Y&R: Old Articles

[DeeeDee]

Y&R not pairing Brad & Diane was a HUGE missed opportunity,

[Aback]

 

Wow. I loved the show back then. And the blocking + directing choices were a huge part of it. I would pay money to watch 99-01 again.

[StepBack]

 

Diane left when Alex Donnelly did. Such a shame she couldn't reprise her role. Maura West was a disaster. Susan Walters was competent. 

[Legacy]

I honestly wish there was more material from those years coming up ahead but Ofcourse getting them is the hardest thing and 1978 quality was awesome.

 

I would like to see the episode when jennifer brooks died in 1977 and the funeral and everything going on at that time. Does anyone here remember anything from jennifer brooks final days on the show?

 

Also when i seen that 1975 episode, thats provably my third time seeing jennifer acting skills and she is great in her part.most of the middle age womwn on the show at that time had these little different layers about them that made them shine in there scenes lol we katherine,liz, vanessa,jennifer. Andci would also like to throw in dina even though she came on later she is still these womens age brackett

[will81]

Janice did get a primetime vehicle, Norman Lear's Roxie, but the pilot was never picked up. I believe it was done around 75/76. Not sure why she never got anything more after that. 

 

I really like Jance's portrayal now that we have seen a few episodes. She really balanced Leslie's shy, introverted personality with her newfound freedom and strength. I think Janice in real life was a fireball, you can see her infuse that element into Leslie in the 1975 episodes we have, such as when she and Laurie are arguing about Brad at the hospital (when Jennifer is having her mastectomy) but then she can revert back to the softer, slightly weaker Leslie such as when she and Laurie argue about Laurie no longer wanting to work for her. A scene I have watched over and over as I think both JLB and JL are so amazing in that scene together.

 

I agree, Victoria's Leslie was more internalised and had Victoria originated the role, I might have really loved that, but now seeing a bit more of both, it often feels like Leslie was muted quite a bit after Janice left. The growth Janice brought to Leslie was almost reversed.

 

I also wonder if Janice's departure pushed Bell's focus onto JLB's Laurie. I think they were a lot more equal initially, maybe with Leslie being more central. It feels after Victoria took over that Bell made Leslie more a supporting character in Laurie's story.

[Bill Bauer]

 

I always thought it strange how Bill Bell decimated the families he created (the Brooks and Fosters). It was, sadly, common for new writers to do that to families past head writers had created, but I don’t know if any other writer besides Bell who did it to his own families. Why he got rid of the Brooks and Fosters and created the Abbots to refocus on them, I’ll never know. 

[will81]

I think this mostly happened due to the recasts. William Gray Espy left in 1975, then James Houghton in 1976, Janice Lynde in 1977, Pamela Peters pretty much left the same year around the time Jennifer died, Trish Stewart left in 1978 and Brenda Dickson left in 1980. I believe JLB wanted out in 1980 but agreed to stay. 

 

I think Bell lost some interest in those characters once the original actors left, I feel he tried to make the recasts work, but whether the newer actors were popular or not, he wasn't really writing the same characters anymore. You can kinda tell those characters became less important to the show once they were recast, again even if the actors were popular with audiences, hence why JLB became almost the main star and once she left he fired everyone else.

 

In terms of the Abbotts, maybe he liked the recasts of Ashley and Jack enough to maintain that family. No doubt he changed Jack the most to fit Peter's acting style more, but maybe he was happy with that change. 

[DRW50]

 

Gloria Monty (who often was basically HW for GH) did the same when she returned and decided the Quartermaines were a symbol of the past. 

 

She was wrong. Bell probably had a point about the Fosters and the Brooks - the main actors in the roles were long gone - but I do wish he hadn't moved away quite as severely as he did. 

 

I wonder if some of this was also down to his dislike of Conboy, whom he worked with in the era of the families.

[Paul Raven]

 I think the recasts definitely played a part in Bell's decision. 

Also he was facing the challenge of coming up with viable stories for those characters.

Snapper and Chris were his golden couple - they had stayed together for 6 years by 1980 and then you had Hasselhoff taking time off and Lynne topping as a fairly bland recast.

He had struck gold again with Lance/Leslie/Lorie/Lucas and Vanessa but after several years that story was getting played out and John McCook left.

