Y&R: Old Articles

[yrfan1983]

He gets one more synopsis mention around April, advising Chris on her Jabot contract... that seems to be it for him.

[FrenchFan]

Oh yes ! I forgot about that one. So weird original characters just disappeared...

[Soaplovers]

I did like the July 1982 blurb with Leslie asking Lori to keep away from Robert lol  

 

Bell seemed to just end stories quickly that werent working.  I have a feeling the Lori/victor story was meant to go longer but JLB made the story end quickly.

 

I'm wondering if Chris was kept due to hercontract..and once her contract was up..she was written out.  

 

Lucas was dropped..but who could he have been paired with? Casey was promising but she left so who knows who else he could have been paired with.  Perhaps Claire, the crazy wife of Robert..given his past ties to Leslie maybe?

 

I do get Leslie didn't fit into the landscape anymore...but curious why the family couldn't have stayed on?  Although, if Angela had stayed..we wouldn't have had Lauren most likely.

 

Also, seeing Traci in 1982 shows the strength of soap operas..character evolution and rooting for the under dog.

[Broderick]

 

That's always been my feeling about Chris --- that she would have left with Snapper, except Lynn Topping Richter was probably on a different contract cycle from David Hasselhoff.  If Chris had suddenly said, "I'm leaving with Snapper!  Bye!", the show would've had to continue paying Lynn Topping's salary until her next 13-week contract cycle ended, even though she would've no longer been a cast member.   So they just kept her around for another cycle or two, then let her go.  

[Chris B]

I just watched the first two episodes or hour long clips in the vault from 1982. I always zero in on the Brooks family since they’re a mystery to me. Watching I find the Lucas actor to be so captivating when we see them and he is so handsome. It seems like trying to keep him was never in the cards, but I wish they did.
 

With the Brooks sisters I do get it. It seems Jaime Lyn Bauer truly was their biggest female star, so I can understand not wanting her memory lingering over had her sisters stayed. I like the one episode of the recast Chris that I saw (Although she seemed very different), but I feel her being a recast is what ended that. What ever happened with the red head sister? She never was recast, but it never seems like they tried to develop her. She could’ve been the perfect sister to redevelop the family around since she hadn’t been featured as much as the others. 
 

 

[Broderick]

 

Naw, if you mean PEGGY, she wasn't anything to redevelop the family around.   Pamela Peters was a capable actress, but she didn't have any big charisma factor going on.  Plus, she actually HAD been recast in the late 1970s, although the original actress was brought back in 1980.   She had one big story circa 1975, and another circa 1980, but there always seemed to be some kind of "issue" with the actress that kept her from really committing to the show, and even if she had committed, she just wasn't a big draw.  

Edited July 30, 2020 by Broderick

[SoapDope]

One funny thing about those 1982 clips is, who ever taped them edited out certain character/scenes. I noticed when we got a scene with Ashley, Jack, Patty etc... it would jump cut and on to the next scene. 

 

I'm a bit curious as to why Angela insisted on getting close to Traci. Was she going to be "Lauren" before she was let go and set her sights on Danny ? I saw the scene where she noticed Traci eating brownies and Tracy ran into the bathroom. In the synopsis is said " Angela shows Traci a" new way of dieting". Did Angela show her how to binge and purge ? 

 

 

[Legacy]

The skipping of the scenes was irritating me soo bad, You can also tell those skipped scenes were probably just as juicy as the ones they only focused on.

 

I love the victor/Lorie/nikki/Lucas stuff i just think those other scenes with other characters were just as interesting in it's own way.

[BoldRestless]

It was funny how we skipped from Patty whining that Jack wouldn't marry her to Mary planning the wedding in the church. And we missed Traci and Ashley's very first appearances. Still, these are such a treasure. I'm glad this person taped pretty much all of Nikki/Victor and Katherine's storylines. That's what I most wanted to see.

 

As much as I'd want to see even earlier than this, I feel like this is the seminal version of Y&R... this is really where it becomes the show that we still watch today. It's really exciting to finally see good solid chunks from this era. It's so artfully done.

Edited July 31, 2020 by BoldRestless

[Chris B]

That’s a shame! It’s crazy she lasted so long if they could never find use for her. It seems like she’d be ripe to really invest in a recast and transform the role. Another question for people who watched at the time, I know when the Brooks sisters returned in 1984, the actress who played Chris had aged a lot and also gained a lot of weight. I know her recast was a slim brunette (which threw me off).  Did she gain that weight while in the role? Did that have anything to do with her leaving the show or did she leave on her own accord? I only ask because I know soaps have a history of being difficult if women gain weight. Especially with Snapper being such a valuable character to them I could see that being an issue. 

[ltm1997]

 

 

I gotta tell ya, this is a dream come TRUE seeing all these goodies from 1982!!! I have sooo enjoyed watching these episodes/scenes! I never imagined I’d be able to!! I don’t know if it’s just me, but the way Victor treated everyone back then like he was some God or something and they must follow his instructions literally made me want to go through the screen and punch him. I LOVED when Nikki told him to shut up! I never thought she’d do that! I am also loving the Kay/Alison feud. Those two had SUCH great chemistry together. It felt so real. Lorie just gets on my nerves lol...nuff said. I also very much enjoy Lynne Topping’s portrayal of Chris. She played her so soft and gentle, and she is very beautiful in my opinion. 

