Y&R: Old Articles

[Broderick]

 

The fundamental problem that I detected between February 1980 and the summer of 1982 was the lack of cohesion.  There was just absolutely NO cohesion to be seen.   The show had its good points of course, but by and large, it was just a big, sprawling mess of disjointed, unrelated storylines that didn't seem to share any common threads or purposes.   Sure, it was still populated by pretty people, in pretty sets, in various stages of undress, with suggestive Hollywood lighting, but there seemed to be no underlying theme or reason for Y&R to exist.

 

With the casting of Jerry Douglas, Eileen Davidson, and Beth Maitland, and the positioning of Terry Lester in a very prominent role, everything started to click almost immediately.  Gone were the messy, disjointed storylines that just started, then faltered, then stopped for no apparent reason.   The show was now built about three major "camps" of activity:  (1)  the interworkings of Jabot Cosmetics, driven by the personal lives of John, Jill, Jack, Patty, Ashley, and Traci; (2) the Victor/Nikki/Kevin saga concerning the paternity of Baby Victoria; and (3) the adventures of the "young detectives" -- Paul and Andy -- and their fight against organized crime.   Each of these "camps" moved in their own separate orbits, just like in the 1973-1979 version of Y&R, but they also interlocked daily, with Kay Chancellor acting as the "mother figure" to Nikki Bancroft in the Tier 2 story and also as the arch-nemesis to Jill Foster Abbott in the Tier I story.  Victor Newman, who was one of the centerpieces of the Tier II story, regularly utilitized Paul, Andy, or Carl from the Tier III storyline to help with Tony DiSalvo or Rick Daros or whoever.   Amy Lewis, who began working with Paul and Andy in the Tier III storyline was best friends with Traci Abbott in the Tier I story.    Patty Williams, who was the beautiful, naive, little stay-at-home wife in the Tier I story was the baby sister of Paul Williams in the Tier III story.

 

Everything just suddenly made SENSE again, and the identity of the show seemed to be restored.  No, it didn't have the comraderie of "small-town community", like the P&G soaps or "All My Children", but it was back to being Classic Y&R --- a series of cleverly interlocking stories that existed in the same basic "universe" but in separate, distinct daily "orbits".   Also, it made sense from a socio-economic standpoint, just as it had in its early years --- there was the noeveau riche zillionaire (Victor Newman), the jaded old-money millionaire (Kay Chancellor), the comfortably upper-class country club family (the Abbotts), and the working-class group who had to think twice before making a large purchase (Paul, Andy, Mary and Carl, Jazz).   For the first time ever, there were Black people on contract.  A variety of different unique characters bounced across the screen --- prostitutes who inhabited Sleazy's Bar, preppy boys and girls who dropped by the Abbott house to pick-up Ashley for a tennis match, drug dealers who offered to sell Traci Abbott some diet pills.   It became visually APPEALING again, and was infused with more feeling and warmth.   It seemed to be the ABBOTTS who became the designated center of the show, completing the vision and made everything "work" again from a cohesion standpoint.  It was now like the old thirty-minute Y&R --  but much bigger, much broader, much brighter, much more humorous, and with a far more "epic" scope.  In 1982, everything really began to *click* again, and by June of 1983, Y&R was picking up a well-deserved Emmy award for best daytime serial again, against some VERY stiff competition.       

[SoapDope]

Melody Thomas Scott talked about how the show was filmed when it was 30 minutes. She said they filmed it like a stage play in acts and it was live to tape with no retakes. They would do a countdown as the commercial break would be ending (they would leave a blank space on the tape for ads to be inserted when it aired) and then back into the scene. 

 

The live to tape practice must have ended with the hour expansion in 1980, since Eric Braeden was fascinated by her story and said something like " Really ?"

[will81]

Yes, even just reading synopsis from that period, it is so confusing. I have had to re read synopsis from that period so many times just to get a handle on any of it, haha. I think it is partly why I am slightly obssessed with the 80 - 82 period. It is just so difficult to get a handle on. Thanks again for your insights. 

