The Young and the Restless Watching The Young and the Restless

[Emelee]

I agree---the show seems obsessed with inter-linking the various members of the Abbott, Chancellor, Newman and Winters families, so Billy and Victoria would be the logical way to go. It might be an end-game pairing that might not be possible until Victor is (somehow) out of their way, though, whether Eric B retires or is carried out of the studio in a pine box.

Which seems to still be years ahead. He has no plans of retiring he recently told Soap Digest.

I think Victoria and Billy should just go behind his back. Take him to battle.

 

[Monzo]

When I read Eric Braeden interviews, I always wonder if, on the one hand, it's really true or if he just thinks it's true (same with his autobiography). In his latest interview, he claims that the last regime wanted to get rid of him. I tend to think that people are now working with foresight and behind the scenes everyone knows that at some point they will have to do without Victor, so it's clear that he's not always a frontburner with his own story.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The main thing I notice is that Victor's seated in most of his scenes nowadays. They do a good job of staging his scenes so that it does not matter, but there seems to be a lot of scenes where the theme is "Victor is sitting someplace/someone comes in to talk/he tells them something they don't like/they storm out as he still sits". That's fine, though---there are many valid ways to keep him stirring the pot. He doesn't have to be in his "Grambo" black tank-top pummeling a punching bag any more.

It would not surprise me if the "previous regime" (I'm thinking he is referring to the Mal Young era) gave him and several other high-salary veterans the idea that they were a financial liability. Young was both Head Writer and Executive Producer. Sony lowered that "no raises" edict onto the cast due to regular cost-cutting, and Young (unlike the previous Bell-friendly show-runners) had no qualms about enforcing that edict. He had no favoritism for longtime employees, since all these people were new to him and he had no "favorites" to protect. Mishael Morgan, Doug Davidson, and Eileen Davidson all quit rather than accept a contract renewal without a raise. I'm sure Braeden let his opinion on this "no raises" edict be heard, and I recall him being especially cranky about how they let Doug Davidson go without so much as a farewell story, since DD was the longest-tenured actor on the show at that point. The no-raises thing was not Mal Young's doing, but he likely made it known that if certain high-wage veterans were to leave or bump themselves down to recurring or whatever, the budget might be in better shape and make the no-raises thing go away.

Ironically, soon after Mal Young left all three of those actors returned, though from what I've heard, Doug Davidson is gone yet again....probably due to lack of story rather than some contractual battle.

 

[Monzo]

Billy's podcast needs to be cancelled ASAP! Is this storyline only on air to save money?

 

[Monzo]

I'm surprised, but I'm not sure if it's a good surprise or a bad surprise. In any case, it's a reason to bring Kyle (and Summer) back. Nikki was probably too drunk at the time to do it right.

 

[Monzo]

Where are Helena Cassadine and Dr. Rolf when you need them? The explanation of why Diane is still alive was so bad. After Sheila's (non-)explanation for her reappearance on B&B, I haven't seen anything more unsatisfactory. I waited a few episodes for further explanation that made sense, but nothing. Deacon was involved and spent years in prison for Diane's sake? For sure.

 

[Daniel Avery]

My mind goes to more practical considerations in situations like this. When Diane "died," all of her estate would have been accounted for, likely placed in a trust for Kyle. So how did "dead" Diane make a living and pay her bills? Her money was now inaccessible. She could not get an above-board job of any sort because they would need her social security number and/or references. Ditto getting an apartment or buying a house. She could not use her name or reputation in architecture to get work. And yet she's got money to buy Keemo/Allie's house? I know soaps are not going to get bogged down in such details, but that's where my mind wanders.

 

[Monzo]

I'm not a fan of Robert Newman as Ashland, but I like it when a recast does something the original actor couldn't have done so well. When it comes to swearing love and (seemingly) being honest, Robert Newman is a lot better than Richard Burgi.

 

[Monzo]

I've only seen Jordi Vilasuso in Days and Y&R, but I get the impression he had back luck with both soaps. He's a not a bad soap actor, but his recent roles haven't clicked with me. The entire Rosales family was awful, so I'm not sad about Rey.

