Y&R: Old Articles

[Khan]

Well, an illicit affair between a middle-aged, upper-middle-class woman and a high school boy would've been right up Bill Bell's, and early Y&R's, proverbial alley!

[Broderick]

 

Exactly!   Mrs. Kay Chancellor essentially "inherited" both of those storyline threads that were (allegedly) planned for Mrs. Regina Henderson.   The high school boy turned into "Jeff the Stable Boy" at the Chancellor house,  played by Rod Arrants, who was in his late 20s at the time, but looked even younger, and who "serviced" Kay Chancellor when Phillip wouldn't sleep with her.   And the car-crash caused by the drunken socialite was re-formatted into Kay Chancellor driving her beloved Phillip off the cliff to keep him away from young Jill.    

[SoapDope]

I read that the Brooks actors complained to Bill Bell that they wanted to interact with The Chancellor's and would write storyline ideas and submit them. Bell would ignore it. Dorothy Green (Jennifer) was really quite vocal about it. She also complained how the older women were written to the soap press. Bell killed off her character in 1977 and she was vocal about that too. 

[will81]

I vaguely remember Dorothy Green being outspoken about it, especially the isolation of the older female characters and how they were written. Apparently Dorothy had no idea she was being killed off until Jen started feeling ill and people backstage at Y&R were acting a bit odd. I get the feeling after Bell had wanted to kill off Addie on Days and was basically forced through fan outrage to keep her at least temporarily, that he basically kept Dorothy in the dark. Not the best way to treat an actor.

[Broderick]

 

I guess the Brooks actors and the Chancellor actors did interact to a (very small) extent at different times during the 1970s.   There were definitely a few random stray scenes between Lorie Brooks and Phillip Chancellor.   (My impression of those scenes was that Bill Bell was "screen-testing" the chemistry of Phillip and Lorie, perhaps contemplating killing-off Kay, establishing Jill and Phillip as a married couple, and then having Lorie subsequently become Jill's rival for Phillip.   But it must've become clear to Bill Bell that Donnelly Rhodes was more dispensable than Jeanne Cooper, and far more storyline potential could be generated by having Kay and Jill become long-term rivals, fighting over the legacy of the dead Phillip.)

 

And during the 1970s, all four of the Brooks girls interacted at one time or another with Brock.   He debuted as Lorie's friend, became Peggy's friend during the Jack/JoAnna storyline, briefly courted Leslie, and interacted platonically with Chris on and off the whole time. 

 

A few years after the death of Jennifer Brooks, a couple of the Brooks girls strayed into scenes with Kay.   I'm thinking there was a scene in 1979 where Kay, who was presumed dead from the fire at Fairview Sanitarium and who was hiding out at Liz's house and playing dead, enlisted Lorie Brooks' help in sabotaging some of Jill's divorce and remarriage plans.   (Stuart Brooks was about to present Jill with a large property settlement check to finally get rid of her, not realizing that Jill was planning to cash his check and then immediately elope with Derek to cash-in on Kay's inheritance.   To stop Stuart from squandering his money on Jill's unnecessary settlement, didn't Kay call Lorie Brooks and get Lorie to tear-up the check Stuart had written before Jill had a chance to cash it?  After getting the heads-up from Kay about what was going on, Lorie then sat down with Brock in the Allegro and compared notes, discovering that Jill was playing Stuart and Derek against each other trying to determine which man could benefit Jill the most financially.  Lorie's primary goal was keeping Jill away from Mr. Brooks, while Brock's primary goal was freeing Mr. Brooks and also finding out how serious Derek and Jill were about marrying. )  

 

[Edited to include synopsis from SOD about the above scene:  "Kay learns from Liz that Jill has asked Stuart Brooks for a quick divorce, but it will cost Stuart.  Jill is asking for a $100,000 settlement.  Kay turns to Brock and says she can't allow that to happen, and she knows just the way to stop it.  Kay calls Lorie Brooks ...   Jill signs the papers, and Stuart hands the check over to Jill.  Jill suddenly feels the check being torn from her hands.  Lorie smiles as she rips the check into little pieces.  Lorie says that she won't allow Jill to rob Stuart of $100,000.  Lorie tells her father that they're going to call Jill's bluff.  Jill doesn't want a long, drawn-out court battle, because she is planning to marry Derek Thurston."]  