 

That period does seem like a jumbled mess and characters are constantly coming and going. I know Nick Benedict was supposed to be this big catch for the show. He was Lorie's editor or something and she had just divorced Lance, but nothing seemed to happen between them, apart from some brief flirtation, and then all of a sudden he is with Julia and then within a year or so he's off the show. I wonder if JLB's pregnancy shifted him away from her. I know Nick had moved from NYC to LA for the role (at least I remember him saying that in an interview) and he seemed to act as if he was going to be a main player and with the show for some time. 

 

I assume (but don't know for sure) that Nick fell on the sword to save Eric's Victor. As I speculated before, much easier to redeem a character like Victor if his victims aren't in town anymore. Though @Broderick it also makes sense that he was a J.R Ewing type and could get away with anything. It never occured to me that Victor was being set up that way. Which is why your memories and insights are so good to have.

[Broderick]

 

Yes sir, I think Meg Bennett (Julia) and Nick Benedict (Michael) had to be "sacrificed" -- in her case, temporarily; in his case, permanently -- in order to make Victor more palatable.  Victor didn't turn "good" by any means; he was still a sinister and formidable character, but he was a WHOLE lot easier to swallow without the Cellar Boy and the Victimized Wife hanging around to remind us of the dungeon. 

 

But that was the way things went during that period --- a storyline would wrap-up (sometimes logically and strategically, and other times very haphazardly and abruptly), and all of the characters who'd populated that orbit would be swept off the canvas with scarcely a good-bye.   The most glaring and humorous example were those Stevens people (April Stevens, Barbara Ann Harting, Wayne Stevens and Dorothy Stevens.)  April Stevens spent I-don't-know-how-many- MONTHS searching for her long-lost twin sister, Barbara, in one of the dullest storylines in Y&R's history.   Of course Barbara was right in front of our eyes, and Paul was frantically trying to bang her.  It just dragged on & on.  Then suddenly one day out of the clear blue sky Barbara said, "Oh, by the way, I just discovered that I'm a zillionaire, and I've decided to move to New York City tonight.  Plane leaves in an hour!  Who'd like to move there with me?"  Wayne and Dorothy immediately popped-up their hands for a free ticket, and April squealed, "Let me run and get little Heather, and I'll go too.  How exciting!!"  And the next day, every single one of those dull people were gone for good.   If you missed that episode, you probably wondered what the hell had happened to the Stevens family, because the next day it was as though they'd never even existed. 

 

One day, Robert Laurence, his wife Claire, and their daughter Angela were all central characters.  Then suddenly --- POOF!! --- they all just moved away and were never heard from again.   Mr. & Mrs. Bancroft (Kevin's parents) --- POOF! --- gone.  Leslie Brooks:  "Maestro has arranged a worldwide concert tour for me!  My plane leaves in an hour!  Good-bye, Dad!"  POOF!  gone.  Sally McGuire, Chuckie, and Stan:  "We're leaving for Michigan in 4 and 1/2 minutes!  Good-bye, Snapper!  Bless the beasts and the children!  Sniffle-sniffle, bye!"   Chris Brooks:  "I've just signed an exclusive contract with Jabot.  How exciting!  What's that?  Oh, my plane for London leaves in fifteen minutes.  Looks like I'm leaving forever!  Please tear-up my contract, Mr. Abbott!  Bye!"  Suzanne Lynch announced that she was taking a job in the Chancellor Industries employee cafeteria.  Guess she fell in the deep fat fryer, because we never heard from her again. 

 

Sometimes things seemed to limp to a logical conclusion, and other times it seemed that Bill Bell just woke-up and told Lee Philip, "Geez, I'm bored with this gaggle of fools.   I'll see if Kay Alden can either kill all of them off today, or else just send them all out of town so that I won't ever have to look at 'em again!"   That just wasn't the Y&R we'd known before February of 1980, and it wasn't the Y&R that we came to know again after the summer of 1982. 

