Y&R: Old Articles

[Broderick]

July 18, 1981 -- Memphis Press-Scimitar

VETERAN PERFORMER ISN'T BEING WRITTEN OUT

There probably have been more rumors about Jeanne Cooper leaving her role as Kay Chancellor Thurston on "The Young and the Restless" than about any other of daytime's femme fatales.  

Look what's been happening, though -- Kay is still around -- but, in the last year, all the characters involved with Mrs. Thurston were written out of the show, one after another.

First it was Filipe, her wonderful Hispanic, sometimes comical accomplice, whose arguments with Mrs. Thurston in two languages delighted fans; then went her devoted son Brock; followed by her young husband Derek; and her English lover Douglas Austin. 

"Suddenly, there was Kay sitting in the middle of Genoa City with no one to talk to," said Jeanne Cooper with a laugh.

So for about five or six weeks, she didn't appear on the show until the writers developed a new storyline for her character.

That's when the rumors peaked.  But the producers were not about to let this meticulous veteran performer fade away.

Jeanne's been known to spend as much as six additional hours on scripts, developing new mannerisms and inflections to make her often chaotic character believable in many a bizarre situation.  She's also been one of the show's staples since the days when "The Young and the Restless" first sprang on the scene and made its way to the top with innovative storylines and a magic mixture of castmates.

Jeanne remembers that the show was one of the first to make so many recognizable names or stars out of unknowns:  William Gray Espy (the original Snapper Foster), Jaime Lyn Bauer (Lorie Prentiss), John McCook (Lance Prentiss) and later David Hasselhoff (Snapper Foster).

The show has obviously faltered from those days.  However, having survived the changes, Jeanne thinks that number one may not be the best slot anyway. 

According to her, it is not so bad to be third, where you're still quite successful but there's room for improvement.  "The Bronze Medal never hurt anybody," Jeanne said.

And who should know better than this delightfully warm, funny lady who has a legion of fans.

So let's squash those rumors here and now.  Jeanne Cooper recently signed a new contract with the show and is not leaving. 

But she is quick to add with a glint in her eye --"I'm committed to die at least once a year to keep the fans hanging."

[kalbir]

Was this when JC was in rehab?

[YRfan23]

Great find and interesting to read! thanks for sharing! I always appreciate JC's humor! 

[Broderick]

That's definitely the strange period of time (1980 - 1982) when it was hard to tell what was happening on-screen, let alone OFF screen!  Don't like the Stevens family?  Have no fear, they'll move to New York in a single episode and never be heard from again!  Think Steve Williams is fairly dull?  That's ok, he'll move to DC in a few days & never be mentioned again!  Worried about Stuart Brooks and his "chest pains"?  Don't be scared; that'll be forgotten entirely after tomorrow's episode!

My recollection (and my memory could be faulty, of course) is that Kay was actually missing off the canvas for about 12 weeks instead of "five or six".  I remember seeing her sometime around March 15, 1981, returning from "Felipe's Island", and she appeared in a small handful of episodes -- checking with Victor who'd been managing Chancellor Industries during her island "vacation", dumping Colonel Austin, and dumping Derek Thurston.  She said she'd learned to be "strong and independent" while she was with Filipe.  Then, I swear, I don't believe we laid eyes on Kay Thurston again until JUNE when she hired Cash as a prostitute.    I'm pretty sure she was gone from mid-March to mid-June, about 12 weeks.   I don't know why -- could've been rehab, behind the scenes chaos, or just Bill Bell completely recalibrating her storyline, as this article suggests.  

Edited June 30, 2022 by Broderick

[yrfan1983]

Fascinating stuff! plus, this was right during the Writers Strike, contributing to the chaos

[Broderick]

Oh yeah, I'm sure the writers strike was a component of the weirdness.  

But just imagine something like this happening now -- a major character becoming completely isolated, then vanishing off the canvas entirely for six weeks (according to the journalist above, or twelve weeks according to my own memory), with no explanation at all of his/her whereabouts, and no mention of the character by any of the remaining players on the canvas -- as though that character had simply never existed at all.  That's what happened here! 

For most of the spring and early summer of 1981, it was as though Kay Chancellor had vanished and been forgotten, inspiring the article above.

That's the type of climate Y&R was operating in, though. 

