1977 interview with John Conboy and Patricia Wenig from Broadcasting Programming and Production mag.Fascinating look at Y&R at that time.

BP&P: How does a soap opera like "The Young and the Restless" get on the air?

 

John Conboy: I guess every show has it's own story, but generally the networks are most interested in things that come to them by a proven commodity. In our case, Bill Bell, who has an enormous track re- cord in the soap opera field, did a presentation on The Young and the Restless that was sent to CBS and CBS, via Columbia Pictures television, decided to buy it. It was an 82 page presentation of the general concept of the show and how characters were to be used. Bill had had a successful show on NBC and CBS wanted him to do a successful show for them,

 

BP&P: Is the main selling tool seeing if you can sustain the premise for five years?

 

John Conboy: It would be more like 15 years. No network is interested in a soap that runs only five years.

 

BP&P: Why is that?

 

John Conboy: Because it's a long term investment. Most networks put on a daytime serial and they don't expect to see numbers for a year, a year and a half. We happened to be lucky and saw them in under six months.

 

BP&P: Could you define for me the executive producer and producer functions on a soap?

 

Conboy: Those functions are less clear cut on our show than in nighttime. For some reason, there are only three executive producers in daytime TV and I'm one of them. I really don't know why, but primetime shows have more.

 

Patricia Wenig:John deals mainly with the creator of the show, Bill Bell, while I'm more involved in the day to day operation of the show.

 

Conboy: We share the artistic control but Pat is with it a bit more closely than I.

 

BP&P: I would imagine you could use one full time person just dealing with your cast.

 

Conboy: It is a large ensemble cast.

 

Patricia Wenig: We have 17 principals under contract and then there are four others who have major roles but are not under contract. All in all it's a large cast for a half hour show.

 

Conboy: We started off with 12 contract players when we went on the air five years ago and we still have ten of them.

 

BP&P: Most of the soaps are done from New York while the majority of programming is done from Hollywood. Why is that?

 

Conboy: You forget that years ago, in the live days of TV, most of your product was coming from New York. They still consider daytime to be live although it's done on tape. The broadcasters feel a very strong urge to keep as much production in New York as they can for their own survival as well as the survival of broadcasting in New York. But we feel we're making an inroad. Three soaps are

now done from the west coast.

 

BP &P: It is difficult working by long distance between here and New York?

 

Conboy: Actually, it's between Los Angeles and Chicago where Bill Bell lives and works.

 

BP &P: You mean that your writer sends in his scripts?

 

Patricia Wenig: He mails them in every day to us. He does all the plotting and has a writer that works with him as well. In fact, he's just hired a third writer, but generally since we've been on, the show has been written by two people.

 

BP &P: Writing a soap has to be a writer's dream.

 

Conboy: From the standpoint of hard work, I don't think you could call it a dream. But there are a lot of skilled writers around who'd like to get involved in daytime just because there's so much money in it. It's the only area of television that's on the air five days a week, fifty two weeks a year. The problems for writers are in sustaining the story. All good writers are trained in beginning, middle and end type stories and we do it differently in soaps. Most daytime writers change about every six months.

 

BP &P: Scriptwise, how far in advance do you people work?

 

Wenig: Five days, as far as scripts go. Today is Monday and we have in hand scripts through Tuesday of next week.

Conboy: We're probably the only show on the air that doesn't work from a daily outline. We never have a production meeting. We work from a long form, which means we know the directon a show is going in any given year. We don't work from weekly outlines because Bill creates as he goes and doesn't like to be locked in. If you have writers who are less skilled in the form, you have to insist on the outlines so that the show doesn't wander off in some odd direction.

Wenig: We've put the rest of our staff together just like the way Bill works. They can design quickly, light quickly, they know what Bill wants and what we want the show to look like. It's kind of like ESP - we pass one of our technical people in the hall and say 'By the way ...' and they do it. In New York they'd be in cardiac arrest if they had to do it that way. It's called instant producing.

 

BP &P: How long of a script do you use? Conboy: It's shorter than a nighttime half hour show. A sit -com might run 40, 50 pages or longer for a half hour. We have about 30 pages because we have a shorter show, six commercials. That narrows it down to 21:35 of dramatic material. Then it depends on whether we have a lot of action, talking, emotional scenes, or light scenes.

Wenig: Keeping that in mind, the script is anywhere from 28 to 34 pages long.

 

BP &P: What is a normal production day like? Conboy: Pat and I are in the studio for the first run through. The actors arrive and do a dry rehearsal with the director in the rehearsal hall. Then they do a camera blocking with the camermen and technicians in the studio. Then comes that first run through followed by a break and dress rehearsal. Then we have another break and we do the taping. The air show taping is followed by another fifteen minute break and then we go into the afternoon reading which one or both of us are at.

