Y&R: Old Articles

[SoapDope]

Thanks for all the details. Peggy Brooks is a character that Bell had a hard time writing for. It was the old throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. I assume Steve was gone by 1981. 

 

 

I know she went by the last name Solow later on. I could have sworn I read somewhere she was married to TV executive Herb Solow (who was 20 years her senior), but all his bios I googled mention one wife only whom he has grown children with and no mention of him having been married to Pamela Peters I could find. 

 

Yes, the Prentiss men were stuck in the Leslie/Lorie/Lance/ Lucas crap for years. Lucas did have a short thing with Casey, but he returned to Leslie yet again while pining for Lorie. A lot of viewers could not understand why Leslie and Lorie were so captivated by boring dull Lance and ignoring the more interesting Lucas. Even their mother Vanessa thought more of Lance. 

 

 

 

 

[yrfan1983]

I love your in-depth recall of early '80 YR, @Broderick ! I am wondering - were you watching when Howard McMillan took over as Greg Foster, and if so, what was your impression of him?

[Broderick]

I do remember Howard as Greg Foster.   I just remember him as being "serviceable".   He wasn't a scenery-chewing, over-the-top diva like Wings Hauser (the 3rd Greg) tended to be, and he wasn't as raw/untrained as Jim Houghton (the 1st Greg).   He was more like Brian Kerwin (the 2nd Greg), who just delivered his lines believably and went home, lol. 

[Paul Raven]

My only recollection of Howard's Greg was when he was a talk to for Jill when she decided to sell the Foster home without any legal right to do so.

 

Will again state that John Silva character with a few tweaks could have been Greg Foster and kept the family around longer.

[Legacy]

Vanessa was a very dark complexed character that you just never knew why she had the hate she had in her heart, but again that's bells awesome ideas that got the viewers interested wanting more

 

That's kinda odd that Katherine who had many links with the town and knows basically everyone did not have any cross paths with the Prentiss gang and ever rarely the brooks gang is it just me?

I still wonder what the show would have done if they never made the changes they did back then, And correct me if I'm wrong from what I've read it seems because Jaime Lynn Bauer left he just didn't know what to do with the show

[Broderick]

Yeah, I think Bill Bell was overly fond of  several of his characters/actors, and really didn't care much about several others.    Among the Foster children, he seemed to love Jill (as played by Brenda Dickson) and Snapper (William Grey Espy & David Hasselhoff).   He didn't seem to give much of a hoot about Greg.  Among the Brooks children, he clearly loved Lorie (Jaime Lyn Bauer), Leslie (Janice Lynde), and Chris (Trish Stewart).   He didn't appear to give a damn about Peggy.   Among the Prentiss kids, he obviously was crazy about Lance (John McCook), and kinda didn't give a rat's ass about Lucas. 

 

By 1982, he'd lost ALL of those "teacher's pet" actors except David Hasselhoff and Jaime Lyn Bauer.   He still had the Leslie Brooks and Chris Brooks characters, but they were played by fairly bland recasts.   He still had Jill, but she was a recast.  He still had Lance, but he was a recast.    And I never got the impression Bell was terribly vested in Peggy, Greg, and Lucas, regardless of who played them.   The spring of 1982 was really DOMINATED by David Hasselhoff and Jaime Lyn Bauer.    Practically every episode was built around Snapper's relationship with little Chuckie, or Lorie's manipulation of Victor.   As a viewer, I felt that I was watching THE SNAPPER & LORIE HOUR.   Within months of each other, David Hasselhoff and Jaime Lyn Bauer both bailed.    You could tell that Bill Bell was left with a sort of "second-tier" cast of chacters that he hadn't bothered to develop nearly as much as he'd concentrated on his two favorites.   It was pretty inevitable that he would sweep Chris, Leslie, Peggy, Stuart, Liz, Greg, Lance and Lucas out the door as quickly as possible.  (I expect Jill would've bitten the dust as well, had she not been anchored so closely onto the Kay Chancellor character, who was VERY well developed.)  It was just time to start over and develop some of the newer, younger, characters --- and Bell was clearly blessed to have Terry Lester, Eileen Davidson, Melody Thomas, Doug Davidson, and a handful of other young actors on hand to work with during that period. 

Edited March 29, 2019 by Broderick

[SoapDope]

Jaime Lyn Bauer said she had to quit in 1982 due to exhaustion. Bell wanted her on the show everyday and constantly wrote for her without letting her go back burner to get some rest. Her character was one of very few that he let cross over into all the characters storylines. She pretty much interacted with everyone 1973-1982. If Bauer had stayed he would had her continue to dominate and build the show around her. Bell seemed to lose interest in Leslie when Janice Lynde departed and realized Victoria Mallory's limitations. He made Eric Braeden the King of the show and catered to his demands. 

 

I never understood why they held on to Wings Hauser as Greg. Christopher Holder who played Kevin Bancroft would have been a better choice as Greg. 

[Paul Raven]

Loving this discussion and analysis of this time frame.

