Y&R: Old Articles

[Paul Raven]

How would you describe your working relationship with Head  Writer Sally Sussman?
Young: Oh, it’s great! It’s total trust.We are similar in a way; we’ve both been immersed in our soaps, but we’ve also got a lot of differences and that’s always good because you could both bring strengths
to the table. There’s a mutual respect, there’s no politicking between us. Both of us just care passionately about making the best show possible, and we both like to talk and we both like to have a laugh, so that’s good, isn’t it? We talk about the vision of the show, and it’s our vision now, and hopefully it’s one that the fans will agree with. Not all of them will, but I hope enough of them will say, “Oh, this is fun, this is great.” The fans have got a hell of a Christmas and New Year coming up, and they’re in for a treat when Sally’s stuff hits. I think that takes us through the next phase in the life of the show.

What have you learned from your past efforts that you’re incorporating now?
Young: I think the big thing that I’ve learned over the years is that these shows are huge machines and you have to be very visible and accessible to the whole team in front of and behind the camera. You have to be the principal of the school one day, and keeping everyone to the rules, but you also have to constantly engage and inspire people to give their best creatively

What can you tease about what’s coming up?
Young: Well, there’s some really cool twists and turns, quite unexpected ones, coming up in the Sharon, Dylan and Nick triangle, which is good fun. The GC BUZZ set has been very successful for us; the people have responded very well to us giving Hilary and Devon a whole new journey, and Mariah getting involved with that. We can do stories that reflect the way we watch TV now and we watch gossip shows, and the way media is a part of our lives. The GC BUZZ story can reflect that. We’ve got a good twist with
Victoria and Travis. Travis’s past is just about to come in and hit them over the head. I can’t say too much about that right now, but you won’t see that one coming. And you’ve got Jack on his new journey going back to the old Jack. He’s not going to get messed with, he’s much tougher, much colder. So he’s really going to be driven to destroying all his competitors, including Victor. He’s going to try to take down everyone, including his brother, because his brother’s working for Victoria’s company, but under the same roof, and that’s going to give us lots of problems. Expect lots of fireworks, I can definitely promise that.

I know Y&R is the No. 1 show, but if there are people who have tuned out, what would you tell them is
the reason they should tune in again?
Young: I would say, “Come back and just try an episode and see the changes, and where the show is going, the new characters that are coming in and the new stories.” We have got some great new characters coming in, but we’re also going to elevate a lot of the legacy characters. I think that a lot of
the fans who may have tuned out are going to be very pleasantly surprised, particularly when Sally’s influence comes to bear because she goes back years with this show,and Kay Alden [story consultant] is now involved. The three of us have been talking a lot about how to respect and celebrate the past as well as move the show forward. So I think those people who wandered off will come back and want to stick around

They needed to drop GC Buzz immediately. What was that supposed to be? An internet show, or syn dicated? Shown locally, or nationally? Why would anyone be interested in what's happening in Genoa City? I hate it when soaps try to have it both ways. When it suits the Newmans,Abbotts etc are well known across the country and at other times quite the opposite.

Mal should have dialed back as much as possible on the mega rich aspect because it was out of date anyway and the show didn't have the budget to depict that lifestyle.

Most of Sally's stories were duds.

Scott Grainger return, Jack/Nikki revisit, Juliet/Cane, SORASING of Charlie/Mattie etc

[Vee]

I was under the impression Sussman had wanted to re-pair Jack and Gina's Phyllis and got overruled. And while it was messily executed like everything else I thought the Cane/Juliet affair was the most interesting story he ever had. So of course Goddard hated it.

For me, I felt lot of her ideas were good conceptually but poorly executed which I don't absolve Sussman's own choices for but I also feel were pulled down by the utter failures re: budget, plotting, breakdowns, etc. The first failures from concept to execution: The GC Buzz story you mention with the Mariah/Hillary feud and the Fenmore business drama which, due to budget issues and plotting laziness, amounted mostly to Lauren sitting around restaurants bemoaning her lot in life and Phyllis spending a bit of time on a laptop.

[BoldRestless]

I don't even remember the Travis story at all, heh. 

[Vee]

Was Travis the outdoorsman? Sean Patrick Flanery? That was a bust and IIRC Sussman ended it when she came in.

[Paul Raven]

No Travis was involved with Victoria and his ex Michelle turned up who knew Ashley. Once Sally arrived he disappeared immediately w/o an exit scene. 