[SoapDope]

LOL......Thanks for the recap. Another character that popped up in 1982 was Brian Forbes as Ashley's love interest. They worked in the lab together and were being built up as a super couple. They were even on the cover of SOD. Then by early 1983 he vanished. Jay Kerr who played the part said in an interview I found online (about a series he did for Disney in the 80's), that his Y&R character Brian went to make a phone call and never came back. He said he hated doing Y&R (and trashed soaps in general as bottom of the barrel) and thought he was totally miscast. He said to this day people will always ask about Y&R and he is shocked they even remember him. He sounds like he wants it dead and buried that he even did daytime.

[will81]

Lol, I was just reading the synopsis for 1982 and even reading it you can tell Bell was rushing to get rid of them. 

 

Dorothy basically says to Wayne "Hey Barbara is April's twin" Wayne is like "How do you know" Dorothy "She told me" Wayne "oh okay"

 

Barbara wants really nothing to do with them, then Wayne is like can I have a loan, she accuses him of just wanting her for her money and tells him she doesn't need parents. Next minute she is buying them expensive clothes and deciding she needs to give them the world because they are her natural parents, lol and then they all head off to NYC. Haha

 

Lol and Chris, so true. John tells her she is in an exclusive and binding contract which she then easily gets out of a couple months later.

 

Then Lance is like "Leslie I love you, let's be a family with Brooks" Brooks "I don't want you to be my father" Lance "Damn, well I guess that's it, bye Leslie, bye Brooks" Haha. Then Brooks just vanishes even though Leslie sticks around for seven more months. So funny that seemingly Lorie and Leslie spent years fighting over Brooks and it seems they both left town without him. Presumably Brooks is still wandering around GC somewhere. @Broderick Do you actually remember Brooks fate? Did he go with Leslie or Lorie or was he just never mentioned again.

[Broderick]

Those Stevens people --- they literally made the decision to leave town, bought the plane tickets, packed, and left for good in ONE episode, lol. 

 

About Brooks Prentiss --- gosh, good question.   I always assumed that he left with Leslie.  But he must've been packed in the suitcase with her sheet music.   Lorie Brooks got a big, grandiose, tear-jerking good-bye scene, complete with "Nadia's Theme" swelling to a climax as the Elevator Doors of Death (her penthouse doors) closed behind her at the conclusion of an episode.  But the other three --- Lance, Lucas, and Leslie --- all had to shout "BYE!" two seconds before the next Tide or Bounty-the-Quicker-Picker-Upper commercial came on.   There just wasn't much discussion about Brooks during the Leslie and Robert Laurence storyline, as the emphasis was always on Robert's daughter Angela, who had perky breasts and could jiggle them in her Giorgio's of Beverly Hills tee-shirt as she fled from lecherous creeps who were trying to pop her cherry.   Some old fat man would try to molest Angela, and she'd cry, "Help! Help!" (jiggle-jiggle), and Paul or Andy or someone would come along in a TransAm and save her.   But that's hilarious that Leslie and Lorie spent their whole adult lives fighting over Brooks, and both of them forgot his ass when they left town lol.   (I'm almost sure he went with Leslie.)  

[will81]

Haha, that's awesome. 

 

I can just imagine Lorie "I guess Brooks will be staying with Leslie" Leslie "I guess Brooks left with Lorie" Brooks "Hello, anyone?"

 

He probably did go with Leslie, though I have seen a scene with Leslie saying goodbye to Stuart and while it doesn't show the whole thing, there is no mention of the boy, just Stuart telling Leslie how proud he is of her and how he will miss her and wants the best for her. She literally says "I hope you can see I'm doing the right thing for me" not me and Brooks, haha.

[will81]

Well Brooks didn't go with Lorie, seems he just evaporated, haha. 