 

Kevin was another character that was dropped.I recall some interaction with Julia. Did he get a proper sendoff or just vanish?

Kevin could have stayed and been used in a variety of ways.

There was always that past with Nikki to touch upon.

Bill was looking for a mate for Ashley (eg Brian). Maybe Kevin could have been used there?

 

The move to 60 min really did a number on the show.

At that point he had resorted to an amnesia plot for Leslie to set up Lorie taking care of Brooks. Then John McCook left as Lance. Lucas hooked up with Casey but when Leslie gravitated to Lucas again Casey and Jonas got involved.

 

Snapper and Chris had little to do (I think  David Hasselhoff had out clauses in his contract to film pilots etc) As stated Bill didn't seem enamored of Lynne Topping. There was Dr Jane Lewis who had some interest in Snapper but that went nowhere.

 

The original Kay/Derek/Jill triangle got muddled with Suzanne, and Derek going to work at Chancellor. How were Derek and Suzanne written out?

They never explored Derek's son Jamie either.

Key got stranded on an island with Felipe and then I think Jeanne was offscreen for several months before she got involved with Cash the stripper/escort.

 

A lot of stuff going on over those years.

[Broderick]

Didn't Suzanne Lynch just disappear with no explanation?   There was a brief period where she teamed up (platonically) with Colonel Austin, who wanted  to plant a spy at Chancellor Industries.   Austin wanted the spy to advise him whether or not Derek was sabotaging "dear Katherine's" corporation with mis-management.   Suzanne happily volunteered to be the spy, so that she could spend more time around Derek.   She made a big production of announcing to Colonel Austin that she was taking a job in the Chancellor Industries cafeteria so that she could watch Derek closely.   (Guess she thought Derek spent all day in the cafeteria, lol).   Anyway, after the big announcement that she was going to work in the cafeteria, I never laid eyes on Suzanne again.  As far as I know she's still working in the cafeteria, lol.  

 

Derek Thurston had an actual send-off, though it was more focused on Kay Chancellor than on Derek himself.    While Kay was on the island with Felipe Ramariz, Derek was at home drinking too much liquor and halfway losing his mind.  (Kay had been presumed dead, of course, when she jumped off the cruise ship.)  Derek, ousted from Chancellor Industries by Victor Newman, started staying at home, drinking all day, and fantasizing that he was seeing Kay's ghost.   He pulled Phillip Chancellor's pistol out of the desk drawer and started randomly shooting at objects in the living room that he mistook for Kay's ghost.   That girl from Chancellor Industries (Judy) who'd been Derek's administrative assistant kept popping over to the Chancellor house to assure Derek that he was only imagining Kay's ghost and urging him to put the pistol back in the drawer before he wounded or killed someone.   The audience's fear, of course, was that Kay would ultimately return home from her "island getaway", and Derek would pop a cap in her, mistaking Kay for the "ghost" he'd been shooting.   Sure enough, Kay eventually reappeared in the living room, fresh from her Gangrene-Footed Island Vacation, and Derek fired a shot right at her heart.  Fortunately, he missed.  Kay realized how utterly pathetic Derek Thurston had become during her absence, and how weak and foolish she had previously been to put so much importance on Derek over the years.  (During her time with Felipe, she had come to the realization that she didn't need all the trappings of wealth --- and a younger husband --- to be a person of value.)   She delivered a blistering monologue to Derek about their moribound relationship.  "You have taken advantage of me for years, Jerrick -- yes, for YEARS! --- and I have allowed it, I have ab-so-LUTE-ly allowed it, but those days are over, Jerrick.   No.   Don't interrupt.  Listen to me.  Lisssssen tooo meeee.   We are finished, Jerrick.  Your free ride here in my beautiful home has come to an end.  Your free ride has mercifully, finally, ab-so-LUTE-ly come to an end.   And I suggest that you clean yourself up and start afresh somewhere else.  Dear God in Heaven, you must.  You ab-so-LUTE-ly must.  It's a pity our relationship lasted as long as it did.  Good-bye, Jerrick."  And that was the last time I remember seeing Derek Thurston until he reappeared at the famous wedding in 1984.   The implication, although we didn't see him pack his bags and leave, was that Kay was literally finished with Derek for good after she returned from the island and threw his ass out.

