6 minutes ago, Broderick said:

When Y&R expanded to an hour, the writing suffered tremendously.  Bell & Alden had no idea how to structure and write an hour show, and many of the storylines went off the rails.  The ratings nosedived.  John Conboy, in his (misguided) efforts to keep the ratings up, turned the lights down even lower, turned the music up higher, and put the cast in scantier clothing.  By 1981, the show almost looked like a cheap parody of the Y&R which had been such a phenomenal success in the 1970s.  The soap critic (John Kelly Genovese) wisely described the failing show as "cheap tits & ass titillation backed by dull stories". 

Y&R was in their post-expansion slump from February 1980 to May 1982 and this was reflected in the ratings. The cast changes plus the 1981 writers strike didn't help matters either.

6 minutes ago, Broderick said:

Wes Kenney fixed all of that nonsense immediately, and I believe he objectively told Bill Bell which storylines were working and which ones needed to be ditched immediately.  Within a month of John Conboy's exit, the show started a whole new resurgence -- a prettier and cleaner product than it had ever been under John Conboy.

June 1982 Y&R rebounded and 1983 Y&R blew up. 1984 is the year Y&R became Y&R as we know it. Y&R's golden era was 1984 through first half of 1986, and H. Wesley Kenney played just as big a part of that as Bill Bell did.

Seems as though we were permanently rid of John Conboy by February of 1982.  

By June of that year, we had Eileen Davidson, Beth Maitland, Terry Lester, Lilibet Stern, Jerry Douglas, and Marguerite Ray all sharing the Abbott house, with Deborah Adair working her way in.  

We were completely rid of all that dreadfully dull April Stevens, Barbara Ann Harting, Wayne and Dorothy cesspool.  

Although I LIKED John Gibson, killing off Jerry Cashman freed up Kay Chancellor to be worked back into the Jill Foster/John Abbott story, as well as introducing a mother and father for Kevin Bancroft to provide more conflict for Nikki and Victor.  

The show's lighting was adjusted so that we could actually SEE the set decor Brock Broughton had worked so diligently on assembling and which John Conboy had been shielding in shadows and murky pools of depressing light.

Everything shaped up once John Conboy was gone, in my humble opinion.  Once the (remaining) Brooks girls were mercifully dispensed with, it was like a whole fresh new show.    

 

 

 

Are these above linked videos (plus the others...)  from the @PublicVideoUse YouTube channel already in the Vault or new episodes?

Did Christine ever directly interact with Sheila Carter, or was she just kept in the loop through Paul and Lauren about Sheila’s schemes? 

Holy Hell I just finished 2/01/95 and what a way to start February sweeps. That Jill/Katherine fight inside the courthouse was magnificent. 

 

 

For the episodes that are missing in the vault are they any Synopsis of them to read anywhere ? 

On 9/24/2025 at 12:50 PM, Broderick said:

Seems as though we were permanently rid of John Conboy by February of 1982.  

By June of that year, we had Eileen Davidson, Beth Maitland, Terry Lester, Lilibet Stern, Jerry Douglas, and Marguerite Ray all sharing the Abbott house, with Deborah Adair working her way in.  

We were completely rid of all that dreadfully dull April Stevens, Barbara Ann Harting, Wayne and Dorothy cesspool.  

Although I LIKED John Gibson, killing off Jerry Cashman freed up Kay Chancellor to be worked back into the Jill Foster/John Abbott story, as well as introducing a mother and father for Kevin Bancroft to provide more conflict for Nikki and Victor.  

The show's lighting was adjusted so that we could actually SEE the set decor Brock Broughton had worked so diligently on assembling and which John Conboy had been shielding in shadows and murky pools of depressing light.

Everything shaped up once John Conboy was gone, in my humble opinion.  Once the (remaining) Brooks girls were mercifully dispensed with, it was like a whole fresh new show.    

I would love to read the Afternoon TV interview with Wes Kenney where he talks about taking over at Y&R. He does address the lighting approach and how he brightened things up, and a bunch of other stuff.

10 hours ago, Rmodelboy said:

Holy Hell I just finished 2/01/95 and what a way to start February sweeps. That Jill/Katherine fight inside the courthouse was magnificent. 