Occasionally, an episode from this period surfaces in the vault, and I'm always impressed -- "wow, that's not as bad as I remembered!" -- but it's not the episodes themselves that are so strange, but rather the big disjointed picture of missing characters, dropped storylines, false starts and abrupt stops. 

If you hadn't started watching yet during this period, you missed a treat

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[YRfan23]

Found another  classic from February 1988. Seems to be only a partial but something new! I believe the date is February 18, 1988!

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Edited July 1, 2022 by YRfan23

[DRW50]

Great find @YRfan23

 

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[YRfan23]

Very interesting!! Thanks for posting! You’d never hear advertisements for soaps on the radio now! 
 

new 1995 episode, 9/7/95 from archive!! Good weekend for uploads so far!

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https://archive.org/details/capture-a-6788

EDIT: I added to the vault and uploaded the date to YT!  
 

 

Edited July 4, 2022 by YRfan23

[yrfan1983]

You’re our Sherlock Holmes! Thanks 

[Broderick]

Genoa City's Young and Restless -- July 1973

Brad Eliot is a rather cool dude.  Every day, his presence affects the lives and loves of those around him in the mythical mid-American community of Genoa City.  He is a stranger in town, having arrived via an unorthodox set of circumstances.  

Brad Eliot was this Chicago physician, who had operated on his daughter.  She died.  He then took all his savings, hopped in his car, and skipped town.  But, alas, along the way he was mugged and robbed.  The culprit -- complete with the young doctor's money, car, and identification -- crashed the car off a cliff in his escape and is killed.  The doctor thought, "Aha! I'm dead now ... why tell anyone?"  So, he winds up in Genoa City, becomes the mysterious 'Brad Eliot' and is now working as an $85-per-week newspaper reporter.

This is the setting of "The Young and the Restless", CBS's relatively new (now in its fifth month) mid-day soap opera.  Its stars, along with the show's head writer, like to think of the program as something a bit more advanced than a typical "soap opera", however.  They candidly assert that the show may be a prototype for a future evening prime time serial.  

TOM HALLICK, who portrays Brad Eliot, somewhat jokingly refers to "The Young and the Restless" as a "cross between 'Run for Your Life', 'The Fugitive', and 'Sermonette'."  The program's biggest asset, says Hallick, "is the great writing.  Because of it, we can do this show and feel that it really works.  No doubt, this show is good enough for nighttime TV. "

The head writer is William J. Bell, a twenty-year veteran of daytime television writing, considered among the best in the business.  Bell, who also serves as chief scribe for NBC's popular "Days of Our Lives" series, says he's been "blessed with a great cast" for "The Young and the Restless".  And the story?  Well, Bell thinks it's great.  "Our plot allows for a broad base of characters.  The emphasis is on the young, and restless is an ageless word that evokes an almost ageless state of mind.  The show attains a great deal of involvement for our viewers."  

Interestingly, there really is a Genoa City, not too far from Chicago.  Genoa City, Wisconsin (population 1,084) is on the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, just minutes away from writer Bell's home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  Bell admits that the program's mythical community is named after the real Genoa City, but in name only.  "I picture our Genoa City as a community of 300,000 to 400,000 people," Bell told me.  "In our story, you'd never want a town where all the people know each other."

The real Genoa City is a quiet little town whose inhabitants haven't really reacted dramatically to having their community's name used for a network, nationwide TV program.  The village clerk, Mrs. Lucile Berger, says "The Young and the Restless" does have a fair share of the audience in town.  "From what I hear," Mrs. Berger says, "the show is pretty good.  I don't get a chance to see it, though.  I have to work when it's on."  

As for the sex, sin, and seduction so evident in many daytime dramas, Mrs. Berger dismisses all that, as far as the real Genoa City is concerned.  "We have a peaceful little town here," she relates, "and about the only real excitement we have is sometimes on weekends the tourists who come up to the lakes around here will get a little rowdy.  And occasionally the young kids get a bit out of hand on the weekend.  You know, they can drink beer and liquor up here when they're eighteen."  

I wonder what newspaperman Brad Eliot would say about that ... 

[Bundy1965]

I will upload them to the Vault

[allmc2008]

And so where was this find?

[Broderick]

It's one of those "syndicated" articles they provided for the entertainment section of the local papers, that appeared on the page with the TV listings.  The writer's name was "Jay Allen" and I meant to give him the credit for it!  

[YRfan23]

6/21/85 uploaded by the wonderful Paul Ditty!!

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