Jill was still prominent and then Brenda left.

All of this and the move to 60min meant some big changes had to be made.

I think the original plan was to mingle the Brooks and Fosters in but as time went by he was more enthused by the newer characters.

 

[Broderick]

Yeah, the Brooks & Foster families desperately needed to bite the dust, and Bill Bell knew it.   By 1982, after all the recasting, there were only TWO of the characters that Bell truly seemed to be interested in --- Snapper Foster, played by David Hasselhoff, and Lorie Brooks, played by Jaime Lyn Bauer.  And unfortunately, both of those actors had been expressing readiness for quite some time to move on from the show.   Plus they were "aging out" of the early to mid-20s age range that Bell preferred writing for in those days.   David Hasselhoff was about to turn 30, and Jaime Lyn Bauer was already 32.   Bell didn't seem interested in writing for a bunch of characters in their 30s, especially when he was about to lose his favorite two. 

 

It just made MUCH better sense to shift the storyline to focus on the younger and charismatic Melody Thomas, Doug Davidson, Terry Lester, Eileen Davidson, Lilibet Stern, Stephanie Williams, Steven Ford, and even Michael Damian.   They seemed to offer a fresh start to Bell, and he evidently couldn't WAIT to sweep out all those bland recasts in tiresome stories and reboot his show.   It was a very risky decision -- one that nobody would have the guts to do today -- but it paid off for Bell.   Within a year of rebooting, he was winning an Emmy for best show, and within a few more years, he was at number one in the ratings.    

[BoldRestless]

I always thought Bell used B&B as a redo of sorts for the Fosters and the Brooks.  You had the Logans, a  working class family whose father had left with the son becoming a lawyer and the wealthy Forresters with their four children.  There was some mixing around of the ages and sexes of the children but the original foundation was very much there, plus actors Bell was comfortable with from Y&R.  And 30 years later, it's still very much those two families and the Spencers onscreen.  And while I love the consistency and ties to history B&B has, it has made for a very incestuous and often boring show, and I'm glad Y&R didn't turn out that way.  It will be strange though once Jill dies or Jess Walton permanently retires and there will be no ties at all to the original show.  I feel like that hurts Y&R's chances of ever being picked up in streaming tremendously.

[Eboneece]

Kay Alden has never minced words about how traumatic that early 1980s transition was. I can only imagine the pressure of going to an hour plus having to reboot the cast at the same time. This was also the period in which Bell brought on Jack Smith and Sally Sussman right? Other 1970s writers like Elizabeth Harrower left around then too.

[kalbir]

 

Bill Bell also used elements of the Brooks family with the original Spencers. Although they were not original Y&R characters, there are elements of the Chancellors and the Prentisses in the Forresters.

[will81]

Not sure but I think Jack Smith might have come on a bit earlier, like 78-79. I do believe Sally Sussman came on about 82-83.

 

The interesting thing is Y&R was battling AMC for the #1 spot in late 79 into early 80. It was hitting #1 constantly. Within 6 months of the shift to an hour AMC was #1 and Y&R had dropped to #5. Considering Bell hated the move to an hour and the show he was writing was #1 and dropped to #5, he must have been pissed off about it all.

 

Not to confuse people as I know GH hit #1 that year, I am talking about a very brief period from about Dec 79 - Feb 80. GH was a definite 3rd for this period, but I guess once Y&R faultered it was a battle between GH and AMC for the remainder of the year

Edited June 8, 2019 by will81

[will81]

Oh yeah I totally forgot my own post from previous. David had pretty much left the show in 1980. Made probably a few appearances. Lynn was definitely off the show that year. So Chris and Snapper were MIA during most of 1980. 

 

I'd say though the Brooks were pretty split by 1978-79. Peggy was mostly gone (besides the short stint by Pat Everly) Leslie and Laurie were married to the Prentiss boys and most of their story was more part of that family. Chris was off screen for a big chunk of 78 and it seems Chris and Snapper were fairly isolated by that point. Stuart was having his fling with Liz and Jill. By 1980, after they married, both Stuart and Liz were basically recurring.

 

As a viewer it must have been very odd to deal with this transition. I also have an article from Jon-Michael Reed who didn't have kind things to say about either the cult storyline or the Edward Nikki storyline.