3 hours ago, Broderick said:

I knew someone backstage at Y&R in the early 2000s. The day the salad bar premiered, I emailed him and said, "Woops! I'm afraid y'all have messed-up badly with that salad bar. That thing is gonna haunt y'all for years to come." He said, "Don't worry, we already realize it. It was a mistake. It's being addressed." I pointed out, "If they suddenly take the salad bar down after making such a production out of installing it, it's gonna be accidentally comical." He said, "They're having meetings about how to best handle it." Wasn't long till Kevin Fisher locked Colleen Carlton in the freezer and set the restaurant on fire. Total loss. Action moved to the Athletic Club. 😅

Gina's set was 30 years old in 2003 so I thought it was retired because maintenance costs were an issue.

@kalbir Happy anniversary to your man!! Eric Braeden made his first appearance as the Great Victor Newman in 1980 today.

16 hours ago, kalbir said:

Gina's set was 30 years old in 2003 so I thought it was retired because maintenance costs were an issue.

Also, I reeeeally can't remember this 'salad bar'. Does anyone have any pictures of it?

22 minutes ago, Taoboi said:

@kalbir Happy anniversary to your man!! Eric Braeden made his first appearance as the Great Victor Newman in 1980 today.

That's right, today marks 46 years in the game.

Maybe someday EB first episode will surface.

It was the combination of EB acting and Bill Bell writing that made Victor character arc a success. We saw Victor go from short-term villain to anti-hero/romantic leading man plus the backstory of his painful childhood (abandoned by both parents and growing up in an orphanage) and becoming a self-made man.

Bill Bell saw what EB brought to Y&R, changed the initial storyline, and we know the rest.

I quoted Bill Bell's own words on Victor Newman from the 1997 book Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera earlier in this thread. Link below to save digging in the thread. https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/38254-yr-old-articles/page/723/#findComment-1763810

4 minutes ago, kalbir said:

That's right, today marks 46 years in the game.

Maybe someday EB first episode will surface.

It was the combination of EB acting and Bill Bell writing that made Victor character arc a success. We saw Victor go from short-term villain to anti-hero/romantic leading man plus the backstory of his painful childhood (abandoned by both parents and growing up in an orphanage) and becoming a self-made man.

Bill Bell saw what EB brought to Y&R, changed the initial storyline, and we know the rest.

I quoted Bill Bell's own words on Victor Newman from the 1997 book Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera earlier in this thread. Link below to save digging in the thread. https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/38254-yr-old-articles/page/723/#findComment-1763810

Thank you for the link.

And Y&R was never the same....

16 hours ago, kalbir said:

Gina's set was 30 years old in 2003 so I thought it was retired because maintenance costs were an issue.

Aw, I doubt that set was really 30 years old. When it transformed from Pierre's to the Allegro in about 1975, they might have used some of the same materials in the Allegro set that had been in the old Pierre's set, but it was basically a whole new set, with the doorways moved and the bar moved and a totally different layout. Same circa 1980, when it switched from being the Allegro to being Jonas's bar. Ditto for the 1982 switchover from Jonas's to Gina's. If you compare a 1973 photo of Pierre's and a 1985 of Gina's, it's pretty much impossible to recognize any vestige of Pierre's in Gina's. I'd guess the Gina's set was about 20 years old when it bit the dust (though I believe some of the same set materials were probably used in constructing the Athletic Club set after Gina's burned.)

50 minutes ago, Aback said:

Also, I reeeeally can't remember this 'salad bar'. Does anyone have any pictures of it?

The salad bar was a big clumsy stainless steel contraption right in the middle of the floor. To get a "master shot", they had the camera out on the edge of the set like they'd always done. If they wanted to show someone walking through the door, they had to move the cameras around to the side of the salad bar. If they wanted to focus on a specific table, they had to move the cameras to the other side of the salad bar. It was a disastrous decision to put it where it was. It should've been against the rear wall, or on one of the side walls.

2 hours ago, Taoboi said:

Thank you for the link.

And Y&R was never the same....

You're welcome.

2 hours ago, Broderick said:

Aw, I doubt that set was really 30 years old. When it transformed from Pierre's to the Allegro in about 1975, they might have used some of the same materials in the Allegro set that had been in the old Pierre's set, but it was basically a whole new set, with the doorways moved and the bar moved and a totally different layout. Same circa 1980, when it switched from being the Allegro to being Jonas's bar. Ditto for the 1982 switchover from Jonas's to Gina's. If you compare a 1973 photo of Pierre's and a 1985 of Gina's, it's pretty much impossible to recognize any vestige of Pierre's in Gina's. I'd guess the Gina's set was about 20 years old when it bit the dust (though I believe some of the same set materials were probably used in constructing the Athletic Club set after Gina's burned.)

Thanks for the additional info. I did not know the full history behind the sets.

I believe the Jonas set was totally new in 1979 when Leslie went out of town,

They then had Leslie 'transform ' the Allegro into a replica of Jonas' out of town restaurant when he moved to GC the next year. That then formed the basis for Gina's when she bought it from Leslie.

They obviously preferred the newer set over The Allegro and twisted the script to make that happen.

Maybe the same thing will happen today and somehow Sienna's LA bar will turn up in GC.

There was another upscale restaurant set ca. 2003 that disappeared with Gina’s. You can see vestiges of it in the GCAC, esp the bar. I can’t remember the name!

Yet another thing that PDF Kevin destroyed that made Y & R the show it was... the Gina set. That set was superior to the GCAC set.

4 hours ago, SheenaSoaper said:

There was another upscale restaurant set ca. 2003 that disappeared with Gina’s. You can see vestiges of it in the GCAC, esp the bar. I can’t remember the name!

The Colonade Room. It was so classy and iconic. I miss it.

Maybe The Embers?

6 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Maybe The Embers?

Yes, that’s it! I think the GCAC bar has some similar pieces.

6 hours ago, Aback said:

The Colonade Room. It was so classy and iconic. I miss it.

Yes, me too! I think we last saw it at the beginning of MAB.

There was also "Top of the Towers" at the top of Newman Towers, seen often in the early 90s. Leanna memorably sang on top of a piano there. I wonder when that set was last used.

Hopefully someday we’ll finally get to see Victor’s earliest episodes in Genoa City surface for fans to experience where it all began