The current drama could have been better, it's not bad, but it's not as good as Y&R is known for either. Paul is clearly MIA, Chance is not a good substitute. And that Victor's men lost Ashland at the moment when it matters most isn't good writing.

 

[Rove]

I know soaps are not going to get bogged down in such details, but that's where my mind wanders.

So does mine. Over the years television series - and I mean the good ones that make you think - has heightened my intellect but then daytime soaps, which I don't bother with now, infer the audience is dumb. And when you treat your audience like that...don't be surprised by the outcome. We are a fickle bunch.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I cut them some slack, though, because they are having to crank out so much material and keep so many balls in the air. I try to adopt a wait-and-see attitude when they resort to retcons like this, because I can overlook an occasional plot hole if the story that results ends up being highly entertaining. I'm sure the writers are constantly weighing options like this, as in "Will the viewers be willing to overlook ____ if the resulting story is good enough?" It's just that individual Head Writers might have a lower or higher level of knowledge of what the fans are willing to accept and/or overlook.

I've only seen Jordi Vilasuso in Days and Y&R, but I get the impression he had back luck with both soaps. He's a not a bad soap actor, but his recent roles haven't clicked with me. The entire Rosales family was awful, so I'm not sad about Rey.

His time on Guiding Light was very successful and led to his higher profile. He was in a star-crossed lover storyline with one of the show's legacy characters, the "sexy bad boy pursuing the goody-goody daughter of the town's core family".

I did not see the Rosales family period in its original run but I got to see chunks of it in reruns on PlutoTV recently. Even when they were all there, Rey was the only one I found to be worth "keeping," and he turned out to be the last one standing after all. Yes, Arturo was nice to look at but other than that....

There was always that uncomfortable situation surrounding Rey's presence with respect to Paul Williams's. It was fairly obvious that Mal Young wanted to push Doug Davidson out because he was so expensive to have on the payroll. Replacing expensive Paul with cheaper Rey in the role of Genoa City's law enforcement representative was a financial decision more than a storyline priority. Young did not count on longtime fans becoming so upset over his dumping the longest-tenured actor from the show...but that's business. They brought Davidson back, but there was still that unspoken "rivalry" simmering below the surface when Davidson had scenes with Vilasuso---the feeling that we should choose sides in a conflict that might not even be a conflict. Now that Vilasuso is out, one wonders where that leaves Davidson; I'd read somewhere that he had decided to quit the show again, but now there would not be any question who was the "town policeman" if he were to return.

Conventional wisdom says that the reason Vilasuso was let go was to free up money to re-hire Michael Mealor (Kyle), and now that they've also added a recast Summer, it makes some sense. Mealor left (in a huff) when his salary demands were not met, so in order to make him happy enough to come back, money had to come from somewhere.

 

[Monzo]

Diane talks way too much about Deacon, who is currently on B&B, which is based in Los Angeles. Diane lived in Los Angeles for many years. Did she run into Deacon there? Did she meet Sheila by chance? If Diane had to live in Los Angeles of all places, a good crossover could have started. She could have showed up at Deacon's and blackmailed him with his participating in the cover-up of her death. She could have hooked up with Bill Spencer, who hasn't got a storyline in ages, there were so many options before she returned to Genoa City, but nothing happened. Instead, the only crossovers we got are boring lunchs between Summer and Wyatt & Flo.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Or how about....

With Diane constantly talking about Deacon this and Deacon that, someone (I'm thinking Jack) decides to seek out Deacon in LA in hope of getting some dirt on Diane that will get her to leave Genoa City. He ends up stumbling upon Deacon having a semi-private meeting with Sheila in a restaurant. Jack wonders if Deacon is running some kind of "dead-character harem" and returns to GC to tell LAUREN that Sheila is alive and well and once again living in LA, leading to major fireworks on both shows once again.

The logical person to seek out Deacon would of course be Phyllis, but we can't have Phyllis interact with Sheila because they're actively trying to pretend that whole "Sheila pretending to be Phyllis via plastic surgery" plot never happened, and frankly I'm glad to help them bury it.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Unable to find anything 'current' to watch, I decided to watch a few episodes of "classic" Y&R on PlutoTV. They are currently airing the episodes in and around New Year's 2020. It is quite disconcerting watching every character mindlessly gushing "Happy New Year!" to everyone and giving the usual profound toasts looking forward to all the great prospects for the coming year. If only they knew what was going to land on them (and us) in two-months' time.

