Y&R to air classic episodes

[YRfan23]

 

[Darn]

 

God she's so good here. What could have been...

[kalbir]

All I can say about Brenda Dickson in her recent photos is that she's very well-preserved.

[DaytimeFan]

 

Like a cadaver of a dictator preserved in wax...

[vetsoapfan]

 

I have literally never heard any rumors about Bill Bell being unhappy with the first year of the show. Indeed, the only comments I have ever read and heard from him were about how proud he was of Y&R during its debut season and how successful it was. When the show was not instantly at the top of the ratings, some fans wrote into the soap magazines wondering if it might be cancelled, but Bell was quoted as saying that CBS was happy with the show's steadily-increasing ratings and there was no concern about cancellation.

 

I DO recall Bell saying that if he could do the early years over again, with a significantly higher budget and all the advantages of modern technology, he would love to see what it would look like.

 

As for the Bell/Conboy feud, I do believe it's well documented that Bill and Conboy had issues working together. Particularly after Conboy wanted Bell replaced, LOL. But their differences aside, what the two men produced together on-screen during the 1970s was soap magic.

 

 

 

Who claims Bill Bell hated his own show? That contradicts all the print and video interviews I've ever read and seen with him discussing and praising its first years. I've only ever read that he would have liked to see what those early episodes would look like if they could have been done on a much-higher budget and using more modern filming techniques.

 

The show did not move at a glacial pace in 1973 at all. Indeed, part of its appeal was that viewers applauded how fast the stories moved, and that you HAD to watch every day to keep up (which was a genius move on the show's part; forcing viewers to watch more regularly and therefore become more attached). It only took Chris and Snapper nine months to make it down the aisle. Contrast that that Bell's Days of Our Lives, in which it took Laura and Bill Horton...nine YEARS, LOL).

 

 

Yes, during the 1970s, the show was really on fire and it revolutionized the soap opera genre.

 

Today it is bland, listless and generic (admittedly, like all the other soaps still on the air).

 

What a shame.

Edited July 20, 2020 by vetsoapfan

[will81]

Bill Bell himself said in an interview he wanted the show cancelled during the first year. I think this was before Chris' rape story had happened. I believe it was from a 1976 interview. I will try to find it

[vetsoapfan]

 

Please do try and find that interview. I've read and watched many interviews with him over the decades, and only heard him sing the show's praises. 

 

It would be fascinating to read an article in which he hoped his own show and money-making machine would get axed. (I'm not being snarky or sarcastic; I'd really like to see that.)

[will81]

I found it but am having trouble posting it. I was half right, he asked Bud Grant to take the show off the air, but only because the ratings were so poor. I mixed that up with another interview where he hated the writing during the writers strike and was not happy with the show during those months, and by writing I mean the daily scripts handled by the non-union writers

 

Here is the part of the interview where he talks about ratings and wanting to cancel the show. 

 

 

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Edited July 20, 2020 by will81

[vetsoapfan]

 

Oh yes, I remember Bell saying that the initial ratings disappointed him, but CBS was satisfied because they knew that every new soap opera takes a while to build up its audience.

 

Bell remarked that all the shows he had ever written had become highly successful in the ratings and he expected the same for Y&R. IIRC, by 1975, it had already ascended to the top three (behind ratings powerhouses ATWT and AW), which was remarkable.

 

The writers' strike saw most soaps' writing take a nose-dive, but when Bill Bell was at the helm,  Y&R was amazing. Soap fans were so fortunate to have him and other master writers (Agnes Nixon, Harding Lemay, Henry Slesar, Claire Labine, Pat Falken Smith, Douglas Marland, etc.) at the top of their game in the 1970s. Today, none of the remaining soaps has a truly talented headwriter.

[vetsoapfan]

 

The Chris/Snapper romance, Chris' rape, etc., were stories told during the show's first few months, and Bell was justifiably proud of the excellent work he was doing.

 

I understand him being discouraged at not having stellar ratings instantly, but as a writer who had been working on soaps since the 1950s, he should have known to be patient. ATWT, AW and DAYS (series he had written prior to Y&R)  ALL took a year or two before their ratings began to climb significantly. How dumb to talk about cancelling a show that was making him money and was less than a year old. He's lucky the network showed more patience than Bell did. Yikes!

Edited July 20, 2020 by vetsoapfan

[BetterForgotten]

Networks seemed a hell of a lot more patient back then than they do now (I guess there was only like 3 of them, but still). I do have to wonder if the stress of owning/managing the show on his own played into that - he was no longer working for Irna/P&G or the Corday’s and had to figure a lot of things out in his own, that and dealing with a producer like Conboy that he probably had little respect for.

 

Bell was also still contractually obligated at the time to write outlines for DAYS, which I can’t believe he was too happy about as he had his own show to now manage, and writing outlines for a now competing show just seems like a distraction. Speaking of, Betty Corday got a consulting credit at Y&R due to that agreement - I wonder if it amounted to much of anything. When Bell and later PFS left, I can’t imagine she must have been too happy to see their successes at other soaps...

[OzFrog]

 

Sorry but every time I see Brenda Dickson nowadays I wonder “what would Deven Green say here?”

[ltm1997]

 

 

Yes!! So many wonderful storylines and episodes filled with action and drama. My biggest hope is that one day they’ll make the first 11 years of Y&R available for viewing on a streaming platform of some kind. If they won’t show them on TV then maybe they’ll stream them if enough of us ask for it. There’s sooo much stuff I would love to see, though my biggest hope is that they’d show it on TV. Honestly I think we should all contact them. 

[StepBack]

I'm actually enjoying 70's Y&R. It's vastly different from today and I'm fascinated with the way the show was originally written.

[All My Shadows]

The sound is kinda muffled, but this episode looks absolutely gorgeous.

 

I used to have a pipe dream that Antenna TV, which AFAIK has access to the Sony library, would rerun the 70s episodes in the mornings and post-primetime. Seeing this look so beautiful on my screen, I absolutely believe it could work.

 

Sliding in an 80s music cue to underscore Chris and Leslie was so unnecessary

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Edited July 20, 2020 by All My Shadows