Y&R: Old Articles

[SoapDope]

I wonder how she feels that she was replaced with an actress that has been in the role for 40 years ? I have seen a bit of Melody's screen test with Beau Kazer (Brock). 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Maybe Erica Hope would have improved over time, like Melody Thomas Scott and Jaime Lyn Bauer did. Or she might have remained awful, but retained on the show for decades, anyway, LOL.

[Paul Raven]

Up until that point, they had pretty much stuck with the original actors - nobody was fired.

 

Not sure what happened with John Considine as Phillip and I think Brian Kerwin was dropped as Greg#2.

 

Anyone else Ive forgotten?

[will81]

Janice Lynde was technically fired. Although it seemed more a case of she wasn't really happy to be there and would have left anyway but got the pink slip first, so in effect it was a mutual decision. Jon-Michael Reed reported at the time that Janice had been out with a back injury about a month before her departure, and it was implied that TPTB thought she was faking it (sounds a little like Brenda's situation, which more and more I am finding out was not all her fault). 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Janice did not leave a month after her back injury, as I recall. She was out for an extended period as per doctor's advice, but when she returned, she gave an interview in which she said that her storyline would then be very heavy, and she was ready for it. She remained on the show for quite a while afterwards. It's true that she had expressed unhappiness with the show and her role (in the press she acknowledged  there were times when she "just HATED Leslie!"),  and she also acknowledged that TPTB doubted the veracity of her back issues.

 

At the time of her departure, the press reported that she had quit despite the show's attempts to keep her. That might have been a bunch of BS, of course; Bill Bell might have been fed up and wanted to can her (I would not be happy if an actress spoke trash about her character to reporters), but whether she was fired or quit on her own, the show (and Leslie) suffered after she was gone.

[FrenchFan]

Just went through the SOD synopsis from 1980, it looks like Suzanne didn't have a formal exit? Does anyone remember? She was scheming with Doug and it seemed to have fizzled when Bill Bell built a new Chancellor Industries storyline with Judy Lewis and George Packard.

[vetsoapfan]

 

William Gray Espy had quit as Snapper in 1975, which was a major blow to the show and a shock to fans. He was replaced by David Hasselhoff.

 

Robert Clarke had failed to impress as Liz Foster's brother (and Lorie Brooks' biological father) Bruce Henderson, and he was replaced by Paul Stevens.

 

Robert Clary had been written off as Pierre Rolland, but that was plan all along, and the actor jumped over to DAYS.

 

Brian Kerwin was a terrible Greg Foster 2, and the show fired him. He complained about it bitterly in the press at the time, hurt that the show would recast the part without considering him to even audition to reprise the role 

 

The character just sort of disappeared, as I recall. 

[Paul Raven]

I just remembered the original Derek story where Caleb Stoddard and another actor played Derek and then the whole thing was dropped for a while until Joe LaDue came on.

 

Does anyone remember how this played out on screen.?

[vetsoapfan]

 

Jeff Cooper was the other actor to play Derek, although briefly.

 

Not much actually played out while Stoddard and Cooper played the part. Derek was introduced as a hairdresser/stud, and did some heavy flirting...but wasn't really used a lot until Bill Bell finally found the actor he wanted to settle on: Joe Ladue.

 

Boy, his white pants were tight.

Edited October 21, 2017 by vetsoapfan

[DRW50]

 

It's a shame Jeff Cooper didn't work out. He and Jeanne could have gone on the dinner theater/Mike Douglas circuit the way some soap performers did then. Cooper & Cooper.

 

I remember JLB saying in an interview how poorly actors were treated by the show in the '70s. 

[Khan]

 

Years later, when Kerwin joined the cast of OLTL, an interviewer asked him to speak about his Y&R stint.  IIRC, Kerwin declined, saying only that he didn't enjoy the role or working on the show.

 

IIRC, too, one of the many grievances that JLB had against TPTB was that the actors' dressing room was large, drab, and drafty as [!@#$%^&*].

[DRW50]

 

I think she also said the water was always cold and I could swear something about having to wash their hair in one place and they were always getting sick? 

 

I can't remember. 

 

They also shared dressing rooms with the game shows, I believe.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Fortunately for Kerwin, his skills as an actor improved as he got older. As Greg Foster, however, he was colorless and bland. They really did need to replace him, but Wings Hauser was atrocious in the role. Think: Greg Foster, Degenerate Slug and Serial Killer.

 

Vomit.

 

 

[Khan]

What is your opinion, then, of Howard McGillin, who succeeded Hauser and was the last actor to portray Greg, I think (save for returns by Jim Houghton and Hauser)?

[DRW50]

 

Was Hauser popular with fans? He was there for 3-4 years, wasn't he?