14 minutes ago, Khan said:

It's hard to think of anyone who could've replaced John McCook as Lance. Maybe Michael Gregory (Rick Webber #1, GH)?

Total wishful thinking, but how about Michael Zaslow? I think the timing works, as his first run on GL ended April 1980.

7 minutes ago, Khan said:

It's hard to think of anyone who could've replaced John McCook as Lance. Maybe Michael Gregory (Rick Webber #1, GH)?

I could see Gregory as a Lance recast before Dennis Cole.

16 minutes ago, kalbir said:

Total wishful thinking, but how about Michael Zaslow?

Hmm, maybe, lol? Zaslow certainly would've brought an intensity to Lance that McCook's version might've lacked.

15 minutes ago, kalbir said:

Total wishful thinking, but how about Michael Zaslow? I think the timing works, as his first run on GL ended April 1980.

John O'Hurley could have been Lance before he played Jim Grainger. I don't know if he was acting around that time 1980-81. He shows up on Edge Of Night around 1984.

19 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

John O'Hurley could have been Lance before he played Jim Grainger.

John O'Hurley was 26 in 1980 so I think a bit too young for Lance.

1 hour ago, Khan said:

It's hard to think of anyone who could've replaced John McCook as Lance. Maybe Michael Gregory (Rick Webber #1, GH)?

I would have chosen him. He would have been a bit rough, but he was a decent actor and charismatic. I don't think McCook is anything special, but he had presence. Cole did not (and I don't think he looked much better than that photo of Troy).

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by DRW50

1 minute ago, DRW50 said:

I don't think McCook is anything special, but he had presence.

I've never gotten John McCook's appeal and he has never worked for me as a romantic leading man, and that's on both Y&R and B&B.

Some other actors that might have worked:

Lane Davies

Scott Palmer (that later played Professor Tim Sullivan)

Daniel Hugh Kelly

Nick Benedict (who wound up playing Michael Scott).

I could almost see Anthony Herrera being Lance if he hadn't been cast on ATWT and even though he had played Jack Curtis previously. He could have come back with a beard to give himself a different look.

Another Lance possibility- Lewis Arlt, who had just left SFT where he played David Sutton.

On 5/21/2026 at 1:28 AM, Paul Raven said:

Where is his Southern accent? He does not sound like someone who has lost an accent, he sounds as if he's never had one. "Of course I had an accent. Everyone in the South has. Fortunately, I met an English actress in New York and working with her helped me to lose it. But I still say some things with an accent." Will he give us an example? No. And we get that direct look again.

How patronizing. They must not know anyone from the South. You could hear traces of his accent all the way through his final AW run.

On 5/21/2026 at 7:44 PM, Paul Raven said:

THE JOURNAL NEWS, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1982

As for his days on “Y&R,” Brian didn’t consider it the most sociable of experiences. “Except for Julianna McCarthy, who played my mom, I had little contact with the cast. In fact, I think she’s such a terrific actress, whenever I see a property with a female role I think of Julianna.” As for other cast members, Brian recalled “one actress who seemed to take joy in illnesses.” And he recalled the conversation with Beau Kayser, who once played Brock. “Beau started talking to me one day and mentioned he wanted to make records. I said it was something I was interested in too. Suddenly Beau disappeared and never said another word to me.”

I love that Y&R has such a notoriously unpleasant set he had stories even after only 40 days.

John Conboy comes off super sleazy in this article. And the fact is that Y&R didn't add a bunch of youngsters when it expanded. Julia, Michael, Steve, Victor etc didn't fit that demographic. Patty Williams was the only character I can think of offhand.

Maybe Conboy put out the casting call so he could drool over sexy young bods.

MEDINA JOURNAL-REGISTER Dec 24 1979

HOLLYWOOD (UPI) - The word went out that 16 new cast members are being sought for the soap opera "The Young and The Restless," currently rated No. 1 among daytime dramas. Producer John Conboy is expanding the 30-minute series to a full hour and needs the services of a bunch of young actors, mostly in their teens and early 20s to make the expansion possible, The opportunities the show represents for young performers is irresistible - a generous weekly paycheck, national exposure and hard-to-get experience.

Now in its sixth year, "The Young and The Restless" provides its performers with a built-in, loyal audience. Conboy has interviewed 150 youthful actors and hasn't come close to filling any of the roles. He expects to see 500 others before he completes casting. He is hampered by the fact that some teen-age roles must be played by actors 18 or older who must look 15 or 16 to get around California child labor laws. For every young actor and actress he interviews another one or two are screened out by his casting associates. Conboy, a former actor himself, knows about rejection. But he can allow compassion or sentiment to enter his thinking. "There must be thousands of young actors in the 18-t0-25 age bracket," Conboy said during a break in a full day of ° interviewing prospective stars. "'Because they haven't any track record I depend on a trick to cast young, inexperienced people. "I study their off-screen personalities. If they really turn on, light a fire, express themselves well and excitingly in my office, then I know they'll do the same thing on camera.

