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The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional version of Genoa City, Wisconsin.[1] First broadcast on March 26, 1973,[2] The Young and the Restless was originally broadcast as half-hour episodes, five times a week, before it was expanded to one-hour episodes on February 4, 1980. The show currently also airs on SOAPnet weeknights and is syndicated internationally. The soap opera is one of the very few TV shows to successfully write out their original cast, and to replace them with new ones. The Young and the Restless originally focused on the personal and professional lives of two core families in Genoa City: the wealthy Brooks family and the poor Foster family. After a series of recasts and departures in the early 1980s, most of the original characters were written out and the show shifted to the rivalry between the Abbotts and the Newmans. Other families such as the Williams, the Winters, and the Fisher/Baldwins were also introduced through the years. However, one basic storyline has run throughout almost all of the show's history: the feud between Jill Foster Abbott and Katherine Chancellor, one of the longest rivalries on any American soap opera.[3][4] Since its debut, The Young and the Restless has won seven Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series. It is also currently the highest-rated daytime drama on American television. As of 2008, it has appeared at the top of the weekly Nielsen Ratings in that category for more than 1000 weeks since 1988.[5]
[edit] Production
Taped at CBS Television City in Los Angeles since its debut, the show was groundbreaking for daytime serials in its lush production values. When it premiered, in 1973 The Young and the Restless stood out from other soaps on the air for its visual darkness. Soap operas at the time tended to be comparatively brightly-lit. The show lighted primarily the actors and not the background settings, so as to focus the attention of the viewer on the emotions of the actors. Also, its glamorous sets utilizing fresh cut flowers, and wardrobe and hairstyles were a huge contrast to existing soap operas, which often set the action in a simple living room or kitchen set, where characters would discuss their world over a cup of coffee. It should also be noted that The Young and the Restless is one of the few soaps that used an actual orchestra for the background music (its sister soap Days of our Lives also used, and pioneered the use of in American soap operas, an orchestra for background music), a lavish expense for a soap in the '70s. When the show began as 30 minutes in 1973, it was shot in a manner known as "live to tape", meaning it was basically like a stage play that was filmed, with actors freezing in place during the "black space" where commercials would later be inserted by the network and affiliates. Later, after the show went to 60 minutes in February 1980, the taping style changed, and it was shot scene by scene and edited; this is the format the show continues to use today. On June 27, 2001, The Young and the Restless became the first daytime soap opera to be broadcast in high-definition.[6] It remained the only daytime soap opera to do so until April 2009, when General Hospital began HD broadcasts. The April 2, 2008 episode of The Young and the Restless was the first and only episode aired in a film look. [edit] Executive producing and head writing teamFurther information: List of The Young and the Restless crew For the most part, the writers and producers of the show have made stayed unchanged since the 1980s. Throughout most of the show's history since its inception, creator William J. Bell served as both the Executive Producer and head writer for the show. He also had a number of executive producers over the years including John Conboy, H. Wesley Kenney, Edward J. Scott, David Shaughnessy and John F. Smith. Starting in the mid-80s, Bell was credited as "Senior Executive Producer". As the show continued to reach new, record heights in 1987, co-executive producer H. Wesley Kenney defected to network television's #1 mainstay in the soap ratings, General Hospital. This was rather ironic, since the following year it was The Young and the Restless that surpassed the longtime champ for the Nielsen ratings top spot, with Kenney not being able to be a part of his former show's ultimate success. However, Kenney did keep GH near the top of the pack during his two-year tenure as executive producer there. Kay Alden took over as head writer after Bell stepped down in 1998. After Bell died in April 2005, Smith served as the sole executive producer. In late February 2006, Lynn Marie Latham was promoted to head writer, while Alden and Smith served as co-head writers. In late August 2006, Latham was announced as the new executive producer (in addition to her writing role) by CBS Daytime Senior Vice President Barbara Bloom. More behind-the-scenes shakeups continued into September 2006 when Smith's contract as co-head writer wasn't renewed. Kathryn Foster, a long time producer and director since the 1980s, resigned in October 2006. Alden quit the show in November 2006 and was hired by ABC Daytime in December 2006 to consult on All My Children and One Life