seasoned professionals.  But the salad bar made all the camera angles impossible to achieve.  It would've been absurd to ditch the salad bar immediately, after writing pages of dialogue about how wonderful the salad bar was.  Instead, the directors and camera guys had to work around the salad bar, which you could tell was a nightmare for everyone involved.   About that time, the place went up in smoke -- salad bar and all.  If it hadn't been for the salad bar, we'd have likely never laid eyes on the Genoa City Athletic Club.