"When I was producing another soap opera back in New York - 'Love Is A Many Splendored Thing', I hired Paul Michael Glaser (later the star of 'Starsky and Hutch') on the basis of his off-screen personality. "The people who come in to talk to me had better be glossy, the kind of performers who attract immediate attention. "If viewers are going to be looking at them. five days a week, they'd better be good looking as well as talented. And I expect them to be good listeners, too. If I were looking for experienced performers, the casting job would be a great deal easier. Established actors have done enough things to give you a pretty good idea of what they can do."

Conboy mentally eliminates most young performers the moment they enter his office. Their appearance or attitudes or both are wrong. Those who do pass a cursory inspection often fail during the reading or screen test because "their acting technique" shows, according to Conboy who adds that too many youngsters are badly trained. "Young people absorb bad habits from their theatrical coaches," he said. "They accumulate theatricality from teachers. Their techniques are unnatural.

"The success of 'The Young and The Restless' is due to the fact that the kids in the series don't know how to be dishonest in front of the cameras. Also, they've discovered how much hard work goes into a soap opera. "Casting a soap is different from other series in somé respects but not in others. There are certain types that follow a pattern, especially with women. "If I'm casting a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, she must have a big bosom because women with big chests are made to appear to be more salacious than other women. "You rarely see a flat chested actress playing bawdy roles. It just seems to be one of the unwritten rules of theater, movies and television. On the other hand, uptight, puritanical women are almost always flat chested.

"Facial beauty is an enormously important part of casting a soap opera because we shoot tight, close-in one shots of performers which show every pore of their skins. The point is to see what is going on in their eyes. "The young men I'm looking for must be handsome or sexy looking. Like the actresses, they must have good bodies because we play as many scenes as we can in soaps with people undressed.

"We play on the fantasies of our viewers by putting our characters in settings where there are legitimate reasons for undressing -- in bed, showers, hot tubs, karate classes swimming pools or gyms. So we have to find actors and actresses find are hot to look at, exciting, sexy. "In the final analysis, people who tune in soaps like to watch attractive young people. You find the same thing is pretty much true of prime time performers. I think you see better looking people on TV than in movies.

"Viewers also would rather see good locking older people than they would unattractive performers. You've got to provide fantasy if you expect viewers to tune in."

Fun article from ‘77. Describes YR as a “soap musical” 😂

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/26/archives/confessions-of-a-soapopera-addict.html?unlocked_article_code=1.l1A.uzZ5.KtPKHhlfoDZm&smid=url-share

2 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

John Conboy comes off super sleazy in this article. And the fact is that Y&R didn't add a bunch of youngsters when it expanded. Julia, Michael, Steve, Victor etc didn't fit that demographic. Patty Williams was the only character I can think of offhand.

Maybe Conboy put out the casting call so he could drool over sexy young bods.

MEDINA JOURNAL-REGISTER Dec 24 1979

HOLLYWOOD (UPI) - The word went out that 16 new cast members are being sought for the soap opera "The Young and The Restless," currently rated No. 1 among daytime dramas. Producer John Conboy is expanding the 30-minute series to a full hour and needs the services of a bunch of young actors, mostly in their teens and early 20s to make the expansion possible, The opportunities the show represents for young performers is irresistible - a generous weekly paycheck, national exposure and hard-to-get experience.

Now in its sixth year, "The Young and The Restless" provides its performers with a built-in, loyal audience. Conboy has interviewed 150 youthful actors and hasn't come close to filling any of the roles. He expects to see 500 others before he completes casting. He is hampered by the fact that some teen-age roles must be played by actors 18 or older who must look 15 or 16 to get around California child labor laws. For every young actor and actress he interviews another one or two are screened out by his casting associates. Conboy, a former actor himself, knows about rejection. But he can allow compassion or sentiment to enter his thinking. "There must be thousands of young actors in the 18-t0-25 age bracket," Conboy said during a break in a full day of ° interviewing prospective stars. "'Because they haven't any track record I depend on a trick to cast young, inexperienced people. "I study their off-screen personalities. If they really turn on, light a fire, express themselves well and excitingly in my office, then I know they'll do the same thing on camera.

"When I was producing another soap opera back in New York - 'Love Is A Many Splendored Thing', I hired Paul Michael Glaser (later the star of 'Starsky and Hutch') on the basis of his off-screen personality. "The people who come in to talk to me had better be glossy, the kind of performers who attract immediate attention. "If viewers are going to be looking at them. five days a week, they'd better be good looking as well as talented. And I expect them to be good listeners, too. If I were looking for experienced performers, the casting job would be a great deal easier. Established actors have done enough things to give you a pretty good idea of what they can do."

