I never saw this far back, it’s interesting.

Were the Fosters supposed to be always “poor” or did they only become “poor” after Bill abandoned them? Because that house is big as hell for a “poor” family.

 

The Brooks family scenes were fantastic and everything I needed them to be. Classic soap opera is regular people living ordinary lives. A family getting home and having dinner is so mundane, but there’s beauty in that, and it grows and grows and grows over time.

15 hours ago, will81 said:

 It was always said the show was darkly lit, but I had read a couple of soap articles from back in the day that said when Y&R debuted it was more brightly lit, this confirms it. The sets looks great, and love this lighting, not super bright like sitcoms of the 70's, it has some nice tone to it. I wonder when Conboy darkened the show more and how that would look like upscaled

 

 

Seeing all these old episodes these past couple months, I'm always amazed at how DARK the Chancellor mansion was lit well into the late 90's. It really gives this feeling of a cold, dark mansion that's covered in dust if the light of day were allowed to be shown through the windows. Esther, get to work! 

I noticed that the second episode was directed by Herbert Kenwith the same guy who directed the early years of Good Times.

The first episode is on the Entertainment Weekly link so I watched it there instead of the edited rebroadcast. From these first two episodes we could see elements of Bill Bell's work that would be used later on, ie. the established upper class family and the working class family. It was surprising at first to see Jennifer Brooks preparing dinner for her family and the Brooks family eating at the kitchen table but I guess upper class in 1973 didn't necessarily mean employing a household staff and having meals in the formal dining room.

 

Looking forward to Katherine's facelift tomorrow and Neil/Dru wedding reception on Wednesday.

Edited July 20, 20205 yr by kalbir

Stuart- Theos granddaddy!

A few ramblings...

 

I miss seeing the poor and middle class sets on Y&R.  Everything now has to have either a rich look or super modern, or super trendy, which is a break from reality for me, more like "The Rich and the Famous" if you ask me.

 

Loved how Liz slowly climbed her huge flight of stairs, and then SLAMS her bedroom door.  Lol !!

 

It would be nice if CBS All Access would post the unedited show versions, but I know that is asking too much.

 

The old music cues still haunt me, and are nice to hear.  While they would never work in modern-day episodes, it would have been nice if they had kept some of the basic themes instead of chucking them, and simply re-orchestrated them into a more modern feel.

 

I don't know how we jump from the first two eps to Kay's facelift (which I would be shocked if it truly were a "most demanded" episode), but hey, whatever.  Lol.  They should really do a "'70s week", "'80s week", etc.

Edited July 20, 20205 yr by trainman

Snapper and wearing his shoes on the couch lol.
 

I’d really love to see this era of Y&R. Bill Bell did a masterful job of conveying a lot of exposition while making it still feel like we’ve dropped into these people’s lives. Nice seeing the glimpse of the ageless Deidre Hall.

This...

 

 

24 minutes ago, trainman said:

The old music cues still haunt me, and are nice to hear.  While they would never work in modern-day episodes, it would have been nice if they had kept some of the basic themes instead of chucking them, and simply re-orchestrated them into a more modern feel.

I think a part of the difference is that soap music back then was really written for the beginnings and ends of scenes. You needed something nice, calm, and pleasant to ease you into the Brooks family home, so you got something like their theme or the Genoa City Theme. If it was a tense conversation between two characters, the music came in near the end and get a crescendo right before your fade to black. Plus - you could actually have nice, calm, pleasant background music because you had nice, calm, pleasant scenes.

At some point, soaps decided every scene needed to have a backing track through the entire scene. I remember back when I was a regular DAYS viewer in 2003-2004, it was RARE to have a scene play out with little to no background music. Even in today's repeats, they felt the need to add music where there presumably was none.

So wonderful to watch these episodes from 1973 today. They weren't over the top or ridiculous but managed to be captivating. Real dialogue that drew you in and made you interested in the characters. 

 

It would be nice to get a best of week for each decade, 70s, 80s, 90s etc. 

 

Either way, I'm just happy we finally got some 70s episodes. Meanwhile GH is airing episodes I remember watching when the lockdown first started. 

Jennifer Brooks was far more interesting than I expected. I loved the Brooks family scenes.

 

It is sad that they lost Brenda Dickson. I wanted to see her Jill through the years. BTW Brenda still looks amazing today. All she needs is a make up artist, a stylist and some normal-looking brunette wigs. We will never find out what really happened there. I have my theories.

 

The show looked amazing.

Well, today I have to clean and set up to move.

 

And I saw it.

 

I don't care what you all say...Brenda Dickson as Jill had presence (reserved camp as well) to her. And spellbound from go. And  it was nice to see Liz in action. 

 

But it was nice to see so many names that I've heard about for years and seeing them.

 

And then...the setting. Bill Bell might have been unsure, but he had more on point about that first episode. The details I loved. The music drew you in. And look...DR. MARLENA EVANS!!! 

 

Based on those two episodes, I would have loved to see more of what followed. And hard to believe that except for the Theo twist this year and Jill Cameos, no one is around now. 

Corday Productions still has a financial interest in Y&R, at least the last time I checked. The closing credits say “Sony Pictures Television in association with Bell Dramatic Serial Co and Corday Productions.” I’m guessing Corday got a slice of the pie in exchange for letting Bell go do his own show.

 

The show was very well produced from the looks of these early episodes. Nothing to be ashamed of.

 

I wonder if Liz Foster had white hair when she was in her 20s. 😀

 

I’d forgotten there were four Brooks sisters - always forget about Peggy. Chris was really attractive.

 

I didn’t much care for this Snapper - the Hoff is the one I remember.

 

It’s funny that Brenda Dickson is tweeting/promoting the show that fired her.

I added a better quality copy of today's show to the vault.