 

Let me just say this...I’m only saying this because I’ve felt this way for years and I need to get it off my chest and I want to know if anyone agrees with me...Doesn’t Kevin (and Christopher Holder) give off a gay vibe to you or is it just me? I could honestly see him being a gay porn actor from the 80’s because he looked and acted the part in my opinion. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. He’s a little too light in his loafers lol.

[trainman]

 

 

They were clearly a Victor & Nikki & Lorie fan.  Probably didn't care much for certain other story elements, which eats up a lot of tape.  Much as I'd like to see Jack & Patti's wedding among other things now, I'll take what I can get.  Lol ...oh, and I love hearing all of the old background music cues again.  That really takes me back!

[SoapDope]

 

 I love all the old music cues too. It was what made Y&R . I remember a few years ago someone posted some Lorie edits, so the 1982 edits may come from that collection. Also we have to remember tapes were expensive in the early days like $ 15- 20.

 

I wish someone had that 1981 scene I read in synopsis of Victor sniffing around Peggy Brooks. That sounded so freaking random. 

[Legacy]

Yes there is also some that i just discovered as im seeing these 82 episodes for the first time, I'm with you on that I'll take what i can get at this point cause i never thought i would ever see even this.

 

Also I loved the scenes where Lorie came to nikki and Kevin's engagement party, and to finally see Katherine and Lorie in the same room was

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pure gold, and Lorie certainly never backed down to any of them which made it awesome.

 

I know we always Katherine and jill going back and forth but i would love to see Katherine and Lorie face off!!

 

Also i was very shocked to even hear Katherine bring up Vanessa prentiss, so clearly katherine and Vanessa must have shared a scene one time cause why did Katherine make it seem like she only knows Lorie because of vanessa, she could have added she knew her from long when she use to flirt with her husband.

I would love to see that scene and because it's soo random im sure the chemistry was there but they scrapped that.

 

I still wanna see that scene i heard of i think it's 1980 when Peggy was held captive and when Paul or carl or Steve came in to save her and she was covered in rats... That's a scene i would love to see basically the whole cult storyline.

[will81]

The bigger issues was 1980.

 

We start with a really silly story. Lance has become a compulsive gambler after being kicked out of Prentiss. Lorie is so concerned for him that she agrees to Vanessa's demands to divorce him, and Vanessa will give him back his position at Prentiss back. Lucas has decided he no longer wants to be with Prentiss and hands it over to Lance, but Vanessa tells Lorie it was her doing and convinces her (somehow) to go through with the divorce. Lance is stunned by the divorce and plans to fight, but instead decides Lorie is better off without him and leaves. This takes place over a month and a half. Lorie gave up everything she had been fighting for so easily. They brought in Michael Scott, but it went nowhere and he was shifted to Julia and Victor. Lorie and Victor become friends, but by this point JLB's pregnancy was showing and the show could do little with her.

 

I said it before, but I really think John McCook may have left suddenly. Maybe he agreed to stay then changed his mind. Apparently they left the door open until the last minute when they were planning to bring Lance back the next year, but McCook had well and truly moved on and Dennis Cole was hired. I believe Troy Donohue may have been in contention too, or maybe it was someone else.

 

When the show went to an hour, All My Children pulled out all the stops to challenge Y&R and won, Y&R dipped to 5th place that month.

 

Leslie's amnesia story also seems like it fell flat, especially with how Lucas finds her and the whole Santa Leandro stuff. There seems to be no tension or build up. Lucas comes back to GC tells Lorie, she visits her sister, realises she has no memory of her past life and that's it until Leslie comes back to GC. Lance returns briefly, dates Lorie and then leaves again. No mention if he and Leslie even saw each other.

 

I know Jon-Michael Reed didn't like the cult story. It does seem a bit weak, by August 1980 the show had dropped to about 12th overall in daytime and around 7th in soaps. This was as the cult story was rolling ahead and abouto climax in early september, August was also when JLB was already on maternity leave. 

 

Brenda Dickson was gone, Bond, even though she was good and Conboy and Bell liked her and Jon-Michael Reed liked her too didn't last long. Audiences didn't seem to warm to her. But as I stated before Bond said her agent was to blame, I am guessing Conboy had no time for any of it and was just being ruthless, since they had a show bleeding ratings. Bell barely got Jill up and running again before Bond was let go for Deborah and whatever happened with Brett Halsey, pushing back the John/Jill/Jack story to Fall. Then Halsey was apparently a dud in the role and was let go six months later, before the story had even gotten off the ground

 

Lyn Topping was pregnant with twins and is MIA from about mid Feb to late April on maternity leave, then appears a handful of times through to Aug and then is gone until Mar 81. The Hoff is around every two months for a brief appearance only.

 

Jaime Lyn Bauer was also pregnant and it was her second pregnancy and just as difficult on her as the first. Again she had to be wheeled to set each day and she left the show early as a result. Wesley Ann Pfenning stepped in for two weeks then Lorie was gone for a month and didn't really come back full time until Nov 80. Basically JLB was sidelined for in total half the year. 

 

Kay/Derek seems to have been pretty boring. After Brenda left the story morphed into Derek trying to take over Chancellor. Jeanne was out with an injury for several weeks, the story picked up more in the summer and got a bit stronger once Kay jumped overboard and was rescued by Felipe

 

All this plus Bell was trying to adapt to a format (1hr) that he didn't like. Characters were coming and going and he didn't have the established cast to fall back on so much. I guess Bell really needed to recover from 1980 and I feel he did start to get back to things in 1981, but it just took another year or so to get really back on track.

Edited July 31, 2020 by will81