 

 

Yes! It’s definitely more of their underrated fights as compared to the attic and especially the cake fight. 

Did we ever determine when Victor and Cricket first exchanged dialogue? 

1 hour ago, yrfan1983 said:

Did we ever determine when Victor and Cricket first exchanged dialogue? 

I don't think Victor interacted with Cricket when she was a Jabot model. IIRC Victor first interacted with lawyer Christine in 1995 during Nick's trial.

20 hours ago, asafi said:

Did Christine ever directly interact with Sheila Carter, or was she just kept in the loop through Paul and Lauren about Sheila’s schemes? 

When did Paul and Sheila first interact?

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

I would love to read the Afternoon TV interview with Wes Kenney where he talks about taking over at Y&R. He does address the lighting approach and how he brightened things up, and a bunch of other stuff.

I've never read the ATV article.  Here's what I do know.

(1) Kenney fixed the lights.  I know that because I could see it with my own eyes.  In early 1982, it was often difficult even to tell which set the characters were in.  The actors were lit (beautifully), but the sets themselves were merely indistinguishable, murky pools of darkness.  By the springtime, when Kenney was settled in, we could suddenly see the Cheshire cats on Kay Chancellor's mantelpiece, we could see the designs on vases, we could see the artwork on the walls, we could tell what color the sofa cushions were and what color the walls were.  We could see sunlight and shadows filtering through curtains and blinds.  The actors were still beautifully lit, but now we could tell what environment they were in, which had been impossible in Conboy's final year.  

(2) He updated the taping process.  I know this because Wes Kenney said he did.  He said that when he arrived, the show was still being taped in sequential order, with the cameras moving from set to set, and then back again.  He realized how inefficient that was.  He started taping ALL the scenes in Paul's office, then all the scenes at Jonas's club, then all the scenes at the Newman ranch, etc., and then editing them into the order dictated by the script.  This allowed for more interesting segues and cutaways between scenes, and it also streamlined the taping process for the actors, the director, and the set crew.  

(3) He injected himself more into the storytelling than John Conboy did.  Eric Braeden admitted in an interview, "I stayed on the show, because Wes made it possible.  I could take Wes aside and tell him, 'This scene isn't working.' He would allow me to change it.  Now Bill Bell obviously knew Wes was allowing me to change things, but he never got upset because he knew the scenes the scenes that aired were better than the scenes he'd written."  We also know that as soon as Wes Kenney arrived, several of the dead-end storylines were abruptly terminated.  We can either believe (a) Bill Bell woke up one morning and realized what was working and what was not, or (b) Wes Kenney said, "Bill, if you want me to produce this sh!t, here's what you've gotta do to make it workable."  I'm 100% sure it was (b) rather than (a).  

(4) Bill Bell did NOT LIKE Wes Kenney but respected him. When Bell was asked about John Conboy, he said, "It's better not to say anything about him.  Let's talk about someone else."  (Obviously by early 1982, Bell hated John Conboy and, most likely, had hated him ever since the show's expansion to an hour in 1980.)  Next, Bell was asked about Wes Kenney.  Bell said, "He was a great director, a good producer.  He and I did NOT see eye-to-eye on many things.  I was in Chicago, and he was in Los Angeles, and ... Well, I don't want to say anything bad about him.  Next."  (I believe his issues with Kenney related to Paragraph #3 above.)    

Edited September 26, 2025Sep 26 by Broderick

@Broderick Also during H. Wesley Kenney's run as EP, Y&R got more action/adventure elements in the storylines. Although Y&R's action/adventure elements were tame compared to General Hospital and Days in that same time, I don't really feel they suited Y&R. I wonder if adding action/adventure was Bill Bell's own choice or it was CBS mandated to compete with General Hospital and Days. Notice that when Ed Scott takes over, all the action/adventure elements are gone and Y&R becomes more corporate.

There are some H. Wesley Kenney interviews floating around where he said he left Y&R for General Hospital because of the money General Hospital offered him and that his time on Y&R were the best years of his professional life.

H. Wesley Kenney laid the groundwork for Y&R as we know it today, but Ed Scott ended up getting all the credit for Y&R becoming #1.