Y&R: Old Articles

[Paul Raven]

CBS announced in May 79 that Y&R would expand to an hour sometime that Fall. That was delayed to Feb 80.

So Bill Bell and John Conboy had around 8 months to prepare and get the show set up for the longer format.

Yet from what we read it was a very chaotic transition. Surely in that time Bill could plan story with expansion in mind and Conboy could iron out all the bugs associated. By that time 7 other shows had been through that process.

Would love to know what the deal was. 

[Broderick]

I believe there were three problems.

(1) Bill Bell was extremely opposed to the hour-long format, and he was forced to do it against his will.  He felt the network was taking a currently successful product that was at or near the top of the ratings and endangering its potential for future success.  

(2) His reluctance to move forward with the expansion led to a great deal of procrastination in planning for the inevitable

(3) His team didn't fully understand the process.  Kay Alden has indicated there was difficulty deciding how many characters should be used in any specific episode, how many different storylines should be presented within the hour, how many additional writers needed to be employed, and how the additional work should be delegated.  

Granted, all you had to do was turn on a show that had successfully made the transition and see how it was being managed.  But I don't believe Bell wanted to emulate another show (GH, AMC, or OLTL -- specifically).  The shows he was most likely to study were probably World Turns, Guiding Light, and Days -- all of which had ultimately struggled some, though not as much as his own show ended up struggling.  

[In my opinion, his BIGGEST problem was that he didn't successfully merge the new characters and new storylines with the existing characters and storylines.]

[SoapDope]

I remember reading an interview with Meg Bennett where she said Bell and Conboy hired her for Julia after knowing her work from SFT. She had recently moved back to California where she was originally from and they called her up. The Newmans were going to make their debut in 1979 for the expected 1 hour expansion, but all the problems and delays pushed it back till February 1980. 

[Paul Raven]

In July 79 Dec, Dec 3 was set as the day Y&R would expand to an hour with SFT displaced at 12.30 and moved to 3.30 following Guiding Light.

[kalbir]

@Paul Raven CBS soap block in the Eastern time zone from September 17, 1979 to February 1, 1980 was noon Y&R, 12:30 pm Search for Tomorrow, 1 pm local programming, 1:30 pm As the World Turns, 2:30 pm Guiding Light, 3:30 pm One Day at a Time reruns, 4 pm Love of Life. 

The new schedule on December 3, 1979 would probably be noon local programming, 12:30 pm Y&R, 1:30 pm As the World Turns, 2:30 pm Guiding Light, 3:30 pm Search for Tomorrow, 4 pm One Day at a Time reruns. Search for Tomorrow would have been killed by the second half of General Hospital.

The schedule we got on February 4, 1980 was noon local programming, 12:30 pm Search for Tomorrow, 1 pm Y&R, 2 pm As the World Turns, 3 pm Guiding Light, 4 pm One Day at a Time reruns. As we all know that soap line up didn't work and on June 8, 1981 the soap line up became 12:30 pm Y&R, 1:30 pm As the World Turns, 2:30 pm Search for Tomorrow, 3 pm Guiding Light, and the rest is history.

[Paul Raven]

[Paul Raven]

I agree-would love to read your thoughts on this.

Losing Lance so suddenly lead to the quick dissolution of that story .Les was now with Jonas and Lucas with Casey. That whole quadrangle that was building for years seemed to fizzle. With Lance gone, surely Lucas would have moved in on Lorie. Introducing the Leslie amnesia story and Jonas was a poor choice IMO.

Victor/Julia were isolated to Brock.Maybe Victor could have been involved with Prentiss, immediately becoming involved with Lorie and Lucas.

The Williams family were suddenly in the midst of things. I think the rollout needed to be slower.

We should have met Mary through Liz-it seems natural that those two women would interact. Paul relating to his parents and get them established before Patty or Steve.

It would be believable that Stuart might know Carl through the newspaper/police connection.

Mary's pregnancy should have been held back till they were more established.

Not a fan of the Lucas/Jonas/Sebastian /San Leandro story or the machinations at Chancellor. These were not traditional Y&R stories.

I wouldn't have had Liz and Stu in love and married. It needed to be a Mamie/John or Paul/Lynne thing with the audience wondering if they'll ever get together.

