Cheers To The Young and the Restless On Leaping Forward To Look Back

Some things on all soaps, including The Young and the Restless, feel like they have always been there, and like they will always be there. Which is a good thing. Y&R wouldn’t be Y&R without the music known as Nadia’s Theme — even though Nadia Comonicci never actually performed to it; ABC Sports just used it for a montage, and the rest is – incorrect – history. But that’s not all.

Young and the Restless: Looking Back

Y&R wouldn’t be Y&R without Victor Newman’s (Eric Braeden) blustering, the Abbotts’ bickering, and pretty people doing pretty awful things to each other. We didn’t expect innovation, especially in the middle of a writer’s strike. Which is why it was such a pleasant and unexpected surprise to get one.

Finding the Y&R Good in the Bad

One way to stretch out a soap opera day and to add expository information is to utilize flashbacks. We all know what flashbacks are. They are scenes from previous episodes, usually introduced with some fuzzy visual effects and glittery music. We’re all so familiar with the trope that when Wayne and Garth spoofed it on Saturday Night Live, we knew exactly what was going on. (It works for fantasy sequences, too.)

Young and the Restless: Picture in Picture

So leave it to Y&R, the soap that initially came on the air with the intention to look better than anything else available at the time to bring innovation to something we assumed was set in stone. The new Y&R flashbacks look great. They unroll, in black and white, behind and to the side of the person remembering. That’s really clever and visually interesting. It gives Y&R its own look and reminds us of Genoa City’s glory days. Kudos!

The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.

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