to Live. After her consulting contract ended, Alden joined The Bold and the Beautiful as an Associate Head Writer. Lynn Marie Latham, the show's former creative consultant, was named its new executive producer shortly after the departure of Smith. In June 2007, former supervising producer Edward J. Scott was chosen by Sony Pictures Television to join Days of our Lives. Anthony Morina, episode director and husband of former series writer/story consultant Sally Sussman Morina, was named as producer shortly after Scott's departure (and later promoted to supervising producer). The show had been known in the industry for its close-knit team that rarely changed; however, with Latham's ascension, many crew members that had been with the show since the '80s were fired or quit: Joshua S. McCaffrey, Marnie Saitta, Trent Jones, Mike Denney, Janice Ferri Esser, Sally Sussman Morina, Jim Houghton, Marc Hertz, Sara A. Bibel (Denney and Esser have since returned). New crew members were hired: Neil Landau, Darin Goldberg, Brett Steanart, Valerie Ahern, Shelley Meals, Phideaux Xavier, Karen Rea, Cherie Bennett, Jeff Gottesfeld, Bernard Lechowick, Scott Hamner, Christian McLaughlin, Lynsey DuFour, Vincent Lechowick, James Stanley, Jenelle Lindsay, Tom Casiello, Paula Cwikly, Rick Draughon and Chris Abbott. By 2007, only four writers from the pre-Latham era: Sandra Weintraub, Eric Freiwald, Linda Schreiber and Natalie Minardi Slater, remained with the serial. Josh Griffith took over the executive producing duties after Latham was fired, but his tenure ended in September when it was announced that he would be replaced by Maria Arena Bell and Paul Rauch as co-executive producers. Bell and Rauch's episodes began airing on October 3, 2008. With Maria Arena Bell at the helm, The Young and the Restless has seen the return of several long-time writers and directors; most notably Mike Denney, who was part of the directing team for nearly 20 years before Lynn Marie Latham had him relieved, as well as writer Janice Ferri Esser who was also relieved of her duties by Latham. [edit] Current main crew
[edit] Executive producers
[edit] Head writers
[edit] CastSee also: List of The Young and the Restless cast members and List of The Young and the Restless characters  Top row (l-r): Ted Shackelford, Tammy Lauren, Bryton, Christel Khalil Second row: Greg Rikaart, Judith Chapman, Kate Linder, Amelia Heinle, Thad Luckinbill, Vincent Irizarry, Eyal Podell, Daniel Goddard, Tammin Sursok Third row: Nia Peeples, Kristoff St. John, Jeanne Cooper, Eric Braeden, Melody Thomas Scott, Jess Walton, Emily O'Brien Bottom row: Doug Davidson, Vail Bloom, Christian LeBlanc, Tracey E. Bregman, Joshua Morrow, Adrienne Frantz, Michelle Stafford, Michael Graziadei, Sharon Case, Peter Bergman, Hunter Allan, Don Diamont, Darcy Rose Byrnes The original March 1973 cast consisted of a mixture of veterans and young, relative unknowns. The most notable cast member was Robert Colbert, star of the 1960s TV series The Time Tunnel, as Stuart Brooks. Dorothy Green, a frequent guest star in numerous 1950s-60s TV programs, was cast as Stuart's wife Jennifer, while veteran actress Julianna McCarthy played Liz Foster. The only original character remaining since the program's debut in 1973 is Jill Foster Abbott, who has been played by Jess Walton, the fourth actress to play the role, since 1987. Among the current The Young and the Restless cast members, longtime veteran actress Jeanne Cooper, who plays Katherine Chancellor, debuted on-screen in November 1973 and has been on contract since Autumn 1973. The other current senior cast members who joined the show in the 1970s are Doug Davidson (Paul Williams, 1978) and Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki Newman, 1979). Eric Braeden joined The Young and the Restless as Victor Newman in 1980 after becoming notable for his roles in The Rat Patrol and Colossus: The Forbin Project, as well as a variety of guest starring roles in numerous primetime TV shows during the 1970s. [edit] Current cast members[edit] Recurring cast members
[edit] Upcoming cast members
[edit] AwardsThe serial has won 100 Daytime Emmys, along with 334 nominations. The following list summarizes awards won by The Young and the Restless: [edit] Daytime Emmy Awards[edit] Show
[edit] Individuals
[edit] TV Soap Golden Boomerang Awards
[edit] Writers Guild of America Awards
[edit] StorylineMain article: The Young and the Restless storylines When The Young and the Restless premiered in 1973, the show revolved around the dramas which befell two families: the wealthy Brooks and the poor Fosters. Patriarch Stuart Brooks was an upper class newspaper publisher while matriarch Liz Foster was a single parent struggling to pay the bills. The rivalry between Liz's daughter Jill and socialite Katherine "Kay" Chancellor became one of the show's first and longest-lasting storylines.