Y&R: Old Articles

[Broderick]

"Vernon Nelson", of course, was the real-life name of Kay Alden's husband, who recently passed away.  This was VANITY, I suppose, where Kay Alden (who always seemed to have a big crush on Eric Braeden) got the "privilege" of seeing Eric Braeden being called "Vernon Nelson" by another character on the show. 

(Vernon R. Nelson 74, passed away unexpectedly at his residence on Wednesday, March 25, 2020. Private family visitation was held at the funeral home. Burial will follow in Kansas. Steinke-Lazarczyk Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, is proudly serving the family.)

There was a little period of time in the early 1980s during which Victor Newman and Douglas Austin engaged in "comical antics" that caused Julia Newman to roll her eyes and sneer at their foolishness.  Seems like somewhere along in here, Douglas volunteered his services to father Julia's baby, then brought in his nephew Alan to be interviewed for the position.  It was all just stupidity.    

Edited January 17, 2022 by Broderick

[Paul Raven]

Re Tim Sullivan

Dec 83

Tim is upset when he gets phone call in office, tells the caller never to call again and hangs up.

Was this followed up?

I know at one point Traci found Tim in bed with another student. Then he got married? I recall a character named Andrea. Tim came in and out of Traci's life a few times, right? Did they have a final parting?

Maybe Broderick or someone else can give a Tim Sullivan rundown.

[Broderick]

I'll defer to the Tim Sullivan experts, lol.  I know that "Andrea" was Andrea Wiley.  Miss Wiley was a classmate of Traci & Lauren and was the heiress of Wiley's Department Store.  My understanding was always that Traci's daddy had a higher net worth than Andrea's daddy, so Tim seemed more interested in Traci than in Andrea.  However, in the event Traci happened to see through him, he kept Andrea around as a back-up contingency plan.  Jack Abbott figured most of this out fairly early, just as the audience was figuring it out.  Ashley and John believed Traci should make her own decision about it. 

We had the whole pregnancy thing, and Danny married Traci, but she lost the baby.  Tim hovered around in the background.  I kept thinking we were rid of him, but then he'd reappear later. 

He showed up in 1987 and ushered Traci off to California to finish her degree, which opened the door for Brad to become involved with Lauren.  Then Traci returned, with a big collegiate bow in her hair sometime in the fall of 1987, for a full-fledged triangle with Lauren and Brad.  I think this story was likely re-written when Brenda Dickson left the show, as Bill Bell seemed to be toying with the idea of injecting BOTH Jill and Lauren into Brad's storyline while Beth Maitland was off the show.  Didn't pan out with Jess Walton though, as she wasn't as "obvious" as Miss Dickson.  

[soapfan770]

Re: Wiley’s was also where Victoria worked in 92-93. It also wasn’t considered high brow compared to Fenmore’s as they sold Spectra Fashions lol. 

Traci and Tim had their last go around during Brad in a cage. I’ve remember reading something that Tim Sullivan ultimately died in between Traci’s 1989 exit and her return in 1990 but I am not sure that is 100% correct. 

[Darn]

A couple of questions: when did Douglas last appear? Did he get an exit? Also did he have a function on the show being Victor's talk-to? I mean, did he have a job? Was he Victor's, for lack of a better word, manservant?

When did Lynn last appear on the show? And it looks like in 91 they were hinting at Nina and John becoming a couple, does anyone know if that went anywhere? 

In looking at old episodes I'm starting to realize how strong and necessary Y&R's secondary/recurring characters were. And honestly looking back the show was just full of heavy hitters, watch any episode from the early 90s and all the characters leading story are incredibly important to the fabric of the show as a whole, I can't say the same for old episodes of other soaps I've watched.

[yrfan1983]

These scenes are in the vault under fall ‘83 clips. This “story” feels very random and just something the writers came up with to kill time for Victor before other plots heated up.

How could the head of Newman Enterprises have the time to go work at a diner? So silly.

Marian is definitely not someone Victor has romantic feelings for. Overall it feels like a PSA story about how difficult it can be for people earning minimum wage.

Douglas last appeared Oct ‘95… I think 10/16/95. He never had a job. I think he was implied he came from family money. He would talk about his days during “the war” but people doubted he ever saw combat 

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Lynn disappeared end of ‘04/early ‘05…? Laura Bryan Birn’s departure seemed to coincide with the departure of her dad, YR staffer Jerry Birn.

John S courted Nina and maybe kissed her, but she was always hesitant and intimidated by him, and officially dumped him once Ryan caught her eye.

[Darn]

Thank you! One more lol how about Miguel? When did he last appear? Thinking about it I'm surprised they didn't make Raul related to John or Miguel. I mean, it's nice that they didn't make all the Latin men related but it seems like that would have been a good way to introduce him, it would tie into the class struggles that were part of his character if he were say Miguel's nephew.

