Y&R: Old Articles

[FrenchFan]

I am surprised how cheesy is the Tony DiSalvo thing. The room where he monitored Paul and Andy’s office looked like something from General Hospital. Didn’t think Bill Bell would do something so ridiculous.

[trainman]

 

Yeah, that was painfully bad writing with the booby-trapped office.  Glad they wrapped that story up in short order.

[Soaplovers]

It.seemed like Kevin's mom was a poor attempt at recreating Vanessa Prientess... with the possessiveness over her son, strong dislike of Nikki, and moving heaven & earth to get rid of her daughter in law.

 

I also liked the Jack and Patty good bye scenes that occur in 1984...under stated and full of regret. 

[kalbir]

We hold Y&R to a higher standard than other daytime dramas, but even Bill Bell was not immune to jumping on the action/adventure bandwagon. I wonder how much of that was Bill Bell's own choice or was it CBS attempting to cash in on General Hospital's popularity.

 

Allison was the poor man's Vanessa. Bill Bell's best Vanessa re-creation was Stephanie.

[BoldRestless]

 

I like her too, even better than Stern, and I wasn't a fan of AE as Tawny and never watched her on OLTL.

 

I don't think Allison is a Vanessa replacement. The overbearing mother-in-law is a pretty standard character and Allison is more comic relief. Vanessa's hate was irrational and dark; I can't see her doing something like putting up a life-sized cardboard cutout of Lorie. She'd just silently plot and then get real revenge. Vanessa reminds me more of Kay in her darker hours.

 

I found the climax to the Max/Eve storyline a little cheesy and not at all what I expected. It was OK, but another reminder that even under Bill Bell Y&R did some weird plot-driven stuff sometimes. It's something to see that Patty shot Jack at the same time all that was going on (and from the recaps, the charges against Tony were also dropped in court at this time in dramatic fashion)... a far cry from the idea that Y&R was slow moving and boring.

Edited August 12, 2020 by BoldRestless

[OzFrog]

 

If/when you ever get a chance, look at some of AE’s post-1985 OLTL stuff on Youtube. There is a reason why she is considered by most to be the one and only Tina Clayton Lord despite the various 90s recasts of the role. And a far cry from how she played Patty on Y&R as well.

[Legacy]

I think even though alot the material was cheesy it kept me wanting to see what has gonna happen next, the y&r of today is in better quality condition and bores the [!@#$%^&*] out of me so some of us should be lucky the cheesy version was soo well reviewed.

[Vee]

I like Andrea in these episodes, but I've only seen a little bit of Stern. It does make you wonder if they could ever rehabilitate Haiduk's character today, if only as mostly a talk-to personality for people. I also wonder if OLTL's choice to bring back Tina (a hapless teen player in the 70s and early 80s) had to do with this Y&R stint. I know they used two other Tinas in '84 to set up the Tina Lord story before getting Andrea back early in '85, but I also don't know if Andrea was super popular in her first OLTL run - you never hear much about that.

 

I feel incredibly blessed to see this 70s stuff. An entirely different world. That Jill/beauty shop episode with the wall to wall character voiceovers is textbook classic soap.

 

The stuff with Lester's Jack casually saying Patty is so naive and it's his main reason for marrying her, that he's going to sleep around anyway because that's who he is - you would never see a male lead talk like this on a soap today. He'd be killed in 13 weeks. Any man on soaps now who sleeps around is drugged or tricked into doing it in some way, or absolved in some weak fashion. Twice so for the women. People aren't really allowed to be conventionally human.

Edited August 12, 2020 by Vee

[BoldRestless]

 

Agreed, it was cheesy but I was completely engrossed by it. Stayed up way too late watching. Especially with these videos being cut in a way that's not full episodes, it's like a neverending story and really hard to know when to stop.

 

 

I was thinking the same. Reading recaps too and he's just disgusting lol. He sleeps with Diane the morning of his wedding, carries on with both Diane and Gina while married (and gets really rapey with Jill, creeping on her in the shower once, and taking her upstairs for sex at Gina's when she's drunk), then Patty has a miscarriage after she walks in on him and Diane. In the hospital, he blows up at Patty for not telling him she was pregnant, knowing he was just banging Diane, and then later bothers Patty for sex while she's still cramping. Then promises Patty they'll try for another baby and makes an appointment for a vasectomy the same day. Not to mention trying to sell the company out from under his father, continuing to do so after John has a heart attack. He's a complete sleaze and it's so entertaining. It's like today characters either have to be paragons on virtue with weird justifications made up for everything or they need to be cartoon villains. 