Conboy mentally eliminates most young performers the moment they enter his office. Their appearance or attitudes or both are wrong. Those who do pass a cursory inspection often fail during the reading or screen test because "their acting technique" shows, according to Conboy who adds that too many youngsters are badly trained. "Young people absorb bad habits from their theatrical coaches," he said. "They accumulate theatricality from teachers. Their techniques are unnatural.

"The success of 'The Young and The Restless' is due to the fact that the kids in the series don't know how to be dishonest in front of the cameras. Also, they've discovered how much hard work goes into a soap opera. "Casting a soap is different from other series in somé respects but not in others. There are certain types that follow a pattern, especially with women. "If I'm casting a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, she must have a big bosom because women with big chests are made to appear to be more salacious than other women. "You rarely see a flat chested actress playing bawdy roles. It just seems to be one of the unwritten rules of theater, movies and television. On the other hand, uptight, puritanical women are almost always flat chested.

"Facial beauty is an enormously important part of casting a soap opera because we shoot tight, close-in one shots of performers which show every pore of their skins. The point is to see what is going on in their eyes. "The young men I'm looking for must be handsome or sexy looking. Like the actresses, they must have good bodies because we play as many scenes as we can in soaps with people undressed.

"We play on the fantasies of our viewers by putting our characters in settings where there are legitimate reasons for undressing -- in bed, showers, hot tubs, karate classes swimming pools or gyms. So we have to find actors and actresses find are hot to look at, exciting, sexy. "In the final analysis, people who tune in soaps like to watch attractive young people. You find the same thing is pretty much true of prime time performers. I think you see better looking people on TV than in movies.

"Viewers also would rather see good locking older people than they would unattractive performers. You've got to provide fantasy if you expect viewers to tune in."

Interesting!! Maybe there wasn’t a big teen presence in ‘80 bc they just couldn’t nail the casting….?

The rumors of Conboy's sleaziness has been circulating for decades. I can imagine what the actors went through during the auditioning process. He probably made them strip. I laugh that he said the actors all had to be sexy and good looking. How does he explain casting choices like Wings Hauser or Joe LaDue? Did viewers find those two sexy?

It is weird that young teens/early twenties never really took hold during the late 70's when GH was toping the ratings with Luke/Laura/Scotty. It would be after Conboy left that young characters like Danny, Traci, Lauren, Patty etc....became a focus of attracting younger viewers.

Conboy did focus on the young set with Capitol.

Dennis Cole was plumb horrible (even worse than John McCook). To my young eyes, the Lance character was ALWAYS a drip. I never could understand what Lorie and Leslie saw in him. They were constantly pulling each other's hair out over him, and I always thought Lucas Prentiss was kinder, more down to earth, more relatable, and more handsome than Lance. Plus Lucas wasn't tied to Vanessa's apron strings the way Lance was. The storyline would've made better sense to me if they'd been fighting over Lucas, and Lance had been the "consolation prize". Mercifully, Victor Newman gobbled-up Lance Prentiss and spat him out, which was about the best thing that could've happened to Y&R during that weird transition period from 1980 to 1982.

I imagine some of those "young actors" John Conboy was jizzing his pants over during the transition to the hour format were the Abbott siblings, Danny Romalotti, & Andy Richards. With the exception of Jack Abbott, none of them actually appeared in 1980, but the stage had been set for all of them long before they finally began popping up in 1981 and 1982.

I feel sure the actress Brian Kerwin mentioned who was "overjoyed with illness" was either Jaime Lyn Bauer (who missed a lot) or Brenda Dickson, who was always primed up for a good UTI, hysterectomy, or something.

15 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Another Lance possibility- Lewis Arlt, who had just left SFT where he played David Sutton.

Having Lewis Arlt join Y&R would've been wonderful, but I'm not sure whether Lance would've been the right role for him. I feel like he would've made a much better Matt Miller or Steven Lassiter.

2 hours ago, Broderick said:

I always thought Lucas Prentiss was kinder, more down to earth, more relatable, and more handsome than Lance

I agree. Tom Ligon was way hotter than John McCook or Dennis Cole. Even when he was doing guest shots on "Law & Order," often acting opposite his onetime roommate Sam Waterston, I thought he still could get it, lol.

2 hours ago, Broderick said:

I imagine some of those "young actors" John Conboy was jizzing his pants over during the transition to the hour format were the Abbott siblings, Danny Romalotti, & Andy Richards.

I imagine, too, that JC was REALLY beside himself to have landed a former president's son to play Andy. It's just a miracle that Steven Ford turned out to be a decent actor and not just a handsome body or face.