Before The Young and the Restless was “The Tale of Two Families: The Newmans and the Abbotts” (plus, briefly, the now you see them, now you don’t Rosales clan), it was the tale of two different families— The Brooks and the Fosters.
The Young and the Restless — Return To The Past
There were four Brooks sisters and three Foster siblings. Plus, the Brooks dad eventually married the Foster mom. But the actors who played both sets of children kept leaving the show, and creator William J. Bell had to keep recasting them.
Flashback
When the last original Brooks sister, Lori, played by Jamie Lyn Bauer, announced she was leaving, Bell put his foot down, announced that enough was enough, and basically wrote out the Brooks and Fosters in favor of expanding Victor’s (Eric Braeden) and Jack’s (Peter Bergman) families.
The only Foster who avoided the ax was Jill (then-Brenda Dickson, followed by Deborah Adair and then Jess Walton). Also, Kay Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper) got to stay through both regimes.
Family Tree
The problem with having only two main families is that the dating pool shrinks very, very quickly. Victor and his son, Nicholas (Joshua Morrow) have both been married to the same woman, and Victor’s ex-wife, Ashley (Eileen Davidson) shared a husband with her sister, Traci (Beth Maitland), and her onetime stepdaughter, Victoria (Amelia Heinle). The next generation, especially Newman/Abbott Abby (Melissa Ordway) is related to half the cast!
Bring ‘Em Back Alive!
Which is why it’s the perfect time for all the Brooks girls to return! Lori and Victor have unfinished romantic business! Plus there is Lori’s adopted son, Brooks, Chris Brooks’ and Snapper Foster’s daughter, Jennifer, and any other children Leslie or Peggy had in the past 30 years. (Snapper also had an illegitimate son named Chuckie, and Greg Foster was once married to Nikki!)
They’d be freshening up the canvas while honoring history! Not newbies… legacies! The Young and the Restless (YR) airs weekdays on CBS. Check your local listings for airtimes.
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