[will81]

Bell also had cast issues too in 1980

David H wanted out but agreed to stay basically as a guest star

Lynn Topping was mostly off due to a difficult pregnancy and then maternity leave. She refused to sign the same contract as David and walked

Jaime-Lyn Bauer also had a difficult pregnancy that slowed certain stories and ground to a halt others. She ended up leaving on maternity leave early and was off for over two months

Brenda Dickson left and her replacement Bond Gideon was let go after six months and replaced with Deborah Adair and the Jill/Jack/John story was pretty much a non starter that would result in Brett Halsey being let go

John McCook left which mostly resulted in the 4 L's drama falling apart.

In 1979 the two biggest stories were the Prentiss family drama and Jill/Kay/Derek with Stu/Liz/Suzanne. Both those stories suffered as a result of the above cast departures. Basically half the show was in trouble.

The Santa Leandro/Leslie's amnesia story fell flat, the cult story fell flat and Jill's stories were in stop start mode. On top of that Bell seemed to feel April/Paul and the Stevens/Williams were the future of the show and I don't think audiences agreed. 

[soapfan770]

After reading that I was wondering if SFT would’ve been killed by GH or would it have actually benefited from the also surging GL’s popularity with the Corrington era of SFT doing well and stable. 
 

The 1980-81 line-up was a mess for CBS. SFT lost the Corrington’s and it’s lead-in, Y&R struggled with the one hour format in a new time-slot, and ATWT just flat out suffered from an identity crisis. 
 

Years ago I remember reading about CBS wanting to expand SFT to one hour during the Bunim/Corrington era. I tried to imagine a time of where CBS left Bell alone with a 30 minute Y&R and three hour long P&G soaps…until 1987 when CBS cancelled SFT anyways for hour long Y&R and new half hour soap B&B. 
 

It’s like trying to figure out how long AW would’ve lasted on CBS. 

@Paul Raven The whole Liz/Stuart/Jill story strikes me as odd…imagine Ada and Rachel on AW bitterly fighting over the same man…surprised their relationship withstood that.

Bell later used the story tactic again with Ashley/Eric/Dina, Joanna/Marc/Lauren, and Nikki/Cole/Victoria. 

[Paul Raven]

@soapfan770

Liz  had always stood by Jill and Jill adored her mother.Once Jill started scheming to win Stu by lying about a baby and forcing him into marriage ,she was the villian. Liz never resorted to any tactics to win Stu over.

It damaged Jill's character. That story could have played better had Jill not known Liz carried a torch for Stu. Stu could have been a replacement for Phillip in Jill's mind and offer her the happy ending Phillip couldn't. She didn't need to be overtly scheming-there was enough conflict around for Jill and Stu. Maybe they never did marry-instead one or the other calls it off.

In my fan fic.Liz remains Sty's devoted housekeeper. He becomes involved with Dina who heads up Jabot (not John) John and the girls are out of town and return later. Jack and Dina run Jabot with Dina having spoiled her son and the two have a tempestuous relationship. Stu and Dina eventually marry. Jill gets involved with Jack which makes things awkward for Stu. Dina and Jill are enemies and it could be established early on that Kay and Dina are old friends.

Oh and I would have had Lance 'die' when John McCook left. That would have provided plenty of Prentiss drama and leave the door open for a Lance return.

[kalbir]

Bill Bell dusted off Liz/Stuart/Jill with Beth/Eric/Brooke on B&B. Vixen daughter all about the come up becomes involved with the upper class/wealthy man that her working class mother loves.

Edited May 20, 2023 by kalbir

[Khan]

I think SFT would have had a better chance of surviving at CBS had P&G been willing to keep the show at the 2:30 slot.  I'm sure the ratings took a hit with the time slot changes, but I'm also sure the ratings would have stabilized over time.  CBS and P&G just needed to exercise a little more patience.

[Broderick]

During Y&R's 30-minute period, Bill Bell had developed a masterful (or annoying, depending on your preference) practice of writing brief "vignettes" or "sequences" which he often inserted into his episodes.  His "vignettes" often aired about midway through the show, had nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the episode, and made you pay attention, scratch your head, and ask yourself, "What is he doing here?"  

In the first episode ever of Y&R -- which everyone on the board has undoubtedly seen -- the little Frenchman, who appears to be a minor character, suddenly belts out a song at lunchtime in a bizarre little "vignette" that appears to serve no storytelling purpose.  Everyone applauds for Pierre, and the episode immediately returns to its purpose, which involved Snapper, Chris, Leslie, Brad, Sally McGuire, and Stuart Brooks. 

In the second episode, there's a little "vignette" where Jill Foster explains to Snapper that she can't go to work that day because she's having menstrual cramps.  The scene is entirely about Snapper's progress at school and his relationship with Chris Brooks, but you're drawn into the scene because of the little "vignette" about Jill's cramps.  