[3][4] Kay was a boozy matron trapped in a loveless marriage to Phillip Chancellor II. After Jill went to work as Kay's paid companion, she and Phillip fell in love. After he returned from obtaining a divorce in the Dominican Republic, Kay picked him up at the airport, and in an attempt to kill both Phillip and herself, drove the car off a cliff. On his deathbed, Phillip married Jill and bequeathed her and their love child his fortune. Kay ended up getting a judge to declare that Jill and Phillip's marriage was illegal since Kay was drunk when signing her divorce papers. After the ruling, the rivalry between the two ladies spiraled out of control, each blaming the other for Phillip's death. After a series of recasts and departures in the late 1970s-early 1980s, the Brookses and the Fosters were phased out, and two new core families were introduced: the Abbott and the Williams families, and later the Newmans. The Abbott–Newman family rivalry also extended to the corporate warfare between their respective companies, Jabot Cosmetics and Newman Enterprises. Core African American characters, the Barbers and the Winters, were later introduced in the 1990s. The latest family to be introduced in the early 2000s were the Fisher/Baldwin Family. Show creator William J. Bell resigned as head writer in 1998, and since 2002, The Young and the Restless has suffered audience erosion. Despite remaining the most watched daytime drama on American television since 1988, later head writers such as John F. Smith and Lynn Marie Latham began to rely on several highly publicized, retcon storylines to attract more viewers. Notable retcons introduced in the 2000s include revealing that Kay is Jill's actual birth mother, and Phillip II and Jill's baby was switched at birth. [edit] Broadcast history[edit] Early years, 1973-80In spring 1973, CBS decided to discontinue production on two of its four in-house serials; one of these was the controversial Where the Heart Is, a show reminiscent of Peyton Place's sex-driven intrigue that focused on multiple-married characters and incestuous themes. In its place, the network sought a youth-oriented, Los Angeles-based (most soaps at the time still recorded in New York City), socially relevant show, and Screen Gems/Columbia, which had considerable success with NBC's Days of our Lives, got the job as packager. CBS (successfully) insisted that the show be taped at CBS Television City and not at Columbia's Hollywood Studios (which Columbia was in the process of closing down at the time, after it bought majority control of Warner Brothers' Burbank studios). The Bell family wanted to tape The Young and the Resltess at Warner Brothers/The Burbank Studios (which neighbors NBC Burbank, where Days was moved to after the closedown and sale of the Columbia Hollywood studios), but Screen Gems and CBS declined their request. The Young and the Restless began on March 26 at noon Eastern Time/11 am Central with the handicap of inheriting the affiliate clearance problems attained by WtHI, especially in conservative small-to-medium-sized markets. It also faced a long-standing audience favorite, with which, ironically, it is now co-owned (via Sony): NBC's Jeopardy!, which had for years been daytime's number-two game. The Young and the Restless's ascent was slow, but got major boosts from missteps made by the rival networks. First, NBC sent Jeopardy! to a mid-morning slot in January 1974, with the briefly-popular Jackpot! taking its place, only to eventually lose much of the old audience. Next, Password on ABC made the bad decision to convert to an all-celebrity format in November of that year, a move that would lead to its cancellation the following June. More importantly, though, was the fact that Jackpot! had appealed strongly to a demographic of young housewives and mothers, a group whose shift in viewing allegiances would be crucial for The Young and the Restless's continued audience growth. By summer 1975, ABC and NBC changed up their shows at Noon/11, offering two lightweight games that audiences shied away from, thereby enabling The Young and the Restless to enter the Nielsen serial top three. For its part, NBC would enter into a string of low-rated disasters at that timeslot for the next several years (among them an attempt to revive Jeopardy! in 1978-79), while ABC similarly struggled until it moved The $20,000 Pyramid there in January 1978. However, Pyramid's time was running out, and the former hit game wrapped up six years on the network in June 1980. The only parts of the country where The Young and the Restless experienced some trouble were those Eastern time zone markets where affiliates plugged the show into the network's half-hour access break at 1 p.m./Noon (in order to free the Noon hour for local newscasts); there, ABC's All My Children would somewhat hinder The Young and the Restless's progress, especially when the former show expanded to an hour in April 1977. [edit] Rise to the top, 1980sHowever, the show's progress in the ratings was steady, and when the long-running soap Love of Life was canceled on February 1, 1980, CBS rewarded The Young and the Restless's performance with an expansion to a full hour the following Monday. In so doing, it opted to counter AMC and The Young and the Restless's sister show Days of our Lives (on NBC) head-to-head directly at the 1-2/Noon-1 time frame, marking the first time in nearly a quarter-century that the network placed a full-length show in the 1-1:30/Noon-12:30 slot. To those stations that carried the feed directly, namely the Eastern time zone affiliates again, it experienced at best mixed