[Soaplovers]

Watching the 1983 Patty shooting Jack episode, AE did well with the material and I think it was the timing of her taking over the part vs her acting ability.

 

Lilibet played the build up for well over a year so not seeing her play it out was kid of a letdown.

 

I loved seeing Diane/Andy together.. and when the show revisited them in the 2000s..it wasn't the same because Donnelly wasn't playing Diane.

 

And Eve was an interesting villainess because she played it as if she really believed what she was doing.  Seeing julia and victor teaming up was inspired.

 

The episode had a mix of camp and drama..plus some smaller character moments (paul/cindy..diane/andy). 

[Legacy]

Im still amazed to have seen the 82 material and almost everyone of that years exits, I love Allison/Katherine beef and by the way does know how the Bancroft family left and what year it was? I assume before Victor/nikki wedding

 

Eve was the best hands down lol too bad she was to crazy to have still stayed apart of the show's coming up phase.

 

 

[will81]

Alison and Kevin left around Mar 84. Earl left a bit earlier

[DRW50]

Lee Phillip (Bell) interview from 1982. She starts talking about Y&R at 11-12 minutes in.

 

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by DRW50

[Broderick]

At the time, I absolutely hated Andrea Evans as Patty, but now,  in retrospect, I think she does a FINE job with the material.   As someone said above, it was an unfortunate time for a recast to stray into the storyline, and that probably colored our (lack of) tolerance of Andrea Evans in 1983.   But watching the clips now, and knowing that the "new Patty" will be playing the shooting scenes, there's no letdown at all.  I can completely appreciate the qualities Andrea Evans brought to the role.

 

Another character that I really appreciate in the clips is the "liberated Julia Newman" of 1983.   In her first incarnation of 1980-1981, she was a rather dull, drippy, insecure character that didn't generate much interest.  But once she returns from Europe more sophisticated and worldly, I find her hilarious, especially when she's brushing Nikki aside and rolling her eyes at Douglas Austin and Victor.  Her character growth while she was out of town completely changed her dynamic with Victor. 

 

I'd forgotten how much storyline Nikki was working all at once --- divorcing Kevin, being courted by Rick, marrying Tony DiSalvo to get the master copy of "Hot Hips", being in love with Victor.   It's funny when the characters in Nikki's orbit are bewildered by Rick Daros, and just as soon as they get accustomed to him, they're suddenly confronted with "now who the hell is this Tony DiSalvo?"   

 

Enjoyed the awkward and tentative steps that Stuart Brooks and Liz Foster took towards a reconciliation in the spring of 1983.  I'd honestly forgotten those scenes entirely; I was thinking that their separation (and interaction) had fizzled-out long before then.   Bill Bell was clearly still interested in writing for the two characters (and exploring their relationship fully) as a B-storyline, until Robert Colbert bolted.   

 

The Golden Touch/Sleazy's Bar/Tony DiSalvo storyline is utterly DREADFUL, but it's fun to watch Paul and Andy mature into likable heroic characters, outside of the stupidity of the situation.  Also fun to watch Jazz Jackson evolve, despite his ridiculously bad dialogue (combined with other characters referring to him as a "gorilla" and an "ape".  Yikes.)    

 

Chris Holder does such a good job of making his dimwitted yuppie Kevin Bancroft character sympathetic and endearing.  

 

With the reintroduction of Brenda Dickson as Jill --- poof! --- all of Deborah Adair's insecurity and warmth go sailing out the window.  Works out fine though, as I don't believe Brenda Dickson's vampy Jill could've ever snared John Abbott into a marriage, and I don't believe Deborah Adair's earthy Jill would've ever divorced him so easily.  

[YRfan23]

I’m soooooo Behind in all these 1983 clips

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  but it almost sounds like there’s not as much editing out compared to the last several 82 clips.

 

was I imagining this, but I swear someone said Katherine enlisted Jills help in reuniting Stuart and Liz who started to date Gina?? Is any of that in the clips??