B&B: Old/Classic Discussion & Articles

[YRfan23]

that’s so amazing!!!

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 Eventually  we will have a jason47 days website equivalent to all your B&B data!! 

[Soaplovers]

If this soap were to premiere nowadays...it most likely would have cut out the first few years and focused on the post Brooke being part of the Forrester crew.

[sheilaforever]

We are still missing writers and directors credits for 1996-2000, so it's a longer road to have these as well but the cast info should be complete in about 12 -15 months - if the uploads go on...

[charholden5]

I can't wait to see all of 1999. That will be awhile though!!

[sheilaforever]

Now that I moved on to #1590 I've to say that your assessment is spot on. For the past 20-30 episodes Macy and/or someone else from the Spectra orbit was feautured in basically in at least every second episodes. What a difference it made! Suddenly, one is invested in all of this. Keith doing research on alcoholism, Macy hitting rock bottom with a brawl at Bikini Bar, Thorne "saving" Macy in an alley, Thorne being there for Macy but she is moving in with Darla, Macy denying that she is an alcholic but willing to get better, Sally's beachelorette party etc. etc. etc. Somehow the grandparents triangle, as SOD or some other magazine once called it, is heavily under-utilised with all of them but Jack too absorbed in the other BIG stories - Stephanie in BeLieF or Sally in Macy's alcoholism storyline -, but all actors involved are doing great work.

[Videnbas]

Yeah, Macy's storyline gets better and better once they start playing all the beats. I actually think they did a good job of making "manic overconfidently sober" Macy somehow more unsettling than "passed out drunk" Macy.

LOL, "the grandparents triangle" is a wonderful name!

I have to say that my opinion of both Stephanie and Taylor went down a bit because of their disrespect of Sally's engagement to Jack. Taylor was encouraging her father to reconnect with Stephanie, and Stephanie and Jack kissed on his wedding day to Sally. Of course Jack still did have feelings for Stephanie, but it just strikes me that neither Taylor nor Stephanie would accept another woman getting close to their fiancé so close to the wedding, and yet they think it's okay to do it to another engaged woman because the marriage hasn't happened yet. But of course this was "only" Sally Spectra's wedding... I kind of think it ties into the general contempt that Stephanie has always had for Sally and her family.

As for Jack, I feel he starts losing momentum as a character right about here. He was the most interesting to me during the poker storyline, and he had some moments with Sally, but Jack and Stephanie just don't generate any sparks to me - they really do have a, well, geriatric feel to them. And the dynamic between him and Taylor is really not that interesting now that their conflict is resolved. I have to say Jack is one character I didn't miss at all once he faded into the background. 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Videnbas

[yrfan1983]

I'm currently on 1540 but I jumped ahead to peek at the latest ep uploaded 1714, to see KB's departure for maternity leave. The story is Molly is sick and requests Sheila's help.

Did the character of Molly go completely out-of-character at some point?

Molly was consistent through Feb '93 when she last appeared on YR - very upset with Sheila for what she did to Lauren. 

May '93 - she strangely shows up for Sheila's wedding (without an invite) with a huge smile on her face, ready to celebrate. Molly apparently has forgotten or forgiven all of Sheila's past actions.  Sheila inexplicably doesn't want Molly at the wedding, and cruelly sends her packing. 

Now in 1714, she's begging for Sheila to come tend to her. Did I miss something, some episode in-between, that would explain Molly's change of behavior?

[YRfan23]

Honestly I feel like it was just a strange OOC moment for Molly. We had no indication that Molly had decided to accept Sheila as having "changed" after she basically kicked her out of GC in March 1993, but I just feel like they were trying to show how evil Sheila really was...It was also OOC for Sheila to threaten Little Eric before her wedding too, because she was his nanny just a year prior and seemed to show nothing but affection for him. 

We do have this clip which aired on Y&R from 10/11/93 where Sheila calls Molly because her marriage is falling apart, but Molly has no desire to help Sheila...but she does mention how cruel Sheila was the last they spoke...I guess they regretted that OCC confrontation. 
 

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But yeah in 1994, It looks like offscreen while KB was on her maternity leave, Sheila and Molly had "reconciled". There will be an episode coming up where we see Molly and Sheila actually having a nice conversation before she heads back to Eric. 

[sheilaforever]

I'm totally blinked out that KB was on maternity leave in 1994. Hopefully it was not too long - unlike her 1998 maternity leave which basically killed all storyline moment at the Psycho Villa - with Barbara Crampton walking out after contract expired and never giving proper resolution to the whole Maggie/James/Sheila story. I tend to believe that Brad Bell wrote out the entire crowd within the next 12 months because Amber/Rick clicked and it was far too simple to write for Brooke/Ridge/Taylor/Pierce than to come up with some good story for Sheila afterwards...

Jack is murky character at best. I had no problem with Chris Robinson as Rick Webber on GH but his Jack was never "it" for me. Taylor is one of those characters who does not need her parents in town because she is sane and smart. Jack was only beneficial to Zach but as soon as young Mr. Hamilton was dropped, there was no need for him either. The grandparents triangle was, IMO one of those stories you could tell on Y&R because it is 40 minutes of airtime, but on a 20 minute show having 60+ character "getting it on" kind of kills all interest of a young demographic in the entire show. Seems like Brad Bell thought so, too, because the later triangles with Eric (1995) and Massimo (2001) were equally short-lived. That's why those sex-pot pairings with Lauren, Donna and Quinn made Eric seem like a horndog but made much better storylines.

Edited July 21, 2022 by sheilaforever

[BoldKara]

Some might remember here a while back at the time that episode #956 had no background music.

Well the mystery has been solved. There WAS background music for it. It's now available on YouTube if anyone wanted to grab it.

[Videnbas]

I think part of the reason why these triangles never worked was that as wonderful as Susan Flannery is, she did NOT have romantic chemistry with any of her co-stars. Stephanie and Eric worked as an "old married couple" but she was never believable as "falling in love" with someone new, because the spark and excitement of "new love" was just not in Stephanie's character. Sally had it, and Jackie had it, because they were both very sensual characters, but scenes like Stephanie and Jack going skinny dipping in the pool simply did not ring true on any level. 

[yrfan1983]

That was a shocking moment! I feared for poor l'il Eric, to be in proximity to his psychotic soon-to-be stepmother.

With Sheila, maybe it's not OOC, because she is not sane. Maybe in summer '92 she convinced herself she had only pure love for the baby, but 6 months later, her true feelings emerged.

PS - in 1713, Sheila asked Molly why her friends can't help her, and Molly explains why her friends can't help, but I was disappointed when Molly named the friends, but they weren't Naomi and Doris 

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[Videnbas]

I thought her behavior with Eric Jr before the wedding was OOC. Even if she is insane, she can still have a consistent personality, and that moment didn't quite fit. Sheila has always had an obsessive fondness for babies and small children. She would not have an "evil stepmother" moment - she would direct her aggression towards the real mother, not the child. 

[Soaplovers]

I think why Jack and Sally worked was because of the opposites attract element.  Plus, she wouldn't have judged him for his past unlike Stephanie.

I will say I thought Zach and Felicia were spirited off canvas so soon.  Partly because it was interesting to see Stephanie disapproval of the relationship...while Zach was one to call out her hypocrisy.

 

[PSPCindy]

Does anyone know the episode number of Stephanie and Jack skinny dipping in her pool?  I think I remember seeing that but not really sure.

I really love what I refer to as the "golden " years of B&B.  Lavish sets, detailed production values and great stories.