 

This article from Aug 28, 1982 makes mention of him. Also gives a rough idea of when Tom Ligon last aired, either August or possibly early September. Last mention of Lucas I have found was when he said goodbye to Lorie

 

 

 

 

Please register in order to view this content

[Broderick]

Well, the one constant "parent" in Brooks Lucas Prentiss's life was Lucas.  The little boy had an endless parade of "mothers".   First his mother was Leslie, but then Leslie turned into Pris and ran away, and Lorie snatched him up.  But then "Aunt Leslie" came back and played the piano for him and usurped Lorie again.  lol. 

 

And there at the end of Lance's run, as you pointed out, everyone just kinda said, "Surprise, kid, LANCE is your father!"  To which Brooks responded, "Go jump in the lake!" (literally, lol) 

 

My recollection is that Lorie's final tear-jerking good-bye occurred in her penthouse, with Lucas and Stuart as the witnesses to her celebrated departure.  Pretty sure that she didn't have the kid with her, because a child actor would've put a damper on her emoting, and she went ALL OUT with the "smiling through my tears" routine.  "I'll be back one day, as God is my witness, with Lance at my side!" 

 

Lance had a weird good-bye.   Lorie threw herself at him (as usual), and he said, "I have to lay something heavy on you, Lorie.  We can never be together again, now that you've given Victor Newman your proxies.  It's over between us, Lorie."  Then he went running and proposed to Leslie, and she would've accepted but about that time Brooks fell in the lake.  I seriously think Lance's final good-bye was with Robert Laurence of all people (lol), who was renting the lakehouse from Lance.  The scene was basically just, "Here are the keys to the Lake Geneva house.  Tell everyone I left!" 

 

Lucas didn't get much of a good-bye.  I think he just told Lorie and Leslie (separately) that he might be leaving town soon.  (It's possible that he took Brooks with him.  But you'd think Leslie would've been heavily impacted by Lucas leaving town with her son, but she just kinda said, "It's time for a commercial break!  See ya!")

 

And you've seen part of Leslie's good-bye, which was all about Maestro and Stuart and the concert tour.  Not much concern about Brooks, which makes me think he could've gone with Lucas, but if he did, Leslie clearly didn't give two figs.  That's why I think he went with Leslie.   

Edited September 23, 2019 by Broderick
Ha! You posted at the same time I did. Brooks "evaporated" somewhere between Luke's exit and Leslie's exit!

[will81]

Lol, I guess that's why he never returned, there wasn't enough of him left. Either that or when he capsized in the canoe he never came back until a bunch of teens went to Camp Crystal Lake one summer. I guess anything is possible

[Broderick]

Ha!  I'm just glad you brought it up, because I've never even wondered about it before.

 

I guess they left in this order:  (1)  Lance, whose exit then inspired Lorie to write the expose' about Victor Newman and reject Victor's marriage proposal; (2) Lorie, amid a bunch of overdramatized tears with Lucas and Stuart waving good-bye; (3) Lucas, very quietly; and finally (4) Leslie, telling her dad that she was catching a plane for a never-ending concert tour that starts three minutes from now.   

 

The kid for sure didn't go ANYWHERE with Lance, because he'd have rather drowned himself.   He didn't go with Lorie because she needed a solo good-bye to maximize her emoting.   And then he "evaporated", which means he either (a) went with Lucas, and Leslie simply didn't give a damn or (b) he turned into a deaf/mute and never said another solitary word after Lucas left. 

 

From a real-life standpoint, it would've made sense for him to go with Lucas, because the main attraction that both Leslie & Lorie HAD for Brooks was that he was Lance's son, and Brooks made it clear that he didn't plan to associate himself with Lance period.  I guess after the kid put the kabosh on building a relationship with Lance, the two women washed their hands of him.  lol. 

[will81]

It actually does seem that way, both women seemed to forget about him once he rejected Lance. Kinda dark, but I sorta like it. Lol

 

I am also surprised that Lorie almost changed her mind about marrying Victor, I always assumed she had stuck it to him royally, but I just read she left him a heartfelt goodbye letter, saying she loved him and blah blah blah. I thought not Lorie too, haha. I guess nobody's perfect.