Wenig: We have found that it's much more helpful to the people that are working with us if we know the problems as they exist in the control room rather than picking up the phone and saying "What the hell is going on there!" and start yelling and screaming.

 

BP &P: Is there much yelling and screaming?

 

Conboy: Not more than you'd find on any other show!

 

BP &P: When you begin a taping, how often do you stop, or do you let flubs go to give the show that live quality?

 

Conboy: We stop whenever it's necessary and seldom let a flub go.

Wenig: For instance, if there's a missed line it would depend on if the camera move is bad enough to ruin the shots and other action. An actor could drop a line and we could miss 14 camera shots. Or it might be an important line and the actor can't answer. It might be the key to the scene and you miss reaction shots and they might not cross when they're supposed to and the camera is out of position. Conboy: We really don't stop the show, per se. We build the show, so we just go to the last commercial black and edit it and we have a complete show. The last thing you need when you do a show five days a week is a lot of time in an editing room.

 

BP &P: And the show is done each day? Conboy: Yes, today's taping (Monday) is for airing next Tuesday.

 

BP &P: Is that true of most soaps? Conboy: I really don't know. I think we're less ahead of other shows. Some are two or three weeks ahead. It depends. Wenig: The only reason we're six days ahead right now is because we were preempted in January for the Carter Inaugural. The minimum is a week ahead because of foreign markets like Canada and the fact that commercials have to be put into the show in New York.

 

BP &P: I understand you have rotating directors. Conboy: We use two directors because it's just too much of a strain for one man. He's into the work all day long, through the dry readings, the rough blocking, into the taping in the control room. Once a week is one thing, but five days a week could kill a man. Wenig: Then he also spends time at home blocking out his shots. What we do is use one director Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wedneday, then we use our second man. This gives them some time to recuperate and stay fresh.

 

BP &P: How are they able to keep up with any character changes or nuances?

 

Conboy: They either watch the shows or read the scripts so they know what's happening.

Wenig: The toughest thing is for the actors who have to sustain their character over five or ten years and keep it fresh and interesting although they don't have a lot of screen time.

Conboy: The complaint comes from the actor who's been playing his character for a long time that he knows the character better than the writers. They know when material is false and they panic if they feel the character is being pulled out of shape. But we are careful on our show, we protect our people and that's what makes it work.

 

BP &P: You are also able to integrate a lot of music into the show. Conboy: That was in the original concept and presentation of the show. It's not a musical at all, but we do use a lot of actors doing music in the show. When Pat and I came in, we told the musicians all about the characters and the kind of music we felt they should have in their entrances and as bridging music. They went ahead and wrote what they felt we wanted, we listened to it and made some changes. Then the music was recorded and we pulled it apart and made our music cues.

 

BP &P: And you have a first in that your theme turned into a smash hit single. Wenig: Nadia's Theme. That's actually a long story. You see, the theme music was chosen by Bill Bell from the movie score of "Bless the Beasts and the Children ". It worked out beautifully because it was owned by Columbia Pictures television who also own our show. It really became a hit from the Olympics and not just our show. The music was used as background on a piece that ABC did on Nadia Comenici which, strangely enough, was edited by my husband who works as a video tape editor at ABC. But he didn't pick the music, an A.D. did. I told you it was a long story!

 

BP &P: Whatever happened to organ music which was a staple of soaps for years, going back to the radio days. Wenig: We don't use it at all and most soaps are getting away from it. I think it was all started by a man named Ted Corday who came to California to do Days of Our Lives. He decided to have music composed because he wanted something different. Another soap, General Hospital, had organ music until a short while ago and now they also have music done for them. Organ music means soap opera and people are tired of it.

 

BP &P: Just how important is music to a soap? Conboy: More so in soaps than anything else, music seems to be perfect for creating a mood. It helps an audience. Dramatically, it makes something more important than it should be. Soaps are more moody than other shows and the music serves to heighten that mood.

 

BP&P: How about sets?

 

Wenig: If you've watched soap operas through the years you probably notice that sets are looking better today than ever. We have a permanent stage here at TV City, stage 41. There are four permanent standing sets we use all the time and we average between 3 and 5 sets per show.

 

Conboy: As far as new sets are concerned, if the writer is going to have a major set coming up that's going to play for awhile, he lets us know and it gives us from 2 to 3 weeks to have our art director start designing. Then it takes 3 to 6 working days to actually build it. We make the sets as real as possible. In fact, some people pattern their own living rooms or dens after them.

 

BP&P: That brings me to a point about viewer response. Do you get much and what type of response?