results, while Central time zone stations often tape-delayed the feed one day in order to keep the show in its original slot of 11 a.m., which meant that ABC's Family Feud, then daytime's highest-rated game, gave the soap considerable opposition. With the less-than-impressive results, CBS reinstated the affiliate break to its traditional time network-wide and, taking into account the local stations' desire for scheduling flexibility, gave them the option of running The Young and the Restless at either noon/11 (the preference of most) or 12:30/11:30 (mostly in the Eastern time zone), on different feeds. Beginning on June 8, 1981, the arrangement proved highly popular with fans all over the U.S., and the show has stayed put ever since. The wisdom of CBS' decision was confirmed by the continued downfall of NBC's ratings at midday and the eroding popularity of Feud, which by this time aired also as a five-day-per-week syndicated strip on local stations in the early-evening Access slots, something which likely brought the Richard Dawson-hosted game overexposure and consequent audience backlash. Also, another family-and-youth-oriented serial, ABC's Ryan's Hope, had never performed to network expectations in its 12:30/11:30 slot and proved no threat to The Young and the Restless at all. [edit] Eroding ratings and the negative impact of the O.J. Simpson trial, 1990sAll this propelled the soap to the top among CBS' serials, and, after General Hospital spent most of the 1980s on the top of the Nielsens, in 1988, after 15 years on the air, The Young and the Restless knocked General Hospital off the throne to gain the crown; it has held it ever since. However, the triumph has been mitigated considerably by negative developments: The Young and the Restless's ratings have declined steadily since that time. From 1988 to 2006, the show lost a significant share of its audience, from eight million viewers to about six million, despite only attracting nominal competition from the two other traditional networks. This has occurred because of the explosion of viewing alternatives available to cable television viewers, which increased choices dramatically. Further, the steady increase in percentage of women working outside the home has cut the show off from a large segment of its historic audience (and the formerly preferred demographic of advertisers such as food and household products). The Young and the Restless has not been the sole victim of these trends, nor even the main one; all U.S. daytime network serials have witnessed similar declines in their ratings. The pace of the decline was sped up considerably in 1994 and 1995 by the relentless coverage of O.J. Simpson following the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman in June 1994. The televised daily courtroom trial of O.J. Simpson lasted from from January 1995-October 1995. The series was pre-empted every day by the trial and was instead broadcast at various times during the night (sometimes beginning at odd times such as 2:18 a.m.) or not at all. Many viewers did not know when to set their VCRs and simply gave up watching the show. [edit] Broadcasts outside the United States
Main article: Screening of daytime soap operas in Australia
[edit] Theme song and other musicMain article: Nadia's Theme "Nadia's Theme" has been the theme song of The Young and the Restless since the show's debut in 1973. The melody, originally titled "Cotton's Dream", was written by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin, Jr. as incidental music for the 1971 theatrical film Bless the Beasts and Children. The melody was later renamed "Nadia's Theme" after the ABC television network lent the music for Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci's performance during the 1976 Summer Olympics.[9] Botkin wrote a rearranged version of the piece specifically for The Young and the Restless's debut, which has basically remained unchanged, save for a three-year stint in the early 2000s, when an alternate, more jazzy arrangement of that tune was used. The closing stinger of that arrangement has been used as a mid-show bumper since around 2004. All background music for the show has been composed by first, Don McGinnis, Jerry Winn, and Bob Todd, with Jack Alloco and Jez Davidson assuming the duties in the 1980s. During the 1980s, the show employed a mixture of the original score and new pieces composed by Alloco and Davidson. However, Alloco and Davidson kept all background music within a classical theme, to provide continuity. Two soundtrack albums were released, one in 1974 by Pickwick International Records, and another in 1998 by Paradigm Records. The 1974 release contained many pieces from the original score by Winn, McGinnis, and Todd, while the 1998 release was made up entirely of compositions by Alloco and Davidson. The music composed by Alloco and Davidson makes up 90 percent of the show's score today, supplemented by occasional music from other sources. Music from Winn, McGinnis, and Todd is also still used occasionally. Other background pieces were also utilized from the film soundtrack "Bless The Beasts And Children", an instrumental version of the movie's title tune was used often in the show's early years, last being used in February, 