 

And yes, you're correct.   Jeanne Cooper took off for three or four months after the Felipe story concluded.   Immediately after leaving Felipe and the island, she threw Derek Thurston out of the house, then visited Colonel Austin and told him that she didn't need him either.   (Remember, the reason she jumped off the cruise ship in the first place was that Derek Thurston and Colonel Austin were each pressuring her to dump the other one, and she was afraid she would start drinking again if they didn't both leave her alone.)   Her time with Felipe put a fresh perspective on all of that, and she decided she needed neither Derek NOR Douglas.   She also popped into Newman Enterprises and thanked Victor for taking care of Chancellor Industries during her presumed death.   After her initial "welcome home visits" with Derek, Douglas, and Victor, we didn't lay eyes on Kay Chancellor for several months.   I believe she returned from the island in about MARCH of 1981, and we didn't see her again until about JUNE of 1981.     A summertime episode (probably in early June) opened with Kay Chancellor standing in her living room, looking in the big gold-framed mirror, griping to herself about all the lines in her face that were the results of drinking and smoking, and talking to herself candidly about how she had over-complicated her life with poorly-executed love affairs with undeserving men.   (The scene made an impact on me, because I hadn't seen her in so long and was beginning to wonder if she'd been written-out as well.)   After her monologue in the mirror, Kay picked up the phone and called the male hooker (Cash) and arranged for him to drop by and satisfy her sexually, which commenced the storyline of Kay and Cash.   By late summer, Kay was in England for the Royal Wedding and for Leslie Brooks' concert (where Lorie Brooks wore a gown that was split all the way up to her pubic hair.)  Cash was Kay Chancellor's intercontinental paid escort during the trip to London, which Liz Brooks frowned about, because she felt it was another poor and vanity-based decision on Kay's part.   After Leslie's concert, Kay again disappeared for several weeks, with the explanation on the show being that Kay and Cash were going to Zurich so that Kay could interview some potential plastic surgeons, as she hoped to look "younger" for Cash's benefit.    Nothing came of this venture, and I always wondered if Jeanne Cooper was seriously considering plastic surgery as early as 1981, or if it was just a storyline-dictated decision to explain Kay and Cash's absence for a few weeks following the concert.   (And I'm not sure why Jeanne Cooper was off-screen for all of those months between March and June.   Might've been personal reasons such as rehab for her drinking problem, or Miss Cooper might have been contemplating plastic surgery, or it might've been a planned vacation due to overwork during the Felipe storyline, or it might have been that Bill Bell simply wanted a few months to put Felipe, Derek, and Douglas in the past before reintroducing the Kay Chancellor character to the audience as the wealthy patroness of Jerry Cashman, the male escort).             

Edited March 29, 2019 by Broderick

[SoapDope]

Cash could have been used in several pairings, but I guess they felt he was only useful as a short term Gigolo bedding lonely women. John Gibson who played Cash was with Vanna White for years (I think even when he was on Y&R) and planned to be married, but he was killed in a plane crash in 1986. Gibson was a real life stripper and Playgirl model.

 

I wish Bell had held on to a few more 1970's characters from the Brooks, Prentiss and Fosters families. Jill only survived because of her history with Kay. Lucas would have made a good leading man with several women. 

 

 

[yrfan1983]

That is INSANE that she felt "confident and free"! I don't doubt that is what actually happened. But when I saw the ep from the previous week at the Paley Center - the climax of the Edward story - Nikki was seriously traumatized. She was sobbing - beside herself. She really thought she was going to die.

A realistic story would have shown Nikki going through at least a cursory period of healing. Or - I can believe that she took to the stage at the Bayou as a way of "reclaiming her power"... but then we should really see some signs of PTSD from the whole Edward ordeal.

I think this was just a case of Bill Bell wanting to move immediately to the next story.

Another example of Bill Bell switching to a different story at breakneck speed... from '94: April Stevens' trial finally ends and she gets off with no jail time. Two episodes later: April and Heather are gone! Because Bill Bell was ready to send Paul and Cricket to Vietnam to find Keemo.

[Soaplovers]

Was there a lot of interaction between Jill and Kay between 1980 to 1982?  I know there was a scene in 1982 where kay and Jill rehashed the past...Deborah Adair was so warm and sweet that Kay looked as evil as ever..so I could see interactions between the two being kept to a minimum during that period of time.

[yrfan1983]

From reading the recaps, it seems that Jill and Kay had no interaction starting in winter '80 once Brenda D left. Maybe Bond G's Jill had one scene with Kay. Then, nothing until fall '82 during those scenes you mentioned, when Kay shows up at the Fosters' doorstep to stir things up for the newly-engaged Jill.

There is one fabulous 10-second clip from right after John and Jill marry, where Deborah Adair's Jill is not so nice... where Jill tells Kay: "you can't hurt me now... I'm RICH!"

Edited March 29, 2019 by yrfan1983

[Legacy]

There physical catfights were golden to the show they always had to throw down, what is everyone's favorite catfight episode you seen? For me I would say the courthouse fight from 1995 LMAO

Your right they could have kept atleast 1or 2  from those families, I would say Lorie and Lucas and maybe have Leslie come around every now and then like how Jill does currently

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, I mean thank God in 2019 we still have Jill from the first family still appearing periodically but I swear they want to write her completely 

[Bill Bauer]

Do any of you fellow old-timers remember if it was the same guy who raped Chris Brooks that raped Peggy Brooks? And didn’t the rapist have an overweight wife that they made an issue of? I swear I remember that but I’m going by childhood memories and they are VERY vague. I remember Peggy taking showers compulsively after she got raped. Not sure why that sticks out. Again, childhood memories.