 

[Monzo]

For me, there were only two hot young daytime couples in recent years: Days' Ben & Ciara and Summer & Kyle. Y&R took so long to find the perfect Kyle, but now it's over. NuSummer brings a new vibe that's not uninteresting, but this hot special chemistry between Summer & Kyle is over. From now on, we'll constantly hear that Summer & Kyle belong together, just as we've heard for years that Victoria & Billy belong together, although after Billy Miller's exit no recast had the same chemistry with Amelia Heinle.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I was never a fan of Hunter King, and my tolerance of Michael Mealor depends on who he's interacting with onscreen. I watched those intro scenes with NuSummer and Allie and instantly feared they were setting up Summer vs. Lola 2.0, where the spoiled white girl looks down her nose at the sweet, naive minority girl. I'll pass on that one, please.

The show's decision to bring Kyle back to add texture to Diane's return from the dead story leaves the show with a problem. On the one hand, they have struggled to get Kyle out of the "immature brat" phase and add him to the young adult cast (in other words, make him grow up), but bringing him back mainly to talk about being the poor, pitiful abandoned child of Diane sends him right back into immature brat territory. While it would be nice to see Kyle project a more adult viewpoint after his time away, this storyline will only serve to infantalize him once again if they are not careful.

 

[Monzo]

I'm not used to so many useless flashbacks like the latest episode of Y&R. The only thing I really like about the show right now is Diane and her seemingly innocent nature, but I didn't like the Jack & Phyllis split, especially since Phyllis just disappears and doesn't seem to care what Diane would do her absence.

A lot of things don't seem well thought out. Writers want drama with big words like Victoria & Ashland, but does Victoria's transformation make sense? Even Lilly, who has always been horrified by Ashland, suddenly finds that Billy shouldn't interfere any longer, just so that there is drama here too. Nate also provides unnecessary drama with his speech. Nate is anyway (next to Elena) the most useless character on the show.

 

[Emelee]

Y&R and B&B have really messed up with their shared characters. Whatever happens on Y&R doesn't matter on B&B and vice versa. On Y&R, Sheila is still dead. On B&B, she never got surgery to look like Phyllis. She didn't have twins. She didn't die. All she did was spend years in jail.

Deacon's Genoa City past isn't his past at all when he's on B&B. He too spent years in prison.

But Sally Spectra's Los Angeles past has been a factor on Y&R, at least some of it.

 

[Monzo]

Friday's flashback episode was sweet. It's a big plus when there haven't been too many recasts over the years so there's no need to hold back on flashbacks. Even Brad was mentioned and shown. Not a week goes by without a mention of Katherine and Neil, but Brad, who died a hero, is just gone and forgotten. Colleen is mentioned every now and then, but never her heart, which keeps Victor alive.

It still bothers Ashley that John didn't know she was not his biological daughter. Was this a missed opportunity? I guess John would have loved Ashley the way he did before, but you never know...

 

[Daniel Avery]

In a press piece, Eileen Davidson exhibited what a class act she is by pointing out to the interviewer that there were two other actresses who played Ashley, and congratulated both of them for doing a good job with the character. Yes, ED is most identified with the character but out of the 40 years there were about 10 where she was not playing Ashley. A less generous actress might gloss over 'those other people' and focus on themselves, but that's not Eileen Davidson's style at all. I recall Brenda Epperson's Ashley and liked her version quite well, though I felt Shari Shattuck's Ashley was not as strong.

And what can I say about Beth Maitland? Traci is one of my favorite all-time soap characters and we've sort of grown old together. In another interview, Maitland said Brad was the love of her life, but she (speaking for Traci) would be open to another romance. I love how Traci has become the moral center, the glue that holds the Abbott family together despite it all, but she has lost her individuality in some ways. Just once I would love for one of the Abbotts to call her for advice and be told "Solve it on your own---I'm on a date!"