 

After the show expanded to an hour and was in that weird transition phase, there were definitely a few scenes where Kay, Liz, Lorie and Leslie met with Mr. Blackwell about designing Liz's dress for the trip to London for Leslie's concert.    And then of course Kay and Jerry Cashman showed up in London, where Kay was on-hand to see Lorie's entrance to the ball in that dress that was split all the way up to Lorie's hoochie.

 

And there was another scene during that same time frame, where Kay dragged Liz Brooks to the Bayou to watch Cash "dance", which embarrassed Liz half to death, because Liz didn't seem to understand that Cash was a stripper until the two ladies were seated in the Bayou and Cash came prancing out dressed as a policeman or whatever.   When Kay delivered Liz back home, Stuart and Peggy were there to taunt Liz about watching male strippers.  (Stuart made some teasing comment about buying himself some "sexy bikini briefs" like the ones he presumed Cash had been wearing, which inspired Peggy to make vomit noises.) 

 

When Lorie Brooks was tricking Victor Newman into signing over the Prentiss Industries stock proxies to her (in 1982), Nikki Bancroft was jealous that Lorie might be about to marry Victor.   I distinctly remember a scene where Kay counseled Nikki that Lorie Brooks could be a "very dangerous adversary" if Nikki really cared about Goat Daddy.

 

Speaking of characters who rarely if ever interacted, I'd forgotten that Snapper Foster ever laid eyes on Vanessa Prentiss.   A few months ago, someone posted the vintage episode from 1978, in which Vanessa Prentiss had plotted to shoot Lorie but accidentally popped a cap into her beloved Lance instead. Realizing that Lance had been shot, Lorie immediately called Snapper to hurry out to the lakehouse and treat the bleeding Lance.  Once Lance had been stabilized, there was a (very) brief scene during which David Hasselhoff's Snapper acknowledged K.T. Stevens' Vanessa, and said, "Mrs. Prentiss, this could've been a whole lot WORSE than it turned out.  All of you are very lucky.  Good-night."    If I hadn't re-watched this episode when it appeared on YouTube a few months ago, I would've insisted that Snapper never met Vanessa in his life, although Snapper and Lance were brothers-in-law for a LONG period of time while Chris Brooks was married to Snapper, and Lorie Brooks was married to Lance.        

    

Edited September 13, 2019 by Broderick

[BoldRestless]

 

Thanks Broderick and everyone else posting old memories. Your descriptions are so detailed that I feel like I'm watching some of these scenes. It also speaks to how good the directing, acting, and writing were that people can still recall scenes from the 70s in such vivid detail.

 

I think I missed that 1978 episode. Was it posted here?  I really hope someone has the link, or can upload it. I'd really love to see that. 

[SoapDope]

I think it was just edits of Lorie scenes someone had uploaded. They had the shooting, Lorie and Lucas at the disco, Lorie confronting Leslie about her pregnancy and going ape crap on her. They also had the scene where Lorie upstage Leslie at the 1981 Gala ball where she walked in with the dress slit up to her crotch. 

[BoldRestless]

 

Thanks. I remember those clips but thought I'd missed something.

[lucaslesann23]

When did YR start getting bad for you guys?

[YRBB]

 

After 2003.

[lucaslesann23]

That soon? Interesting what happened in 2004?

[Broderick]

 

Maybe it was included in the "edit tapes".   I just remember being surprised by the scene between Snapper and Vanessa at the lakehouse after the shooting, because I'd completely forgotten that Snapper and Vanessa ever crossed paths. 

 

The show definitely took a turn for the worse when Jack Smith was added as headwriter about 2002.    Just got worse and worse from there on, specifically with that whole stupid business of Kay and Jill being "mother and daughter".   Then of course Latham came along about 2005, and the show was even more unrecognizable.  (I'm one of the five peope in the United States who liked Sally Sussman's writing a couple of years ago.)   

[lucaslesann23]

I like sally. I like JG too since they are basically the same writer lol

[Broderick]

 

Josh is OK, I guess.  We've certainly had far worse writers than Josh Griffith in the past sixteen years.   Josh seems to catch most of the "beats", makes some smart decisions (bringing back the Adam character), but he also makes some strange decisions (his 2013 "reboot").   What I liked most about Sally Sussman is that she took the debris left by Chuck Pratt and moved forward with it rather carefully, without really compromising any history, no matter how absurd Pratt's history actually was.    Josh seems determined to move backwards towards his last stint, even if it's kinda jarring at times.  But like I said, we've certainly had worse than him.   I'll take his character-based writing over "plot" writing any day of the week. 

[lucaslesann23]

My thoughts exactly.

But i get it. Atleast people in this board respect others opinions