2001. A song titled "Universal Mind" from the Mystic Moods album Awakening (also composed by Winn, McGinnis, and Todd) was used frequently in the first ten years of the show. [edit] Title sequence The opening title sequence has also become well-known. For many years since the show's debut, it showcased the characters, drawn by an artist, on a white background. For the first year, the character's portraits were seen behind the The Young and the Restless title. For the remaining years until 1984, the characters' headshots were seen to the right of the show's title. Starting in 1984, the sequence both began and ended with an interlocking Y and R painted on the white canvas in a sweeping brush motion. The logo (and in the earlier years, the drawings) were done by artist Sandy Dvore. The drawings were now sketched with a lighter shade of gray than the previous sketches. The drawings were replaced with live-action shots of the characters in formal or semi-formal wear, still on a white background, in 1988.  Beginning on December 24, 1999, in an unprecedented move for a main title sequence of a daytime soap opera, the names of the principal cast members were mentioned (whereas previously the main title only showed the cast members' faces). The 1999 version also included live-action shots of the characters, but featured in front of a wind blowing satin red curtain as the background. On March 31, 2003 the opening credits were given a complete makeover, now featuring black-and-white footage from the series with the actors' names in lower case in red at either the top or bottom of the screen (a possible throwback to the shows early years when the cast members sketches were also black and white).[10] Before and after the footage of the actors is the silhouette of a woman in a form-fitting dress walking toward the camera, shown from the neck down. Although the producers have never confirmed the woman's identity, cast member Michelle Stafford (Phyllis) has admitted to being the woman in question. The opening was last updated to reflect new additions to the cast in June 2006. In an interview in December 2008, co-executive producer Maria Arena Bell stated that updating the opening is "on our minds, for sure. We’re hopeful we can get to that very soon."[11] For over 25 years, the announcer for the show's opening and closing credits was Bern Bennett, who would tell viewers to "Join us again for The Young and the Restless." In 2003, Bennett retired and CBS hired former casting assistant Marnie Saitta for the job of announcer. In 2006 Marnie Saitta was replaced by cast members announcing for the show. [edit] Closing titleSince the very first episode in 1973, the end credits were always featured on the left side of the screen while the right side consisted of art drawings (1973-84), the familiar brush stroke logo (1984-94/1999-), and the live action cast montage (1994-99) on the right side of the screen. A longer cut from "Nadia's Theme" was played over the close, along with the aforementioned announcement "Join us again for The Young and the Restless". As with all daytime soaps until the late 1990s, the cast and crew were not credited in every episode; sometimes, the only thing featured in the credits was the copyright info with the production companies listed and the fact the show was taped at CBS Television City. In 1999, CBS did away with the classic closing in favor of inserting a network promo with the credits listed on the network billboard at the bottom of the screen (the right side from 1999-2005); this is a procedure that has become standard among most channels. However, most international networks still broadcast the traditional closing credits. [edit] RatingsAs of 2009, The Young and the Restless has managed over 1000 consecutive weeks in the #1 spot for daytime dramas .[12] Despite this, the show reached a record low of 4,380,000 viewers on Friday, June 13, 2008. The previous lows were 4,392,000 viewers on Friday, October 17, 2008, 4,487,000 viewers on Friday, September 19, 2008, 4,491,000 viewers on Friday, May 9, 2008, 4,548,000 on Thursday, October 16, 2008, 4,563,000 viewers on Friday, October 3, 2008, and 4,805,000 viewers on Friday, August 31, 2007.[citation needed] When introduced during the 1972–73 season, the show was at the bottom of the ratings, but rose rapidly: ninth by 1974–75 and third by 1975–76. By 1988-1989 it had dethroned long-time leader General Hospital as the top-rated soap, a position it has held ever since. Main article: List of US daytime soap opera ratings Daytime History: Highest Rated Week (November 16-20, 1981) (Nielsen Media Research)
1995 Daytime Serial Ratings
[edit] Latest ratingsNielsen ratings Week of October 19, 2009 (Compared to last week/Compared to last year)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Categories: American television soap operas | CBS network shows | 1970s American television series | 1973 television series debuts | 1980s American television series | 1990s American television series | 2000s American television series | Television series by Sony Pictures Television | Television shows set in Wisconsin | The Young and the Restless | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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