 

Wenig: We get fan mail and all of it is read. Something like 1,000 to 1,500 letters a month. That's a combined total for the writers, producers, performers. And we pay attention to what people have to say. All of the actor's mail is read ahead of time before it's passed on to them because there are some viewers who have a number of unkind words to say and we don't want to upset them. People take this show and other soaps very seriously. I've been told that for every letter we get, there are 100 people who feel the same way but aren't writing. So if we get 20 letters, 2,000 people are upset.

 

BP&P: Any comments from Program Directors or Station Executives?

 

Conboy: Not that we know of.

 

BP&P: Have any stations refused to air the show?

 

Conboy: If you mean because the show is controversial, no. No stations have refused to air the show, but then they have no preview of the show like they do with primetime specials. Maybe if they did, someone would find fault with the shows. Who knows.

 

BP&P: Are you aware of the show's demographics?

 

Wenig: Not exact figures, but from the mail and what we hear from people, we have a large following in colleges and with young people.

 

Conboy: 1 guess the prime audience is 18- 49, but I sure wouldn't want to miss the ladies who are 65 or 16 or the men at any age. We get a pretty broad spectrum of audience. The older audience reacts positively to the kids because we have them doing certain things on the show like singing or playing instruments. But we don't have them singing Dylan or the Eagles or Chicago or things like that. Instead we have them doing "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" or songs of that nature which work for the kids because it's nostalgia and works for the older audience because they can identify with it. This show, or any show for that matter, is not successful if you just have kids doing a lot of young things.

 

BPf7P: Do you have a breakdown as far as your male audience goes?

 

Wenig: I don't have actual numbers, but a lot of men watch soap operas.

Conboy: And, like we said before, a lot of college kids, too. We've even received petitions from colleges saying they want their classes rescheduled so they can watch the show.

Conboy: Colleges are teaching masters or doctorate courses around our show.

 

BP&P: What about time slot?

 

Wenig: We're on at noon in New York and Washington. Some stations air us at 9 a.m., some at weird times like Phoenix. Most take the general feed from the network at noon and the west coast takes an 11 a.m. feed which is carried on about 20 stations.

 

BP&P: Do you have any thoughts about scheduling in the afternoon or the morning?

 

Conboy: You schedule a show where you think it will do you the most good. We wanted the time period which was held by As The World Turns because it was unchallenged in that time period. But the truth is, if you have a good show, people will find you. If you start out hot, it's likely you'll get hotter. I mean, we're on the full network except for 2 or 3 stations at the most.

 

BP&P: Have the ratings held up?

 

Wenig: Of the soaps on the air, we're usually 1,2,3, or 4. As the World Turns, Search for Tomorrow, and, in the past Another World had higher ratings. We are currently up against two game shows in our time period and they've found that game show watchers are game show watchers and soap opera people watch soaps. So it really doesn't affect our ratings.

Conboy: Interestingly, ABC has expanded All My Children to an hour and re-arranged a few other shows in their schedule yet they have avoided us. They just won't program against us, so that seems like a good omen.

 

BP&P: Do the censors ever bother you?

 

Conboy: Hells and damns generally. You see, we are aware of problem areas and we stay away from them. If a censor reacts negatively to a story, most often the audience would too. We tell love stories on this show and, like I said, every now and then we have some hells and damns. But we can usually trade one hell for two damns or vice versal.

 

BP&P: Do you have any thoughts on the expansion of soap operas to the one -hour format?

 

Wenig: Networks always like to experiment, some things work and others don't. When ABC tried the Afternoon Playbreak, it did fairly well. Then CBS tried the same thing and it was a disaster. Programmers will continue to try new things, but they can always come back to the old tried and true.

Conboy: What Pat is trying to say is that despite what happens, you'll always have the soap opera.

 

BP&P: One final question: If someone had this great idea for a soap opera, what would be their chances for gettting it on the air?

 

Conboy: Hope is a thing with feathers. If a person is in the right place at the right time with the right people and they could deliver the right product with the right network, it could work. Wenig: In other words, don't hold your breath.

 

JOHN CONBOY (Executive Producer of Columbia Pictures Television's daytime serial, "The Young and the Restless," for CBS.) John Conboy has worked as an actor, production assistant, stage manager, associate director, director, production supervisor, associate producer, producer and now, executive producer.

