Y&R: Old Articles

[Broderick]

I believe the source of the problem was that Bell & Kenney released the actor who played Stuart Brooks from his contract, and then Bell no longer had any control over the actor's availability.  Bell *likely* planned to wrap-up the storyline in some fashion (as evidenced by the Memorial Day clip), but then Bob Colbert (hurt by being released from contract) cut-off his availability, and everything just fizzled out completely, leaving the entire storyline up in the air for the rest of Julianna McCarthy's run on the show.  

[Paul Raven]

They still could have Liz address the situation, saying she and Stuart had decided to part.

Stuart was still running the Chronicle but it wasn't central to the plot so he could have stayed in GC but no longer part of the story.

There was no need for him to be seen.

[Khan]

God, I loved the music in that clip.  It's not just someone fiddling at the piano; it's underscoring and illuminating the emotions going on between Stuart and Liz.

And I truly miss the days when characters on soaps had normal conversations that revealed a little something about themselves and didn't just rattle off exposition mixed with pseudo-clever one-liners.

[Aback]

 

Question for our tech heroes - how can I download this clip now that YT1s is down?

[DRW50]

Try this.

https://www.4kdownload.com/welcome

[allmc2008]

I visited Kay a few weeks ago and she's doing good. I recorded her watching old scenes.

 

 

 

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The stuff on the legal pads were her notes when she was still a PhD student studying soap opera.

Just as Agnes always talked about "Brotherhood of Man" Bill was always stressing over 'The Human Equation" -- that was his term.

 

Later, I will post other stuff she had and I found. They maintained a folder called "Brock One Liners" where Kay and Elizabeth Horrower would find various quotes for Brock to use and they would keep track of them in a document in a folder. I scanned the whole thing.

 

And evidently Bill didn't take too kindly to story consultants but he had a GREAT respect for Elizabeth. Kay said that she was very off the wall but in a good way and was very eccentric and wrote very eccentric stuff. They instructed her to write specific scenes for Kay/Jill.

Bill also loved Sally. Sally created the Fenmore family, in fact.

 

But Kay was already co-hw by the time Joanna was introduced and was struggling with her weight -- around 1977.

 

Bill and Kay would basically write the show themselves. they would 'kinda write a bible but would forget about it. Instead, they would write in a very brief outline for an episode and work on it for half an hour and then he'd write 3 acts and she'd write 2 acts. And then the would combine it and work on the next episode. When Jack Smith (she said he was her first protoge -- not Bill's protoge) came on in 1979 the three of them would divide it up.

I mentioned the Joana weight thing as Kay was in charge of that story while Bill did the Peggy rape story.

Her account of the Joanna/Katherine lesbian thing is interesting but I'll wait to be asked about that LOLOLOLOL

My biggest takeway, and this is for @Khan, Bill WAS asked by CBS for Restless to be an all black soap. But, he felt that, as a white man, he wouldn't have been able to tell a story about two black families honestly enough. He wanted to bring in black people from the start but he was, again, afraid of being dishonest/unauthentic.

She also clarified that Bill was 10000% NOT homophobic. But it was the same thing with black characters. That, and he felt that most of the time gay stories on daytime were too sensationalist or too hollow and that the audience wouldn't allow them to go far enough to be truthful.

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by allmc2008

[YRfan23]

That's so cool!! those notes look so fascinating!!

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 You are so lucky!!

Is it confirmed if Kay has  several or most of her own episodes of the show for herself?? I couldn't tell if the scene she was watching was something we already have on YT or from her personal collection.

[allmc2008]

That's from The Vault.

 

She has tapes but they are on BETA

[Broderick]

Thanks for the Kay Alden update and history!!  

I'm glad she's doing well.  I'm sure she misses Big Vern.  

PLEASE provide the Brock platitudes.  I'm sure we heard several of them on them on the air ("Lord, I pass this way but once; let me not pass without serving my neighbor"), but there are likely plenty more that we never heard.  

If I were Kay Alden, I wouldn't take credit for Jack Smith.  I'd pretend he was WJB's protégé instead of mine!  

[YRfan23]

Ah gotcha! 

She really should convert those tapes!

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[Aback]

Thanks!! Please send her all our love.

[BoldRestless]

And that is the same Elizabeth Harrower who played Kay's friend, whom Jill thought was her mother, right? The eccentricity definitely came off in her performance! She seemed a free spirit. I wonder how she felt about playing that story in 2003, considering it was completely rewriting history she wrote!

 

Love seeing the little tidbits and notes, amazing stuff. Great that Kay is doing well.

Fascinating to hear Bell's thoughts on the possible gay/POC stories. Would love to hear more, if you are able to share.

[allmc2008]

Same Horrower. Kay didn't write that story, that was Jack Smith.

 

For the record, Kay and Jack are really good friends -- always had been. She, in fact, wanted him to be her co-HW on "All My Children".

[allmc2008]

Well, Kay had a friend named Suzanne whom they employed to research things that were current. She would read all the  hip magazines and feed Bill and Kay stuff that could work as storyline. She read an article in Cosmo that was about lesbians and that was how the idea of Joanne/Kay was born.

Bill and Kay were shocked by the hate mail and the (very sharp) ratings decline when, all that happened, was meaningful eye contact as Kay put her hand on Joanne's shoulder. Literally, at that moment, the phone rang and it took MONTHS for the ratings to rebound. Bill agreed to not try that again EVER because of how devastating it was.

On that note, Bill was very devastated when he was forced to expand to an hour and entered a depression.

I asked Kay about the years from 1980-1982. She said it was a nightmare because they weren't prepared. She told me that she loved working with H Wesley Kenny but I asked if Wes ever had sway in story. She told me that, by then, she and Bill were very much a co-hw'ng team and he wouldn't have allowed Wes (or anyone else) to control him.

The network would call Bill for scripts and Bill would say, "You will get them when they air".

A lot of Bill's ego was due to Irna though. Irna would keep the man from, like, 8am to 8pm. Soon after, Irna would call and keep him for, sometimes, 4 hours. He would tell her he was eating with his family but she flat out didn't care. Lee told Kay that Irna was a bully and the whole time would trash his talent and trash him over the phone. The last thing, however, that Irna told Bill (after the fallout) was "You will never be a success because your life is too normal".

 

Once, Bill and Kay were eating as a restaurant and Agnes walked by. Bill stood up and introduced the two of them and flat out told Agnes, "She's my protege. I'm giving her the show when I retire".

Edited May 2, 2022 by allmc2008

[BoldRestless]

Fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing!