Y&R: Old Articles

[soapfan770]

 

The February 1980- May 1981 lineup change on CBS was a fiasco for Y&R, SFT, and ATWT as you had three shows in transition phases get bounced around(Y&R and ATWT lost their original time slots while while rival ABC Daytime became Goliath at the time. The 1981-1982 line-up change really did help out Y&R, ATWT, and SFT, it was just that somebody really wanted SFT off the line-up. 

 

I was wondering who played Patty's date as he looked awfully familiar as well. I know Christopher Knight was on AW but something tells me he would have fit right in at Y&R! 

 

Paul gets involved in the cult as well if I recall right but at some point in 1980/1981 of course crosses paths with April Stevens. 

 

I think the biggest problem with Greg and Nikki I wonder if someone outside of Bell was hoping to make them Y&R's version  of Luke and Laura. Either way I don't think the pairing worked at all. 

 

Jill and Katherine's story-lines would definitely divide up over the next couple years that's for sure. Sure we Katherine and Derek playing kissy face(I slightly cringed btw) but it's not long before Katherine will she encounters Felipe and then the love of her life, "Cash" Cashman while Jill will end up engaged to Andy Richards before making moves on John Abbott. 

[DRW50]

I wonder when the signature style of the meaningful glances and so on at the end of scenes began. In that second episode there some abrupt transitions - the first Jill and Liz scene ends so fast at first I thought it was a tape edit.

[Sapounopera]

 

For some reason I thought of Luke and Laura too. Nikki's scenes with the cult reminded me of Delia Ryan as well. 

[YRfan23]

Some of the editing is terrible I thought...I wonder if it was intentional or not...maybe they were still figuring out the video editing process since the show was now an hour and no longer live..

[Sapounopera]

The background music was amazing. 

[DRW50]

 

I think GL also had a story about a mysterious South American place around this time, with Alan being caught up in it. It does feel a bit odd for Y&R. It was also odd to see the corporate material as I'm so used to just seeing it with the Abbotts or Victor.

[soapfan770]

One thing more I may be confused about as well is Victor bringing flowers to Nikki and meeting Lori for the first time....I was under the impression I suppose that Victor first saw Nikki AFTER the Julia/Michael mess. I know Douglas challenged Derek to a duel over the love of Katherine, I have to wonder when that happened as well in 1980. 

 

I wouldn't ever trade in Jess Walton for the world, but I really, really wish Bell had  let Liz Foster remain a relevant, more realistic matriarch through out the '80s, '90s, and '00s. It was a missing component for Y&R didn't have. Liz also has a depth that Nancy Hughes, Alice Horton, Virginia Matthews and Bert Bauer never could achieve either. 

 

Edited March 24, 2018 by soapfan770

[YRfan23]

That's such a big deal now when you think of it, because it's so crazy to think Victor might have met Nikki before seeing her at the Bayou for the first time....I wonder if it all was retconned.....I know when they first got married, Casey was shocked that Victor and Nikki knew each other....perhaps Victor just never met Nikki face to face...

I totally could see Liz staying on throughout the 90's, I'm always most excited to see her when these episodes surface! 

[soapfan770]

 

I wouldn't call it retconning, just a maze of story-lines these characters were probably facing at the time. Most notably I noticed reading over synopsis in early 1982 there was a story of where Victor bought an expensive fur coat for Nikki as a gift but it was stolen by some mob friends of Nikki so Nikki and Katherine worked together to get a replacement fur coat so Victor wouldn't realize the difference. I wonder if Bell's isolation of storytelling was in full play here, and as @DRW50 noted a full array of too many storylines happening at once. 

[kalbir]

Firstly, thanks to @YRfan23 for the uploads and @ltm1997 for the episodes 

 

From watching these episodes, you can tell that Y&R was very much in transition w/ the expansion to 1 hour and the new characters. It took a couple years for Bill Bell to figure out which characters were working and which weren't. 

 

From that Victor scene, I think he knew Casey so he must have heard about her sister Nikki, but Victor and Nikki didn't actually meet until about a year and a half later.

 

Interesting to see the start of the cult storyline that was retconned to result in Paul and Nikki having Dylan. During the original cult storyline (summer 1980), Paul was already a father to baby Heather so that means Dylan's birth would've been between Heather and Victoria,  so in real time that would be spring 1981 (Heather's birth was 1979 and Victoria's birth was fall 1982). Whomever retconned the cult storyline didn't do the research properly. 

Edited March 24, 2018 by kalbir

[DeeeDee]

Victor knew Casey because she treated Julia.

[Soaplovers]

I always figured Nikki and Victor knew of each other.. but at this time (spring-summer 1980).. both were in different points in their lives so that even if they met one another.. it wouldn't have been love at first sight.  Nikki was with Greg and dealing with the cult.. while Victor was still with Julia.

 

I think by the time they met in the fall of 1981... both were at places in their lives where they would officially meet and notice one another in that way.

 

Bond was a good actress... but she seemed almost too nice to be Jill.  Deborah Adair also was sweet.. but she also gave a look that said to not cross her.

 

This first Patty was a good actress... but maybe she would have been too young to interact her with Danny and Jack... just a guess.

[DRW50]

 

Did Victor not come in to help Katherine go against Derek? I always thought that was the reason. Yet the story isn't in that place here.

 

What did you think of the first Patty?

[SoapDope]

Thank you for the 1980 episodes. Wings Hauser was so horrible and campy as Greg. I wish James Houghton had stayed in the role paired with MTS. Interesting that Victor brought flowers for Nikki before their big romance. Tammy Taylor is really good as Patty. I remember only Lilibet in the role. I wonder why Tammy was dropped ?  Bond is pretty good as Jill.

 

One interesting thing about the cult. The blonde girl Nikki talks to is played by Cindy Fisher, Doug Davidson's wife. She reminds me of Daryl Hannah. Cindy played small roles on the show over the years. She stole Victor's car at one point. 

[titan1978]

I really like this Patty, and it’s the only time I’ve not been annoyed by Mary.  Paul was cute too.  They were a great family addition.