[Broderick]

Douglas Austin was a petty thief, who pretended to be a man of elegance.   We first met him in about 1979 when Derek Thurston hired him to break into the Chancellor safe and steal an audio tape of Derek and Jill professing their love for one another, and replace it with a tape of Derek saying, "I'm sorry, Jill, but Kay is the only woman I'll ever really love."  Kay Chancellor invited everyone in her little circle over one evening and played the tape for them, as Brock Reynolds was confident the tape would send Derek out the door.  Derek was sweating bullets hoping Douglas Austin had switched the tapes in time; he had, and Derek was free to continue conning Kay Chancellor. 

A few months later, Derek's ex-wife, Suzanne Lynch, "kidnapped" Derek and held him for ransom.  Kay's instructions were to put $50,000 in a shoebox and drop it in a garbage can in the park, where Suzanne and Derek would retrieve it.  (This was how Suzanne and Derek planned to get some spending money from Kay.)  Douglas Austin had dropped by Kay's house (to see Derek), and he "kindly" volunteered to drop the cash in the park for Kay.  Instead, he cut-up a bunch of newspaper clippings, put them in the box, stole the $50,000, and left Derek and Suzanne with nothing.  Realizing that Douglas had cheated them out of the money, Derek went home and explained that his "terrifying kidnappers" had "freed" him. 

That's how Douglas Austin managed to have some money of his own -- he stole it from Kay Chancellor. 

All the "extras" kind of disappeared in the early 2000s.  Lynn Bassett-Hound announced that she had to take care of a "sick aunt" or something, and disappeared forever in one day.  Miguel had a similar "family emergency".  Nikki snatched up an old clock off the mantle, threw it at him and said, "Thanks for your years of service, Miguel", and that was the end of him.     

[soapfan770]

Lynn was one of the few recurring/secondary characters who actually got an exit in August 2004 when she announced she was leaving to take her care of her mother in Chicago although she mentioned she would hope to return.

Miguel was last seen in 2006 and officially mentioned as having been retired in 2008. 

[Broderick]

Yep, I believe we were supposed to visualize Wiley's Department Store as a low-rent alternative to Fenmore's.  Lauren Fenmore acted superior to Andrea Wiley for that reason, and of course Lauren got her comeuppance when her father realized she was shoplifting her wardrobe from Fenmore's.    

[Soaplovers]

I remember one day Estelle was popped up as an employee at the ranch and my mom was like 'where the hell is Miguel '.  And then a throwaway scene mentioned he was gone and that all he got was a clock.  

When the secondary characters left, it left a void in Y & R

[BoldRestless]

Douglas was a writer. Leanna stole his notes for his biography of Victor which she used as research for Ruthless. There were also other throwaway lines sometimes about "his new book." 

 

I love how Douglas was always trying to get money or free food from Victor. Definitely a mooch without stable income.

This was one of Bill Bell's "the inequity of poverty/the dignity of work" storylines. Marian was a working class character. Victor was mooning over Nikki at the time. I liked this storyline. There is a very funny line when Victor says he wil be Vernon Nelson and Douglas quips "that will explain the monogrammed hankerchief."

We get to see Victor in a variety of new situations. I think at one point he runs into an employee he'd fired at the unemployment office. Even if this storyline was just to bridge the time until Victor and Nikki finally got together, it enriched the character. Victor came from poverty and wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. (Though this may have been before we knew about the orphanage?) We later see that on the farm with Hope in 1993 and even in 2012 when Victor has amnesia and ends up a dock worker and tries to get the workers to unionize. 

 

This must be the beginning of the storyline about Tim sexually harassing an ex-student. In Fenruary 1984, Traci is upset because Jack has Tim investigated (a theme that will return when Jack has Brad investigated). She goes to confront his former student Beverly, who had claimed Tim had sexually propositioned her, but she admits that she made it up. There was a brief scene of the confrontation on the vault. Don't remember if it was in clips or a full episode. I don't remember if Tim had actually slept with the student or not. Of course today this would be seen differently, as any relationship would be considered improper, even if the student hadn't been coerced. The more I learn about and see the old stories the more I'm convinced Bell was right that you could redo them today with light updating.

In my mind, Lynn ran off into the sunet with Michael's secretary Marissa, haha.

Edited January 17, 2022 by BoldRestless

[Broderick]

This little episode probably served four distinct purposes -- (1) Eric Braeden satisfied his guaranteed number of episodes per week while Nikki was tied up with Rick Daros, (2) we learned Victor wasn't afraid of menial work, (3) it fleshed-out the Victor character a bit more for the upcoming Cora Miller storyline, and (4) Kay Alden creamed her panties whenever they called him "Vernon Nelson".  

[soapfan770]

Lynn if I recall  was the only one who had an exit and that was to take care of her mother in Chicago which occurred August 2004.

LOL I don’t remember Miguel’s exit being like that as I didn’t think he had one at at all. I do know in 2008 when Estella took over it was announced Miguel had retired after two years after not being seen at all.

I know Connie Wayne was announced as being retired at Newman when Kevin’s computer hacker girlfriend Natalie said she was taking over Connie’s position. Oddly thought the actresses who played Connie had kept getting younger

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[lucaslesann23]

Funny coincidence. Someone just posted these 2008 episodes the other day on YouTube. Miguel left because his aunt got diabetes and he had to take care of her.