Born June 19, the native of Binghamton, N.Y., began acting in resident stock companies at the age of 15. Following high school, highlighted by his winning the New York State public speaking con- test, Conboy went on to earn a B.A. degree in Drama at Carnegie Melon Institute in Pittsburgh, Penn. After graduation, he toured with a theatrical production of Tea and Sympathy and then headed for New York. Two days after arriving he became a production assistant on the WCBS -TV children's show, Captain Jet, eventually becoming its associate producer. He then returned to the stage, but not as an actor. He became production man- ager for several national companies of Broadway musicals. After a brief association with off - Broadway musicals, it was back to television for Conboy. He handled the stage manager chores at ABC -TV for nighttime musical variety shows and later moved to CBS to serve in that same capacity on nighttime live dramatic shows. After serving as associate director for numerous other CBS dramatic shows,

Conboy was elevated to director of the first "National Health Test" show. He then joined the network management team, becoming a production supervisor for many shows, including the daytime serial, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing. Within six months he became the show's associate producer, and nine months later took over the producing reigns. John has collectively won seven Emmys for the two shows he has produced; The Young and the Restless and a segment of ABC's Matinee Today series entitled The Other Woman. Conboy has recently signed a longterm pact with Columbia Pictures Television to head his own production com- pany and to develop new programming, as well as continue his duties on The Young and the Restless.

 

PATRICIA WENIG (Producer of Columbia Pictures Television's daytime serial for CBS, "The Young and the Restless. ") Promoted to producer of The Young and the Restless in January of 1976, Patricia Wenig was born in Indianola, Iowa, but raised in Sacramento, California. Just before her 20th birthday, she went to study at a New York television production school and after graduation began working as a secretary for Benton and Bowles Advertising Agency. Seven months later she became a production secretary on the daytime serial, Edge of Night, a position she held for one year. Next came a six -year stint as a production assistant on As the World Turns. Patricia later returned to San Francisco where she worked at the CBS affiliate station for one year before going back to New York where she was the assistant to the producer on Our Private World. Unemployed due to cancellation of the show, Patricia received a California call from the late Ted Corday and soon went to work for him as a production sec- retary on Columbia Pictures Television's Days of Our Lives and the short -lived Morning Star series. She later joined Chuck Barris Productions where her assignments included chaperoning the Dating Game contestant winners. Patricia ventured to New York again to function as a production assistant on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing but re- turned four months later to be married. Before joining The Young and the Restless production team in January of 1973, she was associate producer of KNXT's noon show, Boutique. She also served as a production assistant on the Tom Jones and Robert Goulet specials and the serials, Bright Promise and Return To Peyton Place.  

 

Great post!

That was wonderful, @Paul Raven. Thank you! Really interesting, you can sort of see one of the reasons why the show became so successful for so long. It respected the viewers and listened to them, all the way into the 2000s.

 

Funny his comment about the music making things more important than they should be. That's why even a discussion over a possible cocktail party could be so significant on the show lol 

Edited September 8, 20169 yr by YRBB

 

Faith Daniels appeared as herself on Murphy Brown a couple of times and then just disappeared from forever after quitting/fired from NBC from TV forever until The Today Show's 50th anniversary in 2012. Best of yet to come was true with Bell, and I loved Jeanne was one selected to give it to him: 

 

 

Edited September 17, 20169 yr by soapfan770

Short Y&R clip in the trailer at the start of this. 

 

Just bought a 2 hour long dvd of Nikki edits from 1981-1982! I'm excited to see what it has!

Edited September 20, 20169 yr by ltm1997

Just bought a 2 hour long dvd of Nikki edits from 1981-1982! I'm excited to see what it has!

Awesome! maybe u can upload the scenes on YT sometime! 
 

I had fun watching those 1982 compliations I got on one of my dvds that showed Nikki's early interactions with Victor, Katherine and the Bancrofts, so I wonder if the ones you got will show even more footage.

Short Y&R clip in the trailer at the start of this. 

 

Thanks! never seen any of the "whiteface" story, and that special looks like it would have been fun!

It made me sad for when American soaps really were an industry to be studied. 

 

I asked if the uploader had the special but they didn't. Hopefully it will pop up eventually. 

It made me sad for when American soaps really were an industry to be studied. 

 

I asked if the uploader had the special but they didn't. Hopefully it will pop up eventually. 

Don't they still have a class at Northwestern?

I definitely will upload them!!

Edited September 23, 20169 yr by ltm1997

Does anybody have any episodes or scenes from 1986 when Shawn kidnapped Lauren and buried her alive, Paul and Andy finding her, and so on that they could upload?? Been looking for those scenes for a while. Also 1985 episodes as well definitely.

I know there was one on Youtube at one time when they were in San Francisco (Lauren and Shawn) but that's all I can remember.  There used to be a clip when he was driving her around during the kidnapping story but I don't think that's on now either. 

 

See even in 2000 Y&R still had IT!

Does anybody have any episodes or scenes from 1986 when Shawn kidnapped Lauren and buried her alive, Paul and Andy finding her, and so on that they could upload?? Been looking for those scenes for a while. Also 1985 episodes as well definitely.

I've been looking for those episodes as well on YT with no luck.  That was truly classic Y&R.  Much later on Days of our Lives copied it!

http://theyoungandtherestless.wikia.com/wiki/Shawn_Garrett

Colby Chester (Michael Crawford) in a Ford ad.