Rather than Cane having drunk sex with Juliet. I would have had an old flame  of his arrive searching for her teen daughter who has discovered Cane is her father. She has gone missing after hooking up online with someone claiming he would help her locate her dad. Cane/Lily's world turned upside down as they have to help this woman. Neil could become involved with her and when the girl is found she could create more trouble for Cane/Lily as well as getting  involved with Reed, thus negating the need for the ridiculous twins SORASING.

 

[BoldRestless]

Was Travis the boat guy?

[yrfan1983]

Hi @bgrape, thank you so much for uploading these clips! I’ve made it through most of the ’90 Danny and Cricket scenes. I really enjoyed seeing everything starting in June, when they moved in together as “roommates”. I appreciated seeing the maturation towards marriage for the first time. I also didn’t realize that Cricket had an entire rehearsal period before her 8/15/90 dance performance, so it was fun to see that

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Most of all, I enjoyed the Nov post-wedding scenes in the “after wedding three” file. Most of these scenes have not been previously available, except for the helicopter ride. I didn’t realize they had so many memorable honeymoon outings, filmed on location! I did have to laugh at how often the camera focused on the “Hyatt Regency” logo I’m sure the Hyatt gave them free hotel rooms in exchange for being featured on the show. But wow, filming on location elevates the production value immensely… even just the scenes in bed in their room… the natural Hawaiian light on D&C’s faces was just exquisite.

After the helicopter dropped them off after their ride, the entire segment with them at the beach was a blast. It was set to the song “Call it love” by Poco which was a big hit at the time but I hadn’t heard in a long time. I never thought I would have seen Michael Damian in a grey leopard-print speedo!

I also really appreciated seeing the developments in the David story. I was always confused how D&C went from trusting David to suspecting him. I’m still a little confused, as I don’t understand how they ever started to trust him. In fact, in the post-wedding scenes, Cricket gives him a kiss on the cheek after he arranges for their ride on a private yacht! But then at the end of the “after wedding three” file, D&C have a conversation when they reasonably try to puzzle out who could have framed Danny for the cocaine and circled back to David.

I can’t wait to move on to the Jan ’91 scenes… there has literally been zero content ever available for Jan ’91 so this is incredibly special. Thanks again

[yrfan1983]

Watching the Dec ’90 Danny and Cricket clips… I’ll always wonder what happened to Chase as played by Stephen Gregory…?

During this timeframe, he is fully involved in the David Kimball plot… realizing that the woman he had dated, Cathy, was actually named Vivian… and had died in a freak accident. He also was being targeted for information by Diane.

By early Feb ’91, he disappears (assumedly without a farewell scene) just as the David plot approaches the climax with Nina shooting him.

Did something happen behind-the-scenes to hasten Chase’s exit? It would have made much more sense and heightened the dramatic tension even more, if David somehow murdered Chase just as Chase had discovered evidence to nail David.

Also - it’s sad and ironic when Cricket fills in Danny about Scott and Lauren breaking up over “another woman”… and Danny vowing the same thing will never happen to them… and LITERALLY the same thing happens, as both Sheila and Phyllis drugged and raped their respective targets Scott and Danny.

[kalbir]

@yrfan1983 I don't think Chase got a proper exit story, just disappeared without an explanation. Bill Bell then replaced Chase with Ryan.

[Soaplovers]

From what I read the actor opted to quit so he just vanished without explanation.

You could almost see that Chase/Nina seemed to be end game during the whole David Kimball story... though I could have seen young Victoria having a crush on Chase thus Chase/Nina/Victoria could have been a thing

[YRfan23]

Someone on Usenet actually mentioned something similar along the lines of how Chase should have ended up murdered by David or possibly accidentally by Nina (which would have been very dark). His absence from the rest of the story is so glaring and it still bugs me that I do think he was suppose to be Nina’s “end game” with all of this 

[Khan]

Now it can be told: it wasn't David who went through that shredder; it was Chase, whom David had murdered some time before, but kept his body on ice, "just in case," lol.

[yrfan1983]

Ha!! Good one! Josh Griffith will probably steal your idea now.

[Khan]

Actually, @yrfan1983, I wouldn't mind if Michael Corbett returned to Y&R, but not as David, and only after Tricia Cast returns for an extended visit.  I'd want to see Nina's reaction to the newcomer who bares more than a striking resemblance to her late husband!

[yrfan1983]

I desperately want to see your superior version of 2023 YR