[Broderick]

 

Yeah, it seemed that Lorie was REALLY shafting Goat Daddy, and I thought that was wonderful, but then Victor kept laying it on so thick and throwing jewelry at her and so forth that you could tell she was melting for his Goat Charms.   And then that stomach-turning letter:  "we've loved, we've fought -- the circle is complete."  I about vomited. 

 

That whole harangue about the Four L's seemed to be Bill Bell's attempt to rewrite "King Arthur".  Sir Lancelot was played by Lance Prentiss.  King Arthur was played by Lucas Prentiss.  Lady Elaine was played by Leslie Brooks.  Guinevere was portrayed by Lorie Brooks.   (I was reading "King Arthur" while that storyline was going on, and you couldn't help noticing the similarities.)   The dialogue even referenced it.   There was a tearful scene about 1980 when Lorie passionately cried out to Lance, shortly before John McCook left the show, "My God, Lance!  We've had our Camelot!  Let it be over!"   I remember telling my sister that I was about ready to pull out my Excalibur and chop-off Lorie's head. 

 

Right before Lady Elaine dyed her hair blonde and started calling herself "Pris", I'd about reached the point where LUCAS was the only one of them I could tolerate.  All Leslie did was sit around making goo-goo eyes at Lance.   And all Lorie did was pout because she noticed Leslie was making goo-goo eyes at Lance.  And both of the girls were dying to be the official guardian of Little Brooks, because he'd sprung from the loins of the wonderful Sir Lancelot.  Leslie went around crying all the time, and Lorie went around making her cry.  "You're in love with Lance, aren't you, Leslie?  You're in love with MY husband!  Admit it, Leslie.  You WANT Lance for yourself.  Well, you can't have him.  I'll make sure of that."   They were all just so OVERWROUGHT and SELF-ABSORBED that when Lucas came ignorantly breezing through, he was a breath of fresh air.   But then when Vanessa took her swan dive off the balcony, he got just as annoying and self-centered as the other three of them were. 

 

When that kid nearly drowned, I was watching in horror thinking that Brooks was about to bond with Lance, because all we'd heard since 1978 was that Lance was the Real Father of Brooks.  And both of those dingbat girls seemed to think that if they could just get custody of Brooks and then spring the news on him ("Surprise!  Uncle Lance is your Real Father!  Now, let's be a Real Family!"), then life would be complete.  I was plumb terrified that was actually gonna happen.  But no, the little kid rose to the occasion and said, "Get away from me, Uncle Lance.  I want my daddy.  I want Lucas.  He's my daddy!  NOT you!"  That was the proudest I'd ever been of Bill Bell in my whole life.   That whole entire saga seemed to have been geared from 1978 to 1982 toward the moment when Brooks would realize Uncle Lance was his daddy, and then he would melt into Uncle Lance's arms, and either Lady Elaine or Guinevere would come gliding in and form a "real family".  But when the moment of truth finally came, that little kid practically knocked Lance down getting away from him and running back to Lucas.  I loved it. 

 

[SoapDope]

What was so great about Lance ? Those ladies fought over that man for years. Heck, even their own mother Vanessa preferred Lance over Lucas. I read a lot viewers thought Lucas was the most interesting and attractive of the two. They toyed with a Lucas/Casey pairing, but he was thrust back into that boring Leslie/Lorie/Lance/Lucas quad. 

 

I recently was watching an episode of Hart to Hart from 1983 where Jennifer wins a walk on role on a daytime soap. She is then asked to write for the show after she impresses the writers with her storyline ideas. John McCook (Lance) &  Peter Brown (Robert Lawrence) starred in the episode. Leann Hunley & Lanna Saunders also appeared.  Of course the episode plot is people on the set are getting murdered and Jennifer becomes the killers next target.