Y&R: Old Articles

[Broderick]

[I dug around until I found an article in which Eric Freiwald admits publicly that there's no such person as "Eric L. Roberts".  I'd never seen any of the "Eric L. Roberts" writers admit this in print.  Here's a portion of the article, from an Arizona newspaper.  Freiwald was living in Arizona in the late 1980s.]  

Plot Thickens in Prescott

Arizona Daily Star

May 28, 1989

Eric Freiwald had never watched a soap opera in his life.  

But that drastically changed nine years ago when he joined the writing team of "The Young and the Restless".  

Now he tunes in daily.  Or tapes shows for later viewing. 

Working from his Prescott home, Freiwald is one of several writers for the top-rated CBS daytime drama, which was created in 1973 by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell.

Unlike many daytime serials whose creators are concentrated on the East or West Coasts, the "Restless" writers are scattered across the country, linked by conference calls and Federal Express.

"This is probably one of the neatest jobs I've ever had because I was able to leave California, which I wanted to do, and get away to a small town," Freiwald, 61, says by phone from Prescott, where he has lived for almost three years.  

Freiwald was semiretired when he joined "Restless" in 1980.  

The screenwriter started his career in 1951, when he and Robert Schaefer sold their first script to Columbia Pictures for the "Durango Kid" series. From there, they wrote for such television westerns as "The Lone Ranger", "Annie Oakley", "Buffalo Bill Jr", "Wild Bill Hickok" and "Hopalong Cassidy".  

He and his partner were head writers for "Lassie" for ten years.  They also wrote for "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Maverick", "77 Sunset Strip", and "Whirlybirds".  

After Lassie ended in the mid-1970s, they decided to try other pursuits. 

When Freiwald learned through a friend that "Restless" was expanding to an hour format and was looking for new writers, he decided to give daytime a try.

He began watching the show and getting background from his daughter, Linda Schreiber, who had religiously watched "Restless" since its premiere in 1973.  

In the beginning, Freiwald, Schaefer, and Schreiber teamed up, choosing the pen name "Eric L. Roberts".  That's "Eric" for Freiwald, "L." for Linda Schreiber, and "Roberts" for Robert Schaefer.  

Within two or three shows, Schaefer bowed out.  Schreiber continued working as an apprentice to her father.  She later joined the Writers Guild and started writing scripts on her own, about 12 to 20 a year.  

Freiwald writes two shows a week on his electric typewriter, transforming prodigiously detailed 30- to 40-page outlines into finished scripts. Each one-hour show has a prologue and seven acts, separated by commercials.  

Freiwald has written more scripts, about 800 to 900, during the past nine years for "Restless" than he wrote during the first 25 years of his career.  

"When I was writing all these other shows, we would start completely from the very beginning with a blank piece of paper and no plot, and know that we would have to do something for Lassie or the Lone Ranger or whatever it happened to be.  As corny as some of those early shows might have been, the thrill was creating the thing from zero," he says. "In soap opera writing, the plotting and long-term progression of the story is done by the head writers.  I put the scenes into script form, working from an outline.  In some cases it's very strictly outlined and you follow a certain way that they want it done.  In other cases, it's just a suggestion of a scene and you are allowed to go with it."

"I get caught up in the story lines, and I get very excited to see what's coming next myself.  Most of my contact is with Kay Alden. After we get the outlines, I talk to her if I have questions. I will sometimes tell her not to tell me what's coming because I would rather not know. I'm always amazed at some of the directions the stories take that I never in my wildest dreams would have thought of. I really admire Bill Bell and Kay Alden, who create these stories and characters."  

[From here, he goes on to discuss that he especially likes writing sarcastic dialogue for Terry Lester's Jack Abbott character, for Jeanne Cooper's Kay Chancellor, and for Jess Walton's Jill Abbott.]  

 

[sheilaforever]

Wow - thanks a lot. I've always wondered about it (assuming that Freiwald took a "stage name" to protect his writing career by going for a saop...) - and here is the background admitted by himself.

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Edited November 11, 2022 by sheilaforever

[YRfan23]

There’s a new partial spring/summer 1995 episode in this video!

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https://archive.org/details/tf-3-cbsdrq/TF_2_CBSprt.mp4

[BoldRestless]

It's May because Nina is studying for finals and there's an ad for a Barbara Streisand concert May 21, 1995 with the Dr. Quinn episode on there. The recaps for this time are scarce, but Victor goes to Kansas on May 18th so this is probably May 17th since we see Victor calling the pilot. Also there's a recap on May 16th where it is mentioned Lauren is wearing a green miniskirt.

[YRfan23]

Awesome research!

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 I’ll confirm for sure late but May 17th is probably correct!

[yrfan1983]

Just seeing this - thanks! Have you watched yet? How is it?

[YRfan23]

Your welcome!

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 I actually think the date is 5/19/95, based on some of the May 95 recaps we have before. 
 

it’s unfortunately the first two segments but it’s pretty typical 95 Y&R, haha Lauren is in it which is always nice to see!

[yrfan1983]

so crazy to think that Lauren is still on YR at this point, and meanwhile on BnB Sheila is gearing up for her big finale of the suicide attempt on the Forrester steps.

[YRfan23]

Per the recaps available,   May 95 was a pretty busy month for Lauren. She seemed to be on quite a few days. I think she was mostly comic relief trying to help Paul "get it up". 

[yrfan1983]

Finally had a chance to watch - TEB's stiff wig really caught my notice! Not the most flattering... I feel like it aged her.  Lauren and Brad flirting feels pretty stale at this point.

The most intriguing scene is definitely Mari Jo scheming to make inroads with a skeptical Keemo. Now that's a story I'd like to see. (though DianaB is STILL pronouncing Jabot wrong, lol!)

Do you know why Victor and Hope's marriage is strained? Seems like they just got past the previous conflict of Victor Jr possibly inheriting Hope's blindness...

Vicki and Cole... Nina and Ryan... zzzzzzz

[BoldRestless]

A partial upload of June 13, 1988 popped up!

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[YRfan23]

Haha you read my mind!

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 great stuff! 

[yrfan1983]

Great find, thanks! Plus bonus Deborah Adair at the beginning

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[Joseph]

That channel is quite a Treasure Trove

[YRfan23]

Damn! they are on a roll!!

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