Y&R: Old Articles

[Planet Soap]

Speaking of quads and triangles, I know we established the Bell wasn't big on supercouples. Outside of that, the couple pairings on the show lacked the power of say ABC daytime pairings. It seemed like charachters just hopped from one to the next after about a year or so. Only a handful of relationships like Neil and Dru or Victor and Nilki really had much impact.

[Michael]

I've always found this to be a strange choice! Not giving Victoria any real contemporaries also did something weird to the character in future years. I know the ages on Y&R in particular have gotten more and more compressed as time has gone on, but having Victoria in triangles with Ashley by the late 90s aged her up in a strange way, and then they teased her with Jack, Brad, and even Michael, right? (I have a faint memory of all that in the early-mid 2000s.) She basically fits into the Nick/Sharon age group -- and now they've crammed everyone from Billy to Phyllis into the same amorphous peer group -- but the way they utilized her as this sole teenager for a few years has always seemed odd.

[Darn]

Ryan died, Victoria grieved and then the show didn't mention him for years. I'd be surprised if the show has mentioned him more than 3 times in the last 20 years. In fact Victoria's life in the 90s doesn't seem to exist at all. Cole is never mentioned, her baby is never mentioned. She just started existing once she got with Billy.

[Errol]

That's because all those romances and storylines were during Heather Tom's era.

[Darn]

Yes, the show has gone out of it's way to pretend her pre-Amelie life didn't matter. Her stories and characterization were essentially erased.

[soapfan770]

Pretty much. I know AH Victoria once mentioned Eve around the time Reed was born while AH Victoria and Nina briefly discussed Ryan and Cole in the 12000th episode but other than that nothing. 

[kalbir]

Victor/Nikki the accident supercouple but 1981-1984 they didn't get the same degree of attention in the soap press that General Hospital Luke/Laura and Days Bo/Hope did. 

There was also really no Y&R couple 1985-1989 that got the same degree of attention in the soap press that Santa Barbara Cruz/Eden and Days Steve/Kayla did.

Edited January 15, 2023 by kalbir

[Paul Raven]

Bill Bell was smart enough to avoid supercouples because he knew how limiting they could be to character and story development. Days showed that to be true by having one to kill off one half , usually because the actor was leaving eg Roman/Marlena, Bo/Hope, Steve/Kayla and the audience was not interested in seeing either of them with anyone else, hence the endless back from the dead stories.

Even with Nikki and Victor, he wrote them as flawed with definite character traits, so their split was realistic and interesting to watch.

I agree he was sometimes to quick to split up couples, rather than try and get a few more years story from them. with long term characters that is important, otherwise we see 5 or 6 marriages and credibility is lost.

[AlexGrimaldi]

In her biography MTS says that the writers had to rewrite everything very quickly, because she started to gain weight soon in the pregnancy and that was so visible onscreen. Her unexpected pregnancy turned to be one of the biggest 1982 storylines. MTS loved how it worked well. 

[DRW50]

Not Y&R related, but it's an interview with the lovely Marguerite Ray from when she was on Sanford.

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[Planet Soap]

Exactly! I have little to no investment in seeing Jack, Ashley, Victoria or even Sharon get married or even be in a relationship because they've all been married or coupled all over the map so many times.

The Bold and the Beautiful is a prime example of couple pairings having zero effect because everyone's been with everyone. 

Writers have to learn that it's okay to have some people be single for a few years instead of romance being the go-to B plot to fill airtime.

Edited January 16, 2023 by ironlion

[yrfan1983]

Edited January 16, 2023 by yrfan1983
Delete

[janea4old]

Chance mentioned Ryan on Dec. 13, 2022
Context: Chance was talking to Sharon about how he was worrying about how his divorce from Abby would impact Dominic.  He mentions that he read somewhere that early childhood trauma can impact the rest of your life.

Chance: You know, I spent my entire childhood believing my dad was dead. And even though I had the best mom in the world and I had a great stepdad in Ryan… I still felt that loss.

Sharon: And then you lost Ryan, too.

https://www.tvmeg.com/index.php/2022/12/13/yr-transcript-tuesday-12-13-22/

[Paul Raven]

Thanks for finding that.

I wish they did that more often. Of course, with some of the histories some characters have had, they could be referencing stuff in every scene. And some things are better left forgotten.

But there should be more references, like the one above. that flow naturally. It feels like they care and acknowledge that a lot of viewers have been there for years and remember this stuff.

[will81]

Ashley should have never married Blade. That was out of character for her. So soon after her divorce from Victor and still on and off with Brad. She went from just having fun and letting loose to married within 18 months.

I would have preferred if Ashley and Victor separated for a while but stayed married, he explores his feelings for Nikki, she for Brad. Blade instead is a stalker who causes havoc for Ashley and Brad, Tylo had a dark edge to him from the beginning which lent itself to creepy/stalker guy vibes. Once that was over Ashley is again torn between Victor and Brad. She reconciles with Victor and gets pregnant with Adam, thus eliminating Hope and tying Adam to two major characters from the two major families. 

You could still have had Victor disappear and meet Hope and be there for a bit, but come back and reconcile with Ashley. Maybe that is the impetus for her to return to him, having lost him. Maybe while he is presumed dead, Ash is about to move on with Brad???? Then he comes back, once again thwarting Brad's plans.

I think her marriage to Victor could have lasted until Brenda Epperson left. I think once Victor and Ashley were done her next and only other marriage should have been Brad. Whether Brenda or Eileen, that pairing worked very well and they seemed more end game to me than Ashley and Victor. 

Edited January 17, 2023 by will81