When Doug Davidson celebrated his 40th anniversary on the show, a little "vignette" appeared in which Doug Davidson and Rick Springfield practiced karate in the gym, while Greg and Snapper were working out.  The purpose of the scene was to remind us that Greg doesn't have any use for Paul, but Bill Bell designed it as a "karate vignette", rather than just have Greg tell Snapper at home, "I can't stand that guy Paul." 

When the mandate came down in 1979 -- the show's going to an hour; there's nothing you can do about it -- Bill Bell probably should've negotiated with them.  "I don't want my new, larger budget to be given to me all at once.  I'd like 30% of it given to me three months prior to transition, another 30% the following month, another 30% the following month, and the balance at the expansion."  This would've enabled Bell to go ahead and sign his new characters to contracts and begin incorporating them into the show using those brief little vignettes that he'd already mastered. 

He'd already signed an actress to play April Stevens, and he already had a day-player working as Paul.  One of his initial storylines in the hour-format involved April's baby turning out to be Paul's. He could've previewed that easily in a two-minute "vignette" in the autumn of 1979.  Chris Foster takes April to the campus coffee shop to get her out of the apartment.  Greg Foster joins them.  While April is meeting Greg and chatting with Chris, she notices Paul out of the corner of her eye.  She looks at him uneasily.  Paul turns and looks at April, sighs, puts his arm around another girl and exits.  Fade to black.  2-minute scene.  The audience is left wondering, "Is that little April Stevens going to break up Greg and Nikki??  Does she already KNOW Nikki's deadbeat boyfriend Paul??  Or was that just a throwaway scene??"  I think it heightens the interest in both April AND Paul, as well as previewing the next year's storyline. 

Bell could've gone ahead and brought back Pam Peters -- who we all knew -- as Peggy Brooks, and had her take a job at the newspaper working for her father.  In a little "vignette" scene, Stuart assigns Peggy a story to write about some guys in an office on Market Street rescuing a pregnant cat from the roof of an office building.  Peggy returns with her story -- "I think it's great, Dad" -- and Stuart gives her the bad news -- his newest reporter, Steve Williams, already covered the story and has already written up the article.  Steve's article is better than Peggy's.  Steve takes Peggy to lunch at the Allegro to show he doesn't consider himself her competitor.  Peggy tells him all about the Brooks family, then asks him about his own family, giving him the opportunity to tell her his dad is a cop who often gives Stuart Brooks information from the daily police report.  His mother is a die-hard Catholic who also volunteers on the Genoa City blood drive.  His little sister is sixteen.  And then there's his deadbeat brother Paul.  Steve looks toward the entrance, and there stands Paul slouching in the doorway, "Speaking of the devil, there he is." 

A few days later, Jill comes pouting into the living room to complain about Kay and Derek.  Liz isn't paying her much attention at first, because she's helping with the blood drive.  The lady who's working with her on the project is babbling about meeting the Pope.   "I wish my son Steve could've been there.  He would've loved meeting the Pope.  Paul, too -- he's my youngest, but he never goes to mass.  Oh.  It looks as though your daughter wants to speak with you about something.  I'll go now."  Another brief vignette that would've laid the foundation of the 1980 storylines. 

The whole business with Brock, Cathy Bruder, the stolen Rolls Royce, the vampire-like owner of the car (Victor Newman), his fragile little wife (Julia) -- all this could've been previewed vignette-style in Brock's law office, which he shared with Greg Foster, while the primary thrust of the scenes could've been about Nikki's modeling for La Pleu Belle Rose, and Greg's concerns about the lingerie modeling. 

By the time the show expanded into an hour on 2/4/1980, there wouldn't have been any reason to introduce ANY new characters, because they would've all already been there, they would all be familiar to the audience, and the audience would already be curious about each & every one of them.  Some of them could've been fully developed by 2/4/1980, others in the mid-stages of being developed, and some still blank canvases. 

All it would've taken was a LITTLE planning and part of the budget being allocated earlier to sign some or all of the new actors and begin incorporating them into the canvas while the show was still operating on all cylinders, at or near the top of the ratings.  

Edited May 20, 2023 by Broderick

[Faulkner]

Didn’t know where else to put it but Scott Caan is in this interview talking about Paul Walker (ex-Brandon), and it’s actually kind of interesting:

 

[Khan]

This is way, way, WAY off-topic, but I think Scott Caan is sexy af.