Y&R: Old Articles

[vetsoapfan]

 

Right, I recently saw that some vintage AMC from 1981 has been uploaded to youtube. It's like Christmas in September!

[YRfan23]

No disrespect to ABC fans, but they aren't certainly hurting of classic material...especially GH....when are the 1981 Y&R episodes gonna pop up??? LOL 

[vetsoapfan]

 

I was such a soap fiend back then that I was a CBS fan...an NBC fan...and an ABC fan. I am overjoyed to see 1960s, 1970s and (certain) 1980s material from all networks. We do have a lot of CBS stuff from the 1950s on youtube (Love of Life, The Secret Sorm, etc.) and a lot of 1980s ABC stuff there too (GH), but I too would love to see more Y&R from the 1970s and '80s, DAYS and AW too. Still, I won't complain about ANYTHING vintage and rare that pops up anywhere.

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[SoapDope]

THANK YOU for the 1975 episode. What a treat. One thing to note is John McCook is on the show in 1975. Most write ups have him joining in 76. The guy at the party Mr. Kincaid talking to Lance and Leslie is actor Mike Road. He is best known for the voice of Race Bannon on Johnny Quest and Zandor on the Hurculoids. He died in 2013 at age 95. 

 

Mark was sadly be proven wrong. Lorie is his half sister and they are to never be together. I read Jamie Lyn Bauer and Bill Bell got hate mail when Lorie said she did not care and wanted to marry him anyway. 

[Khan]

Thanks, YRfan, for uploading the 1975 episode!  It was certainly a treat!

 

[yrfan1983]

Great surprise, @YRfan23 thank you! I was blown away by Janice Lynde. What a stunning pantsuit she was wearing. Didn’t she give an interview recently, maybe when she returned for the 45^th, where she said she was given a script with little notice that had her performing, and Jeanne Cooper dropped everything to help her rehearse. She really nailed it. I can not imagine Victoria Mallory doing anything like that. It was fun to see John McCook too – he has that “it factor” right off the bat.

 

I was surprised Lorie had been so reticent to give blood. Maybe it was viewed differently back then. Really awkward moment at 9:30, with Mark and Jennifer at the door just staring at each for what felt like forever.

Edited September 13, 2018 by yrfan1983

[Chris B]

Oh wow that was an amazing episode! Glad it was focused on the Brooks family as well. The production values were great! I especially loved the set Lance and Leslie were on. Her singing number was so much fun and so well directed! The scenes with Jennifer and Mark were good as well. The only time I recall seeing her is the episode with her at the hospital so it was nice seeing her in an actual storyline. 

[Paul Raven]

Thank you for the 75 episode. Hope there's more to come.

 

We had that typical Bill Bell twist of the blood test mixup where it was all going in one direction and then they had the rug pulled out from under them.

 

What impressed me was the set for Lance & Leslie - it looked better than some of the sets used today.

 

Even Lorie's apartment (although basic)looked more realistic than today's efforts. Consider the hideously decorated apartment Phyllis lived in.

 

Gotta love Janice going all Liza and working the room.

 

And we got end credits!

[YRBB]

 

What an incredible gift! Thank you.

[SoapDope]

Steve Carlson is a good actor. He appeared on several soaps, bust mostly in short term roles. He also did tons of commercials. He is an author and voice actor now.  Here is his web site

 

http://www.stevecarlson.tv/default.asp?pg=bio

[DRW50]

Thank you so much @YRfan23 ! What a huge surprise this was. I dove right in. 

 

I'm not sure any episode could better showcase the differences between Janice Lynde and Victoria Mallory (RIP). I picture Mallory doing a lovely and tasteful number from Showboat, rather than a sizzling cabaret act. 

 

While I always thought that Lorie and Mallory's Leslie attracted the same men because of their differences, I now wonder if Lynde's Leslie and Lorie did because of their similarities. There are also big differences, of course, but here you can see the same passion for life and charisma Lorie also generated. 

 

The scenes with Lorie are also very good, the softer side before she learns the truth. Mark isn't really what I thought he'd be, but the actor and JLB have good chemistry. That life lesson he gave to Jennifer was very profound, very moving (Brock would be proud) but of course the sadness underneath is it meant nothing - Jennifer was right, and he would soon realize. That scene at the end is a heartbreaker, even 40 years later. 

 

This episode also reinforces how important the half-hour soap format is, and why the writers like Claire Labine who tried to keep to that format had the correct instincts. The Lorie/Leslie scenes (Leslie going up just as Lorie is about to crash hard) wouldn't have worked as well in the hour format. 

 

The whole thing is really a great example of what a diverse mix Bell's Y&R was - you have jazzy showtunes and motivational speeches all in one episode. 

 

Does William Gray Espy have a diaper on his head in his credits drawing? 

[YRfan23]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

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so I just heard that this episode was apparently given by Janice Lynde herself?? from her own collection.

[Cat]

@YRfan23 echoing what everybody is saying here. Thank you for posting this glorious episode.

 

I keep rewinding it in a bid to figure out why it grips me in a way soaps today no longer do. After all, it is 'just' 22 minutes long. It is 'just' three sets. It is 'just' 6 members of the main cast featured!

 

Firstly, 22 mins feel like a full-hour show in terms of content. A lot of that content was unspoken, or an undercurrent. There is the dialogue, and then there are people's true motivations and desires propelling the scene. Like when Lance locked eyes with Leslie, or when Jennifer Brooks opened the door to Mark, the tension! For a moment I wondered if she was afraid of him. 

 

Contrast that with Lorie and her father's scene, the intimacy, the closeness. I have a feeling Freud would have had a field day with the dynamics of that scene. It is so clear that Lorie once felt estranged from him and it hurt her deeply, and that this relationship with her father is extremely important to her. The feelings implied and expressed could be interpreted in a tacky, heavy-handed way... but it is clear that the person writing this scene -- the great William J Bell himself -- has such love for these characters, such understanding and empathy for them, as if they are real people. Consequently, we care for them too -- within seconds of a scene starting.

 

I think this is why Y&R was successful for so long. Because Bell cared about the characters he was writing and their story. That kindness in the way he treated them, it is a kindness we don't see anymore among many writers today. These characters would be mere archetypes to them.

 

Also Janice Lynde's voice is STUNNING and she delivered such a showstopper! On a superficial level, she looks like a goddess with that gorgeous hair and stunning jumpsuit "from Giorgio's Beverly Hills" (I want one!). Apart from the designer clothes though, it is clear that with a little moody, cinematic lighting and gorgeous background music, a soap can do SO MUCH with very little. I've harped on about Y&R's background music before being an additional character, but truly -- that music is the emotion and psychological underpinning of all these characters' motivations.

 

And like all of you, I would PAY to stream these episodes from 1973 onwards. I think writers, scriptwriters, and lovers of the genre would learn so much from seeing Bill Bell's 70s work up close.

[slick jones]

Thank you so much for this 1975 treat!

[~bl~]

Can someone share some context of the episode?